Last minute deals P&O

[Megabear2]

15 minutes ago, GSPG said:

Yes, looking forward to an update.
I assume you look at these on a daily basis to record any movements?

Yes. Been monitoring for about five weeks.  I last checked 23 May as I boarded Queen Anne on 24th but checked today as its past final payment date and it is very slightly down. 5 June will be the interesting one as the 7 day hiatus for payment tips over to a Late Saver. I don't anticipate any changes before then

 

[GSPG]

16 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Yes. Been monitoring for about five weeks.  I last checked 23 May as I boarded Queen Anne on 24th but checked today as its past final payment date and it is very slightly down. 5 June will be the interesting one as the 7 day hiatus for payment tips over to a Late Saver. I don't anticipate any changes before then

 

Great!
 

I know there are companies around, but business opportunity wise someone who had their finger on the pulse like this and had the time to monitor a number of cruises from different lines could perhaps make a ‘packet’ from this information.

 

I suppose the cruise companies wouldn’t mind as it gets to sell their cabins also?
 

Now whether passengers already booked would mind as they have paid more booking earlier, but they have the knowledge of securing their sailing.

[Megabear2]

3 minutes ago, GSPG said:

Great!
 

I know there are companies around, but business opportunity wise someone who had their finger on the pulse like this and had the time to monitor a number of cruises from different lines could perhaps make a ‘packet’ from this information.

 

I suppose the cruise companies wouldn’t mind as it gets to sell their cabins also?
 

Now whether passengers already booked would mind as they have paid more booking earlier, but they have the knowledge of securing their sailing.

I believe there is such a company but you have to register and pay a monthly fee!

[sweep2907]

As mentioned before on here, P&O sales are incredibly strong over the next 12 months and gone are the days they'll drop prices markedly. Those looking for 2023 bargains will be disappointed where we saw Iona 7 night cruise this time last year for £359pp and Canaries in December £429. There is no need for P&O to drop prices like that going forward and made a decision to sale 90% capacity rather than giveaway rock bottom cruises last minute. A lot of their cruises are holding that bottom line of starting prices £100pppn. The lowest bargains are £80pppn but not many of them. Last year saw £50pppn or less even.

[mrsgoggins]

5 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

We were booked with Princess to Canada last year and had to cancel but out of interest we kept an eye on it. The prices dropped like a brick before the final payment date to the point that had I been able to travel I would have been significantly cheaper to cancel and rebook.

 

I’m talking by thousands of pounds difference. Strangely it went up a bit again after the final payment as presumably they sold more cabins. 

 

I booked this cruise when they had a good offer (thanks to seeing a post by @Yorkshire Phil ) and have never seen the category I booked cheaper ..... yet!!  Others have seen their cruises come down in price already and they have booked with large deposits and TAs who have already taken full payment. Whereas we have yet to make the final payment and we only paid the £150 deposit via the Princess Future cruise deposit system. 

 

I did briefly consider cancelling and rebooking but have decided to roll with it because it's the very place I want to be on the ship (sailed on her twice before) and we had $750 OBC in addition to shareholder benefit.  The ship's tours I have booked would cost $300+ more if I were to have to rebook them at current prices. 

 

If I did rebook, (should the price fall further) that's over $1000+ plus £150 deposit I would forfeit, and so the cruise price would have by over £1000 cheaper just to match what I have now - which it very well may do!

 

However if Princess do heavily discount, I'm going to remind myself that I am happy with the deal I have, which is £28 per person, per night, cheaper than the 35 night P&O cruise I took in January!  And it includes the drinks package and internet, which the P&O cruise did not (I didn't book early enough for the best fare).

[mrsgoggins]

3 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

We just had an email offer for this cruise, offering a balcony cabin for an inside cabin price of £2399pp.

 

I have just checked the price with a discount TA, who is offering the starting price you quote for an inside cabin, and my Deluxe (obstructed) balcony cabin on deck 7 is currently just £40 pp cheaper (no OBC) than when I booked (with $750 OBC).  I like to be low down in the middle of the ship (not a good sailor!) and I have one of those obstructed view cabins that is really not obstructed at all. 

 

 

So still happy with my Princess price, but I will watch with interest when the final payment day passes and will be watching @Megabear2 posts to see the outcome of her P&O cruise price tracking.

 

[Yorkshire Phil]

15 hours ago, mrsgoggins said:

 

I booked this cruise when they had a good offer (thanks to seeing a post by @Yorkshire Phil ) and have never seen the category I booked cheaper ..... yet!!  Others have seen their cruises come down in price already and they have booked with large deposits and TAs who have already taken full payment. Whereas we have yet to make the final payment and we only paid the £150 deposit via the Princess Future cruise deposit system. 

 

I did briefly consider cancelling and rebooking but have decided to roll with it because it's the very place I want to be on the ship (sailed on her twice before) and we had $750 OBC in addition to shareholder benefit.  The ship's tours I have booked would cost $300+ more if I were to have to rebook them at current prices. 

 

If I did rebook, (should the price fall further) that's over $1000+ plus £150 deposit I would forfeit, and so the cruise price would have by over £1000 cheaper just to match what I have now - which it very well may do!

 

However if Princess do heavily discount, I'm going to remind myself that I am happy with the deal I have, which is £28 per person, per night, cheaper than the 35 night P&O cruise I took in January!  And it includes the drinks package and internet, which the P&O cruise did not (I didn't book early enough for the best fare).

Our grade cabin is still more than what we paid, you win some you lose some. We just got an email saying we were getting another $100 obc for the missed ports. All donations gratefully received.

[Selbourne]

42 minutes ago, Yorkshire Phil said:

We just got an email saying we were getting another $100 obc for the missed ports.

It’s good to hear about a cruise line taking some responsibility for missed ports, but presumably this would negate any missed port insurance claims (£150 per person per port in our case) so may be a mixed blessing?

[Megabear2]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

It’s good to hear about a cruise line taking some responsibility for missed ports, but presumably this would negate any missed port insurance claims (£150 per person per port in our case) so may be a mixed blessing?

Yes but these ports have been changed and announced before the cruise so are not technically missed ports rather changed ports.  No payment for insurance companies would be due.

 

[Selbourne]

1 hour ago, Megabear2 said:

Yes but these ports have been changed and announced before the cruise so are not technically missed ports rather changed ports.  No payment for insurance companies would be due.

 

Ah I see. In which case well done the cruise company. 

[Megabear2]

Afternoon evening.  I can confirm no price change on my cruise today.

[tring]

On 5/31/2024 at 3:45 PM, Megabear2 said:

Afternoon evening.  I can confirm no price change on my cruise today.

 

Presume you are also looking at the OBC.  A 30 night cruise we have got booked has not gone down a lot, but now has £1,750 OBC per balcony cabin, or £2,000 OBC if you do not take coach travel or parking.  That is a serious visit the jewellers in my book.

 

I wonder if they are still doubling that up if you book on board........

 

Edited June 2 by tring

[Selbourne]

4 minutes ago, tring said:

 

Presume you are also looking at the OBC.  A 30 night cruise we have got booked has not gone down a lot, but now has £1,750 OBC per balcony cabin, or £2,000 OBC if you do not take coach travel or parking.  That is a serious visit the jewellers in my book.

 

I wonder if they are still doubling that up if you book on board........

 

That’s a very good point. I always consider the net price of the cruise i.e. cruise price less OBC. Launch prices rarely come with much OBC, so a

later booking during a generous OBC offer can work out a lot cheaper. Looking at cruise fares in isolation

is only looking at part of the picture. 

[tring]

28 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

That’s a very good point. I always consider the net price of the cruise i.e. cruise price less OBC. Launch prices rarely come with much OBC, so a

later booking during a generous OBC offer can work out a lot cheaper. Looking at cruise fares in isolation

is only looking at part of the picture. 

 

I would not really consider the full OBC  though, unless it was a fairly small amount.  Apart from the lack of loyalty discount a very large OBC can mean you spend on things you would not otherwise buy.  We were thinking of using a chunk of a four figure OBC for excursions for a forthcoming cruise, but decided not to leave them as some were selling out.  Also a few days ago the P&O website started giving the prices the tours will be onboard, showing a ten per cent discount if you book pre cruise - not that the previous prices have been put down mind.  Not really anything we would mind missing if they sold out and nothing else of interest either.  So that idea is scuppered. 

 

Regards prices in the shops, I really wonder if that jewellery is a good buy - I am yet to get an insurance valuation on my tanzanite pendant, which was bought for our big anniversary earlier this month, to see.  No big matter if it was overpriced, because a very big OBC paid for much of it and 10% loyalty off the rest, but would be interesting to know. 

 

Edited June 2 by tring

[Selbourne]

20 minutes ago, tring said:

 

I would not really consider the full OBC  though, unless it was a fairly small amount.  Apart from the lack of loyalty discount a very large OBC can mean you spend on things you would not otherwise buy.  We were thinking of using a chunk of a four figure OBC for excursions for a forthcoming cruise, but decided not to leave them as some were selling out.  Also a few days ago the P&O website started giving the prices the tours will be onboard, showing a ten per cent discount if you book pre cruise - not that the previous prices have been put down mind.  Not really anything we would mind missing if they sold out and nothing else of interest either.  So that idea is scuppered. 

 

Regards prices in the shops, I really wonder if that jewellery is a good buy - I am yet to get an insurance valuation on my tanzanite pendant, which was bought for our big anniversary earlier this month, to see.  No big matter if it was overpriced, because a very big OBC paid for much of it and 10% loyalty off the rest, but would be interesting to know. 

 

I agree it’s far better to have a lower price with no OBC than a higher price with OBC, if the net of both is the same.  

[Megabear2]

Very rarely I do I have dims of OBC in the amounts some get.  My biggest was last December at £620 for two.

 

As a lone traveller I'm lucky to get £120.  

 

Our next one is £340 and that includes welcome back £100.

[tring]

2 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Very rarely I do I have dims of OBC in the amounts some get.  My biggest was last December at £620 for two.

 

As a lone traveller I'm lucky to get £120.  

 

Our next one is £340 and that includes welcome back £100.

 

Sounds like you book the wrong cruises Megabear.  If you get the right price that is probably ls better though, but will not do much for your jewellery collection 🙂

 

 

[Megabear2]

1 hour ago, tring said:

 

Sounds like you book the wrong cruises Megabear.  If you get the right price that is probably ls better though, but will not do much for your jewellery collection 🙂

 

 

Thankfully I don't wear jewellery or collect handbags.  I also am not a shareholder so no top ups of OBC from there either.

 

OBC offered is always of very little value to a solo traveller despite the 175% fare and the cruises I do with my husband are generally Caribbean or on other lines.

[tring]

43 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Thankfully I don't wear jewellery or collect handbags.  I also am not a shareholder so no top ups of OBC from there either.

 

OBC offered is always of very little value to a solo traveller despite the 175% fare and the cruises I do with my husband are generally Caribbean or on other lines.

 

I only meant it light heartedly. 

 

My jewellery is largely only worn on cruise ships and the Tanzanite was a biggy and beyond the value anything else I have, but for a very special occasion and we did, unusually, have a high OBC, largely because we had booked the cruise onboard and at the "wrong time".  I had never worn costume jewellery, but we have picked up a few modest sized things on various holidays where there are good prices for specific things.

 

It is true single travellers have a bad deal and also that booking when prices are good is the best way, I do realise that.  We had to change certain holidays, that resulted in not buying them at the best time, but OBC was up.

Edited June 2 by tring

[Selbourne]

7 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Thankfully I don't wear jewellery or collect handbags.  I also am not a shareholder so no top ups of OBC from there either.

 

OBC offered is always of very little value to a solo traveller despite the 175% fare and the cruises I do with my husband are generally Caribbean or on other lines.

Surprised you don’t have Carnival shares MB, especially as you cruise fairly regularly with at least 2 of their brands. We bought them just over a year ago and have already got 150% of our investment back and still have the shares to sell when our cruising days come to an end!

[Megabear2]

45 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Surprised you don’t have Carnival shares MB, especially as you cruise fairly regularly with at least 2 of their brands. We bought them just over a year ago and have already got 150% of our investment back and still have the shares to sell when our cruising days come to an end!

Probably my socialist leanings!! To be serious though I just never got round to it and OBC is not really that useful to me.  

[tring]

6 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

 OBC is not really that useful to me.  

 

Apart from small amounts which would cover part of our normal bill, we do find that extra OBC can actually be a problem.  Our recent cruise was booked as a spare of the moment thing, after dinner (and wine) one night as it was as it covered the special occasion.  When we were told of the very large OBC, it seemed an added advantage, under the circumstances.

 

A cruise we have for later this year was partly booked to cover a cruise we needed to change and is a repeat of something we did last year and enjoyed.  The OBC, (extra another onboard booking), is causing us some headaches TBH.  We are not big drinkers, spa users and rarely take excursions, though as the cruise is a repeat, we thought some excursions will be useful.  Realising that about three months pre cruise a number of things are booking up, we booked those excursions recently.  We may cancel one or two just before the cruise if they are still available at that stage and risk the chance of re booking onboard, though will only do that for ones we would not fret too much about if we cannot re bookwith OBC.  We still envisage a fair extra OBC for us and the speciality restaurants on the ship are not something we want to use much really.  On our recent Aurora cruise we were happier with the MDR much of the time, the only bad meal in there being when we decided to go for the paid for (?Signature) menu.  Whilst he starter and sweet from that menu were "ok", the main course meat was appalling, with the beef being totally over cooked and dry - never had anything like it.  We have concluded that the MDR kitchens are not able to cope with something different, when they must be hard taxed just producing the normal menu items, so would not risk that again.

 

I am sure we will use the OBC somehow, probably on speciality restaurants (if we can get bookings once on the ship), or hit the shops if need be.  I am sure that is what P&O want though, rather than have people just spend a large OBC on things they would spend money on anyway.  We do have shares, but that only gives fairly small amounts, so is a benefit to us most of the time.

 

 

 

[Megabear2]

As suspected I have my upgrade options, minimum.bids:

 

Larger outside £250pp

Balcony £550pp

Deluxe Balcony £860pp

Mini suite £1820pp

Suite rear £3140pp

 

No change on the new booking prices. The balcony would be a saving of over £1700 if it came near the minimum bid.  Seriously considering it.  Are there any really bad Balcony cabins, particularly noise related?  Thanks.

[tring]

47 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

As suspected I have my upgrade options, minimum.bids:

 

Larger outside £250pp

Balcony £550pp

Deluxe Balcony £860pp

Mini suite £1820pp

Suite rear £3140pp

 

No change on the new booking prices. The balcony would be a saving of over £1700 if it came near the minimum bid.  Seriously considering it.  Are there any really bad Balcony cabins, particularly noise related?  Thanks.

 

Just looked back on this thread.  Am I right that it is an Aurora cruise?

 

If so a lot of the balconies are under the pool or upper decks used for sunbathing and people do say they get a lot of noise for a while early morning with sunbeds being put out (poss as early as 5.30am).  Also a number of deck C cabins over the public deck, so need to look at the deckplan.  The deluxe balconies are pretty much all on deck B, so cabins above and cabins below and are very nice cabins - we had one for a round trip Caribbean Nov 2022, but prices have risen a lot since then. 

 

None the less, for our recent 19 nighter we did go for a bid.  We had booked an outside (mid ship bottom deck) as no balconies were available.  The full upgrade price we would have needed to pay was just over £2,000pp for a std balcony and > £2,500 for a deluxe balcony, though the latter were generally unavailable, so not a lot of chance there, even if we paid the full upgrade price.  We had a minimum bid price of £670 for a std balcony and went for it at about £740pp.  Balcony cabins on sale disappeared one day and some insides came up, so we upped our bid to £865pp as we did want the balcony.  We did get the upgrade a week before sailing and were very lucky as it was mid aft, deck C, but we were very conscious how lucky we were to get that location.  Even those deck C cabins are over lifeboats and we did have one of those near the mid-ship lifts last September and got a lot of noise (bangs and clanks) after 8am in the mornings - sometimes earlier, as they were working on the lifeboats below us.  Just our recent experience and should also point out that our recent cruise was pretty much booked up and the prices kept up to those we paid the previous Sept, which is why I think the upgrade prices were so high comparatively.  Hope that may help.

 

You have probably been on Aurora, but must say we like her a lot and the freedom dining restaurant works very well, apart from the first day, which is often a bit of a mess.  Comparatively we have found Arcadia much less organized, but that is the ship which has our chosen itineraries for the next year or so, hence have booked a couple of B2B's on her as well as a 35 night Ventura next January.  We will miss Aurora.

 

So, yes noisy cabins are there, but you may just do well.  Enjoy your cruise whatever you decide.

 

   

Edited June 3 by tring

[Megabear2]

9 hours ago, tring said:

 

Just looked back on this thread.  Am I right that it is an Aurora cruise?

 

If so a lot of the balconies are under the pool or upper decks used for sunbathing and people do say they get a lot of noise for a while early morning with sunbeds being put out (poss as early as 5.30am).  Also a number of deck C cabins over the public deck, so need to look at the deckplan.  The deluxe balconies are pretty much all on deck B, so cabins above and cabins below and are very nice cabins - we had one for a round trip Caribbean Nov 2022, but prices have risen a lot since then. 

 

None the less, for our recent 19 nighter we did go for a bid.  We had booked an outside (mid ship bottom deck) as no balconies were available.  The full upgrade price we would have needed to pay was just over £2,000pp for a std balcony and > £2,500 for a deluxe balcony, though the latter were generally unavailable, so not a lot of chance there, even if we paid the full upgrade price.  We had a minimum bid price of £670 for a std balcony and went for it at about £740pp.  Balcony cabins on sale disappeared one day and some insides came up, so we upped our bid to £865pp as we did want the balcony.  We did get the upgrade a week before sailing and were very lucky as it was mid aft, deck C, but we were very conscious how lucky we were to get that location.  Even those deck C cabins are over lifeboats and we did have one of those near the mid-ship lifts last September and got a lot of noise (bangs and clanks) after 8am in the mornings - sometimes earlier, as they were working on the lifeboats below us.  Just our recent experience and should also point out that our recent cruise was pretty much booked up and the prices kept up to those we paid the previous Sept, which is why I think the upgrade prices were so high comparatively.  Hope that may help.

 

You have probably been on Aurora, but must say we like her a lot and the freedom dining restaurant works very well, apart from the first day, which is often a bit of a mess.  Comparatively we have found Arcadia much less organized, but that is the ship which has our chosen itineraries for the next year or so, hence have booked a couple of B2B's on her as well as a 35 night Ventura next January.  We will miss Aurora.

 

So, yes noisy cabins are there, but you may just do well.  Enjoy your cruise whatever you decide.

 

   

Thank you. I've never sailed on Aurora so have no idea about her cabins so this is very helpful