Book Early? Book Late?

[Pontius Navigator]

One of the imponderables is often when to book for the best bargain. looking at the P&O site I found this year's closing prices for same cruise as we booked next year.

 

We had an early booking price, a discount, and an OBC. This has taken next year's price down by over a quarter compared with this year's price. We are well pleased.

[tom_uk]

Also there's choice: the cabin you want is more likely to be available the earlier you book.

 

On Ventura, for example, ordinary balcony cabins on C deck are regarded as preferable to those on A & B decks, because the balcony is twice as deep and is half-shaded; hence, cabins on this deck will tend to go quicker than similar cabins on other decks.

[daiB]

One of the imponderables is often when to book for the best bargain. looking at the P&O site I found this year's closing prices for same cruise as we booked next year.

 

We had an early booking price, a discount, and an OBC. This has taken next year's price down by over a quarter compared with this year's price. We are well pleased.

 

 

Well PN

 

I have seen few late bargins which have been better that the deals you get by booking in the first few days of availability. The deals available have been for the cabins they cannot sell and for dinner sittings that are the least popular.

 

A good line to follow is 'Book early, book often':D

 

 

 

:):)Happy Cruising:):)

 

 

 

 

:cool:

 

 

Dai

[Pontius Navigator]

Dai, indeed and get the unpopular cabins :(

 

We are in the process of looking for a cruise next August (not the one shown below).

 

The offer price is well below P&Os current offer, it is even below the web price from the same company and will include free parking and £50 OBC which is almost another 3% reduction.

 

The late booking offers tend to be cheap but lack the car park and OBC inducement.

 

On 'bum' cabins we have been forrad rather than aft, we have had wave noise in QE2 on deck 5, so now look forrad and aloft. Our friends took an e-deck suite in Arcadia and had to have an additional A-deck cabin as a bedroom.

[james_19742000]

Personally I would say these days, book early, we have just booked for Aurora for next year, 7 of us, 13 nights, £2200 plus £75pp OBC, credit, works out at under £25 per person per night, now thats a bargain!!! :-)

 

James

[Juden2307]

Hi,

 

We always book at least 12 months in advance, purely to get the cabins we want.

 

Picked up a suite on Ventura for less than £150.00 pp/pn price (OBC and free parking:D ), price now is £409.00 pp/pn (no extras)with 13 months to go!

[daiB]

It is noticeable that all of the deals coming through via Email are for next year and not in the near future. Some of them look excellent with one on Aurora for less than £100 per day for a stateroom balcony.

 

It certainly makes more sense for P&O to sell there cabins earlier than late even with good discounts.

 

 

 

:):)Happy Cruising:):)

 

 

:cool:

 

Dai

[TQgrump]

7 of us, 13 nights, £2200 plus £75pp OBC, credit, works out at under £25 per person per night, now thats a bargain!!! :-)

 

Apologies, because I am new to this board and cruising, have not yet booked anything, but are you saying you have booked one cabin which can take 7 people and are paying a total of £2,200 for 13 nights?

[Pontius Navigator]

are you saying you have booked one cabin which can take 7 people and are paying a total of £2,200 for 13 nights?

 

A fascinating thought. I think the only possibilities for a cabin for 7 would be a couple with 5 children and plenty of under bed storage :) or a suite with two bedrooms and a lounge.

 

No, it looks like a bargain so we are all ears. Allowing for £75 obc it is £18pn. So James, do tell.

[james_19742000]

Thats made me feel even better! £18 pppn, now thats a bargain!!! :-)

 

No its two inside cabins, one 3 and one 4 berth, me, my wife, my 3 kids and my parents, OK it might be a bit crampt, but only intend to sleep there!

 

We had a credit voucher that we needed to use, hence why it was only £2200, but even without the voucher it would still only have been £2858, so that is still a steal, when you consider that we are also booked on the August 4 nighter on RCI's Independance of the seas, and thats me the wife and the three kids, in a family interior room and thats still costing nearly £2K, so the November Aurora Canarys really is a bargain!

 

So OK, the £2200 was a bit 'deceptive' but even without the voucher, still cheap, I mean where can 7 people book a 2 week holiday full board eat really good consistant food, visit some great locations and you holiday starts just over a 2 hour drive from home??? Total bargain!!!!

 

By the way I went through Barhead Travel.

 

James

[Pontius Navigator]

Total bargain!!!!

 

Have you sailed P&O before?

 

Once you have sailed you become a Portunus Club member which gives you a 5% discount from your on board spend. It matters not how long you sail for even on a 2-nighter. Follow my drift?

 

In our case, by good luck, we took a 3-nighter before our 14 might cruise. This meant our £660 obc was increased to £695. It covered all our drinks, tours etc :D .

 

Shame you are not allowed to publish details of your TA :)

 

Oh, and it is 2 r's

[LibraLass41]

I book a year in advance for 2nd sitting confirmed mainly, and then cabin preference - ofcourse you get much more cabin choice a year before. For my Venice cruise , I went in TA's with 6 cabin choices and had the 5th - a year before so its selling well. the price now -7MONTHS before cruise is £400pp more than it was then, have seen no special offers on this one yet, and I have 2nd sitting - ! And ofcourse free car parking worth £120 and £75pp obc.

 

Sue

[james_19742000]

Thanks for the info about the club membership, we have sailed P&O a few years ago for a weekend, but as my parents booked and paid for it etc we never got cards etc, presume he got the points!!! :-)

 

However, we have sailed Princess and are Captains Circle members, I have been told that if you sail Princess or P&O it all adds onto the same membership, does anyone know if this is true or not? If true, do you just give P&O your CC member number??

 

Thanks in advance, James.

[supered]

As Princess and P&O are part of Carnival Corp they participate in the VIP (Vacation Interchange Program). This means that if you belong to one "frequent cruiser" club you can get some benefit from a sister line. This applies to most of the Canival Corp lines. They seem to want to keep it quiet as there is no real information on what these "benefits" are. However, if you cruise on one line it doesn't count towards tier membership on another.

 

Eddie

[james_19742000]

Right I see, perhaps it will be worth giving P&O a call in a few days and checking things out, if it works out I can get 5% like was said in another post on this thread then its worth the phone call :-)

 

Thanks, James.

[daiB]

As Princess and P&O are part of Carnival Corp they participate in the VIP (Vacation Interchange Program). This means that if you belong to one "frequent cruiser" club you can get some benefit from a sister line. This applies to most of the Canival Corp lines. They seem to want to keep it quiet as there is no real information on what these "benefits" are. However, if you cruise on one line it doesn't count towards tier membership on another.

 

Eddie

 

 

 

Not quite correct. If you have cruised with P&O and then do a Princess cruise you will be given a status on the captains circle for the 2nd Princess cruise. You will get 1 for 1 so if you are Gold on P&O ie. 150 sea days then you will go to elite on Princess. Many people over on P&O CC have done this.

 

But beware you must have cruised within the past 3 years to get some benefits with P&O and if your Princess experience is over that time span you may not get it.

 

If you have cruised with Princess and move to P&O the benefits are not so good. I am not even sure if you can use previous Princess cruises. I do know that if you are on the P&O scheme you can count your Princess sea days at a rate of 1/2 ie. 10 days gives you 50 points. Normal with P&O is 1day=10points.

 

 

 

 

:):)Happy Cruising:):)

 

 

 

 

:cool:

 

 

Dai

[daiB]

One of the imponderables is often when to book for the best bargain. looking at the P&O site I found this year's closing prices for same cruise as we booked next year.

 

We had an early booking price, a discount, and an OBC. This has taken next year's price down by over a quarter compared with this year's price. We are well pleased.

 

 

 

We have found another good reason for booking early. We have booked N902 on Ventura in 2009.

 

We have booked it early because it comes with a flight from Newcastle Airport, a short taxi away. Now Princess had their own flight from Newcastle to the Caribbean and it filled up inside 4 weeks with little publicity. So P&O have tried the same with their first flight from Newcastle and I suspect it will fill just as quick.

 

So if you do not book early you may not get the flight you want. We would not consider going from another airport, being disabled it would be too much hassle.

 

Secondly, on the flight we have booked the upgrade, which we would not get if we waited.

 

So we have the advantages of booking early

 

 

1. Price

2. Sitting for dinner

3. Size of table.

4. The flight you want.

5. The upgrade on the flight

6. The cabin you want

7. The fun of planning your cruise for over a year. (There is nothing better, if you are having a bad day, than planning things to do for a forthcoming cruise, even if you do not do them when you go.)

 

 

 

:):)Happy Cruising:):)

 

 

 

:cool:

 

 

Dai

[tom_uk]

7. The fun of planning your cruise for over a year. (There is nothing better, if you are having a bad day, than planning things to do for a forthcoming cruise, even if you do not do them when you go.)

 

The downside is the frustration of waiting for a year, of course.

 

Cruises are a 'perishable good' - you can't sell a cabin in last week's cruise today, you can only sell it before the cruise happens. This suggests that there ought to be a period just before sailing date when unsold cabins get sold cheaply - I mean literally just a few days before. At that point any extra revenue is a bonus, and of course once the passenger is on the cruise, extras such as bar bills will be the same for late-booker as for everyone else.

 

Does anyone have any knowledge of very late booking? Anyone done it? I know all the disadvantages of doing so (basically, great limitations in choice) so I'm not advocating it, but I'm exploring if the opportunity actually exists at all.

[daiB]

The downside is the frustration of waiting for a year, of course.

 

 

 

 

Not if you have two others booked in the mean time:D:D

 

But for that you have to be a true NUT. :rolleyes:

 

 

 

 

:)Happy Cruising:)

 

 

 

 

:cool:

 

 

Dai

[CASPALL]

We have a February 2009 cruise booked on the Artemis (P903). It was such a good deal ,it would have been impolite to turn it down! As it's so early we got 2nd sitting confirmed, the cabins we wanted AND managed to get availability for the flight upgrades both ways! I know it's additional cost, but as we got a good price for the cruise,we decided it was well worth it to fly to Montego Bay. The last charter flight we went on to Acapulco (to join the Arcadia)was absolutely horrendous. I was so hot I actually fainted!!!

I was jammed in the middle seating between my husband and my friend -who I have now nicknamed "The Radiator" as he was so hot. I realised I felt a bit sick or something and got my husband to let me out. As I was queuing to go in the toilet, I fainted and 2 really nice gentlemen came to my aid. (If you're on this forum then thanks guys!) My husband didn't know a thing about it until I came back to sit down. He wondered why I'd been so long!!! It was the worst long haul trip ever so this time I won't have to dread the flight so much.

We have 4 cruises to come so that's 4 deposits we have laid down.

Just got an email with a good deal from TA yesterday. Glories of the Med on the Artemis on 27th October. Only £1439!!!!25 nights!!!!Outside cabin. We already have Classical Lands booked in November - which was booked more than a year ago for a similar price per night.

Can't wait for hubby to get retirement so we can take up last minute deals!

Caryl

[LibraLass41]

Can't wait for hubby to get retirement so we can take up last minute deals!

Caryl

SNAP !!:D

Sue