All on board

[Mervyn and Trish]

We got extra OBC out of the blue for our August Iona cruise, but nowhere near that.

But if you're buying I'll have a nice Malt too. Cheers.

[Jan Rosser]

Thanks for the cruise report Barney - sounds as if you had a really good trip. I’m particularly interested as it’s the same cruise I’m going on in August - we’ve booked C deck balcony cabins.

We saw Paul Ruck on a ship a few years ago and I agree he is a class act - my son who is a keen guitarist absolutely raved about him. Paul is married to a girl who used to be a cruise director or whatever they are called these days for P&O - Benne Bennison - I remember her - she now works for Viking river cruises.

I did laugh at you saying your wife bought clothes in Zara despite owning a dress shop at home

Coincidentally I’ve booked Azura fly cruise out of Malta August 2023 - again C deck!

[barney]

You’re welcome Jan.
We loved Porto specifically.
A 30 minute run from the port but really worth it.
You’ll enjoy it
They do a Port Flight of different styles in the bars.
Worth the money (hic)
I can’t remember the last time I had port but really loved it.

[Linda67]

Thanks for the heads up about the increased OBC - I have just cancelled and rebooked our Sept 23 Azura fly cruise as, very surprisingly, the new offer includes inside cabins. Originally had £90, now have £540, so even with losing the £140 deposit, we're still £310 up, so thank you!

[Manoverboard]

Years ago we stayed in a room in a Hotel overlooking F C Porto's Stadium ... Bobby Robson was the manager back then I seem to recall. We did a tour of the Port Cellars and discovered white port. Yep, it's a good destination.

[barney]

Any advice please.

As posted above, while on Ventura we booked for 2024 on Arvia and got additional obc.
Our total obc is £220 and I’ve noticed that the current deal is £580 .
That’s a huge difference.
Because I didn’t use an agent to sort it out as I usually do, how do I go about cancelling and rebooking?
I tried calling but gave up after 30 mins and have emailed but as of yet, no reply.
Is there anyway of doing it online ?

[Whynd1]

I was working out a cruise yesterday that had a lot more obc than when I had booked.
However the price of the cabin had gone up by several hundred and when you factor in the original lost deposit it wasnt worth ringing through.

I think you will have to contact the call centre Barney,I'm not aware that you can do it online.

Lindsey

[Linda67]

Barney, I'd booked our original cruise online but you can't cancel online! I phoned using the free phone number at 5.30pm. Was just about to give up at 5.50 when my call was answered. We lost our original deposit but still gained £310. I have read elsewhere that you can move your original booking one day, as it's still free to do this, and move it back again the following day & get the extra OBC - don't know if that's right or not.

[barney]

Cheers Linda.
I did get a very very long email about 15 minutes ago basically telling me to call the customer services.
I’ll try tomorrow.

[barney]

For info
Got the new cruise sorted this morning all on the phone.
Sacrificed the £100 deposit and immediately rebooked the same large balcony cabin.
We now have £580 obc which is nice

[david63]

Because I didn’t use an agent to sort it out as I usually do,

I know this is not of much use now but for future reference - if you book onboard you can ask to have the booking transferred to the TA that you have used for previous bookings.

[Stephen]

Cheers Linda.
I did get a very very long email about 15 minutes ago basically telling me to call the customer services.
I’ll try tomorrow.

Good luck with that. You've more chance getting through to the pope.

How P&O sell anything directly is beyond me. I've been trying to phone this morning to find out about ordering something from their gift selection for our upcoming cruise. Got automatically cut off because the wait is just too long. Hopeless


The other thing that's starting to bug me is P&O already pushing their excursions and other stuff with regular emails for a cruise that is in 2024!......or as P&O keep reminding me, 99 weeks away.

[barney]

I was a bit luckier this morning by calling at 8.30 on the dot and connected to a guy fifteen minutes later who was by the way, working from home.
To be fair, once connected, the guy was excellent and sorted it out for me.
Cancelled and rebooked in about ten minutes.
He did have all of the details to hand.

[towny44]

When we first started cruising we sailed mainly with Princess and their shore excursion policy was that you could book the excursion before your cruise, but did not pay for it until on board. That meant that not only could you use your OBC against the cost, but were not giving the cruise line an interest free loan.