When booking a cruise with P&O Cruises, you will be met with a couple of booking options. Before proceeding to payment or cabin selection you will be asked if wish to book a 'Saver' or a 'Select' price. So what are they?
Saver
This fare gives the option to book at a cheaper cost. However, you do eliminate your chance to choose a cabin, your cabin will instead be allocated closer to boarding, and may be in an undesirable location. For example, we booked a trip recently on this rate, and our cabin was allocated near to a smoking area. If we would have chosen the cabin ourselves we would have opted to be away from the smoking area if possible.
As well as the choice of cabin you will not be entitled to any of the benefits of the Select Fare mentioned below.
Select Price
The Select Fare is available for an additional cost per person and can sometimes be as cheap as £100pp. In our experience we will book this fare if it adds a value to our trip. For example, parking is normally around £95 for a 7 day cruise, if on a select fare we can select our cabin and arrange the car parking, then this makes it more beneficial for us.
The following is included in the Select Fare:
Choose 1 of 3 benefits:
On-board spending money
Return coach travel to Southampton
Car parking for duration of the cruise
Choose your cabin when you book.
Shuttle buses at port - complimentary use of P&O shuttle buses in port.
Priority Upgrades - you will be a priority for an upgrade.
Flexibility to change your booking
As well as the above, there are often incentives with additional onboard spend too.
So what would we do?
It truly depends on the itinerary, ship, and time of year for us. All of these factor into our decision making. We do like to save money where we can on our cruises, but sometimes, its hard to know if you're looking at a good deal or not. I have seen a few cruises for sale on P&O Cruises website where the 'Select' fare is an additional £1000 per cabin (pc), with the on board spend offering of only £200 or so, for us, we wouldn't pay that much more for a cabin just to receive a perk of £200 back. So, as mentioned earlier, if the offers look worth while and are good value, then we would opt for the 'Select' fare.
For example, an upcoming trip to the Norwegian Fjords onboard Iona will cost £2,298pc for the saver fare, whereas the select fare will be priced at £2,698pc (£400 additional). However, there is a limited offer for £310pc onboard spend, with an option to increase either increase the onboard spend to £390pc, or receive complimentary car parking in Southampton.*
If we had a choice between the two for this particular trip, we would lean toward the select price fare. Yes, you are paying £400 extra, however, with £390 back (if we opt for the additional onboard credit), we would only be paying £10 for the ability to choose a cabin, change the booking, receive priority dining, and have the option of a possible cabin upgrade.
When we travelled on Marella Cruises (our first ever cruise), we did not pay to select our cabin, however, there was an option to select the cabin for £50. We now use this as our base rate of whether or not it may be worth it to pay the additional just to select the cabin. If you know exactly where you want to be on the ship, or you are travelling with a large party and all want to be next to, or near to each other, then it may be worth while for you.
We do hope this blog has been of some help for your future cruise trip planning, and if you have any questions, feel free to reach out in the comments below, or send us a message on our socials.
Until next time, see you later.
*Prices of Saver V Select fare and additional benefits based on P&O Cruises Norwegian Fjords cruise G228 (August 20th 2022 departure), based on 2 adults sharing a standard balcony cabin. Prices correct as of August 2nd 2022.
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