Tom Burke’s Blog

I received the Azura brochure from P&O this morning.

The itineraries are not what I was expecting. There are no 14-night western Mediterranean cruises (surely, P&O’s bread & butter?); instead, all seven Med cruises are 16-nighters to the eastern Med (Venice). There are also some 14-night cruises to the Baltic, some 11 and 12-night cruises to the Canaries, and a few shorter cruises. I wonder if these itineraries are intended to dissuade families from choosing her? Azura does have family facilities but (as I’ve posted before) they aren’t marketing them especially strongly. 16 night cruises are unattractive to families because they are more expensive, of course, and also because they tend to not fit well with family holiday schedules. I also see that none of Azura’s cruises begin on a bank holiday weekend; again, cruises that begin on a bank holiday, especially 7-night cruises, are attractive to families, and Azura doesn’t have any of these.

I’ve also looked at the prices. I’m still working through it all, but it’s clear that they are high. Part of this is due to the longer cruises, of course, but that’s not the whole story. P&O seem to be looking for about £150 per person per night for a balcony cabin, which is a lot. This is markedly higher than the prices for Ventura’s first season in 2008: compare the price for A010 on Azura with that N811 on Ventura (both of these are/were 16 night E Mediterranean cruises in high season, so are quite comparable). Balconies started at £2249 for the Ventura cruise, while for the Azura cruise the start price is £2619 (after deducting the ‘early bird saving’). That’s a difference of almost £400 per person, call it £750 for a couple – total cruise price would be £4,500 on Ventura, £5,250 on Azura – that’s a significant difference, more than 15% more.

My conclusion is that I don’t think we will be cruising on Azura in 2010. I’m also starting to worry about the prices P&O will be charging for the rest of the fleet. The general brochure (which will contain these prices) should be published in early April or thereabouts.

In the meantime I’m still looking at those Celebrity prices for 2010: around £1400 per person for 14 nights from Southampton to the western Mediterranean on Celebrity Eclipse, or a bit more, including flights, for 12 nights from Barcelona to Venice (or vice-versa). These look to be much more attractive deals than what we currently know about P&Os plans for 2010. I await the rest of P&O’s 2010 details with interest.

It’s the middle of March, and the cruise lines have begun announcing their itineraries and prices for – 2010! First off the mark (I think) is Celebrity, who published their summer 2010 European brochure (at least, the on-line version) about a week ago. I gather that P&O will announce 2010 itineraries & prices for Azura in about a week’s time, and the rest of the fleet sometime in early April. nd Fred.Olsen have got a printed Preview brochure out, and are taking bookings from the 18th.

Let’s go back to Celebrity. By summer next year they will have three Solstice-class ships in service and all three will be in Europe. The newest of them, Celebrity Eclipse, will be delivered from the Italian shipyard in spring next year, and will spend her first season cruising out of Southampton. These will mainly be 14-night cruises to the Baltic and western Mediterranean, with the occasional longer (eastern Med.) and shorter cruise (Iberia mini-cruise) thrown in. In other words, exactly the sort of cruises that Azura and the rest of the P&O fleet will be doing.

Price-wise, Celebrity have laid down a tough target for P&O to match. Their brochure prices aren’t uncompetitive but at the moment they are reducing all prices by up to £200 per person. Plus there’ll be free car-parking at Southampton for all bookings made this year. Thanks to these offers my usual on-line TA, Ideal Cruising, have quoted me a price of under £1400 for a 14-night western Med cruise in September, for a balcony cabin on either deck 7 or 8.

I’m looking forward to seeing what prices P&O will be publishing in a few weeks.

In the end Aurora was parked at her berth for several days while her bearing was fixed. The repairs seem to have been successful and she left at tea-time on Thursday (Auckland time). That’s several days later than scheduled so she’s now heading for San Francisco as fast as she can – her current World Cruise ’sector’ ends there (and the next one begins, of course). There are a couple of Pacific island calls that have been cancelled; she’ll be a day late at Hawaii (which is still in the itinerary, it seems) and at San Francisco; and she may have to miss a call at Madeira in order to get back to Southampton on time, and to turn round and start her program of 2009 cruises.

But well done to the various engineers, both supplier and P&O, who worked on her in Auckland.

A quick update on a couple of P&O issues.

First, Azura. During a conversation with my usual on-line travel agent yesterday I was told that Azura’s summer 2010/winter 2011 cruises will go on sale on 30 March, and that details of them (itineraries, dates, prices) plus further information about the ship will be available around 20 March. There’s no other information available yet, except that there is going to be a ‘big push’ on Azura during this period. Itinerary details for the rest of the P&O fleet won’t be available until after 30 March, and bookings for the other ships won’t open until the latter part of April.

Secondly, Aurora. Currently on her world cruise, I gather she is having problems with engine (or shaft) bearings: she has had to reduce speed to 13 knots and her itinerary is under threat. The good news is that it seems the relevant spare parts are on board, and a that a team of fitters from the supplier is traveling to Auckland to meet her there and do the necessary work. Hopefully she will be able to continue on her cruise after that, although her schedule may need to be adjusted. She’s supposed to be at Wellington on 5 March and Napier on the 6th (both of these in New Zealand, of course) but I gather she’s presently making straight for Auckland where there are suitable facilities for the repair. How long she’ll stay at Auckland isn’t clear yet, but that’s not a bad place to be delayed (as long as it’s only a delay, of course).