P&O Cruise Cancellation

martinmills

My wife and I booked a Baltic cruise in December 2018, the cruise is sailing in July 2020.
We thought we would’ve look at the P&O website to see what excursions were available as it was getting closer to our sailing.
We noticed that the cruise had been renamed ‘Strictly come dancing’ theme cruise.
We are not fans of strictly and therefore requested to cancel the cruise as it wasn’t what we originally booked the cruise for.
P&O have said that we will lose our £200 deposit.
We have said that we think this is unfair as they had changed the product, any thoughts or suggestions what to do?

bradders1983

Right OK, so what exactly is happening on the cruise ship then that would ruin your enjoyment? Surely its just one thing a night in the main theatre room that you dont even have to attend?

Caz3121

you don't have to participate in anything Strictly related
when on cruises we often don't bother with the entertainment that we are not interested in....the difference here is they are publicising what one of the entertainment evenings is rather than you not knowing until you are onboard
you don't need to eat or dance with them or even watch them dance, there will likely be other entertainment available - I am sure there will be other non-fans of strictly onboard

strawb_shortcake

You can always ask them to change your booking to another cruise, I think P&O have got rid of their charges for changing a booking so you wouldn't be out of pocket if you find another cruise for the same price

martinmills

Thank you for the comments.
Our thoughts are that cruising is about socialising with the other holidaymakers and if they are Strictly fans and that’s what they want to talk about, then we are at a loose end.
We do question however if it’s reasonable for them to change the cruise without informing us and then denying us the refund of our deposit?

Aylesbury_Duck

martinmills said:

Thank you for the comments.
Our thoughts are that cruising is about socialising with the other holidaymakers and if they are Strictly fans and that’s what they want to talk about, then we are at a loose end.
We do question however if it’s reasonable for them to change the cruise without informing us and then denying us the refund of our deposit?

But have they changed the cruise?  I wouldn't consider the theme to be a substantive change.  If they'd changed the boat and facilities, you were going to be in very different accommodation or the boat wasn't going to the same places, fair enough, but just attaching an arbitrary theme to an existing cruise is just that - arbitrary.

You can't really believe that the boat's going to be full of people who only want to talk about Strictly Come Dancing, surely?!

bradders1983

Aylesbury_Duck said:

martinmills said:

Thank you for the comments.
Our thoughts are that cruising is about socialising with the other holidaymakers and if they are Strictly fans and that’s what they want to talk about, then we are at a loose end.
We do question however if it’s reasonable for them to change the cruise without informing us and then denying us the refund of our deposit?

But have they changed the cruise?  I wouldn't consider the theme to be a substantive change.  If they'd changed the boat and facilities, you were going to be in very different accommodation or the boat wasn't going to the same places, fair enough, but just attaching an arbitrary theme to an existing cruise is just that - arbitrary.

You can't really believe that the boat's going to be full of people who only want to talk about Strictly Come Dancing, surely?!

https://www.pocruises.com/themed-cruises/strictly-come-dancing?gclid=CjwKCAiA44LzBRB-EiwA-jJipAl7WGqcEBEh3vBhhBjqJ5l_Q6a3EXKIpRf6kAFxibKOBo7MmZkrvxoC42sQAvD_BwE&ef_id=CjwKCAiA44LzBRB-EiwA-jJipAl7WGqcEBEh3vBhhBjqJ5l_Q6a3EXKIpRf6kAFxibKOBo7MmZkrvxoC42sQAvD_BwE:G:s&s_kwcid=AL!7753!3!405656564356!b!!g!!+strictly +cruises

Looks like just one night of entertainment to me. They arent going to be on board the whole time!