Agents who signed up for a ship visit on P&O Cruises’ Aurora in Southampton tomorrow (Thursday 24 April) have been told it has been cancelled.
P&O Cruises notified agents yesterday afternoon (Tuesday 22 April) to say the ship visit won’t now go ahead, because of an ‘operational imperative that needs to take place’.
A P&O Cruises spokesperson said: “Unfortunately we have had to postpone the ship visit for agents as following Aurora’s delayed arrival into Southampton there were a number of operational imperatives prior to the ship sailing tomorrow. We are so sorry and we will of course offer Shine points to agents who have incurred out of pocket expenses if they contact us.”
The cruiseline has sent the following message out to agents affected by the cancellation: “We are very sorry to advise of the cancellation of our travel agent ship visit onboard Aurora on Thursday 24 April. Our ship visit programme is designed to provide the perfect opportunity to explore our ships and it’s very disappointing that we have had to cancel the visit onboard Aurora at short notice. We appreciate some costs may have already been incurred for travel to Southampton. If this is the case, please contact us at [email protected] and we can advise and provide further information.”
The cancellation is because of a delay to planned refit work being carried out. The refit delay had already led to the late cancellation of a three-night cruise at the beginning of this week.
Passengers booked on the short break Southampton to Zeebrugge sailing that had been due to depart on Easter Monday were told at lunchtime the day before that the cruise was cancelled.
A P&O Cruises spokesperson told The Independent: “We are very sorry but following a delay to Aurora’s refit, it is necessary to cancel Aurora’s R505 three night cruise from Southampton to Zeebrugge on 21 April. We appreciate how disappointing this is for our guests who were booked to travel.”
Guests were told they would get a full refund and a Future Cruise Credit of 20% of the amount they have paid.
