Hi Frank, I would certainly tell your son to have a look around before he makes his final decision. You can often pick up great deals from online cruise travel agents. We have used

cruise1st.co.uk
scotlandscruisecentre.co.uk
jetlinecruise.com

all with no problems at all. The other option he has is to simply type cruises into his search engine and sit back!

Thanks Babs, I did exactly that yesterday, but was unable to get any discounted prices on line from the site I looked at. Because l'll be upgrading them as an anniversary present i have a personal interest in the best deal. The site said discounts would be shown after going through the rigmarole of choosing a cabin, entering personal details etc, presumably they would ring and haggle ? I'm not keen on that. Do they all do this?
Edit: just sent off email enquiry to Scottish one and jetline.

Frank

The problem you have with P&O and this as been on-going for a couple of years now is that they have withdrawn all perks from TA, so what you see on P&O's own site is what the TA will offer you.

Saying that P&O have 2 different pricing systems, Vantage and Getaway.

Vantage: Full price, choose your cabin in the grade you want, choose your dining, choice of on-board spend or free parking or free coach travel. Pay deposit only, rest later.

Getaway: cheapest option, no say on cabin location only type, no say of when you dine, no perks ie on-board spend etc. Pay full (100%) fare at time of booking.

So, if you want a certain cabin, and dining option etc book Vantage, if you are not bother wait for the deal and book getaway. Be careful prices go up on these deals as well.

Hope that helps.

Thank you Peter, I have had replies from the two companies and you are right. The prices are either identical or only saving £20 per head, neither here nor there. The Scottish company admitted their prices were identical to P&O direct but said they offered a personal concierge, one to one service with the same agent, from enquiry stage to return of your cruise. I daresay my local Travel Agent would do the same thing. In a way it makes it easy, as there is no shopping around to be done. My son knows exactly which cruise and when, so its a done deal really.

Thanks everyone for your help.

One of my friends who is a cruisey type person has used this company a few times and has recommended them to me a non cruisey person so I can't say yes or no vacationstogo.com

It is always the Caribbean he cruises so it might not be what you are looking for

Thanks for that. I notice that is US based and therefore not normally interested in flight inclusive deals from the UK. Personally I would find it a bit risky, I prefer UK based agents. I do myself prefer Caribbean cruises and am considering a cruise there next February, possibly other cruise lines won't have P& Os policy.