P&O Cruises has launched a family offer putting children on selected 2027 school-holiday sailings from £299, with bookings open until 25 August.
It sits alongside an “extra guests sail free” promotion, onboard spending money of up to £200 per cabin, and the line’s current 10% deposit offer, which runs until 31 August.
For families tied to school terms, it is worth reading past the headline.
What the £299 actually buys
The £299 fare applies to the third, fourth and fifth child sharing a cabin with two full-paying adults.
It is not the price of taking a child on a cruise. A family of four pays two adult fares plus one child at £299 — so the saving lands on your second child, not your first.
For larger families that is genuinely useful, particularly alongside the five-berth cabins P&O is introducing on Iona, Britannia and Arvia. For a family of three, it does nothing at all.
The offer covers selected cabins on selected school-holiday sailings from Southampton of seven nights or more, departing between 13 February and 31 December 2027.
Fly-cruises are excluded, as are mini-suites, suites and BE-grade cabins.
The better offer is term-time only
The quieter promotion is the stronger one: third, fourth and fifth guests sail free on selected sailings of six nights or more, departing between 4 January and 21 December 2027.
Free beats £299 a head. But P&O’s terms are explicit — the free-guest offer excludes cruises within the school holidays.
The two offers are mutually exclusive by design. If you can travel in term time, extra guests go free. If you cannot, the third child costs £299.
That is the long-running trade-off in family cruise pricing, and P&O is not unusual in it. The deepest discounts sit where demand is lowest, which is exactly when children are at school.
For parents of pre-school children, or anyone who can travel outside peak weeks, the free-guest offer is where the real money is.
The £200 is not quite £200
The onboard spending money is up to £200 per cabin on seven-night Spain & France, Spain & Portugal or Norwegian fjords sailings, and up to £400 on 14-night Canary Islands holidays.
Two things to know. It applies to the first two guests in a cabin only — so it is not a family benefit as such.
And the figure includes the onboard credit P&O already gives as a Select Price benefit. It is a top-up, not £200 of new money.
Bookings must be made between 13 July and 25 August 2026, on Select Price fares, on selected departures and cabin grades.
If you have sailed with P&O before
There is a separate 10% past guest discount running until 3 August, applied to the cruise fare on new Select Price or Early Saver bookings once you log in to your account.
It combines with the onboard spending money and deposit offers. It does not combine with Peninsular Club or back-to-back discounts, or with Friends & Family rates.
Loyal cruisers therefore need to do the sums rather than assume the discounts stack.
The bottom line
P&O remains the most straightforward family option for British holidaymakers: Southampton departures, no airport, kids’ clubs included and gratuities in the fare. Royal Caribbean is circling the same market, which is part of why offers like this exist.
The offer is real, but narrower than it reads. For families of five, the £299 third-child fare plus the new five-berth cabins is a decent combination.
For a family of four, the maths is thinner. For anyone who can travel in term time, the free-guest offer beats both comfortably.
Three dates to hold: children’s fares and free guest places must be booked by 25 August 2026; the past guest discount ends 3 August; the 10% deposit offer runs to 31 August.
And read the terms before you book. The headline and the small print tell different stories.
