Cathygh

They need about 6 buses to get that queue back to the ship. It looks like their logistics has failed again. I hope it's not too hot atm and that everyone gets back soon.

Is this August 8th or 29th? We are on 8th but no email yet, and tbh I'll stick with my balcony too at those prices

Enjoy your time in Winchester. The Cathedral is worth a visit and thercare lovely walks by the River Itchen. We park at the Durngate Car Park, walk around the nature reserve and then follow the river into town. You might be able to do that from your B&B. On another trip, do come down to Wickham, it's not too far and pop into my shop. Don't go on 20th though, it's the horse fair (of course that might be your type of thing) and everything is shut. For parking, although I've not tried it myself, people are recmmending parking at West Quay for £5 a night (not the John Lewis side) and getting an uber. We are on Iona on 27th so I'm looking forward to your blog. Have fun.

I am sure it would be possible for Border Force to open earlier, as they do so for MSC. I like the way Horizon Terminal is organised - you go through security & passport control first and then on to checkin. I am not suggesting that Ocean Terminal is reconfigured to do it that way, it would cost too much I suppose.

I hope I am not repeating my self here. MSC open boarding at 10am, and you can stay on the ship on the last day till noon. Latest boarding is 4pm. You have to be out of the cabin by 7.30 (or was it 8? I can't remember). Cabins ready by 2pm and no problem with luggage. It's a much better way of dealing with getting 5000+ people on the ship. Eventually the pictures and videos of queues will make their way into the media and I expect the publicity will be negative. It's not just people arriving early that is the problem, it's P&O's procedures. I know there is a cost to having to pay staff in the port a couple of extra hours but if you consider maybe 100 staff, paid extra £25 (I am guessing their pay is £12.50 an hour just to make the maths easy) for the 2 hours = £2500. On a ship of 5000 that's an extra 50p per passenger. Now I know some of you will pick the Maths apart, but it's just a simple example. @molecrochip I would be interested to know your thoughts on this.

Further to my comment above There is a poll on another site asking people about boarding times -do you arrive early/on time etc. Only 7% admit to arriving early. So with the big ships now sailing full P&O could do with learning from MSC. Debarking passengers can stay on till noon, embarkation starts at 10 am till 4.30 ish. Everyone is out of their cabins by 8am. Cabins all cleaned and ready by 2.

I think it's not just people turning up early. On the book of faces there is a photo taken inside the terminal today at 12 noon. It is extremely crowded. So if ony those allowed to board at 12 or earlier were allowed inside, why is it so busy? I think there must be inadequate staff for check in and security and that is the main problem. For Iona and Arvia they have to process over 1000 passengers per hour so surely it is better to have more stff on to keep he queue moving?

The price of the package is key. The original Princess Plus package( upto 15 drinks, wifi and tips) was about $35/£35, Now it is £50 per day and much harder to break even so I am not sure we will take it if we go with Princess again. I know the tips are from $16 ppd, and 18% is added to drinks. They had a flash sale for 3 days offering the package at half price and and have now extended it. I don't have the exact details to hand but it looks like the half price package is really popular. Princess cocktails are much better than P&O IMHO, there is a huge choice and with Medallion you can order any drink from any bar and it is brought to you where ver you are. So regarding P&O the current drinks package is far too expensive, but for £30 I would consider it if it included wifi (I use it a lot). And if a wider selection of wines by the glass were included. Bringing back tipping is a no-no-didn't they stop that because too many removed tips on the first day, and the new way means all staff who are entitled to tips get them? Another point is to make the package simple and not over complicate things with too many variables, like MSC who also offer different deals to different TAs. As for boarding times I do believe the Princess system is great- select your own time (no extra charge for this) and it seems to work well. I also like MSC's boarding from 10am, your cabin won't be ready but who cares? P&O do need to sort the boarding out - there are pictures on social media of very long queues to get into the building and even those arriving on time are queuing down the escalators and outside. There never used to be this problem so why is there a problem now?

You are moving the deposit to another cruise and then back again, if they allow it, and then you don't lose the deposit. BTW I had a call from my TA last week about a cruise I have on Arcadia. They told me the price had dropped and obc added so it worked out cheaper to cancel then re book. I also saved money because my original booking was a saver fare and I had booked EA grade, as I knew the locatioons of any of those would be fine. I rebooked a select fare, ED cabin which I could select myself and saved another load of money. The savings and obc will cover most of my spending money. Happy Days. I had to do it really quickly as it was the day before final payment, we had already paid but P&O refunded us in a couple of days. I wish I had remembered the move cruise and back again trick!

I agree about embarkation. I do like the way Princess do it. You can select a time that suits you and they do know if passengers are coming by coach to give them a boarding time that tallies with the eta of the coach. It was pretty seamless on the occasions we sailed with Princess. I also like MSC as you can board from 10 am and stay on board until noon on disemarkation day. I was on Virtuosa recently and there was no problem getting 5000+ people on board. P&O could implement the same system if they wanted to.

Hi. I can understand that would be frustrating. Recently at Miami airport I saw a lot of people with walking sticks do down the assisted line at passport control who did not need them afterwards. All of our issues have medical or educational paperwork to back it up so we will see if P&O will help.

That's interesting as 3 of the 11 of us have hidden disabilities, so I will ask if we can change to 3pm. thank you.

Thanks I'll look into that

Hi Thank you for your advice. I will check the last boarding time and they can drop off the luggage. I might keep the passports with me and then pop off the ship when they are ready to board. The people who lost their passports had their bags stolen so lost money and credit cards too😪 .

We are looking to see if we can change the time the minibus is picking us up. I get your point about queue jumping but my DH has just said that people arriving by coach with late boarding times will be able to board straightaway. If this wasn't such an important cruise for us (DH is 70 that day) I wouldn't be bothered about the time.

Off to the park with the children then.

Ha, that's great for us but not for everyone else!

I have found there is a playground nearby and of course West Quay but I am loathe to wander around Southampton with passports - I know of 2 people denied boarding in the last 10 day as their passports were stolen in the city.

Good luck to the terminal staff when they have 4 bored noisy boys running around the terminal creating mayhem for 4 hours. And my diabetic daughter in law who will not have thought to bring snacks with her..... It would seem harsh not to allow us to board together. The cheapest way for us all to get to the port was by hiring a minibus and driver, rather than 4 taxis. We live within an hour of the port and althugh our family is spread around the country they will all be with us the night before.

We are party of 11 and have just got our boarding times. 12.15 for 2 of us and 4pm for the rest. As we are all travelling together we will turn up fpr 12.15 and hope they let us on.

Just turning into the berth we have a fab view of the Liver building

I'm also on board. I can get into the app but can't get onto the internet. We are close enough to land now for me to use my own data. Regarding Britasnia dining there was a very large queue outside on Tuesday afternoon which stretched as far as Sir Samuel's and took at least an hour to go down. I assume it was people changing dining times

I think Beef Wellington is served every other formal night on Iona, but weekly at the Chef's table. On other ships that have 2 formals a week would serve it once a week. Prime rib- I don't think that's a British thing. If shrimp cocktail is the same as prawn cocktail then it should appear on the menu at some point. Pre covid it was available daily. Iona's dress code is dumbed down, but still better than Princess. It's worth noting that P&O is a meant to be a 4* line and Celebrity is 5* and there is clearly a differience I hope you enjoy the rest of your cruise

Fully booked, unfortunately

Yay! Great news. We snagged a Q5 for £599, first (and probably only) time in QG. Hope to see somefamily while we are in Liverpool. The cruise sold out very fast, within an hour I believe. That must be a record.