Cabins now ready on embarkation

[Brilliance]

Embarkation Saturday. 2 pm original slot given then looked as may have changed to 3 pm on cruise personaliser. Arrived at 2:30 at Ocean Cruise for Britannia. Given a card. Took 1.5 hours to be called but then on ship into room and bags waiting. Debarkation this Monday (2 night cruise) given sheet with 10:20 time the night before although needed to be out of the room at 8. We were called from our allotted area at 9:50 and pick up of bags and out to our car was a dream just a few minutes. It was well organised. When we came out of the terminal people had already arrived to try and get on the ship but they weren't being let into the main area. It just caused more congestion for everyone by those turning up so early.

[Florry]

It is impossible for everyone to stick to times, some get public transport and at hotel checkout don't have options, some get stuck in traffic and arrive late etc. I don't arrive early to get onboard for lunch, I get in early as there isn't much choice, I would be happy to wait until my allotted time BUT this is not P&O practise. I said I didn't care because I knew the fact I had boarded early would result in some childish name calling. Whatever time you get there doesn't really matter there will always be a wait due to individual circumstances.

Edited July 8, 2015 by Florry

[tom_uk]

I just looked on the Southampton cruise ship schedule. Britannia is due to depart on 4th July at 17.30, so that check in time of 16.30 is one hour before departure. I note some other ships on the list depart as late as 20.00.

 

We live in south-west Sheffield, so actually about half-a-mile from the Derbyshire border! But it's half-an-hour to the M1 at J29. Then my wife likes us to stop at Northampton services for tea + sticky bun, as she refers to it. From there we take the A46 down to the M40; we usually call into the services by the M40 for loos. Then down the A34, probably stopping at Chieveley services (junction of the A34/M4) for a sandwich, and then back onto the A34 and later the M3.

 

Doing it that way it's four hours or a bit more. On my own, traffic allowing, I'd just drive and could indeed probably do it in about 3 hours or a bit more but I'd be pretty tired when I arrived. One good thing with all the stops is that we arrive reasonably fresh.

 

But that was some years ago - for the last 5 years or more, we've done the drive the day before and stayed overnight not too far from Southampton: Fareham, Reading, or Southampton itself.

[Florry]

Ultimately we are all different and have different circumstances. Even if we all turned up on allotted time we would still share that time with hundreds of other passengers. We will always have to wait, no matter what. P&O have logistics experts they have been measuring statistics for years, when they give times they account for the displacement. Due to the size of Britannia they may look at this if they feel it isn't as slick as they would like it. We on this board can't change the world of boarding logistics, so we may as well just get on with it and let P&O decide if or what change is needed and go with the flow. Life is too short to be worrying about things we can't change or influence, there are people who get paid to sort it all out [emoji1]

Edited July 8, 2015 by Florry

[dgs1956]

I don't think you can really blame someone who arrives earlier and is allowed to embark, its down to P&O to sort it out. Its them that give the boarding time and ultimately them that ignore it. No passenger can board unless allowed to do so. Its similar to a number of things that P&O say and don't follow up. That is what causes upset amongst passengers.

[Florry]

Yes and if there as a separate lounge I'm sure those arriving early would be fine waiting for a couple of hours. What do we do with people who arrive late though? [emoji6]

[Somerset Cruiser]

We live in south-west Sheffield, so actually about half-a-mile from the Derbyshire border!

 

Holmesfield by any chance?

[jeanlyon]

I don't think you can really blame someone who arrives earlier and is allowed to embark, its down to P&O to sort it out. Its them that give the boarding time and ultimately them that ignore it. No passenger can board unless allowed to do so. Its similar to a number of things that P&O say and don't follow up. That is what causes upset amongst passengers.

 

Yes, but it looks like they are going to start to enforce it. We have never arrived before 1300 and never had to wait to board except on Azura where it seemed to take ages with a coloured card.

 

As we don't like big ships, arriving at 1.30 for say, Oriana, there is no queue and you are on board in no more than 30 minutes.

[Presto2]

Maybe we start filling in forms and P and O can rate who should be getting on first acccording to age, ability, how many children we have...blah blah blah...:D

 

Or if you have a Select Fare - simple solution.

[Mysticalmother]

I don't think you can really blame someone who arrives earlier and is allowed to embark, its down to P&O to sort it out. Its them that give the boarding time and ultimately them that ignore it. No passenger can board unless allowed to do so. Its similar to a number of things that P&O say and don't follow up. That is what causes upset amongst passengers.

 

What a sensible comment! I agree. P & O ought to get their act together so that passengers know what is expected. Either have a free for all or enforce time slots. Or get passengers to " self select" depending on their circumstances. A bit like choosing your dining arrangements really......

[jeanlyon]

Yes exactly. 1 to 1.30 suits us perfectly. Even 2 to 2.30 would be fine. So let us choose when we want to arrive and most people will be happy. you get to choose your arrival time when you book, so if you book late, yo don't get a choice. simples.

[john watson]

I still think if they divided current space into two; with proper segregation for (a) people arriving at the terminal and (b) people who have been security processed. They could start screening people at 10.30am. They could use the same amount of space that already exists and then at a specific time chosen by P&O (i.e. when they are ready) boarding could start immediately with the pre-checked people. They might have got through and hour or so earlier but that's up to them for arriving extra early and waiting post security check (same as in airports). The remaining people arriving later and even after boarding has started will be checked in quicker as there are fewer of them in comparison to if screening had started at noon as currently is the case. Disembarkation after the cruise would not need to be changed. Previous posters suggested an even earlier disembarkation set up.

 

Regards John

Edited July 9, 2015 by john watson

[Living on a prayer]

We are due to sail on the Britannia on the 25th July. On A Deck with a boarding time of 12.30. But.... We are travelling from Cheshire by coach. We've now had an e mail from Intercruises (see below) and a boarding time of 15.00.

 

 

"I would just like to apologise for the delay in sending the travel vouchers for the above embarkation.

 

 

 

We are working closely with P&O to trial a new check in procedure for guests choosing to take the coach connection service with P&O’s preferred partner – Intercruises. The object of this exercise is to ensure that guests arriving by coach will no longer have to queue up even outside the terminal for extended periods of time but rather be able to go straight in to check in and go through the whole check in procedure much more smoothly and efficiently.

 

 

 

We are therefore waiting for a letter from P&O to accompany your travel voucher to explain this whole new concept in greater detail. We would ask you to read your travel voucher very carefully as the time on it will, in some cases, be different from our usual departure time."

 

PS. there was no accompanying letter from P&O. Not yet anyway!

[insanemagnet]

Yes exactly. 1 to 1.30 suits us perfectly. Even 2 to 2.30 would be fine. So let us choose when we want to arrive and most people will be happy. you get to choose your arrival time when you book, so if you book late, yo don't get a choice. simples.

And those that don't get the choice they want will still turn up at the time they wanted, rather than the time allocated.

 

Unless you can somehow penalise people for turning up at the wrong time (either financially or by inconveniencing them), people will ignore it.

[brillo]

We always turn up around 1300hrs,

 

guess what we have been given 1300hrs for our Azura cruise on the first of August !!!

[chrisg1uk]

I don't think you can really blame someone who arrives earlier and is allowed to embark, its down to P&O to sort it out. Its them that give the boarding time and ultimately them that ignore it. No passenger can board unless allowed to do so. Its similar to a number of things that P&O say and don't follow up. That is what causes upset amongst passengers.

 

Absolutely right. Like so much else, P&O issue advice but don't follow it up. I am assuming they don't see it as a problem - perhaps it isn't in the greater scale of things. But, as a basic traveller ie I don't have to drive for lots of hours, I don't stay in an overnight hotel the night before and I don't have any children with me (BUT for clarity, I do like them - I was 1 once and brought up 2 more!) - I don't understand why if I have an early time I should have to wait while those who arrive earlier than requested clog up the process. Allocating your own boarding time even for a fee won't work because those who don't get the time they want will again just ignore it.

[jeanlyon]

So if you were given a check in time of 1430 would you adhere to that or turn up at 11.30? Because if they do start enforcing it, you might be sitting around with two young children for 3 hours before they allow you to check in.

Edited July 10, 2015 by jeanlyon

[indiana123]

But surely Jeanlyon you must have arrived very early in the past, otherwise you couldn't possibly be such an expert on the subject.

 

How could you know about waiting times for early arrivers if you haven't been there!:)

[Host Sharon]

Officially - P&O are only enforcing check-in times on Britannia - so far anyway.

and higher tier Peninsular Club members have been told to turn up when they like as they have Priority check-in.

[Alan Flett]

Officially - P&O are only enforcing check-in times on Britannia - so far anyway.

 

and higher tier Peninsular Club members have been told to turn up when they like as they have Priority check-in.

 

 

If they are enforcing them then their customer service don't know about it then.

 

I phoned them this week and asked if I could have an earlier time than 3 o'clock which I have for my cruise. They said just turn up as it's a guide as they don't want people all turning up together. There may be a little wait if it's busy but it should be ok and you won't wait long.

[Alan Flett]

So if you were given a check in time of 1430 would you adhere to that or turn up at 11.30? Because if they do start enforcing it, you might be sitting around with two young children for 3 hours before they allow you to check in.

 

 

We have never arrived that early and never would unless we had to. This year will be the earliest which will be about 12.30 as we are staying over and need to leave the hotel at 12.

 

If I travelled from home I wouldn't leave at 6.30 to get there at 11.30 that would be stupid and again we have never left that early. So in answer to your question I would probably arrive about 1 ish depending on traffic. Probably later if anything.

 

If I got there earlier and had to wait then so be it. It really isn't a problem. I've never said I purposely get there early I simply like to plan for every eventuality.

 

I really don't know what you and laurakdy have against me but it seems that you both like to have a go at me for some reason.

[caber]

Firstly excuse me as I have missed reading a few pages of this thread so if this point has already been made I apologise.

There will be many coaches travelling directly to the ship. I have never been asked by P&O which way I was getting to the ship. This could mean that passengers on each coach from all over the country have very different boarding times. Take Glasgow for example. The coach leaves at 4am. I would think that by the time it reaches Southampton, usually around 2, that all the passengers on it would be able to join the boarding queue. It would be soul destroying if they said, "you go to that line, you stand aside"

This year we are flying and staying overnight in Southampton but after check out at 11 I hope we will be able to make our way to the terminal. I don`t know if we will have a boarding time as it is now for many weeks yet.

[annieuk]

Oh dear - this thread is showing signs of turning into a series of personal attacks which is a great shame. Surely one poster a page or so back underlined the main thing behind all this boarding time debate. If P&O issue boarding times then it is up to them to either enforce them or just issue them as a guide. It is not up to each cruiser to tell another passenger what he/she should do or not do. We can each give our own views surely without attacking what someone else thinks.

 

There are already accepted exceptions to the boarding times given to each passenger - those on Caribbean level (quite a large number I should think) and those in suites have priority embarkation so they will not necessarily be sticking to their boarding times. Coach passengers will join the queue as and when they arrive so it seems to me the whole system has worked very well in the past. I can understand with the extra numbers on Britannia P&O may have to have a re-think but their current position seems a mess.

 

Let's continue giving our views without accusing people of acting like children or whatever else has been mentioned. It's not necessary and any sort of personal attack never promotes anyone's point of view. Just my opinion you understand!

[laurakdy]

Oh dear - this thread is showing signs of turning into a series of personal attacks which is a great shame. Surely one poster a page or so back underlined the main thing behind all this boarding time debate. If P&O issue boarding times then it is up to them to either enforce them or just issue them as a guide. It is not up to each cruiser to tell another passenger what he/she should do or not do. We can each give our own views surely without attacking what someone else thinks.

 

There are already accepted exceptions to the boarding times given to each passenger - those on Caribbean level (quite a large number I should think) and those in suites have priority embarkation so they will not necessarily be sticking to their boarding times. Coach passengers will join the queue as and when they arrive so it seems to me the whole system has worked very well in the past. I can understand with the extra numbers on Britannia P&O may have to have a re-think but their current position seems a mess.

 

Let's continue giving our views without accusing people of acting like children or whatever else has been mentioned. It's not necessary and any sort of personal attack never promotes anyone's point of view. Just my opinion you understand!

 

Your opinion is most welcome and you are most definitely entitled to it...

[Mysticalmother]

Oh dear - this thread is showing signs of turning into a series of personal attacks which is a great shame. Surely one poster a page or so back underlined the main thing behind all this boarding time debate. If P&O issue boarding times then it is up to them to either enforce them or just issue them as a guide. It is not up to each cruiser to tell another passenger what he/she should do or not do. We can each give our own views surely without attacking what someone else thinks.

 

There are already accepted exceptions to the boarding times given to each passenger - those on Caribbean level (quite a large number I should think) and those in suites have priority embarkation so they will not necessarily be sticking to their boarding times. Coach passengers will join the queue as and when they arrive so it seems to me the whole system has worked very well in the past. I can understand with the extra numbers on Britannia P&O may have to have a re-think but their current position seems a mess.

 

Let's continue giving our views without accusing people of acting like children or whatever else has been mentioned. It's not necessary and any sort of personal attack never promotes anyone's point of view. Just my opinion you understand!

 

Couldn't agree more. Well said.

 

Changing tack (but only very slightly), we have been very fortunate to be upgraded to a mini suite on our cruise - we depart on Wednesday. Could someone tell me whether we get lunch provided separately from that available in the buffet? Indications are that we do, but cant see it clarified anywhere, and we don't usually book suites! Our boarding time is 12.00 which I gather is standard for suite passengers, but our friends have been given 2.00pm (they have not unfortunately been upgraded) . Thanks