Drive through or terminal testing? UK

[Wendymewendy]

I have been unable to get the app to work at all despite trying on 2 smart phones and 2 tablet.

13 unanswered emails and over 5 hours on the phone and still not working.

Just going to print out details that I can and hope for the best.

Not impressed with Princess at all, so much stress caused and no help at all.

[dides]

11 minutes ago, Wendymewendy said:

I have been unable to get the app to work at all despite trying on 2 smart phones and 2 tablet.

13 unanswered emails and over 5 hours on the phone and still not working.

Just going to print out details that I can and hope for the best.

Not impressed with Princess at all, so much stress caused and no help at all.

Do not worry about it - as soon as you get into the terminal there will be a person at a check-in point who can sort you out. They will have a tablet and and can update your booking/details for you.  

 

 

Edited August 16, 2021 by dides

[speedwell]

My App appeared to lose parts of the downloaded info, but it was no problem.

With staggered arrival times and reduced capacity, the terminal felt strangely empty. We were dropped off at the port, so were directed to the testing centre waited a few minutes for the result and then proceeded thru check in and waited in the lounge until boarding.

The whole process was efficient and stress free.

[Stokie33]

We boarded Regal on Saturday, after reading the threads on here we made sure we stopped at the last services on the M27, went into the docks via dock gate 10, got directed straight to the overflow car park and started queuing at 1pm, our arrival time was group D 13.15, made it into the COVID testing area at 14.01 (as per first text) got 2nd text at 15.07 but hubby didn’t get his so asked one of the ladies who was walking around and she sorted it for us, got onto the ship just after 3.30, went straight to our cabin to watch the muster video then down to the theatre to get our medallion scanned at the muster station, it was 16.15 before we finally got something to eat and drink, for the people sat opposite us in the horizon to have a discussion that they hadn’t watched the video and couldn’t remember there muster due to having been drinking from when they got on, which when the bridge mentioned that 650 still hadn’t completed muster asked each other if they needed to do it😡.

 

No times were checked and the lady in the terminal said they’d had a surge of people at 12.00.  The same happened at disembarkation we had green 1 which was the first group at 8am, not by choice but when we got off had people pushing past you who went to cases in orange 7 which was 9.40, it even said on the paperwork you could go to guest services and get it changed if you wanted to, I know pre COVID none of us stuck to the rules but I think the cruise line needs to police the times better so that there is not a rugby scrum to get on or off the ship.  Also wish people could learn that a cross on a chair means don’t use it as so many thought it didn’t apply to them ( sorry rant over).😂😂

 

The only funny bit was a bloke who was due to go on Iona (had CPS paperwork already in his front window) was undertaking a lot of cars on the M3 and also cut people up to get off the dual carriageway for dock gate 20 but turned up in the Iona queue after we’d already been there for 20 mins, and I don’t understand why he was rushing as Iona was due to leave until 9pm.

 

The only advice I can give people is to take a toilet break close to Southampton and make sure you have something to eat and drink in the car, but hopefully the queues will get better as we heard a few people complaining that the dock handling and testing side was short staffed on Saturday.

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, Stokie33 said:

We boarded Regal on Saturday, after reading the threads on here we made sure we stopped at the last services on the M27, went into the docks via dock gate 10, got directed straight to the overflow car park and started queuing at 1pm, our arrival time was group D 13.15, made it into the COVID testing area at 14.01 (as per first text) got 2nd text at 15.07 but hubby didn’t get his so asked one of the ladies who was walking around and she sorted it for us, got onto the ship just after 3.30, went straight to our cabin to watch the muster video then down to the theatre to get our medallion scanned at the muster station, it was 16.15 before we finally got something to eat and drink, for the people sat opposite us in the horizon to have a discussion that they hadn’t watched the video and couldn’t remember there muster due to having been drinking from when they got on, which when the bridge mentioned that 650 still hadn’t completed muster asked each other if they needed to do it😡.

 

No times were checked and the lady in the terminal said they’d had a surge of people at 12.00.  The same happened at disembarkation we had green 1 which was the first group at 8am, not by choice but when we got off had people pushing past you who went to cases in orange 7 which was 9.40, it even said on the paperwork you could go to guest services and get it changed if you wanted to, I know pre COVID none of us stuck to the rules but I think the cruise line needs to police the times better so that there is not a rugby scrum to get on or off the ship.  Also wish people could learn that a cross on a chair means don’t use it as so many thought it didn’t apply to them ( sorry rant over).😂😂

 

The only funny bit was a bloke who was due to go on Iona (had CPS paperwork already in his front window) was undertaking a lot of cars on the M3 and also cut people up to get off the dual carriageway for dock gate 20 but turned up in the Iona queue after we’d already been there for 20 mins, and I don’t understand why he was rushing as Iona was due to leave until 9pm.

 

The only advice I can give people is to take a toilet break close to Southampton and make sure you have something to eat and drink in the car, but hopefully the queues will get better as we heard a few people complaining that the dock handling and testing side was short staffed on Saturday.

Thanks for the update. 

We are sailing in late October on Sky, and I think we will use an off-site car park (probably Penguin Parking) as we can drop the car off, and then use their shuttle bus to go straight to the test centre at the terminal. It appears that queues for foot passengers are less than for those in cars.

[Stokie33]

8 hours ago, wowzz said:

Thanks for the update. 

We are sailing in late October on Sky, and I think we will use an off-site car park (probably Penguin Parking) as we can drop the car off, and then use their shuttle bus to go straight to the test centre at the terminal. It appears that queues for foot passengers are less than for those in cars.

We are on Sky on the 30th August, I managed to get group A for boarding on that one ( booked Regal just under 2 weeks before we went). Can’t fault CPS we possibly waited for 5 minutes which they ask you to wait in your vehicle, everyone in front of us got out and unpacked there cars then weren’t happy when asked to get back in, and went straight to the kiosk and there wasn’t a queue to pick up your keys.  The problems were more ABP think that’s the right spelling.

I will let you know how we get on 30/08 as hoping we have a better experience plus sailing on a Monday.

This was our first cruise on Princess as have always done RCCL and P&O before, and we think there was a lot of first time cruisers who didn’t know how anything works.

I couldn’t get the Princess plus WiFi to work, another passenger gave me the email address she had found when searching as guest services were useless, also found the location part of the medallion didn’t work unless you had your Bluetooth on, which seems weird.

[wowzz]

13 minutes ago, Stokie33 said:

We are on Sky on the 30th August, I managed to get group A for boarding on that one ( booked Regal just under 2 weeks before we went). Can’t fault CPS we possibly waited for 5 minutes which they ask you to wait in your vehicle, everyone in front of us got out and unpacked there cars then weren’t happy when asked to get back in, and went straight to the kiosk and there wasn’t a queue to pick up your keys.  The problems were more ABP think that’s the right spelling.

I will let you know how we get on 30/08 as hoping we have a better experience plus sailing on a Monday.

This was our first cruise on Princess as have always done RCCL and P&O before, and we think there was a lot of first time cruisers who didn’t know how anything works.

I couldn’t get the Princess plus WiFi to work, another passenger gave me the email address she had found when searching as guest services were useless, also found the location part of the medallion didn’t work unless you had your Bluetooth on, which seems weird.

Thanks - I'll be interested to hear how you get on. 

We normally use CPS, but, as I said, the bottle neck seems to be at the drive through test centre,  so I'm planning to use the quicker pedestrian test centre.

[ukwizard]

40 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Thanks - I'll be interested to hear how you get on. 

We normally use CPS, but, as I said, the bottle neck seems to be at the drive through test centre,  so I'm planning to use the quicker pedestrian test centre.

 

I'm not sure this is always the case,  we relatively zipped though the drive through,  arrival to on the ship in well under an hour but the queues at the walk through centre which are visible from where you queue to drop your luggage off and CPS take your car look horrible on the day we went,  queuing out of the tent and in the rain.

 

I think it might be luck of the draw and down to when you arrive.  We left the Holiday Inn Southampton West at about 12 noon,  got our first 'welcome' registration text which they send you when you get to the first person in the tent at 12:21 and our results at 12:50. We then went up,  picked up our medallions and went through security and onto the ship as usual.

 

As they only had my mobile number they gave me a blue wrist band and my wife a white one and told us to get her results from customer services once we had got to the terminal and had recieved my result through,  but they actually sent both set of results to my mobile.

 

[wowzz]

8 minutes ago, ukwizard said:

 

I'm not sure this is always the case,  we relatively zipped though the drive through,  arrival to on the ship in well under an hour but the queues at the walk through centre which are visible from where you queue to drop your luggage off and CPS take your car look horrible on the day we went,  queuing out of the tent and in the rain.

 

I think it might be luck of the draw and down to when you arrive.  We left the Holiday Inn Southampton West at about 12 noon,  got our first 'welcome' registration text which they send you when you get to the first person in the tent at 12:21 and our results at 12:50. We then went up,  picked up our medallions and went through security and onto the ship as usual.

 

As they only had my mobile number they gave me a blue wrist band and my wife a white one and told us to get her results from customer services once we had got to the terminal and had recieved my result through,  but they actually sent both set of results to my mobile.

 

Thanks - just made me even unsure about who to park with!

[General Agent]

Thanks for all the comments and advice.

Booked for seacation on Monday and downloaded app but it won't let me add passports or select arrival group. There are 3 of us in 2 cabins but only one device which is up to date enough to download the app.

Also have not had any instructions on arrival for testing so this thread has been invaluable.

As we sail next week, what happens if we arrive without being able to book an arrival slot?

Tried numerous times to contact Princess but never managed to get through..

[Stokie33]

I think someone posted a few weeks ago if you can't select a time there was a time depending on which deck you were on, when you go into the main terminal you are sent to someone with an ipad who checks everything and can add things as necessary or will send you to the blue lane where they can add things so nothing to worry about 

[General Agent]

Thanks,

I hope it works smoothly otherwise the MIL will give me earache!

[Stokie33]

The other thing to try is uninstall the medallion app then re install it and try to load in using your booking number, it still kept losing my hubby’s details on our iPad but worked fine this way on my android phone

[Gettingwarmer]

3 hours ago, General Agent said:

Thanks for all the comments and advice.

Booked for seacation on Monday and downloaded app but it won't let me add passports or select arrival group. There are 3 of us in 2 cabins but only one device which is up to date enough to download the app.

Also have not had any instructions on arrival for testing so this thread has been invaluable.

As we sail next week, what happens if we arrive without being able to book an arrival slot?

Tried numerous times to contact Princess but never managed to get through..

This might answer some of your questions

https://www.princess.com/plan/cruise-with-confidence/cruise-health/frequently-asked-questions/uk-cruises/

 

[General Agent]

Thanks Gettingwarmer, I have read that but it still states you have to book a slot through the app - but the app will not allow me to book a slot nor upload passport details.

 

I have tried to uninstall and reinstall the app but it still does not let me do it.

 

I will trawl the postings to see if I can find the post Stokie33 referred to.

 

Also, I have assumed that we do not need a Covid PCR test within 2 days of disembarcation as we have been nowhere.  Can anyone confirm or deny this as the Govt UK cruise guidance https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-cruise-ship-travel does not cover this aspect.

[General Agent]

Some limited success now!

Managed to select arrival time but only after selecting the late group and then being able to change it to an earlier group. Why it can't just show available times is beyond me.

[Stokie33]

As long as you are all double vaccinated you are fine and don't need a PCR they will just do the LFT at the docks 

[General Agent]

Many thanks once again.

Edited August 19, 2021 by General Agent
typo

[caribill]

16 hours ago, General Agent said:

 

Managed to select arrival time but only after selecting the late group and then being able to change it to an earlier group. Why it can't just show available times is beyond me.

 

Another thread says this is a known problem Princess is working to get fixed.

[General Agent]

If only they would be up front about it on their web page it would help.

Have you seen anything about the non ability to scan in passports and any work around for that??

[wowzz]

2 hours ago, General Agent said:

If only they would be up front about it on their web page it would help.

Have you seen anything about the non ability to scan in passports and any work around for that??

If you can't scan in your passport,  you can enter the information manually.  

[General Agent]

When I go to the screen to enter passport information, the only option is to scan the document. When I hit the scan button the camera briefly opens up but then the page goes white and stays that way until I hit the back button (on the phone) and the app restarts. No option to add anything manually or reason why the app crashes.

Don't know if this is a phone problem (android 10) or the app.

[DebbieMacG]

On 8/14/2021 at 3:16 PM, MBandJSinUK said:

We used the drive through facility last Tuesday for our 4 day Regal seacation and the testing opened at 11:00 sharp, we arrived about 10:45 and had to wait at the overflow car park until there was space in the queue at the test site. You can easily find the test site from Gate 10 or Gate 20 (it's in the same car park where you collect your car from at Mayflower if you've done that before)

 

We joined the main queue at 11:00 (They use separate lanes for different cruise companies) and the queue moved slowly.

Stage 1 - They check passports/covid test status whilst queuing.

Stage 2 - They check your booking and mobile numbers, send a welcome text message 

Stage 3 - You drive forward to the swab the inside of the nose bit 

Stage 4 - You drive to the terminal and drop off the car, then drop off your bags then go in for confirming details from your app check-in 

Stage 5 - Sit and wait for the 2nd text

Stage 6 - If you're in the green lane, you then do the full check-in (really just to collect medallions) 

Stage 7 - Wait for boarding

Stage 8 - Security screening then boarding

 

In our experience, the whole thing was rather quick and efficient, certainly nothing like the way it's been portrayed by others. From the welcome text at the drive in site to the result text was 23 minutes. We waited until they allowed boarding at 12:00 exactly. There was no priority queuing/boarding for Plat/Elite/Suite.

 

 

Can I ask how they checked your vaccine status? we don't have an app in Scotland yet and my certificate I got through the post has my date of birth wrong on it somehow, it reads 5 September not 9 May (text rather than numbers) I rang the helpline and its correct at their end and when I check online. If they only scan the bar code I'd hope it should scan correctly. Apparently it takes at least 12 working days for the resolution department to contact me (reports in the news says this never happens anyway) but how do you rectify an error when their end shows no error! very stressful. No one seems to know how it can be incorrect. I can only presume there's a human there who has inputted the details using the American system.on this certificate.

Edited August 21, 2021 by DebbieMacG

[DebbieMacG]

2 hours ago, DebbieMacG said:

Can I ask how they checked your vaccine status? we don't have an app in Scotland yet and my certificate I got through the post has my date of birth wrong on it somehow, it reads 5 September not 9 May (text rather than numbers) I rang the helpline and its correct at their end and when I check online. If they only scan the bar code I'd hope it should scan correctly. Apparently it takes at least 12 working days for the resolution department to contact me (reports in the news says this never happens anyway) but how do you rectify an error when their end shows no error! very stressful. No one seems to know how it can be incorrect. I can only presume there's a human there who has inputted the details using the American system.on this certificate.

Sorry please ignore this, I found out that the letter can’t be scanned as it’s a 1D barcode not a 2D QR code. So It’s a visual check. 

Edited August 21, 2021 by DebbieMacG

[thornegirl]

13 hours ago, DebbieMacG said:

Can I ask how they checked your vaccine status? we don't have an app in Scotland yet and my certificate I got through the post has my date of birth wrong on it somehow, it reads 5 September not 9 May (text rather than numbers) I rang the helpline and its correct at their end and when I check online. If they only scan the bar code I'd hope it should scan correctly. Apparently it takes at least 12 working days for the resolution department to contact me (reports in the news says this never happens anyway) but how do you rectify an error when their end shows no error! very stressful. No one seems to know how it can be incorrect. I can only presume there's a human there who has inputted the details using the American system.on this certificate.

At the testing site near Mayflower, they check your passport for name date of birth and check that your covid status name and date of birth matches. and dates of vaccination  They don't have the ability to check any QR codes there as there is no wifi or 4G signal.  If you have access to your covid vaccination via your doctors I would print that off.