New Princess Boarding Process?

[Reno Dave]

We boarded the Sapphire Prncess in Buenos Aires two days ago for a 14-day cruise to Santiago.  Before boarding the Elites and Platinums, Princess boarded a large group with "P" boarding cards.  Is this something new, and who are the "P"s?

Edited March 7, 2023 by Reno Dave
Typo

[Lady Arwen]

I’m guessing “Private” 

[Cruise Raider]

21 minutes ago, Reno Dave said:

We boarded the Sapphire Prncess in Buenos Aires two days ago for a 14-day cruise to Santiago.  Before boarding the Elites and Platinums, Princess boarded a large group with "P" boarding cards.  Is this something new, and who are the "P"s?

They oftentimes have large groups that are boarded before everyone else.  On our last cruise, we had an Expedia group that birdied before everyone else.  We’ve had a wedding party and guests that boarded before everyone else in the past.  I don’t think it’s as much of a new process as much as an old process that you’ve not encountered before.  
 

[marden1970]

Hi Reno Dave - Welcome to Cruise Critic - I'm Mary from Spanish Springs.  Hope you enjoy your cruise, lucky you missed the snow we've been having the last few days.

[LACruiser88]

We boarded with you.  Below are my comments from our boarding experience and posted on my Live thread.

 

Well, we finally made it onboard! Today we experienced our worst embarkation ever! We arrived at the terminal at 11:20 and got into a line outside the terminal to drop off our bags.

 

The bag drop off line took about 20 minutes. We were given a red priority card with the letter "C" and were allowed into a waiting area that was a sea of people! Two ships were using the same terminal, ours and a Regent ship.

 

We were told that the Sapphire was having a computer issue and no one had yet boarded. There was no separate waiting area for suites or Elites.

 

After a while they started calling priority letters. They started with the letter P, followed by A and B.

 

There was a mass of Elites and Platinums jamming the "gate" claiming that they had not been given a priority card. What a freak'n mess!

 

They finally called C and D and we proceeded to a check-in line to verify Medallion info and passports. We then went into another room for an Immigration passport inspection.

 

Then into another room to collect our passports. We will have our passports returned at the end of this 14 day segment.

 

The saga continues, we then went down stairs to the outdoors to get onto a bus that finally took us to the ship! During this whole time the inside of the terminal was around 90 degrees and very humid.

 

The process took us 90 minutes. I made it to our cabin ready for a cold shower!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Janie1229]

I don't remember ever giving up our passports on a cruise! Is this new? 

[mom says]

7 minutes ago, Janie1229 said:

I don't remember ever giving up our passports on a cruise! Is this new? 

It is not at all unusual. It depends on the itinerary,  and sometimes, the cruise line.

[Janie1229]

7 minutes ago, mom says said:

It is not at all unusual. It depends on the itinerary,  and sometimes, the cruise line.

Okay. So far we have only gone on Caribbean itineraries, which may account for not having passports taken at boarding. I am now looking at Europe and other itineraries so we'll see what happens. Not  a big deal, but I was surprised to see that comment!

[LACruiser88]

57 minutes ago, Janie1229 said:

I don't remember ever giving up our passports on a cruise! Is this new? 

The below information was waiting for us in our cabin.

[Janie1229]

Very interesting ! I usually have a photocopy of my passport both printed/laminated and on my phone just as a precaution 🙂

[Reno Dave]

Hi Mary  Nice to e-meet you  Not missing the snow at all!

[Reno Dave]

Hi LACruiser88. Hope you're enjoying the cruise!

 

Just spoke to our Loyalty rep and she told me the P group was a large group of Buenos Aires travel agents on a fam tour.  They ultimately let them board early because of the boarding delays.

 

My experience was virtually the same as yours, except I was initially assigned to Boarding Group 10. I was ultimately able to exchange that for group B.

Edited March 8, 2023 by Reno Dave
Formatting

[stevenr597]

On our Alaska Cruise out of Seattle this past July, boarding was a disaster, complete chaos. 

[Steelers36]

22 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

We boarded with you.  Below are my comments from our boarding experience and posted on my Live thread.

 

Well, we finally made it onboard! Today we experienced our worst embarkation ever! We arrived at the terminal at 11:20 and got into a line outside the terminal to drop off our bags.

 

The bag drop off line took about 20 minutes. We were given a red priority card with the letter "C" and were allowed into a waiting area that was a sea of people! Two ships were using the same terminal, ours and a Regent ship.

 

We were told that the Sapphire was having a computer issue and no one had yet boarded. There was no separate waiting area for suites or Elites.

 

After a while they started calling priority letters. They started with the letter P, followed by A and B.

 

There was a mass of Elites and Platinums jamming the "gate" claiming that they had not been given a priority card. What a freak'n mess!

 

They finally called C and D and we proceeded to a check-in line to verify Medallion info and passports. We then went into another room for an Immigration passport inspection.

 

Then into another room to collect our passports. We will have our passports returned at the end of this 14 day segment.

 

The saga continues, we then went down stairs to the outdoors to get onto a bus that finally took us to the ship! During this whole time the inside of the terminal was around 90 degrees and very humid.

 

The process took us 90 minutes. I made it to our cabin ready for a cold shower!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Reno Dave said:

Hi LACruiser88. Hope you're enjoying the cruise!

 

Just spoke to our Loyalty rep and she told me the P group was a large group of Buenos Aires travel agents on a fam tour.  They ultimately let them board early because of the boarding delays.

 

My experience was virtually the same as yours, except I was initially assigned to Boarding Group 10. I was ultimately able to exchange that for group B.

Princess has not been using this port m much for some time and it is easy to see how what we expect as normal check-in process can be thrown off the rails to some degree in a foreign port.  All you can do is find a Princess employee and nicely advocate for yourself.  Or, go with the situation. 

 

An 11:30am arrival is right in prime time as well.  Hope cruise goes well - S.A. is a great adventure.

 

[MissP22]

We boarded 19 days ago inFt Lauderdale and the wanted to see everyone's passport.  Everything went smoothly and we were aboard in 20 minutes. 

[Steelers36]

4 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

We boarded 19 days ago inFt Lauderdale and the wanted to see everyone's passport.  Everything went smoothly and we were aboard in 20 minutes. 

FLL not equal a foreign port.  FLL is a well-oiled machine for processing guests.

[kiwimum]

When we sail out of Buenos Aires we always show up around 3:00pm and have no issues boarding.   The terminal is not set up to handle large numbers of passengers or multiple ships.   Disembarkation in January was a disaster as 3  ships in port and passengers attempting to board arriving well before suggested time created traffic jams.