Has anybody had trouble requesting boarding assistance?

[GOQ]

I have a bit of a problem which causes loss of balance and weakness in my left arm. I requested boarding assistance for the first time on my last P&O cruise in January. I filled in the assistance form, sent it to accessibility@carnivalukgroup.com and received a confirmation reply within a few days. 

 

I am off on another cruise next week I have twice emailed accessibility@carnivalukgroup.com with the same request and completed form. No replies or acknowledgement to either email/request. 

 

I there anything I could have done wrong?, has the email address changed ?

 

TIA

 

Paul

[Selbourne]

No need to worry GOQ. They don’t reply or acknowledge, which is irritating as you are always left wondering if they have received and processed the request. When you arrive just go to the assisted boarding area, which is usually just inside the entrance. They should have your name on the list. 

[GOQ]

Thanks Selbourne

 

It's just that the last time I requested assistance I received an acknowledgment to my email. I thought something had gone wrong this time.

 

Boarding at Southampton was well organised and I easily found the assisted boarding area. However at Barbados, apart from disembarking the ship, which was well organised, the airport was chaos and I ended up struggling with my hand luggage through security.

[purplesea]

We have requested assitance many times for my mother and never had an acknowledgement, but have never had any problems, either at Southampton or Barbados.

[TigerB]

As above; sometimes we receive acknowledgement fairly quickly, sometimes not. Always though, she is on the list when we turn up. Don't fret, it'll be fine.🙂

[Blueroses_1910]

Honestly,  that's so rude.  Even a basic automated reply would be better than that. Bad manners and anxiety-inducing.  I've had to apply for assistance and also have autism so not being certain about things like this really bother me.

[Presto2]

My friend who is travelling with us in May has to use a walking stick and is limited in terms of how far she can walk. She will be arriving on her own. I had no idea about this service.

I am sorry if this seems a silly question, but what exactly does this service do to help passengers?

TBH it sounds ideal for her as we are travelling separately and can not guarantee what time we are all arriving at Southampton.

[Selbourne]

9 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

My friend who is travelling with us in May has to use a walking stick and is limited in terms of how far she can walk. She will be arriving on her own. I had no idea about this service.

I am sorry if this seems a silly question, but what exactly does this service do to help passengers?

TBH it sounds ideal for her as we are travelling separately and can not guarantee what time we are all arriving at Southampton.

Basically you wait in a dedicated area just inside the terminal and a number of helpers in high viz vests will take those with walking difficulties through check-in and on to the ship. People are boarded in priority order, not first come first served (so suites and high tier loyalty first). They have their own wheelchairs for those who don’t have their own. They will take the person to the buffet (if cabin not available) and will take the wheelchair back when they leave. It’s an excellent service. Disembarkation is the same in that there will be a dedicated lounge for assistance and they will actually wheel people through luggage pick up and all the way back to the car (not sure how this works when travelling solo, as I tend to collect and push the luggage to the car whilst the assistance person pushes my wife. 

[Presto2]

Many thanks for this - it looks really helpful. We cant guarantee we will be there to help at disembarkation -- we never even thought of that

[GOQ]

On 3/17/2023 at 10:38 AM, GOQ said:

 

I am off on another cruise next week I have twice emailed accessibility@carnivalukgroup.com with the same request and completed form. No replies or acknowledgement to either email/request. 

 

I there anything I could have done wrong?, has the email address changed ?

 

TIA

 

Paul

With my first request for assistance I returned a completed assistance request form I had been sent for my previous January cruise.

But I had no acknowledgment, so I sent a second request using a different request form I had found on one of P&Os web pages.

Still no acknowledgment. Now 4 days before my upcoming cruise I have just received an email from P&O quote:

 

“Unfortunately, the version you have returned is now obsolete. We have made quite a few changes to our On Board Needs questionnaire in recent years. For this reason and to ensure we have all the necessary information for your forth coming cruise, please may we kindly ask you to complete the attached On Board Needs questionnaire and return to us.”

 

So they acknowledged the receiving my second email containing the obsolete form but not the first email containing the correct form and now ask me to resubmit the first form which I sent weeks ago.

 

Confusing. 

 

Just a thought, when I sent the first form I had not been allocated my cabin so put TBC in the cabin number box. So did they perhaps just discard my original request because I didn't have a cabin number?

 

 

Edited March 20, 2023 by GOQ
added

[Selbourne]

2 minutes ago, GOQ said:

With my first request for assistance I returned a completed assistance request form I had been sent for my previous January cruise.

But I had no acknowledgment, so I sent a second request using a different request form I had found on one of P&Os web pages.

Still no acknowledgment. Now 4 days before my upcoming cruise I have just received an email from P&O quote:

 

“Unfortunately, the version you have returned is now obsolete. We have made quite a few changes to our On Board Needs questionnaire in recent years. For this reason and to ensure we have all the necessary information for your forth coming cruise, please may we kindly ask you to complete the attached On Board Needs questionnaire and return to us.”

 

So they acknowledged the receiving my second email containing the obsolete form but not the first email containing the correct form and now ask me to resubmit the first form which I sent weeks ago.

 

Confusing. 

 

 

They don’t help themselves with things like this. Sadly, it’s yet another P&O example of something  that is excellent on the ships but let down by poor shoreside service. I filled in the forms for my wife when we booked the cruises (at launch), so I assume that these may be out of date? As to whether P&O will contact us with the ‘new’ forms is anybody’s guess!

[TigerB]

23 hours ago, GOQ said:

With my first request for assistance I returned a completed assistance request form I had been sent for my previous January cruise.

But I had no acknowledgment, so I sent a second request using a different request form I had found on one of P&Os web pages.

Still no acknowledgment. Now 4 days before my upcoming cruise I have just received an email from P&O quote:

 

“Unfortunately, the version you have returned is now obsolete. We have made quite a few changes to our On Board Needs questionnaire in recent years. For this reason and to ensure we have all the necessary information for your forth coming cruise, please may we kindly ask you to complete the attached On Board Needs questionnaire and return to us.”

 

So they acknowledged the receiving my second email containing the obsolete form but not the first email containing the correct form and now ask me to resubmit the first form which I sent weeks ago.

 

Confusing. 

 

Just a thought, when I sent the first form I had not been allocated my cabin so put TBC in the cabin number box. So did they perhaps just discard my original request because I didn't have a cabin number?

 

 

 

23 hours ago, Selbourne said:

They don’t help themselves with things like this. Sadly, it’s yet another P&O example of something  that is excellent on the ships but let down by poor shoreside service. I filled in the forms for my wife when we booked the cruises (at launch), so I assume that these may be out of date? As to whether P&O will contact us with the ‘new’ forms is anybody’s guess!

 

We've had this before, sending three identical forms in three separate emails for three separate cruises, and one of them being rejected because it was supposedly on an old form.

So, no consistency.

 

A training need, perhaps?

[GOQ]

Quite a fast response from P&O this time, the last form I sent bounced because I had missed ticking the travel insurance and care requirements boxes on the form.

These had been ticked on the other 2 forms I had sent.

 

So that seems to be the answer, if your are a bit nervous like me and would like an acknowledgement that P&O have received the form, just miss ticking one of the required boxes and they will get back to you.

 

My excuse, I am dyslexic and forms with boxes phase me. Thank goodness for spell checkers.

 

Edited March 21, 2023 by GOQ

[purplesea]

I have just e-mailed my mother's Medical Quesitonaire, for our cruise in September and received an automated reply straight back.😲

This is the first time that I have received an acknowledgement to any of the questionaires I have sent.

[Presto2]

Just wanted to say a thank you to everyone on this thread. If it hadn't been for the Op and those who replied we would never have thought of this for our friend on her first cruise. She has since organised the assistance for her when boarding and on disembarkation.

 

Many, many thanks to everyone 🙂