what would you do?

[Ipeeinthepools]

15 minutes ago, the penguins said:

And Southampton. If you chose to arrive outside your allotted time just accept that you might have to wait. If everyone turned up at the earliest time it would be chaos.

 

I’m not sure why it would be chaos in Southampton if it works ok in all of the other ports around the world.  Sometimes you may have a little wait but it certainly isn’t chaos.  

[the penguins]

8 hours ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

I’m not sure why it would be chaos in Southampton if it works ok in all of the other ports around the world.  Sometimes you may have a little wait but it certainly isn’t chaos.  

 over 50% of passengers arrive at Southampton by car and are often held in along line at the main gate, then funnelled into a holding area before even being allowed to onload their bags before quickly moving their cars to the long stay car park. Passengers arriving by taxi/bus/on foot drop off bags at a single point and then walk to Terminal Entrance. The entrance area inside the terminal doors holds approx 60 people after which you are funnelled down one corridor to passport control - the corridor is split into 2 lines (suites/disabled and everyone else. At the end of the corridor the line merges for Passport Control (usually just 2 Officers) and then splits again as previously for security before finally entering the check in area. If everyone arrived at once the line outside the terminal (no seats or cover) would be, to use my word, "chaos". If people arrive at their allotted time from dropping off you bags to being in your cabin will be under 20 minutes.

Lighting and wifi in the Terminal are also notoriously bad and it greatly assists the staff if you have everything printed out rather than on just on your mobile device.

Your check in times will be checked, probably more than once, as you move towards the Terminal entrance and if you are early you will probably be directed to a holding line - no seats and no cover.

[Ipeeinthepools]

41 minutes ago, the penguins said:

 over 50% of passengers arrive at Southampton by car and are often held in along line at the main gate, then funnelled into a holding area before even being allowed to onload their bags before quickly moving their cars to the long stay car park. Passengers arriving by taxi/bus/on foot drop off bags at a single point and then walk to Terminal Entrance. The entrance area inside the terminal doors holds approx 60 people after which you are funnelled down one corridor to passport control - the corridor is split into 2 lines (suites/disabled and everyone else. At the end of the corridor the line merges for Passport Control (usually just 2 Officers) and then splits again as previously for security before finally entering the check in area. If everyone arrived at once the line outside the terminal (no seats or cover) would be, to use my word, "chaos". If people arrive at their allotted time from dropping off you bags to being in your cabin will be under 20 minutes.

Lighting and wifi in the Terminal are also notoriously bad and it greatly assists the staff if you have everything printed out rather than on just on your mobile device.

Your check in times will be checked, probably more than once, as you move towards the Terminal entrance and if you are early you will probably be directed to a holding line - no seats and no cover.

 
Sounds like a lot of bad design features that should be improved.  The local officials need to remember that the cruise lines and the passengers are their customers and they should do everything to make the experience better.  Add some Passport control officers.  If they aren’t interested,  then maybe the cruise lines should move the cruise origin to more friendly port.

[the penguins]

57 minutes ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 
Sounds like a lot of bad design features that should be improved.  The local officials need to remember that the cruise lines and the passengers are their customers and they should do everything to make the experience better.  Add some Passport control officers.  If they aren’t interested,  then maybe the cruise lines should move the cruise origin to more friendly port.

wow - ok where to start:

1) Southampton is the UK number cruise port.

2 Cruising is still relatively small in the UK and the cruise season is short with no likely hood of it being extended. There will never be the demand for all year round cruising - Royal tried and failed with Independence of the Seas and MSC are I believe going to try. As a private company with no shareholders to keep happy and a different attitude to profit (they kept a least one ship cruising throughout Covid when all the others lines stopped) MSC might succeed only time will tell.

3) A brand new Cruise Terminal would be very expensive -  a cost that would be passed directly to passengers.

4  Passport Control is handled by the UK's Border Force  (just like at Airports) and has nothing to do with the Port Authorities or the Cruise Lines.

5) One thing the UK lacks is land space and what there is is expensive. Southampton Port would find it impossible to expand it's footprint to add for example the much needed car parking.

6) Southampton is very welcoming, the staff friendly and efficient - all they ask is that passengers stagger their arrival times i.e. arrive at the times they have booked, and the process works well. 

[the penguins]

I meant to add a note to give you an indication of the space issues in the UK.

Arsenal is one of the UK's leading Premiership Football Clubs with a modern stadium in London.

Spectator Capacity: over 60,000.

Public car parking spaces: Zero.

Disabled Car Parking for visiting (away fans): 6

Our Grandson lives in Dallas and his local hockey rink has more  car parking spaces.

[dreamer321]

I booked Unlimited Specialty Dining for my upcoming transatlantic. I was worried about the popular restaurants being sold out but I'm hoping that Eden's ridiculous $85 per person cover charge lessens the demand for it.  I'm also planning on being flexible with timing and willing to eat late or early if necessary. 

[riredsox]

On 3/27/2024 at 8:39 AM, jelayne said:

We have also experienced the less than full specialty restaurant yet difficult to get a reservation.  We have asked a couple of MaitreD’s we know and have been told that they had to restrict bookings because not staffed to handle fully booked restaurant.   

Then they shouldn’t sell these dining packages if you can’t make a reservation.  If they let you make the reservation when you purchase the package that would be different.  

[riredsox]

On 3/27/2024 at 8:01 AM, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

And were there tons of staff just standing around twiddling their thumbs?

 

I suspect that they leave tables empty so that each table gets the service they'd expect. If they filled all the tables, there would be complaints about noise AND about lack of attention from servers.

Simple solution is to just stop selling dining packages or let you make a reservation when you purchase them.  

[justcrusn]

You should ABSOLUTELY be able to make a reservation when booking, in my opinion 

 

[Oceangoer2]

31 minutes ago, justcrusn said:

You should ABSOLUTELY be able to make a reservation when booking, in my opinion 

 

Their answer to this (I asked in the past) is that the pkgs are discounted when you buy them pre-cruise.  Weak IMO....they have guaranteed 3, 5, 7, full night pkgs booked which is to THEIR advantage.

[Ipeeinthepools]

21 minutes ago, riredsox said:

Simple solution is to just stop selling dining packages or let you make a reservation when you purchase them.  

 

Not being able to make reservations pre-cruise is part of the trade-off to get the reduced cost of the package.  I'm sure you will always be able to make reservations, but it's likely that it might not be at your first choice of time and/or dates.

 

[riredsox]

2 minutes ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

Not being able to make reservations pre-cruise is part of the trade-off to get the reduced cost of the package.  I'm sure you will always be able to make reservations, but it's likely that it might not be at your first choice of time and/or dates.

 

You can’t always get reservations.  On the Beyond they told me Eden and the steak restaurant were not available.  

[kathynorth]

On 3/26/2024 at 6:18 PM, justcrusn said:

we have an upcoming (next month) cruise. just booked because of time off work concerns.

DW strongly desires dinner in lawn club and murano on her birthday and our anniversary.

no open dates shown in cruise planner. I have purchased unlimited specialty dining in the hope that they will somehow accommodate us. will this work ?

We had a package on the Equinox in Feb. We were lucky enough to be in the 11:30 boarding group, dropped our bags in our cabin, then headed straight to Murano to book our reservations. I came prepared with a list of which restaurants we wanted for each date and told the attendant we wanted reserved times for 6:30, 7:00, or 7:30 each night. He set everything up for us and we were happy with the outcome. This was the first time we didn’t need to haggle over dining times since eating very late doesn’t work for us.

[Liao]

On 3/28/2024 at 10:39 PM, dreamer321 said:

I booked Unlimited Specialty Dining for my upcoming transatlantic. I was worried about the popular restaurants being sold out but I'm hoping that Eden's ridiculous $85 per person cover charge lessens the demand for it.  I'm also planning on being flexible with timing and willing to eat late or early if necessary. 

The cost of eating in Eden does not deter