Couple of questions about Southampton embarkation

[purplesea]

I had a 12.30 boarding time for Arvia last May and I'm not in a high tier.

[Windsurfboy]

Just now, purplesea said:

I had a 12.30 boarding time for Arvia last May and I'm not in a high tier.

 

So unless those with high teir status were given 12.00 and suites and Ligurian 11.30 they system is going to pot

[terrierjohn]

1 minute ago, Windsurfboy said:

 

So unless those with high teir status were given 12.00 and suites and Ligurian 11.30 they system is going to pot

Where have seen these check in times notified, are they on the website?

[Windsurfboy]

It says  on Peninsula club documents on website that Caribbean,  and Baltic have priority boarding at 1pm and that Ligurian has priority but earlier at 12.30. It says on website under suites that full suites board FIRST with Ligurian and both have access to hospitality lounge.  

 

Therefore  no-one without priority boarding should have 12.30.  If they do then unless priority boarding groups are earlier they don't have their promised priority. 

[Fionboard]

I am Ligurian and usually have 1215 boarding time no matter which ship or terminal. It rarely seems to vary. 

[majortom10]

We embarked Arvia on 14th April and are Caribbean and we had a boarding time of midday.

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

It says  on Peninsula club documents on website that Caribbean,  and Baltic have priority boarding at 1pm and that Ligurian has priority but earlier at 12.30. It says on website under suites that full suites board FIRST with Ligurian and both have access to hospitality lounge.  

 

Therefore  no-one without priority boarding should have 12.30.  If they do then unless priority boarding groups are earlier they don't have their promised priority. 

I think that data is very old, probably well before covid, and long before the new boarding system was introduced.

[Slugsta]

We don't have any priority and were given 12.30 boarding of Aurora earlier this month (we were on D deck). I seem to remember that the latest time was 3.30. We were told that there were a lot of people onboard with high loyalty levels.

Edited April 30 by Slugsta
Added deck

[Selbourne]

5 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

Suites , mini suites,  Caribbean,  Baltic and Ligurian all have priority boarding. That can be a lot of people. So if too many  have priority no one has priority.

That was exactly our experience when boarding Aurora in January. I believe that around 40% of the passengers had ‘priority’ boarding and, as a result, total chaos ensued, both with CPS and the terminal staff. It was the worst boarding experience we have ever had.
 

By contrast we boarded Iona immediately with no delay whatsoever but, of course, the vast majority of passengers on the mega ships aren’t eligible for priority boarding, so if you do qualify it actually counts for something. 

[Selbourne]

4 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

It says on website under suites that full suites board FIRST with Ligurian and both have access to hospitality lounge

I have a feeling that hospitality lounges were dispensed with during Covid and haven’t returned, or at least the complimentary drinks and snacks have gone?

[Windsurfboy]

Clearly  P&O should update its website, promises made on website come under advertising code of practice,  ie they must be upheld not just hyperbole.

[Windsurfboy]

12 hours ago, Fionboard said:

I am Ligurian and usually have 1215 boarding time no matter which ship or terminal. It rarely seems to vary. 

 

What time do you normally arrive, what is the process like, do you have to wait long

Edited May 1 by Windsurfboy

[terrierjohn]

2 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

Clearly  P&O should update its website, promises made on website come under advertising code of practice,  ie they must be upheld not just hyperbole.

Since all the higher loyalty members seem to be getting earlier boarding times than the website states, its very unlikely anyone is going to complain.

[david63]

To me there appears to be a disconnect between P&O and the port terminal staff.

 

Looking at the "priority" check-in situation the P&O website says for the top tiers "Priority arrival time allocation and Priority check-in" - nothing about boarding. Whilst for suite passengers it says "You’ll be whisked through priority check-in and boarding".

 

The terminal staff, for obvious reasons, want to get everybody processed and onboard as quickly as possible and become oblivious to anything else. I have known the situation where I have had a suite and arrived at my allotted time only to find check-in packed meaning that we had to join the check-in queue for the best part of 30 minutes (it was a cruise with a large number of top tier passengers). Why P&O cannot adopt the same practices as other cruise lines, or better still airlines, is beyond me.

[david63]

12 hours ago, Fionboard said:

I am Ligurian and usually have 1215 boarding time no matter which ship or terminal. It rarely seems to vary. 

I thought that you were given "arrival time" not "boarding time" - there is a significant difference.

[P&O SUE]

We boarded Aurora on the Thursday before Easter. I was very pleased to get a 12-45 embarkation time. Don’t know how we managed it but we pulled up at CPS bang on 12-45, they actually took quite a while to get to us which surprised me as normally it’s so quick. We didn’t walk up to the terminal door til about 1-15 - the queue outside was quite long but I said to hubby don’t worry they should let us on.

We were just going in after showing them our boarding time and I heard a man call out ‘anyone with 2pm or before you can now go in!’

I was glad we didn’t arrive later, there were hoards of people waiting outside!

[Selbourne]

1 minute ago, P&O SUE said:

We boarded Aurora on the Thursday before Easter. I was very pleased to get a 12-45 embarkation time. Don’t know how we managed it but we pulled up at CPS bang on 12-45, they actually took quite a while to get to us which surprised me as normally it’s so quick. We didn’t walk up to the terminal door til about 1-15 - the queue outside was quite long but I said to hubby don’t worry they should let us on.

We were just going in after showing them our boarding time and I heard a man call out ‘anyone with 2pm or before you can now go in!’

I was glad we didn’t arrive later, there were hoards of people waiting outside!

CPS was half the problem with our Aurora cruise. We were held in a holding queue for half an hour whilst later arrivals, many probably without priority boarding, were waived through to the drop off lanes before us (as the holding lanes were full). 
 

We are on Queen Anne in a few weeks and are trying Parking4Cruises again, as we found them much quicker previously. 

[P&O SUE]

7 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

CPS was half the problem with our Aurora cruise. We were held in a holding queue for half an hour whilst later arrivals, many probably without priority boarding, were waived through to the drop off lanes before us (as the holding lanes were full). 
 

We are on Queen Anne in a few weeks and are trying Parking4Cruises again, as we found them much quicker previously. 

Interesting Selbourne. 
 

Hope you enjoy Queen Anne!

[Windsurfboy]

54 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Since all the higher loyalty members seem to be getting earlier boarding times than the website states, its very unlikely anyone is going to complain.

 

I was thinking firstly about the hospitality lounge.

 

But also promise for full suites of being whisked through.  Which of course can't happen if there is only one priority queue with a 1000 people in it. Earlier arrival time doesn't  lead to Earlier boarding if there is a big bottle neck of too many with priority. 

[Windsurfboy]

49 minutes ago, david63 said:

To me there appears to be a disconnect between P&O and the port terminal staff.

 

Looking at the "priority" check-in situation the P&O website says for the top tiers "Priority arrival time allocation and Priority check-in" - nothing about boarding. Whilst for suite passengers it says "You’ll be whisked through priority check-in and boarding".

 

The terminal staff, for obvious reasons, want to get everybody processed and onboard as quickly as possible and become oblivious to anything else. I have known the situation where I have had a suite and arrived at my allotted time only to find check-in packed meaning that we had to join the check-in queue for the best part of 30 minutes (it was a cruise with a large number of top tier passengers). Why P&O cannot adopt the same practices as other cruise lines, or better still airlines, is beyond me.

 

Did you raise this with P&O

[Fionboard]

1 hour ago, david63 said:

I thought that you were given "arrival time" not "boarding time" - there is a significant difference.

Correct. Thanks for that. 

[Fionboard]

1 hour ago, Windsurfboy said:

 

What time do you normally arrive, what is the process like, do you have to wait long

I arrive about 1200. Then sit and wait until boarding commences. Usually not too long a wait. But I only cruise on the smaller ships. 

[david63]

1 hour ago, Windsurfboy said:

Did you raise this with P&O

At the time yes but just got the usual platitudes.

[9265359]

On 4/30/2024 at 6:58 PM, Windsurfboy said:

It says  on Peninsula club documents on website that Caribbean,  and Baltic have priority boarding at 1pm and that Ligurian has priority but earlier at 12.30. It says on website under suites that full suites board FIRST with Ligurian and both have access to hospitality lounge.  

 

Therefore  no-one without priority boarding should have 12.30.  If they do then unless priority boarding groups are earlier they don't have their promised priority. 

 

Well on my next cruise I have an arrival time of 12:15, and I am very definitely not Caribbean, Baltic, Ligurian, or in a full suite.

[Bucket List Ticked]

Just booked my first P&O cruise. On my past cruises with 2 different cruise lines I had a choice of check-in times to choose from. From reading the comments on here it looks like P&O will just allocate me a boarding time - is that correct? Thanks.