P&O new check in procedures

[Gill W]

The P&O Facebook page says that people arriving early will actually be turned away from the terminal, and told to return 3 hours after their check in time.

Whilst I'm sure that most people will be understanding due to a passenger going overboard on Ventura, I'm sure there'll be others who will be getting hot under the collar about it.

I would do as I've been asked.... But if I had a 3.30pm boarding time, I must admit the thought of arriving at 630pm would make me quite anxious.

[Quizzical Bob]

The P&O Facebook page says that people arriving early will actually be turned away from the terminal, and told to return 3 hours after their check in time.

Whilst I'm sure that most people will be understanding due to a passenger going overboard on Ventura, I'm sure there'll be others who will be getting hot under the collar about it.

I would do as I've been asked.... But if I had a 3.30pm boarding time, I must admit the thought of arriving at 630pm would make me quite anxious.

This may come as a surprise to some people but...


...not everybody in the world looks at Facebook. In my experience most avoid it like the plague that it is.

[Gill W]

[
This may come as a surprise to some people but...


...not everybody in the world looks at Facebook. In my experience most avoid it like the plague that it is.

To be fair, they are also texting everyone who provided a mobile phone number, so they are trying their best.

And if somebody hasn't provided their mobile phone number or doesn't have a mobile phone then that's not P&O's fault!

[Quizzical Bob]

[
This may come as a surprise to some people but...


...not everybody in the world looks at Facebook. In my experience most avoid it like the plague that it is.

To be fair, they are also texting everyone who provided a mobile phone number, so they are trying their best.

And if somebody hasn't provided their mobile phone number or doesn't have a mobile phone then that's not P&O's fault!

Nor the passengers'.

You're right, there's only so much that they can do. To be honest, I would be nervous about delaying until 18:30 or so in case the ship actually sailed at 17:30!

[Romig1]

They have said that they will also credit everyone's on-board account with £20 to compensate for buying lunch - which I consider very fair.

[Happydays]

That would be fair if they are allowing you to leave your cases at the port but that would make it too easy for the passengers! What are you supposed to do with cases and hand luggage? We can't get back into a car and go somewhere else. We fly down the day before as we live several hundred miles away. The hotels want you out for the next customers arriving so it wouldn't be easy!!

[Manoverboard]

We generally arrive by ' chauffeur ' .... a 3 hour wait plus lunch would cost me a fortune ... £120 pp may cover it .

Delays such as these raises the question about medication / medical conditions too, what would passengers do about this aspect I wonder ?

[Dark Knight]

News flash
Reported scenes of CHAOS at Mayflower terminal

Actually about 200 people are sitting quietly waiting to board.
Usually over reaction from the self absorbed cretins, who think they are a bit special

[Happydays]

DK
"Actually about 200 people are sitting quietly waiting to board".
We would have to be in this group reading/games on our kindles

[Ranchi]

Mourhino at Mayflower? Harsh to use terms such as self absorbed etc.

[Manoverboard]

Tis very hard to think of anybody who is more self obsessed than me-me-me Jose

[Raybosailor]

They have said that they will also credit everyone's on-board account with £20 to compensate for buying lunch - which I consider very fair.

Where in Southampton would you go for lunch that has secure parking ?, bearing in mind that you will have several cases in the back of your car and even my cars large boot wouldn't conceal all our luggage if we had to park up for hours. I haven't checked but I'm sure the contents of the car limit on our insurance would not meet the value of Cheryl's shoes and handbags never mind the rest of our belongings.

Its not that easy to arrive at a specific time or to lay off in Southampton for hours, the main issue for us would be car security and available toilets if you have to hang around Southampton.

Hopefully this will all get sorted before our next cruise because as I have said in other posts that the embarkation process is what really attracts us to cruising from Southampton, far better than any airport departure.

[Manoverboard]

Airports have free / easy to access toilets, inc disabled, catering options and pose absolutely NO risk of the theft of one's luggage ... with a similar three hour flight delay.

ps .... we do not have any issues regarding airport departures.

[GillD46]

And depending on the airline and ticket, perhaps a lounge with inclusive meals and drinks.

[Quizzical Bob]

It would appear that the size of the ships is outgrowing the shoreside facilities.

[david63]

It would appear that the size of the ships is outgrowing the shoreside facilities.

That is probably the excuse but when you consider that Ocean Terminal was built specifically for the likes of Azura and as far as we are aware there were no significant problems up until now, the only change is that Britannia has joined the fleet - all the other ships are the same size.

Has this problem been exacerbated by ABP not building the new terminal that was supposed to be up and running by now?

[Quizzical Bob]

It would appear that the size of the ships is outgrowing the shoreside facilities.

That is probably the excuse but when you consider that Ocean Terminal was built specifically for the likes of Azura and as far as we are aware there were no significant problems up until now, the only change is that Britannia has joined the fleet - all the other ships are the same size.

Has this problem been exacerbated by ABP not building the new terminal that was supposed to be up and running by now?

As with everything the problem is finding someone to fork out for it. Mayflower Terminal has had a £5m upgrade (refit) but it would be difficult to see where it went. The baggage collection area is the same size so how they are going to squeeze twice the number of passengers through it is beyond me.

[Manoverboard]

Mayflower Terminal was mega disorganised and the staff utterly ineffective in May this year when attempting to cater for the disembarkation of passengers from Azora and Adonia during a 3 - 4 hour slot. Couldn't even come up with proper Deck labels nor indeed sufficient numbers of trolleys ... the total of this number of passengers presumably equates to those on Britannia ?

As an aside, they have therefore had 5 months to get it right ... nil points !!!

[rita17]

Had a great journey to Soton from the Midlands, stopped for a picnic at Rownham Services and arrived here at 2.00 pm. We used Parking4cruises which went well. The four of us were given the same colour and letter embarkation card. We were only waiting about 5 minutes before being called to check in desks even though two coaches had arrived just before us. We were in our cabin for 3.00pm which was our boarding time. The cabin is an outside on deck 5 and so far we are pleased with it. So all-in-all we are quite satisfied with the new boarding arrangements. Now looking forward to a lovely cruise.

[Suekersh]

That sounds great Rita. Thanks for posting your experiences.

Sue

[oldbluefox]

Thanks for posting Rita. Those who persistently knock P&O and its passengers will be disappointed. Have a lovely cruise.

[Raybosailor]

I think some of the seasoned cruisers on here are expecting too much from their cruise holiday or are they thinking back to the days when there were only a handful of ships leaving Southampton per week.

Yes airports have VIP lounges, shopping malls, restaurants, bars and toilets but with most flights you have at least a 2-4 hour wait before being asked to board then you have to sit in a confined space (even in business class) for a long long time before disembarking with onward travel to your hotel or villa.
I would much prefer a 3 hour sit in Ocean or Mayflower terminals knowing that once through security I have the freedom of a large vessel that is akin to a small village and in no time at all access to my hotel room.

I too disembarked from Azura in May into the Mayflower terminal, my experience was breakfast in the MDR, then fetch hand luggage from cabin and 35 minute wait in a comfortable chair in Malabar before being called to disembark. We qued for the gangway for about ten more minutes and found our luggage in minutes.

The only criticism I have is the walk to retrieve the car was down a kerb and back up a kerb to get to the holding bays for the cars but apart from that I was delighted to be in the car and on the motorway before Cheryl had time to switch her phone back to U.K. time.

What is wrong with that ?

[anniec]

What is wrong with that ?

Nothing. However, my experience disembarking Arcadia last Wednesday was a little different. We were allocated the Piano Bar as our waiting area; unfortunately, so were far too many other pax. We got there half an hour before the allocated time and got one of the last seats. Just about everyone arriving after us had to stand for over an hour - bearing in mind that my unscientific survey suggests about 70% of P&O's customers on longer out of season cruises are in the older age bracket, many with problems standing for long, this seems less than ideal.

[towny44]

On one of our first cruises as the disembarkation was going much slower than planned, I asked at the reception if it would be OK for us to change our timing and was told, no problem sir just join the queue.
Now whether the fact that my wife is in a wheelchair had an influence on this comment I don't know, however since then we have continued to follow this advice, and we just join the queue as we exit the lift after collecting our hand luggage from the room after breakfast.
It works perfectly for us and happily no one ever stops us.
PS We also seem to get priority boarding on P&O as well, again presumably because of the wheelchair.

[Mervyn and Trish]

The biggest issue in all this is P&O keep crying wolf. They keep saying boarding times will be strictly adhered to and they never are. They either need to come up with a system and ENFORCE IT or go back to the old days of first come first served and stop pretending they've made it better.