Azura Disembarkation....

Had a fantastic time on Azura last week in the Fjords. A great ship, great location...

Then came disembarkation yesterday - what a shambles!!!

We were asked to select a time, although I'm not sure why as nobody checked and it looked like everyone, regardless of selected time, was asked to be in the theatre in time for a 9.20 - 9.40 estimated disembarkation time. This meant waiting for over an hour after checking out of your room...

500+ people came to the theatre, all wondering when "their time" would be called?

But no - in their wisdom, at around 9.45 the one member of staff on duty, simply chose the left, then middle then right of the auditorium to leave, all within 5 minutes which had the effect of those 500+ people using the one staircase, and one e it, all at the same time - down the stairs, back through the gallery, past the atrium, up the gangway to hall to collect your luggage. Stairwell was full, which meant for chaos as the people helping with those requiring assistance to die bark (wheelchairs and even a medical bed) were trying to exit the lifts into the same stairwell as those leaving the theatre!

Why on earth do they allocate over 500 people all the same time.

They need to look at what Princess and Celebrity do, and only allocate a certain number of guests to disembark at set times and from set locations.

Great cruise though, just disappointed with the lack of coordination and organisation at the end.

P&O have always made a complete "cock up" of disembarkation and even though it is now 7yrs since Ventura was launched they dont seem to have goty it right yet especially on the large ships.

We were in the 9:50 - 10:10 disembarkation time and waited in Sindhu. At 9:50 a member of staff came along and told us there was a delay of 10-15 mins. He then returned about 15 mins later and moved each section of the bar away, a few mins after each other.

We queued for probably about 5 mins max to get off the ship and our luggage was waiting in the hall.

I think what makes the whole process seem long winded is the having to be out of the cabin by 8, then even after having breakfast having to sit around for at least an hour or so before your allocated time. Not really sure there's an easy way of getting 3000 people off a ship although I think they definitely need more P&O staff on hand, you tend to feel a bit neglected.

On a slightly different topic, I'm surprised the long queue of cars upon embarkation hasn't been mentioned before, it took a ridiculously long time from entering the dock gate to get to the berth for the valet parking. We were lucky as we were in a taxi and managed to skirt round the end of the queue.

When they used the card system it was ok, but I suppose doing it this way they can 'contain the heard'. Unfortunately I had to disembark very quickly 5 years ago due to an emergency at home, I used the self-disembark option which I didn't even know existed at that time. Ever since that time this is the option we have used and recently on Britannia were able to just walk off with no queue at 6.50 am. Obviously there is the disadvantage that you have to take your own bags but we invested in some Samsonite cases with a pull chord which is less effort than walking a dog. It also means you keep your cases overnight and as you say as you have to be out by 8am anyway makes no odds really. But Ssshhh don't tell everyone [emoji6]

We had 8.30 on Arcadia. We left the cabin at 8.05 as we had to get a lift down and I use a mobility scooter. A lift was waiting, we went down to deck 2 and the staff were waiting for people to get off. We wandered over got off and we were in the car ready to go at 8.25. We were in a suite BTW and so could leave at any time

We had 8.30 on Arcadia. We left the cabin at 8.05 as we had to get a lift down and I use a mobility scooter. A lift was waiting, we went down to deck 2 and the staff were waiting for people to get off. We wandered over got off and we were in the car ready to go at 8.25. We were in a suite BTW and so could leave at any time

Interesting to know, we are in a suite our next two cruises and have had a suite before, but had no idea that was a benefit! Might not be wheeling my own cases next time then [emoji106]🏼

My first cruise was on Azura and I loved it - until embarkation which was a shambles also! We sat in the car park for over an hour too trying to get out. This time we did the self disembarkation which was so much better - walking off just after 8am. Of course you have to be able to manage your own cases but as Florry says you can keep them which makes it easier to pack anyway. We didn't realise on that first cruise we'd have to put our cases out the night before so had to try and cram our overnight stuff into a small rucksack :rolleyes:

I always go for self disembarkation now; walk off with your luggage at about 8 am after breakfast in the restaurant. Have a taxi ordered to get to the railway station for an early train. No problems.

Princess and Celebrity seem to manage to get circa 3000 people off without any problems. The main difference seems to be that they have thought about it, and planned a system that minimises waiting and staggers times, but the main difference is communication - something P&O haven't mastered yet, it's almost like they cease to take responsibility after 8.00am, as there are no staff about to help or ask what is happening. Like I say, a complete shambles...

On Britannia in June, my friend and I had asked for an early disembarkation as we had to get to the station to get a train back home - long journey so didnt want to hang around for hours - we asked for 8am, we got given 815am, 825am we were getting frustrated so headed towards the Meridien restaurant I think its called and enquired with the staff member there about an 815am disembark, we were told to wait in the market cafe until we were called forward. we waited about 10 mins and headed back into the restuarant and just joined the queue and was off the ship about 10 mins later...

I`ve also done self disembark on my 3rd cruise due to an early flight to Glasgow and although you have to keep your luggage in your cabin and you do have to take it off yourself, it is a hell of a lot easier and quicker !!

P&O REALLY need to do something about the disembarkation process

We had 8.30 on Arcadia. We left the cabin at 8.05 as we had to get a lift down and I use a mobility scooter. A lift was waiting, we went down to deck 2 and the staff were waiting for people to get off. We wandered over got off and we were in the car ready to go at 8.25. We were in a suite BTW and so could leave at any time

You're very lucky then. I was on Azura a couple of years ago and waited over an hour beyond my prescribed time to get wheelchair assistance. We were the last on our coach and held everybody up because of the delay. We had a 9 hour journey ahead and we were NOT popular

You're very lucky then. I was on Azura a couple of years ago and waited over an hour beyond my prescribed time to get wheelchair assistance. We were the last on our coach and held everybody up because of the delay. We had a 9 hour journey ahead and we were NOT popular

That is disgraceful [emoji52] if only everyone fully understood the challenges of being confined to a chair then perhaps more consideration would be granted. I was absolutely astounded on Britannia that no able-bodied people would get out of the lift to allow a wheelchair user in when he had been waiting ages - just so they could grab their seat in the crows nest! It's a pity they they don't realise how lucky they are to simply get to a toilet, or to their cabin without relying on the generosity of others [emoji52]

In June, we had a 09:20 disembarkation. After having breakfast at around 07:30 we had a nice walk around the ship and then relaxed on the promenade deck. At 09:20 we joined the queue in outside the meriden restaurant and were off the ship and collecting our bags within 10 minutes and the coach left at around 09:30. I thought it seemed very organised with groups in different places getting off all morning. Far better than the 3+ hours it took to embark.

It is that simple if you travel by coach - not for the rest of us that are disembarking at 9.30 or later, which is the earliest you can get off if you can't "do it yourself" due to not being able to carry our own luggage. It's then that it turns into a shambles, with absolutely no organisation, or help from the crew... You have to stagger it, you can't simply say, "off you go" to more than 500 people all at the same time, all from the same place, down one stairwell, through one exit... Princess operate a coloured tag system which works so why they don't use that I don't know...

You're very lucky then. I was on Azura a couple of years ago and waited over an hour beyond my prescribed time to get wheelchair assistance. We were the last on our coach and held everybody up because of the delay. We had a 9 hour journey ahead and we were NOT popular

Having the mobility scooter meant I did not need the assisted disembarkation. Even though I was on the list for help we were advised the day before that if it was not required to go to reception and tell them, which we did.

We were on Ventura in July and got a form asking us to select a time for disembarking. Went to reception and booked for 9am (we asked for 8.30 but told the earliest was 9am). She put it into the computer system while I was there, but they obviously took absolutely no notice, as when we got our disembarkation notice it said 9.45am! Another visit to reception got it changed (as we had a taxi booked for that time), and I have to say that it went very smoothly after that.

We were actually called to disembark at around 8.50am and were out of the terminal with our luggage collected just before 9am. Don't know why the other ships don't appear to have this sorted if our experience was good?

We were on Azura last year and disembarkation was a shambles! We waited 2 hours for assisted disembarkation and there were still loads of people waiting for coaches. We were told they would not even start to disembark the rest of us until the coach people were off. Eventually hubbie piled all the bags on top of me and they allowed us to go straight away as we no longer needed help. It was gone 11am by then, the latest we have ever been off.

We did a shortie on Oriana recently and the disembarkation was done by deck, first port side, then starboard. I know she is a much smaller ship, but everything went very smoothly and we were off earlier than expected (about 9.30 rather than 9.50). This was not assisted disembarkation, we learned our lesson last time!

Never had any problems disembarking from Oceana, Oriana or Aurora, all well organised and orderly. However Ventura was an entirely different matter and that reoccurring word comes to the fore - SHAMBLES, an absolute SHAMBLES totally devoid of any sort of order or organisation whatsoever. :mad:

Just like the 'adhering to boarding times' issue its P&O micromanagement.

Time to scrap any times, except for coach passengers. DIY from as soon as the ship docks, after this you get off at your leisure up until a last call time. Passengers are adults, treat them as such.

We were on Britannia in June and as husband is a wheelchair user we had to go to the Limelight club for disembarkation. To be honest its a bit of a pain because although we don't need assistance as I push him off we still get sent to the assistance lounge. We arrived early, or so we thought but the lounge was heaving with people who needed assistance and everyone thought the were entitled to be off first. The lounge was far too small for the number of wheelchairs expected to be crammed in. I can't remember seeing that many wheelchairs during the cruise. lol Fortunately we were getting hemmed in so went outside just as they were letting people off. bingo I was first off the ship after the self disembarks. In my car within 15 mins and on the long journey home. I don't know how P and O can handle this any better but maybe just send people to the assistance lounge who actually need wheeling off by the lovely porters.

We did self disembarkation on the Oriana a couple of weeks back, I was worried about hurting my back as I had one large suitcase and a little one but thank goodness for spinner wheels, makes it so much easier to push the case along rather than pulling it behind you. The little one I had to pull along but I managed ok with them.

Princess and Celebrity seem to manage to get circa 3000 people off without any problems. The main difference seems to be that they have thought about it, and planned a system that minimises waiting and staggers times, but the main difference is communication - something P&O haven't mastered yet, it's almost like they cease to take responsibility after 8.00am, as there are no staff about to help or ask what is happening. Like I say, a complete shambles...

I agree. Weve had several Royal and Celebrity disembarks in Southampton and whether we have opted for self disembark or a timed departure its worked flawlessly. Im not sure why P&O disembark much later than the US lines.

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We were on the same Fjords cruise, and I agree disembarkation was a joke. We requested the earliest time, 9-9.20am. We would have loved to do self disembarkation, but have 2 small kids, and struggled even getting our hand luggage and pram off ourselves!!! We were asked to wait in Meridian, and they said there was a delay of 15-20 minutes. It was completely packed, and not enough seats for everyone. Finally someone arrived, and just said "people on the port side follow me" at which the majority of the people in there just stood up and joined the queue anyway! Thankfully we had no stairs to negotiate with our pram, and then just joined a huge queue which snaked around the atrium. Personally I think a system similar to embarking would work, where they hand out alphabetised letters and then call small groups forward 10-20 people at a time. Other than that the cruise was wonderful, and I'm looking forward to writing my full review later this week :)

Well I'm glad that I'm not the only one who thinks that P & O needs to sort out their disembarkation procedure. We were on Azura for the Baltic cruise at the end of June and were allocated a disembarkation time of 10 - 10.15 a.m., which was a little later than we would have liked as we had friends picking us up from the port and wanted to spend a little time with them before beginning our long journey back to Lanzarote. Disembarkation was already running an hour late by 9 a.m. and you could see people below, walking through the glass tunnel one at a time it seemed. It was going to take forever to get off this ship! We were the last group to leave and were given the go ahead just after 11 a.m. and then shuffled forward with the crowd in a long line of passengers creeping slowly down to the luggage hall. There was chaos here and they had managed to lose my husband's suitcase in the short journey down from B deck. It was eventually found amongst a huge pile of unlabelled suitcases, as someone had managed to rip off the well-secured label (that had been stapled and encased in sticky backed plastic for extra strength). They must have thought that the loop was the handle of the suitcase and tried to carry it by the label. Such a lack of care with other people's belongings! Once our luggage had been retrieved, we joined the enormously long queue of people trying to leave the luggage hall through one small door. There were at least six different queues all filtering into one, eventually breaking out into the sunlight. What a shambles indeed! We cruised with Royal Caribbean last year and were off the ship within 10 minutes of our disembarkation time. And our suitcases were almost handed to us as we walked into the luggage area. No crowds, no fuss.

I'm really surprised by all these comments, because our disembarkation from Azura 2 years ago was the smoothest I have experienced. I think our time was around 9.30, we had to meet at the bar near Sindhu (Malabar?), where we sat for a relatively short time, then people were taken off in small groups at regular intervals and we were kept fully informed by the member of the Ents team who was organising it (who was one of the best on the Ents team anyway). There were areas of the luggage hall numbered according to deck, where we quickly found our luggage, picked it up, collected the car and off. Can't remember how long the whole process took, but not that long as we were home by early lunchtime and we're a good 2 hours drive from Southampton.

Aurora the year before was a shambles by comparison; there was some delay due to a technical problem, IIRC, and when the member of crew organising it tried to take people off in small groups, others were just going "Blow it, I'm not waiting any longer" and tagging on, with the result that half the lounge went at once.

And don't get me started on RCI in Venice the year before that - highly stressful!

Unless P&O have changed their methods in the last couple of years, it really does seem to be luck of the draw on the day whether you have a good experience on embarking/disembarking or not.