Boarding arrival times

Hi all

Went for our 1st cruise last year and had a nice early check in time and arrived 30 mins early with no issues. I am led to believe that they are very strict now with your check in times.

As Southampton can be very busy, I like to leave plenty of time. What will be classed as to early with regards to your check in time. Also how do they allocate these times?

Thanks

Hi all

 

Went for our 1st cruise last year and had a nice early check in time and arrived 30 mins early with no issues. I am led to believe that they are very strict now with your check in times.

 

As Southampton can be very busy, I like to leave plenty of time. What will be classed as to early with regards to your check in time. Also how do they allocate these times?

 

Thanks

Early would be classed as being given a 3.30pm boarding time and arriving just gone 12 midday. If you turn up approx. 1/2 hour before the boarding time you are given you should be ok. If there are no queues you may be able to board straight away.

How are the times allocated..well similar to the upgrade fairy one feels.

High tier loyalty and suites can board from 1pm. The rest of the ship seems to be sort of deck/position of cabin on deck. Its not the same all the time either.

There is nothing to stop you dropping off your suitcases at the hole in the wall after 11.30 am (I think is the earliest) and going off round Southampton. If you are driving down may be easier to drop cases off then drive off somewhere else to arrive nearer your time.

The Grand Harbour hotel have a cruise lounge-you do not have to be staying there. Cost is approx. £12 or £30 pp, depends on if you have no alcohol or with alcohol. You can stay there and they transport to the terminals in 15 min batches I think someone posted.

Boarding times are allegedly allocated according to deck, with suite and higher loyalty tier passengers being told to disregard the time on their e-tickets and board at either 12.30 pm or 1 pm as below.

Suites & Ligurian tier 12.30 pm

Baltic and Caribbean tiers 1 pm

Lido deck 1 pm

Riviera deck 3.30 pm

A deck 3 pm

B deck 2.30 pm

C deck 3.30 pm

D deck 3 pm

E deck 1 pm

F deck 1 pm

P deck 1 pm

Above is not 100% accurate but it has been confirmed by some to be an accurate reflection of times allocated on the bigger ships. We have certainly been allocated the times above in the new system a couple of times so it has been accurate for us.

When the new system came in they were quite strict but lately we have heard of people who have boarded well in advance of their e-ticket time and without even showing their e-ticket - ie the old way of boarding and getting a card with a letter on, on arrival.

Early would be classed as being given a 3.30pm boarding time and arriving just gone 12 midday. If you turn up approx. 1/2 hour before the boarding time you are given you should be ok. If there are no queues you may be able to board straight away.

How are the times allocated..well similar to the upgrade fairy one feels.

High tier loyalty and suites can board from 1pm. The rest of the ship seems to be sort of deck/position of cabin on deck. Its not the same all the time either.

There is nothing to stop you dropping off your suitcases at the hole in the wall after 11.30 am (I think is the earliest) and going off round Southampton. If you are driving down may be easier to drop cases off then drive off somewhere else to arrive nearer your time.

The Grand Harbour hotel have a cruise lounge-you do not have to be staying there. Cost is approx. £12 or £30 pp, depends on if you have no alcohol or with alcohol. You can stay there and they transport to the terminals in 15 min batches I think someone posted.

I arrived at Soton 30mins early last year. Went through formalities downstairs and was told to wait a short while upstairs. On arriving at the upstairs waiting area and hoping for a seat, I am disabled, I could see that all the seats were occupied by " chancers". People who arrive very early on the chance that they can board early. Couldn't these chancers be weeded out before proceeding to the booking in area upstairs

Boarding times are allegedly allocated according to deck, with suite and higher loyalty tier passengers being told to disregard the time on their e-tickets and board at either 12.30 pm or 1 pm as below.

 

A deck 3 pm

B deck 2.30 pm

I understand that linking the bookings only links the dining requests and not the boarding times.

P&O did initially say parties with different times could board together but at the later time but people recently have been saying that depending on who is giving out the coloured cards with letters on, they may well give you all the same to allow you to board together at the earlier time.

I understand that linking the bookings only links the dining requests and not the boarding times.

 

P&O did initially say parties with different times could board together but at the later time but people recently have been saying that depending on who is giving out the coloured cards with letters on, they may well give you all the same to allow you to board together at the earlier time.

In the P&O info it states to arrive roughly around boarding time. But it also says that they understand that some passengers have to arrive early due to checking out of a hotel or travel arrangments. In these cases they said we wont keep you waiting long. So I will do my best to arrive nearer the time but with a 12:00 checkout and parking the car i will be there 2 hours before. I am perfectly happy to wait and read dont want tobwander roubd southampton with carry on luggage. So if P&O are stating this surely the fact that two parties in the same cannot help but arrive together.

Boarding times are allegedly allocated according to deck, with suite and higher loyalty tier passengers being told to disregard the time on their e-tickets and board at either 12.30 pm or 1 pm as below.

 

Suites & Ligurian tier 12.30 pm

Baltic and Caribbean tiers 1 pm

Lido deck 1 pm

Riviera deck 3.30 pm

A deck 3 pm

B deck 2.30 pm

C deck 3.30 pm

D deck 3 pm

E deck 1 pm

F deck 1 pm

P deck 1 pm

 

 

Above is not 100% accurate but it has been confirmed by some to be an accurate reflection of times allocated on the bigger ships. We have certainly been allocated the times above in the new system a couple of times so it has been accurate for us.

 

 

 

When the new system came in they were quite strict but lately we have heard of people who have boarded well in advance of their e-ticket time and without even showing their e-ticket - ie the old way of boarding and getting a card with a letter on, on arrival.

Does no one else consider the above times a little strange.

Why are the first 4 decks given 1:00 pm, then nothing else until 2:30 when 1 more deck boards, then 2 at 3:00 pm, and the final 2 at 3:30 pm.

Surely with suites and Caribbean and above boarding from 12:30 - 1:00 pm as well, is this not a recipe for chaotic crowds at 1:00 pm.

Then you have the final 4 decks trying to board between 3:00 and 3:30, again leading to large crowds.

If you wanted to create delays and frustration you could not produce a worse schedule.

Out of the decks that are allocated 1 pm (Lido, E, F and P) only E deck is a full deck of cabins. Lido deck and P deck combined do not make up a full deck of cabins and there are only 18 cabins on F deck.

I think the gap from 1 pm boarding to 2.30 pm boarding is the "window" in which the coaches arrive and if on an official coach those passengers get boarded straight away.

As for "chancers" arriving early. People will always arrive early even if told they cannot board early and I cannot see any harm in this. Some people are unable to go shopping to pass a few hours, carry hand luggage with them wherever they go or want to leave cases in the car in a shopping centre car park.

I just had a look at the boarding times for our Baltic cruise leaving on 2nd July. Me 2pm boarding, my wife 3 pm boarding :eek: I wonder what Pando are trying to tell us :D

That's hilarious tokyo :D. I'm on the same cruise, we got a 2pm time slot also. We are on A deck and thought we'd be much later so presently surprised by 2pm.

The above times are not always correct. We have just got our boarding times for our cruise on britannina on the 9th July, we are on E deck and our boarding time is 14:30:( and because we are driving the 240 miles the day before there will be lots of thumb twiddling going on before hand.

I arrived at Soton 30mins early last year. Went through formalities downstairs and was told to wait a short while upstairs. On arriving at the upstairs waiting area and hoping for a seat, I am disabled, I could see that all the seats were occupied by " chancers". People who arrive very early on the chance that they can board early. Couldn't these chancers be weeded out before proceeding to the booking in area upstairs

The 'chancers' are possibly those who don't want to wander aimlessly round Southampton and wish to begin their holiday and start relaxing rather than being dictated to by P&Os silly timed boarding slots. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the US lines can manage flexible boarding from Southampton so why can't P&O?

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The 'chancers' are possibly those who don't want to wander aimlessly round Southampton and wish to begin their holiday and start relaxing rather than being dictated to by P&Os silly timed boarding slots. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the US lines can manage flexible boarding from Southampton so why can't P&O?

 

 

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Completely agree and we will be one of those chancers! I'm not going to take the mick, but after been booted out of the hotel and finding some lunch then I aim to be at the terminal by half one, quarter to two. Not sure what else I can do other than chance it. Don't fancy wandering around with a load of hand luggage.

If P&O are not careful, all that will happen is people will plan to turn up just before 4pm when the desks close.

Boarding times are allegedly allocated according to deck, with suite and higher loyalty tier passengers being told to disregard the time on their e-tickets and board at either 12.30 pm or 1 pm as below.

 

Suites & Ligurian tier 12.30 pm

Baltic and Caribbean tiers 1 pm

Lido deck 1 pm

Riviera deck 3.30 pm

A deck 3 pm

B deck 2.30 pm

C deck 3.30 pm

D deck 3 pm

E deck 1 pm

F deck 1 pm

P deck 1 pm

 

 

Above is not 100% accurate but it has been confirmed by some to be an accurate reflection of times allocated on the bigger ships. We have certainly been allocated the times above in the new system a couple of times so it has been accurate for us.

 

 

 

When the new system came in they were quite strict but lately we have heard of people who have boarded well in advance of their e-ticket time and without even showing their e-ticket - ie the old way of boarding and getting a card with a letter on, on arrival.

So, it's 3.30pm for my next cruise :-(

So, it's 3.30pm for my next cruise :-(

Wouldn't bank on it, ours was not as the above indicated. It seems Pando don't always follow the same formula.

Wouldn't bank on it, ours was not as the above indicated. It seems Pando don't always follow the same formula.

Different deck layouts on different ships?

Different deck layouts on different ships?

Possible :)

I turned up 2.5 hours early for a cruise at the end of April after vacating my hotel room at 12. It was raining so didn't want to walk around Southampton. I thought I would see whether I could get onboard early. Next time I won't bother as I eventually boarded 30 minutes before my allotted embarkation time so I will have lunch and a couple of drinks in the hotel first before leaving for the Port for my next cruise on 3 July.

We've been given a 2.30 boarding time for our Oriana cruise next month. Not terribly happy with this as in the past we've always enjoyed being onboard by about 1 - 1.30 and having lunch before the cabins are ready. We certainly won't be leaving home any later than usual just in case we hit bad traffic, but I have to say that in 12 cruises we've only once had really bad traffic. We've never once had any problem getting on board, never had to queue for more than a few minutes. I can see that perhaps problems have been experienced with the bigger ships, but for the smaller ones I really don't understand why P&O are doing this. If we are making good progress we'll stop for a coffee when we get near the port, otherwise we'll just get there and take a seat until we can go on board.

Wouldn't bank on it, ours was not as the above indicated. It seems Pando don't always follow the same formula.

We have been Ventura C deck twice since the new system started and had 3:30 both times. We had our time on Monday for our July cruise on Azura and have 3:30 again for C deck. I think that the above times are probably correct fir Ventura and Azura but other ship's could well be different.

 

We have been Ventura C deck twice since the new system started and had 3:30 both times. We had our time on Monday for our July cruise on Azura and have 3:30 again for C deck. I think that the above times are probably correct fir Ventura and Azura but other ship's could well be different.

I'm on Britannia later this month and have a boarding time of 15:30 for an A deck cabin.

We were F deck Britannia last year and were given 4pm .......Eèeek.