Megabear2

2 hour delays and massive queue. We were getting worried you'd missed the ship!

We're filling time while ICF is in the queue on-board Iona! It's the anticipation that makes the thrill.

We have Marseilles tomorrow. Current forecast 25 degrees with thunderstorms with Barcelona the day after. We will probably get wet again!

That sounds pretty dire, this is clearly a bad couple of weeks for a few ships. Sorry you lost your favourite port, that's always very disappointing. Understand this bad weather in the Med may hang around a while as well. We were very lucky today, brilliant sunshine but yesterday was dire and this ship ain't a good place for 6,000 people when they can't get out the door. On the good side everyone so far seems very well. No sighs of anyone coughing or sneezing either so the aircon kennel cough hasn't got anyone yet.

Maybe they forgot to pay the bill ... I can confirm Brodies on here overflowing with football fans yesterday and today. Bit quieter than yesterday but still packed when i passed through 15 minutes ago. Sounded like a good game from the cheer that went up when I reached the stairs.

Sorry to hear that. Is it the sickness problems again?

Perhaps he's found a queue onboard ... and isn't sure what to do as he's never seen one.

Where's our main man? I was expecting 10 chapters when I came back on-board and nothing.

Just mentioning what a couple of people told me, they thought Salisbury would be a good stopover.

Good morning fellow traveller. Better today hopefully. The Italian' s are running the buses, what could possibly go wrong!!!!? Did you enjoy yesterday, getting the nice message we won't be charged for the Palma debacle? Great for us select fare bods, marvellous compensation. Never mind I'm in Italy, the sun is shiing here in Portovenere and that very big gelato I just ordered is on its way. Not an app.in sight thankfully.

Not everyone comes in via the M3/M27 though. Spoke to quite a few on here who have come from the West and also Bournemouth way. They have used the A36 and the A303 or via Salisbury. The Southampton Road through Salisbury is non existent - well I'd say so anyway as our esteemed MP John Glen is "watching it" - being a single track road with superstores either side funelling to a roundabout each end with a Tesco, Premier Inn and McDonalds at the furthest point . My home is 1 mile from the furthest end of this road and regularly takes 30 minutes to reach the Tesco there. The road system also welcomes quite often 19 mile diversions when the A303 or M3 are closed.

Clearly there isn't enough room in the terminal for the percentage of 6,000+ passengers they need to process in an hour so their idea is processing only inside. If the times are adjusted properly and people adhere to them then it is feasible to get people through in this manner. However human nature and circumstances with traffic away from the port mean most are not taking the chance on missing the ship so it can and does go seriously amiss. My cruise they apparently had no problems with offloading or delays for disembarkation either so according to the staff it was a smooth operation. The guy looking after me told me everything hinges on that and they have a very tight timeframe. Although it looked long and disorganised the "real" queue moved fairly swiftly and once in the terminal dispersed almost immediately. That queue also had shade/cover from weather conditions. The other queue, however, went nowhere fast and stretched way back to the doors where they used to process covid tests/checks during the pandemic. No respite there from the weather. I would guess if the delays of 2 hours like yesterdays occurred this could be a most unpleasant experience!

A tip to anyone. Any decent travel insurance SHOULD cover missed departure. You do however have to prove it was beyond your control. This can include print outs of AA, RAC or traffic management websites etc. If your car has an electronic mileage or journey recorder this too can be photographed or downloaded as proof. Any newspaper reports mentioning the problems can also help. It is also important to obtain something from the cruise line stating you missed the sailing due to late arrival and the fact the vessel was held but couldn't wait any longer needs noting by them. You will need proof that under normal traffic conditions your journey time would be "X" - a journey planner print out from a reputable agency like the AA should suffice.

Very big roadworks in and around Southampton since the start of the year apparently meaning delays have to be built in to timetables. I only live 27 miles away but journey times are much longer than they were previously even when no ships are in. Often sit on the bus for an age approaching Southampton.

That's pretty standard practice though with the coaches. I've spoken to a lot here who went to the Mayflower to wait as their coaches had staggered timed. With the two big ships the 1 1/2 hour window to check the coach passengers in is tight according the guy who assisted me last week. Ours was a good day, every coach and person were on time and we finished boarding 20 minutes early apparently. He told me a bad day is when traffic problems break up the staggering and then everything is impacted which is why the coaches aim for 60-90 minutes before their time.

I cannot say for the smaller ships or other terminals but at Ocean once your time was called you filed in. The only area I saw people sitting were the assisted passengers. Once up the escalator I was directed into a queue for the desks. Again there were two but I was so late priority had no one in it. However I only waited 5 minutes or so, crossed over had a second photo taken - they didn't like the one I submitted - had my pass stamped and straight to security. It could be the seats were used earlier but the system seemed to be once you were in the building you were fed through almost immediately. If you are on time you go in straight away. Those who were early, even 25 minutes or so were held and then directed to the queue to head in. I arrived 50 minutes before my time (4.00pm last boarding 4.30pm). It was only my registering for assistance that let me get in early and that wasn't up the escalator only to some chairs opposite it. They were very hot on times but I would think that was only because of the ship size. Sorry can't be more helpful.

They have staff members with boards with allocated time written on them. Say 12.00 is the first time they will call those people to join the left hand queue and you are filtered in through the doors and up the escalator. Your boarding pass time is checked before you can join that queue. If builds up at top staff halt the queue at the bottom of the escalator. On one occasion I saw people queued on the escalator as something happened at the top. If you're early or your time isn't the one moving through you are directed to the outside queue on the right hand side. This curls down the side of the building. You wait there until your time is called - people walk along calling out the time. I believe there are 15 minute windows from the calls I heard on my boarding last Sunday.

Tomorrow will be great!! I'm going to be in Italy (only place on the itinerary I really want to go,) and the sun's going to shine, predicting 20 degrees on arrival tomorrow rising to 27 in the afternoon. Good food and wine and lots of culture. I'm packed ready to go at the crack of the offloading signal. No transfer hassle for me tomorrow, nothing is spoiling this one...

Well no doubt the star of the show will be along shortly and he can fill us in! I'm sure his boundless enthusiasm will have won the day!

I think it depends on your boarding time. Couple of cruises back my BIL sailed on at 12.30, his son and DIL had later time 4.00pm and had huge queues. They still got on and sailed.on time. A lot on here being Caribbean and above won't experience these queues. They might getting off though ... I've had a letter advising me as a "hidden disabilities" person to get off at the very last as it may cause me anxiety!

Okay thank you. I'm pretty sure that will be the two lines we had. One to the left on time (if it was running late it will look longer,). The one on the right will be those waiting for their time to be called forward. That looks longer than we had, presumably again because of delays if there were any. As the ship appears to have left at 6.00pm that would seem to be a pretty normal queue these days.

Yes, I noticed the prices on non alcohol stuff look like the biggest uplifts. I'm glad it's good for some. Watching the performance in Brodies this afternoon as the football was on television and it was a cold wet day with people hunting for things to do I'm sure a lot would have appreciated the package being extended today if it could have been!

Thanks. Miserable day on here (less said) so thought I'd cheer myself up with ICF's enthusiastic posts!

I believe she's underway now according to Vesselfinder?

Did you see the guy talking about Pirate Radio /his flight over Europe and also the man speaking about his life in the East End as a Jewish lad in the 50's. I thought the latter was excellent and I've bought his book on my return. Reading it here on Arvia, great bit of light relief.