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boarding V.O,S at the O.P.T.

diy dave

By diy dave,
in Australia & New Zealand Cruisers

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Duck Creek

Duck Creek

Posted
Posted

Was at the OPT yesterday and did not see any lines outside.

This was between about 11.30am and 1.00pm.

This was for baggage drop off and where they let people go through the maze to the terminal. Dont know what I was like inside.

Looked like people were turning up at their boarding times.

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The_Big_M

The_Big_M

Posted
Posted
Deb i've never seen a cruise line having a crew drill on embarkment day, later on during the cruise on a port day

 

Could be something to do with the first time that it's been here, and the largest ship RCL has had here that they had to do something.

 

Saying coast guard is understandable as Deb said, as they use US terms as that's what they're familiar with and the terminology most they deal with use. It happens in other areas too... if you want a biscuit, ask for a cookie onboard otherwise you'll get some unexpected responses. :D

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rkmw

rkmw

Posted
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Could be something to do with the first time that it's been here, and the largest ship RCL has had here that they had to do something

 

i dont believe they should have a crew drill in Sydney on embarking day, just slows down the process for boarding....Fremantle was the first Australian port,was it done there

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tillydog

tillydog

Posted
Posted
Was at the OPT yesterday and did not see any lines outside.

This was between about 11.30am and 1.00pm.

This was for baggage drop off and where they let people go through the maze to the terminal. Dont know what I was like inside.

Looked like people were turning up at their boarding times.

 

Yesterday was pretty reasonable, even with the Dreamworks promotion outside.

 

My photos of the long General Check-in queue were taken on Friday.

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gbenjo

gbenjo

Posted
Posted

Hi Folks..... First chance I have had to post after working 3 ten plus hour days at the OPT turning Millenium & Voyager x 2 and thought I might be able to clarify a few things and answer some of your questions so after reading through the all the posts

 

DIY Dave... ( still trying to work out what it is you do yourself :D) Yes the tent in your photo is for luggage drop off

 

Marquisite.... The luggage is secure at this point and it is stacked on trolleys and taken for scanning as soon as possible. Yes you will find that embarking /debarking in Fremantle will be a lot easier as they have a much larger better designed terminal They actually have two areas, one for debark and one for embark whereas is Sydney we only have the one and have to reconfigure the the entire area for embark after debark is complete.

 

RKMW (Smoking Bob:D That's what Packetau calls you:D)....... Same as at Barangaroo A much better set up with a lot more room....we at the OPT can only dream

 

DIY Dave.....The long tent leading into the terminal is intended to give shade and cover from the weather for pax having to wait to enter the building due to the lack of space inside. The "snake" although not idea,l is there to get as many people as possible under cover in an orderly fashion. Your photo of the Health Questionnaire brings up another very important point which I will explain after I answer some other questions By the way your comment about having to wait till a "Pollie " takes a cruise and has to line up is a not valid . The BA-S--AD would get priority treatment and not line up like us mere mortals and would have no idea.

 

RKMW.... There is a separate line for wheelchair pax which starts just near the terminal entrance and they (and their party)are then taken upstairs by lift to a designated check in area for disabled and are not subjected to any long lines .

 

Aust. Family...... As your photo of the deck check in times shows we are trying to reduce the waiting lines as much as possible and I believe everybody will have a check in time on their " Set Sail" and if everybody adheres to this time things should move along smoothly.

 

Bazzaw........Do not be too concerned about printing out your luggage tags as when you arrive at the OPT all of the baggage guys will have luggage tags which will take no time to fill out (name and stateroom number only) and these tags are a lot more robust than the ones you may print out yourself. A lot of the time there are luggage porters ( with tags) taking bags as you get out of your car/taxi and you will not even have to go to the baggage tent

 

Gold Coast Cruisers......... Yes.. Friday's embark for the one night cruise to nowhere was a"bit" of a S...Fight for a number of reasons (reasons not excuses) It was the first time the Voyager ( with 3500 pax) had turned around in Sydney and no one really knew what to expect. Boarding in New Orleans would be a lot smoother as they probably have a better terminal layout and are handling this size ship all the time. As far as I know there was no crew drill required by the Coastguard??????? or anybody else but there were a number of things that worked against us on the day.

1. There has been a high number of Noro Virus alerts on many of the ships recently and RCI go to the extreme to ensure that all measures are taken to control this. As such the entire vessel was "sanitized" from top to bottom when it arrived in Sydney and because of this staterooms were not available till 4pm (normally 1pm) They also fumigate the Check In area, this all takes time.........but absolutely necessary

 

2.People were given staggered check in times (1400 emails sent) but many claimed "did not know" and so arrived "en masse"

3.This was a cruise to nowhere and pax did not require a passport. However because of this, the check in staff, instead of just swiping the passport had to manually type in (twice ) all the pax details which slowed down dramatically the check in time ( multiply all these delay times by 3500)

4. So many first time cruisers and many did not fill in the necessary paperwork UNTIL they got to the check in desk

5. We did have a lot more check in staff working but because we need a lot more there were a lot of inexperienced ones who are still learning.

6. We naturally had the obligatory computer crash

 

Having said all that...... Saturday's embark was Soooo much better, people observed their check in times, had the correct paperwork in hand no huge lines and by 3pm the place was nearly empty.

 

Finally, as I mentioned before to DIY Dave if everybody checking in ONLY had in their hand:

1 completed Health Questionnaire

2 Passports (NOT the green customs declaration) that's the next step

3 Front page ONLY of their Set Sail Pass correctly signed in all the designated places, their credit card currency conversion option A or B selected

4 Their nominated credit card

 

It would take probably less than a minute to check in and there would be almost no long queues and only happy cruisers.

 

Hope this helps.....See you all at check in, and feel free to ask any other questions you may have.

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rkmw

rkmw

Posted
Posted

Hi Graham, thank you for explaining about the wheel chair assistance at OPT, we are doing a princess cruise at the end of march next year and we sail from the OPT and if i remember correctly princess or p&o have seats inside the front door for disabled paxs

 

also i dont smoke but the DW likes a smoke now & again

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diy dave

diy dave

Posted
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Posted

Thanks GBenjo for your excellent response to all the enquiries. I was expecting such a good response from you, you've always been very helpful

I hope my photo post was helpful to some people. As for your question about what it is i do, you have asked me before and i did answer. But , i am retired from the oil industry, and ex merchant navy engineer.

Dave

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Aussieflyer

Aussieflyer

Posted
Posted

gbenjo,

Thanks for the full description/explanation of boarding last week. We are on the Solstice one nighter on 9 December so hope that the lines are not quite as long. We have an 11.30 boarding time but...suspect that many people will want to get on early so will turn up then. Maybe better to wait till after lunch? Travelling with daughter so we can always shop to fill in the time.

As AQ supposedly have priority check in but feel there will be a lot of those as well.

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dandtgeddes

dandtgeddes

Posted
Posted

Thank you gbenjo for your recent post. I will try to have everything ticked, crossed, underlined and signed so your team can check us in easily.

 

Also, thank you to DIY Dave and all who have put their pennys worth in, this thread has been most informative.

 

Must admit I have a tendancy to overplan, so any advance information helps me a lot.

 

God bless you all:)

 

TraceyG

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dancinman66

dancinman66

Posted
Posted
DIY Dave.

Thank you so much, for the excellent photos.

Especially the new express check in for members and Suite guests, that I had read about. We won't be standing in thoses ques.

We will be there 2 days before you, to check in on Rhapsody.

Happy cruising.

Aussie Frequent Floaters.

yeah but not so express when it is for all crown and anchor members

that means half the ship or more in some cases

 

so suite guests and the top tier people still get big ques outside

at least inside gets segregated for quicker turn around

 

Greg

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tillydog

tillydog

Posted
Posted
yeah but not so express when it is for all crown and anchor members

that means half the ship or more in some cases

 

so suite guests and the top tier people still get big ques outside

at least inside gets segregated for quicker turn around

 

Greg

 

I barely saw any long queue for the Priority Check-in. The long queue on Friday was for the General Check-in.

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gbenjo

gbenjo

Posted
Posted
yeah but not so express when it is for all crown and anchor members

that means half the ship or more in some cases

 

so suite guests and the top tier people still get big ques outside

at least inside gets segregated for quicker turn around

 

Greg

 

Who was it that said " You can please some of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time BUT you can never please all of the people all of the time.

 

PS

C & A members & Suites probably represent about 20 percent of the pax

The "express" queue (correct spelling) will not be long.:rolleyes:

 

Have a nice day and enjoy your cruise.:):)

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NSWP

NSWP

Posted
Posted
Someone here posted that they did sell coupons - the number 500 was mentioned :eek: Hope they were misinformed!

500 travel agents on a 'go see' (gratis.) perhaps?

 

Maybe it was the T/A's on the freebies that were full of 'Pen and Ink' on VOS. LOL.

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