Azura - New Improved Embarkation Process

[Scriv]

We have talked about it quite a lot back on this thread, berrywood and although we have had a bit of fun bandying the idea around, there are a number of us who seriously think it would be a good idea. Read earlier posts here to see our thoughts.

 

Florry has posted the suggestion on P&O's Facebook page, but no response.

Edited November 4, 2015 by Scriv

[Midsomer Madness]

Official response from P&O Facebook Page on Caribbean and Baltic embarkation:

 

P&O Cruises Hi Nikki,

 

Apologies for any confusion around the new embarkation procedures. Caribbean and Baltic Tier members currently receive priority boarding at the arrival time on their ticket.

 

For example, if Caribbean and Baltic tier members have an embarkation time of 14.00 and turn up at this time, they can have the priority check in queue at that time.

 

We hope this clears this up for you.

 

Thank you.

[Somerset Cruiser]

Official response from P&O Facebook Page on Caribbean and Baltic embarkation:

 

P&O Cruises Hi Nikki,

 

Apologies for any confusion around the new embarkation procedures. Caribbean and Baltic Tier members currently receive priority boarding at the arrival time on their ticket.

 

For example, if Caribbean and Baltic tier members have an embarkation time of 14.00 and turn up at this time, they can have the priority check in queue at that time.

 

We hope this clears this up for you.

 

Thank you.

 

Very clear, Caribbean and Baltic tier members have a priority but only over those with the same boarding time. If one is given a boarding time of say 3.30 then many hundreds of non Caribbean and Baltic tier members will have boarded before you. That in itself will not be an issue to many but it will be to others.

[Midsomer Madness]

Indeed.....I understand the need for staggered check in (although its worked perfectly well as it was in the 10 years we have been cruising) I just think they would be better saying when you book you pick you time, once that slot is full you choose a different one...early bookers then get the best times and bearing in mind when bookings first open Caribbean and above get a couple of days head start on everyone else they would then get the times they wanted. If they book later then obviously they have to take what is on offer at the time. However that is far to difficult for P&O!

[Mysticalmother]

So why does their website under Help and Advice "What are Britannia's new Embarkation timings " say....(quote.)

 

"We are pleased to confirm that members of the Caribbean, Baltic and Ligurian tiers of our Peninsular Club and Suite passengers have the benefit of priority or early embarkation and are welcome to check-in from when the desk opens, you will then be boarded at the earliest opportunity."

 

For goodness sake P & O, you need to be consistent! The above makes sense, but what they say on FB doesn't. I'm off to Facebook to challenge them!!

[Florry]

They didn't seem to be restricting Caribbean and upwards to times when we boarded, I will try to find out.

[Scriv]

Another angle on what is behind the new regime has just occurred to me...

 

On a cruise with another cruiseline, we met a couple whose son worked for Carnival or the Port (Can't remember which) and was working on ways/systems to turn the ships round in the fastest and most efficient time, so looking at logistics and loading methods etc. He reckoned to be looking at ways of saving hours.

 

So maybe this is a part of that project and by loading the decks with luggage and passengers in staggered times and sticking to it and maybe by starting first with the low decks ( as these do seem to be getting the early times after the high loyalty tiers and suites) they have saved this time.

 

I was wondering if this was really the reason behind it all rather than supposedly following feedback that we all liked to go straight to our cabins?

Edited November 5, 2015 by Scriv

[wilson2579]

When we embarked 2 weeks ago our cabin was ready but we didn't receive our luggage until much later which actually defeats the purpose of the cabin being ready as we still had to unpack after sail away:eek:

[Scriv]

Trish - you're back! Welcome home. :) Hope the cruise was lovely even though you had to wait for your case.

 

We are all very interested in how you embarked of course.

Edited November 5, 2015 by Scriv

[wilson2579]

We had a lovely time but probably the roughest sailing in all of 15 cruises. I was actually sick on the 1st day at sea, a first for me, and could only manage one free drink at the captains cocktail formal night:D:D

Embarkation was okay for us, around 90 minutes wait, but really felt for the families around us that had to sit on the floor. A family of 9 sitting beside us, well the adults were sitting:D, weren't allowed to embark together because they had different times which seemed to be a new thing too, as previously if your bookings were linked you all got on together.

Hopefully this will all settle down. I did expect the terminal to be busy because of the school holidays.:eek:

[the english lady]

A thought on why possibly higher tier loyalty are not getting priority boarding .

 

People in suites will have paid very dearly to stay in them, and as there is not a lot of them on a ship-overall-I can see why they are still saying they board early.

Ligurian will have paid very dearly to have got to that level and are still paying dearly..to stay there...and as far as I can work out they are still boarding early.

Caribbean...Overall there are possibly a great number of those. We are just short of that level...do not cruise overly a lot..so possibly doable after 5 years cruising.

Now if a lot of people on a cruise are priority as they are Caribbean, are they anything special. They can't all have priority boarding, or you run into the problems p and o have now.

I have read in the past a poster saying the priority queue was so long, their friend (who was not priority) got on before them. (this was before the new rules)

We know P and O are looking at younger cruisers. These are not so loyal to a brand, and will go where the best deal is. 5-10years down the line there will probably be very very few higher tier. My generation is probably among the last that will have decent pensions (state and/or private) to enable them to cruise .

I have a purseful of loyalty cards. Do I stick with one shop as I have their loyalty card. No I don't.

People should cruise with a company because they like what that company offers, not because there are little side extras.

Reminds me of people in the past saying they had met goldies (that's going back) who moaned about this that and everything else, but still stuck with P and O.

[Midsomer Madness]

Indeed, the previous Gold tier passenegrs used to moan a lot that they were not made to feel special enough, so p&o changed them, and now they aren't happy. Be careful what you wish for!

 

I agree with the post above in that there are now so many Caribbean (gold) members that it's causing a problem.

[kruzseeka]

I know this thread specifically relates to Azura but I have seen posts where recent experiences of embarkation on other ships have been described too. Sorry if this has been covered - it's a bit daunting to check back through all the thread now - but do the 'new' embarkation rules apply to all the fleet or is it being trialled on just Azura and possibly the other larger ships?

[Otter18]

We are due to board Aurora next week. Our boarding time for a cabin on E deck was 1330hrs. We have just paid to upgrade to a balcony cabin on A deck and our boarding time has been changed to 1400.

 

I think this just confirms what has been said in previous posts; the higher the deck the later the boarding time.

[Scriv]

Agreed, Otter - and this applies to all the fleet now, kruzseeka. Rolled out early or mid October I think.

Edited November 6, 2015 by Scriv

[mandylennon]

Hi Trish

We were also on this cruise, which I hope you enjoyed as much as we all did. We arrived at the Port after sitting in traffic along with those boarding on Anthem (glad we weren't on that, the queue was horrendous). We entered the terminal around 2.00 p.m. and were in our cabin around 3.00 which was half an hour before our official embarkation time. Our luggage was waiting for us, but we had sent it with The Baggage Company a few days earlier. With regards to the sea conditions, it wasn't great but I suppose to be expected in end of October. I coped lot better than I have previously, but I am still swaying nearly six days later.

Mandy

[Midsomer Madness]

We are due to board Aurora next week. Our boarding time for a cabin on E deck was 1330hrs. We have just paid to upgrade to a balcony cabin on A deck and our boarding time has been changed to 1400.

 

I think this just confirms what has been said in previous posts; the higher the deck the later the boarding time.

 

P&o are now saying its deck position which determines embarkation time...so where was your cabin on E deck compared to the one on A deck?

 

We are on E deck for new year on aurora 1.30 would be ok for us but all previous cruises have been 3pm! So we will see!

[john watson]

I think a lot of the problems associated with boarding are as a result of the accountants trying to get as much revenue out of the public as possible. The ships seem to be arriving at Southampton earlier to get the first lot of people off and away as soon as possible. Logically at this point the second lot of people could be starting to get on board. Unfortunately there is a third lot of people wanting to get on "The Day Trippers" who want to have a look round the ship. So they pay for a day ticket and hold everybody up from boarding. It would be a good idea to board everybody deck by deck as it is much more efficient you can keep areas free so the Day Trippers can look round with ease while you remain in the terminal waiting to board as per your deck. Anyone thought of contacting P&O about this?

 

Regards John

[daiB]

We are due to board Aurora next week. Our boarding time for a cabin on E deck was 1330hrs. We have just paid to upgrade to a balcony cabin on A deck and our boarding time has been changed to 1400.

 

 

 

I think this just confirms what has been said in previous posts; the higher the deck the later the boarding time.

 

 

Not quite true the boarding does not go in numerical order or alphabetical order. It is mixed up. Eg C E A D B Or even B E C A D. So clearly on your cruise somewhere in the sequence is E A.

[daiB]

I think a lot of the problems associated with boarding are as a result of the accountants trying to get as much revenue out of the public as possible. The ships seem to be arriving at Southampton earlier to get the first lot of people off and away as soon as possible. Logically at this point the second lot of people could be starting to get on board. Unfortunately there is a third lot of people wanting to get on "The Day Trippers" who want to have a look round the ship. So they pay for a day ticket and hold everybody up from boarding. It would be a good idea to board everybody deck by deck as it is much more efficient you can keep areas free so the Day Trippers can look round with ease while you remain in the terminal waiting to board as per your deck. Anyone thought of contacting P&O about this?

 

 

 

Regards John

 

 

John I do not think that the day trippers have anything to do with this at all. From experience on a back to back the tours of the ship are finishing at about 12 and the people are going in for lunch. As they will exit the ship by the crew gangway they do not affect boarding.

[Otter18]

P&o are now saying its deck position which determines embarkation time...so where was your cabin on E deck compared to the one on A deck?

 

We are on E deck for new year on aurora 1.30 would be ok for us but all previous cruises have been 3pm! So we will see!

 

Most of our previous cruises have been 3pm to 3.30pm. I wonder if that was the time put out to most passengers, in the hope, some would adhere to it and therefore stagger their boarding times themselves.

 

We were forward E119 for 1.30pm embarkation.

 

We are now mid-forward A167 for 2.00pm embarkation.

 

Looks like I will be getting back on Aurora when you disembark on 2nd Jan!

Edited November 6, 2015 by Otter18

[Midsomer Madness]

Most of our previous cruises have been 3pm to 3.30pm. I wonder if that was the time put out to most passengers, in the hope, some would adhere to it and therefore stagger their boarding times themselves.

 

We were forward E119 for 1.30pm embarkation.

 

We are now mid-forward A167 for 2.00pm embarkation.

 

Looks like I will be getting back on Aurora when you disembark on 2nd Jan!

 

We are E116 so will wait and see if we get 1.30 or our usual 3pm!

 

We will leave her spick and span for you...are you doing the world cruise?

[Scriv]

John I do not think that the day trippers have anything to do with this at all. From experience on a back to back the tours of the ship are finishing at about 12 and the people are going in for lunch. As they will exit the ship by the crew gangway they do not affect boarding.

 

My experience as a 'daytripper' a few years ago bears out what Dai says, John. We were on very early, maybe by 10 am and had a very strict programme and route and all the guides were coordinating their routes. Our tours had finished by 12 and we were in the MDR on E deck well out of the way. This was Oriana. After lunch we were guided firmly off the ship via the crew gangway as Dai says above. We were never saw any passengers, although I do remember seeing that luggage had started to arrive outside doors on one corridor we went past on our way out. I don't think we can blame daytrippers for holding things up.

Edited November 6, 2015 by Scriv

[Scriv]

Amanda, we are also on Aurora for New Year. We are on F deck, so may also get an early boarding time if they are working from bottom up.

 

We'll also help look after her for you, Otter18.:)

[Otter18]

We are E116 so will wait and see if we get 1.30 or our usual 3pm!

 

We will leave her spick and span for you...are you doing the world cruise?

 

Thanks for that!! It is nice to board the boat when it's 'ship shape'!!

 

Yes we are on the world cruise. First one, and really looking forward to it. We have short trip to the Caribbean and back first though.

 

I will reciprocate and leave the ship as you & Scriv, would wish find it. I will be ultra vigilant on embarkation, and give you an update on the new boarding process when I return.