Azura - New Improved Embarkation Process

[the english lady]

Jean

 

To keep my blood pressure at a normal level can you please help make it easy for me, as you feel it's so easy.

 

I have to travel on the m40 and the a34. There are often accidents. You can be held up for hours. For work reasons it is usually impossible for me to travel the day before (exception is my next cruise which leaves on a Monday so I am travelling on the Sunday). We are unable to drive so take a taxi. With no traffic or accidents or roadworks or weather issues the journey takes 1 hour 50 minutes. With any of the above it can take twice that or more.

 

If my check in is 3.30 what time do I leave?

1.30 - oh dear there is an accident, the a34 is closed, I am stuck and I miss my cruise

Really if it is so easy you tell me what to do?

Maybe I should pay double taxi fare and sit outside Southampton in services for 2 hours

 

In the summer my option is easy - stick to Celebrity. Arrive, go straight through security, queue in a line for the next free agent, walk on ship. Collect glass of bubbly on way and go straight to your cabin (well from 12 noon anyway in my experience)

Your definition of easy is very different from mine but I welcome your guidance for me

 

 

Which I think is near enough the route we use. We allow about 2 hours for the journey and have never had a problem. Are we lucky..well we have been cruising for nearly 10 years, mostly from Southampton, different times of the year. Could that just be down to luck? That and we aim to avoid rush hours along the route, so pick ups always been late morning.

We also now use a taxi.

I will check the route before our pick up time, if no problems reported then I will leave time as I have booked it. If there is I will contact the driver and see what he thinks about adjusting the time.

If one posts about airports etc, one get told that is not a good like for like, so I will go for weddings now. If you have an invite for a wedding at 2.30pm, do you plan to arrive at the church at 12mid day, just in case.

[Josy1953]

Which I think is near enough the route we use. We allow about 2 hours for the journey and have never had a problem. Are we lucky..well we have been cruising for nearly 10 years, mostly from Southampton, different times of the year. Could that just be down to luck? That and we aim to avoid rush hours along the route, so pick ups always been late morning.

We also now use a taxi.

I will check the route before our pick up time, if no problems reported then I will leave time as I have booked it. If there is I will contact the driver and see what he thinks about adjusting the time.

If one posts about airports etc, one get told that is not a good like for like, so I will go for weddings now. If you have an invite for a wedding at 2.30pm, do you plan to arrive at the church at 12mid day, just in case.

 

If I was travelling to Southampton I would do exactly the same for a wedding as for a cruise. We use M6, M42, M40, A34 route to Southampton and have found that when we are driving we are better to drive down the day before because of the potential for problems. We have spent several hours stationary on the the M40 and A34 because of accidents. I wish that we were as luck as you have been as I can assure you that sitting in a stationary car for over 2 hours constantly looking at my watch getting more and more worried about whether we would make the ship made for a very stressful start to our cruise. We did make get there before check-in closed but I wouldn't want to do it again. Last December we were on a coach that got stuck on the motorway and when we eventually arrived in Southampton there was one check-in left open to wait for us as we were the last passengers to board, I wonder whether they would have waited if we had been in the car arriving about 1 hour after the check-in was due to close.

[BalkanCruiser]

Sorry disagree, people are posting as I have shown that it is working fine. Little or no waiting.

 

Some don't want to hear that though ;)

[Midsomer Madness]

We visited friends in Fareham....heading back to Southampton the M27 was suddenly closed due to an accident...we were stuck on there for hours....thankfully it was the day before our cruise and we were booked into a hotel...however it was around the time that people would have been heading to the terminal if going off on a cruise...by the time the motorway reopened we would have missed not only our time slot but the ship would have sailed as p&o have said they won't wait for people who are late. Therefore those with a later time are probably going to make sure they arrive early......

 

Dai never, ever sees anything wrong with P&O, However those of us who have cruised with different cruiselines and see how easy everything is with them don't have the same Rose coloured specs as him....now he knows I like him and he knows I tease him about this :D but it remains that a lot of people are not happy about how p&o have introduced this...I've certainly not received any communication from them apart from what I've read on social media and message boards etc...not everybody uses social media etc...so those who don't will continue to arrive as they have always done.

 

We will allow ourselves plenty of time for travel. We won't bother booking hotels before a cruise in future as its pointless if you get a late embarkation time..we will arrive when we arrive, armed with a bottle of fizz, and will wait our turn. We won't be booking any further short cruises with p&o though, so they have lost our custom and our large bar bill on those!

Edited November 9, 2015 by Midsomer Madness

[Ataraxia]

but it remains that a lot of people are not happy about how p&o have introduced this...I've certainly not received any communication from them apart from what I've read on social media and message boards etc.

 

If we put this into proportion I can see that the person on Faceburk who seems to have a mission about this subject has only 12 people liking her comments. It is also a bit arrogant to think that 'cruise critic' speaks for the majority when the roll calls for P&O only attract a handful of people.

[2irisheyes]

We usually travel the day before despite only being 2.5 hours away on a good day. We partly use the M25 - need I say more. If I were still working and really bothered about journey time I might think about travelling the evening before. It is possible to check in late to hotels as long as they know you will be arriving late. This time is a problem as many booked before the new system came into use. By next year more people will know what to expect but then may be it could have changed again by then. Happy days!

[Midsomer Madness]

I agree that all social media, forums etc only speak for a proportion but none of those have received anything from p&o about the new system, so think about the thousands who don't use these platforms, they will have no idea about the new system and wil, just turn up as they always have...this in turn leads to the overcrowding that p&o are trying to do away with...surely a simple letter or email to their passenegrs would alleviate it?

[Florry]

I think Florry, as ever that depends on the steward. We had two excellent and very pleasant stewards on our back to back on Britannia. Seemed to have time to chat and always be cheerful.

 

 

Lol I can assure you Dai I smile!

[Florry]

Why do they have to get all the cabins ready in 4.5 hours? Surely if P&O have any organisational ability the stewards are servicing the cabins from 8am, in the order which the occupants are expected to arrive. Stewards can help other stewards or even service cabins on other decks. all it needs is ORGANISATION. Cabins used to be serviced within about 6 hours so 50% of them were done by 11am, then theoretically boarding could start:rolleyes:

 

 

 

They could of course have cut the number of stewards, which might have been the reason why my Aurora cabin was not done until lunchtime, despite me having breakfast shortly after 7am and leaving the please service the cabin notice which the steward totally ignored. :mad:

 

 

I thought they would stagger the cleaning but it seems not, they strive to have all cabins ready when embarkation begins. The staff finish soon after for their afternoon break. They have definitely cut numbers and it is definitely a struggle for them, and not their fault...

[tartanexile81]

Jean

 

To keep my blood pressure at a normal level can you please help make it easy for me, as you feel it's so easy.

 

If my check in is 3.30 what time do I leave?

1.30 - oh dear there is an accident, the a34 is closed, I am stuck and I miss my cruise

Really if it is so easy you tell me what to do?

Maybe I should pay double taxi fare and sit outside Southampton in services for 2 hours

 

Your definition of easy is very different from mine but I welcome your guidance for me

 

I absolutely agree with you. There is no such thing as an easy journey on UK roads. We've cruised with friends who live in Bucks and only had to use the A41, A34 then M27 to get to Southampton. Easy?? You must be joking. An accident at East Ilsley (how many times do you hear that name in traffic reports?!) caused a three hour delay. IF we hadn't allowed a significant cushion, we would have missed our cruise.

 

It is never easy to plan a journey on our congested roads so whether I was going to a wedding, a flight,the theatre or a cruise and had anything other than a local journey I would always allow LOADS of time. It is only easy if you are complacent - until you come a cropper yourself!

[tartanexile81]

If we put this into proportion I can see that the person on Faceburk who seems to have a mission about this subject has only 12 people liking her comments. It is also a bit arrogant to think that 'cruise critic' speaks for the majority when the roll calls for P&O only attract a handful of people.

 

Well that all depends which pages and threads you are contributing to. There are some closed P&O fans pages on which people feel very strongly that P&O has made a shocker of a mistake in the way this has been communicated. It is only those who use social media who know about this change and that is not good enough. There is a post about it on the main P&O FB page with 13 likes and some comments but P&O as far as I am aware hasn't even had the courtesy to reply to that and it is not really where P&O cruisers discuss things. It is simply where issues which need a P&O reply are raised. Another example of the poor communication on this issue.

Edited November 9, 2015 by tartanexile81

[jeanlyon]

But it clearly states on your CP that you should adhere to your checkin time. It couldn't be clearer than that.

[kruzseeka]

Which I think is near enough the route we use. We allow about 2 hours for the journey and have never had a problem. Are we lucky..

 

Yes!!!! And you can carry on thinking your luck will hold until............it doesn't.

 

well we have been cruising for nearly 10 years, mostly from Southampton, different times of the year. Could that just be down to luck? That and we aim to avoid rush hours along the route, so pick ups always been late morning.

We also now use a taxi.

I will check the route before our pick up time, if no problems reported then I will leave time as I have booked it.

If there is I will contact the driver and see what he thinks about adjusting the time.

 

And if the accident/road closure happens just ahead of you during the journey?

 

The last time we had a taxi transfer to Southampton we were 2 hours late. The taxi was 50 minutes late picking us up because he had been held up in traffic after his previous fare. He did inform us and we elected to wait because we'd built in a margin!

Then those same traffic conditions made our 45 minute journey an unexpected 1 hour 15 minutes. 2 hours take or leave for an anticipated 45 minute transfer. With a late embarkation time lucky for us we don't believe we can predict a journey time and aimed to arrive on our around 3.30 since departure was 5.00!

 

If one posts about airports etc, one get told that is not a good like for like, so I will go for weddings now. If you have an invite for a wedding at 2.30pm, do you plan to arrive at the church at 12mid day, just in case.

 

Yes if it's some distance away. The circumstances between that and catching the ship is very different too:

We would almost certainly be travelling in our own car therefore have the flexibility to find a pub for lunch.

We wouldn't have to try to unload several suitcases before the event - or trail them around with us.

We haven't invested thousands of pounds into the event!

I would be less upset missing the wedding than my cruise!

 

(And as an after thought - would your insurance cover you if you missed the cruise on the basis of the decision you made to get there? Doubt it!)

 

Surely the problem isn't that people feel the need to arrive early having built in margins for travel, but what civilised provision is made for them once they arrive bearing in mind that many will not be in their own car and therefore have the potential to delay themselves if they have a trouble free journey. (And I don't mean letting them board early or queue jump. Most like me are happy to wait but if the terminal isn't adequate then P&O should acknowledge that there is an issue and what might be done to alleviate that.)

Edited November 9, 2015 by kruzseeka

[tartanexile81]

Good post cruzseeka. I'm very happy to be allowed to sit in the terminal and wait till my boarding time as I've always done. I've always been happy to sit and read, have a coffee or preferably a glass of Prosecco, check Facebook, chat to fellow cruisers etc. BUT you're right: if Southampton port authority improved the facilities it would be a much better experience. It's a shame people don't understand that for some of us the over-riding fear of the ship sailing and circumstances way beyond our control are key issues. i don't fly so if I miss the ship the cruise would be over for me.

[Midsomer Madness]

But it clearly states on your CP that you should adhere to your checkin time. It couldn't be clearer than that.

 

When you can access it of course...I tend to fill our details in and then leave the rest to the TA.. Plus it was only a short time ago we were told at check in that you don't even need an eticket...just your passport...communication is vital if p&o want new procedures to work....

[AnnieC]

If you have an invite for a wedding at 2.30pm, do you plan to arrive at the church at 12mid day, just in case.

 

Yes. A friend missed her son's wedding:eek: by allowing the right amount of time. Two people were late to my daughter's wedding by allowing the right amount of time.

 

And pertaining to the rest of your post, we have travelled to Southampton hundreds of times (family live there) and have never had a problem in the past. However, as I've said before, in September this year we encountered a massive accident approaching the Stansted turnoff on the M11. Many in the jam missed their flights. Because we'd factored in cock-up time (and before anyone complains that this is a rude expression, check its derivation), we got to our cruise on time.

 

I'm afraid that one day your luck will run out too.

[dsrdsrdsr]

If you have an invite for a wedding at 2.30pm, do you plan to arrive at the church at 12mid day, just in case.

 

Absolutely. If you have to travel 200 miles to your grandchild's wedding, do you allow a good leeway for delays? I would.

[wilson2579]

Sorry disagree, people are posting as I have shown that it is working fine. Little or no waiting.

 

This is only one sailing out of many more that have had problems since this new embarkation started, but well done for looking at the positives. I do hope things are settling down though.

[the english lady]

ok ok ok for all those who drive down and leave hours and hours of margin to get there, and when nothing untowards happens, arrive hours and hours early for weddings, and crusises etc.

Surely that is YOUR choice to do that. Same as it's ours to leave in a timely manner and so far have never had a problem.

I discussed this with OH earlier and was saying how people leave with hours of leeway and we agreed in all of our holidays and travelling around the country we had never had serious enough problems that we were delayed by hours anywhere, and that includes down to Cornwall numerous times. Any way one digresses.

It is YOUR choice to leave with that sort of leeway, so why are you expecting P and O, the port of Southampton or Southampton City Council (all of whom have been implicated in trying to stagger arrivals) to accommodate your choice is some way.

[staygulf]

ok ok ok for all those who drive down and leave hours and hours of margin to get there, and when nothing untowards happens, arrive hours and hours early for weddings, and crusises etc.

Surely that is YOUR choice to do that. Same as it's ours to leave in a timely manner and so far have never had a problem.

I discussed this with OH earlier and was saying how people leave with hours of leeway and we agreed in all of our holidays and travelling around the country we had never had serious enough problems that we were delayed by hours anywhere, and that includes down to Cornwall numerous times. Any way one digresses.

It is YOUR choice to leave with that sort of leeway, so why are you expecting P and O, the port of Southampton or Southampton City Council (all of whom have been implicated in trying to stagger arrivals) to accommodate your choice is some way.

 

Quite simply because to delay travel times if one has a late embarkation time could mean missing the ship and losing a holiday and thousands of £s.

 

No one is expecting the three bodies you mentioned to do anything special. As has been mentioned on here numerous times, other lines can manage the boarding process without having fixed allocated times, so why can't P & O? The port and the council don't do anything special to accommodate me when I arrive at noon to embark the Celebrity Eclipse (no problems in embarkation) so why should I expect them to do anything special for my Ventura embarkation?

[daiB]

This is only one sailing out of many more that have had problems since this new embarkation started, but well done for looking at the positives. I do hope things are settling down though.

 

 

I have only heard of one sailing where there was a problem with too few seats and that was one right at the start of the process. People did not believe they would have to stick to their times, came too early and caused havoc. I have not read about any other problems except those who turned up at 11.30 for a 3.30 checkin and had to sit for 4 hours. As I have said on Britannia on my two cruises it was never mentioned. If there had been problems it would have been shot topic of conversation.

 

The embarkation I'd simple now, turn up at the correct time and you will board very quickly. Come early, for whatever reason and you will wait. I would fully agree with those who say they like to be in plenty time and not have to worry. So do I and I will generally arrive about one hour before my time, as I do like to be early and the longer I have to go the earlier I like to be at the start point.

[wilson2579]

I have read about several ship embarkations, before ours and after ours, the last week of October, that didn't flow well but I am not going to argue with you Dai about this but I am sure you read the facebook pages also.:(

Lets hope that this new embarkation will gradually settle down.

[Scriv]

Hi All

 

Am back from our two night break at the weekend. More on that later, but first our experience re embarkation.

 

We had an embarkation time of 12.30 and we arrived about 12 15. There were two desks as Florry reported - a Priority one for Suites and Ligurian, Baltic and Caribbean tiers.

 

For the mini-suites we were given a Fast Track card (black) and told we could proceed straight to check in. We were fast tracked to the check in desk with the shortest queue and were very soon going through security and were on board not long after 12 30. We went straight into lunch almost immediately as our cabins were not quite ready.

 

For disembarking, we had to go to our Muster station where we were told we could go about 9 15am.

 

So for us, all went very well, but I do realise we were lucky with an early time because of the suite, but I have to say that we heard no complaints at all about the embarkation procedure from anyone on board, in fact people were saying how smoothly it had all gone.

 

Also, I accept that the arrangements for a 2 night cruise may be different than for a 'real' cruise, for one thing people have a lot less luggage to give in, but thought I would let you know how it went anyway.

 

Scriv

Edited November 9, 2015 by Scriv

[daiB]

I have read about several ship embarkations, before ours and after ours, the last week of October, that didn't flow well but I am not going to argue with you Dai about this but I am sure you read the facebook pages also.:(

 

Lets hope that this new embarkation will gradually settle down.

 

 

Well, being a moderator on 2 of the largest I have to read them. On the longest one it was generally 4/5 people making the same point again and again. With a much larger group saying that they looked forward to easier embarkation. One lady posted a picture of the chaos on one embarkation, only it showed the seating half empty and no more milling around than has happened for years

[Moon-raker]

I am a member of 6 different cruise forums and a regular (if infrequent poster) on 3 p&o Facebook groups and the official Facebook page itself. I was also on the very first cruise (Azura, 3 October) that started the fleet-wide roll out of the new process.

 

Having since followed all the posts on this subject on all of the above media (including those posts quickly deleted by p&o on their own Facebook page) I have concluded the following ;

 

- other than their Facebook page p&o have offered no communication of this change of embarkation procedure aside from a slight tweaking of the wording on the Etickets.

 

- those posting negatively on their actual experience of the new embarkation procedure outnumber those posting positively. Such posts were initially on a negative to positive ratio of 4 to 1. This ratio has reduced over the last month but across all the media listed above the negative comments of actual experience still outnumber the positive by just over 2 to 1.

 

- the vast majority of those who posted positively about the new embarkation process had check in times of 2pm or before. Those who posted negatively appear to have had the whole range of check in times right up until 3.30pm, and in one case 4.30pm.

 

- p&o's ongoing addressing of queries, especially by phone, appears to have been confused and inconsistent. For example, After weeks of saying Caribbean members only have priority within their allocated time slot, a new post today says p&o have now confirmed that Caribbean and Baltic members will once again have immediate/early boarding alongside suite and Ligurian members.

 

Just my observations but drawn from a wide range of sources to give an accurate picture.