Azura - New Improved Embarkation Process

[daiB]

Dai

 

 

 

I know this remark is made in jest but seriously this new arrangement is causing lots of us lots of problems

 

 

 

Fine if you have an early embarkation time - not so good if later and you are hanging around in the cold either with all your luggage or your hand luggage.

 

Or sitting in the ghastly terminal lounges with minimum facilities.

 

 

 

I just feel P&O are becoming less and less customer friendly - perhaps they are better for those in suites and at the higher end of the loyalty scale who can embark whenever, but not so good for the rest of us.

 

 

 

I am going to analyse my forthcoming Christmas cruise on Oceana carefully.

 

 

 

Last Christmas on Adonia (which was my 4th Christmas cruise) I felt that there was less and less to do on board if you don't like to be part of Butlins at Sea or spend your time in the spa or attending talks on spa products. On my first Christmas cruise with P&O there was loads to do and I was having to choose between different activities.

 

 

 

I also am getting fed up with shorter port days than other companies and lack of information about anticipated arrival and departure times in advance of the cruise. Other companies do this - why not P&O? (And of course I appreciate that these can be subject to change)

 

 

 

P&O has been useful for me for year round Southampton departures but I am seriously thinking this may be my last P&O cruise as they don't seem to want to appeal to people like me. The latest embarkation procedure might be the last straw.

 

 

I will not comment on the rest of your missive, but more and more people without any priority are reporting a much better experience in boarding as has been posted before. Arrive just before your time and you will be OK.

[gadabout60]

I will not comment on the rest of your missive, but more and more people without any priority are reporting a much better experience in boarding as has been posted before. Arrive just before your time and you will be OK.

 

Dai

 

You just don't get that therein (i.e. arriving just before your time when you have a journey of any distance) lies the problem and that other companies do this so much better

 

Anyway - I am saying no more - there are some people who believe P&O can do no wrong and of course that is their perogative

[daiB]

Dai

 

 

 

You just don't get that therein (i.e. arriving just before your time when you have a journey of any distance) lies the problem and that other companies do this so much better

 

 

 

Anyway - I am saying no more - there are some people who believe P&O can do no wrong and of course that is their perogative

 

 

But the people who complain are those who used to ignore their given time and turn up at 11.30 or earlier. Well if the other companies do it better you know what to do. I will be interested to see what happens next year with the other companies as they were the first to try this the year before. I suspect they will bring it in as well.

 

And by the way I do fully understand the problem of arrival times. If people cau arrange to arrive happily at 11.30 they can happily arrive at 1.30 or 2.30.

Edited December 12, 2015 by daiB

[silver service]

The evidence is overwhelming.the days of arriving at midday, and going

Straight through, are over.(for the majority). I am certainly one of

The guilty party! My ticket time, October 28, was 230. We arrived

By car at 145. Given a ticket, and immediately shown to a check in

Desk. Pure luck, lady was waiting. In the cabin of aurora, just after

2. The cast is set. Ticket times have to be taken notice of.

The system does work.

[dsrdsrdsr]

A week on Monday I will be experiencing this new embarkation procedure but i have nagging doubts about the whole thing. I have a 2pm check in time but what time do I arrive at the terminal? The hotel normally requires rooms to be vacated by noon but some have reported that I might be able to negotiate an extension to 1pm. OK 1pm it is so I walk to the Ocean terminal as normal getting there at 1.30.

 

If you haven't booked your hotel yet, find a hotel with a lounge. You may be obliged to leave your room by noon, but you won't be obliged to leave the hotel.

[davecttr]

If you haven't booked your hotel yet, find a hotel with a lounge. You may be obliged to leave your room by noon, but you won't be obliged to leave the hotel.

Hotel booked months ago and no lounge as such - Premier Inn

 

another alternative is to drop the luggage off early and stroll round to Wetherspoons fo 'lunch', arriving at the terminal at 1.15 where i find i get lettered card 'P' because everybody else has got there earlier:rolleyes:

 

this only a one off event as after this cruise i will be Caribbean so will join the thousands for a 1pm check in :eek:

[daiB]

Hotel booked months ago and no lounge as such - Premier Inn

 

 

 

another alternative is to drop the luggage off early and stroll round to Wetherspoons fo 'lunch', arriving at the terminal at 1.15 where i find i get lettered card 'P' because everybody else has got there earlier:rolleyes:

 

 

 

this only a one off event as after this cruise i will be Caribbean so will join the thousands for a 1pm check in :eek:

 

 

Good heavens they will let anyone in to the Caribbean level. It's a disgrace. :(

[daiB]

Hotel booked months ago and no lounge as such - Premier Inn

 

 

 

another alternative is to drop the luggage off early and stroll round to Wetherspoons fo 'lunch', arriving at the terminal at 1.15 where i find i get lettered card 'P' because everybody else has got there earlier:rolleyes:

 

 

 

this only a one off event as after this cruise i will be Caribbean so will join the thousands for a 1pm check in :eek:

 

 

If it's the Premier Inn West Quay it has a bar. :) :) :)

[davecttr]

The evidence is overwhelming.the days of arriving at midday, and going

Straight through, are over.(for the majority). I am certainly one of

The guilty party! My ticket time, October 28, was 230. We arrived

By car at 145. Given a ticket, and immediately shown to a check in

Desk. Pure luck, lady was waiting. In the cabin of aurora, just after

2. The cast is set. Ticket times have to be taken notice of.

The system does work.

Ah! P&O answer my question about this on their web site

Priority will be given to those who arrive at their allotted time. You are welcome to arrive earlier of course, but if you do we will ask you to make yourself comfortable in the terminal until we are able to check you in. This may well be before your allotted time, we promise we won’t make you wait around unnecessarily.

- bold my emphasis

[staygulf]

This may well be before your allotted time, we promise we won’t make you wait around unnecessarily.

 

I can confirm that Pando were true to their word on this one. We were not made to wait until our allotted time. Here is our first hand experience of embarking on Ventura on 1st December.

 

We had been given an embarkation time of 3.30pm. Our journey time would normally be 2.5 hours with normal traffic conditions and allowing for the extended 50mph zone on the M3. However, there was no way I was going to leave at 1pm and risk missing the ship's departure just to get there as close to our allotted time as possible!

 

We left at 10.30am and even with a comfort break at Winchester services we arrived at the Mayflower terminal at 1.25pm (2 hours too early:eek:)

 

A short delay of around 10 minutes ensued whilst we waited for a CPS representative to check over and take the keys to our car and we were inside the terminal building at 1.35pm.

 

Up the escalator, at the top of which were 2 ladies who checked our allotted time and handed us a red card with letter M. We found seats in a rather crowded seating area (probably about 90% full) and expected to have to wait nearly 2 hours having read the concerns on here.

 

When we sat down they were calling people holding red cards with the letter G. My fears for a long wait were heightened. After 10 mins they then called red H. This went on, every 10 mins or so calling the next letter, interspersed with calling grey cards which I took to be priority boarders who had turned up later. My fears began to subside when I realised that things were progressing smoothly. There seemed to be about 40 to 50 people in each group being called.

 

Our letter was called at around 2.20pm and after a brief check in process during which we did not have to queue at all we proceeded upstairs to the security area where the queue was around 10 mins. We were on board by 2.40pm just short of an hour earlier than our allotted boarding time.

 

Our cabin was ready on boarding, which is one of the reasons, we are lead to believe, that sparked this new process. Also, for those who like their dining experience to begin within minutes of embarkation I can confirm that the buffet restaurant (deck 15 on Ventura) remained open until sailaway.

 

All in all the new embarkation process seemed to work quite smoothly.

 

For disembarkation we were given a time of 9.30am with cabin vacation time of 8.00am. We asked our cabin steward if it was ok to leave our hand luggage in the cabin whilst we went for breakfast and he said that as long as we were back by 9.00am that was fine. As it happened the ship had arrived early so the disembarkation times were all brought forward slightly. We were off the ship by 9.10am, a porter accompanied us on the short walk to the car park and we were shortly on our way, driving through the semi-fog and rain!

 

Happy days!

[mike x ftc]

Dai

 

You just don't get that therein (i.e. arriving just before your time when you have a journey of any distance) lies the problem and that other companies do this so much better

 

 

I agree, I think people are missing the point, it's not as simple as turning up just before you allotted time, there are a lot of other factors to take into consideration and a lot of them are our of your control.

We are boarding Aurora next Saturday I certainly have reservations - I only live in Portsmouth, normally 40 minutes away from Southampton. We have a 3:00pm slot. I can not run the risk of leaving my house at 2:20 on the last Saturday before Christmas when West Quay shopping will be a nightmare and there are 2 other ships in, it would be a recipe for disaster, and there's no way i'm paying for a hotel!! We will have to turn up early just to ensure we are there and not stuck in traffic. But I will be cross if all the coaches with loads of people turn up at 2:50 and all get on... We will just have to see how it goes:eek:

But I will be a good boy and stay patient and sit nicely in the terminal until my time.....

[daiB]

I agree, I think people are missing the point, it's not as simple as turning up just before you allotted time, there are a lot of other factors to take into consideration and a lot of them are our of your control.

We are boarding Aurora next Saturday I certainly have reservations - I only live in Portsmouth, normally 40 minutes away from Southampton. We have a 3:00pm slot. I can not run the risk of leaving my house at 2:20 on the last Saturday before Christmas when West Quay shopping will be a nightmare and there are 2 other ships in, it would be a recipe for disaster, and there's no way i'm paying for a hotel!! We will have to turn up early just to ensure we are there and not stuck in traffic. But I will be cross if all the coaches with loads of people turn up at 2:50 and all get on... We will just have to see how it goes:eek:

But I will be a good boy and stay patient and sit nicely in the terminal until my time.....

 

 

Personally I would aim to arrive at 2 one hour before boarding. Why do you mention the coaches. All of the P&O sponsored coaches have been instructed to spread out their arrival. They are not being allowed all to turn up at the same time. On any other coach the passengers have their own boarding times. So will not have priority.

[tartanexile81]

I may be wrong but cannot remember anybody who has posted on this L-O-N-G thread saying they expected to be able to embark immediately they arrived especially if it was before their allotted time. The point many people have made and continue to make is that it is almost impossible to time your arrival exactly. The vast majority of people have indicated that they're quite happy to sit and wait in the terminal however long that may be.

 

I keep thinking the last words have been said on this subject but it seems not....

[Josy1953]

Personally I would aim to arrive at 2 one hour before boarding. Why do you mention the coaches. All of the P&O sponsored coaches have been instructed to spread out their arrival. They are not being allowed all to turn up at the same time. On any other coach the passengers have their own boarding times. So will not have priority.

 

The coach arrivals are not working as we thought. We got back from Ventura this am and we had decided to take the coach before this change expecting to be on a similar schedule to every other time that we have gone coach, in actuality the coach left 1 hour later than previously. When we got to the docks we were in a queue of coaches that all arrived together. When our coach got the front of the queue we were given a grey card and told to go straight to check-in. To be fair it was quite quick but there were no non-coach passengers sitting waiting which leads me to think that maybe they are scheduling the coaches to be the last people to board. I am less than impressed because we then did not get our luggage until after dinner because we were so late boarding. We boarded as the muster signal was being sounded so we rushed to our cabin, dropped our Han luggage and rushed to the muster station, I don't know what happened about people who were boarding behind us or were less fit than we are and unable to rush around.

[daiB]

I may be wrong but cannot remember anybody who has posted on this L-O-N-G thread saying they expected to be able to embark immediately they arrived especially if it was before their allotted time. The point many people have made and continue to make is that it is almost impossible to time your arrival exactly. The vast majority of people have indicated that they're quite happy to sit and wait in the terminal however long that may be.

 

 

 

I keep thinking the last words have been said on this subject but it seems not....

 

 

Wishful thinking. :)

 

It won't go away until everyone realises that it actually works.

 

I would always arrive about an hour before my time. To me it builds up the anticipation.

 

Now that will be the last word. :) :) :) ;) As another large pink animal flys past the window.

[Presto2]

I may be wrong but cannot remember anybody who has posted on this L-O-N-G thread saying they expected to be able to embark immediately they arrived especially if it was before their allotted time. The point many people have made and continue to make is that it is almost impossible to time your arrival exactly. The vast majority of people have indicated that they're quite happy to sit and wait in the terminal however long that may be.

 

I keep thinking the last words have been said on this subject but it seems not....

 

Did you read ours? If not try again

 

We were given 4pm time - may have been 4.30pm - but we arrived at about 12 noon. We were given a card and got through check in about 2 pm (if my memory serves us right). This was normal practice when we booked last hear.

 

Just to add again that we think that time of boarding should be linked to the select fare ................ book early and get a good boarding time. This is not rocke5 science and means that those of us who book early get a good deal.

[Henderson1]

Couldn't agree more Presto2 - as they say 'simples' - they did it quick enough adding free shuttles to select fares - seems they can when it suits!

[tartanexile81]

Did you read ours? If not try again

 

We were given 4pm time - may have been 4.30pm - but we arrived at about 12 noon. We were given a card and got through check in about 2 pm (if my memory serves us right). This was normal practice when we booked last hear.

 

Just to add again that we think that time of boarding should be linked to the select fare ................ book early and get a good boarding time. This is not rocke5 science and means that those of us who book early get a good deal.

 

Well I'm sure I read all of them at one point or another but of course with 1060+ posts I cannot remember yours in particular and like I said "I may be wrong". Are you saying you expected to board as soon as your arrived which is the point I was trying to make? In the past I have gone to the port around 12:00 but never expected to board straight away and was always happy to wait my turn.

[Scriv]

If the purpose of this new system is to get faster and more efficient preparation of the ship and the cabins and the loading of our luggage by a systematic way of doing this deck by deck for example, then random embarkation times according to category of fare or time of booking would not help in this, in fact would be quite the opposite I would think.

 

So although desirable to the passenger, it wouldn't really be desirable to the logistics folk.

Just IMHO of course.

Edited December 14, 2015 by Scriv

[tartanexile81]

If the purpose of this new system is to get faster and more efficient preparation of the ship and the cabins and the loading of our luggage by a systematic way of doing this deck by deck for example, then random embarkation times according to category of fare or time of booking would not help in this, in fact would be quite the opposite I would think.

 

So although desirable to the passenger, it wouldn't really be desirable to the logistics folk.

Just IMHO of course.

 

Agree with that Barbara. At first I thought it should be linked to when you book and whether you're Select / Saver but when I thought it through, I realised it just can't be done if they're doing blocks of cabins to get them ready and would undermine why they've changed it

 

If people are still unhappy with the system after they've tried it, then they need to give P&O feedback. That's why I had intended to say no more on the subject and wait till Feb to try it out :).

 

BTW, the longest thread I've ever taken part in was a roll call for Ruby Princess. There were 2334 and 50252 views. Don't think we'll reach those giddy heights - or will we? :D

[bee-ess]

 

BTW, the longest thread I've ever taken part in was a roll call for Ruby Princess. There were 2334 and 50252 views. Don't think we'll reach those giddy heights - or will we? :D

 

We need to go off a tangent - such as 'when are P&O going to introduce a drinks Package'

[tartanexile81]

We need to go off a tangent - such as 'when are P&O going to introduce a drinks Package'

 

Would that be as controversial as embarkation? We tried it once on Princess and really enjoyed being able to drink cocktails all the time, and get free bottles of water (I drink a lot and use it in my travel kettle) and my OH loved lots of whiskies, lattes and cappacinos. we did just about break even but we drank a lot more than we would usually.

[laurakdy]

I agree, I think people are missing the point, it's not as simple as turning up just before you allotted time, there are a lot of other factors to take into consideration and a lot of them are our of your control.

We are boarding Aurora next Saturday I certainly have reservations - I only live in Portsmouth, normally 40 minutes away from Southampton. We have a 3:00pm slot. I can not run the risk of leaving my house at 2:20 on the last Saturday before Christmas when West Quay shopping will be a nightmare and there are 2 other ships in, it would be a recipe for disaster, and there's no way i'm paying for a hotel!! We will have to turn up early just to ensure we are there and not stuck in traffic. But I will be cross if all the coaches with loads of people turn up at 2:50 and all get on... We will just have to see how it goes:eek:

But I will be a good boy and stay patient and sit nicely in the terminal until my time.....

 

I don't think people are missing the point all but P & 0 cannot be responsible for every single eventuality that may or may not happen whilst you are travelling to the cruise port.

What is confusing me though is, why would you be angry if a coach load turn up at 2.50pm? Your not due to board until 3pm so shouldn't be a worry at all. Yeh you might have a wee delay but then so might they. Horses for courses really.

I don't think its worth stressing about at all. Loads of good reports on here about how well the new procedure is going but some people are just ignoring the facts and still whinging on about anything and eveything they can.

[besberry]

Agree with that Barbara. At first I thought it should be linked to when you book and whether you're Select / Saver but when I thought it through, I realised it just can't be done if they're doing blocks of cabins to get them ready and would undermine why they've changed it

 

If people are still unhappy with the system after they've tried it, then they need to give P&O feedback. That's why I had intended to say no more on the subject and wait till Feb to try it out :).

 

BTW, the longest thread I've ever taken part in was a roll call for Ruby Princess. There were 2334 and 50252 views. Don't think we'll reach those giddy heights - or will we? :D

On my 2014 Oasis TransAtlantic cruise we had three boards. When the first board hit 5,000 entries, they closed it and started a second. Ditto when that got full.

[Presto2]

Well I'm sure I read all of them at one point or another but of course with 1060+ posts I cannot remember yours in particular and like I said "I may be wrong". Are you saying you expected to board as soon as your arrived which is the point I was trying to make? In the past I have gone to the port around 12:00 but never expected to board straight away and was always happy to wait my turn.

 

Hi, sorry wasn't being sarcastic about reading our post. It came out wrong :)

 

We cruised not long after the change so we did what we (and lots of others) had done in the past and arrived when we wanted to. This was generally about noon whatever the time. As a result we did the same this year as we'd booked about 18 months before the cruise and sorted our hotel out then.

 

In August we got there about 12 noon and were given a boarding card with a letter on. We then had to wait for an hour or so while suite guests etc could get on board. Then boarding started and we had to wait for our number to be called. If I'm honest I can't remember what time we got on - I think it was about 2.30pm. We have posted somewhere on here, but, like you say, it is a loooooooonnnnnnnnggggg thread ;-)

 

From what I understand they have tightened up the system since August and I have read that some people are being made to wait for their proper boarding time.

 

If we cruised next week I wouldn't expect to get on before your time to be honest.

 

Not sure if this answered your question as I feel like I am waffling ....