Disembarkation in Bridgetown

[SANDAS]

I shall shortly be off to the Caribbean with P and O. Hooray! But........... I have not cruised with them before and I cannot find out what they do with you between disembarkation of the ship (presumably quite early) and transfer to the airport for a late night flight. The disembarkation port is Bridgetown Barbados. Other cruise lines have provided a day room in a hotel or a complementary tour but P and O will not tell me what they do. I do not want either of the disembarkation cruises they sell. All my TA can tell me is that 'they will probably lay something on'. Can any previous cruisers enlighten me please?

[HomelessBear]

If you are on a Charter flight, then you will stay on the ship until they are ready to bus you to the airport.

During your cruise, you'll receive an envelope which you send back with your flight details, and a few days before the end of your cruise, you'll get the envelope back which contains your boarding pass, luggage tags and instructions for disembarking.

You'll be given a time when you'll leave the ship for your flight, and there are announcements made on the ship. On this last day, you're free to use the facilities onboard until you leave.

 

The night before you leave, put the luggage tags on your bags and leave outside your cabin. You won't see them again until you reach the UK airport. You can keep a carry on bag, which you can store (usually in the Theatre) the next day until you leave if you wish. You can also book a day cabin (different grades at different prices), but you'll have to be out of your cruise cabin by 8am.

 

Hope this helps uksu. If you doing a Scheduled flight though, sorry I'm not sure what happens there.

 

Have a great cruise. Just got back from xmas / new year on Britannia, and had a fab time.

[kruzseeka]

I shall shortly be off to the Caribbean with P and O. Hooray! But........... I have not cruised with them before and I cannot find out what they do with you between disembarkation of the ship (presumably quite early) and transfer to the airport for a late night flight. The disembarkation port is Bridgetown Barbados. Other cruise lines have provided a day room in a hotel or a complementary tour but P and O will not tell me what they do. I do not want either of the disembarkation cruises they sell. All my TA can tell me is that 'they will probably l{ay something on'. Can any previous cruisers enlighten me please?

 

They don't transfer you to the airport until an appropriate time allowing for journey, check in etc - 3 hours or so before the flight. You are free to come and go and use the ship's facilities, restaurants etc until then. You do have to vacate your cabin by a particular time (8.30? or thereabouts) but they had a luggage store where we could leave our hand luggage until we had to leave for the airport last time we were on board. We had breakfast, left our carry on bags in the store and walked into Bridgetown for a couple of hours before returning for lunch. Very civilised. There are excursions available but they're not complementary.

[SANDAS]

Thank you so much Homeless Bear and kruzseeka. This is exactly wanted to know and it all sounds great. Thank you both for quick and full replies.

[HomelessBear]

Glad it was useful for you uksu. I'm sure you'll have a fab cruise! Bon Voyage......

[groovechick]

Just to add to what Homeless Bear has said:

 

the hand luggage storage in the theatre is only available if you are going off ship DIY or on an organised tour. If you're staying on the ship you're expected to keep your hand luggage with you.

The cabins that you can hire for the day are only available from about 9.30, so there's about 1 1/2 hours where you have to keep your bags with you or store them at the theatre if leaving the ship.

Day cabin prices start from £60 for an inside.

In our case it wasn't worth it as we were due to leave the ship at 12.30.

 

It's also worth noting that our flight wasn't until 5, so we had over 4 hours to kill at the airport (the journey to the airport took less time than usual because it was NYD and there was little traffic on the roads). When we disembarked there were 4 other ships in port (Costa Magic, Arcadia, Braemar and a Mein Schiff vessel). These pax gradually got bussed in to the airport and soon there was no seating available, the airport was packed with people sitting on the floor wherever there was space available and the bathroom facilities were overwhelmed. Things were getting very tetchy regarding seat pinching, etc. before flights started to be called and the numbers thinned out a bit.

[Devon Doll]

Just to add a little to the above post. After having a couple of very uncomfortable waits at the airport. We now book the Executive Lounge, airside between gates 12 & 13 and for £20pp you get comfortable easy chairs, complimentary drinks (all except champagne) sandwiches, snacks etc., Wifi. 'clean toilets'; I booked yesterday thru 'Lounge Pass' but many companies do it, Holiday Extras etc. etc.

[CCFC]

Just to add to what Homeless Bear has said:

 

the hand luggage storage in the theatre is only available if you are going off ship DIY or on an organised tour. If you're staying on the ship you're expected to keep your hand luggage with you.

 

The hand luggage area on our cruise was the Meridian restaurant, there was no mention of it only being for people getting off the ship. We dropped our bags off and went sun bathing.

[groovechick]

I still have our disembarkation instructions. They read:

 

Hand Luggage Facility

If you are planning on spending time ashore in the morning before your flight, you can leave your hand luggage with us here on board. Our luggage storage service is available from 8.00 a.m. until 4.00 p.m. in the Headliners Theatre (Deck 7 forward). Please remember to collect all of your items before you disembark.

 

I don't know if we would have been refused had we tried to leave our hand luggage whilst we killed time round the ship. We sat out on deck, chilled, read, etc. so items we wanted such as books and glasses were in our hand luggage and we kept it with us, rather than having to run back to the Theatre if we'd forgotten something.

[soobs]

We dropped our hand luggage in the Meridian, just kept with us what we needed for our day on board, after breakfast we sunbathed until an hour before our flight was due. We then picked up our hand luggage and changed ready for the airport. We sat at breakfast with a couple who were flying independently (not a charter flight) they had done the same as us.

 

I asked why we were using the meridian and not the theatre the rply was to make it easy for the guys, to save them keep going up and down the theatre stairs - well done P & O thinking of their staff.

[SANDAS]

Thanks for all the later information. Much appreciated. Will probably book the airport lounge as it sounds good value.

[kruzgal]

We paid for a day cabin as we were able to keep one of our cabins from the cruise. Our sons were in it so they were able to sleep in ( no need to vacate the cabin even though the letter stated you had to leave your cabin by 8.00am and that day cabins were available from 9.30 am). It wasn't cheap at £70 but as it was New Year's Day and we had been out until late we thought it was worth it. We were able to hang our flight clothes in there the night before and also put our valuables in the safe. We put our hand luggage in there (after vacating our cabin at 8am) and returned around 3pm for a shower. We had to vacate the day cabin by 4pm and the bus for the airport collected us at 4.15pm so it all worked perfectly and we felt overall we got our money's worth. Our flight left at 7pm.

[sanmarco]

How did you book the lounge pass at Bridgetown airport?

[SANDAS]

I just googled Lounge Pass and went to the Lounge pass site and entered the airport and date details. At £20 per person they were the cheapest suppliers I found.

[sanmarco]

Many thanks to you all for hints.now beginning to get excited.Just booked Brittania for the 3rd Septembef anybody else going?

[cruisebore]

If you are disembarking on a Friday, make friends with those departing Saturday and ask to use their cabin to change in ;). On our last cruise we had friends departing on the Saturday and they requested an extra key card so that we could use their cabin, whilst they were of ship.

[NauticalMiss]

The hand luggage storage is available to any passenger who wishes to use it, regardless of whether you leave the ship or not. Just a quick update; day cabins are not always available. They were not offered this weekend. Don't know why.

[bee-ess]

Another tip - rather than pay for a cabin for the day after sunbathing for the morning we use the shower facilities in the Spa/Gym before leaving for the airport.