Brunch/early lunch stopover for Southampton

[Whitechapel girl]

Any ideas of where to stopover en route to Southampton (via A33) for a bite to eat, say 30/45 minutes from Southampton, ideally a nice pub/cafe.

[frenchmartiniplease]

If you wanted to be closer to the terminals (Ocean terminal is very close by)have a look at the dining options in Oxford Street, Southampton. There is a Prezzo, Pizza Express and a couple of very nice restaurants plus others. There is meter parking in the road until it becomes pedestrianized or a large public car park off the road that runs parallel behind Oxford Street.:)

[frenchmartiniplease]

Or look for Otterbourne, between Winchester and Eastleigh nr Southampton. There are a couple of nice pubs. The Old Forge at the bottom of the hill or The Otter at the top.:)

[Whitechapel girl]

Thanks for the ideas - will look those pubs up

[gazabfc]

Oh P&O your marketing team are not reading this I hope, all that revenue lost because you can not organize your embarkation process?.:o

[pete14]

Oh P&O your marketing team are not reading this I hope, all that revenue lost because you can not organize your embarkation process?.:o

 

Not sure how P&O will lose revenue because of this, apart perhaps from fewer sales of drinks and snacks in the terminal. Your remark about them not being able to organise embarkation is a little odd. The new system was brought in for just that reason, to replace the disorganised free for all caused by people wanting to embark early so they could have an early lunch and then get in other people's way, often occupying seats in the buffet nursing a glass of water, whilst they waited for their cabin to be ready.

[Cruising Nomads]

Not sure if this fits in with your route but the Premier Inn at Eastleigh have a reasonable lunch menu and a safe car park.

[judge62]

If you are on the A33, there is a vary nice pub between Reading and Basingstoke called the Jekyll & Hyde, it does really nice lunches and is an easy 40 minutes drive to Southampton docks

 

 

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[Whitechapel girl]

Thanks all we are driving from Essex via M25.

[kevinyork]

Not sure how P&O will lose revenue because of this, apart perhaps from fewer sales of drinks and snacks in the terminal. Your remark about them not being able to organise embarkation is a little odd. The new system was brought in for just that reason, to replace the disorganised free for all caused by people wanting to embark early so they could have an early lunch and then get in other people's way, often occupying seats in the buffet nursing a glass of water, whilst they waited for their cabin to be ready.

 

 

 

Not a disorganised free for all on Celebrity or Royal where boarding starts at around 11.00 with no restrictions and stress free boarding. If they can do it why can't P&O? P&O didn't introduce this to aid passengers, it's all about the cost of the cruise line paying for more embarkation staff. I reckon at the City Terminal when a Celebrity or Royal ship is boarding there are about 40% more manned check in desks than at the Ocean terminal for P&O. This must cost more but P&O don't want to bear that cost and instead restrict boarding boasting it's for the benefit of passengers (which some swallow as the truth). Royal thought out of the box when the larger Anthem ship was there and allowed pre booking of arrival slots plus roaming iPad check in, instead P&O just reduce flexibility and impose restrictions. Also, why shouldn't people expect lunch on board, they have paid for it after all?

 

As for the poster's loss of revenue comment, they will lose revenue from people such as us that are not happy facing restrictions on basic cruise expectations and continue to choose the other, more passenger focused, cruise lines.