Harry Peterson Posted November 12, 2018 #1 Share Posted November 12, 2018 Always used CPS up to now - it's a slick, efficient service. But it's also extremely expensive, and Parking4cruises seems to offer something very similar indeed for considerably less money. Almost as convenient (not quite) and with vehicles parked in "our secure parking site, which is less than three miles away from all Southampton cruise terminals." Obviously not quite up to the standards of CPS (parking within the port and no need to phone or text to get the car brought back) but it is a lot cheaper. Anybody with experience of both care to share recent experiences to help people (and me) decide between the two? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john watson Posted November 12, 2018 #2 Share Posted November 12, 2018 (edited) I have noticed that CPS on my last two cruises involved a considerable wait sitting in my car before being marshalled to the booking in area and subsequent boarding. I conclude that it is much quicker to board the ship when you turn up in a taxi or transfer mini bus. This waiting has become my bugbear I have used a similar service to parking4cruises called Penguin Parking which is a parking service other side of the water. You drive there and they have a portacabin with toilets and mineral water, transfer you in a mini bus to the relevant ship. On return you locate the personnel wearing the pink high viz jackets and they summon a series of mini buses to transfer you back to the remote car park. If you can afford £179 you can generally get cruise parking with overnight at Holiday Inn Herbert Walker Avenue including transfers both ways. Park your own car at back of hotel car park, keep your keys. They use West Quay Cars and the transfers are included in the tariff but you need to pay for meals. There is a free swimming pool and some sort of gym. Prices and exact details all given in good faith but may have changed. Regards John Edited November 12, 2018 by john watson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majortom10 Posted November 12, 2018 #3 Share Posted November 12, 2018 I have used Parking4Cruises many times and have never phoned or text to get the car brought back to me as long as you do not self disembark the car is always available in short stay car park on disembarkation. If you are leaving the ship before 8-30am you have to tell them when booking. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majortom10 Posted November 12, 2018 #4 Share Posted November 12, 2018 (edited) 5 minutes ago, john watson said: I have noticed that CPS on my last two cruises involved a considerable wait sitting in my car before being marshalled to the booking in area and subsequent boarding. I conclude that it is much quicker to board the ship when you turn up in a taxi or transfer mini bus. This waiting has become my bugbear I have used a similar service to parking4cruises called Penguin Parking which is a parking service other side of the water. You drive there and they have a portacabin with toilets and mineral water, transfer you in a mini bus to the relevant ship. On return you locate the personnel wearing the pink high viz jackets and they summon a series of mini buses to transfer you back to the remote car park. If you can afford £179 you can generally get cruise parking with overnight at Holiday Inn Herbert Walker Avenue including transfers both ways. They use West Quay Cars and the transfers are included in the tariff but you need to pay for meals. There is a free swimming pool and some sort of gym. Prices and exact details all given in good faith but may have changed. Regards John Parking4cruises is much similar to CPS where as you pull up outside terminal and unload suitcases which are then taken away by porters and then you drive across road to short stay car park and meet the Parking4cruises rep there. Never been interested in leaving my car in hotel car park even though we stay pre cruise in hotel do not like the idea of car being left in insecure open to the public hotel car park for duration of cruise. Also on disembarkation short walk to short stay and load car we are on our way home within minutes without having to wait for mini bus to take you to off port parking away from the port. Edited November 12, 2018 by majortom10 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeanlyon Posted November 12, 2018 #5 Share Posted November 12, 2018 We always use Parking4Cruises and we always self-disembark. You pull up outside the terminal, offload your bags, then drive as person above said. So simple and so much cheaper. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrierjohn Posted November 12, 2018 #6 Share Posted November 12, 2018 We changed tp P4C from CPS 3 cruises ago and find the system almost the same as CPS, but for our longer cruises it is much cheaper. You do need to drive to the short stay car park after unloading your cases, but this does cut out any long waits on arrival and is only a few hundred yards away, and collection is very similar, except its from the short stay car park and the keys will be collected from the P4C van. We did have a bit of a scare recently when we received a parking charge for exceeding the 2 hours in the Mayflowers short stay on the day of collection, but a quick exchange of e-mails and phone calls quickly resolved this problem. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Peterson Posted November 12, 2018 Author #7 Share Posted November 12, 2018 Tempted by P4C - though the risks of anything happening to the car are increased by its longer journey outside the perimeter of the port. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrierjohn Posted November 12, 2018 #8 Share Posted November 12, 2018 7 minutes ago, docco said: Tempted by P4C - though the risks of anything happening to the car are increased by its longer journey outside the perimeter of the port. Do consider that the port confines cover a large area and I have had 4 miles on the speedo with CPS, which is a little more than I have had with P4C, and the traffic on Herbert Walker ave can be very heavy indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john watson Posted November 13, 2018 #9 Share Posted November 13, 2018 11 hours ago, majortom10 said: I am a big believer in the policy of horses for courses and always use my incognito car when leaving a car for an extended period of time or in a particularly contentious situation. Regards John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SquishTheWhale Posted November 13, 2018 #10 Share Posted November 13, 2018 What about ABP? We used them recently and thought it was great. 2 mins walk to the ship and keep your key. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianI Posted November 13, 2018 #11 Share Posted November 13, 2018 ABP do not do parking for P&O, Cunard and Princess. Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SquishTheWhale Posted November 13, 2018 #12 Share Posted November 13, 2018 2 minutes ago, BrianI said: ABP do not do parking for P&O, Cunard and Princess. Brian Ah sorry didn't know that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianI Posted November 13, 2018 #13 Share Posted November 13, 2018 Just to expand on my post #11 above, extract from ABP website........ quote..... ABParking is the only company with cruise car parking facilities within the Southampton port estate for passengers of Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruise Lines, Fred. Olsen, NCL, MSC & Saga Cruises Parking for all other cruise lines that operate from the port cannot be booked through ABParking and further information should be obtained from the booking agent or the cruise line ABParking do not offer cruise car parking for P&O Cruises, Cunard and Princess Cruises, their cruise car parking provider is Cruise & Passenger Services - please contact them directly on 0345 071 3939 Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrierjohn Posted November 13, 2018 #14 Share Posted November 13, 2018 1 hour ago, BrianI said: Just to expand on my post #11 above, extract from ABP website........ quote..... ABParking is the only company with cruise car parking facilities within the Southampton port estate for passengers of Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruise Lines, Fred. Olsen, NCL, MSC & Saga Cruises Parking for all other cruise lines that operate from the port cannot be booked through ABParking and further information should be obtained from the booking agent or the cruise line ABParking do not offer cruise car parking for P&O Cruises, Cunard and Princess Cruises, their cruise car parking provider is Cruise & Passenger Services - please contact them directly on 0345 071 3939 Brian In addition ABP only provide parking for cruises from City terminal and the above mentioned cruise lines mainly use this terminal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianI Posted November 13, 2018 #15 Share Posted November 13, 2018 12 minutes ago, terrierjohn said: In addition ABP only provide parking for cruises from City terminal and the above mentioned cruise lines mainly use this terminal. It is normally the case but we were on a Celebrity cruise that departed from the City terminal but returned to the QEII terminal. ABP operated a shuttle bus to get us back to the City terminal where our car was parked. I would assume the same arrangement would operate on the rare occasion when the City terminal is unable to be used. Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrierjohn Posted November 13, 2018 #16 Share Posted November 13, 2018 13 minutes ago, BrianI said: It is normally the case but we were on a Celebrity cruise that departed from the City terminal but returned to the QEII terminal. ABP operated a shuttle bus to get us back to the City terminal where our car was parked. I would assume the same arrangement would operate on the rare occasion when the City terminal is unable to be used. Brian On a P&O cruise we once had to dock at City terminal on our return, and P&O/CPS provided shuttle buses to take us to the car park at Ocean terminal to collect our cars; but this is unusual and caused on this occasion by high winds that prevented Britannia getting in to the tight Ocean terminal dock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianI Posted November 13, 2018 #17 Share Posted November 13, 2018 Last minute terminal changes have happened a few times with Ocean terminal presumably due to the angle of the dock which makes the prevailing wind side on to the ship. In this situation CPS don't have time to move the cars to the new dock so shuttle buses are the solution. If a cruise is planned to return to a different dock, then CPS will move the cars. Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeanlyon Posted November 13, 2018 #18 Share Posted November 13, 2018 Yes same for Parking4Cruises. We came back to a different terminal and they were there waiting for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Son of Anarchy Posted November 14, 2018 #19 Share Posted November 14, 2018 We use Parking4Cruises for cruises over about 10 days, or the train. Less than that CPS seem to be cheaper. Never had any problems with P4C. On one occasion Oceana was late in and disembarkation and embarkation delayed by about 2 hours. Pando txted advising to arrive 2 hours later than embarkation time. We just wanted to get on the road and arrived about 1300. P4C took the car off us straight away but were still waiting for all their disembarking pax to collect their vehicles. CPS weren't allowing their customers to drop their cars off. We were checked in and onboard by about 1400. Straight into the Welcome on Board Reception. Due to the delayed embarkation some CPS parkers missed the reception even though it had been extended. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare DamianG Posted November 14, 2018 #20 Share Posted November 14, 2018 (edited) We used CPS 18 times but were also getting fed up with having to queue in a "holding" place before actually being allowed to park in the terminal (the worst example had us waiting nearly an hour). We therefore tried P4C this year and found the whole process very simple (as well as much cheaper). They have given us a discount code for next year and we will definitely use them again. Edited November 14, 2018 by DamianG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Threeleggedtoad Posted November 14, 2018 #21 Share Posted November 14, 2018 Unfortunately I have already booked with CPS for our cruise in a few weeks time. I am concerned to read that you had to queue in a "holding" place. Why was this? I normally cruise with Celebrity or RC and normally book parking with ABP, and have never had a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Peterson Posted November 14, 2018 Author #22 Share Posted November 14, 2018 2 hours ago, DamianG said: We used CPS 18 times but were also getting fed up with having to queue in a "holding" place before actually being allowed to park in the terminal (the worst example had us waiting nearly an hour). We therefore tried P4C this year and found the whole process very simple (as well as much cheaper). They have given us a discount code for next year and we will definitely use them again. Thanks to you and all the others who’ve replied. I don’t think I’ve seen a single serious criticism of P4C so far, unless I’ve not noticed it. Talking of discounts, does anyone know of any generally available ones please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeanlyon Posted November 14, 2018 #23 Share Posted November 14, 2018 You need to have booked with them before to get 5% Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare DamianG Posted November 15, 2018 #24 Share Posted November 15, 2018 20 hours ago, Threeleggedtoad said: Unfortunately I have already booked with CPS for our cruise in a few weeks time. I am concerned to read that you had to queue in a "holding" place. Why was this? I normally cruise with Celebrity or RC and normally book parking with ABP, and have never had a problem. The first time we went on Britannia we arrived approximately 2:30pm in line with our designated boarding time. CPS were way behind so they had us loop round the short stay car park where we waited an hour before it was our turn to drive into the unloading area. On our next 2 cruises we arrived earlier but experienced the same thing though the hold up was more like 15-20 minutes hence we decided to try C4P. Previously we’ve not had any problems with CPS so I hope that we were just unlucky and everything runs smoothly for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Threeleggedtoad Posted November 15, 2018 #25 Share Posted November 15, 2018 Thanks for explaining. I have several future cruises booked 2019 & 2020, I have not booked the parking for those cruises yet. So I will wait and see what happens in three weeks. Must admit I feel quite anxious as our boarding time is 2:30. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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