Help needed 1st time cruisers

[Corrie70]

Hi everyone . We are excited to be trying our very first  cruise on Britannia at the end of August for 3 nights.  We are travelling down from Manchester and gave booked a hotel for the night before . We have a time of 1.15 on our boarding card. Is this the time we board  the ship or time we arrive for Covid testing , check in etc? Also what time do you leave the ship on the last day? Can’t seem to find that info anywhere.  Sorry if these seem silly questions , but completely new to all this 

[grapau27]

14 minutes ago, Corrie70 said:

Hi everyone . We are excited to be trying our very first  cruise on Britannia at the end of August for 3 nights.  We are travelling down from Manchester and gave booked a hotel for the night before . We have a time of 1.15 on our boarding card. Is this the time we board  the ship or time we arrive for Covid testing , check in etc? Also what time do you leave the ship on the last day? Can’t seem to find that info anywhere.  Sorry if these seem silly questions , but completely new to all this 

That is the time you have to be at the terminal to check in.

Make sure you have the required travel insurance documents,your proof of 2 vaccinations,your passports and your printed boarding cards.

On the last day you normally have to vacate your cabin by 8am.

Usually you are given tags to put on your cases and the time you leave is dictated by the colour and number on your tag.

It is usual to leave your case outside your cabin on the last night and all the cases are stored by the crew and laid out in the terminal on departure morning.

We always take our own cases off the ship so don't leave them outside our cabin on the last night.

There is usually 1 formal night on the short cruises.

I'm sure you will have a fantastic time.

Graham.

[Corrie70]

Thanks so much Graham

[grapau27]

8 minutes ago, Corrie70 said:

Thanks so much Graham

You are very welcome.

[ann141]

If your boarding time is 1 15 you could leave your suitcases at the hotel after checking out and wander round Southampton for an hour before returning to the hotel to get a taxi to the ship.As Graham says, you normally have to be out of your cabin on the last day by 8am and off the ship by 9ish.You will probably be given a time to disembark once onboard.Hope you enjoy your cruise 🙂 

This is assuming you are travelling to Southampton by train.Obviously you won't need a taxi if arriving by car

Edited August 9, 2021 by ann141

[sandancer]

In normal times when ships are sailing at full capacity and there are 1000s of items of luggage to be handled, I would suggest taking a cabin bag with a change of clothes in case your suitcases don’t arrive at your cabin before dinner. Don’t know if this will apply with 50% occupancy. 
Also take a highlighter pen and mark off things you are interested in on the newsletter left in your cabin each evening for the next day. Obviously there are no foreign ports on these short cruises but you might get hooked and want to sail again (we did back in 1990 and have never stopped sailing since). Enjoy. 

[Bobblehat71]

If you driving and parking at the port g. CPS Parking etc. Then I would aim to get to the drive through test centre around 12:30.  If you getting a taxi from the Hotel then get to the terminal around 12:45pm.

As Graham said disembarking is usually around 8am at the latest. If you've not got huge suitcases then I would just keep hold of them and carry them off the ship yourself. Saves you hanging around, trying to find your cases. 

 Have a great trip and start saving for your next one.

 

(There will be a next one 🤣)

[indiana123]

12 minutes ago, Bobblehat71 said:

(There will be a next one 🤣)

 

 

Never has a truer word been spoken!!!!!😃

 

I would sail every month if I could.  OH only went on our first cruise because I had a thing about Oriana after reading about it.    It was a birthday surprise.

 

 

Now it's a case of him looking up cruises before me.  Beware.......it gets you.

Edited August 10, 2021 by indiana123

[sandancer]

Our joining instructions from CPS say to arrive there at the time on our boarding cards and if we arrive early we may be directed to a short term car park to wait at our expense. It’s probably to prevent people turning up at 9.30 for a 2pm boarding time. Yes, it does happen and I understand why. Everyone excited to get onboard but at the moment I think it’s best to follow the guidelines. Our boarding time is 12.45.  

[davecttr]

14 minutes ago, Bobblehat71 said:

If you driving and parking at the port g. CPS Parking etc. Then I would aim to get to the drive through test centre around 12:30.  If you getting a taxi from the Hotel then get to the terminal around 12:45pm.

As Graham said disembarking is usually around 8am at the latest. If you've not got huge suitcases then I would just keep hold of them and carry them off the ship yourself. Saves you hanging around, trying to find your cases. 

 Have a great trip and start saving for your next one.

 

(There will be a next one 🤣)

Unless you have an arrival time of 12 noon! and the arrival times for the staycations are either at the drive in test centre or the terminal if you are arriving by other means. I believe there are two test centres, one at the terminal and the other some distance away?

 

8am is normally the vacating cabin time. You may be able to hang around for some time, especially if you unload your own case

[Bill Y]

39 minutes ago, sandancer said:

In normal times when ships are sailing at full capacity and there are 1000s of items of luggage to be handled, I would suggest taking a cabin bag with a change of clothes in case your suitcases don’t arrive at your cabin before dinner. Don’t know if this will apply with 50% occupancy. 
Also take a highlighter pen and mark off things you are interested in on the newsletter left in your cabin each evening for the next day. Obviously there are no foreign ports on these short cruises but you might get hooked and want to sail again (we did back in 1990 and have never stopped sailing since). Enjoy. 

A cabin bag was mentioned, unless you opt to take your own cases off independently you will need a cabin bag or holdall to put your nightclothes and toiletries in. You have to vacate the cabin by 8AM but you can go to the MDR for breakfast and to kill time taking the cabin bag with you. when disembarking at Southampton leave the P&O labels on the cases so the porters can place them in the relevant deck number position inside the terminal. As the cases go out the evening before don't forget to leave out clothes for the next day and coats.

 

You will be informed what your allocated/requested disembarkation time is, at which point you can opt to take your cases off yourself at an earlier time before the mass disembarkation starts. everyone is normally off by 10ish.

[Corrie70]

8 hours ago, Bobblehat71 said:

If you driving and parking at the port g. CPS Parking etc. Then I would aim to get to the drive through test centre around 12:30.  If you getting a taxi from the Hotel then get to the terminal around 12:45pm.

As Graham said disembarking is usually around 8am at the latest. If you've not got huge suitcases then I would just keep hold of them and carry them off the ship yourself. Saves you hanging around, trying to find your cases. 

 Have a great trip and start saving for your next one.

 

(There will be a next one 🤣)

I certainly hope so! Thanks 

[Corrie70]

You’ve all been really helpful . Thanks  so much. One more question if I may. 2 social media mad daughters coming along on the trip. Do we need to buy a Wi-Fi / internet package? It’s confusing as a lot of cruise questions relate to abroad , but we will still be in the UK, albeit in the sea. TIA

[grapau27]

3 hours ago, Corrie70 said:

You’ve all been really helpful . Thanks  so much. One more question if I may. 2 social media mad daughters coming along on the trip. Do we need to buy a Wi-Fi / internet package? It’s confusing as a lot of cruise questions relate to abroad , but we will still be in the UK, albeit in the sea. TIA

Usually it is advisable to get a WiFi package to use on your phone or the ships computers.

Once you are a certain distance from land you will automatically connect to the expensive maritime signal unless your phone is on flight mode.

On our new year cruise on Ventura 2015/16 we couldn't get into Amsterdam because of strong winds and we were left sailing around the English Channel in New Year's Eve

Our phones connected with a maritime signal and our phone bill increased by £100.

Graham.

 

[wowzz]

4 hours ago, Corrie70 said:

You’ve all been really helpful . Thanks  so much. One more question if I may. 2 social media mad daughters coming along on the trip. Do we need to buy a Wi-Fi / internet package? It’s confusing as a lot of cruise questions relate to abroad , but we will still be in the UK, albeit in the sea. TIA

You probably should warn your daughters that the internet connection will be slow. OK for emails,  basic social media etc,  but not ideal for media streaming or gaming.  

[Corrie70]

19 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Usually it is advisable to get a WiFi package to use on your phone or the ships computers.

Once you are a certain distance from land you will automatically connect to the expensive maritime signal unless your phone is on flight mode.

On our new year cruise on Ventura 2015/16 we couldn't get into Amsterdam because of strong winds and we were left sailing around the English Channel in New Year's Eve

Our phones connected with a maritime signal and our phone bill increased by £100.

Graham.

 

Wow thank you for the info

[grapau27]

Just now, Corrie70 said:

Wow thank you for the info

You are very welcome.

Either myself or one of our friends on here will be able to answer any questions you have.

[zap99]

On 8/10/2021 at 6:14 PM, Corrie70 said:

You’ve all been really helpful . Thanks  so much. One more question if I may. 2 social media mad daughters coming along on the trip. Do we need to buy a Wi-Fi / internet package? It’s confusing as a lot of cruise questions relate to abroad , but we will still be in the UK, albeit in the sea. TIA

On a 3 day cruise you will be in 4G range for much of the time, but not all. You may need to go up on deck to get the best 4G signal. When not actually using the phone, make sure it is on Airplane mode. You will need it on that  for the my holiday app anyway.