Iona - School Holidays - CPS or Parking4Cruises?

[Selbourne]

We have used CPS countless times over the years, but on our last few cruises we used Parking4Cruises. Although you have to walk to and from the short stay car park, we found that this was still a lot quicker than having to wait in long holding queues when using CPS.

 

Since we last cruised, I believe that the CPS system may have changed? Can anyone who has cruised on Iona during the summer school holidays please advise how they found CPS in terms of speed? Did you have to wait a long time from arrival until you were able to drop the car off? Also, was it easy to exit the car park at the end of the cruise (friends reported that on one cruise recently with CPS it took over half an hour to get out of the car park).
 

Just trying to decide whether CPS or Parking4Cruises will be the best for Iona next August. Thanks in anticipation. 

[Gettingwarmer]

56 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Also, was it easy to exit the car park at the end of the cruise (friends reported that on one cruise recently with CPS it took over half an hour to get out of the car park).

Depends on the terminal. QE2 terminal is not so good. 

[9265359]

55 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I believe that the CPS system may have changed? Can anyone who has cruised on Iona during the summer school holidays please advise how they found CPS in terms of speed?

 

It wasn't full school holidays, but I used CPS a fortnight ago when Iona was sailing pretty full, and returned on Saturday.

 

Drop off was straightforward, drove in and instantly was met and unloaded the car and left it with them - although that was at 11.30am and I believe there were queues to drive into the terminal later on.

 

I could then see from the car's tracking information that it was moved into the car park a few hundred yards away, and where it then remained until we returned.

 

On return we got off (early self-disembarkation at 7.30am) and waited for 30 seconds to pick up the keys, drove out along with the others disembarking at that time and was away home instantly.

[Selbourne]

6 minutes ago, 9265359 said:

 

It wasn't full school holidays, but I used CPS a fortnight ago when Iona was sailing pretty full, and returned on Saturday.

 

Drop off was straightforward, drove in and instantly was met and unloaded the car and left it with them - although that was at 11.30am and I believe there were queues to drive into the terminal later on.

 

I could then see from the car's tracking information that it was moved into the car park a few hundred yards away, and where it then remained until we returned.

 

On return we got off (early self-disembarkation at 7.30am) and waited for 30 seconds to pick up the keys, drove out along with the others disembarking at that time and was away home instantly.

Thanks. That’s useful as we would also be arriving at around 1130. We don’t do self disembarkation though, and it was normal disembarkation where our friends had the problem, but I can’t recall whether it was when they returned from Iona or another ship. 

[molecrochip]

I’ve never had a delay getting out of CPS and never more than 4 or 5 in front of me to collect keys.

 

There was a bad situation a few weeks ago reported getting out of the car park but that transpired to be because of a problem on the road network not far beyond the port exit. This caused traffic to stack back into port area. Not sure if same issue.

[binman2]

We were priority disembarkation on iona allotted 8.45 am arrived at the venue at 8.05am allowed to get straight off left port gates at 8.30 arrived home at 12.40  240 miles so  not bad going 

[9265359]

22 minutes ago, binman2 said:

We were priority disembarkation on iona allotted 8.45 am arrived at the venue at 8.05am allowed to get straight off 

Nobody checks you are disembarking at the time you are allocated - they just want you gone for the next people to board.

[Selbourne]

41 minutes ago, 9265359 said:

Nobody checks you are disembarking at the time you are allocated - they just want you gone for the next people to board.

Shhhh. That’s a trade secret. The righteous police will be along soon saying that “if everyone disobeyed the rules it would be chaos”. Brits love to queue and obediently waiting for your allocated slot for disembarkation comes under the same category 😂 

[Ladyshopper23]

We've used CPS a couple of times at Southampton. Last time was in September, probably the first cruise after schools had gone back.

Wasn't particularly impressed, we had a wait of around half an hour in a queue of cars before we got to hand our car over (compared to the first time we used them, which was pretty much no wait).

Getting the car back was easy, most people were already off (we'd had to wait for special assistance which took a while) so no queue to get keys back. However, traffic was gridlocked getting out of the port and the main road along the dock. Took us a good 45 minutes just to get out of it all and be on our way properly.

Obviously the gridlock was nothing to do with CPS, I have no idea what caused it. But our experience dropping the car off has put me off using them again.

We did use Parking4Cruises last year too, and had no issue, so will probably go back to them.

[Josy1953]

We used CPS in October, we arrived with just 3 cars in front of us, it took less than 5 minutes to check the car in.  When we  got back to Southampton we took our own luggage off when we disembarked, walked to the CPS office picked up the keys and were on the road home by 7:45.

[thornegirl]

We used CPS in August this year going on Iona.  We arrived about 12.15 to join a horrendous queue.  There was 4 lines of traffic on the right hand side next to the car park, It took us around an hour to check the car in.  We spoke to one of the girls from CPS and she said it had been like that since 11am.  We then had to get a trolly to take the bags across the road to the bag drop off area.  Our son and his family who had booked parking4cruises went straight to the drop off point then took his car to the car park and then had to wait for us before we could all check in together.  This has happened 3 times to us with CPS in school holidays, I won't be using CPS again.  

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

We were on Iona at October half term. Ship very busy

CPS changed from them taking your car to park it for you, to self park in the car park. This was car park immediately to your right as you drive towards ocean terminal

 

this, apparently, was at the request of P&O

no idea why

 

however it was fine. 12pm, Bit of a queue Lots of staff directing us, took 5 min get to car park & be parked. Took 3 min to walk to terminal. Getting out at 9am, no queue to get out. Drove straight off

[Selbourne]

44 minutes ago, thornegirl said:

We used CPS in August this year going on Iona.  We arrived about 12.15 to join a horrendous queue.  There was 4 lines of traffic on the right hand side next to the car park, It took us around an hour to check the car in.  We spoke to one of the girls from CPS and she said it had been like that since 11am.  We then had to get a trolly to take the bags across the road to the bag drop off area.  Our son and his family who had booked parking4cruises went straight to the drop off point then took his car to the car park and then had to wait for us before we could all check in together.  This has happened 3 times to us with CPS in school holidays, I won't be using CPS again.  

Thank you for this. Most people have been talking about their experience of CPS outside of the peak summer school holidays, which I knew would be OK having used them at those times countless times myself. My question was specifically about August, which is an entirely different beast, even from October half term, and at normal disembarkation times (early self disembarkation isn’t for us).
 

In August this year, there were still some restrictions on passenger numbers (quarantine cabins etc) and a degree of subdued demand (as far as I know, few ships have been sailing full this year), so next year, when we are booked, it is likely to be busier again. I don’t believe that Iona has sailed yet with over 5,000 passengers. Please correct me if I am wrong. Next August, with no restrictions and greater demand, plus most upper berths full, this number could well exceed 6,000 passengers. If August this year was problematic, next year could well be worse.
 

The big advantage of CPS was always being able to drop off right in front of the terminal. The negative was the holding queue before you could do this. On our last few cruises we tried Parking4Cruises due to many people on this site recommending them. As their drop off and collection is in the short stay car park, this meant that I had to drop my wife off first (as she is a wheelchair user) with the luggage and then drop the car off in the short stay car park and walk back. Not as convenient as CPS, but much quicker as there was no waiting. Pick up following disembarkation was no different to CPS, as the short stay car park is no further (and often nearer) than the CPS car park (especially as the CPS car park is huge) and with far fewer passengers using it, we were in the car and out on the road network in minutes. 
 

I think I am leaning towards using Parking4Cruises next year, but can I just ask if the ability to check your car in right in front of the terminal building (as you could always do with CPS) is no longer possible, as that was their sole unique selling point and particularly useful for us as I cannot push my wife in her wheelchair and deal with luggage at the same time?

[majortom10]

15 hours ago, Ladyshopper23 said:

We've used CPS a couple of times at Southampton. Last time was in September, probably the first cruise after schools had gone back.

Wasn't particularly impressed, we had a wait of around half an hour in a queue of cars before we got to hand our car over (compared to the first time we used them, which was pretty much no wait).

Getting the car back was easy, most people were already off (we'd had to wait for special assistance which took a while) so no queue to get keys back. However, traffic was gridlocked getting out of the port and the main road along the dock. Took us a good 45 minutes just to get out of it all and be on our way properly.

Obviously the gridlock was nothing to do with CPS, I have no idea what caused it. But our experience dropping the car off has put me off using them again.

We did use Parking4Cruises last year too, and had no issue, so will probably go back to them.

But you would have the same issue if the roads out of the docks and along main road were gridlocked even if you used P4C.

[Ladyshopper23]

2 hours ago, majortom10 said:

But you would have the same issue if the roads out of the docks and along main road were gridlocked even if you used P4C.

I know, that's why I said in my post that the gridlock was nothing to do with CPS! It was simply an additional problem that we had when collecting the car, and would have been the same with any of the parking places.

However, the first part of my post was relevant to the question, I simply added additional information on (that possibly was confusing, but I thought I had clarified that in my post).

[thornegirl]

4 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Thank you for this. Most people have been talking about their experience of CPS outside of the peak summer school holidays, which I knew would be OK having used them at those times countless times myself. My question was specifically about August, which is an entirely different beast, even from October half term, and at normal disembarkation times (early self disembarkation isn’t for us).
 

In August this year, there were still some restrictions on passenger numbers (quarantine cabins etc) and a degree of subdued demand (as far as I know, few ships have been sailing full this year), so next year, when we are booked, it is likely to be busier again. I don’t believe that Iona has sailed yet with over 5,000 passengers. Please correct me if I am wrong. Next August, with no restrictions and greater demand, plus most upper berths full, this number could well exceed 6,000 passengers. If August this year was problematic, next year could well be worse.
 

The big advantage of CPS was always being able to drop off right in front of the terminal. The negative was the holding queue before you could do this. On our last few cruises we tried Parking4Cruises due to many people on this site recommending them. As their drop off and collection is in the short stay car park, this meant that I had to drop my wife off first (as she is a wheelchair user) with the luggage and then drop the car off in the short stay car park and walk back. Not as convenient as CPS, but much quicker as there was no waiting. Pick up following disembarkation was no different to CPS, as the short stay car park is no further (and often nearer) than the CPS car park (especially as the CPS car park is huge) and with far fewer passengers using it, we were in the car and out on the road network in minutes. 
 

I think I am leaning towards using Parking4Cruises next year, but can I just ask if the ability to check your car in right in front of the terminal building (as you could always do with CPS) is no longer possible, as that was their sole unique selling point and particularly useful for us as I cannot push my wife in her wheelchair and deal with luggage at the same time?

We have used parking4cruises on a number of cruises as well as CPS.  When using parking4cruises my husband drops me and the luggage off at the terminal where I took the baggage to the drop off then I waited for husband inside the terminal.  You could do similar with your wife waiting for you inside the terminal.

[Selbourne]

1 hour ago, thornegirl said:

We have used parking4cruises on a number of cruises as well as CPS.  When using parking4cruises my husband drops me and the luggage off at the terminal where I took the baggage to the drop off then I waited for husband inside the terminal.  You could do similar with your wife waiting for you inside the terminal.

Yes, we did a similar thing when we used Parking4Cruises. I pulled into the drop off area, took our luggage to the porters / drop point and then got my wife out of the car and into her wheelchair. I wheeled her to the entrance and she waited for me in the assisted boarding area whilst I took the car to the short stay car park. All straightforward. Not quite as convenient as when you could get CPS to accept your car in the drop off zone, but far quicker than using CPS when they use holding queues.