Strict arrival times

[tacticalbanjo]

I think the point about airports and cruise terminals is interesting. Can you imagine being told you must turn up at the airport after 3.30pm but no later than 4pm? I can't imagine anyone would comply with that. No matter where you are travelling from, even just crossing Southampton, traffic could easily cause you to be late given such a small window. But P&O seem to think you can time arrivals that precisely. And it's all very well saying that you can go for a stroll but for people with limited mobility or families with children, it really is easier said than done. 

[zap99]

2 hours ago, molecrochip said:

What I personally don’t understand….,

 

When you fly, you’re told that there is a window to turn up from… usually 150 to 45 minutes before departure. If you turn up early, you wait as checkin is not open for you’re flight of 400 people.

 

When P&O say board between after 3pm (ie between 3pm and 4.45pm), why does it upset people that they must then wait if they are early?

 

Surely it’s the same? I know what you’re going to say, it’s undercover but that’s not necessarily true. When I last flew back from Greece we were made to stand in the midday heat until our flight was let into the terminal at 90 minutes to go.

 

I’m not trying to create an argument, I just don’t see it’s any different. The whole plane might get the same time but that’s 400 people. If a single plane took 4,000 people plus, you would not see them all being given the same time.

It is the P&O attitude that customers need to do as they are told, whereas the American lines seem to have a customer first attitude . The " problem " is that P&O don't see that there is a "problem.". Just those pesky customers being blatantly disobedient

[kalos]

Seeing we are comparing Airports to Cruise ports .

 A few weeks ago we had a flight leaving at 8am  and request was turn up 3hrs before .

Transfer were included from our hotel and as the transfer was 10 mins we asked for 

5am pick up . 

"Sorry all our slots are booked ,we can do 4.30am ? " Which we took and were not 

asked to wait outside the airport .

Surely P&O can let Folk in to be seated who are 20-30 mins early ?

As Andy pointed out if your really early and they say no ! Then find a nice bar/cafe as 

they have plenty to choose from .

 

 

[cruising.mark.uk]

4 minutes ago, tacticalbanjo said:

I think the point about airports and cruise terminals is interesting. Can you imagine being told you must turn up at the airport after 3.30pm but no later than 4pm? I can't imagine anyone would comply with that. No matter where you are travelling from, even just crossing Southampton, traffic could easily cause you to be late given such a small window. But P&O seem to think you can time arrivals that precisely. And it's all very well saying that you can go for a stroll but for people with limited mobility or families with children, it really is easier said than done. 

I think comparing hotels and cruise lines might be more apposite.  Don't most hotels have an earliest check-in time of 3 or 4 pm?  People travel a long way to hotels, and they have families with them.  But, it's often impossible to check in until the designated time, although it can sometimes be allowed if you pay extra.  My wife was at a Premier Inn in London last week and arrived at 1445 and was told that she would have to pay £10 if she wanted to check in before 1500.  With P&O, you can effectively buy early check-in by paying for a suite or by achieving a sufficient level in the loyalty scheme.  I think it is also relevant that UK and US cruise lines - or all the ones I have travelled on - sell cruises by 'nights', rather than 'days'.  So, the argument that one is losing out part of the cruise one has paid for unless one can board as early as possible on the first day does not hold true - whatever time you board on that first day you are still getting the 7 or 14 night cruise you paid for.    I've also travelled on Costa - they sell 8 or 15 day cruises, so late boarders could have a fair point in respect of them - ironically, Costa's boarding is probably the most shambolic I've ever encountered.  

[Eglesbrech]

3 minutes ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

I think comparing hotels and cruise lines might be more apposite

Comparing cruise lines with cruise lines leaving from the same port is probably most apposite surely?

[zap99]

18 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

Or perhaps P&O could look at industry best practice and steal good ideas from others to facilitate what their customers clearly want.
 

Personally I do travel with many lines and if someone could poach all the best bits from each they would be onto a winner. If I was a cruise executive that’s exactly what I would do. Why lose customers as per your suggestion over something that can be improved?

We regularly cruise with other lines, but tend, on balance, probably  to favour P&O, mainly on price.  I often defend P&O on this board,but in all honesty their boarding procedure and customer service are quite poor.

[cruising.mark.uk]

2 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

Comparing cruise lines with cruise lines leaving from the same port is probably most apposite surely?

Only if you compare like with like.  Boarding 5000+ pax every week / fortnight throughout the season / year.  Not many other cruise lines do that at Southampton.  Not Celebrity or RCL.  MSC Virtuosa - yes, but a fair few of her pax board at other ports.  

[majortom10]

5 hours ago, molecrochip said:

The policy is please turn up at your designated time. This is well communicated.

 

The queue is for those who chose/are unable to follow that policy.

 

If everyone turns up at their designated time, the queue should not be needed.

 

The terminal has a maximum capacity, go over that and you risk injuries.

 

There is a longer term plan to enable people to chose their arrival time but this has been on hold since the pandemic.

That is OK for those that are able but not everyone can do that. Those that arrive by train do not control times of trains so what are they supposed to do with luggage and again, especially if old or disabled, they are going to go straight to the terminal. They are then told to either wait outside in a queue or drop off luggage and go into Southampton for lunch. Again not very practical if you are old or disabled. Those that stay in hotels again have issues as they have to vacate their rooms by 10am/11am and yes in some hotels they can wait in hotel for 3-4 hrs which is impractical. Others told to go into Southampton and park and have lunch in town but I am not very comfortable parking my car and leaving it loaded with luggage and personal items and not have the privilege of it all going in boot out of sight so asking for trouble. Sorry but if this is the consequences of large ships and P&Os inability to sort out a better way than having people, old and disabled waiting in queues outside of terminals in all weathers is not very welcoming and a good reason not to book Iona or Arvia and can see big problems in the winter months if P&O do not come up with a better system.

 

[majortom10]

5 hours ago, Cathygh said:

I was in the terminal on May 27th, the only people in the terminal were people checking in the desks. All the seats were empty with people queing outside. So absolutely no danger of the terminal being over crowded. In fact 

that is really dangerous. And why nor let people in?

That would be common sense and I am afraid P&O senior management don't have much of that.

[zap99]

22 minutes ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

Only if you compare like with like.  Boarding 5000+ pax every week / fortnight throughout the season / year.  Not many other cruise lines do that at Southampton.  Not Celebrity or RCL.  MSC Virtuosa - yes, but a fair few of her pax board at other ports.  

If you run a cruise company and have a boarding procedure that works with 2,000 passenger ships, sorted..Shouldn't starting to operate 5,000 passenger ships trigger a thought process ?.hey..perhaps we need to tweak this a bit, like have more staff and slicker procedures.

.

 

[cruising.mark.uk]

1 minute ago, zap99 said:

If you run a cruise company and have a boarding procedure that works with 2,000 passenger ships, sorted..Shouldn't starting to operate 5,000 passenger ships trigger a thought process ?.hey..perhaps we need to tweak this a bit, like have more staff and slicker procedures.

.

 

So they have tweaked it a bit.  They've decided to enforce boarding times to spread the load over the whole period of boarding.  And they've made it very clear to passengers that is what they are doing.  As far as I can recall, they never did that pre-Iona / Arvia.

 

Clearly, there are other things they can do - see the suggestions ref luggage drop off and shuttle buses above.  But, we shouldn't expect them to have a magic wand or to introduce all of those immediately.  I am sure they are monitoring how it works and will make tweaks over time.  But, if the current staffing levels and procedures have proved they can board these ships in the time available, why should they spend additional money on more staff when they are still trying to make good on massive debts?

[majortom10]

3 minutes ago, zap99 said:

If you run a cruise company and have a boarding procedure that works with 2,000 passenger ships, sorted..Shouldn't starting to operate 5,000 passenger ships trigger a thought process ?.hey..perhaps we need to tweak this a bit, like have more staff and slicker procedures.

.

 

Yes that is again common sense and P&O haven't learnt much of that for years. On Ventura maiden cruise in 2008 they thought they could operate the ship with same number of crew as Aurora/Arcadia which they couldn't and was the reason why there was very poor and slow service in restaurants and bars.

[zap99]

1 minute ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

So they have tweaked it a bit.  They've decided to enforce boarding times to spread the load over the whole period of boarding.  And they've made it very clear to passengers that is what they are doing.  As far as I can recall, they never did that pre-Iona / Arvia.

 

Clearly, there are other things they can do - see the suggestions ref luggage drop off and shuttle buses above.  But, we shouldn't expect them to have a magic wand or to introduce all of those immediately.  I am sure they are monitoring how it works and will make tweaks over time.  But, if the current staffing levels and procedures have proved they can board these ships in the time available, why should they spend additional money on more staff when they are still trying to make good on massive debts?

Anthem is over 4 000 passengers and when we sailed on her last year it was fairly efficient boarding. P&O's new big ships were a few years coming, so any tweaks should have been ready in good time, not suck it and see.

[Megabear2]

3 hours ago, grapau27 said:

We were on board at 12.30pm last week and I booked Epicurean and Sindu for every night.

The worry is Jean @jeanlyon that late arrivals might not be able to book speciality restaurants as all the early embarkers like Suite guests and high loyalty will book the tables.

 

Simple solution then: limit bookings to 1 or 2 until the ship sails and then open them on the app or at the restaurants.  There are posts on the boards from people who have commented they haven't been able to try in particular Epicurean and Sindhu, if the boarding early issue is causing aggro why not make it fair to all rather than first come first served.

[Babybooface]

1 hour ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

I think comparing hotels and cruise lines might be more apposite.  Don't most hotels have an earliest check-in time of 3 or 4 pm?  People travel a long way to hotels, and they have families with them.  But, it's often impossible to check in until the designated time, although it can sometimes be allowed if you pay extra.  My wife was at a Premier Inn in London last week and arrived at 1445 and was told that she would have to pay £10 if she wanted to check in before 1500.  With P&O, you can effectively buy early check-in by paying for a suite or by achieving a sufficient level in the loyalty scheme.  I think it is also relevant that UK and US cruise lines - or all the ones I have travelled on - sell cruises by 'nights', rather than 'days'.  So, the argument that one is losing out part of the cruise one has paid for unless one can board as early as possible on the first day does not hold true - whatever time you board on that first day you are still getting the 7 or 14 night cruise you paid for.    I've also travelled on Costa - they sell 8 or 15 day cruises, so late boarders could have a fair point in respect of them - ironically, Costa's boarding is probably the most shambolic I've ever encountered.  

But when I arrive at a hotel before my check in. I will be able to sit in the lobby get a drink and use the toilets. They don’t say go wait outside till your time .P&O are expecting people to queue outside in all weathers without shelter or a seat and no access to the toilets . I know it’s me who is arriving early due to relying on public transport. Not everyone has the luxury of a car and timing their arrival to an exact time. I don’t expect to get on early but somewhere comfortable to wait wouldn’t be too much to ask. Considering it’s to get really hot over the next few weeks and the terminal has seats upstairs that are lying empty . 

Edited June 13, 2023 by Babybooface

[cruising.mark.uk]

3 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Anthem is over 4 000 passengers and when we sailed on her last year it was fairly efficient boarding. P&O's new big ships were a few years coming, so any tweaks should have been ready in good time, not suck it and see.

There's a big difference between over 4000 and 5500.

 

I suspect suck it and see might well be the best approach.  P&O are not the only ones who can tweak their behaviour.  So can passengers.  I'm guessing that those who turn up wildly in advance of their embarkation time and have to suffer a queue will only do that once and will then adapt their behaviour having learnt from their mistake.  And those Iona / Arvia pax who are new to cruising / new to cruising with P&O and those established P&O customers who are trying Iona / Arvia for the first time and adhered to the instructions they were given will accept that arriving at the designated boarding time is how it works on these ships and will know that for future cruises on the same ships.  So, all being well, the problem will largely resolve itself over (a fairly short) time.  There may well be small enhancements that P&O could introduce to make things easier e.g. for those who need assistance, but radical (and expensive) changes to staffing or procedures won't make commercial sense if there isn't a big problem to fix

[grapau27]

Just now, Megabear2 said:

Simple solution then: limit bookings to 1 or 2 until the ship sails and then open them on the app or at the restaurants.  There are posts on the boards from people who have commented they haven't been able to try in particular Epicurean and Sindhu, if the boarding early issue is causing aggro why not make it fair to all rather than first come first served.

We always booked Epicurean etc on line but now you can only book Limelight online.

Both Epicurean and Sindhu were busy but not full every night.

At £90+ per night for meal,bottle of wine and bottle of water in Epicurean and £65+ in Sindhu where you pay for individual items plus drinks there is no panic to book as soon as you board.

[zap99]

4 minutes ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

There's a big difference between over 4000 and 5500.

 

I suspect suck it and see might well be the best approach.  P&O are not the only ones who can tweak their behaviour.  So can passengers.  I'm guessing that those who turn up wildly in advance of their embarkation time and have to suffer a queue will only do that once and will then adapt their behaviour having learnt from their mistake.  And those Iona / Arvia pax who are new to cruising / new to cruising with P&O and those established P&O customers who are trying Iona / Arvia for the first time and adhered to the instructions they were given will accept that arriving at the designated boarding time is how it works on these ships and will know that for future cruises on the same ships.  So, all being well, the problem will largely resolve itself over (a fairly short) time.  There may well be small enhancements that P&O could introduce to make things easier e.g. for those who need assistance, but radical (and expensive) changes to staffing or procedures won't make commercial sense if there isn't a big problem to fix

I'm sure that irrespective of my, or your opinion P&O will do exactly what suits them. Their choice.They may get to realise that the punters who pay their wages have choices as well.

[majortom10]

6 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

We always booked Epicurean etc on line but now you can only book Limelight online.

Both Epicurean and Sindhu were busy but not full every night.

At £90+ per night for meal,bottle of wine and bottle of water in Epicurean and £65+ in Sindhu where you pay for individual items plus drinks there is no panic to book as soon as you board.

You can book Epicurean and Sindhu on Iona online 14 days before cruise. Having not cruised on Arvia so cannot comment. With the 10% discount for pre booking and Peninsular Club discount makes them very popular and we'll booked prior to the cruise. 

[Megabear2]

2 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

We always booked Epicurean etc on line but now you can only book Limelight online.

Both Epicurean and Sindhu were busy but not full every night.

At £90+ per night for meal,bottle of wine and bottle of water in Epicurean and £65+ in Sindhu where you pay for individual items plus drinks there is no panic to book as soon as you board.

I respect your choice to dine select every night but myself think it is grossly unfair to do so on some P&O ships.  Arvia you can book Epicurean and Sindhu online before sailing, I cannot comment on Iona as I've not sailed on her. I dined twice in Epicurean in May once for each menu, even that made feel guilty as I watched others turned away on my second visit.  There's plenty of comments on other threads of people who wanted to try these restaurants but could not get a reservation.  

 

This current thread has mention of such an incident:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2943517-unable-to-make-dining-reservations/

 

I even met a man who had been gifted a Celebration package for his 75th birthday who could not get a booking for the whole of his cruise.  Eventually the restaurant manager at Epicurean suggested he asked for a refund of that part of his daughter's gift.  

[grapau27]

2 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Problems with boarding are not really the staffs fault, it's more the procedure that P&O use that causes the frustration, see my post #36.

@terrierjohn.

We arrived 12.10pm. at Ocean terminal which was quiet.

Checked in by 12.20pm.

Straight through security in a few minutes and on board by 12.30pm.

Royal Caribbean have mobile staff walking around the terminal checking you in.

As D+ loyalty on Royal we get through quickly.

[Eglesbrech]

1 hour ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

Only if you compare like with like.  Boarding 5000+ pax every week / fortnight throughout the season / year.  Not many other cruise lines do that at Southampton.  Not Celebrity or RCL.  MSC Virtuosa - yes, but a fair few of her pax board at other ports.  

MSC only board at different ports during the winter season generally. In summer Southampton is generally the only embarkation port. They manage.

 

Surely a slightly smaller ship is a better comparison than a tiny hotel which was what you proposed earlier. Unless of course you know of a 5000 person hotel?

[Eglesbrech]

12 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

I respect your choice to dine select every night but myself think it is grossly unfair to do so on some P&O ships.  Arvia you can book Epicurean and Sindhu online before sailing, I cannot comment on Iona as I've not sailed on her. I dined twice in Epicurean in May once for each menu, even that made feel guilty as I watched others turned away on my second visit.  There's plenty of comments on other threads of people who wanted to try these restaurants but could not get a reservation.  

 

This current thread has mention of such an incident:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2943517-unable-to-make-dining-reservations/

 

I even met a man who had been gifted a Celebration package for his 75th birthday who could not get a booking for the whole of his cruise.  Eventually the restaurant manager at Epicurean suggested he asked for a refund of that part of his daughter's gift.  

But does it matter if one person gets 7 bookings or 7 get one if someone still can’t get any? Bit like the tree in the wood making no noise conundrum.

[Megabear2]

On the hotels topic, I have bought my friends 4 nights in Torquay as a gift for end of this month. They travel by train arriving at Torquay just before noon, a nearly three hour train journey. I asked if they could check in early or leave their luggage. No can do on the luggage for security reasons, okay how about early check in? Sorry we have a large number of rooms and offer them until noon, we hope you understand we cannot offer early check in as a result even if we charged.

 

At Christmas my taxi dropped off at Gatwick very early for my overnight hotel, same response on luggage or £40 for an hour early check in.

 

It's now a brave new world in accommodation it seems, so we live with it seems the best option.

[grapau27]

13 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

You can book Epicurean and Sindhu on Iona online 14 days before cruise. Having not cruised on Arvia so cannot comment. With the 10% discount for pre booking and Peninsular Club discount makes them very popular and we'll booked prior to the cruise. 

No you can't Tom.

I tried every day from 14 nights from embarcation.

In the last year we have been  on Ventura

Azura.

Britannia 

Iona twice.

We could not book on line.

I booked a full cruise dining package though online on Royal Caribbean Oasis of the seas for our January 2023 cruise.

I booked a 2 night Speciality dining package on MSC Virtuoso for our April 2023 cruise.