Cruise Parking - Iona

[Selbourne]

We are going on Iona for the first time in a few weeks time. As my wife and I are Caribbean loyalty tier we have been allocated 12pm embarkation. Our daughters and their partners have all been allocated 1pm, which I am very relieved about given how late the times are that some people get allocated. We are travelling separately so having different times doesn’t matter.
 

Conscious that P&O now make those who arrive early stand outside the terminal in a naughty queue, I am thinking that we should all aim to arrive 30 minutes before our boarding times, in order to allow time for any minor wait, handing the car over to CPS and then depositing the suitcases. This should then put us pretty much on time for our respective embarkations. However, when we last went on a cruise in the summer school holidays, we were held in a CPS waiting stack for some time before we could pull up in front of the terminal to hand the car over, and this was Britannia which is obviously much smaller than Iona.
 

My question (particularly for those who have cruised on either Iona or Arvia in school holidays) is this. Does arriving 30 minutes early sound reasonable, or should we build in more time to allow for CPS holding queues or delays, especially for our daughters with the 1pm time slots. Thanks in anticipation.

[david63]

I haven't sailed on either of those ships but from experience with CPS it can vary on the day depending, to some extent, on how many ships are in port that day.

 

Logic would say that being a large family ship in school holidays that there will be a higher number of passengers arriving by car than there would be with, say, Arcadia where there could be more passengers arriving bu coach. Having said that I would also add that being a family ship in school holidays there probably will not be a lot of Caribbean tier passengers.

 

Whichever way you go you will be in "lap of the Gods" but arriving 12:30 would seem to be a reasonable compromise.

[Selbourne]

20 minutes ago, david63 said:

I haven't sailed on either of those ships but from experience with CPS it can vary on the day depending, to some extent, on how many ships are in port that day.

 

Logic would say that being a large family ship in school holidays that there will be a higher number of passengers arriving by car than there would be with, say, Arcadia where there could be more passengers arriving bu coach. Having said that I would also add that being a family ship in school holidays there probably will not be a lot of Caribbean tier passengers.

 

Whichever way you go you will be in "lap of the Gods" but arriving 12:30 would seem to be a reasonable compromise.

Disney Dream, Sky Princess and Ventura are all in port on the day we go. We have used CPS countless times and usually not had an issue and have been directed straight into the terminal drop off lanes, but our last school summer holidays cruise on Britannia was very different, hence my question. With the size of Iona and the fact that a high proportion of passengers will be first time cruisers (who are more likely to arrive early as they won’t be aware of the naughty queue) I am just curious to know from those who have been on Iona or Arvia if my 30 minutes advice, particularly for our daughters, is sufficient time to ensure that they board on time. 

[Winifred 22]

Trouble is with Southampton traffic you can’t best guess it really. A few Saturdays it took me an hour to get from by Carnival H Q to Town Quay and you could see there was still a long wait ahead  for folk going to Ocean Terminal . It also depends If QE II terminal is in use. Others may be more helpful but really it’s difficult to predict. Don’t think I have seen Disney in Southampton so I bet that will be busy. 

[Son of Anarchy]

We used CPS for Arvia cruise in April.  As far as I am aware she was sailing either full or close to be being full.

 

Also had 12:00 arrival time.  Actually arrived about 10:50.  CPS were doing the car handovers a bit further away from the terminal than usual, ie not at the drop off lanes.  CPS put everyone into a couple of queues as they don't start taking cars off people until 11:00.  It was up to us to get our cases over to the hole in the wall, which I sorted out whilst we waiting for CPS to start the handovers.  They may have been porters there, I just didn't notice any.

 

CPS started processing cars bang on time.  They were already quite a few cars ahead of us, CPS took the car off us about 11:15ish.

 

Short walk to the terminal with out carry on stuff.  There was already a "naughty queue" in place.  We headed towards the sign for those arriving on time, showed our boarding tickets and were directed straight into the terminal.

 

People were already checking in, in fact we had to wait a few minutes as not all desks were operating.

 

Then it was just wait for the security people to fire up their kit, Suites and Liguirians to go in and then us mob.

 

Was on board soon after 12:00.

 

Have a great cruise!

[terrierjohn]

12 minutes ago, Winifred 22 said:

Trouble is with Southampton traffic you can’t best guess it really. A few Saturdays it took me an hour to get from by Carnival H Q to Town Quay and you could see there was still a long wait ahead  for folk going to Ocean Terminal . It also depends If QE II terminal is in use. Others may be more helpful but really it’s difficult to predict. Don’t think I have seen Disney in Southampton so I bet that will be busy. 

Disney is only a small ship, with only just over 2000 passengers.

[Selbourne]

12 minutes ago, Winifred 22 said:

Trouble is with Southampton traffic you can’t best guess it really. A few Saturdays it took me an hour to get from by Carnival H Q to Town Quay and you could see there was still a long wait ahead  for folk going to Ocean Terminal . It also depends If QE II terminal is in use. Others may be more helpful but really it’s difficult to predict. Don’t think I have seen Disney in Southampton so I bet that will be busy. 

Thanks, but my questIon is not really about traffic in Southampton, but more about when to time our arrival at the terminal. If we get to Southampton early we kill time in Mayflower Park, so we can time our arrival pretty accurately regardless of the traffic situation, not that we’ve ever had a particular issue with traffic - we used to live in Southampton so know lots of ways in and out!

[Selbourne]

14 minutes ago, Son of Anarchy said:

We used CPS for Arvia cruise in April.  As far as I am aware she was sailing either full or close to be being full.

 

Also had 12:00 arrival time.  Actually arrived about 10:50.  CPS were doing the car handovers a bit further away from the terminal than usual, ie not at the drop off lanes.  CPS put everyone into a couple of queues as they don't start taking cars off people until 11:00.  It was up to us to get our cases over to the hole in the wall, which I sorted out whilst we waiting for CPS to start the handovers.  They may have been porters there, I just didn't notice any.

 

CPS started processing cars bang on time.  They were already quite a few cars ahead of us, CPS took the car off us about 11:15ish.

 

Short walk to the terminal with out carry on stuff.  There was already a "naughty queue" in place.  We headed towards the sign for those arriving on time, showed our boarding tickets and were directed straight into the terminal.

 

People were already checking in, in fact we had to wait a few minutes as not all desks were operating.

 

Then it was just wait for the security people to fire up their kit, Suites and Liguirians to go in and then us mob.

 

Was on board soon after 12:00.

 

Have a great cruise!

Thanks. That’s very useful. From the times that you have given it sounds as though you were let into the terminal at around 11.30 even though your boarding time was midday. Is that correct? If so, I might aim for an 11am arrival rather than 11.30 to allow for the car queues, handover, luggage drop off etc, especially as my wife is in a wheelchair so it’s a bit more challenging for me. 

 

Hopefully someone who had a boarding time at around 1pm may be able to provide equally helpful feedback on their experience. 

[Son of Anarchy]

2 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Thanks. That’s very useful. From the times that you have given it sounds as though you were let into the terminal at around 11.30 even though your boarding time was midday. Is that correct? If so, I might aim for an 11am arrival rather than 11.30 to allow for the car queues, handover, luggage drop off etc, especially as my wife is in a wheelchair so it’s a bit more challenging for me. 

 

Hopefully someone who had a boarding time at around 1pm may be able to provide equally helpful feedback on their experience. 

Yep, 11:30 sounds about right. 

 

We were a bit conscious about about arriving before 11:00, but thankfully CPS opened at 11:00, and the short wait for those ahead of us contributed to arriving at the terminal itself a bit closer to the notified time.  Its a 2.5 hour drive for us, and I'm always wary of something happening en-route so would rather arrive early, and wait if required.

[molecrochip]

Your biggest risk is disembarkation taking longer than planned and therefore CPS delaying their collection of cars.

 

Generally, for Iona and Arvia, CPS no longer use a drop off lane.

 

In my experience, Iona rarely boards before 1pm when full on both the arriving and departing cruises. So don’t expect security to open much before 12:50.

 

As a wheelchair user & Caribbean, you get to go to the far security and should be invited forward before the seated masses.

[Selbourne]

3 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

Your biggest risk is disembarkation taking longer than planned and therefore CPS delaying their collection of cars.

 

Generally, for Iona and Arvia, CPS no longer use a drop off lane.

 

In my experience, Iona rarely boards before 1pm when full on both the arriving and departing cruises. So don’t expect security to open much before 12:50.

 

As a wheelchair user & Caribbean, you get to go to the far security and should be invited forward before the seated masses.

Thanks. This may be a daft question, but given that we now check in online in advance, leaving security as the only activity before boarding the ship, why are people given 12pm boarding times if security doesn’t open until 12.50 - or did you mean 11.50?

[terrierjohn]

8 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

Your biggest risk is disembarkation taking longer than planned and therefore CPS delaying their collection of cars.

 

Generally, for Iona and Arvia, CPS no longer use a drop off lane.

 

In my experience, Iona rarely boards before 1pm when full on both the arriving and departing cruises. So don’t expect security to open much before 12:50.

 

As a wheelchair user & Caribbean, you get to go to the far security and should be invited forward before the seated masses.

That is not always an advantage, on our last Iona cruise we were directed past the very small queue at the security entrance, only to find ourselves in a long tailback of top tier passengers, which was not helped by an over zealous official wanting to see everyones boarding pass.

[molecrochip]

7 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Thanks. This may be a daft question, but given that we now check in online in advance, leaving security as the only activity before boarding the ship, why are people given 12pm boarding times if security doesn’t open until 12.50 - or did you mean 11.50?

From my experience it’s 12:50 ish but the intention is 12.15.

 

Whilst check-in is online, it doesn’t save much time as you still have to visit the check-in desks to get an approved to board stamp!

[Selbourne]

4 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

From my experience it’s 12:50 ish but the intention is 12.15.

 

Whilst check-in is online, it doesn’t save much time as you still have to visit the check-in desks to get an approved to board stamp!

That really surprises me. Surely security should be manned and ready to go at 12pm latest? When cruises are full, a delayed start is surely a recipe for disaster. I would have thought that the exact opposite would happen and they would start early to help minimise the build up of queues. 

[ParisHilton]

I was hoping CPS was Crown Prosecution Service 😞

[Cathygh]

I can only tell you about my own experrience on boarding Ioan, at half term, so very full. We arrived early as we were not sure how long CPS would take, I'd estimate it as 20 minutes. This was for a 12.15 boarding. People with later boarding had waits up to 45 minutes for CPS.

[molecrochip]

22 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

That really surprises me. Surely security should be manned and ready to go at 12pm latest? When cruises are full, a delayed start is surely a recipe for disaster. I would have thought that the exact opposite would happen and they would start early to help minimise the build up of queues. 

Security is manned and waiting but boarding and therefore security doesn’t commence until the shop are ready.

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, molecrochip said:

Security is manned and waiting but boarding and therefore security doesn’t commence until the shop are ready.

Yet another good reason to switch security to the beginning of the check in process as is done at City terminal.  That would enable security and check in to be completed and the seating area to be used as a waiting area until the ship was ready for boarding. This should speed up the process significantly, and enable security to run at a steady regular pace, without any hold ups.

[Ardennais]

5 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Disney Dream, Sky Princess and Ventura are all in port on the day we go. We have used CPS countless times and usually not had an issue and have been directed straight into the terminal drop off lanes, but our last school summer holidays cruise on Britannia was very different, hence my question. With the size of Iona and the fact that a high proportion of passengers will be first time cruisers (who are more likely to arrive early as they won’t be aware of the naughty queue) I am just curious to know from those who have been on Iona or Arvia if my 30 minutes advice, particularly for our daughters, is sufficient time to ensure that they board on time. 

Surely it’s not a problem if they don’t board exactly ‘on time’? 
 

[Selbourne]

38 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

Surely it’s not a problem if they don’t board exactly ‘on time’? 
 

Well it doesn’t have to be to the precise minute, no, but it would be nice if they could board at around the time they have been told, as we’d like to meet up with them for lunch. Surely that’s not an unreasonable expectation?

[Windsurfboy]

21 hours ago, molecrochip said:

 

In my experience, Iona rarely boards before 1pm when full on both the arriving and departing cruises. So don’t expect security to open much before 12:50.

 

 

Changing subject slightly. Given that Iona rarely boards before1pm why are P&O  giving 12.00 boarding times to Suites and Liguirian. This doesn't seem to match promise to "wisk suites straight on board" . Given also I think I saw on another thread that P&O have closed hospitality lounge in terminal.

 

Molechip any insight from P&O

 

 

[Selbourne]

14 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

 

Changing subject slightly. Given that Iona rarely boards before1pm why are P&O  giving 12.00 boarding times to Suites and Liguirian. This doesn't seem to match promise to "wisk suites straight on board" . Given also I think I saw on another thread that P&O have closed hospitality lounge in terminal.

 

Molechip any insight from P&O

 

 

We have been given 12pm also and are just Caribbean. I’m optimistic that we will be on board pretty soon after that and will be disappointed if we aren’t. In spite of what @molecrochip says, I struggle to think that P&O would set themselves up to fail, giving their highest spending and most loyal customers a time that they know that they cannot meet. That would take a level of incompetence that ……. (fill in the gaps 😂). 

[Windsurfboy]

10 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

We have been given 12pm also and are just Caribbean. I’m optimistic that we will be on board pretty soon after that and will be disappointed if we aren’t. In spite of what @molecrochip says, I struggle to think that P&O would set themselves up to fail, giving their highest spending and most loyal customers a time that they know that they cannot meet. That would take a level of incompetence that ……. (fill in the gaps 😂). 

 

......   Paul Ludlow has been practising for since joining P&O ...... 

 

(Peter Principle promoted to level of incompetence now updated by Dilbert principle promoted because of incompetence )

[Winifred 22]

I can’t remember with P & O as I don’t have any higher tier loyalty status but I do with Cunard so receive priority boarding. I have just  checked for next cruise on QM2 it says arrival time 12 30 it doesn’t say I can board then. So presumably P&O are the same your time on your boarding pass is when you can begin check in. It doesn’t necessarily mean you can be onboard at or by that time or I am I misunderstanding and it’s different ? If  there has been a delay boarding you still get priority with Cunard and get on board in one of the first tranches. If the ship is not ready it’s not ready. I did do a Britannia cruise in May and was onboard about 1 30 ish and was surprised my cabin was not ready and I couldn’t drop my bag or collect my cruise card. 

[Ardennais]

16 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Well it doesn’t have to be to the precise minute, no, but it would be nice if they could board at around the time they have been told, as we’d like to meet up with them for lunch. Surely that’s not an unreasonable expectation?

No, of course not! It just seems to me from reading these boards that people are over-thinking the parking/boarding process and getting worked up unnecessarily.