Cruise Parking - Iona

[Megabear2]

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10909506

 

Companies House history for Portside Meet & Greet

 

See on this link which has some details 

https://emmacruises.com/meet-and-greet-parking-southampton-cruise-parking-options/

 

Edited August 1, 2023 by Megabear2

[AndyLovesCruises]

40 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10909506

 

Companies House history for Portside Meet & Greet

 

See on this link which has some details 

https://emmacruises.com/meet-and-greet-parking-southampton-cruise-parking-options/

 

 

I absolutely trust Emma Cruises so if she's promoting it I would be VERY surprised if its dodgy.  

 

Famous last words! 

[9265359]

4 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10909506

 

Companies House history for Portside Meet & Greet

 

 

Except that The Company, Limited Liability Partnership and Business (Names and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2015 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/17/regulation/25/made require all those details to be included on a company's website, as do the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2013/regulation/6/made

 

That a company has chosen to break two laws by choosing not to include the address they are operating from would not make me inclined to trust them with my car.

[kalos]

Using the address given Scragg hill I Google mapped it on satellite view 

and this is what came up minus the shed 1  bit of address ,

could this be it ?  

I dunno ,so not for me ..

 

https://www.google.com/maps/search/Scragg+Hill+Botley+Road,+North+Baddesley,+Southampton,+England,+SO52+9DD/@50.9837106,-1.4515419,116m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu

[Winifred 22]

Not where you would want your car left. 

[9265359]

57 minutes ago, Winifred 22 said:

Not where you would want your car left. 

Could be worse. Many of these non-official meet and greet companies just dump the cars on a random residential street.

 

For ‘meet and greet’ companies, I will only use an official port or airport operator where there is video of the car taken on drop-off and the car isn’t going to leave the port or airport. 
 

And even then I am turning on the ‘valet mode’ my car has that will track its location, miles driven, and even records the maximum speed the car has been driven.

[Winifred 22]

13 minutes ago, 9265359 said:

Could be worse. Many of these non-official meet and greet companies just dump the cars on a random residential street.

 

For ‘meet and greet’ companies, I will only use an official port or airport operator where there is video of the car taken on drop-off and the car isn’t going to leave the port or airport. 
 

And even then I am turning on the ‘valet mode’ my car has that will track its location, miles driven, and even records the maximum speed the car has been driven.

Whole new world to me. I used to use CPS and never had a problem. I now park at a local Marina where I have use of a space  and just take a taxi to and from my car. 

[9265359]

9 minutes ago, Winifred 22 said:

I used to use CPS and never had a problem.

CPS is fine. Video taken of the car and each time I have used them the car has moved about 100 meters into the compound next door.

 

However a company offering a meet and greet service where you have no idea where the car is going to be kept, and they avoid providing an address to contact them as the law requires - not for me.

[Megabear2]

6 hours ago, 9265359 said:

 

Except that The Company, Limited Liability Partnership and Business (Names and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2015 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/17/regulation/25/made require all those details to be included on a company's website, as do the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2013/regulation/6/made

 

That a company has chosen to break two laws by choosing not to include the address they are operating from would not make me inclined to trust them with my car.

I am not advocating one way or the other and have no knowledge of the company simply providing the links for the OP to do his research.  I recall he has had major problems even finding a company offering car parking due to everything being full so I guess he has booked this parking based on the fact Holiday Extras are considered reputable.

 

For my part I am aware Holiday Extras trade very much on their name from when they were effectively linked (almost an affiliate) to Thomas Cook in particular and they continue to have these "unofficial" links with TUI, Jet2 and the main cruise lines. These links should mean they will offer a proper product.

 

They behaved very badly during the pandemic like a great many other travel companies.  For instance they lost the right to offer official Gatwick parking and now only offer their own company Purple Parking who they took over in 2017 after Purple Parking went into administration. During the pandemi they failed to offer and provide refunds but certainly weren't alone in this. The real problem appears to be they introduced vouchers with such onerous conditions it was almost impossible to spend them and reviews show they still operate this voucher system with many complaints. Therefore I'm guessing that the OP will be locked into his parking anyway with little other option.

 

Personally I dislike Holiday Extras and actively avoid any association with them but I am aware many thousands do use them and as such they are considered reputable so assumedly any offering of port parking in Southampton should be also.

 

Perhaps the OP would be so kind as to give a review on his return as it might be useful going forward to know how he gets on.

[mickyc123]

Used them in June through Holiday extras as wanted option to charge  our EV car.

they was excellent and couldn’t fault them at all.

very polite and efficient 

have since booked again direct this time for October cruise

 

 

[Fionboard]

HX charged me 30 percent more for a hotel cruise package than direct with hotel Never again. Book direct always now. 

[AndyLovesCruises]

7 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

I am not advocating one way or the other and have no knowledge of the company simply providing the links for the OP to do his research.  I recall he has had major problems even finding a company offering car parking due to everything being full so I guess he has booked this parking based on the fact Holiday Extras are considered reputable.

 

For my part I am aware Holiday Extras trade very much on their name from when they were effectively linked (almost an affiliate) to Thomas Cook in particular and they continue to have these "unofficial" links with TUI, Jet2 and the main cruise lines. These links should mean they will offer a proper product.

 

They behaved very badly during the pandemic like a great many other travel companies.  For instance they lost the right to offer official Gatwick parking and now only offer their own company Purple Parking who they took over in 2017 after Purple Parking went into administration. During the pandemi they failed to offer and provide refunds but certainly weren't alone in this. The real problem appears to be they introduced vouchers with such onerous conditions it was almost impossible to spend them and reviews show they still operate this voucher system with many complaints. Therefore I'm guessing that the OP will be locked into his parking anyway with little other option.

 

Personally I dislike Holiday Extras and actively avoid any association with them but I am aware many thousands do use them and as such they are considered reputable so assumedly any offering of port parking in Southampton should be also.

 

Perhaps the OP would be so kind as to give a review on his return as it might be useful going forward to know how he gets on.

 

I have booked with them now so we will see how it goes.  

 

With regards to the address not being on the website, I have never found a meet and greet company that show the off site address, personally would I want a site with 100's of cars unattended clearly advertised?  Probably not.   

 

If I was running that business I would at least show images of the site, however looking on google earth its not a great space for marketing purposes, but is well fenced off  and the owner would appear to be living on site. 

 

I'll will report back on this thread once I have had the trip 🙂

 

Edited August 2, 2023 by AndyLovesCruises

[majortom10]

13 hours ago, 9265359 said:

CPS is fine. Video taken of the car and each time I have used them the car has moved about 100 meters into the compound next door.

 

However a company offering a meet and greet service where you have no idea where the car is going to be kept, and they avoid providing an address to contact them as the law requires - not for me.

CPS park your car's within the the confides of the docks but it is not at the car park where you pick your car up from on disembarkation. Cars are stored and then returned to that car park for disembarkation for every cruise that operates with Cunard, P&O and Princess. The car park isn't big enough to store cars for duration of cruises because of the daily use of cruise ships.

[kalos]

49 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

HX charged me 30 percent more for a hotel cruise package than direct with hotel Never again. Book direct always now. 

 Don't think it's just HX  ..Buck com and the rest, I find 9 out of 10 you pay more .

Just did a dummy booking with a hotel chain up near Man airport .

The booking site wanted £84 with a breakfast for 2 of us .

Meanwhile the hotel direct booking wanted £57.38 for the exact same thing .

 

I always check the comparison between HX and others but find a better deal most 

times going direct .

[9265359]

11 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Personally I dislike Holiday Extras and actively avoid any association with them but I am aware many thousands do use them and as such they are considered reputable so assumedly any offering of port parking in Southampton should be also.

 

To quote from the HE website - 

 

"We act as a booking agent for the companies that provide or operate the travel products we sell on our website. Your contract for the provision of these travel products will be with the applicable provider of them, and they have their own terms and conditions."

 

And so as agents you might hope that they vet the companies they act as agents for, but then again an awful lot of agents don't.

 

11 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Perhaps the OP would be so kind as to give a review on his return as it might be useful going forward to know how he gets on.

 

Unless they have a tracker installed in their car then they won't know where it has been taken, and if it was dumped on a street corner but the OP was luck and it was returned with no damage then is that a good review?

 

4 hours ago, AndyLovesCruises said:

With regards to the address not being on the website, I have never found a meet and greet company that show the off site address, personally would I want a site with 100's of cars unattended clearly advertised?  Probably not.   

 

Perhaps not.

 

But I would expect the company to comply with the law and have *a* physical address shown on their website, even if it is simply the office they operate from.

 

4 hours ago, majortom10 said:

CPS park your car's within the the confides of the docks but it is not at the car park where you pick your car up from on disembarkation. Cars are stored and then returned to that car park for disembarkation for every cruise that operates with Cunard, P&O and Princess. The car park isn't big enough to store cars for duration of cruises because of the daily use of cruise ships.

 

Every time I have used CPS the tracker I have in my car has shown it has moved the few hundred yards to the parking space where I collected it a fortnight later, and it didn't move anywhere else in the interim.

[Winifred 22]

11 minutes ago, 9265359 said:

 

To quote from the HE website - 

 

"We act as a booking agent for the companies that provide or operate the travel products we sell on our website. Your contract for the provision of these travel products will be with the applicable provider of them, and they have their own terms and conditions."

 

And so as agents you might hope that they vet the companies they act as agents for, but then again an awful lot of agents don't.

 

 

Unless they have a tracker installed in their car then they won't know where it has been taken, and if it was dumped on a street corner but the OP was luck and it was returned with no damage then is that a good review?

 

 

Perhaps not.

 

But I would expect the company to comply with the law and have *a* physical address shown on their website, even if it is simply the office they operate from.

 

 

Every time I have used CPS the tracker I have in my car has shown it has moved the few hundred yards to the parking space where I collected it a fortnight later, and it didn't move anywhere else in the interim.

My family and I have been on overlapping cruises on occasions and when we used to use CPS we have seen the other’s car and photographed them and they always were in the same spot on return. By the mileage the furtherest mine  ever travelled was when arrival was  at a different terminal so it obviously had to be moved to meet me. The only reason we don’t use them now is we have parking spaces allocated at a local Marina and we park there and taxi to and fro. 

Edited August 2, 2023 by Winifred 22

[Megabear2]

43 minutes ago, 9265359 said:

 

To quote from the HE website - 

 

"We act as a booking agent for the companies that provide or operate the travel products we sell on our website. Your contract for the provision of these travel products will be with the applicable provider of them, and they have their own terms and conditions."

 

And so as agents you might hope that they vet the companies they act as agents for, but then again an awful lot of agents don't.

 

 

Unless they have a tracker installed in their car then they won't know where it has been taken, and if it was dumped on a street corner but the OP was luck and it was returned with no damage then is that a good revi

 

Perhaps not.

 

But I would expect the company to comply with the law and have *a* physical address shown on their website, even if it is simply the office they operate from.

 

 

Every time I have used CPS the tracker I have in my car has shown it has moved the few hundred yards to the parking space where I collected it a fortnight later, and it didn't move anywhere else in the interim.

As the OP has already explained he has a confirmed booking with this company which was the only option available to him for the date he required, it seems rather unnecessary for us to continue to comment at this stage.  I was pleased to see a positive comment from Mickeyc123 who has used them previously.  

 

Rather than looking at what might go wrong for the OP I prefer to hope it goes well and he can report back to us a positive experience.  I'd think with parking at the port now becoming something of an issue if an alternative turns up and is fine it would be a good thing for all cruisers to hear about.

[Cloudyrain]

3 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

As the OP has already explained he has a confirmed booking with this company which was the only option available to him for the date he required, it seems rather unnecessary for us to continue to comment at this stage.  I was pleased to see a positive comment from Mickeyc123 who has used them previously.  

 

Rather than looking at what might go wrong for the OP I prefer to hope it goes well and he can report back to us a positive experience.  I'd think with parking at the port now becoming something of an issue if an alternative turns up and is fine it would be a good thing for all cruisers to hear about.

Totally agree with you: and I have used them also on several occasions and had no issues. I don’t see there is a massive risk: it’s via HX who would (and do in my experience with booking things via with them over the last 10+ years) deal with any problems that might occur, and I really don’t think anyone is going to go to the effort of setting up and running a profitable business for several years to then think “oh yes, I’m going to steal that holiday makers 8 year old C-max with 50,000 miles on the clock and get £500 scrap for it” 😂

 

although I was one of the Thomas Cook cruise customers who was as days away from travelling when the (supposedly) “long standing stable business” went bust so I suppose anything’s possible. 

Edited August 2, 2023 by Cloudyrain

[terrierjohn]

4 hours ago, 9265359 said:

 

To quote from the HE website - 

 

"We act as a booking agent for the companies that provide or operate the travel products we sell on our website. Your contract for the provision of these travel products will be with the applicable provider of them, and they have their own terms and conditions."

 

And so as agents you might hope that they vet the companies they act as agents for, but then again an awful lot of agents don't.

 

 

Unless they have a tracker installed in their car then they won't know where it has been taken, and if it was dumped on a street corner but the OP was luck and it was returned with no damage then is that a good review?

 

 

Perhaps not.

 

But I would expect the company to comply with the law and have *a* physical address shown on their website, even if it is simply the office they operate from.

 

 

Every time I have used CPS the tracker I have in my car has shown it has moved the few hundred yards to the parking space where I collected it a fortnight later, and it didn't move anywhere else in the interim.

You were very lucky that no other ships were involved in between, or possibly you were only on 7 day cruises,in which case your scenario could apply.

[majortom10]

4 hours ago, 9265359 said:

 

To quote from the HE website - 

 

"We act as a booking agent for the companies that provide or operate the travel products we sell on our website. Your contract for the provision of these travel products will be with the applicable provider of them, and they have their own terms and conditions."

 

And so as agents you might hope that they vet the companies they act as agents for, but then again an awful lot of agents don't.

 

 

Unless they have a tracker installed in their car then they won't know where it has been taken, and if it was dumped on a street corner but the OP was luck and it was returned with no damage then is that a good review?

 

 

Perhaps not.

 

But I would expect the company to comply with the law and have *a* physical address shown on their website, even if it is simply the office they operate from.

 

 

Every time I have used CPS the tracker I have in my car has shown it has moved the few hundred yards to the parking space where I collected it a fortnight later, and it didn't move anywhere else in the interim.

Sorry but what happens to all the other cars that are left with CPS after you have parked and perhaps return before you do. CPS park there cars within port and return the cars to that car park the day before you arrive so they are ready for disembarkation. You think of the number of cruises that use Ocean or Mayflower terminals and park with CPS it would be physically impossible to park and store all the cars on that car park. If you say yours is stored there what happens to all other cars staying with CPS after you have left for your cruise. P&O, Cunard and Princess use CPS and hundreds of cars i8f not thousands are parked and that car park is not physically big enough to store all cars. They are driven away to a compound and stored and the drivers are returned to the terminal in a mini bus for the next cars. Port authority rules are that the cars are then returned to the terminal the day before and that is when they are taken to the car park ready for your disembarkation. If you dont believe me ring CPS and ask them where they store the cars and do they return them to the terminal.

Edited August 2, 2023 by majortom10

[9265359]

1 hour ago, majortom10 said:

If you say yours is stored there what happens to all other cars staying with CPS after you have left for your cruise. 

Sorry but not the faintest idea.

 

But what I can tell you is that on each of the occasions I have used CPS the car has moved a few hundred yards and there it has remained for the fortnight until I returned.

[AndyLovesCruises]

**UPDATE**  

 

So having booked this some weeks ago, I reached out to the company this morning as I wanted to find out the exact drop off point.  The website just says the 'short stay car park'

 

I jumped on google maps and there was no short stay car part at Berth 46 the listed car parks that I could see were 

 

CPS Car Park

AB Car Park

Triangle Car Park

Platform Car Park

 

I jumped onto Portside meet and great as they had a chat box and left them a message asking for a name or a post code, the replied a few hours later.  Here my question :

 

Do you have the postcode or address for the short stay car park at Ocean Terminal? All the booking info just says look for the signs but an address would be most helpful. On google maps around Ocean terminal Berth 46 cannot see any short stay car parks. 

 

They just told me its 100 yards from the Berth, when I asked for a name or postcode they just repeated the answer but then said 200 yards from the berth.  I pressed again and said it was a bit strange

 

there reply was : 

 

• Every terminal has its own short stay capark across the road from the ship..the is the SHORT STAY CARPARK............

  9:51
• No idea why you find it strange!!!

  9:52
• is this your level of customer service?

  9:52
• Please book elsewhere ....

  9:52
• I think I will 🙂

 

Now am I being a difficult customer? Maybe.  Having traveled from S'hampton a few times its usually gridlock on a saturday with 3-4 ships in port.  I'm traveling with my wife and toddler so really don't have time to fath around, all they needed to do was maybe add a few images to their website and making the process simpler than '1,2,3' and I would have gone with it.  

 

Needless to say I canceled the booking and managed to find a spot with CPS.  Its cost me another £50.00 but id rather pay double to be fair.  I wont be leaving my Cayenne in their hands for a week! 

[Megabear2]

1 minute ago, AndyLovesCruises said:

**UPDATE**  

 

So having booked this some weeks ago, I reached out to the company this morning as I wanted to find out the exact drop off point.  The website just says the 'short stay car park'

 

I jumped on google maps and there was no short stay car part at Berth 46 the listed car parks that I could see were 

 

CPS Car Park

AB Car Park

Triangle Car Park

Platform Car Park

 

I jumped onto Portside meet and great as they had a chat box and left them a message asking for a name or a post code, the replied a few hours later.  Here my question :

 

Do you have the postcode or address for the short stay car park at Ocean Terminal? All the booking info just says look for the signs but an address would be most helpful. On google maps around Ocean terminal Berth 46 cannot see any short stay car parks. 

 

They just told me its 100 yards from the Berth, when I asked for a name or postcode they just repeated the answer but then said 200 yards from the berth.  I pressed again and said it was a bit strange

 

there reply was : 

 

• Every terminal has its own short stay capark across the road from the ship..the is the SHORT STAY CARPARK............

  9:51
• No idea why you find it strange!!!

  9:52
• is this your level of customer service?

  9:52
• Please book elsewhere ....

  9:52
• I think I will 🙂

 

Now am I being a difficult customer? Maybe.  Having traveled from S'hampton a few times its usually gridlock on a saturday with 3-4 ships in port.  I'm traveling with my wife and toddler so really don't have time to fath around, all they needed to do was maybe add a few images to their website and making the process simpler than '1,2,3' and I would have gone with it.  

 

Needless to say I canceled the booking and managed to find a spot with CPS.  Its cost me another £50.00 but id rather pay double to be fair.  I wont be leaving my Cayenne in their hands for a week! 

That's dreadful attitude.  If you have time I suggest you relay this to Holiday Extras as they were the agent.

 

At least we now know!

[terrierjohn]

5 minutes ago, AndyLovesCruises said:

**UPDATE**  

 

So having booked this some weeks ago, I reached out to the company this morning as I wanted to find out the exact drop off point.  The website just says the 'short stay car park'

 

I jumped on google maps and there was no short stay car part at Berth 46 the listed car parks that I could see were 

 

CPS Car Park

AB Car Park

Triangle Car Park

Platform Car Park

 

I jumped onto Portside meet and great as they had a chat box and left them a message asking for a name or a post code, the replied a few hours later.  Here my question :

 

Do you have the postcode or address for the short stay car park at Ocean Terminal? All the booking info just says look for the signs but an address would be most helpful. On google maps around Ocean terminal Berth 46 cannot see any short stay car parks. 

 

They just told me its 100 yards from the Berth, when I asked for a name or postcode they just repeated the answer but then said 200 yards from the berth.  I pressed again and said it was a bit strange

 

there reply was : 

 

• Every terminal has its own short stay capark across the road from the ship..the is the SHORT STAY CARPARK............

  9:51
• No idea why you find it strange!!!

  9:52
• is this your level of customer service?

  9:52
• Please book elsewhere ....

  9:52
• I think I will 🙂

 

Now am I being a difficult customer? Maybe.  Having traveled from S'hampton a few times its usually gridlock on a saturday with 3-4 ships in port.  I'm traveling with my wife and toddler so really don't have time to fath around, all they needed to do was maybe add a few images to their website and making the process simpler than '1,2,3' and I would have gone with it.  

 

Needless to say I canceled the booking and managed to find a spot with CPS.  Its cost me another £50.00 but id rather pay double to be fair.  I wont be leaving my Cayenne in their hands for a week! 

Yes you are being difficult, both Ocean and Mayflower have short stay car parks that are clearly signposted as you drive out of the luggage drop off zone, but I doubt they have their own specific postcode or address.

[kalos]

7 minutes ago, AndyLovesCruises said:

**UPDATE**  

 

So having booked this some weeks ago, I reached out to the company this morning as I wanted to find out the exact drop off point.  The website just says the 'short stay car park'

 

I jumped on google maps and there was no short stay car part at Berth 46 the listed car parks that I could see were 

 

CPS Car Park

AB Car Park

Triangle Car Park

Platform Car Park

 

I jumped onto Portside meet and great as they had a chat box and left them a message asking for a name or a post code, the replied a few hours later.  Here my question :

 

Do you have the postcode or address for the short stay car park at Ocean Terminal? All the booking info just says look for the signs but an address would be most helpful. On google maps around Ocean terminal Berth 46 cannot see any short stay car parks. 

 

They just told me its 100 yards from the Berth, when I asked for a name or postcode they just repeated the answer but then said 200 yards from the berth.  I pressed again and said it was a bit strange

 

there reply was : 

 

• Every terminal has its own short stay capark across the road from the ship..the is the SHORT STAY CARPARK............

  9:51
• No idea why you find it strange!!!

  9:52
• is this your level of customer service?

  9:52
• Please book elsewhere ....

  9:52
• I think I will 🙂

 

Now am I being a difficult customer? Maybe.  Having traveled from S'hampton a few times its usually gridlock on a saturday with 3-4 ships in port.  I'm traveling with my wife and toddler so really don't have time to fath around, all they needed to do was maybe add a few images to their website and making the process simpler than '1,2,3' and I would have gone with it.  

 

Needless to say I canceled the booking and managed to find a spot with CPS.  Its cost me another £50.00 but id rather pay double to be fair.  I wont be leaving my Cayenne in their hands for a week! 

 

You said you booked with H X and if I was you a review would be left on their site .

I that's how they treat you when booking ,then imagine any damage or complaint 

post cruise ?  

You are well out of it !