Check-in times at Southampton

[AlanChez]

Hi

 

Can anyone please advise on how strict the check-in times are at Mayflower Terminal in Southampton?

 

I've never had a problem arriving earlier than my allocated check-in time before, but I'm seeing reports of people having to wait outside the Terminal Building until nearer their slot.

 

We are Platinum so hopefully won't be a problem for us, but we are travelling with friends who are newbies.

 

Thanks for your help.

[Poole Boy]

Cunard assign boarding times to match the number of people who can be checked in at the terminal. If people turn up early, all that happens is the number of people at the terminal exceeds the number of people who can embark the ship, so queues start to form and people get held outside as the terminal becomes to crowded.  For a more comfortable boarding experience its best to stick to your boarding time ( please note priority does not mean early, I'm diamond and routinely have a 3:30 boarding time) Priority means you go to the front of the checking queue, when you arrive at you assigned time.  Many will say just turn up , you may be lucky and go straight through the terminal, or you may be held outside as the terminal is overcrowded, it a chance you take on the day.

[3rdGenCunarder]

I'm Diamond and the last two times at Southampton I was waved right in. The person looking at passes just saw Priority and didn't say anything about the time. There were people lined up outside the building waiting to check in. I guess they were non-priority who arrived early. I don't know if/how the staff consider assigned times or if it's just queue in the order you got to the terminal. Last time I was very early because my Uber showed up a half hour early. The only passengers in the terminal were the grills, diamonds, and platinums. The non-priority seats were empty. 

 

It's a long time since we sailed with friends who aren't platinum or diamond, so I don't know how they would handle non-priority traveling with priority passengers.  

[Pushpit]

From what I can make out from many goes at this, if you turn up at 12:30 hrs, and you are Platinum, Diamond or Grills, you will be able to enter the building eventually, but there maybe a queue and if you don't belong to these groups you may be held outside. Intercruises tend to keep non priorities on the left side, priorities on the right side, and feed that right side into the door.

 

By approx 13:30, Intercruises lets everyone in (it can be sooner) but the Platinum, Diamond, Grills queue will be low or non existent.

 

By approx 14:30 all queues are short.

 

By approx 15:30, you will be onboard in 10 minutes flat regardless.

 

By approx 16:00, you get escorted on with unsubtle hints to arrive a little earlier next time.

 

Intercruises know the Cunard set-up, in terms of staterooms and CWC status, inside out. They aren't that bothered about the time on your boarding pass, but they are bothered to manage congestion before 14:00 hrs.

[majortom10]

We are Diamond CWC members and on Sunday on QA we have a check in time of 1-30pm and nowhere on the the boarding pass does it say "priority boarding".

 

[exlondoner]

11 hours ago, Pushpit said:

From what I can make out from many goes at this, if you turn up at 12:30 hrs, and you are Platinum, Diamond or Grills, you will be able to enter the building eventually, but there maybe a queue and if you don't belong to these groups you may be held outside. Intercruises tend to keep non priorities on the left side, priorities on the right side, and feed that right side into the door.

 

By approx 13:30, Intercruises lets everyone in (it can be sooner) but the Platinum, Diamond, Grills queue will be low or non existent.

 

By approx 14:30 all queues are short.

 

By approx 15:30, you will be onboard in 10 minutes flat regardless.

 

By approx 16:00, you get escorted on with unsubtle hints to arrive a little earlier next time.

 

Intercruises know the Cunard set-up, in terms of staterooms and CWC status, inside out. They aren't that bothered about the time on your boarding pass, but they are bothered to manage congestion before 14:00 hrs.

Some of Intercruises employees know nothing. A few cruises ago, I asked a man on the door where the Grills priority queue was, and he said he didn’t know anything about Cunard as he worked for Intercruises and I would have to ask on board. Luckily the next person I encountered flapped me in the right direction.

[stephen@stoneyard.co.uk]

From what I can gather Intercruise are not booked to handle any Carnival PLC ships at Southampton. Carnival are doing it themselves. Intercruise tends to be Royal Caribbean Group ships.  As far as I know it has been that way for years. 

[Pushpit]

16 minutes ago, stephen@stoneyard.co.uk said:

From what I can gather Intercruise are not booked to handle any Carnival PLC ships at Southampton. Carnival are doing it themselves. Intercruise tends to be Royal Caribbean Group ships.  As far as I know it has been that way for years. 

OK, in which case people working for Carnival but wearing clothes marked "Intercruises Shoreside & Port Services" are doing the handling. But that sounds a bit odd to me.

[exlondoner]

1 minute ago, Pushpit said:

OK, in which case people working for Carnival but wearing clothes marked "Intercruises Shoreside & Port Services" are doing the handling. But that sounds a bit odd to me.

Yes, they are certainly cunningly disguised as Intercruise employees.

[Pushpit]

42 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

We are Diamond CWC members and on Sunday on QA we have a check in time of 1-30pm and nowhere on the the boarding pass does it say "priority boarding".

 

That's normal. As is pointed out, Diamond implies the priority queue line (the first set of desks if main boarding has started), and the queue management agents will know that. I am presuming the word Diamond does appear on your boarding pass, and what you will find is that you will have priority - after check-in - over Club passengers, who will have Priority on their boarding passes.

[stephen@stoneyard.co.uk]

38 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Yes, they are certainly cunningly disguised as Intercruise employees.

I thought I had seen Intercruise even when in theory not. I wonder if they further outsource from themselves to Intercruise. Thank you.

[exlondoner]

It does make sense that they are outsourced. Often there are days when Carnival have no ships in, while on other days they have three. The staff need to be used as evenly as possible.

[david63]

3 minutes ago, stephen@stoneyard.co.uk said:

I thought I had seen Intercruise even when in theory not. I wonder if they further outsource from themselves to Intercruise. Thank you.

Perhaps they have a "one size fits all" uniform😂

[exlondoner]

2 minutes ago, david63 said:

Perhaps they have a "one size fits all" uniform😂

The uniform is not always the same. Women wear differentiated scarfs according to what line they are doing that day. I think that is quite impressive: it would certainly be beyond me to get it right first thing in the morning. 

[Bell Boy]

3 hours ago, majortom10 said:

We are Diamond CWC members and on Sunday on QA we have a check in time of 1-30pm and nowhere on the the boarding pass does it say "priority boarding".

 

It states Diamond , which is all the agent needs to know.  

[vsbc]

On a slightly different note. I will be boarding QA in Southampton for my first ever cruise on the 28th with an arrival time of 12:30. We are staying at a local hotel the night before.
 

What are the local taxi services like? I can imagine it could get pretty busy if there are other ships also embarking.

Edited July 10 by vsbc

[rakkor]

Last September we took the train down and got an Uber from outside the train station to the Mayflower without any issues - The taxi rank on the south side was closed for building works and the North Side rank, while open needed a lift to get up and down with luggage, so we crossed the carriageway outside the station and ordered an Uber from there - painless

[BigMac1953]

41 minutes ago, vsbc said:

 

What are the local taxi services like? I can imagine it could get pretty busy if there are other ships also embarking.

 

Expensive, but plentiful.

[exlondoner]

1 hour ago, vsbc said:

On a slightly different note. I will be boarding QA in Southampton for my first ever cruise on the 28th with an arrival time of 12:30. We are staying at a local hotel the night before.
 

What are the local taxi services like? I can imagine it could get pretty busy if there are other ships also embarking.

The hotel will sort it for you, if you ask them. There are usually plenty of taxis.

[vsbc]

Thank you for the informative responses. I expected expensive but wasn’t sure about the plentiful! Yes, I’m sure the hotel will be well used to organising taxis.

Edited July 10 by vsbc

[Pushpit]

1 hour ago, vsbc said:

On a slightly different note. I will be boarding QA in Southampton for my first ever cruise on the 28th with an arrival time of 12:30. We are staying at a local hotel the night before.
 

What are the local taxi services like? I can imagine it could get pretty busy if there are other ships also embarking.

Southampton is well provided for with taxis, and it's a bit old school there, but with the additional presence of Uber. Old school in the sense that there are well staffed taxi ranks all over the city, there are 5 of them within a short distance of each other between West Quay and the Guildhall. Cunard is not the big player here, there are many other cruise operators, a big rail station, other vessels with crews, and local ferries to the Isle of Wight.

 

The rail station to Mayflower terminal is around £8.50, so that's a ten pound note with the tip, but that gives you the official city council set rate. That's just over a mile. One can't hail them in the street, you either call up for an official city taxi from one of a dozen companies, or go to the rank (or get the hotel to do it). Uber will be different and sometimes cheaper, sometimes more expensive.

 

I shouldn't say this if boarding, since you're not supposed to do this, but if your hotel is one of the many near Décathlon West Quay, then you can use the half hourly free shuttle from there. It's indeed as the shopping shuttle by transfer passengers and off duty crew, but they never check. Many passengers walk to Mayflower, it's an interesting walk in nice weather

 

But yes, your hotel reception will doubtless have a favoured company, who will bring the staff some nice things at Christmas in return for a fast track service. It will be on city council set rate, so you won't be over-paying.

[david63]

8 minutes ago, Pushpit said:

then you can use the half hourly free shuttle from there. It's indeed as the shopping shuttle by transfer passengers and off duty crew, but they never check

Would you not be a bit conspicuous using that shuttle when you are lugging half a dozen suitcases?😇

[Pushpit]

Just now, david63 said:

Would you not be a bit conspicuous using that shuttle when you are lugging half a dozen suitcases?😇

It's probably impractical if you have half a dozen cases, but if it's just one or two, well there are plenty of people on them with said cases. There are crew leaving and joining the ship via these shuttles and so some bags are expected. Formally you are supposed to show your keycard to the driver, but I've never seen that happen.

[TouchstoneFeste]

You might want to check how many big ships will be in port that day  to judge the competition, so to speak. 

 

Over on the British Isles/Western Europe forum, this topic is covered extensively,  and one piece of advice I've seen repeatedly is to book the taxi through the hotel the night before,  perhaps as you check in.

 

All that said,  taxis are plentiful, and the rides are short. 

[3rdGenCunarder]

13 hours ago, TouchstoneFeste said:

You might want to check how many big ships will be in port that day  to judge the competition, so to speak. 

 

Over on the British Isles/Western Europe forum, this topic is covered extensively,  and one piece of advice I've seen repeatedly is to book the taxi through the hotel the night before,  perhaps as you check in.

 

All that said,  taxis are plentiful, and the rides are short. 

 

I don't know if other hotels do this, but Premier Inn West Quay has a phone in the lobby that connects directly to a taxi service. I usually call and make my booking early on the morning of departure.