FAB1

I heard from a friend working checking, that passengers on coaches

Are being held onboard for a time before being allowed into the

Terminal building.

Held on board where ? At the terminal or elsewhere ?

Thought they only did this if too many were due to arrive at the same time ?

You can't hold them all back, arrival times still need to be staggered.

Sue

Where does the coach time appear on th CP ? We have free coach travel booked with Intercruises for our December cruise but I have never seen they coach times on the CO for past cruises and I can't see it for the next one.

Its at the top of the itinerary under Hotels and Transfers. It could be that this only applies to transfers for Atlantic Crossings, don't know if it shows for return coach journeys as never done one.

Mine looks like this :-

Hotels & Transfers

30 October All Passengers TRANSFER MANCHERSTER TO AZURA

Your complimentary coach transfer from Manchester Airport to Azura will depart from the Manchester Airport coach station "The Station", located outside the train station, in-between terminals 1 and 2 at 0830. Please ensure you advise us no later than 10 days prior to departure if you no longer require this transfer.

I checked a few days ago and noticed the coach at Gatwick changed from 1200hrs to 1300hrs, but had no notification from P&O which I think is bad, you could be standing there thinking you had missed it with panic setting in lol.

That was my point exactly 😧

Yes the coaches do get priority boarding on arrival but I think P&O want them to arrive later when the cabins are ready to tie in with the new embarkation procedure.

Thing is people may not know their times have changed if they have already printed off their Itinerary. They need to recheck it so hopefully P&O will advise them to do so.

Sue

Following on from my thread on the new embarkation process, I wasn't sure if I mentioned that the coach transfers to Southampton are now leaving much later. Some people may not be aware of this and may need to amend their travel plans, hence my further post

I found this out by accident when checking my Cruise Personaliser and queried this with P&O several times as they have not advised any of their passengers.

This is the latest reply I have had from them this morning:-

"OK, thank you for taking the time to let us know, we are aware of the concerns of our guests with changes to coach times and are taking measures to address these. Best wishes."

Will be interesting to see what these measures are. I did suggest a simple notification advising passengers to check the time on their Cruise Personaliser should suffice.

Sue

P&O do have an alcohol policy:-

We will generally allow a small, reasonable amount to be taken on board for you to enjoy in your cabin, however taking bottles of alcohol into restaurants or lounges will incur a corkage fee of £15 (prices are subject to change) per item (any size) per occasion.

Key words are "to enjoy in your cabin" therefore they should not be taking it out of their cabin to enjoy elsewhere. It is these sort of people who will spoil it for everyone else if P&O decide to stop allowing you to take some on board with you.

Sue

So how did they know the half pint glasses had vodka in them as you can't smell it ?

Were they stupid enough to actually tell strangers they were sat with, that they had brought it in from the cabin 😧

Think I would have told the MD to punish them for their stupidity as well 😂

I am sure P&O could trial it on one of their ships, maybe Oceana. They could simply advertise just one one week cruise as offering an all inclusive package to see how well it sells, then weigh up whether they are out of pocket or just possibly increased their profit.

Sue

No, the shuttle would not call at a supermarket on the way back to the terminal - unless of course the supermarket funds the shuttle ?

Maybe we could have several different shuttles funded by the shops they take you to 😉

Is there any chance the shuttle could call at a supermarket on the way back to the terminal so we could stock up on "provisions" ? 😉😉😉

On that basis alone I can't see P&O funding or allowing it 😂😂😂

Fab1 - They didn't give an explanation. We just got an email from P & O saying for circumstances beyond their control we had been moved seats but looking on the seat planner afterwards it looked to us like a different Aircraft.

The Wilkies - No, we didn't get our money back.

We didn't even get an explanation from Thomas Cook. Just the e mail from P & O the night before. I forgot to put our luggage labels on the cases and only realised when we were in the hotel. So went on Cruise personaliser to print them off and that's when I saw the email otherwise we wouldn't have known until we were in the airport.

Elliejay

Thank you Elliejay

I have heard that they sometimes substitute the aircraft, and like you say they do not asvise their customers. It seems to me that P&O are not very good at keeping their customers informed of changes they make. In my case it is the coach pick up times they have not informed us of.

I am afraid if it was me I would have insisted on a refund for the seats as you did not get what you paid for.

Sue

Be aware that just because you book your seats in advance doesn't automatically mean you will get what you want. We booked our seats on a Thomas Cook flight to Barbados for our Christmas cruise 2013. We booked for a '2 seater' at midnight when bookings opened only to be informed by email the night before our flight that our seats had been changed and there was nothing we could do about it. They changed us to a 3 seat configuration. We were not happy to say the least.

Hope you get what you want.

Elliejay

Did they tell you why they changed your seats ? Was it because they changed the aircraft ?

Sue

Hi

We also were told all the flight details when we booked on 15th July but we didn't get the "Air Notification" until 30th July confirming our flight details.

Its probably best you call P&O to find out why its saying its too soon to book seats then.

Sue

If you have only just booked, I think it takes a few days to sort your flights out. You should get a Flight Notification from the Flights department with all the flight details. I think it might only be when you have received this that you can book your seats.

Sue

The driver does not have a manifest for each coach. My experience is that they load each coach as and when people arrive and once loaded off it goes.

Brian

Thank you Brian.

I suspected that despite reassurances from P&O that we would be on the first coach. I will make sure we are there well before 8.30 😉

What I am slightly worried about is that P&O have changed everybodies time by 1 1/2 to 2 hours but they have not advised anybody 😨

I only found out by chance when checking something else in my cruise personaliser. If lots of people turn up at their original early time they will get on the first coaches and those of us that turn up at the new time will have to wait. I have spoken to P&O over a week ago and asked them to let people know but they have done nothing 😕

Sue

Sorry should have added

Does each driver have a manifest for their coach and only allows those on his list onto the coach ?

Thanks

Sue

Not sure about Birmingham but Manchester coaches leave from 8 am. We had to sign in at the coach station and were given lettered tickets. We were on the first coach, they filled this one then loaded pax with B tickets.

 

We arrived at about 7:30 am and there was a queue at that time.

 

Sue

Hi

Can you clarify the procedure at Manchester Airport please.

We have been assured we are on the first coach at 8.30, are you saying if people on later coaches turn up early they will be given a card based on their arrival time ?

Does this mean that someone may get our places on the first coach and we will be bumped to a later one ?

TIA

P&O have also changed our time from 7.00 to 8.30 from Manchester but we are still on the first coach. All coaches now leave much later to tie in with the new embarkation procedure. They now want you at the cruise terminal much later so that cabins will be ready.

There may not be an earlier coach to change to, you may still be one of the first.

I think that under this new system there are four categories of boarding. The flip chart thing with the plastic letters A - Z has been replaced by large TV screens which have a display split into four. The previous A -Z letters are displayed in one quarter. I am certain one of the other quarters is dedicated to coaches so that as a coach arrives the coach passengers may be handed a voucher and the display can immediately flag them through. In this way a coach never misses a slot as they are variable.

 

Regards John

I think you are correct John. My original post included the following info from P&O that suggests coach passengers embark on arrival without waiting:-

"If you are travelling on a coach using our partner operator, you may find your arrival time is different to the embarkation time on your ticket. In that case, your coach arrival time will dictate the time you embark."

Haven't they just spent millions upgrading Mayflower so it operates same way as City ?

Ok, so I'm a bit confused now. It's been mentioned quite a few times about following other cruise lines but are their passengers different to P & O, in that whatever time they are allocated they stick to that time?. From what's been put on here they will not adhere to their allocated times no matter what. As I mentioned before, if you request a time and it's already been taken, are you then happy to accept your second choice and adhere to it? Highly unlikely it seems.

 

Some are changing tack and saying they're more than happy to sit and wait for 3 hours in the terminal if they arrive early. :rolleyes:. I hope none of you have kids if that's the case. Does Southamton not have anywhere to go for a bite to eat if you arrived thus early?

My guess is most just want to sit and wait in desperation that they'll grab someone else's slot and be well chuffed with themselves.

 

I can just see it now hundreds of people arriving hours beforehand and all sitting in the terminal like happy campers waiting to be called first...:D

Other cruiselines have an online checkin where you can input credit card details etc saving time at the terminal and you are onboard alot quicker/earlier. You can either choose a checkin time or approx time of arrival. The cruise line then know how many people may arrive at any given time.

The way P&O are doing it its a bit of a lottery what checkin time you are given.

I am not sure an airport is a good analogy.

Waiting to board a cramped plane for a journey of many hours is not quite the same as boarding a luxury cruise liner 😉

Still don't see why they can't operate like other cruise lines where you choose your boarding time and checkin on line. Fairest way with the current pricing structure would be on a first come first serve basis for those paying select fare, once slots are full you would have to choose next available. Those paying the saver fare would have no choice much like they do now with the dining.

But why would they not refund the port fees when they havn't had to pay them ?

We missed a port in April due to the weather. They do not compensate nor do they refund the port fees even though we had a sea day instead.

Thanks Sue and John, no there is definitely no time slot allocated to us, however we are not arriving by coach, we have booked a taxi to get us to Southampton, so not sure what is going on. Think I will have to ring P&O to ask. We have just received a (small) cabin upgrade also which means our luggage labels are now showing incorrect information, so I can address both issues at the same time.

I really appreciate both your input as it has clarified everything for me, thank you :)

 

Diane

Sorry Diane, I assumed you would be using the free coach from Gatwick rather than paying for a taxi.

You can print new luggage labels from Cruise Personaliser with the new cabin number on as long as its 24 hrs since you were advised of the upgrade(well done on that by the way)

Sue