MyriamS

When your ship docks near the city centre, I would stop at every port, if only for an hour or two. Most European cities have compact, walkable city centres so you can easily take in some of the sights then come back to the ship as soon as you're tired. When your ship doesn't dock near the centre, then I would consider taking a shore excursion, or skipping the port entirely if there aren't major sights. One example might be Marseille if you don't tender in the Vieux Port. The modern port is really far from the centre, there is a free shuttle organised by the port but it probably is extremely busy. Not really worth the hassle, in my opinion. Marseille is not a touristy city, though it's also part of its charm. It's a real city where real people live, so it's probably interesting for visitors to see. I'm French and found it very normal and not particularly unsafe, though I did not go out at night. Unfortunately August is the worst month for the Med in my opinion (I appreciate you probably had little choice for the dates with children). It's super busy and the weather can be blisteringly hot. If the temperature is above 35Celsius, I wouldn't go anywhere except to the pool/beach.

Mine are still all there (Sept 24).

If you're referring to me, I assure you I was not being provocative. I just assumed self-disembarking passengers would not have much luggage (it would be highly impractical to drag several large suitcases around the ship and terminal, even with lifts!) and disembarking passengers would have almost none (since they left it outside their cabins) so the lifts would not be too crowded. But clearly I am wrong. I'll keep my suggestions to myself in the future.

Now I'm confused because I was told by most people in this thread that I cannot just join a queue to leave the ship. Either I need to self-disembark early, or wait for my normal disembarkation slot (that is assigned to me a couple of days before arrival and that I might not be able to change). Anyway my earlier post were just suggestions of things that could ease the queues for everyone. It makes sense that self-disembarkation starts before normal disembarkation, but I don't see why it has to end before it. You could have both happening at the same time with no congestion if you would split the queues.

Many people in this thread blame the selfish and unruly passengers who do not respect their disembarkation time. However, it does look like P&O could do more to make the disembarkation process more pleasant, which would increase compliance. First, I would have the self-disembarkation and disembarkation happen simultaneously, just in two different lines. For regular disembarkation, take the leftmost line which leads you to the luggage hall to find your suitcases. For self-disembarkation, take the rightmost line which goes through the luggage hall but is roped off. This means that self-disembarking passengers are not blocking regular passengers from finding their items, nor are being blocked by them from exiting the hall asap. Then, ask passengers to opt for regular disembarkation or self-disembarkation, and choose a disembarkation slot in the "app". Regular disembarkation time slots could be 30min long because it takes time for passengers to locate all their luggage. Self-disembarkation slots could pack the same amount of passengers in only 15min, because the only bottlenecks to self-disembarkation is the crew scanning your card. Wishes could be granted in order of loyalty. People who have cruised with P&O for years would have their wishes granted almost always, and be rewarded for their loyalty. People who are new to P&O would still stand a chance to get their preferred disembarkation time, especially if they are willing to self-disembark.

We dress very simply. A weeks worth of clothes takes very little space and, if we're away for more than a week, we book accommodation with laundromats and wash and dry our clothes for a small fee. One pair of sensible walking shoes per person. In the summer, I might slip in a pair of sandals but they hardly take any space. No makeup. No fancy toiletries (my partner has a small tube of hand cream and I have a small bottle of conditioner). My partner also carries a basic medkit. All books on Kindle. No other devices besides our smartphones and chargers except if on working holiday. As mentioned earlier, both our bags fits under a airplane seat, though my partner is a tight squeeze so he uses the overhead bins if there is space left. Formal clothes can be neatly folded, but classy shoes for men take up a lot of space, so we might give formal night a miss because of that. Why anyone would care about my partner's shoes when they will be hidden under the table for 95% of our dinner baffles me, but this seems to be the way on P&O. Anyway, thank you for the advice, everyone. It seems on recent Iona cruises, the self-disembarkation slot was 7:30-8:15, so we will plan with that in mind.

Hi everyone, I read that Olive Grove must now be booked onboard Iona. What are our chances to secure a spot for lunch or dinner on the second day of our cruise (it is a sea day and celebration night)? We don't have loyalty with P&O so are expecting to be some of the last people to board the ship.

Hmm why? Did the staff suspect these passengers to be trying to "sneak in" early in the luggage hall by joining the self-disembarkation queue? If so, I hope we won't be held back because it looks like we don't have enough luggage. We really have nothing more than 1 backpack each, as hard as it seems to believe for some people (last time we flew to the US, the check-in agent seemed flabbergasted by our lack of suitcases).

I have to disagree with you there. When you build a cruise ship the size of Iona, then you need to be able to manage a very large number of people getting on your ship, off your ship, and everything in between (meals, shows etc.) If self-disembarkation is very popular on Iona and it results in a huge stampede of people at 7:30 am, it's very much on the cruise line for telling everyone they could all leave the ship at that time, and not on the passengers. We definitely won't have any luggage to leave at our door, so normal disembarkation and self-disembarkation are the exact same process for us. The only difference is the time. Do they ask passengers for their preferences regarding disembarkation time (of course you're not guaranteed to get your preferred slot, but would be nice of them to ask), or is it all automatically allocated?

@EM35 Yes, I'm indeed on Iona! I should have specified that in the first post. We definitely won't be taking a taxi to the station. The distance is what I walk to get to work, so a very easy distance for me. As said in the original post, our amount of luggage truly is minimal. I have a small backpack and my boyfriend has a slightly larger one, but it still fits under the seat of an airplane. We won't be clogging the corridors with that! I have to admit, I found it quite funny when one post said "Disembarkation is a complex choreography, you have to do what P&O tells you" then the next one "People did what P&O told them (self-disembark at 7.30am) and that created huge chaos". Not blaming any of you for your advice, just reflecting that P&O does not seem to be managing this optimally! Anyway, it seems a 9.30am train is absolutely doable (baring exceptional circumstances, like the ship being 2 hours late). I would wait and see what regular disembarkation slot we are allocated (I suppose we won't get any say in it?) and, if it is too late for our train, just go for the latest possible self-disembarkation slot.

Thanks for your feedback, but I'm bit confused about the "wait for regular disembarkation". Why would I need to wait? I always thought they staggered disembarkation times because people have luggage, sometimes a lot of it, so they don't want everyone to try and grab their suitcases at the same time. But my luggage is with me, so I can just... walk off the ship at basically any time and not be in anyone's way, right?

We will be arriving back in Southampton from our Norway cruise on Saturday 29th June. P&O is not telling us the arrival time, but travel agent websites says 7am. Is there any way to check this? Assuming 7am is correct, I've read that it is possible to self-disembark from 7.30am onwards. Also that one needs to vacate their cabin as early as 8am. If true, we could leave our cabin at 8am, go for a quick buffet breakfast, self-disembark, and walk to Southampton station in plenty of time for the 9:30 service to London. We travel very very light so carrying our own bags off the ship and to the train station is no problem at all for us. Does this plan seem realistic? I understand that due to weather or other impossible to foresee circumstances, the ship might be several hours late. However, I see no off-peak train fares for Southampton to London and anytime fares are outrageously expensive. So we have to gamble with an Advance ticket. We could go later (our flight's not until 6pm, so we won't miss it either way) but I'd much rather do my waiting in central London rather than Southampton.

I kinda agree and disagree. I also like the feeling of an all inclusive holiday and don't want to obsessively keep track of my spending. But on the other hand, would the packages give me a more luxurious holiday? I don't really think so. They include: - Gratuities: I always pay them, so that would be useful for me to have it included. - Wifi: since all my itineraries are in Europe and port intensive, I don't need the Internet package. Actually I would even go farther and say I don't want one. It's good to disconnect while on holiday. - Fitness class: You'd have to pay me to go there. 🙂 - Room service/Ocean now: I might upset some people but I think OceanNow is kinda gimmicky. I mean, if I had it included, I would probably try it once out of curiosity, but I don't think it would enhance my holiday. If I want a drink, I can more easily and quickly order one at a bar rather than send a waiter to my location (also I'm not really comfortable with the medallion being used to track my movements throughout the ship). As for room service, I don't like eating in my room except for small odourless snacks. - Premium dessert/casual dining/speciality dining: Ok this one I have to admit I would use if I had the package. But it's definitely not a must for me. I almost never book any premium food options on cruise because the way I see it, it will 90% of the time be better and cheaper on land. I'm sure Alfredo's pizza is good, but there are tons of even better pizzerias close to me. The MDR is the experience I look forward to: not exceptional but very good food, as many courses as you like, made to order, served by lovely, attentive wait staff. - And finally the drinks: I don't like wine. I don't like beer. I don't like (gasp!) coffee. I can enjoy a good cocktail, but would never have one a day. More like one a week (alcohol makes me woozy). I don't really drink fruit juice or soda either. So if I had the package I would use it only for the occasional cocktail and specialty tea (I do love tea, but the basic kind is often all I need). I know I sound like some kind of weird ascetic, but water and tea are genuinely the only beverages I would drink every day based on personal taste. So I'm not depriving myself by opting out of the drink packages. On the contrary, if I paid for one, I would feel bad for not getting my money's worth. Considering the high prices of drinks on cruise ship, if you like alcoholic drinks and/or speciality coffees, I would definitely go with the OP's approach of "book the package and relax". But for me and many other non-drinkers, it makes no sense, even from a pure enjoyment perspective.

Personally I prefer fixed early dining myself, but I'm on a sailing less than two weeks after these new rules are implemented, so I'm a bit worried it will be chaos. Also wondering if we have any chance of getting our preferred dining at all since we have no loyalty status with Princess: it's not mentioned in the press release, but I suppose people with loyalty status will get to choose first or will have their choice taken into account first?

Thank you for sharing your experiences, everyone. Looks like we have nothing to worry about.