World Sector Joining

[harber78]

First cruise booked for San Francisco to Hong Kong. Learning as I go about cruising and seen others joining advice and experience for full cruises where everybody gets on cruise on same day.

 

Does anyone have advice and experience of joining a World Cruise half way through?

 

Do you have to wait hours for your cabin to be ready as a lot already in cabins?

 

Do you have a long wait to join again as a lot on cruise already?

 

I guess as cruise arrives in port on day of joining we would have to wait for people who want to tour San Francisco to leave ship before we can get on but would like to be able to drop hand luggage in cabin straight away if possible.

[CASPALL]

We were on the sector from San Francisco to Auckland. We were bussed from the airport straight to the ship and went into a warehouse type of place where they had check in set up. It took maybe 30 mins before we got on the ship and our cabin was ready.

We were glad we'd been to SFC before as there was no time to go ashore again.

It was dark when we sailed.

We've also joined at Hong Kong for a sector and it was the same set up there.

It all goes so smoothly -good old P&O!

 

Caryl

[harber78]

Good to hear. We are styaing overnight in San Francisco before we board next day and have been to San Francisco before so will have enough time for quick look around and meal before trying to deal with jetlag.

 

Time to buy some soft drinks too to take on board.

[CASPALL]

Excellent!!! Enjoy!

Caryl

[bazzaw]

What about the overall experience of joining the ship mid-voyage?? We will be joining Oriana in Brisbane , halfway through her World cruise - and we will join Arcadia for the first half of hers for the return trip. I can imagine that the two different situations will be quite different experiences.

 

Anything we should be aware of?- eg on Oriana, with some passengers having been onboard for 6 weeks already, I could imagine that some of them may be quite "territorial" :p

 

Barry

[bts378]

turn to the right from the cruise terminal and its only a 5 minute walk - if you do not have a safeway card make sure you ask cashier for one as it means you get cheaper prices

[Merlin7]

We had 3 different sets of table companions on our world cruise.

 

The first 4 people were with us until NZ and then we had a few who were only doing a short hop to, eventually joining up with others who had also 'lost' table companions in OZ and we were with them for the remainder of the cruise.

 

OK, we were the ones doing the whole trip, we were sad to see friends leave but all 3 groups were great company in different ways.

 

Perhaps those that do a worldie every year feel rather territorial but we did not see any evidence of that at all.

 

You may even be on a table with others doing the same sectors as you so don't worry.

 

Have a great time.

[bazzaw]

Thank you Merlin7 for that comforting advice :)

 

I think that it really is or can be "the luck of the draw" with table companions on ships with traditional dining. It is great when we find that our companions are amenable conversationalists - and I can imagine even more important for long cruises. Have you ever had a situation where you have particularly disliked a table companion - or found them sufficiently unsuitable (for your preferences) , that you have wished to change tables? Is this even possible?

 

Regards

 

Barry

[Merlin7]

You can of course ask the restaurant manager if you wish to change tables. We have never done so but were pretty close to doing so on our last cruise. One couple was great company but the others were persistent complainers, to the point that it became embarrassing with the number of staff having to visit our table to address their complaints. They also had no conversation and no social skills.

 

They never went further than the immediate vicinity of the ship, when in port. Their on board spend was never above £3-5 for the whole cruise and they used every means available to get their OBC as cash in hand. They were just very hard work to be with and yet had cruised extensively.

 

It was a shame that we did not suss out what the other lovely couple thought in the first few evenings, as this was a long cruise, 5 weeks.

 

Both the other couple and us ate elsewhere more than we have ever done on any cruise and the waiters seemed to acknowledge, discreetly, why we did so.

 

I have seen it mentioned that it is better to ask to change tables as early on in the cruise as possible. You could always say that you have met up with friends on board!!

 

I suppose it had to happen just once, at some point, in many years of cruising.

[harber78]

turn to the right from the cruise terminal and its only a 5 minute walk - if you do not have a safeway card make sure you ask cashier for one as it means you get cheaper prices

 

Thanks for the information. Knew about Walgreens as have stayed in San Fran before at Fishermans Wharf but did not know there was a Safeway.