Earliest Time you can Board with Priority Boarding?

[Selbourne]

As we have been on half a dozen P&O cruises already, we learnt long ago to ignore the stated 'Check in time' on the pre cruise info. We like to get on board early to get a table in the buffet restaurant. With each cruise to date we have arrived 30 minutes or so earlier each time and still are amazed at the number of passengers already ahead of us, even when we have arrived as early as 11.30am.

 

As we are booked in a Suite next time (for the first time) we are entitled to Priority Boarding. Can anyone please tell us what is the EARLIEST time that Priority Boarding opens?

 

Also, is a full lunch (hot & cold options) provided in the restaurant or lounge designated for Priority Boarding or is it just snacks? Also interested to know if it's waiter served or self service?

 

Thanks in anticipation.

[the english lady]

Tell you what if you get the pilots boats out , maybe you can board with the pilot.

They have to empty the ship from the cruise before yours. They have to clean it.

If you are in a suite you should be having lunch in a separate lunch from the buffett, that is not crowded and you do not have to get there early to get a table.

I really think pando need to rethink about providing lunch on the first day. With everyone saying ignore your boarding times, get there 11.00/11.30 more and more people will turn up earlier. This will just encourage large queues earlier and earlier.

I don't think CPS parking open the parking for the new cruise until 11.30, if you are driving down.

Priority boarding means you will not be in huge crowds. Give them a chance to prepare the ship for you.

[the english lady]

Having read the rest of you post.

It is snacks.

It is serve yourself, not waiter service.

They do bring round the drinks but that is all.

If you think you will be hungry, the buffet gives you a chance to eat more.

[Selbourne]

Tell you what if you get the pilots boats out , maybe you can board with the pilot.

They have to empty the ship from the cruise before yours. They have to clean it.

If you are in a suite you should be having lunch in a separate lunch from the buffett, that is not crowded and you do not have to get there early to get a table.

I really think pando need to rethink about providing lunch on the first day. With everyone saying ignore your boarding times, get there 11.00/11.30 more and more people will turn up earlier. This will just encourage large queues earlier and earlier.

I don't think CPS parking open the parking for the new cruise until 11.30, if you are driving down.

Priority boarding means you will not be in huge crowds. Give them a chance to prepare the ship for you.

 

Not that I feel I should have to justify why I asked a simple question, I guess that if I had explained that my wife is disabled and the nature of her disability means that crowds are problematic and buffet meals aren't terribly relaxing for me as I am up and down like a yo-yo serving all of our table, I might have received a less patronising and more informed response.

 

If anyone is able to answer my question about the earliest time priority boarding opens I would be most grateful. Personal opinions as to whether people should adhere to suggested boarding times or whether or not P&O should offer lunch aren't relevant to my question and I suspect are a minority view anyway.

[daiB]

As we have been on half a dozen P&O cruises already, we learnt long ago to ignore the stated 'Check in time' on the pre cruise info. We like to get on board early to get a table in the buffet restaurant. With each cruise to date we have arrived 30 minutes or so earlier each time and still are amazed at the number of passengers already ahead of us, even when we have arrived as early as 11.30am.

 

 

 

As we are booked in a Suite next time (for the first time) we are entitled to Priority Boarding. Can anyone please tell us what is the EARLIEST time that Priority Boarding opens?

 

 

 

Also, is a full lunch (hot & cold options) provided in the restaurant or lounge designated for Priority Boarding or is it just snacks? Also interested to know if it's waiter served or self service?

 

 

 

Thanks in anticipation.

 

 

OK Selbourne,

 

I am also in a suite, you check in at about 11.30 you go to the priority area in the waiting area after check in in the Mayflower and before in Ocean. You are called first and should be on board by 12.00 sometimes before. The food you get is on a buffet, but not mobbed so you could get it for your wife. It is quite nice but not a full lunch. You get champagne served to you at the table. Your butler will come and find you to take you to your cabin which will be about an hour before anyone else. If you have a good supply of the bubbles you may want to send him away for a while. We do. If you want any other information just ask.

 

 

Gan Canny

 

 

Dai

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[daiB]

Tell you what if you get the pilots boats out , maybe you can board with the pilot.

 

They have to empty the ship from the cruise before yours. They have to clean it.

 

If you are in a suite you should be having lunch in a separate lunch from the buffett, that is not crowded and you do not have to get there early to get a table.

 

I really think pando need to rethink about providing lunch on the first day. With everyone saying ignore your boarding times, get there 11.00/11.30 more and more people will turn up earlier. This will just encourage large queues earlier and earlier.

 

I don't think CPS parking open the parking for the new cruise until 11.30, if you are driving down.

 

Priority boarding means you will not be in huge crowds. Give them a chance to prepare the ship for you.

 

 

Well everyone can turn up as soon as they like but those in a suite will get on the ship first, even if there are 300 people who get there before them.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[indiana123]

Forgive me for coming on your thread.. but my query does go with the title and its not worth a whole thread!!

 

Dai, I wonder how that would work on Adonia.. we are on her and there will only be about 24 suite passengers.. surely they won't have all that for just 24 passengers! I won't complain if they do!!

[daiB]

Forgive me for coming on your thread.. but my query does go with the title and its not worth a whole thread!!

 

Dai, I wonder how that would work on Adonia.. we are on her and there will only be about 24 suite passengers.. surely they won't have all that for just 24 passengers! I won't complain if they do!!

 

On any ship to get the early embarkation you have to be there early. Once the First lot are on the suite passengers just board as everyone else.

[Selbourne]

OK Selbourne,

 

I am also in a suite, you check in at about 11.30 you go to the priority area in the waiting area after check in in the Mayflower and before in Ocean. You are called first and should be on board by 12.00 sometimes before. The food you get is on a buffet, but not mobbed so you could get it for your wife. It is quite nice but not a full lunch. You get champagne served to you at the table. Your butler will come and find you to take you to your cabin which will be about an hour before anyone else. If you have a good supply of the bubbles you may want to send him away for a while. We do. If you want any other information just ask.

 

 

Gan Canny

 

 

Dai

 

Many thanks Dai

You have comprehensively answered my questions, for which I am most grateful.

As a new user on this forum, I can't understand why some people are so hostile (the English lady).

We are all just trying to gain the maximum enjoyment out of our cruises - thank you for appreciating that and sharing your experience.

Edited September 10, 2014 by Selbourne
Error

[annieuk]

Selborne, everything Dai says is quite correct. I would just add that the buffet comprises hot and cold items. We had things like smoked salmon as a sort of starter then there was a hot service of things like miniature steak pies, quiches, some sort of chilli thing (don't like chilli ao didn't have that), there was quite a selection and you could go back for more if you liked. Then there were various desserts, small fruit tarts, eclairs, that sort of thing. You won't go hungry. The other thing I found was that if you wanted Champagne and not just red or white wine you had to ask - it may just have been the waitress who served us - she huffed a bit when I asked for champagne and had to go and find some but the next wine waiter who came round just asked "More Champagne Madam?" Yes please.

 

It is away from the rush and while if you want a whole full meal with chips etc. the buffet is the place but we prefer the complimentary lunch.

[HELEN HENRY]

Many thanks Dai

You have comprehensively answered my questions, for which I am most grateful.

As a new user on this forum, I can't understand why some people are so hostile (the English lady).

We are all just trying to gain the maximum enjoyment out of our cruises - thank you for appreciating that and sharing your experience.

 

Selbourne, we never arrive till really late due to the long long journey to Southampton.We leave home at 3.30am arrive about 15.00-15.30pm quite exhausted. By that time our suite is ready and we just go straight to it. We quite often just order food from the room service menu and the butler is only to happy to serve us our food in the suite. Think perhaps he feels sorry for us when we tell him our sad tale about the long drive down;). I hope you have a wonderful cruise and I know that you will certainly really enjoy your suite.

[shallwe]

Slightly off-topic but amusing all the same. On our first cruise back in February, our taxi driver dropped us off at the cruise terminal. Being a newby, we trundled inside and joined a queue.

 

We noticed that other people had what looked like walk-on luggage only and were a little perplexed but stayed in the queue until we got to the doors leading into the check-in area (there was then a huge queue inside this area).

 

The woman at this door said that we should have dropped our luggage off at the luggage drop off area and the next thing we know, a very polite man came along with a wheelchair and said no problem, he would take them there himself on the wheelchair.

 

We turned around and the woman at the door then told us to go through the priority channel, all the way the check-in desk.

 

We felt very guilty but honoured to bypass all those in the huge queue who had obviously been there way before we originally turned up :D

[majortom10]

Forgive me for coming on your thread.. but my query does go with the title and its not worth a whole thread!!

 

Dai, I wonder how that would work on Adonia.. we are on her and there will only be about 24 suite passengers.. surely they won't have all that for just 24 passengers! I won't complain if they do!!

 

The buffet lunch and champagne is provided not only for suite passengers but also higher tiers in the Peninsular Club and will be in a part of the ship away from the buffet restaurant where everybody else goes.

[majortom10]

Tell you what if you get the pilots boats out , maybe you can board with the pilot.

They have to empty the ship from the cruise before yours. They have to clean it.

If you are in a suite you should be having lunch in a separate lunch from the buffett, that is not crowded and you do not have to get there early to get a table.

I really think pando need to rethink about providing lunch on the first day. With everyone saying ignore your boarding times, get there 11.00/11.30 more and more people will turn up earlier. This will just encourage large queues earlier and earlier.

I don't think CPS parking open the parking for the new cruise until 11.30, if you are driving down.

Priority boarding means you will not be in huge crowds. Give them a chance to prepare the ship for you.

 

 

A very rude and totally uncalled for response from a person who is new to this forum and asked a simple question. I am sure you were once a newcomer and asked daft silly questions which the one asked by Selbourne certainly wasnt.

[Aloonie]

Hi

 

Get there about 11.30 and tell staff your in a suite.

You will be on the ship about 12 sipping champagne until your butler comes to get you about 1.30.

Have a great cruise and enjoy your suite.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[the english lady]

Selbourne I apologise.

You did not mention any disability in your question.

There have been quite a few threads on here about early boarding,and reading yours through I just thought another early boarding question.

Having done a couple of back 2 backs you would be amazed at the short space of time between the final people getting off the ship and the new ones boarding.

They do have to clean the ship in what can be less than 2 hours.

Sorry again and next time I have less than 4 hours sleep I will not allow myself to go on the forums.

[jeanlyon]

Last time we checked in our friend for a 'Fred cruise, she was in the priority queue being a Gold member. We were in the ordinary queue. We were in the departure lounge 45 minutes before her due to the size of the priority queue! LOL

[Selbourne]

Selbourne I apologise.

You did not mention any disability in your question.

There have been quite a few threads on here about early boarding,and reading yours through I just thought another early boarding question.

Having done a couple of back 2 backs you would be amazed at the short space of time between the final people getting off the ship and the new ones boarding.

They do have to clean the ship in what can be less than 2 hours.

Sorry again and next time I have less than 4 hours sleep I will not allow myself to go on the forums.

 

Thank you. I accept your apology.

Whilst new to this particular forum, I am experienced with others and know to search first before posing a question, which I did.

Whilst there are lots of repeat questions regarding regular boarding, there is nothing relating to Priority Boarding, for which entirely different rules apply.

Hence my question.

[majortom10]

Last time we checked in our friend for a 'Fred cruise, she was in the priority queue being a Gold member. We were in the ordinary queue. We were in the departure lounge 45 minutes before her due to the size of the priority queue! LOL

 

With P&O the first to check in are suites and higher tiers of the Peninsular Club and then you go straight onboard and do not have to wait in a departure lounge so in effect suites and higher tiers of the Peninsular Club are usually the first onboard and go straight to the area for their buffet and champagne.

[Aloonie]

Hi

Last year we had a suite, we were on board by 11.45.

Got to terminal at 11.30.

[gadabout60]

Tell you what if you get the pilots boats out , maybe you can board with the pilot.

They have to empty the ship from the cruise before yours. They have to clean it.

If you are in a suite you should be having lunch in a separate lunch from the buffett, that is not crowded and you do not have to get there early to get a table.

I really think pando need to rethink about providing lunch on the first day. With everyone saying ignore your boarding times, get there 11.00/11.30 more and more people will turn up earlier. This will just encourage large queues earlier and earlier.

I don't think CPS parking open the parking for the new cruise until 11.30, if you are driving down.

Priority boarding means you will not be in huge crowds. Give them a chance to prepare the ship for you.

 

I have to say I hope cruise companies don't stop providing a lunch. We travel by taxi for 2 hours or so generally leaving between 10.30 and 11. If there was no lunch I would have to bring a sandwich as I couldn't last until 8.30 dinner (skipping meals gives me a migraine)

[jeanlyon]

Well that's exactly what we did on Fred Olsen, brought a sandwich. You don't get lunch on the first day. But you get tea at about 4 pm, so you won't starve to death!!

[davecttr]

They won't stop providing a lunch. with ships so large they have to start boarding soon after 11.30 to get everyone aboard by 3.45. there is insufficient room in the terminals to have many hundreds of people sitting around. then you have security processing all those thousands as well.

 

Your holiday starts once you board, even more so if they start making cabins available earlier. Your holiday includes meals, the buffet will remain open.

[smokey01]

On Azura in August (ocean terminal) they had started checking in priority passengers by at least 11:20 with not much wait after that before they started boarding suite passengers.

[gadabout60]

I never do afternoon tea, and didn't know they did it on the first day anyway with drills and the like.

I have enough to do coming on holiday with sorting out work, without having to make a sandwich!

And anyway there is something rather nice about sitting down to that first lunch knowing your luggage is on board, the journey is out of the way, you are checked it and your holiday is starting.

Wouldn't feel the same if I was rescuing a sandwich made and packed 5 hours before and eating it in my cabin!