Barbados on disembarkation day with P&O

[COCKTAIL GIRL]

I am sorry if this question has already been asked but on disembarkation day from Ventura in Barbados our flight home does not leave until 6.45pm. I understand we can book a P&O tour or be ready to leave the ship at 1pm. Both options appear to get us to the airport nearly 5 hours before our flight leaves which is incredibly early. Does anyone have any suggestions for viable alternatives please?

[John Bull]

Ship's tours which end at the airport have to be there in time for the first flight back - hence in your case the long wait at the airport.

 

But are you sure that for a direct transfer from ship to airport for a 6.45pm flight is called at 1pm???????

Simple transfers are normally timed to arrive around 2 to 3 hrs before flight time - transfers for each flight are called separately during the course of the afternoon. In the meantime you have the run of the ship - buffet, bars, pools, etc etc. The only exception is that you'll have to vacate your cabin by about 8 - 8.30 in the morning - your checked cases will have already been collected from outside your cabin the previous evening, they will store your hand luggage in the theatre or similar.

 

One other advantage of not taking a tour which ends at the airport - if your flight is delayed, they will delay your transfer buses to suit, so that the extra time is on the ship & not stuck at the airport. They don't have that flexibility with tours that end at the airport.

 

P&O offer half-day morning tours, which return you to the ship for lunch, or you can go off for the morning to do your own thing - you'll be told, probably the previous day, what time to be back at the ship for when your airport transfer is scheduled. I suspect it won't be 1pm.

 

Super-smooth and very customer-friendly transfer arrangements on P & O (and Thomson & others) chartered fly-cruises to the Caribbean, in both directions.

 

JB :)

[COCKTAIL GIRL]

Thank you John, that is very helpful and has reassured us. ☺

[barante]

John Bull. Very interesting. Our four cruises from Baltimore were on two old Celebrity ships which were sold to the U.K. and which we eventually spotted docked in Barbados.

 

To your report, I am a bit confused. If the cruise ends there, the whole ship is usually emptied and cleared, including B2B passengers. This means everyone leaves. So how could this passenger linger on until the afternoon or evening?

[John Bull]

John Bull. Very interesting. Our four cruises from Baltimore were on two old Celebrity ships which were sold to the U.K. and which we eventually spotted docked in Barbados.

 

To your report, I am a bit confused. If the cruise ends there, the whole ship is usually emptied and cleared, including B2B passengers. This means everyone leaves. So how could this passenger linger on until the afternoon or evening?

 

Not just this passenger - all passengers. Its because aircraft are chartered by the cruise line - flights from regional UK airports deliver passengers starting their cruise & collect those ending their cruise. So passengers are heading for the airport while their aircraft is flying in with the replacement cruisers. (Hence my comment about delayed flights - transfers for those flying home can be delayed to match the timing of their incoming flight, since the incoming cruisers are similarly delayed).

 

P&O actually take the whole thing one stage further with Azura & Ventura because they're quite large ships.

To spread the load, the ship overnites Friday in Barbados. Half the passengers fly out on the Friday (& half the returning cruisers fly home). The other half of the passengers fly out on the Saturday (& the other half of the returning passengers fly home). So all passengers have an evening & a full day in Barbados - half of them at the start of their cruise, the other half at the end of their cruise.

 

Thomson organise things a little differently. The same chartered air, but the ships operate seven-day cruises - currently out of Jamaica. Most folk cruise for two weeks with effectively a Mo'Bay port-of-call day in the middle of their cruise while half the passengers are ending their cruise & being replaced by new passengers. That gives the flexibility of weekly departures for fortnightly cruises (sometimes three rotating itineraries). Or folk can just cruise for a week, or book a cruise-and-stay.

 

We've been through this routine with P&O, with Voyages of Discovery, and with Ocean Village. Princess used to do the same (Sea Princess, I think), and Fred Olsen do something similar.

We've also been through the same routine with Thomson in the Red Sea and Turkey.

 

We're off to the Caribbean next week for two weeks on Thomson, same routine (itinerary includes Cuba :cool:).

 

It's a relaxing & stress-free way to organise transfers. :)

But only possible when chartered flights are involved.

 

I guess theoretically the same is possible for US ships, though perhaps the US is simply too big for just 8 to 10 "regional" airports?

 

JB :)

[jocap]

Yes, our first cruise was with Sea Princess....specially chartered planes to Barbados one week, and to Fort Lauderdale the next, so there was a weekly turnover but everyone had 2 weeks on board.

Passengers who boarded at Barbados were still there at 3.15pm, enjoying the sun, food and pool, until the news came that their charter flight was nearing the island.

It was more difficult at F.L., because of the immigration policy....coaches were waiting to take us to a hotel until it was time for the airport, but we had a terrible struggle trying to get from the ship through the immigration desks and it must have taken 2 hours. We wouldn't use that port again! :eek:

With Thomson, we were still on board at 4pm, until our aircraft landed at Sharm.

[barante]

John Bull -- You explained everything beautifully. Much obliged.