Missing the ship!!!

[AndyMichelle]

Somebody has posted on another forum that they missed their cruise on Aurora on Friday due to bad traffic coming to Southampton, taking them 8 hours to do a usual 3 hour journey.

They arrived at 4.15 and although the ship hadn't sailed, there was nobody there to check them in?

Obviously P&O won't do anything and insurance doesn't cover for traffic, so they lose their holiday and money, poor souls.

Just a warning, especially with the roads the way they are around Southampton at the minute.

Michelle has packed and is leaving for the port now.. We don't travel until December and we live 10 minutes away, but she is taking no chances😀

Andy

[brian1]

9 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

Somebody has posted on another forum that they missed their cruise on Aurora on Friday due to bad traffic coming to Southampton, taking them 8 hours to do a usual 3 hour journey.

They arrived at 4.15 and although the ship hadn't sailed, there was nobody there to check them in?

Obviously P&O won't do anything and insurance doesn't cover for traffic, so they lose their holiday and money, poor souls.

Just a warning, especially with the roads the way they are around Southampton at the minute.

Michelle has packed and is leaving for the port now.. We don't travel until December and we live 10 minutes away, but she is taking no chances😀

Andy

Hi,our only Southampton cruise was 2015.We stayed overnight with OH sister in Basingstoke.Even that drive in was a nightmare.We are staying at the Holiday Inn this Sept,only 300 yards from ship.lol.

[AndyMichelle]

1 minute ago, brian1 said:

Hi,our only Southampton cruise was 2015.We stayed overnight with OH sister in Basingstoke.Even that drive in was a nightmare.We are staying at the Holiday Inn this Sept,only 300 yards from ship.lol.

You won't be late from there Brian, a big leap from your balcony and you are onboard😀

Andy

[janny444]

Hi....same thing happened to our friends a few years back....travelled down the day before ....stayed overnight in a hotel about an hour from Southampton. After a leisurely breakfast set off and then on the motorway....possibly M3....traffic came to a complete standstill in all of the lanes....stuck there for hours on end not moving an inch and consequently missed the ship. We always travel down the day before unless we are on the P&O cruise coach.

[AndyMichelle]

6 minutes ago, janny444 said:

Hi....same thing happened to our friends a few years back....travelled down the day before ....stayed overnight in a hotel about an hour from Southampton. After a leisurely breakfast set off and then on the motorway....possibly M3....traffic came to a complete standstill in all of the lanes....stuck there for hours on end not moving an inch and consequently missed the ship. We always travel down the day before unless we are on the P&O cruise coach.

How terrible.

your friends probably felt they did all they could by staying down fairly close, like the others thinking they had allowed plenty of time.

Just goes to show we can't take anything for granted.

Andy

[P&O SUE]

All these stories are my worse nightmare - my first few cruises we always travelled down on the day (we are 2hrs in good traffic away) but my last 3 or 4 there have been many ships in port so we've stayed over.

This year we stayed at Eastleigh which should be about 20 minutes drive away, but because of the motorway closures was over an hour!

It breaks my heart those poor people who stayed overnight and still missed the ship :(

[brian1]

50 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

You won't be late from there Brian, a big leap from your balcony and you are onboard😀

Andy

Take no chances,I'm gonna ask for a zipline.

[AndyMichelle]

11 minutes ago, brian1 said:

Take no chances,I'm gonna ask for a zipline.

Holiday Inn are missing a trick, zip wire to ship sounds like a brilliant usp.

Andy

[brian1]

I reckon I qualify for an ontime close shave.In 2013 we picked up the Diamond Princess in Auckland.Princess air booked us LHR-AKL via Hong Kong.We landed 27 hrs later ONTIME 6hrs before sailaway.The next port was only 100 miles up the road,so no big worries.

[ann141]

1 hour ago, AndyMichelle said:

Somebody has posted on another forum that they missed their cruise on Aurora on Friday due to bad traffic coming to Southampton, taking them 8 hours to do a usual 3 hour journey.

They arrived at 4.15 and although the ship hadn't sailed, there was nobody there to check them in?

Obviously P&O won't do anything and insurance doesn't cover for traffic, so they lose their holiday and money, poor souls.

Just a warning, especially with the roads the way they are around Southampton at the minute.

Michelle has packed and is leaving for the port now.. We don't travel until December and we live 10 minutes away, but she is taking no chances😀

Andy

Should add that I put the Ha Ha smiley face sign because of your comment about Michelle because that sounds like me! We often stay the night before because we live 4 hours away but I have been known to book a hotel the night before and travel by train(with numerous suitcases!)even when we have the free coach as we live about 10 miles from the coach pick up.I am always anxious a few days before that the taxi won t turn up or will break down and we will miss the coach and ship!

I do feel sorry for the OP as a three hour journey taking 8 hours is really unlucky.

[AndyMichelle]

2 minutes ago, ann141 said:

Should add that I put the Ha Ha smiley face sign because of your comment about Michelle because that sounds like me! We often stay the night before because we live 4 hours away but I have been known to book a hotel the night before and travel by train(with numerous suitcases!)even when we have the free coach as we live about 10 miles from the coach pick up.I am always anxious a few days before that the taxi won t turn up or will break down and we will miss the coach and ship!

I do feel sorry for the OP as a three hour journey taking 8 hours is really unlucky.

Blimey, you sound like Michelle...(That's not a bad thing).

The reason we no longer fly is because of her anxiety over traffic, missing transfers etc. It would ruin the firs few and last few days of the holiday.

Being close to the port should take away that stress, but we still arrive at the terminal way before boarding time 'just in case'...

Andy

[ollienbertsmum]

This is my worst nightmare.  I always travel the day before.  I even stayed overnight when the journey was less than two hours.  I had a 'vacation starts now' extra day, it was actually a really good start to the cruise when RCI had cruises from Malaga.  

 

Did the people  who missed the Southampton departure get the opportunity to fly to the first port?   Obviously they would have to pay, but better than missing the cruise completely.  

Edited August 18, 2019 by ollienbertsmum

[annieuk]

I read this post too.  Unfortunately the cruise was only a short one with stops in Guernsey and Zeebrugge.  As it happened the ship couldn't anchor in Guernsey so that port was missed and they went on to Zeebrugge.  The passengers thought that by the time they got to Zeebrugge they would only have the journey overnight back to Southampton.  They did find out I think, at the port, that the forecast for Guernsey wasn't good and it was very possible the ship wouldn't anchor there so they didn't want to travel to Guernsey and then find that the ship wasn't there.  We only live about 20 minutes from the port and we set out very early, particularly with the M27 and all it's roadworks affecting all traffic in the area.  In  fact we  can get to Southampton without going on the M27 but these works for the wonderful Smart Motorway we're apparently going to have affects a lot of roads in the area.

[amfc_lenny]

I do wonder if this could become a more common occurrence. Due to the size of the new ships i.e Iona when combined with Saturday match day traffic. 

 

[SarahHben]

Oh my goodnes! I am and always have been a worrier, I have vivid memories of a teacher saying to me when I was 9 "Sarah you are a worrier!" We live in North Kent and were planning on travelling on the day of our cruise next year as its only a 2-2:30 hour drive, now after reading these posts I'm driving my husband mad trying to convince him we should stay in Southampton overnight 

Last May our daughter left home at 11am for 3pm boarding and had plenty of time to spare but I couldn't cope with leaving it that late....just in case!

[ann141]

3 hours ago, AndyMichelle said:

Blimey, you sound like Michelle...(That's not a bad thing).

The reason we no longer fly is because of her anxiety over traffic, missing transfers etc. It would ruin the firs few and last few days of the holiday.

Being close to the port should take away that stress, but we still arrive at the terminal way before boarding time 'just in case'...

Andy

I'm even wary of using lifts on the day of embarkation after my husband told me about a colleauge who missed the Eurostar because he was stuck in a lift for over an hour!!

[jules57]

Thankfully I opted for the P &O coach transfer this time. Think my friend, who is cruising for the first time, would have a total meltdown if I drive down and we were stuck in traffic.

[AndyMichelle]

Thousands of us have trouble free, same day journeys to port without issue, so we shouldn't get overly worried, but things like this highlight what could happen and human nature takes over and we all start panicking..

Andy

[daiB]

We dont panic we come down to Southampton 2 days before and stay in a hotel in Ocean Village. Added bonus is 2 extra days holiday.

[Scriv]

7 hours ago, AndyMichelle said:

Somebody has posted on another forum that they missed their cruise on Aurora on Friday due to bad traffic coming to Southampton, taking them 8 hours to do a usual 3 hour journey.

They arrived at 4.15 and although the ship hadn't sailed, there was nobody there to check them in?

Obviously P&O won't do anything and insurance doesn't cover for traffic, so they lose their holiday and money, poor souls.

Just a warning, especially with the roads the way they are around Southampton at the minute.

Michelle has packed and is leaving for the port now.. We don't travel until December and we live 10 minutes away, but she is taking no chances😀

Andy

There are a couple of incidents being talked about on other forums - one is a lady who missed her cruise because of the bad delays and a different group of 9 who arrived at the port at 4 15pm, but who boarded. Are these all separate incidents or is it all getting a bit mixed up?

[kerryincork]

 By the way this not a forgone conclusion that they are not covered by their insurance. I do make a habit of reading the small print. There is usually some coverage of unavoidably delays. They should check it out. This can be car breaking down or strikes, all sorts of things.

The difficulty now if they were covered, they have to prove that they left their home in plenty of time to catch the ship. This is easier if they know beforehand about this cover and what they need to prove it example record of Sat nav. They would need to show traffic details probably from a site like 'AA'. This is not an easy process, but don't automatically assume that you are not covered for some sort of reimbursement.

 

Edited August 18, 2019 by kerryincork

[Harry Peterson]

Just to put this into perspective, the proportion of total passengers affected is infinitesimally small. A tiny, tiny number in percentage terms.

 

Of course, allow plenty of time, of course stay overnight if you're travelling any distance, but if you're going to start avoiding lifts in case they break down it makes just as much sense to avoid travelling by car - there's a far greater statistical chance of missing the boat after a car journey than a train journey, or using a lift.

 

Worry too much, and you'll never cross a road in case you have an accident and can't get to the ship before it leaves.

[grapau27]

8 hours ago, AndyMichelle said:

Somebody has posted on another forum that they missed their cruise on Aurora on Friday due to bad traffic coming to Southampton, taking them 8 hours to do a usual 3 hour journey.

They arrived at 4.15 and although the ship hadn't sailed, there was nobody there to check them in?

Obviously P&O won't do anything and insurance doesn't cover for traffic, so they lose their holiday and money, poor souls.

Just a warning, especially with the roads the way they are around Southampton at the minute.

Michelle has packed and is leaving for the port now.. We don't travel until December and we live 10 minutes away, but she is taking no chances😀

Andy

To make sure we are staying 2 nights in our Southampton Hotel 

[FangedRose]

Surely such a huge traffic jam to cause such a delay would have affected many others heading for the ship too? I've been on a few cruises where departure has been delayed because "many passengers are delayed" due to weather/traffic accidents and suchlike. 

 

Also, those who live within a couple of hours of Southampton, but still stay overnight in Southampton. You are depriving those who live much further away (six, seven or more hours) of the chance of travelling the day before. And, it's common sense that the farther you have to travel the more chance there is of delays.  In the days when I cruised as a family we used to do that, and one year the nearest I could get an overnight hotel room was Newbury! You can imagine how I felt when we met a young couple from Portsmouth who had overnighted in Southampton, in my first choice hotel! It still rankles to this day. 

Please take pity on your northern cousins and don't take up hotel rooms unnecessarily.

[Britboys]

My partner was always paranoid about travel problems so we always stayed overnight in Southampton, even though we lived two hours or so along the coast in Brighton.  Although I am not particularly paranoid about this (and have moved a bit further away), I have continued to stay overnight since he died and - whenever sailing solo - always use the Holiday Inn which was always our first choice.