Disembarkation in Southampton

[jh1809]

1 hour ago, jeanlyon said:

We requested Self Disembarkation about 5 days ago and got off Aurora at 0830 this morning.  No queues, no trying to find your bag.  It does say you should get off between 0715 and 0745, but we didn't have a problem at all.

That's interesting. The only reason I haven't self-disembarked in the past was my wish to have breakfast in the MDR, which I seem to recall opens at 7:30 on the last morning.

[john watson]

On 10/16/2019 at 8:59 PM, tartanexile81 said:

We were on our way to our disembarkation lounge on our last cruise but when we passed round the atrium, there was only a trickle of people (the last of the coach passengers)  leaving so we just asked if we could go there and then. Right place, right time

 

Understood, but when you reached the luggage hall did you find your cases were ready all lined up in the hall?   I am thinking they have some sort of control system to try and stop people disembarking earlier than their allocated time to prevent a huge crowd in the baggage hall. i.e. if you are allocated 9,30am, how do gangway staff know your status without any thing to show them?

 

Regards John

[john watson]

4 minutes ago, jh1809 said:

That's interesting. The only reason I haven't self-disembarked in the past was my wish to have breakfast in the MDR, which I seem to recall opens at 7:30 on the last morning.

 

Logically should you elect to do self-disembarkation but were still on the ship at 9.30am as you were not in a rush.  What could the staff do?  Stopping you disembarking at that time would mean you could stay on board even longer.  If a shop opened at 7.30am as a shopper you would not believe you have to be there as the shop doors open in order to buy things or you cannot buy anything.

 

Regards John

[terrierjohn]

25 minutes ago, john watson said:

 

Understood, but when you reached the luggage hall did you find your cases were ready all lined up in the hall?   I am thinking they have some sort of control system to try and stop people disembarking earlier than their allocated time to prevent a huge crowd in the baggage hall. i.e. if you are allocated 9,30am, how do gangway staff know your status without any thing to show them?

 

Regards John

We never wait in the lounges and have sometimes disembarked earlier than our allocated time, and never been stopped or questioned at the gangway, in fact the gangway staff seem too keen to get you off the ship to worry about checking whether you are sneaking off early, and cases are always in the luggage hall.

Edited October 18, 2019 by terrierjohn

[tartanexile81]

13 hours ago, john watson said:

 

Understood, but when you reached the luggage hall did you find your cases were ready all lined up in the hall?   I am thinking they have some sort of control system to try and stop people disembarking earlier than their allocated time to prevent a huge crowd in the baggage hall. i.e. if you are allocated 9,30am, how do gangway staff know your status without any thing to show them?

 

Regards John

 

There's no control system once you get to the gangway and to be fair they were still disembarking luggage of people with later times when we got off. We've got priority disembarkation though so we were due to go off early anyway but when we got to the baggage hall it was full of luggage. I may be wrong but i think terrierjohn was on the same cruise so he may comment and we arrived back to the Mayflower after a 35 days cruise which exacerbated things anyway. Most people had 4 pieces of luggage.  There are literally hundreds of people with priority on these cruises and the disembark just after us was chaotic. The hall was too small for the volume of people and luggage and our friends who waited for their time said it was horrendous. People were in tears (honestly) there were no porters at times for lots of elderly people and it was very difficult to move or find your luggage. I believe a lot of people got hampers from P&O when they complained. Was I glad we got off early? You bet! Would I do it again? 100% but I take your point and only in circumstances like ours when the luggage will definitely be there. 

Edited October 19, 2019 by tartanexile81

[terrierjohn]

Just to repeat, Mayflower luggage hall is not fit for purpose for any ships bigger than Aurora or Arcadia. If P&O are going to be regularly using this for Ventura and Britannia once Iona and then her sister enter service then it will need a very extensive makeover.

[jeanlyon]

When we self disembarked at 0830 on Friday, the hall was absolutely full and they were still bringing in baggage.  We just walked round the outside and out.  There are three of us and we only have one suitcase each, plus a bag each, but it's pretty easy and saves so much hassle.