Loading app on board

[galeforce9]

Hi

 

i want to get up and running as soon as boarding on the app so I can start to book things (Aurora).  Ideally this will be from the welcome lounge without going to the cabin first.   Does anyone remember how to do it please?  Alternatively, is there a restaurant booking stand in the lounge, which I recall last time was actually the restaurant 
 

Thanks 

[amajaa]

Good question, we are on Ventura soon so would be good to know as well 

[Cathygh]

In the past, I have accessed from the terminal building. You need the last 6 digits of your boarding pass. There's a bit more to it than that, select airplane mode and switch on wifi and select Pocruises_Guest_Wifi. But I haven't been on P&O this year so it might have changed.

[AlanCruise]

The instructions say you need the last 6 digits of your ships card number - which you don't get untill you are on the ship - but that may be the same as the boarding pass number. And once you are connected to the wifi you have to go to myholiday.pocruises.com  in a browser.

And to avoid confusion, although they call it an app it isn't, you just go to web page on the ships WiFi. You don't have to download anything and you don't pay to access this part of the WiFi.

[Holidayfun141]

Just been on Ventura, you need to go to your Cabin first as your cruise card is in the slot outside your door and you need the last 6 digits on the card to log in.Then you need to go to your muster station to show your cruise card but on the way you will see on Decks 5, 6 or 7 help desks , just give them your phone and they will sort it all for you including booking anything ie restaurants, theatre etc.

I too was so worried when I boarded as I had read some people can do this before they board, this is not true. Don’t worry once onboard the P and O staff are so helpful, I spoke to many people who like me had been worried, so I’m glad I can stop anyone having to worry. The Guy I spoke to even put the icon on the front page of my mobile so I could see it everyday. 
Enjoy your Cruise , we are on Brittania soon and it is  great to know how it all works.

 

 

 

 

[arlowood]

Used it on Arcadia for our cruise earlier this month. What Cathygh says is pretty much correct I think you need your Surname also and maybe your cabin number as well as the last 6 digits of your boarding pass or cabin key card (Located under the bar code of your cabin access card). 

 

The only thing I would caution you about is that I was never able to sign in from my cabin. For any reliable access I had to find a public area on the ship where there was likely to be a good and reliable signal. On Arcadia that was usually the Library. If I wanted to do any bookings, I usually went there.

 

I did find that the quality and reliability of the Wifi signal varied considerably as you moved around the ship and more often than not I found that I had lost access to the My Holiday "App" and had to reconnect from a location with a good signal.

 

This meant that I eventually  gave up on the virtual queueing system for the Freedom Dining as this required you to keep your booking page open and active while you waited to be notified that a table was available. From my experience that would have meant joining the virtual queue in a public space and not moving from there until your were called to your table. Very inconvenient IMHO.

 

Maybe it was my phone/tablet that was at fault but I did hear others muttering about the connectivity issue.

[Angel57]

13 minutes ago, Holidayfun141 said:

Just been on Ventura, you need to go to your Cabin first as your cruise card is in the slot outside your door and you need the last 6 digits on the card to log in.Then you need to go to your muster station to show your cruise card but on the way you will see on Decks 5, 6 or 7 help desks , just give them your phone and they will sort it all for you including booking anything ie restaurants, theatre etc.

I too was so worried when I boarded as I had read some people can do this before they board, this is not true. Don’t worry once onboard the P and O staff are so helpful, I spoke to many people who like me had been worried, so I’m glad I can stop anyone having to worry. The Guy I spoke to even put the icon on the front page of my mobile so I could see it everyday. 
Enjoy your Cruise , we are on Brittania soon and it is  great to know how it all works.

 

 

 

 

That’s great to hear the crew are helping any passengers that are struggling with the “app”.

[davecttr]

I ended up putting my smartphone in the safe and forgetting about the 'app'. You get access to your account from the cabin TV. For better access they need to add 10's of kilometres of extra cabling.

[FangedRose]

1 minute ago, davecttr said:

I ended up putting my smartphone in the safe and forgetting about the 'app'. You get access to your account from the cabin TV. For better access they need to add 10's of kilometres of extra cabling.

Not on Arcadia you can't.  Couldn't in July. You had to use the app.

[FangedRose]

The 'app' isn't an app. It is a section of the ship's intranet (NOT internet), so you need to be on the ship really as the reach of the ship's intranet is very limited. The instructions are in your cabin. If you have trouble there will be staff mooching about in reception area whose sole job seems to be sorting this out for people.

[Holidayfun141]

I can only say from my experience on Ventura that we didn’t have a problem due to the staff being so helpful , they are used to some people struggling so go out of their way to help you.

We had an enjoyable cruise , yes it’s not the same as before Covid but to be waited on by Staff having to wear masks all the time , we felt for them, and they are trying to give you a great experience .

 

[solentsam]

you can load the web page from your browser before you board if you want and save it to your phone, then once you have your Cruise card yo can login

web page to save

https://myholiday.pocruises.com/

Edited September 24, 2022 by solentsam

[terrierjohn]

I suspect that the newer ships have far better wi fi coverage than the older ones, certainly Britannia had good wi fi signals everywhere, and reports from Iona are also positive. But in the past I have used wi fi on Azura and Ventura in the cabin without problems, so I guess it's only the 2 adult only ships that have wi fi signal problems.

[FangedRose]

51 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I suspect that the newer ships have far better wi fi coverage than the older ones, certainly Britannia had good wi fi signals everywhere, and reports from Iona are also positive. But in the past I have used wi fi on Azura and Ventura in the cabin without problems, so I guess it's only the 2 adult only ships that have wi fi signal problems.

I suspect that the older ships had WiFi retrofitted, whereas the newer ships had it built in so will work better. Also the older ships have more metal in their construction, which blocks wifi signals, but newer ships are built with less metal.

[Col1nUK]

I initially had problems with the website/app on Iona in August. When switching to 4G from the onboard wifi it nearly always had an issue reconnecting to the wifi/app when switching back. To start with I found a reboot of my phone sorted things. I then found switching off private wifi address and limit ip tracking meant I could switch between 4G roaming and the App at will. This might be specific to iPhones and if you have an iCloud subscription 

[Jill85]

Waste of time on Aurora did not work! We saw one show and told them we could not book, they let us walk straight in!