Strict arrival times

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

 

Yes but Airports have far more internal space per passenger,  4 times as much or more.

 

What we clearly need is far bigger terminals,  but until they are built there isn't room for people to wait in side.

MSC and RCI cope with smaller terminals than Ocean and have 4000 - 5000 passengers, and offer far faster service than P&O, which is why we are complaining. If it was simply a capacity issue then your comments would be valid, but other cruise lines do not make their passengers suffer because of their inefficiencies, so why should P&O get away with such poor service?

[kalos]

So to conclude ,more people need to complain to P&O at the end of their cruise 

if they have had a problem !!!

[yorkshirephil]

11 minutes ago, kalos said:

So to conclude ,more people need to complain to P&O at the end of their cruise 

if they have had a problem !!!

Except those that roll up several hours early.

[No pager thank you]

28 minutes ago, kalos said:

So to conclude ,more people need to complain to P&O at the end of their cruise 

if they have had a problem !!!

They are all part of the 1% though, 99% of people never have anything to grumble about🤣

[kalos]

14 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

Except those that roll up several hours early.

 Then I refer back to my post #369  but apart from that ...

 

Ask Vicky Pollard    😉

[mrsgoggins]

12 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

Except those that roll up several hours early.

 

That would be a fair point if you had been able to select your arrival time IMO and then arrived several hours early. 

 

I've been allocated late arrival times with P&O twice this year, and complied because that's my nature. But I didn't like it. We choose to drive down from the NW and a 3.30+ embarkation time makes me feel like we have been in transit for 2 days! Especially as the departure time from a PI is noon.

 

Now I'm sure all of the suggestions about how we could fill our time/travel by coach etc, are well meant but are not what we would want to do. I have posted previously of my self-selected 11 am boarding time last Saturday on Sky Princess (also at Mayflower and appeared to work smoothly) and my upcoming 11.30 am boarding with Celebrity. At the end of any cruise, we will self disembark and be on our way home at the first possible moment. 

 

To conclude - P&O's shout - their rules - but we don't have to book with them, and probably won't do so again, and this would be one of the contributing factors. We are lucky enough to have choices.

 

 

[yorkshirephil]

5 minutes ago, mrsgoggins said:

 

That would be a fair point if you had been able to select your arrival time IMO and then arrived several hours early. 

 

I've been allocated late arrival times with P&O twice this year, and complied because that's my nature. But I didn't like it. We choose to drive down from the NW and a 3.30+ embarkation time makes me feel like we have been in transit for 2 days! Especially as the departure time from a PI is noon.

 

Now I'm sure all of the suggestions about how we could fill our time/travel by coach etc, are well meant but are not what we would want to do. I have posted previously of my self-selected 11 am boarding time last Saturday on Sky Princess (also at Mayflower and appeared to work smoothly) and my upcoming 11.30 am boarding with Celebrity. At the end of any cruise, we will self disembark and be on our way home at the first possible moment. 

 

To conclude - P&O's shout - their rules - but we don't have to book with them, and probably won't do so again, and this would be one of the contributing factors. We are lucky enough to have choices.

 

 

I don't agree with everything P&O do and they are lacking in some aspects of cruising IMHO, but as you say their shout. I don't like late boarding either as we travel down the day before and mainly cruise with P&O in winter so not always fit weather wise to drop off luggage and walk back into Southampton so we make other arrangements. We have cruised Princess and applied for an early boarding but not always got what we wanted as lots of other people wanted early boarding, plus Princess are better organised and start boarding earlier than P&O as have Celebrity and MSC when we have cruised with them. Why P&O don't seem to be able to follow suit is anybodies guess, but it is still no excuse for people to just turn up when it suits them, which makes a bad situation worse, it hasn't helped with the app and people rolling up early to book the speciality restaurants before all the slots have gone or horror stories from facecloth.

[tring]

Just been listening to a Canadian TA, who has a utube channel which I follow.  He said Princess have said you will be able to turn up anytime for your cruise, no embarkation time allocations.  That will be fun methinks.  The agent suggested about 75% of the passengers will turn up at 10am.

 

I am not completely sure if it is just for N. American ports, or if it also includes embarkations in the UK and other countries, but if that is the case he did not mention it.  High ranking loyalty club members who currently have priority embarkation are not pleased - some left comments saying that.

 

 

 

Edited July 15, 2023 by tring

[Windsurfboy]

What happens when 6000 people turn up at opening time whatever that is.

 

Chaos. 

[Megabear2]

6 hours ago, tring said:

Just been listening to a Canadian TA, who has a utube channel which I follow.  He said Princess have said you will be able to turn up anytime for your cruise, no embarkation time allocations.  That will be fun methinks.  The agent suggested about 75% of the passengers will turn up at 10am.

 

I am not completely sure if it is just for N. American ports, or if it also includes embarkations in the UK and other countries, but if that is the case he did not mention it.  High ranking loyalty club members who currently have priority embarkation are not pleased - some left comments saying that.

 

 

 

He us correct, it was announced three days ago.  It seems to be for European departures too, not seen any mention of UK but suspect it will be here too.

 

The removal of a loyalty club perk has indeed upset many. If it happens on P&O no doubt many priority boarding rights would most likely be removed too.  Perhaps something to bear in mind, would a free for all really be better than arriving to your allocated time?  

[Winifred 22]

2 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

He us correct, it was announced three days ago.  It seems to be for European departures too, not seen any mention of UK but suspect it will be here too.

 

The removal of a loyalty club perk has indeed upset many. If it happens on P&O no doubt many priority boarding rights would most likely be removed too.  Perhaps something to bear in mind, would a free for all really be better than arriving to your allocated time?  

I think the saying “Be careful what you wish for” comes to mind here. That would be a mighty long queue from 11 onwards!! I reckon  keep the status quo and try and make that work which it should if everyone kept to their time. From parking to taxis and ubers would be a nightmare with potentially 5000+ all wanting to get on early and arriving at a similar time. 

[Cathygh]

15 minutes ago, Winifred 22 said:

I think the saying “Be careful what you wish for” comes to mind here. That would be a mighty long queue from 11 onwards!! I reckon  keep the status quo and try and make that work which it should if everyone kept to their time. From parking to taxis and ubers would be a nightmare with potentially 5000+ all wanting to get on early and arriving at a similar time. 

Most people travel on the day and arrive later so there will never be 5000 pepole arriving all at once. From reading this whole thread people who want to get on early seem to be those in hotels who have to check out early and some people who come by train who can only get one that arrives at 12.30 ish. 

[david63]

37 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

people who want to get on early seem to be those in hotels who have to check out early and some people who come by train who can only get one that arrives at 12.30 ish. 

That, to some extent, is probably true and understandable but where the system falls down is with passengers arriving late.

 

Say, for example, that there are 300 Caribbean tier/early arrival time passengers arriving by coach at 14:30 that means that there are 300 check-in spaces available at 12:30 (ish) so why make 300 passengers stand outside until their allotted time?

 

Abolishing arrival times for Princess makes no difference as they have never been checked but what they do have (or did have) is a priority queue and a non priority queue but also with Princess they have knowledge of how, and in many cases when, their passengers for a cruise are arriving as many passengers from the US arrange all their travel through Princess.

 

90% of P&O's check-in problems could be eliminated if passengers selected their arrival times (on a first come basis) - that way anyone arriving early would do so in the knowledge that they may have to wait and empty spaces should not happen because those with late arrivals would have chosen those times.

[Winifred 22]

The problem with that I can envisage is that those who don’t get their first choice of an earlier arrival time as they have all been allocated, by the time they apply will still turn up early for the same reasons they give now as to why they can’t or won’t adhere to their boarding time. 

[Warrior52]

Please can someone advise - I have a boarding time of 12 noon due to loyalty status but my husband has a boarding time of 3pm despite us sharing a cabin. (Although he isn’t on the same tier as me) Does he just come with me ? 
thanks in advance of any replies, 

[david63]

2 minutes ago, Warrior52 said:

Please can someone advise - I have a boarding time of 12 noon due to loyalty status but my husband has a boarding time of 3pm despite us sharing a cabin. (Although he isn’t on the same tier as me) Does he just come with me ? 
thanks in advance of any replies, 

In the past all passengers in a cabin have enjoyed the benefits of the passenger with the highest status - whether this will still be applicable on the day is anybody's guess.

[david63]

26 minutes ago, Winifred 22 said:

The problem with that I can envisage is that those who don’t get their first choice of an earlier arrival time as they have all been allocated, by the time they apply will still turn up early for the same reasons they give now as to why they can’t or won’t adhere to their boarding time. 

That's fine but at least they will know the state of play in advance.

 

At the end of the day there is no system that will be able to cater for everyone's requirements. This has, to a large extent, been brought on by passengers themselves by ignoring (often from advice given on this and other social media platforms) the arrival times.

 

I don't know what the arrangements are with ground staff at the terminals but some of the problem could be that P&O will not pay to have the staff start earlier, likewise P&O do not employ sufficient crew onboard to get the ship prepared for the embarking passengers. If you want to pay bargain basement prices for the cruise then you have to expect bargain basement service.

[Winifred 22]

The stuff at the terminals are not Carnival U K  employees they are employed by ABP and in turn Intercruises and they would have no control over Security where others and I agree bottlenecks occur.

[Cathygh]

1 hour ago, david63 said:

That, to some extent, is probably true and understandable but where the system falls down is with passengers arriving late.

 

Say, for example, that there are 300 Caribbean tier/early arrival time passengers arriving by coach at 14:30 that means that there are 300 check-in spaces available at 12:30 (ish) so why make 300 passengers stand outside until their allotted time?

 

Abolishing arrival times for Princess makes no difference as they have never been checked but what they do have (or did have) is a priority queue and a non priority queue but also with Princess they have knowledge of how, and in many cases when, their passengers for a cruise are arriving as many passengers from the US arrange all their travel through Princess.

 

90% of P&O's check-in problems could be eliminated if passengers selected their arrival times (on a first come basis) - that way anyone arriving early would do so in the knowledge that they may have to wait and empty spaces should not happen because those with late arrivals would have chosen those times.

I love the Princess procedure they know exactly what they are doing 

[Windsurfboy]

Everybody knows the state of play now ,

 

- turn up excessively early you will have to queue. 

 

- turn up on time and you should go straight through.

 

This seems better than turn up when you want but expect to queue. 

[Cathygh]

34 minutes ago, Warrior52 said:

Please can someone advise - I have a boarding time of 12 noon due to loyalty status but my husband has a boarding time of 3pm despite us sharing a cabin. (Although he isn’t on the same tier as me) Does he just come with me ? 
thanks in advance of any replies, 

You can try. I am not sure of the rules when people sharing a cabin have different boarding times. Certainly groups who are in different cabins who have different boarding times are told to board at the latest time if they all want to get on together. 

[Windsurfboy]

1 hour ago, david63 said:

 

1 hour ago, david63 said:

 

90% of P&O's check-in problems could be eliminated if passengers selected their arrival times (on a first come basis) - that way anyone arriving early would do so in the knowledge that they may have to wait 

 

First come basis would really annoy the multitude of high tier peninsula club members. P&O would have to stop offering priority to suite passengers. 

 

As as you say anyone arriving early would still do so in the knowledge they would have to wait , is exactly what everyone is complaining about now .

 

 

 

[tring]

26 minutes ago, Winifred 22 said:

The stuff at the terminals are not Carnival U K  employees they are employed by ABP and in turn Intercruises and they would have no control over Security where others and I agree bottlenecks occur.

 

The staff are only there because they are servicing the P&O ship which is moored at he terminal.  There may well be contracted staff who are employed by other companies, but what I am sure of is that P&O will be paying that bill, hence the queues are being marshalled on behalf of P&O. 

 

Edited July 16, 2023 by tring

[Warrior52]

1 hour ago, david63 said:

In the past all passengers in a cabin have enjoyed the benefits of the passenger with the highest status - whether this will still be applicable on the day is anybody's guess.

Thanks for the reply

[Warrior52]

34 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

You can try. I am not sure of the rules when people sharing a cabin have different boarding times. Certainly groups who are in different cabins who have different boarding times are told to board at the latest time if they all want to get on together. 

Thanks