Car parking

[Vampiress88]

So we are a little undecided what to do about parking. 
 

we see that all the princess and p&o ships all go from the same docks more or less. 
 

usually I have cps parking in with the holiday. This time I’m on my own. 
 

I did look at going with holiday extras as I like the meet and greet parking but when I mapped that I believe it’s not at the same dock. It’s next to AB parking who we will be using but for msc and royal Caribbean. 
 

so for those who go on p&o and princess and have to do their own parking please who do you go with. It’s in August and they are wanting £270 for two weeks which is quite a lot. 

[david63]

Look at Parking4Cruises (https://www.parking4cruises.co.uk/) - a 14 night cruise parking with them will be about half that of CPS and after your first use you will get a 5% discount. I, and several others on here, have been using them for years with absolutely no problems.

[Josy1953]

1 hour ago, Vampiress88 said:

So we are a little undecided what to do about parking. 
 

we see that all the princess and p&o ships all go from the same docks more or less. 
 

usually I have cps parking in with the holiday. This time I’m on my own. 
 

I did look at going with holiday extras as I like the meet and greet parking but when I mapped that I believe it’s not at the same dock. It’s next to AB parking who we will be using but for msc and royal Caribbean. 
 

so for those who go on p&o and princess and have to do their own parking please who do you go with. It’s in August and they are wanting £270 for two weeks which is quite a lot. 

We usually use CPS but I believe that   lot of people on  here use parking for cruises.

[Selbourne]

We’ve used both CPS and Parking4Cruises and, if paying, would go for whichever of those is cheapest. Personally I wouldn’t chance any other operator. 

[Thedonkeycentrehalf]

We've used CPS a few times and never had any issues.  However, they have got really expensive if you are paying yourself (i.e. not included in your package) so next time we are out of Southampton, we will look at alternatives

[waddle]

I would recommend Penguin Parking

 

Used them from Ocean Terminal last year. Well located, pick up and drop off very efficient 

[WECRUISEUK]

2 hours ago, Vampiress88 said:

So we are a little undecided what to do about parking. 
 

we see that all the princess and p&o ships all go from the same docks more or less. 
 

usually I have cps parking in with the holiday. This time I’m on my own. 
 

I did look at going with holiday extras as I like the meet and greet parking but when I mapped that I believe it’s not at the same dock. It’s next to AB parking who we will be using but for msc and royal Caribbean. 
 

so for those who go on p&o and princess and have to do their own parking please who do you go with. It’s in August and they are wanting £270 for two weeks which is quite a lot. 

Have you considered a hotel for the night before with parking included.What sort of distance are you traveling from?Train down the day before,hotel one night and short taxi run.Like you say,it is august and the prices are on the roof.We've looked at options many times and always end up with cps,our latest one on 2nd march,2 weeks,which is £160.All i can suggest is go to CPS,get a quote and go from there.Britania,two weeks in august with cps........£243.

[terry99]

We use Holiday Extras to find a hotel and parking deal which includes taxi to and from port drop off. Works well for us.

[Thejuggler]

Council long stay multi storey.  £40ish a week.

[Eddie99]

I wonder if this topic merits being pinned at the top of the su/-forum, like food and dress code?

It comes up a lot and it might save some of the usual helpful posters having to repeat themselves

Just a thought?

[Vampiress88]

2 hours ago, WECRUISEUK said:

Have you considered a hotel for the night before with parking included.What sort of distance are you traveling from?Train down the day before,hotel one night and short taxi run.Like you say,it is august and the prices are on the roof.We've looked at options many times and always end up with cps,our latest one on 2nd march,2 weeks,which is £160.All i can suggest is go to CPS,get a quote and go from there.Britania,two weeks in august with cps........£243.

I did. Cps want £270. 
they charge more in school holidays than in April/March etc. which is so very annoying. 
 

anyway I have looked at parking4cruises. The price comes in at just under £150 which I am perfectly happy with. 
 

However I have no clue what it’s like- is it just more of less the same as cps and I can walk to the boat when the car has been dropped off?

[david63]

31 minutes ago, Vampiress88 said:

can walk to the boat when the car has been dropped off?

Not quite as convenient as CPS - P4C use the short stay car park at whichever terminal you are departing from so worst case scenario is a five minute walk which I consider OK if I am saving £150. The driver can of course drop other passengers and hand luggage at the terminal and walk back on their own - especially if it is bad weather.

[Vampiress88]

9 minutes ago, david63 said:

Not quite as convenient as CPS - P4C use the short stay car park at whichever terminal you are departing from so worst case scenario is a five minute walk which I consider OK if I am saving £150. The driver can of course drop other passengers and hand luggage at the terminal and walk back on their own - especially if it is bad weather.

Make hubby walk. He spends more than the £130 I will save on beer on the ships so only fair he does it 😂 

 

thank you all for your help. I literally couldn’t find anywhere and I really didn’t want to pay £270. 
parking4cruises is coming in at £140 so I’m good with that. 

[Selbourne]

Just now, Vampiress88 said:

Make hubby walk. He spends more than the £130 I will save on beer on the ships so only fair he does it 😂 

 

thank you all for your help. I literally couldn’t find anywhere and I really didn’t want to pay £270. 
parking4cruises is coming in at £140 so I’m good with that. 

Good call. Hubby can drop you all and your luggage off first, and then you can wait whilst he checks the car in and walks back. Often quicker than CPS, especially if they are using holding lanes. 

[BouncingWheel]

I love CPS for the convenience. When not available I have dropped my companion and luggage off at the terminal and parked at the cheap West Quay car park that others on here highlighted to me. Always worked well. From there it is either a short walk or taxi back. Non CPS seems to involve faff so I prefer my own faff🤣

[lebreos]

Ive used, penguin parking - much quicker now they are in Southampton than over in Marchwood as before. Car stays in their compound they shuttle you back and forth in a minibus. very good service and drivers. Cps when it was worth more than any OBC we might have had. This last time triangle parking - which is an ANPR carpark just outside ocean terminal/dock gate.  A greeter there on parking to check you were booked in and take your keys with you. so dropped luggage first off then drove out to car park and walked back with hand luggage. 

[Fionboard]

17 hours ago, terry99 said:

We use Holiday Extras to find a hotel and parking deal which includes taxi to and from port drop off. Works well for us.

I always book package direct with hotel (Holiday Inn). Used H Extras once and they charged a third more than direct with hotel. Never used them again for anything. 

[CaptainPedantic]

Thanks to feedback from the lovely people on this forum, we used P4C for the first time last year after 'defaulting' to CPS time and time again, and seeing similar huge increases. Very impressed and like others have said, the slight inconvenience of a less-than-5-minute walk is well worth the savings (and actually was quicker too). Recommended.

[majortom10]

15 hours ago, BouncingWheel said:

I love CPS for the convenience. When not available I have dropped my companion and luggage off at the terminal and parked at the cheap West Quay car park that others on here highlighted to me. Always worked well. From there it is either a short walk or taxi back. Non CPS seems to involve faff so I prefer my own faff🤣

No faff with Parking4Cruises they are virtually the same as CPS. Only difference drop your luggage off and take your car to short stay car park which is next to where you drop car off at Ocean with CPS. Simple, straightforward and they drive your car away to a secure compound exactly same as CPS but a lot cheaper

 

Edited February 22 by majortom10

[Craigrlewis]

On 2/21/2024 at 1:30 PM, Selbourne said:

We’ve used both CPS and Parking4Cruises and, if paying, would go for whichever of those is cheapest. Personally I wouldn’t chance any other operator. 

Ditto.
We have used both and use which ever is the cheapest.

Benefit with Parking4Cruises is if the arrival terminal changes they will bring the car to the right one. CPS will arrange a coach back to the departure terminal.

[Selbourne]

Just now, Craigrlewis said:

Ditto.
We have used both and use which ever is the cheapest.

Benefit with Parking4Cruises is if the arrival terminal changes they will bring the car to the right one. CPS will arrange a coach back to the departure terminal.

We have returned to different terminals with CPS and the car has always been moved there. 

[Selbourne]

Just now, majortom10 said:

No faff with Parking4Cruises they are virtually the same as CPS. Only difference drop your luggage off and take your car to short stay car park which is next to where you drop car off at Ocean with CPS. Simple, straightforward and they drive your car away to a secure compound exactly same as CPS but a lot cheaper

 

CPS are not always ‘faff free’. We have had a few occasions, including our current cruise, where we had to wait an age in holding lanes before we could be checked in. I’m sure that P4C would have been far quicker in those instances. Thats why we book the cheapest of the two for each cruise. 

[david63]

41 minutes ago, Craigrlewis said:

CPS will arrange a coach back to the departure terminal.

That only happens if it is a last minute change of terminal otherwise if it is a planned different arrival terminal to the departure terminal then your car will be at the correct terminal.

[kalos]

3 hours ago, Fionboard said:

I always book package direct with hotel (Holiday Inn). Used H Extras once and they charged a third more than direct with hotel. Never used them again for anything. 

 

Same here using Holiday Inn or the Hilton cricket ground both with taxis and breakfast included.

Now we are both retired and not tied down with work ,we like to expand our holiday by staying 

the night before, makes it more relaxing start.

We too used to use Penguin Parking and found the very good . The only fault with them is 

should you need to cancel , they do not do refunds at all , apart from £20 in the first 14 days

of booking but having more time on our hands and wanting a pre hotel stay the first two above 

suits us fine .

[tring]

45 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

CPS are not always ‘faff free’. We have had a few occasions, including our current cruise, where we had to wait an age in holding lanes before we could be checked in. I’m sure that P4C would have been far quicker in those instances. Thats why we book the cheapest of the two for each cruise. 

 

I agree we have mainly used P4C for recent cruises but CPS for one and they made us all stay in the car for quite a while until they processed us, so could not get luggage out and I could not even pop out to use the loo in arrivals (which is allowed whilst waiting for a driver to return from the P4C car park.  We were Caribbean level by then as well, so had arrived early.  Very slightly further to walk for the P4C section on return, but depends where your car is actually brought to by CPS as can be a big walk across the car park, so can be nearer for P4C.  All a matter of chance.

 

We agree that we will use which ever is the better deal.  We got a long winter cruise parking for £100 with CPS last winter as they seem to have gone for pricing according to demand, so summer cruise prices hiked and winter reduced - so we cancelled P4C and re booked with CPS.  We have also looked at park and stay with hotels, though usually found it better to arrange hotel and parking separately.   Have gone with CPS through P&O for April as we had a high OBC and prices of booking ourselves was not that cheap.

 

I think the main thing is to arrange parking/hotels as soon as you book the cruise as prices can go up and easy to book cancellable deals (even with the car parking companies), so could always cancel and re book if prices do go down.

 

Edited February 22 by tring