Coach transfer to Southampton

[Pencil62]

15 hours ago, heathstockton4 said:

We are on G409 Iona next week and have a 10am pick-up at Burtonwood (North West route), previously we were an 8am pick-up, with final boarding stated as 4.30pm this seems very tight and my other issue is doesn't give much time to get checked-in, unpack and get ready for dinner. 

 

Has anyone done this trip recently and can advise what time they arrived and embarked?

Hi. Please don't worry about your pickup time. We were also concerned about our  11:45 pickup time from Trowell services (Derby/Notts border). We always used to be pickup up around 9:00ish. We rang to query this and it was explained that for the larger ships like Iona/Arvia the terminal at Southampton can't cope with all the coaches arriving around lunchtime. We arrived at 3:45 and were on board by 4:00 with no hassle whatsoever. 

[emam]

On 4/6/2024 at 7:50 AM, Geordie41 said:

My other question is on disembarkation day, everyone gets different disembarkation times so how does the return transfer work for example does the coach have to wait until everyone booked has boarded the coach then departs, or does it leave at a set allocated time. Many thanks.

 

We have usually had a disembarkation time of around 8:30 (happyv might have more idea as been more recent). You have to meet in one of the venues (theatre/dining room, you will be left a letter in your cabin the evening before) and the crew allow people off when it's okay. You then have to find your luggage in a massive shed. They are usually in deck order, so you just have a few rows to wander up and down. If you have luggage that looks a bit different it's easier to find. Just make sure that you check the name to make sure it's yours.

 

After leaving the hall you go outside and there are plenty of people to direct you where to go. The coaches are just outside to the right after crossing a small zebra crossing. You give your luggage to the driver who checks your name off.

 

Depending on how quickly you managed to get your luggage, you may have a little wait but it's not usually too long. Before you can leave one of the ladies who were giving directions come on-board and do a head count. Then you are off. Sit back and relax/snooze/put your headphones on.

 

You get dropped off on the North bound services at Washington. There's usually a drop off at Scotch Corner so you can alert whoever is picking you up to a rough time. Plus most people now have smart phones which will give you an idea.

 

[emam]

Most of your luggage has to be put out before dinner (that's tea time to us northerners lol). You can put one case out later on but I think it has a cut off time. So you will need a bag for your night clothes and toiletries to go in for the morning. 

 

Oh and don't forget to keep some clothes out for your travel home. I have heard of people forgetting to do so. 

 

Also when you go for breakfast you will need to take the rest of your belongings with you. Any bits and bobs left will be put in the rubbish bag. 

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, emam said:

Most of your luggage has to be put out before dinner (that's tea time to us northerners lol). You can put one case out later on but I think it has a cut off time. So you will need a bag for your night clothes and toiletries to go in for the morning. 

 

Oh and don't forget to keep some clothes out for your travel home. I have heard of people forgetting to do so. 

 

Also when you go for breakfast you will need to take the rest of your belongings with you. Any bits and bobs left will be put in the rubbish bag. 

We always ask our steward if its OK to leave our hand luggage and coats in the wardrobe while we go for breakfast and never had a refusal. It makes it far easier in the buffet and the lifts, especially as I am pushing a wheelchair 

[sandancer]

We had until 11pm to put our bags out on Iona although they do request an earlier time if possible. Unlike most other cruise lines P&O do not issue return bag tags so remember to leave the original ones on your luggage. We invested in some of the plastic bag tag covers and they’ve been invaluable, we’ve used them several times. No worries about losing the flimsy paper ones. 

[emam]

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

We always ask our steward if its OK to leave our hand luggage and coats in the wardrobe while we go for breakfast and never had a refusal. It makes it far easier in the buffet and the lifts, especially as I am pushing a wheelchair 

 

Maybe worth a try, though one of them is usually a camera bag with lots of tech stuff in. The other bags would be ok. We went back one time as I had left the letter re disembarkation and all the doors were propped open and the letter was in the rubbish. Though we did manage to get it back.  

[emam]

44 minutes ago, sandancer said:

We had until 11pm to put our bags out on Iona although they do request an earlier time if possible. Unlike most other cruise lines P&O do not issue return bag tags so remember to leave the original ones on your luggage. We invested in some of the plastic bag tag covers and they’ve been invaluable, we’ve used them several times. No worries about losing the flimsy paper ones. 

 

I just use a couple of those punched pocket folders, easy to fold as per the directions. I thought that is was 11pm, but wasn't certain.

[david63]

Unless the wording has changed it used to say "Leave your cases out before retiring"

[JeanieC,Aston]

They started giving coaches first debark times…

Eavesway say the coaches will be parked up from 08:00 and can travellers try to be on coach by 08:30,,,,,alas you always get ones who linger over a long breakfast and stroll up at 09:30 or even later.

[david63]

10 minutes ago, JeanieC,Aston said:

They started giving coaches first debark times

Even before those who have priority disembarkation (suites and top Peninsular tier)?

[Josy1953]

1 hour ago, JeanieC,Aston said:

They started giving coaches first debark times…

Eavesway say the coaches will be parked up from 08:00 and can travellers try to be on coach by 08:30,,,,,alas you always get ones who linger over a long breakfast and stroll up at 09:30 or even later.

We came back with Eavesway yesterday from Princess and like on P&O we were asked to try to be on board by 8:30 but we didn't leave on time because the Eavesway driver said that there were 4 missing people according to his list and had to ring his head office to check whether he could leave without them and them wait for the office to call him back after they had checked with P&O.  He didn’t say what had happened to the missing people but he got the go ahead to leave without them.  I agree that there are often some passengers who stroll up.

Baggage collection in Southampton was chaotic because the ship was given permission to disembark everyone but when we got into the arrivals hall a lot of the baggage was not yet there.  I have no idea whether it was Princess's fault that the baggage hadn't all been  unloaded or whether it was a port problem, our bags arrived about 10 minutes after us.

[JeanieC,Aston]

1 hour ago, david63 said:

Even before those who have priority disembarkation (suites and top Peninsular tier)?

I don’t know what time priority are given but on my last P&O cruise disembarkation times for coaches was at or near the top of the list.
Of course walk off’s were the first off.

[david63]

1 hour ago, Josy1953 said:

I have no idea whether it was Princess's fault that the baggage hadn't all been  unloaded or whether it was a port problem

Princess have a rolling system whereby the baggage for a disembarkation group is offloaded and then that group is allowed to disembark whilst the baggage for the next group is offloaded.

 

This sounds as if there was some miscommunication between the baggage handlers and the ship.

[sandancer]

1 hour ago, Josy1953 said:

We came back with Eavesway yesterday from Princess and like on P&O we were asked to try to be on board by 8:30 but we didn't leave on time because the Eavesway driver said that there were 4 missing people according to his list and had to ring his head office to check whether he could leave without them and them wait for the office to call him back after they had checked with P&O.  He didn’t say what had happened to the missing people but he got the go ahead to leave without them.  I agree that there are often some passengers who stroll up.

Baggage collection in Southampton was chaotic because the ship was given permission to disembark everyone but when we got into the arrivals hall a lot of the baggage was not yet there.  I have no idea whether it was Princess's fault that the baggage hadn't all been  unloaded or whether it was a port problem, our bags arrived about 10 minutes after us.

We were given a debark time of 9.15 on Iona. Not only were we on the coach but also had booked assistance. I tried to explain to the agent on reception that the allocated time really wouldn’t work but they were adamant that 9.15 was the correct time. Decided to make an executive decision and go to the meeting point at 8.15. The assistance staff told us that it was the right thing to do. The coach left at around 9am - whew!

[happy v]

3 hours ago, JeanieC,Aston said:

They started giving coaches first debark times…

Eavesway say the coaches will be parked up from 08:00 and can travellers try to be on coach by 08:30,,,,,alas you always get ones who linger over a long breakfast and stroll up at 09:30 or even later.

This may have changed. We were given 8.15 am with Intercruises to Newcastle. People on Eavesway to Newcastle were given 10.15 am. There were no Eavesway coaches in the car park when we got off

 

[JeanieC,Aston]

1 hour ago, happy v said:

This may have changed. We were given 8.15 am with Intercruises to Newcastle. People on Eavesway to Newcastle were given 10.15 am. There were no Eavesway coaches in the car park when we got off

 

Wow that’s late,I never thought P&O would want people still on the ship at that time.

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, david63 said:

Princess have a rolling system whereby the baggage for a disembarkation group is offloaded and then that group is allowed to disembark whilst the baggage for the next group is offloaded.

 

This sounds as if there was some miscommunication between the baggage handlers and the ship.

According to the senior officer in charge of Iona's disembarcation on Easter Saturday, the port require that all luggage is offloaded and in the baggage hall before they allow passenger to enter the baggage hall; and this applies to all cruise lines.

[david63]

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

According to the senior officer in charge of Iona's disembarcation on Easter Saturday, the port require that all luggage is offloaded and in the baggage hall before they allow passenger to enter the baggage hall; and this applies to all cruise lines.

That certainly was not the case last year on Princess - passengers were disembarking whilst luggage was still being offloaded. I can accept that the rules may have changed since then.

[terrierjohn]

4 minutes ago, david63 said:

That certainly was not the case last year on Princess - passengers were disembarking whilst luggage was still being offloaded. I can accept that the rules may have changed since then.

Well that was the excuse the officer made for them not adopting the Princess, and other lines, system of issuing new disembarcation labels with a disembarcation time, and the baggage arranged in the timed slots. Which even if they don't allow passengers into the baggage hall until all the baggage is in the hall, always seemed a faster and slicker system than P&O arranging the baggage by floor.

[Josy1953]

21 hours ago, david63 said:

Princess have a rolling system whereby the baggage for a disembarkation group is offloaded and then that group is allowed to disembark whilst the baggage for the next group is offloaded.

 

This sounds as if there was some miscommunication between the baggage handlers and the ship.

We have done over 40 cruises with Princess and have never encountered problems before, the disembarkation groups were being called out on board but when we got into the baggage hall the bags had not arrived.  I think there was obviously some miscommunication somewhere which didn't surprise me since the whole cruise was one problem after another. 

We were thinking of cancelling our next cruise but have decided that hopefully things will have settled down  before then and if not we will switch either to Celebrity or Cunard next year.

[Josy1953]

21 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

According to the senior officer in charge of Iona's disembarcation on Easter Saturday, the port require that all luggage is offloaded and in the baggage hall before they allow passenger to enter the baggage hall; and this applies to all cruise lines.

It certainly wasn't the situation on Monday, when we left Sky Princess we were given a time to leave the ship and our luggage was not in the baggage hall.

Edited April 10 by Josy1953

[GSPG]

On 4/6/2024 at 9:03 AM, david63 said:

That is a very rare occurrence but it is not unknown. As long as you have booked the coach transfer via P&O then in such circumstances P&O will do their utmost to get you to the ship at the next port of call - however, depending on the cruise, that may not always be possible or, for any number of reasons, it may not be something that you want/can do (for example you may not be able to fly)

 

My understanding is that those on coaches will all be given the same disembarkation time and the coach will not leave until everyone is onboard that particular coach - however you will be at the mercy of the last passenger to arrive at the coach.

Even though we live down south in Essex, we always travel down to the Southampton area the afternoon or evening before.

Heard too many instances on the M25 of people being stuck for god knows how many hours, and just would not risk it.

The stress, and worry of travelling there on departure day is too much for us, it would feel like ‘running the gauntlet’!

 

Thanks for these posts as I wondered what happened to those stuck on coaches and what the captain would do.

So it seems even booking a coach through the company is not bullet proof on missing the ship!

 

Makes me wonder, once on a cruise and taking a P&O excursion to somewhere remote and for whatever reason the people on it are going to be very late back to the ship talking six hours or so, would the ship still wait?

[david63]

33 minutes ago, GSPG said:

Makes me wonder, once on a cruise and taking a P&O excursion to somewhere remote and for whatever reason the people on it are going to be very late back to the ship talking six hours or so, would the ship still wait?

If it is a P&O excursion then almost certainly yes the ship will wait. It cannot be guaranteed as there may be other factors involved that mean that the ship cannot wait but in that exceptionally rare instance then P&O would have to get the passengers to the next port.

[GSPG]

53 minutes ago, david63 said:

If it is a P&O excursion then almost certainly yes the ship will wait. It cannot be guaranteed as there may be other factors involved that mean that the ship cannot wait but in that exceptionally rare instance then P&O would have to get the passengers to the next port.

If they could, but sounds like they wouldn’t wait in the first instance.

[FangedRose]

4 hours ago, GSPG said:

So it seems even booking a coach through the company is not bullet proof on missing the ship!

That was an Eavesway coach so not booked through P&O who only partner with Intercruise.