9:30 am from Southampton too early?

[Funboy]

3 hours ago, AndyMichelle said:

It seems you have your wish... 

Express disembarkation is from 7am 'at a time that suits you'... 

Absolutely no mention of a time slot, just as long as you can carry your cases. 

I will try to report back how it works in theory later. 

Andy 

 

We got exactly the same. Fortunately we arrived at 8.15 in the theatre by which time they were only 10 mins from calling out the first row. We were off the ship by 9am. If we had waited until the alloted time we would have been in a front row and waiting for the 'call' to leave....and our coach full of people would have been waiting for us and been very late off!.  Moving to boarding in the beginning, our letter said 1.30 embarkation time and yet the coach was told to be there no earlier than 3.45 otherwise it would have to circle for a while!. The P&O times are rubbish and would cause chaos if stuck to.

 

[AndyMichelle]

We had a 9.35 disembakation time and were off the ship by 8.30.

We came out of breakfast looking for somewhere to plonk ourselves and were just guided off the ship. 

It all seemed to be going smoothly, but apparently the lifts were a nightmare, but I suppose they always are on embarkation day. 

Andy 

 

 

[happy v]

14 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

We had a 9.35 disembakation time and were off the ship by 8.30.

We came out of breakfast looking for somewhere to plonk ourselves and were just guided off the ship. 

It all seemed to be going smoothly, but apparently the lifts were a nightmare, but I suppose they always are on embarkation day. 

Andy 

 

 

Welcome home 

[Le Perroquet]

This actually answers a question I had. I'm travelling to Southampton the day before embarkation and staying overnight. But I wondered if I would have to book a hotel the night after I arrive as well, depending on what time the ship arrives back at Southampton.

I'm travelling by train to the West of England. It looks like it would be straightforward to get back home on the day.

[purplesea]

Welcome to the forum.

I live in the far west of the country and we always travel up the day before. For our return we often travel back by train, we don't drive up. I usually book train departures for late morning/lunch time to allow us plenty of time to reach the station, which gets us home late afternoon/early evening.

[Le Perroquet]

36 minutes ago, purplesea said:

Welcome to the forum.

I live in the far west of the country and we always travel up the day before. For our return we often travel back by train, we don't drive up. I usually book train departures for late morning/lunch time to allow us plenty of time to reach the station, which gets us home late afternoon/early evening.

Thanks, that's very useful.

[Selbourne]

1 hour ago, Le Perroquet said:

This actually answers a question I had. I'm travelling to Southampton the day before embarkation and staying overnight. But I wondered if I would have to book a hotel the night after I arrive as well, depending on what time the ship arrives back at Southampton.

I'm travelling by train to the West of England. It looks like it would be straightforward to get back home on the day.

Websites such as National Rail Enquiries will often suggest going Cross Country to Reading and then GWR from there. Apart from the fact that Cross Country is hideous, this is quite a roundabout and expensive route. The other option is Southampton to Salisbury (around 30 mins) which connects with the Waterloo to Exeter route. If the timings work, it can be quicker and cheaper - and you avoid Cross Country which is always a good thing!

[purplesea]

2 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Websites such as National Rail Enquiries will often suggest going Cross Country to Reading and then GWR from there. Apart from the fact that Cross Country is hideous, this is quite a roundabout and expensive route. The other option is Southampton to Salisbury (around 30 mins) which connects with the Waterloo to Exeter route. If the timings work, it can be quicker and cheaper - and you avoid Cross Country which is always a good thing!

It used to be one change at Westbury, travelling up from Cornwall, but more often than not it now involves at least 2 changes. Exeter and Sailsbury. GWR are not much better than Cross Country!

[Winifred 22]

On 4/24/2024 at 2:57 PM, Selbourne said:

I’m not sure that’s practical in Southampton, where they use an air bridge at all terminals.

We’ve not used self disembarkation but, as mentioned, one of our daughters used it disembarking Iona in August school holidays, when the ship was packed, and had no issue with it all. Any issues with regular disembarkation could easily be solved if P&O adopted the much better system that sister company Cunard use 🤔

There can still be long queues to get off.In spite of  being asked to wait in your cabin until yourallocated time, many ignore their given time and just join the huge snaking queues around whatever deck is being used. Also the cabin stewards are not too chuffed with people still in their cabin as late as 9 50. I am rarely in a rush to leave so after breakfast go back to my cabin to pick my bags up and  just wait in a lounge or outside  until the queue has died down. 

[Funboy]

Unfortunately we could not wait for the queue to die down. If we had waited until our disembarkation official time we would have kept the coach waiting. Our official time to go to the theatre was 9.15. Our coach actually left at 9.45! So much for their official time fitting in with the coaches!.