Cunard First Time Since 2019

[exlondoner]

1 minute ago, stephen@stoneyard.co.uk said:

Thank you.  This will be my first post COVID cruise with Carnival PLC. It seems odd as Queen Mary 2 has no more passengers (since remastering) and the terminals are no more smaller. 
 

I think Queen Mary 2 often does not embark that many passengers in Southampton.  There is a lot of single occupancy and passengers from the USA are often doing round trips.

 

I never thought Cunard had a problem to solve.  Particularly as the solution seems to involve making people queue outside the building. 

Also, a lot of TA passengers may embark in Hamburg. Having said that, I can never remember not having a check in time for QM2.

[Pushpit]

Well the queue out of the building usually only takes under 10 minutes or so to get inside, so I wouldn't want that exaggerated. But I think it's fairly obvious that if everyone turned up at midday or 1pm it would slow things down for everyone and therefore the process is a lot smoother if at least some people turn up later.

 

In terms of your concerns about missing the departure time, they will typically say something like "final boarding 4pm", but in reality the planned final boarding will be 4:30 pm, and actual final boarding sometimes later or even much later. Southampton can get congested for marine traffic and the QM2 may actually only departure well after 9pm.  

 

Clearly if you were going to board at 3:30 pm then you would need to think about how to be in the vicinity in good time, but if the roads around Ikea were blocked then the ship would have crew stuck there too. 

[exlondoner]

I have only rarely been on a Cunard ship that has left Southampton on time. Not that that necessarily helps late passengers, as the admin has probably been done for a punctual departure.