P&O’s Chaotic new check-in process

So many of you may know that recently P&O decided to change their embarkation process at Southampton, apparently due to customer feedback that customers wanted to have their cabins ready at time of boarding (they never asked for my feedback, as it doesn’t bother me if my cabin is ready or not when i board) so they have now introduced a new system where you will check in by decks and they will make you stick to your timings on your tickets. They also think this is a fairer system and has been trialled for a few months now and rolled out across the fleet. Over the last few weeks there has been many tweaks due to complaints coming through to P&O that the fair system- isn’t fair !

Great in practice however – if you are travelling by coach down and it doesn’t arrive until 2pm but your allocated deck check-in time is 12.30pm  – technically you have missed your time slot so do you then have to wait for everyone else to have checked in or do you jump the queue? Well according to the new rules the coach arrival time is your check in time, so even if you have been allocated a time of 3pm and your coach gets in at 1.30pm you can proceed staright to check-in – so then how is fair to the independent travellers. Whilst I appreciate those on a coach have had a long journey, there are many independent travellers who choose to drive instead of pay for the coach fare so why should they be made to wait and the coach travellers not?

If you are in the Caribbean, Baltic or Liguarian tier then previously you have had priority boarding – however they did change it so that you only have priority boarding on your deck timings, so if you arrive at 12pm and your time is 2pm you have to wait until 2pm and then you will be called first. So you will still get given the red letter card for priority boarding, those who are still working their way up the loyalty tiers like me will  get a blue letter and will be called after all the red letters have gone, if you are lucky they might then call the grey cards after the blue ones which are the people who have arrived early.  Also  another benefit of being in these tiers you would receive an embarkation lounge to relax in serving canapes and drinks – but if you have been allocated a time after 3.30pm then you will miss out on this benefit. But yet again this now seems to have changed (only this week so must have had a number of complaints) and if you arrive at 1pm then you will get priority and board straight away  – confused? I know I definitely am.

My dilemma for my next cruise on Oriana,  in December,  is my mothers cabin is on E deck and is boarding at 1pm, my deck is B deck and I can’t board until 3pm. Now we are going to be travelling to the port together and the bookings have been linked together since the time of booking, but P&O have advised that me and my partner will not be able to board with my mothers cabin but will be made to wait 2 hours before we can check in – absolutely ludicrous if you ask me especially as we will be the ones driving her there and this cruise is for her birthday.  But since speaking to them, they have made tweaks and now changed the procedure again so that now if you are travelling in a group you can now all check in at the latest time someone in the group has been given – but why can it not be the first time that someone has been allocated? Should I let my mum still check in at 1pm as she likes to get on board, have lunch and explore the ship , and I wait for 2 hours in the terminal building, or should I tell my mother that her holiday will be cut short by 2 hours as she has to wait until 3pm with me?

I read on a Facebook cruise forum last week that a mother was allocated a time of 1pm and her 17year old daughter was 3pm, again P&O advised they had to stick to their times – all very well and good but its not really appropriate for a 17 year old to be sat on her own for 2 hours, also at time of check -in you have to register a debit or credit card for the cabin – something a 17 year old doesn’t have. I do believe by the power of social media that P&O have come to their senses and a satisfactory conclusion has been reached.

Many pictures on Facebook show the embarkation lounge jammed full of people and is showing complete chaos – the phrase if it aim’t broke don’t fix it comes to mind with this new check-in procedure. I have cruised many times with P&O and not had to wait ages to board. If it was taking too long why have they reduced the check-in time – they used to open about 11.30 and now isn’t until 12:30/1pm.

I have to say I don’t understand how P&O can make embarkation such a long drawn out process – the Americans ie RCCL and Celebrity have got it down to a fine art (and they aren’t based out of Southampton all year round like P&O are) Last month on Anthem of the Seas – when i arrived at 10.40 (early I know – my appointment time was at 11:15) boarding had already commenced, so they allowed us to go straight in and took just 7 mins to give our bags to the porter, go though check-in, proceed through security and be on board the ship !! So why can’t P&O do this?

Is the later check-in times so P&O don’t have to provide lunch on board anymore and trying to save money? Have you trialled this new check-in process and how did it work for you?

Kerry

xx