Purely from a personal point of view, I cannot fault the "new" embarkation process.david63 wrote:My experience on Saturday joining Arcadia.
We had a 13:30 "arrival time" and arrived just after 12:30. We were given a Blue "C" card. We were called to check-in at 13:30 and were in the cabin by 14:00 - despite comments of "organised chaos". It was well organised and most definitely not chaotic.
As far as I can see nothing has basically changed other than you are now given cards relating to your arrival time rather than in the order in which you arrive.
Our stated arrival time was 3 p.m. but a few days before we were due to sail, we received the letter from that nice Mr Edgington advising that, as valued clients, we were entitled to priority embarkation and could hop on board any time after 13:00.
We pitched up in the car at about 13:20 (which was a miracle in itself bearing in mind the traumas we had getting the cats to the cattery that morning!!) and the unloading and CPS check-in only took a few moments.
There was no one in front at the priority queue so we were whisked straight to a check-in desk and were in the security check area before 13:30. No queue there either and we were on board and in our cabin before 13:45.
The priority embarkation lounge was a bit of a bunfight, as detailed by SueK in her excellent report but then we always expect a large number of Goldies at Christmas. Curled up canapes lived up to expectations !!
There were plenty of moans on board about the embarkation process but, almost without exception, the people affected had turned up well before their allotted time ! I had one particularly heated discussion with an otherwise very nice couple at our table who were Ligurian and were, in fact, staying on for the Worldie. They admitted that they had been advised that they could deposit their luggage from 11:30 and check-in at 12:30. Guess what? They turned up at 10:30 and complained furiously that the system was "a fiasco" because they had to wait 2 hours to get on board !!
What chance do P&O have ?!