Southampton to Heathrow 1PM flight

The Crown Princess arrives at 7AM. Would like to make a 1PM Icelandair flight from heathrow. Princess transfer states "only for flights after 2PM". Has anyone had experience with another option (private transport) that would get us there in time?

Thanks!

If you do 'walk off' and a private car, you should be OK. Try West Quay Cars or Smiths for Airports. What day of the week is this? Weekends will be OK, weekdays (especially Mondays) could be iffy, but probably OK.

Simon

You'll certainly need to use a pre-booked private transfer (about £90 for a sedan), probably unassisted early disembarkation too.

But really we need the date, or more importantly the day-of-the-week that you disembark

JB :)

Sorry forgot to give the day. We will be arriving on Saturday, August 26, 2017. The Crown Princess arrives at 7AM, not sure what time we will be allowed to disembark.

Sorry forgot to give the day. We will be arriving on Saturday, August 26, 2017. The Crown Princess arrives at 7AM, not sure what time we will be allowed to disembark.

A Saturday :)

No commuters, and that makes a world of difference.

It's actually a holiday weekend, but that won't concern you - during the saturday morning the opposite carriageway will be filling with Londoners heading for the coast, traffic in your direction will be light so you'll get from the ship to Heathrow in little more than an hour.

Ships normally arrive around 4.30 to 5.30am when most folk are still in the land of nod, and I suspect that the 7am you've been quoted is when disembarkation begins - usually unassisted disembarkation around 7am (keep your bags in your cabin overnite & haul them off the ship yourselves), then staggered normal disembarkation something like 7.30am to 8am.

If you choose a pre-booked private transfer I think you have time for regular disembarkation. A car booked for 8.30 will comfortably get you to Heathrow by 10am, a clear 3 hours ahead of your flight time. If you're allocated a disembarkation slot later than 8am you can ask at guest relations for an earlier slot to tie in with your onward transportation - they're usually very obliging.

You have enough time to consider two alternatives:

By bus http://www.nationalexpress.com/home.aspx

Or by train http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

But by train is a little complicated and for two costs about the same as by private transfer, & IMHO the approx. £25 saving by bus isn't worth the effort.

Frequently recommended on this forum are http://www.smithsforairports.com and http://www.westquaycars.com and http://www.aquacars.co.uk

All three are based at the Southampton end.

JB :)

Thank you for the information. Its good to know that we will be going against the traffic!

Thanks to dsarah for posting the question re options for a private transfer from Southampton to Heathrow. The question focused on a weekend transfer, with some great advice offered. My question is: how would that advice change for a mid-week transfer? Our cruise ends in Southampton on a Thursday, early morning, next June. Our group of 6, perhaps 8, needs to catch a 1 pm flight to Reykjavik. What is the recommended time to arrange a pickup at the cruise terminal?

Thank you!

Sam

You should contact some of the vendors mentioned in dsarah's thread. They are the local experts, and will know better than most of us.

Thanks, CruiserBruce, your advice is appreciated. Wow, I've never come across anyone in the 20,000+ Club....I'm truly honored!

I did contact a couple of the service providers, and waiting to hear back. However, I'm also hoping to hear from John Bull...he's from Romsey, just outside Southampton, and a wealth of information on the area. As are many other posters from that part of England.

Dsarah - we're on your cruise and have a 1230pm flight...DW thinks way too close. What have you found out since Nov at your last post?! Thanks!

We disembarked from the Indy on a Friday 28th May we went through customs/immigration at 7.40 am onboard transfer coach by 8am at Heathrow T5 by 9.30. T5 is probably a bit easier than the other terminals.

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I made a 12:55pm flight with doing walk-off disembarkation and taking the cruise line's bus transfer. It was mid-week too with "bad traffic" according to the bus driver (had to laugh - he clearly has never seen So. Cal. traffic!). I didn't have much time to spare once at the airport but it's do-able. Definitely do a private transfer though. That will save you a good amount of time.

Dsarah - we're on your cruise and have a 1230pm flight...DW thinks way too close. What have you found out since Nov at your last post?! Thanks!

Actually we decided to delay our flight back till the next day. We're going to sign up for a tour that picks up from the cruise terminal, visits Salisbury, Stonehenge and Windsor and drops off at a Heathrow area hotel. I did ask a private transfer company about the timing and they seemed to think we would make it on time for the 1PM flight if they picked us up around 8AM. But given the fact that we are only arriving at 7AM vs. 5 or 6 like other ships, I was nervous about making the pick up time, also Icelandair has a minimum of 3 hours prior to flight time for check in. So all in all, just decided to relax and sightsee one more day, then fly home the next day. I don't like "stress".

Some of the cruise transfer coaches double service ships. Like in 2015, coming off Oriana, going to Heathrow, we had to wait 3 hours for the coach to load with pax from the Arcadia. All up wait/travel it was 5 hours. We had a 5pm flight and only got to Airport @ 2.30pm, too tight a window, too rushed.

So...dsarah, good decision you made, enjoy !!