kgillespie5

I forgot all about the website that @PacnGoNow just provided. It's really good and informative. I've spent a lot of time on that website as I've been planning my trip 🙂

I'm cruising out of Southampton in November on Emerald Princess for the Transatlantic cruise and have been looking into this same issue and this is what I've found. National Express is a bus company with a station at Heathrow that appears to be a 10-20 minute walk from Terminals 2 and 3. (The walk is inside with moving walkways in sections). There are YouTube videos showing what the walk is like. Just search with language similar to "Heathrow Coach Station from Terminal 2 or 3". The tickets I've seen range between 16 pounds ($19 US) and 25 pounds (about $30 US). The bus ride is 2 hours. There are many departure times to choose from and you can buy your ticket online. The link is https://www.nationalexpress.com/en/airports/heathrow. I bought a ticket for 21.5 pounds (and then paid an additional 2 pounds to reserve a specific seat and 5 pounds to be able to catch an earlier or later bus if I needed to). I looked into going by train but my understanding is that you have take a bus or the Tube to the the train station that would get you to Southampton and that the cost was more than the bus. Seemed like a lot of work and effort after being on a plane for a long time. The British Isles/Western Europe has a great thread with a discussion on this very topic. The link to that topic is: I might change my mind and book a transfer with Twelve Transfers which would be about about 145 pounds for a car that holds 3. I looked at their price for a van that would hold your group and it was 188 pounds (about $225 US). The British Isles link above has multiple suggestions for companies that provide transfers to Southampton.

Thank you for your quick response and directions for the location of the bus departure area! I'll definitely find the videos on YouTube and watch them to familiarize myself with the process. Looking forward to the adventure 🙂 I love the planning and research leading up to a trip. I've already made my hotel reservations for the Moxy in Southampton pre-cruise and will continue my research this weekend on National Express and plan to go ahead and buy my ticket now. Makes the trip feel so real even though it's months away.

@ROWSE I loved your review! I was living vicariously through you, reading every post and loving it, not knowing that I would end up booking a transatlantic cruise on the Emerald for November. I was set to cruise on the Royal in November but this past week decided to do the Transatlantic instead 🙂 I noticed you took a National Express bus from Heathrow to Southampton. Did you enjoy it and would you recommend it? I priced it and it's a lot more palatable than the cost of a private transfer. Is the National Express departure site at Heathrow? Did you find it relatively easy to find and figure out?

Following ... I'd love to know the answer to this as well 🙂