Port of Southampton

 

I received this post on a roll call for a future cruise and thought I might try my hand at starting a thread. Thanks Nanook21 for the inquiry. Any and all comments regarding Southampton ins and outs would be helpful.

nanook21

 

Docnduck, I know this is a roll call for your 2019 voyage [Explorer Nov 2019], but I would be interested in hearing about your Copenhagen-Southampton experience, especially docking in Southampton. We’re booked on Explorer Aug 30 2019 (prior to your roll call) for the Stockholm-Southampton leg, and have never been to any of those ports, nor have we ever docked in Southampton. We’ll be flying back to Canada from there, so curious about getting from the dock to LHR airport especially. Don’t want to hijack this roll call, so could you (or did you) post under a separate review thread?

We had a fabulous Copenhagen to Southampton cruise in June-July 2018 on the Seven Seas Explorer. The weather was fantastic!!! so the Norwegian coast was incredibly beautiful. See the roll call for SS Explorer June 26, 2018 Copenhagen to Oslo for a video link from a fellow cruiser.

Needless to say, we stayed on the next segment and finished up in Southampton. I strongly recommend having Regent handle the airfare and transfer to London-Heathrow airport. The port itself is clean and well organized and the dock agents are very nice. We disembarked on a Monday morning. In July Southampton is your typical small, crowded beach town. Traffic was abysmal and it took nearly an hour to get on the motorway after leaving the ship at about 7:45am. Total travel time to LHR was about 2 1/2 hr. Not sure how much a taxi would have cost but probably a lot. I suspect the summer vacation crowd had a lot to do with the congestion as we have embarked from London/Southampton twice before with minimal traffic issues. (Also the busses from London hotels leave after 9:30am and travel against the rush hour traffic.)

July 26, 2018 12:52 pm

I'm just back from a round trip out of Southampton. My experience may not be helpful because I didn't actually do any Heathrow to Southampton legs but here you go...

We came in a day early to see the Historic Naval Yard in Portsmouth (can not say enough good things except plan two nights, not one -- it's HUGE and there is a bunch of other related stuff outside the dockyard to see too). To conserve our time, we chose to use private transfers from Heathrow to Portsmouth and then Portsmouth to Southampton. The firm we used was Smiths for Airports. Prices were quite reasonable and based on size of vehicle. We used an "Estate" car -- which for Americans turns out to be more like an SUV or big station wagon. And was perfect for two people and lots of luggage. We got lucking in Heathrow with Immigration/Customs as we were the third flight in from America that morning so we had ZERO wait. There were others on our cruise who were in line for 1-2 hours. Bottom line, our great luck on Immigration and traffic allowed us to drive to Portsmouth, check in to B&B, then drive to the Dockyard ARRIVING before they opened! There was traffic from Portsmouth to Southampton as well. Their were 6 ships (including ours) leaving that day. We planned our arrival for a later check in and were told by others that traffic was much worse earlier in the day. THEN there were the folks on the three Cruise buses -- they got stuck in traffic on the M due to an accident. We ended up departing late as we waited for them!

Going home. We took a taxi from the Ship to Hertz West Quay to pick up a rental car. Taxi line was easy. We just had to argue with the director to have us skip the first taxi (big van) and let the large group behind us take it to take a smaller car behind it. The group behind us was happy and so were we. Our final leg was Hastings to Heathrow with a 4:30pm (ish) fight home. We left after a leisurely breakfast. We experienced stop and go traffic for the last 30-45 minutes on the M as we approached Heathrow, but still arrived as planned by 1pm to turn in the rental car and took a shuttle to the terminal.

-Indi

And I forgot to mention -- there is a whole section of the boards devoted to ports. You'll find lots of good info there too.

And I forgot to mention -- there is a whole section of the boards devoted to ports. You'll find lots of good info there too.

Thank you, IndiTraveler, for your report. We leave next July from Southampton on Navigator and are trying to decide what is reasonable for us to do if we go 3-5 days early. I will add the Historic Portsmouth Naval Yard to my evergrowing list. And, thank you for the car service name and the ports CC board tip. CC is so useful!

Thank you, IndiTraveler, for your report. We leave next July from Southampton on Navigator and are trying to decide what is reasonable for us to do if we go 3-5 days early. I will add the Historic Portsmouth Naval Yard to my evergrowing list. And, thank you for the car service name and the ports CC board tip. CC is so useful!

Most certainly, do not miss the Naval Yard. It is incredible and also the home of the Mary Rose museum which contains the raised remains of a sixteenth century warship which was part of the English Tudor Navy. It sank in 1545 north of the Isle of White during an attach of a French invasion fleet. If you have visited the Vasa in Stockholm, this is comparable.

Most certainly, do not miss the Naval Yard. It is incredible and also the home of the Mary Rose museum which contains the raised remains of a sixteenth century warship which was part of the English Tudor Navy. It sank in 1545 north of the Isle of White during an attach of a French invasion fleet. If you have visited the Vasa in Stockholm, this is comparable.

The Mary Rose museum was SO well done!!! We must have spent 4 hours and only left because we needed to eat and sit down for a while! We wanted to go back but so much to see!

Also there is a small museum in Dover with a Bronze Age Ocean-going boat preserved in the same manner. That shouldn't be missed if you're in Dover to see the Castle.

Thank you, IndiTraveler, for your report. We leave next July from Southampton on Navigator and are trying to decide what is reasonable for us to do if we go 3-5 days early. I will add the Historic Portsmouth Naval Yard to my evergrowing list. And, thank you for the car service name and the ports CC board tip. CC is so useful!

As well as the Dockyard and the Mary Rose, Fort Nelson is also worth a visit.

If you have time pop over on the ferry to the Isle of wight and take a look at Osborne House

There is certainly plenty to see and do in the South of England. Have a great trip :cool:

This https://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/site-attractions/off-site-attractions/explosion-museum-of-naval-firepower is worth a visit if you are of a military history/pyromaniac disposition. They have a lump of the armour from the Tirpitz as well as loads of naval bangy things.

This https://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/site-attractions/off-site-attractions/explosion-museum-of-naval-firepower is worth a visit if you are of a military history/pyromaniac disposition. They have a lump of the armour from the Tirpitz as well as loads of naval bangy things.

That's one of the places I wanted to go to but didn't make. As I said -- Overnight in Portsmouth won't let you do it all!

Thank you all for the additional comments and ideas!

Great to see people recommending some of the great attractions of my home town Portsmouth. If anyone is interested in Second World War history the D Day Museum on the seafront is also excellent. However if I only had time to see one thing it would be the Mary Rose, which is outstanding.

We disembarked in Southampton years ago, and we were flying back from Heathrow, late in the day.

So we booked a car service to pick us up at the ship and drop us for a few hours in Canterbury. The cathedral is a must-see, and the town is small and walkable. He kept our luggage and we arranged to meet some hours later for the drive to Heathrow. It worked out very well, it was memorable and a good use of our time.

We've used Smith's For Airports a couple of times in and out of Southampton. We can recommend them. Do everything by their website and email.

I received this post on a roll call for a future cruise and thought I might try my hand at starting a thread. Thanks Nanook21 for the inquiry. Any and all comments regarding Southampton ins and outs would be helpful.

nanook21

July 26, 2018 12:52 pm

 

Docnduck, I know this is a roll call for your 2019 voyage [Explorer Nov 2019], but I would be interested in hearing about your Copenhagen-Southampton experience, especially docking in Southampton. We’re booked on Explorer Aug 30 2019 (prior to your roll call) for the Stockholm-Southampton leg, and have never been to any of those ports, nor have we ever docked in Southampton. We’ll be flying back to Canada from there, so curious about getting from the dock to LHR airport especially. Don’t want to hijack this roll call, so could you (or did you) post under a separate review thread?

We had a fabulous Copenhagen to Southampton cruise in June-July 2018 on the Seven Seas Explorer. The weather was fantastic!!! so the Norwegian coast was incredibly beautiful. See the roll call for SS Explorer June 26, 2018 Copenhagen to Oslo for a video link from a fellow cruiser.

Needless to say, we stayed on the next segment and finished up in Southampton. I strongly recommend having Regent handle the airfare and transfer to London-Heathrow airport. The port itself is clean and well organized and the dock agents are very nice. We disembarked on a Monday morning. In July Southampton is your typical small, crowded beach town. Traffic was abysmal and it took nearly an hour to get on the motorway after leaving the ship at about 7:45am. Total travel time to LHR was about 2 1/2 hr. Not sure how much a taxi would have cost but probably a lot. I suspect the summer vacation crowd had a lot to do with the congestion as we have embarked from London/Southampton twice before with minimal traffic issues. (Also the busses from London hotels leave after 9:30am and travel against the rush hour traffic.)

Thanks so much for starting this thread after my request on your rollcall! It’s very useful info. Thanks also to all others who added more good tips here. We have planned to use Regent’s air and transfers, so unless something changes, we likely won’t need private transport, but good to know anyway. Not sure yet if we can fly out of LHR same day or if we’ll need an overnight deviation. Air Canada flies direct from LHR to YYC late in the day, so we likely don’t need an overnight.