Victoria Station to cruise port at Southampton

[paul8]

I am traveling on Sept 3, 2010 from Victoria station to the cruise port at Southamton. Princess wants $48 per person. I am wondering if there might be a less expensive way.

[Globaliser]

I am wondering whether the answer to this question has changed since it was last asked about, oh, maybe five days ago?

[John Bull]

I am traveling on Sept 3, 2010 from Victoria station to the cruise port at Southamton. Princess wants $48 per person. I am wondering if there might be a less expensive way.

 

http://www.greyhounduk.com/

Greyhound coaches (same 48/53 seaters as Princess and National Express) from Victoria to Southampton currently on offer for just £1 plus 50pence booking fee. But can only be booked up to 3 months in advance. If no promo price is on offer when you book expect a regular fare to be about £12 to £16 pp. Any 3 of the 4 drop points in Southampton (the exception is Bassett) will do for any cruise terminal, simplest is Town Quay but there are taxi ranks at all three. Then £5 taxi hop to any cruise terminal.

You can run a dummy booking on the website for any date in the next 3 months.

 

http://www.nationalexpress.com/coacheslanding.aspx

Their website is poor. Enter from London Victoria coach station to Southampton (just plain Southampton, ignore references to non-existant service to Cruise Terminal). Rate for your date is quoted at £12 pp. Drop point in Southampton is Southampton coach station, then a £5 to &8 taxi hop to any cruise terminal.

Your date can be booked now.

 

NB with both coach companies there is a theoretical luggage limit of 2x 20kg cases pp, plus hand luggage. I've never heard of this being enforced but it could if the coach is fully booked & all pax have luggage due to gross vehicle weight limit. No limit with Princess or on trains.

 

Train. Simplest bet is from London Waterloo rail station to Southampton central rail station. Hourly service, journey time much quicker than by road at just over an hour. £5 to £8 taxi hop at Southampton to any cruise terminal. Regular rail fare about £30 but a complicated variety of cheaper fare options that simply confuse me - one of the London regulars such as Globaliser, HandfordR or His Lordship might be able to help.

 

Private transfer. You are unlikely to find transport at a cost anywhere near the other options, unless you find a van share.

 

All Southampton transport locations on a useful map if you google The London Toolkit - can't give you the link because CC blank it. On the site, click on Airports & Transfers, then Southampton

 

John Bull

[paul8]

http://www.greyhounduk.com/

Greyhound coaches (same 48/53 seaters as Princess and National Express) from Victoria to Southampton currently on offer for just £1 plus 50pence booking fee. But can only be booked up to 3 months in advance. If no promo price is on offer when you book expect a regular fare to be about £12 to £16 pp. Any 3 of the 4 drop points in Southampton (the exception is Bassett) will do for any cruise terminal, simplest is Town Quay but there are taxi ranks at all three. Then £5 taxi hop to any cruise terminal.

You can run a dummy booking on the website for any date in the next 3 months.

 

http://www.nationalexpress.com/coacheslanding.aspx

Their website is poor. Enter from London Victoria coach station to Southampton (just plain Southampton, ignore references to non-existant service to Cruise Terminal). Rate for your date is quoted at £12 pp. Drop point in Southampton is Southampton coach station, then a £5 to &8 taxi hop to any cruise terminal.

Your date can be booked now.

 

NB with both coach companies there is a theoretical luggage limit of 2x 20kg cases pp, plus hand luggage. I've never heard of this being enforced but it could if the coach is fully booked & all pax have luggage due to gross vehicle weight limit. No limit with Princess or on trains.

 

Train. Simplest bet is from London Waterloo rail station to Southampton central rail station. Hourly service, journey time much quicker than by road at just over an hour. £5 to £8 taxi hop at Southampton to any cruise terminal. Regular rail fare about £30 but a complicated variety of cheaper fare options that simply confuse me - one of the London regulars such as Globaliser, HandfordR or His Lordship might be able to help.

 

Private transfer. You are unlikely to find transport at a cost anywhere near the other options, unless you find a van share.

 

All Southampton transport locations on a useful map if you google The London Toolkit - can't give you the link because CC blank it. On the site, click on Airports & Transfers, then Southampton

 

John Bull

 

Thank you John for your quick response.

[scottbee]

I am wondering whether the answer to this question has changed since it was last asked about, oh, maybe five days ago?

 

I hear there are delays along the M3 caused by Ash.

[sddsddean]

I hear there are delays along the M3 caused by Ash.

 

Ash is about 4 miles south of the M3 near Camberley. No problems there!!:D

 

Simon

[Mooloo]

Train. Simplest bet is from London Waterloo rail station to Southampton central rail station. Hourly service, journey time much quicker than by road at just over an hour. £5 to £8 taxi hop at Southampton to any cruise terminal. Regular rail fare about £30 but a complicated variety of cheaper fare options that simply confuse me - one of the London regulars such as Globaliser, HandfordR or His Lordship might be able to help.

John Bull

 

Good idea John - To simplify, OP could hop on a 5/10 min train from Victoria to Clapham Junction and then pick up the train from Waterloo there.

 

OP have a look at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ to get times etc - get the through ticket from Victoria before you set off.

[gadaboutgal]

We just did this trip last November. The night before the cruise we stayed over in a hotel right next to Victoria Station. Catching the train to Southampton was soooo easy. We caught the Southwest Train to Southampton Central. Departure time was 9:32 a.m.; arrival was 12:01. A very pleasant, comfortable ride. Our tickets only cost 10 pounds per person. There were taxis waiting outside the Southampton Train station when we arrived and a quick trip (5 minutes) to the ship was only $10.

Oh, forgot to mention that we purchased our tickets on-line before leaving from the states.

[gosport11]

I hear there are delays along the M3 caused by Ash.

Ash no, road works yes,altho they seemed to have finished them last week,but im sure they will start again,also can get slow in peak hours :):):)

[paul8]

We just did this trip last November. The night before the cruise we stayed over in a hotel right next to Victoria Station. Catching the train to Southampton was soooo easy. We caught the Southwest Train to Southampton Central. Departure time was 9:32 a.m.; arrival was 12:01. A very pleasant, comfortable ride. Our tickets only cost 10 pounds per person. There were taxis waiting outside the Southampton Train station when we arrived and a quick trip (5 minutes) to the ship was only $10.

 

Oh, forgot to mention that we purchased our tickets on-line before leaving from the states.

 

Do you remember what the entire cost was? Princess wants $48.

[sddsddean]

Do you remember what the entire cost was? Princess wants $48.

 

Waterloo - Southampton is advertised as about £30, but go to www.megatrain.co.uk about 4 weeks before and you can get it for £1.

 

Victoria - Southampton is also about £30, but at http://www.southernrailway.com/ you can usually get it for about £3.50.

 

Both trains run at least every hour, but trip from Waterloo is about 90 mins, whereas Victoria train goes via Gatwick and the South Coast and takes about 2 1/2 hrs.

 

Simon

[gadaboutgal]

The cost for 2 of us was less than the Princess price for one person. It was about $30 for 2person for the train and $10 for the taxi=$40 total.

We are frugal travelers:)so I usually do a lot of research, and then we do things on our own.

The advantage of the train from London VIC for us was our hotel was less than a 3 minute walk to the station, and we did not want to have to get up earlier to cross town in the traffic to get to Waterloo for the 90 minute train-which would not have saved us that much time and would have taken a lot more effort.

[Globaliser]

To simplify, OP could hop on a 5/10 min train from Victoria to Clapham Junction and then pick up the train from Waterloo there.

The only thing to watch out for here is that changing trains at Clapham Junction is not easy.

The night before the cruise we stayed over in a hotel right next to Victoria Station. Catching the train to Southampton was soooo easy. We caught the Southwest Train to Southampton Central.

It's actually Southern Railway that operates the train between London Victoria and Southampton Central. South West Trains operates between London Waterloo and Southampton.

[gadaboutgal]

Hmm-strange. I purchased our train tickets for London Vic to Southampton Central on the Southwesttrain.co.uk web site. And I just checked to make sure the site was the same one I used. So is Southwest trains owned by Southern Railway? In my notes I did write down that the train was green-maybe that would be clue?

[insidecabin]

For the Southern train you need the daysave for the £10pp, £20 for 4pax fares, cheaper fares can be found but the £10 has allways been available

(This direct train does not run on Sundays)

 

http://www.southernrailwaytickets.com/main.php?page_id=189

 

National express victoria coach will have the funfares from £1 closer to the cruise date.

[Globaliser]

I purchased our train tickets for London Vic to Southampton Central on the Southwesttrain.co.uk web site. And I just checked to make sure the site was the same one I used. So is Southwest trains owned by Southern Railway? In my notes I did write down that the train was green-maybe that would be clue?

Green trains = Southern Railway. South West Trains are painted in a bilious mixture of red, orange and blue.

 

South West Trains will certainly sell you a ticket - it's just acting as a travel agent when it does that. But the operator is a different company.

[gadaboutgal]

Thank you, Globalizer, for clearing up my confusion. That is good information to keep in my notes.

[John Bull]

Thank you, Globalizer, for clearing up my confusion. That is good information to keep in my notes.

 

......... and added to my confusion :D:D:D

Bits of this thread demonstrate why I gave up on the trains. Just try working out the best price on a cross-country journey which involves several train companies.

Totally unsuitable for those of us who are pea-brained & senile :confused:

Bring back British Rail ;)

JB

[gadaboutgal]

Don't give up on the trains, John Bull. :DWe thought they were wonderful transportation. We, also, took the train from Gatwick into London Victoria when we first arrived. We found the UK train system so very convenient and pleasant. Quiet, room to stretch our legs, big windows to look out and see the countryside. So much better than bus services. Wish we had such convenient transportation throughout the U.S.

[Mooloo]

The only thing to watch out for here is that changing trains at Clapham Junction is not easy.It's actually Southern Railway that operates the train between London Victoria and Southampton Central. South West Trains operates between London Waterloo and Southampton.

 

Didn't realise there were direct trains from Victoria to Soton:eek:. Have only ever gone via Waterloo / Clapham Junction - think of all the faff I've had in the past.

 

Good to know there's no need to go across town.:)

[John Bull]

Don't give up on the trains, John Bull. :DWe thought they were wonderful transportation..

 

No problem with the trains themselves :)

 

But when I try to find out about these mysterious "ghost trains" I hear about from Victoria to Southampton, the web-site tells me to start with a train from London Victoria to London Waterloo, & change to the Southamton train there.

It's a bit much that I have to learn about the direct if somewhat circuitous trains, or indeed the option to change at Clapham, on a US-based cruise forum :D

 

JB (still takin' thetablets)

[Grumpy100]

:confused:This is a really dumb questions but, with all these travelers taking all these different trains to get from the different airports to the ports and the different hotels and then to central london to see the sights I think I would be very confused so might just pay with a taxi.

When the tourist take these trains after just getting off the planes do they schlep all their luggage on and off the trains or subways and is their enough room for you and all your luggage? Don't the doors close really fast so do you have time to get around all the people traveling and have time to bring your luggage in a manerly system. I worry about maybe getting your luggage caught in the doorway system.

I told you it was a dumb question..:confused::confused:

[gadaboutgal]

I am a mid 60's non-athletic person and, yet, I do not have any trouble using the train with my luggage. My dh has rule-if I pack it, I carry it. So I always make sure everything fits into one large (not over 45 lbs) suitcase and one backpack. Getting on and off trains was definitely not a problem as the luggage does not have to be lifted up more than a few steps if any.

[Globaliser]

Good to know there's no need to go across town.

But be warned that the direct train from Victoria to Southampton takes an awfully long time.

 

Personally, if I were starting from Victoria, I would get a cab from Victoria to Waterloo and get the fast train from there.

This is a really dumb questions but, with all these travelers taking all these different trains to get from the different airports to the ports and the different hotels and then to central london to see the sights I think I would be very confused so might just pay with a taxi.

When the tourist take these trains after just getting off the planes do they schlep all their luggage on and off the trains or subways and is their enough room for you and all your luggage? Don't the doors close really fast so do you have time to get around all the people traveling and have time to bring your luggage in a manerly system. I worry about maybe getting your luggage caught in the doorway system.

The only time it would makes sense to get a train straight from the airport to the port is if you were arriving at Gatwick and going to Southampton.

 

Most of these trains (including Tubes) are commuter trains. So where you put your luggage is a case of improvising. It's harder when it's very busy, eg in the morning peak. But it can be done, and many people do it (including myself).

 

There is enough time to get luggage on and off the train, but there isn't time to dawdle. The driver won't usually close the doors while people are still trying to get on and off.

 

Obviously, if you have luggage which you can't easily manage to lift and carry yourself, then public transport may not be for you. But if you use a taxi, you increase your costs substantially.

[gadaboutgal]

I think the deciding factor as to which train station to leave from depends on where you are staying in London. The Victoria Station train was 2hrs 30 min ( train from Waterloo= 1 hr 30 min.) to Southampton.

As our hotel was precisely next to the side entrance to the VIC terminal (Hotel Hesperia 2 Bridge Place) it was more convenient and not much time difference when you factor in catching, loading into a taxi, travel to Waterloo (about 1.5 miles) and unloading at Waterloo. (By the way, I recommend the Hesperia if you want a very fresh looking, clean -but not expensive hotel for one or two nights stay.)