Waterloo Station, London

[abhb]

We will be staying in London very close to the Waterloo station. How do we get to the port that Royal Caribbean uses? If there is a train, how doable is it with luggage? How far is the train station to the ship? Will we need a taxi?

[tartanexile81]

The train from Waterloo to Southampton is very easy to do. It is a direct train and although there are no dedicated luggage areas if you travel off-peak there's usually lots of space. Megatrains offers great deals a few weeks in advance - keep an eye on their website. These tickets are for the same trains as the full-price tickets but can be a low as £1 per person if you catch them the day bookings open

 

https://uk.megabus.com/megatrain.aspx

[John Bull]

Just to expand on the Exile's post ..............

 

Your hotel is in a good location for trains to Southampton. :)

 

There are about 3 trains per hour from Waterloo direct to Southampton Central station. Journey time about 90 minutes, walk-up fare about £40 per person. Luggage storage isn't great, but trains in that direction are lightly-used in the mornings & folk have no problems.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

 

The Exile has linked you to a bucket-seat website, https://uk.megabus.com/megatrain.aspx

They sell tickets for anything from £1 to £15 :)

That site is operated by a consortium of travel operators, including South West Trains who operate the Waterloo to Southampton route- the site is genuine and trusted, and it's designed to generate business on under-utilised trains. Morning trains into London are heavily used by commuters & business travellers but travelling back to Southampton they're not so busy, so they're promoted on the megatrain site.

.

There are conditions.........

- you must pre-book on the internet, and your ticket is only good for the train that you book - miss that train & your ticket is useless, you'll have to buy a walk-up ticket & catch the next train.

- Megatrain tickets are available for only a few of those trains per day - but there will be two or three that suit a cruiser's schedule. You'll not want to arrive in Southampton after about 2.30pm.

- Theoretically those with megatrain tickets have to occupy carriages with megatrain labels on the windows - but that's only if the staff can be bothered to stick labels on :rolleyes:. All carriages are exactly the same - megatrain carriages don't have wooden seats & straw on the floor ;)

- Megatrain tickets are available from about 6 weeks out, the prices do increase the closer you get to the date of travel & also vary according to what time you want to travel - for the £1 tickets you'll be travelling at daft o'clock in the morning. Research by running dummy bookings for dates in April & May.

- There are no megatrain tickets for sunday travel (only a skeleton rail service on sundays).

- There are no megatrain tickets for morning travel In the Southampton to London direction (no need to sell cheaply, trains are busy)

 

Using the train, & booking on the megatrain site, is by far the best way to travel from the Waterloo area to Southampton. :)

 

Royal Caribbean use City Cruise Terminal (aka Berth 101), from Southampton Central station it's a level 15-20 minute walk or a taxi fare of about £6. Map & info on this recent thread

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2344745

 

JB :)

Edited April 18, 2016 by John Bull

[abhb]

Thank you so much for the information.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[abhb]

I got on the Mega bus site and tried to make the purchase. It doesn't have Waterloo as a choice. Could you please tell me what I should choose for my departure and arrival names? Would the arrival be Southampton airport?

So confused, please help.

[John Bull]

I got on the Mega bus site and tried to make the purchase. It doesn't have Waterloo as a choice. Could you please tell me what I should choose for my departure and arrival names? Would the arrival be Southampton airport?

So confused, please help.

 

On the Megatrain/Megabus site, not the Nationalrail site,

Select.....

number of passengers

country - England

leaving from - London

Travelling to - Southampton

travelling by - there's no bus option for this journey, so either leave it at "all" or select train

Select your date (currently only accepting dates up to three weeks out)

Click "select".

 

This will bring up your options & prices for that date.

This page will also confirm that it's from London Waterloo to Southampton central. Megatrain from London to Southampton only operates out of Waterloo station & is only valid for Southampton central (which is the one you want for the port).

Choose your time - the latest time you should choose is 11.39, which gets you to Southampton at 1.15pm.

Add it to your basket & move on to view your basket (note the 50 pence booking fee), then purchase.

 

Bear in mind there's no availability for sundays.

 

Hope this helps

 

JB :)

Edited April 23, 2016 by John Bull

[abhb]

On the Megatrain/Megabus site, not the Nationalrail site,

 

Select.....

 

number of passengers

 

country - England

 

leaving from - London

 

Travelling to - Southampton

 

travelling by - there's no bus option for this journey, so either leave it at "all" or select train

 

Select your date (currently only accepting dates up to three weeks out)

 

Click "select".

 

 

 

This will bring up your options & prices for that date.

 

This page will also confirm that it's from London Waterloo to Southampton central. Megatrain from London to Southampton only operates out of Waterloo station & is only valid for Southampton central (which is the one you want for the port).

 

Choose your time - the latest time you should choose is 11.39, which gets you to Southampton at 1.15pm.

 

Add it to your basket & move on to view your basket (note the 50 pence booking fee), then purchase.

 

 

 

Bear in mind there's no availability for sundays.

 

 

 

Hope this helps

 

 

 

JB :)

 

 

 

Waterloo goes to Southampton. It was a nice ride.

[John Bull]

Glad it worked out well for tou abhb.

 

For anyone reading this thread, note that it's a couple of years old - there was a change of train operators for the SW region last year and Megatrain tickets are no longer available on this route.

Train info now on http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

 

JB :)

[bottomfeeder]

I took a 10 AM train from Southampton to London Waterloo this past Friday after my transatlantic cruise on the Norwegian Breakaway. It cost about 12 GBP with advance purchase--about 75 days in advance. I used this website: www.thetrainline.com

 

It worked out great though keep in mind that you'll likely want a taxi from the pier to Southampton Central which will add some cost. I walked--looked at the maps provided whenever there was one and I still ended up taking rather a circuitous route--though at least I ended up on the side of the station that didn't require me to take the steps up over the tracks with my luggage! It took me about 45 minutes to walk while dragging my luggage. (I did it because there was a huge line for the taxis and I didn't want to wait. Probably would have been faster for me to wait in line, but hey, I got some healthy exercise!)