Transfer from Southampton to hotel in County Hall

[jmmm]

There are 6 of us traveling on a cruise out of Southampton. We have transportation figured out getting there, but are wondering about post cruise. We have a hotel booked in County Hall, in London. We typically book a car service post cruise, but our cell phones do not have internationally plans on them, so we have no way of communicating post cruise to coordinate with our ride. We typically need to call/text with drivers to make connections at the terminal once we disembark. Are their cabs/vans readily available after the cruise for a group of 6?? Any idea of cost? Or any suggestions on a better, easier, or more economical way to get back to London. We will be traveling with my elderly mother, so simple is best...we don't want to make a bunch of transfers, so no bus or train. Thanks for any suggestions!

[Bob++]

The best option by far is to book a minibus (you would call it a van). Email WestQuay cars, or Smithsforairports for a quote.

 

http://westquaycars.com/contact-details

bookings@smithsforairports.com

 

If needs be, you can use a public telephone (remember them?) from the dockside. Both companies have a good reputation on here for reliability etc.

[John Bull]

Taking a cab from the line at the cruise terminal is very definitely not the way to do it - apart from the fact that you & your luggage won't all fit in one cab, a metered ride of that distance (about 66 miles) would be ridiculously expensive. Those cabs lined up at the pier are great for a short hop within Southampton, for instance to the rail or coach station, but that's about it.

 

Although I note your reluctance to take a bus or train, mother probably wouldn't want to walk to London ;), so your options are:

:

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

Direct service.

Your train journey starts at Southampton central station.

Fares to London Waterloo station (ideal for your hotel, a five minute walk) vary from around £15 depending on the time of day, whether you pre-book, etc to a max of about £40 walk-up fare. Journey time around 90 minutes.

There's a cheaper service to London Victoria, but this is a cross-country route - it takes an hour longer, and cab fares (you'd need two at around £12 to £15) from Victoria station to your hotel would pretty-well wipe out the saving.

 

By National Express coach http://www.nationalexpress.com/home.aspx

Direct service.

Your coach journey starts at Southampton coach station, your destination is London Victoria coach station, journey time about 2.5 hours.

Fares only £5, but again you have the taxi fares from Victoria to your hotel.

Again, you need to pre-book to get the best fares, but with the coach pre-booking is also pretty important to ensure your seats.

 

For either Southampton's rail or coach station, add £6 to £10 ( depending on your cruise terminal) per cab.

 

Train to Waterloo is easy, just one short taxi transfer from pier to rail station,.no big steps to board the train like in the USA, washrooms on all trains,

Most Nat Express buses (similar to Greyhounds) have disabled access if needed, all have (very small) washrooms.

Pre-booked, the Waterloo train or Nat Express bus are your most economical choices, despite the size of your party.

 

Off the top of my head, a private van transfer from pier to hotel would cost about £130 to £160.

Try www.smithsforairports.com or www.westquaycars.com or www.aquacars.co.uk

All are based at the Southampton end. When seeking quotes, do tell them about your luggage as well as your numbers.

 

Your cell-phone.

I'm no expert, and I stand to be corrected but I think that .......

most (all?) cell-phones can be used internationally - though you'll have to ensure that your supplier has unlocked it from international use (it only takes a phone call to do that).

In port, ship's cell signal should be switched off so you'll be on a local network.

Nonetheless your end-of-cruise phone call / text to confirm arrangements will go from a local network mast to your private transfer operator via the USA, so it'll be an expensive call - unsuitable for long or frequent phone calls or texts, but not worth worrying about for one short call or text message.

Or if you meet up with Brits on the ship, they'll have UK cell-phones (we call them mobile phones) - most with phone contracts with unlimited free calls or texts.

 

Or you could e-mail

 

JB :)

.

[MNfamilycruiser]

Check with your carrier(s) to make sure none of the 6 of you can add a temporary travel package for international use. I know both Verizon and TMobile have multiple different packages available (by the day or by the month). We added one month package to my phone, and a daily package to my daughters phone for our trip to Copenhagen and Norway last year.

[jmmm]

Thank you all so much! The train to Waterloo seems to be an easy option. I hadn't even considered that. Definitely more reasonably priced than a private car and my kids would love a train ride. Silly question...what time would be best to book tickets for. We've cruised several times before and know that getting off the ship can take hours sometimes. We don't mind waiting at the train station, or exploring nearby for a bit...but certainly don't want to miss the train.

[John Bull]

I'm presuming your day isn't a sunday.

 

For trains before 9.55 am tickets are for "anytime" trains & the fare is £41.20 :(

For the 9.55 am and later trains pre-booked tickets are for "off-peak" trains & the fare is £13.00 :)

(Children under 16 yrs are approx half-fare, children under 5 are free)

So choose the 9.55am.

The last ship disembarkations are usually about 9.30am so you should have no trouble catching the 9.55 train but your tickets are also good for any other direct Waterloo train after that one - there are about three trains per hour - so no need to worry about missing the train.

 

It might be worth checking out the group rates for an extra discount, though it's quite complicated

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/17.aspx

(train operator for this route is SouthWest Trains)

 

JB :)

[jmmm]

Thank you so much, John! Just double checking I understand correctly, I can book a 10:00 off peak train for 13 and if for some reason we are delayed and we don't make that, we can use it for any off peak ride the rest of the day??

[John Bull]

Thank you so much, John! Just double checking I understand correctly, I can book a 10:00 off peak train for 13 and if for some reason we are delayed and we don't make that, we can use it for any off peak ride the rest of the day??

 

 

The simple answer is "Yes".:)

 

The tickets are valid for any later direct trains to Waterloo - which the vast majority are.

But this is British railway ticketing, so there's a couple of pretty irrelevant caveats..:rolleyes:

1. Not valid on the few trains (one every two hours) which involve a change at Basingstoke. But having to change trains isn't fun & there are frequent direct trains

2. Not valid on the hourly trains to London Victoria. But you don't want those anyway - they take a round-about route adding an hour to the journey time, and Victoria's not convenient to your hotel.

 

On that National Rail website, http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ enter your journey

"From" Southampton Central

"To" London Waterloo

Enter your travel date and time (make it,say, 09.30), and your passenger numbers.

Ignore all the other boxes, and hit "go"

 

I selected 24th May as a random date, and 6 adults.

The 09.30 is showing at £163.20. (it's not off-peak)

The 09.46 is showing at £247.20 (it involves a change of train at Basingstoke)

The 09.55 is showing at £78.00 It also shows 0 changes (ie it's direct)

It also has a note "other services you can travel on". Click on that note to open a window showing the other trains valid with those tickets - 10.30, 10.55. 11.00, 11.30, 11.55, 12.00, 12.30 etc etc.

That's all the other trains priced at £78 for 6 tickets, all direct to Waterloo.

Hit "book now" against that 09.55 when you're happy to commit. No rush, theoretically it can be done up to midnight the day before travel.

 

JB :)