Earliest suggested flight time out of Heathrow...docking at Southampton.

[Lydia B.]

Good day, 

Need your advice. Sailing next July on Royal Caribbean Anthem of the Seas. 

Debarking on Sunday July 19th and will roll our own luggage off the ship. 

Will grab a cab and then take the National Express Bus back to either T5 or T2/T3. 

 

Hoping to take the 8:00 bus.  National Bus states to allow 3 hours for bus and then grab your flight.   That would mean. 11:00 flight or later.

 

Do you feel that is realistic or should we shoot for flights after say noon or 13:00??

 

I appreciate your input.   We will be flying back to the US.    Lydia

[John Bull]

1 hour ago, Lydia B. said:

Good day, 

Need your advice. Sailing next July on Royal Caribbean Anthem of the Seas. 

Debarking on Sunday July 19th and will roll our own luggage off the ship. 

Will grab a cab and then take the National Express Bus back to either T5 or T2/T3. 

 

Hoping to take the 8:00 bus.  National Bus states to allow 3 hours for bus and then grab your flight.   That would mean. 11:00 flight or later.

 

Do you feel that is realistic or should we shoot for flights after say noon or 13:00??

 

I appreciate your input.   We will be flying back to the US.    Lydia

 

 

Hi, Lydia,

 

The part of your post I've coloured red doesn't make sense.  I suspect it means allow 3 hrs between your arrival time at the airport and your flight departure time. So to allow that time at the airport you wouldn't need National Express, you'd need a teleporter. 

Since Captain Kirk & Scotty are no longer around that's not going to happen. 

 

Check out the self-same question and answers at

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2687079-what-time-should-we-look-at-flights-out-of-london-after-docking-in-southampton/

 

But there's a further complication.

Currently there's a direct coach from Southampton to Heathrow at 08.00, which should be achievable by unassisted disembarkation at about 7 am and a taxi hop, which takes five minutes or less.  Coach journey time 1 hr 49 ms (other days of the week 2 hrs 15 mins)

 

However I've checked the National Express timetable for Sun. 19th July 2020 and can see no direct service to Heathrow beyond 17th May next year 

After that date the route to Heathrow is via a change of coach in central London and a total journey time of around 5 hours !!!!

That's very similar to the convoluted journey by train 

 

I don't know whether this is a glitch in the timetables, or whether it's a pruning exercise by the bean-counters at Nat Express. But it does seem mildly ridiculous that there'll be no direct service between Southampton & Heathrow.

I'll make a phone call or two, & come back here with any info.

 

In the meantime, check the thread that I linked.

If you decide to book a private transfer or ship-sponsored bus transfer that information holds good, but most private transfer operators don't take bookings until about 6 months out.

 

JB   

Edited August 15, 2019 by John Bull

[Lydia B.]

JB thanks so much for your assistance. To make things simpler I had a brain storm and went in to the Royal Caribbean website and made s mock booking for airfare. 

Nie I can just mimic what times they would recommend which shows a 14:05 as their earliest recommendation. 

But thanks so much for the help!