Travel3 Posted February 24, 2020 #1 Share Posted February 24, 2020 (edited) For MSC transfers, Does anyone know what the earliest flight can be to purchase with MSC transfers leaving from Gatwick when you are transferring from Southampton cruise port. The ship disembarks at 7am and my flight leaves at 12:50pm from Gatwick. Edited February 24, 2020 by Travel3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare John Bull Posted February 25, 2020 #2 Share Posted February 25, 2020 Do check what MSC calls "transfers". Certainly when MSC started using Southampton "their" transfers were actually tickets on the scheduled National Express coach service. That may have changed now to providing their own dedicated ship - to - Gatwick coaches. If so, the recommended earliest flight is likely to be the same as other cruise lines, 1.00 pm. Just ten minutes later than your flight. If this is a saturday or sunday, no worries. If its a weekday there's a small element of risk. There's no suitable scheduled Nat Express coach - the one at 6.20 am is too early, the next one (9.05am) doesn't get to Gatwick til noon. https://book.nationalexpress.com/ But unless its a sunday, there's a direct train from Southampton Central station at 08.09 am, which arrives at LGW at 10.08 am. To be sure of making that train you'd need to disembark unassisted at 7am. If you do so there'll be no appreciable delay disembarking (lines build later) or in taking a taxi from the front of the rank at the cruise terminal (again, lines build later) for the 5-minute transfer to Southampton Central station. Buy your tickets in advance about 8 weeks out and they could cost as little as £5. Those tickets are only good for the train time that you book but well worth the risk for that meagre cost. And there are a couple of later trains that will also do the job, but they involve one simple train change en route http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/ JB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Travel3 Posted March 2, 2020 Author #3 Share Posted March 2, 2020 On 2/25/2020 at 5:05 AM, John Bull said: Do check what MSC calls "transfers". Certainly when MSC started using Southampton "their" transfers were actually tickets on the scheduled National Express coach service. That may have changed now to providing their own dedicated ship - to - Gatwick coaches. If so, the recommended earliest flight is likely to be the same as other cruise lines, 1.00 pm. Just ten minutes later than your flight. If this is a saturday or sunday, no worries. If its a weekday there's a small element of risk. There's no suitable scheduled Nat Express coach - the one at 6.20 am is too early, the next one (9.05am) doesn't get to Gatwick til noon. https://book.nationalexpress.com/ But unless its a sunday, there's a direct train from Southampton Central station at 08.09 am, which arrives at LGW at 10.08 am. To be sure of making that train you'd need to disembark unassisted at 7am. If you do so there'll be no appreciable delay disembarking (lines build later) or in taking a taxi from the front of the rank at the cruise terminal (again, lines build later) for the 5-minute transfer to Southampton Central station. Buy your tickets in advance about 8 weeks out and they could cost as little as £5. Those tickets are only good for the train time that you book but well worth the risk for that meagre cost. And there are a couple of later trains that will also do the job, but they involve one simple train change en route http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/ JB Thank you John we have decided to hire a transfer. Do you have any recommendations? our ship docks at 7am, would you say 730am we would be off of the ship for the pick up time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare John Bull Posted March 3, 2020 #4 Share Posted March 3, 2020 21 minutes ago, Travel3 said: Thank you John we have decided to hire a transfer. Do you have any recommendations? our ship docks at 7am, would you say 730am we would be off of the ship for the pick up time? Contact https://smithsairportcars.co.uk/ and https://westquaycars.com/ and http://www.aquacars.co.uk/ They're all based at the Southampton end and are frequently used by CC members.. Yes, a car booked for 07.30 makes sense, but check disembarkation times with MSC. If necessary you should have no problem juggling that pick-up time after booking. BTW, all MSC cruises are scheduled to use City Cruise Terminal (berth 101) JB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfargo53 Posted March 3, 2020 #5 Share Posted March 3, 2020 hi john bull we are getting ready to book a private car transfer from Southampton cruise port to London heathrow for sunday 6/28/2020 for a noon flight.of the 3 services you mention in the above post is there a service you would recommend over the others we plan on self disembark and to reserve a car for between 7:15-7:30 am for 4 travelers with 5 pieces luggage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottbee Posted March 3, 2020 #6 Share Posted March 3, 2020 On 2/24/2020 at 10:08 AM, Travel3 said: For MSC transfers, Does anyone know what the earliest flight can be to purchase with MSC transfers leaving from Gatwick when you are transferring from Southampton cruise port. The ship disembarks at 7am and my flight leaves at 12:50pm from Gatwick. Take the train. 2hrs from Southampton Central to Gatwick airport. 8:10a train, 10:10a at Gatwick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare John Bull Posted March 3, 2020 #7 Share Posted March 3, 2020 51 minutes ago, gfargo53 said: hi john bull we are getting ready to book a private car transfer from Southampton cruise port to London heathrow for sunday 6/28/2020 for a noon flight.of the 3 services you mention in the above post is there a service you would recommend over the others we plan on self disembark and to reserve a car for between 7:15-7:30 am for 4 travelers with 5 pieces luggage The one which is by far the most-frequently recommended by CC members is https://smithsairportcars.co.uk/ Southampton to LHR is normally super-easy on a sunday. A 7.30am pick-up should get you to the airport before 9am. But stick to that pick-up time and have a leisurely airport breakfast, just in case of some extra-ordinary hold-up en-route. JB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfargo53 Posted March 3, 2020 #8 Share Posted March 3, 2020 thank you again john bull you have again made our vacation a breeze to plan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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