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Looking to visit HMS Victory next year, our cruise stops in Weymouth  07:00 to 19:00. Whats the best way to get there,  if the cruise ship does not offer a ships excursion? 

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Best to wait for JB to chime in , as he lives down that way, but I think you will struggle. Its about 80 miles each way. Obvious choice is the train, but its 2 1/2 hrs each way, which will use up a lot of your time. Taxi would be mega bucks...don't know how you feel about hiring a car for the day? Even if there is a local bus, that is going to take at least as long as the train. Even if you were first off and last on, you would only have 6 hours at Portsmouth and spend 5 hours travelling. I think you could find better things to do with your time.

 

Simon

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It's worth checking whether 7am is the time for arrival or for gangway cleared for landing.

And I'm presuming that for a 7pm sailing, the latest back-on-board time will be 6.30pm.

I doubt HMS Victory worth the travel time / cost - if you're in England again it's simpler and better to visit from either Southampton or London. 

But if you're still keen ..............................

 

Your ship will dock in Portland Harbour.  

It's a secure port (Royal Navy), no taxis on-spec at the port, you need to fix any transportation in advance.

 

Your ship will likely offer an excursion to Bath and another to Stonehenge (both involve a long coach ride).

It won't be offering an excursion to Portsmouth.

It will also offer a shuttlebus between ship and Weymouth, 4 to 5 miles, 10-15 minutes.

 

If you want to go to Portsmouth you'd need to take ship's shuttlebus to Weymouth then a 20 minute walk to Weymouth rail station. Hourly train service to Portsmouth Harbour station (£40 round-trip) involves a change of train (very simple same-platform change) at Southampton Central, total journey time 2 hrs 30 outbound and 2 hrs 45 return.

Portsmouth Harbour station is less than a 5-minute walk from the Historic Dockyard (HMS Victory and so much more).

https://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/

 

Using the current train timetable for monday thru saturday, and assuming the first shuttlebus from Portland to be about 8am you should have no problem making the 9.20am train and you'd be at the Historic Dockyard just before noon. 

But you'd need to leave Portsmouth Harbour station on the 3.23pm train, again a same-platform change at Southampton Central, then take a taxi from Weymouth station to the ship in order to be back at the ship by 6.30pm, but you have no wiggle-room for any delays. 

So you'd have only about 3 hours in the Historic Dockyard - time enough for HMS Victory but precious little else.

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

 

You could pre-book a local taxi to meet you at Portland harbour gate (only a short walk from the ship) to take you to Weymouth station, which should allow you to catch the train an hour earlier. That would give you another hour at the Historic Dockyard, or more wisely allow you to return an hour earlier giving you wiggle-room for any delays getting back to the ship.

 

Alternatively book a local taxi service for the day to take you the approx 85 miles to Portsnouth & to bring you back.

Drive-time is about 1 hour 45 minutes. An 8am start would see you at the Historic Dockyard before 10 am, and a 4 pm return would allow wiggletime for the journey back to Portland. - hence about 6 hours in the Historic Dockyard. I'll hazard a guess at about £250, with the chance of halving that if you find sharers via your cruise RollCall.

 

You don''t want to rent a car, but its not practical anyway because there are no rental agencies convenient to the ship or the shuttlebus drop-point, and that would eat into your time. And rental fee would be in the order of £50 (the suspiciously low charge quoted by the agency linked by Bob is the daily rate for a minimum 7-day rental), plus hefty chunks for zero insurance excess and fuel. 

 

For taxis in Portland / Weymouth, and alternative ideas for your day, browse these threads

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q=Portland&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=148

 

JB :classic_smile:

 

 

 

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Thank you very much for all the info. It look like we will skip the HMS Victory at this time. The other one I was looking forward to was the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, but we are there on Sat-Sun, so miss that also.

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  • 5 weeks later...
On 6/29/2020 at 11:18 AM, ski ww said:

Thank you very much for all the info. It look like we will skip the HMS Victory at this time. The other one I was looking forward to was the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, but we are there on Sat-Sun, so miss that also.

 

There are 2 performances of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo on aSaturday night, but only during August

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Since HAL sold the ship & cancelled the cruise looks like we'll miss this one also. Maybe another time if or when things ever get back to normal or what ever passes for normal. 

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