Embarkation day

[Gizmosmum]

My DH & I have a B2B2B cruise booked out of Southampton starting 26th July. I am looking at a London to Southampton transfer with National Express which will get us to the port at approximately 11am. Unfortunately my preferred transfer via Winchester is unavailable.

I really want to maximise our time in Southampton.

I presume once we are on the ship we won't be able to disembark to have a look around for a couple of hours?

Alternatively can we do ALL the check in right up until embarkation(ie. not actually boarding) and then have a look around Southampton?

I have plans on the two other days we are in port. If we could manage to do some things prior to boarding I may still get the opportunity to go to Winchester.

TIA J

[gumshoe958]

I think most ships allow you to disembark having already checked in and boarded if you want to get off again and explore the port.

 

Alternatively you could get to the ship and drop off your luggage but not actually check in yet - make sure you don’t miss the deadline for checking in though!

[Globaliser]

4 hours ago, Gizmosmum said:

If we could manage to do some things prior to boarding I may still get the opportunity to go to Winchester.

 

Are you referring here to 26 July, after you get to Southampton at about 11 am? If so, then with a 5 pm sailing (Island Princess?) I think that visiting Winchester that day is too ambitious, and you can't easily catch up with the ship if it sails without you.

[Gizmosmum]

35 minutes ago, Globaliser said:

 

Are you referring here to 26 July, after you get to Southampton at about 11 am? If so, then with a 5 pm sailing (Island Princess?) I think that visiting Winchester that day is too ambitious, and you can't easily catch up with the ship if it sails without you.

No plans to go to Winchester on embarkation day. It would be going to Solent Sky for a few hours.

[John Bull]

5 hours ago, Gizmosmum said:

I am looking at a London to Southampton transfer with National Express which will get us to the port at approximately 11am. Unfortunately my preferred transfer via Winchester is unavailable.

I really want to maximise our time in Southampton.

 

I'm reading that as you had planned to get off the NE bus in Winchester then take a later bus or train to Southampton, but found that not all NE buses on that route stop at Winchester.

That plan would have been hard work anyway, because you'd have been encumbered with luggage (no convenient luggage storage in the centre of Winchester) and because NE buses which include a Winchester stop no longer stop in the centre - they use at a park-and-ride parking lot outside the city.

And as others have commented you wouldn't have time to double-back from Southampton to Winchester.

 

So your only options would be

 

- a private transfer from London with a stop in Winchester. That would work and would give you plenty of time in Winchester, but would cost £200+ rather than about £5 per person 😟

 

- the 6.30am 😮 bus from Victoria to Southampton (that also doesn't stop in Winchester), stash your luggage at Maynard's Food & News shop (a 10 minute walk), then train to Winchester. That too would give you enough time in Winchester, but involves a great deal of faffing about.

 

- travel to Winchester the previous evening (say, the 7pm NE bus, which stops at Winchester) a Winchester hotel for your pre-cruise night (Winchester Wessex Mercure or nearby), do your thing in Winchester on cruise morning then collect your luggage from your hotel and bus or train or private transfer (only 12 miles, probably no more than £30) to your ship. IMHO the best & simplest option of the three, & a Winchester hotel should be significantly cheaper than a central London hotel. The downside is that it would rob you of an evening in London.

......................................

Solent Sky is a taxi hop from your cruise terminal (plenty of taxis since they'll be dropping passengers there).

It's a fairly small but very interesting volunteer-run museum concentrating on aircraft built locally (eg Spitfire) or flown locally (eg Sandringham flying boat). Very helpful & knowledgeable volunteers.

 

Do bear in mind that even if you register early at the cruise terminal you may have to be back by latest-registration time in order to attend the ship safety drill.

 

JB 🙂

[Gizmosmum]

My original plan was a transfer that included a stop in Winchester on the way to Southampton. If the two companies I found that offer this option one has no vacancies and the other isn’t running on that day. 
The new plan is a direct transfer from London to Southampton. 
25/7 check in, visit Solent Sky

9/8 & 25/8 we will be back in Southampton 

One of these days we intend to catch the ferry to Hythe and visit the motor car museum

The other walk around the historical area of Southampton +/- go to Winchester 

[John Bull]

2 hours ago, Gizmosmum said:

My original plan was a transfer that included a stop in Winchester on the way to Southampton. If the two companies I found that offer this option one has no vacancies and the other isn’t running on that day. 
The new plan is a direct transfer from London to Southampton. 
25/7 check in, visit Solent Sky

9/8 & 25/8 we will be back in Southampton 

One of these days we intend to catch the ferry to Hythe and visit the motor car museum

The other walk around the historical area of Southampton +/- go to Winchester 

 

 

Hi again,

 

Definitely the simplest option - and good choices.

 

But I was unaware of one - let alone two - operators of transfers to Southampton which include a stop in Winchester.

For future reference would you care to quote the operators?

 

The National Motor Museum in Beaulieu is well worth a day - apart from the plethora of permanent vehicles there are always one or two special exhibitions (James Bond cars, Top Gear cars etc).

And there's more in the same complex besides the motor museum, including the Bishop's Palace, the footprint & limited remains of the Abbey (sacked by Henry V111 during his "dissolution of the Monasteries) and a "Secret Army" section (Beaulieu was a training ground for Special Forces parachuted into France to link up with French Resistance during WW2).

The little ferry from Southampton's Town Pier takes you across Southampton Water to the village of Hythe (not to be confused with the larger town of Hythe in Kent), which has connections with WW2 high-speed attack boats and air-sea rescue launches, the Mulberry Harbours which were towed across the Channel for the D-Day operations, and the design & "flights" of the world's first hovercraft.

Hythe Pier is long, and an historic little train transports ferry passengers to the shore.

There's no suitable bus service from there to Beaulieu (ignore any internet references to the "beach bus", it no longer operates), so you'll need to take a taxi from the small rank at the pier-head for the 6 miles across a small corner of the New Forest to Beaulieu. ( Get on the little train at the landward end in case there's more demand than taxis.)

There's no taxi rank at Beaulieu, so arrange with the driver to be collected for the return to Hythe. Subject to your time available I suggest between 2 and 4 hours at Beaulieu.

 

"Old-town" Southampton is a bit of a misnomer - Southampton was heavily blitzed during 1940/41 so post-war buildings sit cheek-by-jowl with the few historic ones.

Most notable is https://tudorhouseandgarden.com/ , well worth an hour or more. Just down the road from there is the historic Duke of Wellington pub, and at the waterside end of the road the Dancing Man pub & micro-brewery is set in the C13th stone-built Wool House. Both watering holes have been popular with cruisers.

The remains of the city wall and its main gate (the Bargate, the city emblem) separate the old town from the post-war main shopping street of Above Bar and the large newish West Quay Shopping Mall.

Also consider SeaCity, a museum of mainly dioramas & stories dedicated to Titanic. It adjoins the Civic Centre (tall white tower) at the northern end of Above Bar.

 

Winchester is easy by train Trains are direct and frequent - 2 to 3 per hour - and inexpensive (under £10 round-trip). Winchester station is a 10 minute walk from the centre.

 

No need to book anything in advance, and you'd have no difficulty in choosing the where and the when on the day.

 

JB 🙂

 

 

 

 

[Gizmosmum]

Hi John 

The companies that do the transfers from London to Southampton via Winchester are

https://dhgrouptours.com/tour/london-winchester-southampton/

https://www.internationalfriends.co.uk/london-heathrow-to-southampton-via-winchester.html

[Gizmosmum]

Abridged version of my planned Historical Southampton walk

 

Walk the Medieval City Walls -The best views of Southampton's 14th-century medieval walls are obtained from the Western Esplanade, also the site of Wind Whistle Tower. The only remaining medieval church in Southampton is St. Michael's on Castle Way.

Follow the walls south to Mayflower Park, which lies opposite the Mayflower Memorial to the Pilgrim Fathers, and Wool House, a 14th-century warehouse. Also nearby is the God's House Tower on Winkle Street, a 12th-century hospital dedicated to St. Julian.

Tudor House and Garden -displays exhibits from the Victorian and Edwardian eras, as well as periodic exhibitions encompassing more than 900 years of local history.

The Medieval Merchant's House

Stroll the Titanic Trail

Titanic Engineers' Memorial

Titanic Musicians' Memorial

Explore Old Town and Bargate Bargate marks the entrance to the Old Town.

 

Visit the SeaCity Museum ??? (visiting Titanic museums in Cobh & Belfast)

[John Bull]

9 hours ago, Gizmosmum said:

Hi John 

The companies that do the transfers from London to Southampton via Winchester are

https://dhgrouptours.com/tour/london-winchester-southampton/

https://www.internationalfriends.co.uk/london-heathrow-to-southampton-via-winchester.html

 

 

Many thanks for bringing me up-to-date, Gizmosmum 🙂

 

International Friends is a long-established & respected coach operator who added cruise tour-transfers about ten years ago - when appropriate I've suggested them many times on Cruise Critic.

But I'd never seen them offer transfers to Southampton via Winchester, you're the first to mention it - that must be new for 2023.

A couple of BTWs ....

-  like their other tours, they include pick-ups from Heathrow hotels, not from terminals. That's for those who flew in the previous day, because picking up folk who've just flown in is fraught with complications & delays. Whilst in theory folk could take a local shuttle from their terminal to one of the listed hotels I concur with International Friends - there's a big big risk of missing the bus, resulting in wasted tour money and the need to fix up alternative transport with zero notice.

- their tour-transfers TO Southampton (and Dover) are limited by the need to arrive in port early pm in order to allow for delays and to register for the ship. Their tour-transfers FROM Southampton (& Dover) are much more comprehensive and consequently better value because they plan to start dropping at central London hotels from around 6pm. 

 

The similarity of DHgrouptours' offering, including other tour-transfers identical to International Friends' https://dhgrouptours.com/london-tours/airport-cruise-port-transfers/ and word-for-word phraseology on their website, tells me that they are actually acting as agents for International Friends' tour-transfers.

No reason to be suspicious, but I think we all agree that it's usually better to deal direct with an operator.

 

 

9 hours ago, Gizmosmum said:

Abridged version of my planned Historical Southampton walk

 

Walk the Medieval City Walls -The best views of Southampton's 14th-century medieval walls are obtained from the Western Esplanade, also the site of Wind Whistle Tower. The only remaining medieval church in Southampton is St. Michael's on Castle Way.

Follow the walls south to Mayflower Park, which lies opposite the Mayflower Memorial to the Pilgrim Fathers, and Wool House, a 14th-century warehouse. Also nearby is the God's House Tower on Winkle Street, a 12th-century hospital dedicated to St. Julian.

Tudor House and Garden -displays exhibits from the Victorian and Edwardian eras, as well as periodic exhibitions encompassing more than 900 years of local history.

The Medieval Merchant's House

Stroll the Titanic Trail

Titanic Engineers' Memorial

Titanic Musicians' Memorial

Explore Old Town and Bargate Bargate marks the entrance to the Old Town.

 

Visit the SeaCity Museum ??? (visiting Titanic museums in Cobh & Belfast)

 

Tudor House & Gardens is well worth an hour and more.

The Medieval Merchant's House is only open at weekends and worth only a few minutes. But it's just a hundred yards from the Tudor House - down the street (Bugle Street) & take the footpath beside the Duke of Wellington pub (a favourite of cruisers) so worth a look at the exterior.

The C13th stone-built Wool House is at the bottom of Bugle Street & opposite the waterfront. It's now a micro-brewery and pub (the Dancing Man) so you might want to whet your whistle there if you've not already done so at the Duke of Wellington - or, I guess, even if you have 🍺 🍺

The Bargate is small & only open to groups. But it's an important part of Southampton's history (it's on the city's coat-of-arms)  and you're bound to pass it at some point.

BTW Southampton's old-town is much less attractive than most walled cities - it was heavily blitzed during WW2, so its historic buildings sit uncomfortably amongst those hastily built post-war. 

SeaCity museum, attached to the Civic Centre (tall white clock tower) at the top of the main shopping road which runs up from the Bargate, is very well laid-out but majors on dioramas and stories of passengers & crew, and has very few artefacts. Unless you want to overdose on Titanic, the excellent Belfast museum and the Cobh museum (I don't know it) you could give SeaCity a miss.

 

JB 🙂

[Gizmosmum]

John

 

DHgroup tours had different transfer day availabilities (to International Friends) and sent me an email. I'm pretty sure despite the same language being used in their spiel I think is coincidental and they are two separate companies.

Thanks for the recommendations/suggestions for walking around Southampton.

Julie