Is self disembarkation on Britannia a mad rush for taxis?

[MDav123]

I am on the Norwegian Fjords cruise 7 nights 26th April - 3rd May.

 

I just wondered what the queues will be like around 7:30am-8am on the Friday morning for taxis.

 

Am trying to plan a train to London that day. Obviously I could book a train for later in the afternoon to play it safe, but would prefer not to be waiting hours in the railway station, so wondered if booking a train between 10-11am would leave me enough time beforehand to get through customs & a taxi to the station assuming I get off the ship around 7:30?

  

Edited March 25 by MDav123

[grapau27]

35 minutes ago, MDav123 said:

I am on the Norwegian Fjords cruise 7 nights 26th April - 3rd May.

 

I just wondered what the queues will be like around 7:30am-8am on the Friday morning for taxis.

 

Am trying to plan a train to London that day. Obviously I could book a train for later in the afternoon to play it safe, but would prefer not to be waiting hours in the railway station, so wondered if booking a train between 10-11am would leave me enough time beforehand to get through customs & a taxi to the station assuming I get off the ship around 7:30?

  

There are usually lots of taxis at Ocean Terminal just outside the departure area.

Taxi to the train station takes less than 10 minutes.

It is a small train station but there are separate entrances for which direction your train is traveling.

[AndyMichelle]

2 hours ago, MDav123 said:

I am on the Norwegian Fjords cruise 7 nights 26th April - 3rd May.

 

I just wondered what the queues will be like around 7:30am-8am on the Friday morning for taxis.

 

Am trying to plan a train to London that day. Obviously I could book a train for later in the afternoon to play it safe, but would prefer not to be waiting hours in the railway station, so wondered if booking a train between 10-11am would leave me enough time beforehand to get through customs & a taxi to the station assuming I get off the ship around 7:30?

  

We are on the same cruise. 

Taxis do get busy, but tend to turn around very quickly, earlier the better. 

You will have plenty of time, I doubt you would need to wait more than half an hour and the station is close by. 

Just a note about the terminal though, we did a similar itinerary on Britannia last year departing from Ocean terminal but returned to Mayflower. 

Neither terminal is that far from the station though. 

Happy sailing, see you on board. 

Andy 

[Harryjacobs]

Hi

We left Iona last month as a self disembark at around 7am.  A very large queue inside Iona to leave ship but once through and outside the vast majority went over to the car park.  There was a very short queue at the taxi stand which was managed by port personel.  Taxis were lined up and there must have been over a dozen waiting to be called forward.  Waited no more than than 2 minutes before we was in a taxi and away.

I would say if you left between 7 and 7.30 you would easily be at the station by 8am

[tring]

On 3/25/2024 at 5:50 PM, MDav123 said:

assuming I get off the ship around 7:30?

  

 

To get off the ship that early, you would need to self disembark, which means you would have to leave all your luggage in the cabin, (even the cases) and then take them all off yourself the next morning.  Works fine for some people, but be aware lifts can be difficult to get into on disembarkation day as everyone is up wanting to get to/from the restaurants at that time.

 

Although highly likely that the ship would arrivein Southampton early as scheduled, there are very occasionally problems because of very bad weather, or perhaps mechanical problems with the ship which would delay arrival. If it is just a ticket to London though, I presume that would not be a high cost to loose in that very unlikely case it could happen.

 

[khist]

If you plan to disembark around 7:30 am, booking a train between 10-11 am should give you ample time to get through customs and catch a taxi to the station.

[Clodia]

I've usually managed to catch a 9-10 o clock train after self disembarking, with a wait of no more then 10 minutes for a taxi.

[jh1809]

On 3/27/2024 at 7:47 AM, tring said:

 

To get off the ship that early, you would need to self disembark, which means you would have to leave all your luggage in the cabin, (even the cases) and then take them all off yourself the next morning.  Works fine for some people, but be aware lifts can be difficult to get into on disembarkation day as everyone is up wanting to get to/from the restaurants at that time.

 

Although highly likely that the ship would arrivein Southampton early as scheduled, there are very occasionally problems because of very bad weather, or perhaps mechanical problems with the ship which would delay arrival. If it is just a ticket to London though, I presume that would not be a high cost to loose in that very unlikely case it could happen.

 

Or you could always delay buying your ticket until arriving at the station, rather than make a seat reservation in advance. So long as it's not the rush hour, there are normally plenty of seats to be had on the SouthWest Trains service up to Waterloo, and trains are fairly frequent so it wouldn't be a disaster if you couldn't get on the first one. Of course if you're going on by train to the Midlands or North then a reservation might be essential.