What has been your experience at the Southampton Cruise Terminal?

[Boiler Cruiser]

My wife and I are taking a cruise on Princess which departs from Southampton in September.  We will return there as well for debarkation.

 

We have not been to the Southampton Cruise terminal before and I'd be interested in any information might be helpful.

 

We are going to be staying 2 days in London before our cruise, and will be transferring to the port on the day of our departure.

 

For those of you who have been through the Southampton Cruise Port, what was your experience like?  Was it crowded?  Did your embarkation go smoothly?  Was it easy to drop off luggage?  How as check-in?

 

How was your debarkation? 

 

I'd be interested in any thoughts or advice that might be helpful.

[Harters]

This was 2017.

 

Was it crowded - not really

 

Did embarkation go smoothly - yes

 

Was it easy to drop off luggage - yes. I drove up to the terminal and handed over the bags to a porter. Then drove back over the road to the car park.

 

How was check in - fine. There was no queue to speak of . 

 

Debark - went more or less smoothly. Bags were lined up and easily spotted. Collected them and my partner waited with them while I went over the road to collect the car. My only issue was that, due to poor signing, I stopped in the official taxi area - which gained some heavily sarcastic remarks from a taxi driver and other remarks from a port jobsworth. I suggested to the latter that if the port improved its signing so he wouldnt need to gob off at its users. 

[ontheweb]

We were there on an NCL cruise this past summer. Dropping off bags was easy as we took a cruise line transfer after spending one day in London. The line to embark went quite smoothly.

[sddsddean]

Just so you know, there is no such thing as 'Southampton Cruise Terminal'. There are at least 5: Mayflower, Horizon, City, QE2 and Ocean. Having said that, I've never had any of the problems you are asking about at any of the ones I've used.

 

Simon

[John Bull]

City centre traffic can get snarled up on saturdays when four or five ships are turning around.

https://www.southamptonvts.co.uk/Live_Information/Shipping_Movements_and_Cruise_Ship_Schedule/

 

But we've never experienced any significant delays in registering / boarding or in disembarking

 

JB 🙂

[MeHeartCruising]

The one time I cruised from Southampton everything went smoothly.  Easy to get a cab from the train station that morning.  I arrived before they began accepting baggage from arriving passengers.  The baggage handlers had finished with the disembarking passengers and took a short break before opening the doors to accept baggage from arriving passengers.  So those of us who arrived early, waited near the baggage doors.  Once the bag drop opened, it was an easy and straightforward, organized process to get checked in and a short wait to get on the ship.  As easy as any embarkation I've had.