Need advice on Southampton departure

[pvangordon]

My mom and I are scheduled on the Golden Princess next August for 10 days around the British Isles. The ship departs from Southampton. We are flying from San Francisco the day before. I'm looking for advice on arranging travel/lodging before and after the cruise.

 

1. What's the best way to get from Heathrow to Southampton?

2. What are some recommended places to stay overnight in Southampton?

3. Is there anything to do in Southampton, or will we be so tired that we'll just crash out until the next day when we board the ship?

4. If we were to fly in a couple days ahead of time and stay in London, what's the best way to get from London to Southampton?

5. Coming back, what's the best way to get from Southampton to Heathrow and how much time should I allow?

6. Is it better to book Princess air for the travel security or make my own arrangements? I'd rather do the airline of my choice since I have FF miles, discounts through other travel memberships I own, control over the airline, seat, etc. However, I don't know if it's better to use cruise air for international travel. I just want to make sure we get there safely, on time, and in decent shape.

 

Sorry for all the questions. Any help is most appreciated!

[Globaliser]

1. What's the best way to get from Heathrow to Southampton?

3. Is there anything to do in Southampton, or will we be so tired that we'll just crash out until the next day when we board the ship?

4. If we were to fly in a couple days ahead of time and stay in London, what's the best way to get from London to Southampton?

5. Coming back, what's the best way to get from Southampton to Heathrow and how much time should I allow?

6. Is it better to book Princess air for the travel security or make my own arrangements? I'd rather do the airline of my choice since I have FF miles, discounts through other travel memberships I own, control over the airline, seat, etc. However, I don't know if it's better to use cruise air for international travel. I just want to make sure we get there safely, on time, and in decent shape.

I think I can help with these. If you want to investigate any of the options in more detail, there are many threads on each of them, which you should be able to find if you search this forum, the Britain forum and the Baltic Ports forum.

 

1. Heathrow to Southampton: You have two real options. There's a coach service from Heathrow's central bus terminal to Southampton bus station, from where you can get a taxi to your hotel. Or you can arrange a private car transfer. You can do it by train, but either practical route is a little more adventurous, requiring taking a bus to a train station and changing there.

 

3. These are really two distinct questions. Yes, there are a number of things to do and see in Southampton, one of the most famous maritime cities in the world. But you may be too tired to see them, if you haven't slept much overnight on the flight. Depending on the arrival time of your flight (some land in the mid-afternoon), the reality may also be that by the time you arrive in Southampton and get to your hotel most attractions will be closed and you'll be looking for dinner more than anything else.

 

4. Three options from central London to Southampton. The best (IMO) is the train from Waterloo to Southampton Central, from where you get a taxi to the pier. These trains are fast and frequent. Second, you can get a coach from Victoria coach station to Southampton. Or there is the ubiquitous private car transfer.

 

5. If you are going back to Heathrow under your own steam, it's the reverse of 1. really.

 

6. First question about the cruise line's air arrangements: How much more expensive (or cheaper) is it than doing it yourself? If you are happy to do your own transfers, and you (like me) like having control of your air travel, then the answer may be obvious. (I am lucky that when I do ex-UK fly-cruise packages, I usually get total control over the air travel to make sure it suits me.)

 

Hope this helps.

[pvangordon]

Very helpful information, thank you. I've only been to central London before, so I don't know my way around and am not sure what to expect. I'll do a further search on this board to see what I can find as well.

 

Thanks again!

[Tania]

How to get to the ship is a personal decision, depending on the comfort level you expect and the number of pieces of luggage you have.

 

If you travel light and can easily handle your luggage, then the train is the cheapest way to go. If you don't want to deal with luggage after a transatlantic flight, then a transfer, either with Princess or private, is simpler.

 

We've done both. Last month, we did the bus from the airport to hotel in Barcelona for a minimal cost. It was a zoo, with people and suitcases standing in the aisle. Thank goodness we were getting off at the last stop.

 

Two years ago, we used http://www.london-transfers.com from our central London hotel to the ship in Southampton. Not cheap but well worth the money, in our opinion. Back to the ship, we took Princess transfers as we were not in any hurry to get to Heathrow for a 4 pm flight.

 

In Paris, we took the RER Metro into town, NEVER again, Parisians don't believe in escalators and we carried everything.

[crawford]

We'll be disembarking the Golden on 8/10/05 in Southampton. Is is feasible

to make a 12:30 PM flight into Heathrow?

 

If so, being are a family of 5 the most expeditious, cost-effective insight would be greatly appreciated!

 

I believe the Princess transfers run about $160/RT.

 

Thanks,

 

Mike

[Globaliser]

We'll be disembarking the Golden on 8/10/05 in Southampton. Is is feasible

to make a 12:30 PM flight into Heathrow?

I assume you mean a 1230 flight from Heathrow. This would be cutting it very fine - how much do you like living life on the edge when flying? (I do it all the time, so that's not a criticism, but most people I know get the screaming heebie-jeebies when they hear about how I catch flights.)

 

Even on a Saturday morning, you would have to allow a couple of hours to get from Southampton to Heathrow by road with a safe margin. You have to remember that if you're flying economy, the airlines ask you to arrive at Heathrow about 3 hours before departure - and they mean it. The queues to check-in can be very long. You'd never make that, although the chances are that you would just squeak in before check-in closed for your flight.

[crawford]

You are correct, the flight would depart Heathrow at 12:30 PM. This will be a Wednesday, however, not Saturday.

 

If the ship gets into port at 5:00 AM (scheduled time) and we can get to gound transportation in Southamption by 7:30 AM at the latest, I was hoping that we could make it happen.

 

I'm Platinum with Princess.....maybe we can depart before most passengers?

 

 

Thanks!

 

Mike

[Globaliser]

This will be a Wednesday, however, not Saturday.

Reminder to self: Most cruise ships stop sailing in UK waters well before 8 October, therefore set mental alarm!

 

If you can get off the ship and into transport at 0730 then it's do-able. So it's worth checking with the cruise line as to whether this is feasible and what they suggest as an earliest flight time. But the trip will probably take a bit longer than on a Saturday morning - you are likely to be smack bang in the middle of the morning commuter traffic and congestion.

 

Might people on the Princess boards be able to give you a quick answer about disembarking early? And also about what time one can realistically expect to get off the ship? It may be that that fiendishly early published time is specifically so that people can get earlier flights from London airports.

 

As I say, much depends on whether you're all going to get seriously stressed if things go pear-shaped and it looks like you were getting down to the last few minutes before your flight closed and you missed it. If you can deal with it with equanimity ...

 

One other thing that will help if you want to try this - flying with an airline on which you have good frequent flyer status, so that you can use the premium class check-in desks and otherwise get any problems looked after.

[calikak]

It's such a small world. I'm taking that same itinerary on the Golden in May 2005, and I'm also travelling with a group, there will be 6 of us, 4 of whom will be Platinum then. We briefly considered renting a van to drive ourselves to Southampton, before we realized that driving on the left, while jet lagged, on unfamiliar roads, was probably a bad idea. I saw the website for London Transfers and wondered if they are reputable, because it sounded like a good option for us and was still a lot cheaper than the price-gouging rate that Princess quoted us for their transfers. Glad to hear others have used them and would recommend them. We may take the train back to London afterwards, since we're spending a few days there after the cruise ends.

 

My friend who works at Princess always says that at least in Seattle, where she works, if you're willing to carry your luggage off the ship, Princess will let you off the ship first, but otherwise you have to wait, even if you're Platinum. They try to schedule people so that they get earlier disembarkation times if they have earlier flights, and those with no flight to catch get off later. But since there may be 1000 other passengers who also need to catch a noon flight out of Heathrow, you may not get off the ship as early as you'd like. That's why they have the Platinum lounge on disembarkation, because Platinums have to wait just like everyone else. I think they do the same thing in other ports (Vancouver is the same, at least), that you can get off early if you carry your own luggage.

[crawford]

Princess recommends flights after 11:30 AM for Heathrow and 12:30 PM out of Gatwick, if flying out the same day from Southampton.

 

 

Thanks for your responses!

 

Mike

[pvangordon]

Well this is good news. I was wondering if it would be possible to make it from Southampton to LHR to catch a BA flight at 1 pm to San Francisco. Otherwise I'd have to stay overnight and catch the flight in the morning. We'll be flying business class, so maybe we'll get to speed through a couple lines (at least I can hope).

 

As a few follow-up questions:

 

1. How many hours is the typical drive between LHR and Southampton, excluding traffic? We'll be returning early on a Saturday morning, so commuter traffic should be a non-issue.

 

2. How do cruiseline transfers normally work if you are staying overnight beforehand? We will be arriving the day before around 11 am and staying at a hotel in Southampton. I like using cruiseline transfers for the convenience, especially on an itinerary and/or location I'm not familiar with. We will probably have one large suitcase and one carry-on apiece, but my suitcase always weighs a ton (sometimes not the most cooperative of bags).

 

3. Anyone have a recommendation for a good hotel in Southampton? Some place close to the port and food, decent quality, and reasonable rates.

 

Thanks so much for the helpful responses. I'm sooo excited about this trip. I'm surprising my mom with a mini-suite and business class tickets, so I want everything to be perfect. C'mon, August!!!

 

EDIT: I just noticed the Britain forum with similar topics posted. Good info all around!

[Globaliser]

We'll be flying business class, so maybe we'll get to speed through a couple lines (at least I can hope).

 

As a few follow-up questions:

 

1. How many hours is the typical drive between LHR and Southampton, excluding traffic? We'll be returning early on a Saturday morning, so commuter traffic should be a non-issue.

If you're flying from Heathrow in BA business class ("Club World"), then you'll be flying from Terminal 1 - this took effect on 28 March 2004. You will therefore get the very best of Heathrow's sometimes chaotic check-in arrangements.

 

When you get to T1, you need to look for BA's premium class check-in area. Technically, it's known as Zone R (IIRC). It's not inside the main check-in area but is off a bit to the right (as you face the terminal from the drop off area outside the building), along a glazed corridor. It should be fairly well signed, but as long as you remember that you're not supposed to be in the main check-in area you shouldn't have any problems finding it. That area has its own security check point, which is usually quiet and fast. (One small disadvantage is that it literally tips you out into the middle of the duty free shop, but that's easy to either overlook or make the most of, depending on your personal PoV.)

 

When you escape from the duty free shop, turn right and head into the far right hand corner of the departures lounge to find the BA lounges. With a business class ticket you'll get access to the Terraces lounge (business class lounge) and the Molton Brown spa. It should be easy to get a shower there if you want, but you need to book a slot for any other treatment and sometimes the spas do get fully booked, so it's best to do that as soon as you arrive and then plan the rest of your waiting time accordingly. (If you have oneworld emerald status you should have access to the First lounge which is in the same place.)

 

With no traffic, Southampton to LHR shouldn't take more than about an hour and a half - depending on how fast one drives, I suppose.