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Heathrow - 3 hrs before transfer to ship, is it possible to see anything in London?


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We get to Heathrow very early. I am thinking we will have 3-4 hours before we need to get on the Princess transfer to South Hampton.

 

Is it possible to get to London and see anything?

 

When is the last Princess transfer from Heathrow to South Hampton?

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Define 'very early'.

You need to allow a minimum of 45 minutes-1 hour between LHR and Central London. Going into London and then coming back to LHR for the transfer is a non-starter.

You have 3 options:

-Change your Princess transfer from LHR to Victoria Station (I'm pretty sure they still have that transfer), go into London and do a quick tour;

-Ditch the Princess transfers, go into London for quick tour then take the train down to Southampton;

-Fly in the day before.

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I would doubt it-Heathrow is on the M25 ringroad 20 odd miles outside central London .The transfer from Heathrow to Southampton will be via motorway and bypass London

 

to take the Heathrow express train into London is at least half an hour and if you have to allow time to get back for the transfer that's taken a chunk out of your 3 hours

 

Also is that 3 hours from landing to transfer?

Even without the long immigration queues which are in the headlines at the moment you can reckon on at least an hour to clear the airport.

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Forget it. The queues at Heathrow have been terrible. There have been some reports in the London newspapers that the lines for Immigration for non EU members have gone as long as 4 hours---with 2 hours being the shortest wait. Once the Olympics start, unless the government does something drastic with the Immigration queues, the wait will be even longer. There have actually been fights in line at Heathrow because of the wait times.

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You could kill the extra time at LHR depending what time you land & what time your transfers would be ?

 

The walk to baggage claim & immigration will eat up quite a bit of time

I have never landed ON TIME at LHR;)

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Define 'very early'.

 

You need to allow a minimum of 45 minutes-1 hour between LHR and Central London. Going into London and then coming back to LHR for the transfer is a non-starter.

 

You have 3 options:

 

-Change your Princess transfer from LHR to Victoria Station (I'm pretty sure they still have that transfer), go into London and do a quick tour;

-Ditch the Princess transfers, go into London for quick tour then take the train down to Southampton;

-Fly in the day before.

 

Three hours ex-aircraft to central London & back to LHR is certainly a no-no.

And the last Princess coach from LHR is irrelevant, because as Twickenham's post there are much much more sensible alternatives direct to Southampton from central London.

But whether its worthwhile, or even possible, depends on your flight time.

And your sailing time.

Can't give advice without it.

 

JB :)

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Thank You everyone for the quick replies! They confirm what I had suspected, but I wanted to ask, to make sure. I wouldn't have wanted to miss out on an opportunity. We considered coming in a day early to see London, but we just did not have enough vacation days from work to do so. We will find something to keep us entertained at the airport :) Thanks again!

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I visit London every year -- it has always taken at least 10 minutes to just get off the plane after it reaches the gate; add at least 20 minutes to get to immigration: add a minimum of an hour to get through immigration (or two hours if there are multiple planes landing at the same time): you might find the three hours just barely enough.

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They wouldn't even have time for Windsor Castle if they only have 3 hours from landing. They'll probably only be left with 2 hours after collecting their luggage and going through customs and immigration. You can spend two or three hours just inside the castle.

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Define 'very early'.

You need to allow a minimum of 45 minutes-1 hour between LHR and Central London. Going into London and then coming back to LHR for the transfer is a non-starter.

You have 3 options:

-Change your Princess transfer from LHR to Victoria Station (I'm pretty sure they still have that transfer), go into London and do a quick tour;

-Ditch the Princess transfers, go into London for quick tour then take the train down to Southampton;

-Fly in the day before.

 

Not that I think you should even try on this trip, but Heathrow Express is 15 minutes from LHR to Paddington Station and they run every 15 minutes. I've used it multiple times. Quick, easy, no traffic jams. My $.02? Find a spot to sit, have a coffee, relax, and watch the world go by. Have a good trip!

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Even with 6 hours, there would still be the consideration of what to do with your luggage while you are touring.

 

Maybe someone here will know if they still have the lockers at the airport or train station that were available years ago.

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We landed into LHR at 6:30am day of cruise and by the time we got through immigration and claimed our luggage we were on the first transfer by 9:00am...Enjoy London another time..luckily we spent a week post cruise in London and felt like we barely scratched the surface.

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3to4 hours from landing (?) until departure of the transfer shuttle? way too tight.

Even with an EU passport and business class Fast Track pass on a GOOD day, with a "good" arrival gate with less than a 10 minute brisk walk to the passport check and NO checked luggage it would be a miracle to get out of the terminal building in under one hour. Then join the taxi queue, a good 45 minutes at least into town, same back, find the departure point of your transfer, pay a fortune for the taxi.....

I am stressing out just WRITINGVTHIS DOWN!!!

:-)

relax, line up, hope it is quick, HAVE YOUR LANDING CARDS FILLED IN, find your bags, buy some booze at the arrivals duty free and sit with a coffee and a sanwich in one of the coffee shops in the arrivals hall.

By the way, there are also vending machines where you can get SIM cards for phones, internet, ipads etc that give you pretty good rates to use in Europe.....

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