Cunard coaches from London to Southampton

[Abby Ruth]

In the past, we've had very good experiences taking the coach run by Cunard from Victoria Coach Station to the dock in Southampton. Everything was well organized and our luggage was taken from us immediately and we had a comfortable seating area to wait for the coach.

Last year we tried it from St. Pancras train station and it was a disaster. We were told to wait one place at a given time and the person from the Cunard London office was somewhere else at a different time. We had to have our luggage with us the whole time things were being sorted out and even had to take it to the bus ourselves. No porters, but fortunately there were luggage carts. Very few places to sit in the station. That's a long story made short.

For our crossing in May 2010, we've booked the coach from Victoria Coach station, hoping that the good service we had there in the past hasn't changed. However, we may find it more convenient to leave from St. Pancras (thinking of taking a train to Paris for a few days).

Has anyone had any recent experiences to report, good or bad, using the Cunard transfer from Victoria Coach Station and/or St. Pancras station?

[Oslo Dutch]

Originally Posted by Abby Ruth

In the past, we've had very good experiences taking the coach run by Cunard from Victoria Coach Station to the dock in Southampton. Everything was well organized and our luggage was taken from us immediately and we had a comfortable seating area to wait for the coach.

Last year we tried it from St. Pancras train station and it was a disaster. We were told to wait one place at a given time and the person from the Cunard London office was somewhere else at a different time. We had to have our luggage with us the whole time things were being sorted out and even had to take it to the bus ourselves. No porters, but fortunately there were luggage carts. Very few places to sit in the station. That's a long story made short.

For our crossing in May 2010, we've booked the coach from Victoria Coach station, hoping that the good service we had there in the past hasn't changed. However, we may find it more convenient to leave from St. Pancras (thinking of taking a train to Paris for a few days).

Has anyone had any recent experiences to report, good or bad, using the Cunard transfer from Victoria Coach Station and/or St. Pancras station?

I personally find these transfers one of the biggest rip offs in history. How on earth can they justify near 90-100 USD for a 2 hour coach ride which costs me 10% with a regular coach operator.
I have just taken a cab to the coach station and a very comfortable coach trip to London (Heathrow)

[cclarke12]

Originally Posted by Abby Ruth

In the past, we've had very good experiences taking the coach run by Cunard from Victoria Coach Station to the dock in Southampton. Everything was well organized and our luggage was taken from us immediately and we had a comfortable seating area to wait for the coach.

Last year we tried it from St. Pancras train station and it was a disaster. We were told to wait one place at a given time and the person from the Cunard London office was somewhere else at a different time. We had to have our luggage with us the whole time things were being sorted out and even had to take it to the bus ourselves. No porters, but fortunately there were luggage carts. Very few places to sit in the station. That's a long story made short.

For our crossing in May 2010, we've booked the coach from Victoria Coach station, hoping that the good service we had there in the past hasn't changed. However, we may find it more convenient to leave from St. Pancras (thinking of taking a train to Paris for a few days).

Has anyone had any recent experiences to report, good or bad, using the Cunard transfer from Victoria Coach Station and/or St. Pancras station?

We have booked a megatrains ticket from London Waterloo to Southampton for £1 in December. Even with a cab fare to the port, this has to be cheaper and probably quicker than what Cunard charge for booking with them.
http://www.megatrain.com/uk/index.php

[Abby Ruth]

I appreciate your comments and suggestions for alternate means of travel. However, I'm asking if anyone has recent experiences with the Cunard transfers from London to Southampton. I hope that there will be people who can and will answer my question.

[luv2krooze1791]

Originally Posted by Abby Ruth

I appreciate your comments and suggestions for alternate means of travel. However, I'm asking if anyone has recent experiences with the Cunard transfers from London to Southampton. I hope that there will be people who can and will answer my question.

Forgive me for not answering your direct question as well.

May I suggest that the fact that everyone is telling you that there are so much better ways to get to the dock means that perhaps some flexibility would suit you?

If there are two of you I am sure you could get a private transfer by car for the money Cunard want for a trip for two on the coach. It is infinitely better than going by coach......

[fremontfreds]

We took the Cunard coach from Victoria coach station to Southampton for the QM2's 5th Anniversary cruise around the British Isles. The service we encountered was much the same as you described from St. Pancras. We arrived at the station on time, and found no Cunard representative and had to ask around the station where we were supposed to wait for the rep. There was no place to sit, and when the rep finally showed up and explained when the coaches would arrive, we had time to go across the street for tea and a snack (so we could sit down) and return and still wait standing up for a coach we could board.

The Cunard rep was very polite about it all, and announced to the waiting passengers that they should all complain once they got aboard the ship, otherwise nothing would be done to improve the service.

For the return to London, which we had pre-booked Cunard coach service, we cancelled the coach during our cruise with the tour desk and booked a car with Smith's via the internet. The Smith's service was outstanding.

That said, the cruise itself was incredible and we are already looking at booking another one on QM2 - but in future, we'll use Smith's to get to/from Southampton.

[Abby Ruth]

Originally Posted by luv2krooze1791

Forgive me for not answering your direct question as well.

May I suggest that the fact that everyone is telling you that there are so much better ways to get to the dock means that perhaps some flexibility would suit you?

If there are two of you I am sure you could get a private transfer by car for the money Cunard want for a trip for two on the coach. It is infinitely better than going by coach......

I do appreciate everyone's suggestions and perhaps we will rethink how we will get to Southampton based on those suggestions. However, we have had very good experiences in the past, with one exception, using the Cunard transfers and especially like the idea of giving up our luggage in London and not seeing it again until it's in our stateroom.

As for the cost, we have, as of now, booked transfers from Victoria Coach Station to Southampton and from Brooklyn to Newark Airport. The total cost for the two transers is $73 per person. I don't remember how that breaks down for the two trips. I think it's quite reasonable and we probably can't do much better as far as cost. That is, unless we take the train to Southampton which I don't want to do with that much luggage.

There's plenty of time and I can cancel the transfer if I decide on another way to get to Southampton. In the meantime, I'm still looking for recent experiences.

[Abby Ruth]

Originally Posted by fremontfreds

We took the Cunard coach from Victoria coach station to Southampton for the QM2's 5th Anniversary cruise around the British Isles. The service we encountered was much the same as you described from St. Pancras. We arrived at the station on time, and found no Cunard representative and had to ask around the station where we were supposed to wait for the rep. There was no place to sit, and when the rep finally showed up and explained when the coaches would arrive, we had time to go across the street for tea and a snack (so we could sit down) and return and still wait standing up for a coach we could board.

The Cunard rep was very polite about it all, and announced to the waiting passengers that they should all complain once they got aboard the ship, otherwise nothing would be done to improve the service.

For the return to London, which we had pre-booked Cunard coach service, we cancelled the coach during our cruise with the tour desk and booked a car with Smith's via the internet. The Smith's service was outstanding.

That said, the cruise itself was incredible and we are already looking at booking another one on QM2 - but in future, we'll use Smith's to get to/from Southampton.

This is disappointing, but it's the reason I asked about recent experience. Something has seriously changed at Cunard since our 2001, 2002, and 2003 QE2 crossings. At that time, we arrived by cab at Victoria Coach Station at the time we were told to be there, were met by a porter who took our luggage and put it on a truck to be taken separately to Southampton. Check-in was very organized by Cunard personnel and there were rows of folding chairs set up to wait for the buses. We got on the busses, boarded the ship, and found our luggage waiting for us in our stateroom at least one of the times. The other times, it arrived shortly after we did. We thought it was well worth the cost.

If it's consistently poor service such as we received at St. Pancras, then I think we may have to do what you did and book a car to Southampton. I'll check out Smith's. Thanks.

[Abby Ruth]

Just want to add that we canceled the coach to Southampton and will probably go with Smith. It will be more expensive, but we only live once and we don't want to put up with the disorganization and inconvenience that we experienced last year. We found some other threads on CC about the same subject and they all discussed the same disappointment with Cunard's service from St. Pancras and Victoria Coach Station.

We're keeping the transfer from Brooklyn to Newark Airport because that went smoothly when we did it last year. And it's really convenient for us. We leave our car at an off-airport parking facility and they come pick us up wherever the bus leaves us off.