Southampton Cruise Terminal Shuttle Parking

Hi All

I was offered free parking as one of the incentives to book with my travel Agent. After weeks of nagging I've just received the parking voucher for my cruise in a weeks time and note that it is for the shuttle parking. In all my pre-cruise research I only found information about the parking directly at the Terminal. It has also not helped that when I googled to find more information the first review was about waiting 1.5 hours on the return to get an available shuttle back to the parking.

I accept that there is not much I can do about it at this point and I'm not going to stress about it, but as this is our first time sailing from Southampton can anybody who has used the shuttle parking help with some details about how it actually works?

Do we have to go and drop luggage at the Terminal first? How easy is it to transfer with luggage. We don't pack light and will take full advantage of not having airline baggage restrictions.

How much extra time should I plan for to make sure I stay within my check in appointment slot?

What happens on the return is it better to get the car first and then go back to the Terminal to pick up luggage?

Is the car park and directions clearly signposted?

I believe that Gate 8 will be closed for cruisers because of the boat show so we will need to use Gate 10.

Appreciate any first hand experience anybody has had.

Glen

Last time we drove.

In to Gate 8. Terminal right in front of you.

Pull in drop bags, Directed to parking a little further down the road. Shown into parking space.

Walked back to terminal, checked in and on the ship.

On return get your bags from terminal, take to loading only bay. (where you dropped them off in the first place. A very short walk. One goes get the car and drives back to this spot to load up.

Then off you go.

Very easy, very little walking

Kezz

I presume the parking is with ABP? If so they started a shuttle service in addition to their regular 'by the ship' parking this year. Its very good value by the way at £59 for 13 nights. Their site says the car park is 3 minutes drive away and with shuttles every 5 mins. Are you sure the reviews you read are for the official ABP shuttle parking as there are other companies offering a shuttle service? The maps shows the shuttle park to be very close to the terminal.

ABP's site says you can drop off your bags first if you wish to save them having to be loaded on and off the shuttle. I would do this to save the hassle.

It may be worth ringing ABP as the price difference on our 13 night cruise is £30 between the shuttle and shipside parking so if you wanted to maybe you could pay the difference?

Try this review. First few posts give a good description

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2235280

Thanks All for your helpful responses

Glen

Something for future bookings... If you make a booking that includes "free parking" you can phone the TA and get refunded what they pay for the parking and then put that amount towards parking closer to the ship. This is what I did for our Anthem cruise in September. My wife is disabled so we normally book a disabled parking space which is over the road from the ship. I phoned the TA after I booked online and they refunded the parking portion of my booking. I then booked the disabled space independently.

Most of the "free parking" offers you receive are for off site car parks that shuttle to the ship. They use mini buses and when you return from the cruise there will be many passengers wanting to get the shuttles at the same time, hence the delay.

Thanks stuartgrn. Lesson learned. I tried upgrading today unfortunately parking at the Terminal is fully booked for our cruise. When do you cruise in September. We sail the 1st

Glen

Just remember that the Boat Show generates huge amounts of traffic, much of it also coming from London. Be sure to allow extra time for this.

Just back this morning. What a pleasure using ABP Parking. Don't know why I stressed about shuttle parking it was a top notch experience all round. Wonderful helpful staff and so organised. Left ship at 8:15 and was at the car and fully loaded by 8:45. Departure process was just as organised. A marshal shows you where to park, loads your bags directly onto the shuttle which then proceeds to the Terminal with a transit stop to offload the luggage. From parking to check in was 20 minutes max.