London (Gatwick), Southampton, Stonehenge - timing?

Hi, we are planning to fly into Gatwick on Thursday am June 2, 2016, arriving around 9:30 am. We'll spend Thursday and Friday in London (two older teens so teen friendly sight seeing).

Saturday June 4 we'd like to take a tour of Stonehenge pre boarding our RCCL Independence cruise. Londontoolkit offers a lot of options, so we're exploring those and plan an early morning departure from London, 2 hours at Stonehenge and about 1-2 pm arrival at Southampton.

Upon returning to Southampton on Saturday, June 18, we'd take a train directly to Gatwick for a 1:15 departure home.

A couple of questions and my thought process:

1) We're using the time in London to acclimate to the time change and do our "pre-cruise" sightseeing.

2) Since we have a 2 week cruise, I don't feel the need (for once) to be at the terminal at 10:30-11 am,

but plan for arrival after Stonehenge around 1-2 pm - does this make sense?

3) On the return, we'll be fairly rested from 2 days at sea and would like to get home that same day (albeit a very long day) to acclimate back to our local time.

Is the 1:15 flight doable - we have no issue w/self-disembarking and catching an early train (via taxi to train terminal)

4) Am I missing anything else?. I'm just looking at flights as WestJet has some attractive prices

Thanks!

The London Toolkit cruisebus from hotel to cruise terminal via Stonehenge is a good option. The operator is International Friends, an established & well-respected coach tour operator. If you choose this option, buy your Stonehenge tickets as a package with the coach tickets. This ensures that you get admission timed to suit, & their Stonehenge admission price is the same as buying independently.

The London Toolkit cruisebus arrives at the cruise terminal around 1pm to 2pm and that's OK though lines will likely be longer than late morning.

If you're considering a private transfer via Stonehenge, you'll probably get better value by booking a car independently. Try http://www.smithsforairports.com or http://www.westquaycars.com

Consider also adding a stop of 30 to 60 minutes in the laid-back historic city of Salisbury with its magnificent cathedral. It's on the route, so the only extra cost would be waiting time. I'll take a guess at a cost of about £150 to £160. You would need to pre-purchase timed Stonehenge tickets.

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Yes, train is a good option for Southampton to Gatwick, and 1.15pm is very doable.:)

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

Unassisted disembarkation is usually from 7am, staggered disembarkation 7.30 to 9am and normally no problem in getting bumped to an early slot to suit your travel plans.

Southampton central train station is only a 15 minute walk from Indy's berth but with luggage you'll probably want a taxi, about £7. Drivers in Southampton don't refuse such short fares.

Ideal trains would be the 8.13 (arrive Gatwick 10.06) or 8.32 (arr. Gatwick 10.36) or 9.13 (arr. Gatwick 11.06).

All currently showing £15.20 booked in advance.

For the 8.13 (mebbe even the 8.32) I'd be inclined to opt for unassisted disembarkation. Apart from the earlier disembarkation you avoid any risk of a screw-up with your luggage or lines for immigration or taxis.

The 8.32 does involve a change of train at Havant, about half an hour into your journey. But a very easy change, same platform.

The other two are direct.

Avoid other trains which involve a difficult change at Clapham Junction.

Gatwick station is inside the South Terminal.

If your flight is from North Terminal allow an extra 10 - 15 mins for the transfer.

Airlines' check-ins close 45 - 60 minutes out, but due to security & mebbe a long walk to the departure lounge do give yourselves at least 75 minutes.

Instead of the train, you have options of ship's transfer (for Gatwick they recommend a flight time after 12.30 or 1pm) or private transfer (about £120). There isn't a suitably-timed National Express coach.

JB :)

The only thing I would add is that as we have the first (and therefore oldest) rail network; it takes a lot of looking after! Engineering works are usually scheduled for weekends (more so on Sundays), but we can check these about a month prior to your travel, so come back and remind us! You will still have time to sort out a private transfer if you need to.

Simon

thank you both for the info!!

I think your plan looks fairly solid. We did essentially the same "pre-cruise" time in London. Here is a link to our travelogues if you want to take a look.

http://72hourstogo.blogspot.com/2014/08/british-isles-day-1-london-england.html

http://72hourstogo.blogspot.com/2014/08/day-2-london-england.html

http://72hourstogo.blogspot.com/2014/08/british-isles-day-3-london-england.html

2 hours is plenty for Stonehenge. We drove ourselves, and did it in an hour because we were a bit short on time. We arrived at the cruise ship around the same time you are considering and everything worked well.

http://72hourstogo.blogspot.com/2014/08/british-isles-day-4-stonehenge.html

For the disembarkation, recommend you plan the "walk off" option so that you can be the first people off the ship in the morning. There are plenty of Princess transfers to get you to the airport, or just arrange for a car if you are travelling with a family since that is likely less than the transfer for 4+ people.

Mindershire, thank you SO much! Not only is your info helpful, I love your blog! There goes a few days of my life reading. LOL!

Just a few ideas on London for Teens

Harry Potter: https://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/ Tours pick up from Victoria and cost £66 for an adult/£61 for a teen. This would take a whole day.

Tower of London: http://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/ Get there early to avoud queues and use the river boats for getting there or getting back.

Tower Bridge: http://www.towerbridge.org.uk/ After the Tower, walk to Tower Bridge. It’s well worth the effort or you can sit in a café and let the teens do it themselves.

Churchill War Rooms: http://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/churchill-war-rooms - If they have any interest in WW2.

Buy a London Pass https://www.londonpass.com/how-it-works/ which gets you into many of the most popular places at a discount and an included river cruise. It also saves queuing.

If the weather is bad, the Science Museum is amazing and free. http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/

No doubt others can add more, but that will get you started. If it were me, I would make them do their own research so that they can't blame you.

If it were me, I would make them do their own research so that they can't blame you.

Obviously, we've met! They had a deadline of 1/31 to get me 3 ideas each. This includes my husband. LOL!

Thursday we plan to be more "OH MY GOD, we're EXHAUSTED from flying" walk around day so we'll probably do the Tower Bridge walk around, hit Harrod's (teen girl!) and hit a pub for fish and chips. I told them we MUST stay awake 6 pm.

Friday I'm going to buy Eye tickets for first queue time and then we may do the Dungeon tour as they all showed interest in that. I think I heard Buckingham Palace or something else like that for later in the day!

The HP thing definitely looks neat, may have to plan another trip!

Thanks