Disembarking and Transportation London to Southampton and back

I know I've seen a couple different posts on some private transportation from Southampton cruise terminal to Heathrow. I am waiting to get quotes from aquacar and smiths. My question is that our Princess cruise ship is scheduled to arrive at 5am. When I called princess they thought we should be able to disembark starting by 6am with self-carry and then it should take about 30 minutes for customs. I am looking at an 11am flight out of Heathrow. Is it doable to make it there in time if we have private transportation pick us up by 7am?

"Unassisted disembarkation from 6am"? :confused:

"30 minutes for customs"? :confused:

I think you've been given guesswork rather than information. :rolleyes:

Scheduled arrival time is irrelevant - some ships are scheduled to arrive as early as 4am, but unassisted disembarkation from most ships is from about 7am or a little earlier, & assisted disembarkation from about 7.30.

If you're amongst the first off the ship there's unlikely to be any delay at immigration.

And there's never a delay at customs, you just walk straight through - unless a customs officer decides you're a suspicious-looking character & pulls you to one side.

An 11am flight from Heathrow is ambitious.

Whether it's too ambitious depends very much on the date / day-of-the-week.

Is there a later flight that works out tolerably well ?

If not, post your date & we can all argue whether you're likely to make that 11am flight

JB :)

"Unassisted disembarkation from 6am"? :confused:

"30 minutes for customs"? :confused:

 

I think you've been given guesswork rather than information. :rolleyes:

 

Scheduled arrival time is irrelevant - some ships are scheduled to arrive as early as 4am, but unassisted disembarkation from most ships is from about 7am or a little earlier, & assisted disembarkation from about 7.30.

If you're amongst the first off the ship there's unlikely to be any delay at immigration.

And there's never a delay at customs, you just walk straight through - unless a customs officer decides you're a suspicious-looking character & pulls you to one side.

 

An 11am flight from Heathrow is ambitious.

Whether it's too ambitious depends very much on the date / day-of-the-week.

Is there a later flight that works out tolerably well ?

If not, post your date & we can all argue whether you're likely to make that 11am flight

 

JB :)

It'd be arriving on a Wednesday 6/6. I thought it seemed a little off, but we have been able to get off ships pretty early in the past. I've never cruised from southampton before so I don't know what to expect from transportation and disembarking.

It'd be arriving on a Wednesday 6/6. I thought it seemed a little off, but we have been able to get off ships pretty early in the past. I've never cruised from southampton before so I don't know what to expect from transportation and disembarking.

As far as I'm aware, weds 6th June is a pretty standard week-day & you'll be delayed by commuter traffic before Winchester and again closer to the M25 London orbital road & Heathrow.

So a journey I could drive mid-day in little over an hour is likely to take close to 2 hours.

Forget over-cautious airport advice to arrive 3 hours ahead of flight time, but also forget minimum check-in times of 45 to 60 minutes ahead of flight time which allow nothing for delays at security or for sometimes-long walks to boarding gates.

You're best to be at check-in by about 90 mins ahead of flight time.

11am flight time minus 90 mins from check-in = arrive at Heathrow by 9.30am.

Arrive Heathrow 9.30am minus 2 hour drive = leave the quayside by 7.30am

So it's doable.

But with no wiggle-time.

You could ask Smiths and Aquacars for their opinions, they have way more experience than me, but I'd not risk it myself so clearly I'm not going to advise anyone else to risk it.

Your risk, your decision.

What are your other options?

JB :)

So our flight landed at like 5:30 a.m. and we took Smith's to Southampton, left the airport around 6ish. I couldn't believe the traffic backups we started seeing around 6:30-7:00, all heading into London. It was so busy! I said to our driver I couldn't imagine that commute, and I live in Chicago - with lots of traffic! LOL! But our driver said it would last for several hours like that, or at least in pockets.