Soton Transit on a Hamburg-NY Westbound

We're booked on the QM2 crossing out of Hamburg in late June 2019. We'll probably look up friends from a recent cruise who live near Southampton, so the day's activities there will be sorted.

What are the formalities for in-transit entry at Southampton from Germany? We've entered the UK countless times but never from Schengen Europe.

I did this last year and I am doing it again this year. If you are going ashore in Southampton, they will direct you to a UK immigration officer who will stamp your passport and off you go either on a tour or into Southampton to a shopping center on a Cunard Bus or to meet your friends.The bus runs regularly and will bring you back. When you get back to the terminal, there will be some one who will direct you where to re-board.

If you wish to stay aboard you are free to do so, but there may be altered dining times. There will be some number of passengers who will be leaving at Southampton having taken advantage of a two or four day Hamburg short break, so there will be lots of folks going ashore, you won't have baggage, so it should be fast for you.

This is a bit of an unknown as technically we will have exited the EU by then. It could be simple or complicated.

This is a bit of an unknown as technically we will have exited the EU by then. It could be simple or complicated.

Not complicated at all. When you arrive in the UK with a few exceptions you have to clear immigration and with baggage customs. When you arrive by ship it is the same.

Exceptions include coming by air from the Republic of Ireland you do not have to clear immigration or customs. If you come by Eurostar, you clear UK immigration in Paris or Brussels as you board the train.

The UK is not a signatory to the Schengen agreement so normal immigration and customs rules apply. Likewise when you go to Europe from the UK you have to clear immigration and customs in the first European country you enter.

Last year flying from London to Hamburg we connected through Frankfurt with a 50 minute connection which is very close when you have to clear immigration and customs and make it to the connecting aircraft. Next year I am going to take BA nonstop from London to Hamburg with no connection. Getting the miles on a Star Alliance flight was just too much work.

If you are going ashore in Southampton, they will direct you to a UK immigration officer who will stamp your passport and off you go either on a tour or into Southampton to a shopping center on a Cunard Bus or to meet your friends.

Just to clarify, if we're meeting friends, would they come to where the ship is docked, or should they instead meet us at some predetermined location in Southampton?

People collect arriving passengers all the time. There is a lane for private cars as well as taxis, and an area from which the buses go. I would think the easiest way to meet would be to have them meet you at the terminal.

Cunard uses at least two different terminals in Southampton, The Ocean Terminal, and the Queen Elizabeth terminal, be sure you know which one the QM2 will use. It should be on your ticket that Cunard sends your (or you print it from the Voyage Personalizer) if they don't send it. The terminals are a not close.

The terminals are well marked with signage.