London pre-cruise hotel

I'm thinking about booking a pre-cruise night in London through Celebrity.

I know that transfers from the hotel to Southhampton are included.

I would still be responsible for the transfer from the airport to the hotel.

Does anyone know which hotels Celebrity uses in London?

Any thoughts as to whether or not the per night / per person price is worth it knowing transfers to the port are included?

Thanks for your input.

I'm thinking about booking a pre-cruise night in London through Celebrity.

I know that transfers from the hotel to Southhampton are included.

I would still be responsible for the transfer from the airport to the hotel.

Does anyone know which hotels Celebrity uses in London?

Any thoughts as to whether or not the per night / per person price is worth it knowing transfers to the port are included?

Thanks for your input.

When are you sailing? As you know the Olympics will be going on in London for a good part of the summer and hotel space availability may be limited and will definitely be even more expensive than usual. I know that RCI uses the Doubletree Westminster (formerly the Mint) and I would not be surprised to learn that Celebrity does as well. One of the problems I have found when booking my hotel stay through a cruiseline is that they frequently charge a per person rather than a per room rate. Transfers to Southampton will not be cheap if you book them on your own, but if you know what a private transfer will cost and add that to the hotel price, you may get a fairly good idea whether or not the cruise package is the best way to go. Sometimes it is, if only for the convenience of doing everything at once.:)

I'm thinking about booking a pre-cruise night in London through Celebrity.

I know that transfers from the hotel to Southhampton are included.

I would still be responsible for the transfer from the airport to the hotel.

Does anyone know which hotels Celebrity uses in London?

Any thoughts as to whether or not the per night / per person price is worth it knowing transfers to the port are included?

Thanks for your input.

Once, when we booked with Celebrity we stayed at the, Crowne Plaza, St. James, located near Buckingham Place and were very pleased. No matter what hotel they use, it will be a good one. Contrary to what many people say here on Cruise Critic, when we plan to do a pre-cruise visit to a city we book the entire package with the cruise line. For us the few dollars extra in cost is worth it to us.

Two examples are.

Once returning from a trip with Celebrity to Hawaii, the ship we were on had propulsion problems causing the ship to be several hours late arriving back to San Diego. Those of us who booked thru Celebrity had to do nothing. Celebrity handled everything for us. They rebooked our flights, booked us for the night in the Embassy Suites, gave vouchers for dinner (breakfast was included with the room), provided transfers to the hotel and to the airport. Meanwhile those that booked on their own were exactly that, own their own.

Another example is, we were traveling with Royal Caribbean. On that trip we were scheduled to fly to Sydney, Australia for a cruise from Australia around New Zealand and back to Australia. We had plane problems in Los Angeles and were delayed in leaving until the next day. By the time we arrived in Sydney we were 1 ½ days late. For this we each received a $450 onboard credit.

These are just two the many reasons we book all our pre-cruise packages with the cruise line.

I'm thinking about booking a pre-cruise night in London through Celebrity.

I know that transfers from the hotel to Southhampton are included.

I would still be responsible for the transfer from the airport to the hotel.

Does anyone know which hotels Celebrity uses in London?

Any thoughts as to whether or not the per night / per person price is worth it knowing transfers to the port are included?

Thanks for your input.

We sailed with some people last year out of Southampton who had booked the Celebrity transfer and they were at the Mint (which has apparently been re-named per another poster). If you're going to be there during Olympic time, I would definitely recommend booking the package with Celebrity.

We will miss the Olympics!

The cruise is not until later this year.

I'm glad to hear that their hotels are good ones.

Thank you for your thoughts.

Decision time!

When does information on pre-cruise hotels get posted? Nothing available yet for November sailing and wondering if this is unusual?

You might want to go over to the UK Board on cruise critic, there are some very helpful people there. I did a land based vacation in London and they were a great help.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=683