Embarkation Southampton

[elkay68]

We will be embarking in Southampton this june. First time with RCL and first time out of Southampton. We are booked in an OS, and rest of group in Royal Family Suite. Can anyone who has stayed in either of these cabin types, or suites, let me know what to expect. My DH and I are Diamond (due to Cruising with Celebrity) while rest of group is not. Thank you!

[Missus Makkem]

We will be embarking in Southampton this june. First time with RCL and first time out of Southampton. We are booked in an OS, and rest of group in Royal Family Suite. Can anyone who has stayed in either of these cabin types, or suites, let me know what to expect. My DH and I are Diamond (due to Cruising with Celebrity) while rest of group is not. Thank you!

 

As you all seem to be in suites you will all get suite priveledges so take a look at Royals site and it will give you a list there.

Best one is the Concierge lounge with 24 hour access and a nightly cocktail service between 5 and 8.30 with complimentary drinks.

[jc24cruiser]

If your query is specifically about the cabins you would get a better response with a more appropriate thread name.

 

If your query is actually about embarking at Southampton....ask away :)

[elkay68]

Query is in regards to embarkation. On Celebrity we have had escort on to ship (can't remember which embarkation port). Also other lines have Susie specific lines. Again just trying to anticipate what to expect. Our family is staying one night precruise in London, booked through RCL, and have transfers from hotel to port. There is a total of 14 of us. 2 Royal Famiily Suites and 2 Owners Suites.

[jc24cruiser]

Hi,

 

Yes, there is definitely Suite specific lines. When you arrive in Southampton there is a general boarding line, gold member line, diamond lines...etc. But there is one for Suite passengers too.

 

On our cruise from Southampton in October we were in a Suite and we practically just walked on board :D

 

We arrived at about midday so missed the initial rush, just walked past everyone up to the desk and then we were through.

 

Boarding usually starts at 11am. RCI often e-mail with a time to arrive to reduce the bottle neck. Some follow this, others dont.

 

I don't know about the escort on board, we were not offered this, however we were in lower ranked Suites than you x

[zxc]

I sailed out of Southampton last year. We were first timers in the general boarding line, and we pretty much just walked up to the ship too. It was after 12pm, so lines were very short.

[elkay68]

I hope we have the same experience. As I have learned some ports are better than others for embarkation.

[truffles2]

Southampton is one of the better organized ports and usually you will embark quickly with no snags. The only time we have found this not to be true was for the Oasis transatlantic last year; it was a royal mess:eek:.

[elkay68]

Has anyone used the transfers from a London hotel (Millennium Glouchester) to the Southampton port? Wondering what time we will depart hotel before going to the port.

[sky0000547]

It is over 90mins journey. I think departing 9.30-10am would be a good time.

[Priusprof]

We will be embarking in Southampton this june. First time with RCL and first time out of Southampton. We are booked in an OS, and rest of group in Royal Family Suite. Can anyone who has stayed in either of these cabin types, or suites, let me know what to expect. My DH and I are Diamond (due to Cruising with Celebrity) while rest of group is not. Thank you!

What ship are you sailing on?

[kccrzr]

We sailed on Explorer out of Southampton earlier this month. It was the second fastest embarkation we ever experienced - very efficient! It would have been the fastest but for having to fill out special forms as non-EU-residents since RCI was required to hold onto our passports until we sailed away from the last port on the cruise. One thing that could make your wait a bit longer is if there is a higher percentage of non-EU cruisers - the gate agent told us there were only 300 some on our cruise but the cruise before us had over 1200; so more paperwork to be completed on check-in.

 

We were in a suite and waited less than 1 minute for an open gate agent.

 

We stayed at a hotel near Heathrow as we flew in the afternoon before the cruise. If you have not already arranged for transport to the ship, I can not recommend Smiths for Airport highly enough (http://www.smithsforairports.com/index.html). We paid less than 1/3 the cost RCI wanted for transfers. Pre-cruise our driver picked us up at 11:00, stopped en route at a comfort station for coffee and had us to the port by 12:30. Post-cruise, we were off the ship 1 hour before expected. We called Smith's and the driver was there to pick us up within 10 minutes. Excellent service, personable and reasonable - can't ask for more.

 

Our driver told us that they would also make stops at Windsor, Stonehenge, Winchester, Portsmouth, etc if you have time on either leg of the journey.

[elkay68]

We are on Explorer. We have already arranged for transfers through Royal. We are a group of 14 and staying at Millenium Glouchester. Coming from US so guess we will have to fill out the extra papers😁

[kccrzr]

Hope you have as good a cruise on Explorer as we did. If you have any tender ports, the concierge can get you on an early tender - which is very helpful if you want to maximize your time in port.

[dog]

We are on Explorer. We have already arranged for transfers through Royal. We are a group of 14 and staying at Millenium Glouchester. Coming from US so guess we will have to fill out the extra papers😁

 

Is there a link to transfer information with this cruiseline?