Transfer from heathrow airport to Southampton cruise terminal

[Philox]

Could you please give all the information regarding the different ways to go from London heathrow airport to Southampton cruise terminal, and return , thank you 

 

[LHT28]

lots of  info on the British Isles  forum

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/148-british-isleswestern-europe/

[Heidi13]

For direct service from LHR to Southampton you have the National Coach buses and limo services. If using National Coach, you require a taxi from the Southampton Bus Station to the cruise terminal. For limo, many companies are available - personally we use Addison Lee, who provide excellent service and reasonable fares.

 

No direct rail options are available. For rail you must head into London -using Heathrow Express or the Tube. Heathrow Express goes into Paddington Station, so you would need a cab or Tube to Waterloo Station. Southampton trains depart from Waterloo Station about every 1/2 hr. Note - Waterloo experiences numerous delays, especially due to construction.

 

You could also hire a car - easy drive, mostly on motorways.

 

The cruise line may offer transportation options

[JMorris271]

National Express is a great way to go. Reasonable, comfortable and efficient. They load your luggage for you.You can spend more for a sedan if you choose. We walked from the cruise terminal to the bus station after the cruise but cabs are available 

 

[hallasm]

I'll also voting for National Express busses - link to time table - 2 hours and 20 minutes - I also find it easy to walk from the coach station to the cruise terminal - less than one mile.

Driving is in the left side - not my favorite.

[taglovestocruise]

3 hours ago, Philox said:

Could you please give all the information regarding the different ways to go from London heathrow airport to Southampton cruise terminal, and return , thank you 

 

We used Blackberry Cars,  about $125.00 for 2 in a large sedan.  Pick up outside luggage claim and dropped off at the porters in the cruise terminal. Very happy trip.

[John Bull]

At around £25 pp National Express coach is by far the cheapest option and very simple.

Probably easier to use than hallasm's link is

 https://www.nationalexpress.com/en

You need to know your Heathrow terminal - buses start from Heathrow central bus station (walk there from T2 or T3) and they pick up en-route at T5 and T4.

Your destination is Southampton coach station. 

You are strongly advised to pre-book (the coaches don't have elastic sides), I suggest you allow a minimum 90 minutes between flight arrival and coach departure.

You can switch to an earlier or later coach subject to an admin fee of £5 per booking (not always charged). This concession only for departures from airports. 

 

As Heidi's post, there's no direct rail link between Heathrow & Southampton. 

But you don't have to go into London & back out. For whatever reason the rail timetables don't mention it, but you can take a RailAir shuttlebus from Heathrow to a mainline station (Woking or Reading, depending on timings) then a direct train to Southampton central station.

It's an added complication which means that the train is no quicker than the bus, and it's about twice as expensive. 

Not generally recommended, but worth knowing in case other transfer travel plans go belly-up. No need to pre-book and service approx every half-hour,  so a very usable Plan B.

 

A pre-booked one-way private transfer should cost £80 to £100 for a regular sedan. Add www.westquaycars.com and www.westquaycars.com and www.aquacars.co.uk to those mentioned by others. Journey time about 90 mins but traffic-dependent.

 

Cruise lines offer transfers from Heathrow (and Gatwick and usually central London) on cruise days. Over-priced of course (some like Princess not as excessive as others like RCI) but some folk find comfort in being in the cruise line's hands from the airport. Cruise line reps or port agents to meet you at the arrivals hall in all terminals, transfers direct to the ship.

 

Tour-transfers by https://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/southampton_cruise_shuttles.htm aren't recommended for those flying in on cruise day due to the risk of a flight or airport formalities delay.

 

Renting a self-drive car for a simple direct transfer from Heathrow to Southampton makes no sense to me.  You'll spend a lot of time transferring by car or van from airport terminal to rental depot, waiting in line, paperwork, etc, and the same when you get to Southampton. Add the insurance excess risk or zero-excess fee, refuelling time / cost / rip-off, mebbe one-way fee, and you're paying as much as a private transfer. 

I rent frequently abroad (and on the "wrong" side of the road) but I wouldn't dream of it for that trip.  

 

By far the most expensive way to travel is to hail a cab from the line at the airport. You're talking hundreds of £££ 

 

For most (but not all) cruises, passengers disembark from around 7am (unassisted), from 7.30am for regular disembarkation.

Advice on your return to Heathrow depends on your ship's disembarkation time (not the same as the port website's "arrival" time), your flight departure time & destination, and what date / day-of-the-week.

 

JB 

Edited November 21, 2018 by John Bull

[Southampton UK Nick]

A private transfer by car is the easiest and quickest option. You will be met in Arrivals with your driver holding a Meet & Greet board. An easy short walk to the car and a transfer lasting between one hour to an hour and a half. No hassle with your luggage or finding the coach stop. You can even fit in a stop at one of the sites on route to Southampton (Windsor Castle, Winchester, Stonehenge etc.) Also, your car will deliver you right to the ship (or hotel).

Of course not as cheap as a National Express coach.

I would recommend Googling Southampton Chauffeur or Southampton Cruise Tours as both searches will result in companies offering both straight forward transfers and stops on route.

[bonsai3s]

We wanted to thank JB for his excellent and extremely detailed advice.  We used all his info when we sailed out of Southampton recently.  We'd like to add another outstanding company that we used to transfer us from LHR direct to Southampton: http://englishrosecollection.co.uk/

 

Note: We highly recommend this company for a number of reasons. 1. Our flight was delayed and our driver promptly responded to us. 2. There was another long delay at Immigration/Customs at Heathtrow...our driver patiently waited for us.  3. The price was reasonable, our driver (Peter) was friendly, courteous, and quite entertaining...even offered us bottled water in the car.

[Velvetwater]

 

Just wanted to add that a taxi from the coach station in Southampton to the Cruise port is 5-10 mins tops and cheap as it's a short journey.