Sailing + Parking

[Paulant]

Hi all, I'm sailing on Iona to Norway on August 17th and what I would like to know is...

A, best place to park my car for this trip?

B, what time does the ship usually set sail?

 

The answers will help me decide whether or not drive down in the morning or arrive the day before.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Edited June 4 by Paulant
Spelling

[cruise saint]

Hello and welcome. Hope I can provide some useful information. The best place to park is CPS parking as it's the closest to the ship. However this means it's not the cheapest. We always book Select fare and take the free parking with CPS because it's a great service. Iona sets sail at 6pm but final boarding is usually 4.30pm. You will NOT be allowed to board after this time. About 2-3 weeks before your cruise yo will get your boarding time via your cruise personaliser.

If you're travelling anymore than a couple of hours, I would suggest travelling down the day before. It's much more relaxing to arrive early and not have to worry about traffic problems. Where are you travelling from?

[Paulant]

Hello, thanks for the info.

 

17 minutes ago, cruise saint said:

Hello and welcome. Hope I can provide some useful information. The best place to park is CPS parking as it's the closest to the ship. However this means it's not the cheapest. We always book Select fare and take the free parking with CPS because it's a great service. Iona sets sail at 6pm but final boarding is usually 4.30pm. You will NOT be allowed to board after this time. About 2-3 weeks before your cruise yo will get your boarding time via your cruise personaliser.

If you're travelling anymore than a couple of hours, I would suggest travelling down the day before. It's much more relaxing to arrive early and not have to worry about traffic problems. Where are you travelling from?

We booked early saver fare which it seems doesn't give you very much in the way of additional perks (well non to be exact!). Lesson learned for the next adventure.

We are travelling down from Worcester so 3hrs max I'd say.

[Waju]

Which day of the week you are travelling makes a difference too, I wouldn't like to travel down to Southampton on a Friday or Saturday for example but we are going on a Sunday this time so are happy to go on the day.

 

There are other parking options if you search on here (or google) such as Parking4cruises or even West Quay shopping centre.  CPS are usually the most expensive but can sometimes surprise you and be fairly reasonable!

[Paulant]

Seems quite pricey. £149 for a week with CPS

Edited June 4 by Paulant

[david63]

19 minutes ago, Paulant said:

Seems quite pricey. £149 for a week with CPS

Try Parking for Cruises - they are normally cheaper and it is almost the same, or in some cases, better service

[Paulant]

Ok thanks, I'll try them all! 👍

1 minute ago, david63 said:

Try Parking for Cruises - they are normally cheaper and it is almost the same, or in some cases, better service

 

[Cathygh]

Some people park at West Quay multi story and get a taxi/uber to the port, but I haven't done it myself yet

[AndyMichelle]

54 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

Some people park at West Quay multi story and get a taxi/uber to the port, but I haven't done it myself yet

We did it for the first time recently. 

£6 per day, as safe as any hotel car park, take ticket with you, pay when collecting the car. 

Cheaper than a taxi, even though we live fairly locally. 

Andy 

[cruise saint]

3 hours ago, Paulant said:

Hello, thanks for the info.

 

We booked early saver fare which it seems doesn't give you very much in the way of additional perks (well non to be exact!). Lesson learned for the next adventure.

We are travelling down from Worcester so 3hrs max I'd say.

There are several advantages to booking Select fare, not least the free parking option.  It's usually about £300-£600 more depending on the length of cruise (obviously more if you go on a very long cruise). But in my experience by the time you factor in parking, OBC etc you actually get a fair bit of that extra money back. 

There are obviously other cheaper parking options but I like the security and convenience of CPS.

[paulatsea]

11 hours ago, david63 said:

Try Parking for Cruises - they are normally cheaper and it is almost the same, or in some cases, better service

I used parking4cruises last month for a princess cruise and agree.

They were better and cheaper than CPS - no queue and short term car park easily walkable to the terminal. I tried them because CPS was full and I could not get a reservation.

Edited June 5 by paulatsea

[dronnygirl]

We are on a cruise at the moment,  we booked a cruise package with  HI Express M27. We stayed Friday night, breakfast, 15 days parking and taxi to and from the ship. £220 which was good and it worked perfectly. Would definitely recommend. Last Saturday there was a bad accident and the M40 was closed for hours, one of the coaches didn't arrive until 3.45 so a lot of very worried people