Southampton to Heathrow - Timing questions

My cruise is all booked but now I have to consider air. I am pretty sure that I will arrive the day before - so I don't anticipate any problems getting from Heathrow to Southampton on time. However I am still trying to decide the best return flight date and time.

Arrival time is on a Sunday at 8AM. From your experience, would a flight leaving at 2:10 PM be too early? I would consider using private transportation to avoid public transportation potential delays. Assuming out ship arrives on time, about what time could we reasonably expect to disembark at? If 2:10PM is too early - what would a reasonable time be? Would it be better to wait until Monday to fly home? Any help is appreciated.

2.10pm is fine, no worries. :)

Any day of the week.

Especially a private transfer, and especially on a sunday :) :)

Disembarkation from most ships (you didn't name yours) is from about 7am unassisted, with regular assisted disembarkation staggered between about 7.30am and 8.45am. The 8am that you quote sounds like first assisted disembarkation rather than ship's arrival time.

You have plenty of time to have a breakfast aboard & be amongst the last to be thrown off the ship.

Journey time is about 75 minutes on a sunday, and for a 2.10 pm flight you'll ideally want to be at the airport around noon.

Even if the motorway is closed (it does happen, usually on a sat night / sun morning to preserve the scene when there's been a fatal early-hours accident) the alternate routes won't be grid-locked on a sunday.

Cruise lines offer their own coach transfers for flights departing Heathrow after 12.30 / 1pm depending which cruise line. Fares do seem quite mixed, with Cunard & RCI quite expensive & Princess more reasonable.

A pre-booked private transfer should cost in the order of £80 to £90 for a sedan.

The train isn't a great choice for Southampton to Heathrow anyway, there's no direct train. And on a sunday the timetable is limited and often disrupted by track maintenance which is usually carried out on sundays.

But the National Express bus won't be a problem, fare about £20 per person plus a £6 to £10 taxi ride from ship to Southampton coach station.

http://www.nationalexpress.com/home.aspx

JB :)

Thx! it's great to know that the 2:10PM is not impossible. BTW - ship is the NCL Jade. NCL is showing 8:00AM as the ARRIVAL time but I do suspect that it will actually arrive earlier. Once it starts its cruises out of Southampton I will check on the NCL board to see how arrivals and disembarkations are going.

Yes, there's always confusion over arrival time / disembarkation time, even on the port website.

But most ships berth while the passengers are still in the land of nod.

The important thing is that the latest you should head to the airport by private transfer is around 10.30am, and that's easy enough even if Jade doesn't berth til 8am.

No worries :cool:

JB :)