Princess Transfers from Gatwick to London...

[June Bug]

I have a couple of questions...mainly because I read something somewhere else that brought this to mind:\

 

1. We have transfers with Princess from Gatwick to our pre-cruise hotel in London...Does the transfer bus/shuttle wait at the airport from several other flights?

2. Are we looking at waiting hours :eek: at the airport for other passengers, or does Princess just take us when we arrive?

 

3. Do these shuttles take passengers to other hotels that have been booked, or just the two Princess recommended hotels?

 

Sorry if this is confusing, but I don't want to spend my entire day at the airport waiting for other flights to arrive ;) ....we arrive at 9am and am hoping to be at our hotel within a couple of hours....is this unreasonable? :confused:

Thanks,

 

June

[June Bug]

From any location?? Has anyone ever had any experience with them???

Thanks,

June :D

[dazee8]

Hi June,

 

The buses usually do wait around for others to arrive on flights. Hopefully like with other trasfers they will have a couple of buses running not to hold up anyone at length. One thing I do know is that Gatwick is a heck of a long way to/from London and expensive if you are going to do it by taxi.

 

Just a few thoughts,

[ajl111]

June Bug -- I did the Gatwick/London transfer thing last summer and it was great. But I didn't have a pre-cruise hotel, and for some reason I remember my travel agent telling me that if I flew in early, I could not get their transfers. Maybe that was because my flight wasn't thru Princess. However, at Gatwick airport, Princess reps were waiting for flights to arrive and escorted us over to an adjoining hotel where they had refreshments and comfy chairs. After they got a load of passengers, they then bussed us to the ship. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful with your pre-cruise transfer questions.

[Toto2Kansas]

We have booked our arrival transfers with Princess for August, Heathrow to Southampton. I fully expect to wait at least an hour after arriving at the bus, if not more. I am sure they will not release the transfer until it is full and that could mean waiting for another flight. But that is OK with us, we didn't plan on doing anything except transferring to the ship anyway.

[June Bug]

I guess I was hoping that the shuttles were small enough that we wouldn't have to wait a long period of time at the airport....it kinda cuts into our time spent exploring London! :( (We have a family of 4.) And yes, we booked air, hotel and transfers thru Princess too so that is why we have transfers to the hotel and then again from the hotel to the ship a couple of days later.

 

Oh well, just hoping that the wait isn't too long!

June :D

[Mike2131]

I guess I was hoping that the shuttles were small enough that we wouldn't have to wait a long period of time at the airport....it kinda cuts into our time spent exploring London! :( (We have a family of 4.) And yes, we booked air, hotel and transfers thru Princess too so that is why we have transfers to the hotel and then again from the hotel to the ship a couple of days later.

 

Oh well, just hoping that the wait isn't too long!

June :D

 

I have been to London 6 times but never for a cruise. The easiest way in is to just hop the train to Victoria Station and then take a taxi to your hotel. Just my 2 cents worth.

[katisdale]

We did a London stay through Princess at the end of our May 2004 Princess cruise. We were transferred from Southhampton to the hotel (horrible transfer in large bus, waited over an hour outside for bus to arrive and bus had no A/C and windows did not open) and only people checking into the hotel were transferred. At the end of our three days in London we were transferred to Gatwick with two other couples in a very nice van (A/C working fine). It was easy and well done. On our own on previous vacations we used the Gatwick Express from the airport into London and then either used the subway or a cab to our hotel.

[June Bug]

:) I guess I don't want to put out any extra $ since I have already paid for the transfers...I will just have to be patient (in case of inefficiency :D ).

thanks,

June