Southampton disembarkation - earliest time to book transportation

[ConnMom]

We are scheduled to arrive in Southampton on a Celebrity Silhouette cruise on Sunday, September 1 at 6 am..  I am considering using the National Express Bus service to London.  We would like to leave reasonably early in the day, but also feel comfortable about getting to the bus station in time in case we are delayed getting off the ship, getting through immigration, or waiting in the  taxi queue.    How early in the day do you experienced Southampton cruisers think we can schedule a departure with reasonable confidence?  Do you think a 9:50 departure time is too early?  Would 11 or even later be better?

Cheryl

[LHT28]

9:50  for the bus   is plenty of time   to disembark & get to the bus station

you might even  get the  earlier bus

[John Bull]

Expect disembarkation to start around 7am unassisted, with regular disembarkation 7.30 to 9am or beyond.

 

The 9.50am bus would do very comfortably,

Or the 8.50am. If you want to book the 8.50 and are allocated a late disembarkation slot just ask for an earlier slot citing your onward travel arrangements.

Taxis will be lined-up at the terminal exit doors - there may be a long line for taxis but it moves quickly because they drive mainly short runs to the rail station, the coach station, and city centre hotels. It's a 2-minute drive, fare about £6 including premium pick-up location fee. Or it's a 15 to 20 minute walk on level sidewalks.

 

If you book the 11.05 you'll be kicking your heels at the coach station for a while.

 

Sunday is such a civilised day to travel to London.  

And for travelling around the streets of central London - if you're planning to take a ho-ho it's a good day for an orientation tour. 

 

JB 

[ConnMom]

Thank you, LHT28 and John Bull, for your responses.  This was exactly what I was hopping to hear.  This site has been great for helping me plan our time at the port of Southampton.  On Sunday August 18 we will be disembarking the Queen Mary 2 from a transatlantic, so we will have several hours in town before the Celebrity Silhouette sail-away.  I am looking forward to seeing a little bit of the area that day, and have been reading about so many interesting options.  Thank you also, John Bull, for your many contributions to this.

[John Bull]

5 hours ago, ConnMom said:

Thank you, LHT28 and John Bull, for your responses. On Sunday August 18 we will be disembarking the Queen Mary 2 from a transatlantic, so we will have several hours in town before the Celebrity Silhouette sail-away. 

 

 

 Can I just clarify?

Are you planning a day-trip to London for that day?

Disembark QM2, Nat Express coach to London, sight-see in London, Nat Express coach back to Southampton, board Silhouette  & sail away that evening??????????????????

 

I do hope you've not been misled by the classic con used by almost all cruise lines of "London (Southampton)" , like Southampton is a suburb of London.

Southampton is 80 miles from London 

 

So a day-trip to London by bus is just not going to happen. 

Not even if you made some arrangement for your luggage to be switched to Silhouette, & took the 08.50 bus to London.

You'd get to London after 11am.

Latest registration for Silhouette is likely to be 3.30pm or earlier, so you'd need to return on the 12.20 pm bus (arrives Southampton coach station 2.50pm).

That gives you no more than an hour of sight-seeing in London.

 

By train to London Waterloo takes about 90 minutes, so with early disembarkation  you could be there sometime after 9am.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

There's a ho-ho stop near Waterloo station, it's the obvious way of seeing as much of London as possible in the time-scale  and a circuit without getting off takes about 2.5 hrs. Allowing for waiting time etc the ho-ho would be back at Waterloo about noon.

Depending on your latest registration time for Silhouette you'd need to catch a return train at about  1.30pm to be back in Southampton about 3pm, so that'd give you a  max of 90 minutes free time - for instance time to get off the ho-ho at Buckingham Palace, walk round to the front of the Palace, & back to the ho-ho stop for the next ho-ho. (Buckingham Palace is the only major sight you can't see from a ho-ho, they're not allowed to drive past the front).

That schedule doesn't allow any wiggle-time for delays - and on sundays there's always the risk of scheduled railtrack maintenance resulting in a section of the track being closed and bridged  by an included "rail-replacement" bus service.

Walk-up train fare is over £40 pp each-way- from about 6 weeks out you can pre-book for as little as half of that but those budget tickets are non-cancelable & non-amendable - miss the train that you pre-booked & your tickets are worthless.

And that doesn't overcome the problem of transferring your luggage from  QM2 to Silhouette.  

 

Even if you booked a private car service & self disembarked at 7am, it'd be gone 9am before you began your car tour of London. Being a sunday, you could make a decent fist of seeing London before heading back to Southampton at about 1pm (depending on your latest Silhouette registration time).

Compared to the bus or train it'd cost $$$, but you could ask for quotes from www.smithsforairports.com (and ask for a London-knowledgeable driver) and from http://www.discoverthesouth.co.uk/tours/1184-9387/london.php (the touring arm of West Quay Cars). Both are Southampton-based, both frequently recommended by Cruise Critic members.

Your luggage can of course go sight-seeing with you.

 

Before you consider any of these options you really need to know the latest registration time for Silhouette.

And whether there's an early bag-drop facility at City Cruise terminal for Silhouette (I've seen posts o CC saying there is & there isn't).

 

Alternatively if this is all too much for you (it is for most folk) there are a number of pleasant ways of spending your b2b day in or around Southampton. Just ask.  

 

JB 

[LHT28]

JB

I am just guessing the OP is embarking on AUG 18th  in NYC  on QM2

arriving in Southampton on the 25th then getting on Celebrity  until Sep 1st  then heading to London for a few days

[John Bull]

21 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

JB

I am just guessing the OP is embarking on AUG 18th  in NYC  on QM2

arriving in Southampton on the 25th then getting on Celebrity  until Sep 1st  then heading to London for a few days

 

Yep. I've since figured that for myself.

Quite easy, really. All I needed to do was to properly read the OP before replying 

Another 30 minutes of my life that I'll never get back 

 

JB