Princess British Isles cruise in May and transportation from IHR to Southampton cruise terminal.

[thecruiser7]

We are taking a Princess British Isles cruise in May and flying in at least 1 day early. We will probably stay at a hotel near the Southampton cruise port. Any hotel suggestions and what is the best way to get from Heathrow airport to the hotel? I assume we can get a taxi from our hotel to the cruise terminal. It's our 1st trip to Europe and any suggestions would be appreciated..... including how long should we stay.... what to see.... hotels... etc.

[John Bull]

Princess normally use Ocean cruise terminal and Mayflower cruise terminal.

Mayflower is some way into the docks & isn't so good for walking, especially with luggage - a taxi makes sense from any hotel, so the hotel's location isn't important

 

All of the hotels in the link below are within a short taxi ride of the train station, the National Express coach station, and all of Southampton's five cruise terminals - some are easily walkable.

https://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/southampton_accommodation.htm

Ocean is walkable from hotels numbered 16, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, & 15  in blue on the little map at the bottom of this linked page. The hotels I've listed are also easily walkable to the waterfront, the walled old town, and the main shopping street and West Quay Mall on the northern side of the town wall. The Bargate (the main gate thro the city wall from the London road) is the centre of town.

 

A quick note on some of those hotels........

16. Moxy's is a quirky Marriott brand.

4. Premier Inns is the UK's most popular budget chain, Premier Inn West Quay is by far the most convenient of Premier Inns' Southampton hotels.

5. Holiday Inn is right by Dock Gate 8 for City cruise terminal and rooms at the back look over the terminal hence popular with those sailing NCL, Celebrity,  MSC and various other cruise lines.

7 & 8 Pig in the Wall and Ennios are boutiques - Pig in the Wall is built into the city wall, Ennio's a converted warehouse.

15.  Room 2  is in a quiet no-thru-road, across a small park from Dock Gate 4 for Ocean cruise terminal.

The city centre's hotels are mainly modern, standards vary broadly in line with prices, some I'd prefer over others but there are none that I'd choose to avoid.

 

Two main choices for transport from Heathrow .......

National Express bus. Takes 2 hours .By far the cheapest option, but frequency is quite limited & you should pre-book one which gives you a minimum of 90 minutes from your scheduled touch-down.

https://www.nationalexpress.com/en

 

Private transfer. It's a 90 minute drive.  Because of the two years of Covid and now the fuel price-hikes I'm a little out-of-touch on prices but I guess around £120 to £130.

Try https://westquaycars.com/ and https://aquacars.co.uk/ and https://www.blackberrycars.com/

(Smiths for Airports, popular with cruisers, are no more - a casualty of the pandemic)

 

There's no train service between Heathrow & Southampton. Best train option is a RailAir bus to Woking or Reading station and a direct train from there. But it's slow and expensive, only useful as a Plan B. f your arranged transport goes belly-u. Go to the information desk in the airport terminal and ask about RailAir to Southampton.

 

If another Princess ship is sailing on your travel day I guess you could blag seats on its Princess transfer bus. Just remember to tell the driver so that he stores your bags separately & hand them back to you at the cruise terminal, or they'll be going off on their own cruise 😉. Then taxi to your hotel.

 

BTW, don't expect too much of "Southampton old town".

Southampton was heavily blitzed in 1941/42, so it's an incongruous mix of historic and post-war.

 

JB 🙂

 

[georgemoe]

Same situation as you but cruising next August. Also our first trip to Europe. Based on some great info from John Bull and others here, we will probably use National Express from Heathrow to Southampton and taxi to Premier Inn West Quay for two or three nights prior to cruise. Wife would like a day of London so we will probably take the train from Southampton back to London Waterloo Station and do the Big Bus HOHO. She has mobility issues and the less bags I have to schlep for us both works for me.

If we were to stay in London two nights before heading to port, I would stay at Premier Inn Waterloo then train to Southampton. Sorry to hijack your post. Hope you get the info you need. 

[thecruiser7]

Thank you John Bull for this detailed information! Much appreciated!

One more question. Does the National Express bus stop at the airport & then make stops at different hotels?

thanks,

A Texan.......

[John Bull]

20 minutes ago, thecruiser7 said:

Thank you John Bull for this detailed information! Much appreciated!

One more question. Does the National Express bus stop at the airport & then make stops at different hotels?

thanks,

A Texan.......

 

No. They (all?) stop at Terminals 4 and 5 which are on different sides of the airport then they go to Heathrow central bus station for T's 2 and 3. From there they  go to central London's Victoria coach station via one stop in Hammersmith, west London.

 

You'd need a local bus or the hotel hoppa or a taxi between any terminal and hotels near the airport.  For one that's tolerably close you'll probably find that a taxi from the rank costs little more than two hoppa tickets.

Can't help further, but if you post your hotel (or hotels that you're considering) hopefully you'll get help from someone who knows the airport better than this country boy

 

JB 🙂

[thecruiser7]

Thanks again John Bull!

From what I'm reading.....Appears it worth getting a private transfer.

Have a good week-end!