Early Disembarkation w/ a Private Transfer

[kslprvistx]

Hello all! 

 

We have surprised my parents with out first Cunard voyage from NYC-Southampton. We've never been on Cunard before, and additionally have not been on a ship that disembarked internationally. We are trying to schedule a car service to pick us up and drive us to London St Pancras at the earliest time possible as our goal is to make it to Barcelona that night via train and we need to get to Paris ASAP. Flying unfortunately is not an option. I've called Cunard and have scoured online and got very different answers. Cunard said they arrive at 630AM and it takes about an hour and a half for them to go through customs so the earliest I would be able to disembark (even self guided) would be 8-830. I've already read blogs that say early disembarkation begins at 645-7 and customers were typically through customs by 730. This makes a huge difference for us with our connecting trains in Paris so Ive thought to get us a car transport to London St Pancras. 

 

Does anyone have more solid information as to *when* early disembarkation (self service) is?

 

Also, any ideas how long the drive is from Southampton Cruise Terminal to London St Pancras? Ive also gotten a variety of answers on that, anywhere from 1:18 to 2hrs. 

 

Thank you!!

[Lanky Lad]

This is a tricky one to answer as it all depends on the ship arriving on time and disembarkation going smoothly. If all goes well, then you should be on your way by 7.30 but it's very tight so would not take much to derail your plans. 

[kslprvistx]

Thank you Stephen!

 

Any idea how long the transfer via private car would take from the Cruise port to London St Pancras? Appreciate all of your knowledge thank you!

[BigMac1953]

We do Soton - London Euston every trip, but not in the rush hour. It normally takes less than 2 hours, but I would allow an exgra half hour (at least) due to heavy traffic.

[exlondoner]

I would plan for a night in Paris. What day of the week is it? You will get into Central London very quickly on a Sunday, while, say, a Thursday morning rush hour could be very slow.

[exlondoner]

Looking at the Man in Seat 61, it seems you would need to catch the 9.24 Eurostar. I wouldn’t think that was possible unless you are very lucky.

[Yaldi]

If you are on a tight schedule it is worth noting there are ticket, security and border checks to complete at St. Pancras before boarding Eurostar, the gates close in advance of departure so you can’t arrive a few minutes before 09:24 and get on.

[Pushpit]

If you are asking when is the safest time to get a train from London St. Pancras that would be 12:00 hrs.

 

This is on the basis of

Disembark 08:00 hrs

Car transfer to STP: 10:00

Rail formalities: 11:00

One hour contingency for things going wrong, traffic etc: 12:00

 

If you want to live dangerously, and you are in Business Premier on the train then this could be possible:

Disembark 07:30

Arrive STP: 09:30

Depart STP: 10:00

Eurostar suggest arriving 90 minutes early, in Standard, and the cut-off is 15 minutes in Business Premier but that's feeding the beast really, 60 minutes and 30 minutes is fine respectively.

 

If taking the train from Southampton Central, then the 08:30 gets to Waterloo at 09:53, so STP would be about 10:10 hrs. Some here feel that trains are not reliable, but equally traffic can happen on the roads, cars breakdown and what-not.

 

[Different times apply at weekends].

 

Disembarkation at 08:00 is a reasonably "safe" time but I have seen people leave at 06:45 hrs, with on time arrivals. A lot depends on what else is happening at the port and whether the Border Force (who do the passport checks) are in the mood for a light touch or not. So a foggy and busy day will find you looking at 08:00, for example, and there have been cases recently of vessels getting into port multiple hours late. Now at a certain point you may have a vague Plan B, you can't realistically plan for every single eventuality, but hopefully the times above give you a feel for the options here.

[exlondoner]

Passport checks are done on board TAs. It is customs checks than can hold you up, but only quite rarely. Often there is nobody there.

 

In any case Pushpit has effectively demonstrated how unlikely it is you will catch the 9.24.

[tacticalbanjo]

I'd plan for a night in London or Paris. A medical emergency on board requiring a detour or bad weather can mean the ship arrives into port late. You don't want to spend your whole crossing worrying about on time arrival into Southampton, not getting pulled by customs agents (I have only had this once but you can't rely on it not happening), traffic not being heavy (weekday morning traffic will be heavy through central London) or trains running to time (not that you will be particularly welcome with luggage on the packed like sardines early morning trains filled with commuters heading to work) just one of which will scupper your plans.

[kslprvistx]

Good Morning- You have all been so helpful!

 

Since this was my first time posting I was worried about providing too many details that were not cruise specific and getting in trouble. To answer some of your questions:

 

We arrive on a Sunday

The goal is to arrive at St Pancras in time to take the 930 OR the 1026 train (the latest of which would put us at Gare du Nord at 150PM) arriving us at Gare du Nord in time to transfer to Gare de Lyon and make the 256 Gare de Lyon-Barcelona train. Obviously ideally we'd like to make the 930 which would give us 2hours to make the transfer to Gare de Lyon once we arrived in Paris. My concern about the 1026 train from St Pancras to Gare Du Nord is the 1hr turnaround time we have to get to Gare De Lyon to make the train to Barcelona. Ive read online its a quick 7min transfer via the local metro (whose tickets can be purchased on our train from Pancras-Gare Du Nord) OR around a 25min taxi ride between the 2. Obviously its cutting it close but just trying to plan and see if a 930 train in St Pancras is realistic or, just understand it will be the 1026 train giving us only an hour to make the transfer to Gare De Lyon in order to catch the 256 train. 

 

I appreciate everyone taking their time to provide me more information! We are seasoned European travelers however have typically relied on flying with occasional day trips on trains. Cunard will be quite the experience for us!

[exlondoner]

I think it will be vastly easier to get between stations in Paris in an hour than to get to St. P by 9.26. I still think 10.26 is cutting it very fine, but it being on a Sunday should help. In any case you are very brave.

[D&N]

On June 12th last year "Fast Track disembarkation" was offered at 7:00 am and 7:15 am. We arranged for 7:15 am on evening of June 8th. That suited us, but by the time we phoned 22200 to arrange it I think we were told only 7:15 was available. You would obviously need to be off as early as possible so I would advise making the arrangement soon after boarding.

I'm not sure if they actually check that you have made arrangements as nobody appeared to tick our names from a list as we left.

We did pass a long queue waiting to get off at 7:00 am as we returned from breakfast, which suggests that on that day they didn't allow disembarkation before 7:00 am.

By the time we got back down with our luggage at 7:15 am we walked straight off without a queue.

 

The Paris transfer should be alright provided there are no strikes or engineering works affecting RER line D. It should take 15 to 20 mins including walking. The direct train, which has one intermediate stop is scheduled to take 9 mins and there are about 6 trains per hour on a Sunday.

Best to check what events there might be in Paris that could affect the transfer. e.g. Paris Olympics next year.

 

I agree with most other comments that catching the Eurostar you need at St Pancras is very risky. We too disembarked on a Sunday, were picked up at 8:09 and reached Heathrow at 9:17. We had booked a flight at 14:20 and were able to change it to 11:20. Next time we'll book the taxi for 7:15 and the 11:20 flight, but for us the worst case is we have a supplement to pay if we need to change the flight. And our trip is almost all on motorways with no risk of city traffic problems.

[kslprvistx]

Wow D&N- would you believe Ive somehow managed to not register the fact that the Olympics will be in France next year? Although we'll be a month prior to the Olympics, Im sure traffic will be ramped in preparation for it. Definitely something to seriously consider!

 

Thank you everyone for all of your help.. I believe maybe we'll wind up still taking the private transfer but potentially going to Bordeaux or somewhere besides Paris on our first night and simply making the next travel day into Barcelona. I appreciate all of you so much for taking the time to guide me!!!

Edited July 25, 2023 by kslprvistx

[exlondoner]

23 minutes ago, kslprvistx said:

Wow D&N- would you believe Ive somehow managed to not register the fact that the Olympics will be in France next year? Although we'll be a month prior to the Olympics, Im sure traffic will be ramped in preparation for it. Definitely something to seriously consider!

 

Thank you everyone for all of your help.. I believe maybe we'll wind up still taking the private transfer but potentially going to Bordeaux or somewhere besides Paris on our first night and simply making the next travel day into Barcelona. I appreciate all of you so much for taking the time to guide me!!!

The man in Seat 61 mentions changing at Lille for an overnight in Nîmes, enabling you to avoid Paris altogether. This leaves St. P at a doable 13.01.

 

 https://www.seat61.com/Spain.htm#London_to_Barcelona_with_overnight_stop_in_Nimes

[D&N]

Bordeaux isn't well positioned on the rail network for a stopover.

But the link @exlondoner has given is ideal. The site owner has even got his article updated to include a new service starting this Saturday.

Paris-Lyon was the original TGV route and with it's onward links to Marseille and Spain is probably still the best served high speed line.

[Pushpit]

To be honest, flying to Barcelona would be much, much easier. One option you have, perhaps, is to continue to France via the ferry from nearby Portsmouth or Poole, then continue on from there to Barcelona via for example Le Havre. The Eurostar is the super fast way between London and Paris (and Brussels and Amsterdam) but (a) you are not in London and (b) you're not really wanting to go to Paris either! So there are alternative ways of doing it.

[exlondoner]

I think London to Barcelona in a day via Eurostar is pretty brilliant, if you are able to do it. As is Southampton to Nîmes without going to Paris. They have stated at the start that flying is not an option.  So there we are.

[kslprvistx]

Thank you exlondoner!

 

Yes. unfortunately. flying is not an option. I think we'll get a private transfer to London St Pancras in hopes to make the 1026AM train to Paris. If we're able to deboard by 730 as some have suggested we should be fine making that train. We'll have already bought our tickets, it would just be a matter of going through security check and with Priority Boarding Ive read this *should* cut the time dramatically. I'll make a backup hotel reservation in Paris though, just in case we don't make it!

[Island2Dweller]

Oh gosh - I think that is really pushing your luck.  Personally, not a risk I would be comfortable with. 

You're looking at a two hour drive (even on a Sunday), so if you leave at 0730 you'll only be getting out of the car at St Pancras at 0930.  That's right on the limit of check in deadline, even with Priority Boarding.

It's not just security that you need to get through, you also have to clear Schengen zone immigration.  The immigration process is what chews time. 

[kslprvistx]

Per their website they recommend arriving by 951AM in order to make the 1026AM train which would give us a little over 30min to get through immigration/security. We're hopeful! 

 

Thank you everyone for all of your help- its greatly appreciated!

[D&N]

Speaking as a couple who have managed to achieve arrival plane door to departure gate via passport control and security at both London Heathrow and London Stansted in under 20 minutes, it might just work.

We are extremely mobile though and think nothing of sprinting through an airport with our backpacks.

 

I think the backup hotel booking is very wise, plus of course flexible train tickets that permit you to transfer to later trains.

 

[Island2Dweller]

Per their website they recommend arriving by 951AM in order to make the 1026AM train

My reading says that the absolute minimum is 45 minutes

https://www.eurostar.com/travel-info/your-trip/check-in

Just manage your expectations.  A fair number of people have missed their booked train over the last few months because it has taken so long to clear immigration.

[tacticalbanjo]

Post-Brexit queues at Eurostar immigration are so heavy they are unable to fill the trains. Do not rely on turning up right at the last minute.

[exlondoner]

5 minutes ago, tacticalbanjo said:

Post-Brexit queues at Eurostar immigration are so heavy they are unable to fill the trains. Do not rely on turning up right at the last minute.

How does that work? Surely it would simply make the next train fuller?