Excursions Offered on Turnaround Day in Southampton?

[-Lew-]

We're booked on a B2B in September onboard Splendor around the UK then down to Barcelona.  Our only turnaround day experience with Regent has been in Miami where limited excursions were offered.  Has anyone experienced a B2B in Southampton where excursions were offered to in-transit cruisers?  If so, what was offered?

 

Thanks...

[TheOldBear]

7 hours ago, -Lew- said:

We're booked on a B2B in September onboard Splendor around the UK then down to Barcelona.  Our only turnaround day experience with Regent has been in Miami where limited excursions were offered.  Has anyone experienced a B2B in Southampton where excursions were offered to in-transit cruisers?  If so, what was offered?

 

Thanks...

We have had 5 Southampton 'turn around' days so far and have found that Cunard at least rarely has a worthwhile excursion. [In 2017 -our first visit- there was a half day excursion to Winchester, that brought us back to the ship for lunch]

There was a thread on this forum last year "Southampton on Sunday" with many contributions of local knowledge from John Bull. This included many DIY tour suggestions from Salisbury & Stonehenge, the New Forest, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, or Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.

We have met up for lunch with some of Mrs Bear's UK facebook friends, or visited some local sights [e.g. the SeaCity Museum, Tudor House] - mostly stuff in walking distance from the ship's shuttle stop near the "Bargate"

[John Bull]

Hi, Lew,

 

At Southampton, different cruise-lines offer different excursions for B2B cruisers, anywhere between none and up to about 4 or 5. IIRC they have included Salisbury & Stonehenge, Bath,  central London - and a Pullman-style steam train trip though that would be dependant on the date. I don't recall Winchester or Portsmouth although either would be simple & worthwhile.

So you'll just have to wait until  RCI publish their offerings. 

But compared with her sisters, Splendour is a small ship (about 2000 pax) so don't expect a wide choice, if any.

 

For independent excursions or DIY you first need to check

- arrival time in Southampton (7am disembarkation is usually possible since you won't be carrying luggage)

- Back-on-board time for B2B'ers. This might be as late as 30 mins before advertised sailing time or as early as 90 - 120 minutes before sailing if you're obliged to go thro another registration and/or safety drill in Southampton.

- If you have to change cabins, this is another complication which may affect your timing.

Be warned - it can prove difficult to get this information from cruise-lines until you board or unless you can get the information via the ship.

 

Booking seats-in-coach or seats-in-van for excursions in Southampton is nigh-on impossible. It's not a tourist city, the only regular excursions are for locals - the timings almost-certainly won't suit, and many destinations won't appeal to you.

You can book a private car or shared van tour with a taxi / transfer operator, but that will be expensive. Finding a qualified guide for a particular destination would be difficult, but you can ask for a knowledgeable driver (https://westquaycars.com/  have a touring arm called Discover the South). For a van you'd need to accept responsibility for the cost and seek sharers thro your cruise RollCall.

Suitable places would be The New Forest (starts 20 minutes away), the Jurassic Coast (starts around Corfe Castle, about an hour away), Highclere Castle aka "Downton Abbey" (about an hour away), Blenheim Palace (about 80 minutes away), the Weald & Downland Museum (about an hour away), Arundel Castle (about an hour away). In your limited time those places are impractical by public transport.

 

Southampton Central station (no more than a 7 to 8 minute taxi ride from any cruise terminal) is a rail hub, so there are a lot of DIY options, including train to the ancient cathedral city of Winchester, about 15 minutes & £9 return, or Portsmouth, about an hour & £14.50 return (get off at the end of the line, Portsmouth harbour, for the Historic dockyard & ships) or the laid-back city of Salisbury about 30 minutes.

Depending on your time in port,  from Salisbury station you can take the Stonehenge hop-on bus to Stonehenge - total travel time from ship back to ship including waiting for trains etc would be about 3 hours, so you could have 60-90 minutes at Stonehenge and an hour or more in Salisbury. Monday to saturday trains on all these routes are half-hourly or better, less-frequent on sundays   

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

 

Or the hourly Red Funnel vehicle ferry across The Solent to East Cowes on the Isle of Wight, an hour and £14.90 return for foot-passengers. Then 10-min. local bus - 3 per hour - to Queen Victoria's favourite residence, Osborne House https://www.englishheritage.org.uk/visit/places/osborne/ designed in Italianate style by her husband, Prince Albert. https://www.redfunnel.co.uk/isle-of-wight-ferry/plan/timetables

 

If all of that is too much for you, Southampton has enough to interest you for a day. Places like https://tudorhouseandgarden.com/  , https://seacitymuseum.co.uk/ and https://www.solentsky.org/

Self-guided walks like https://cruisesouthampton.com/walking-itineraries or guided walks on saturdays & sundays https://www.visit-hampshire.co.uk/dbimgs/Southampton Old Town Walk.pdf and plenty of shops, cafes, pubs 

 

Check out the highlighted places via google & the search box on CC's British Isles forum

 

JB 🙂

[-Lew-]

@TheOldBear & @John Bull...

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to provide your thoughts and suggestions.  We have many more options than I had originally thought.  We're in port 7:00am until 7:00pm on turnaround day, so will have plenty of time to enjoy whatever we decide to do.