Disembarkation Qs

[Poteet]

Hello everyone.  I am a first time cruiser setting sail on the Norwegian Prima from the US in August.   My question has to do with the disembarkation process.  At the end of the cruise, we arrive in Southampton at 6:00 am.  I have a transfer to London scheduled for 8:00 am.   I am not sure if I have given myself enough time to disembark and go thorough immigration/customs and still make my 8:00 departure for London.    Does anyone how long it takes (appx) to disembark? I understand I can request an early disembarkation time but still not sure about immigration time.

 

Thank you.

[MeHeartCruising]

7 minutes ago, Poteet said:

Hello everyone.  I am a first time cruiser setting sail on the Norwegian Prima from the US in August.   My question has to do with the disembarkation process.  At the end of the cruise, we arrive in Southampton at 6:00 am.  I have a transfer to London scheduled for 8:00 am.   I am not sure if I have given myself enough time to disembark and go thorough immigration/customs and still make my 8:00 departure for London.    Does anyone how long it takes (appx) to disembark? I understand I can request an early disembarkation time but still not sure about immigration time.

 

Thank you.

 

Generally, that should be enough time.  But the reality is that anything can happen during the disembarkation process.  Your ship could arrive late.  Ground crew may be late getting things ready.  Immigration could take longer than expected (short staff that day, etc.).  

 

Are you planning on carrying your own luggage off the ship?  If not, you need to wait until the ship's crew have unloaded luggage and transferred it to the shore personnel who stage it.  They do this in groups identified by a color tag that you will get while on the ship.  Then they will start letting passengers off to get the bags.  This takes time as well.

 

The best thing to do is to have a way to contact your transfer service that morning in case you are running late.

Edited July 30 by MeHeartCruising

[Poteet]

Thanks for the info.  Yes I am planning on carrying my own luggage off the ship.  As I understand it, I can ask for an early disembarkation time.

[Manchester is blue]

We have done several cruises from Southampton. I’d suggest two hours from that port is loads of time.

Enjoy your cruise

[MeHeartCruising]

1 hour ago, Poteet said:

Thanks for the info.  Yes I am planning on carrying my own luggage off the ship.  As I understand it, I can ask for an early disembarkation time.

 

When you carry your own bags off, you can leave as soon as the ship, ship crew, and ground crew are ready to go.  They will make an announcement when that happens. You don't really request a specific time.  However, the ship will publish a disembarkation document a day or 2 before the end of the cruise where they will provide an estimated time when self-disembarking will commence.  Anyone carrying there bags can get off at that same time.  So you may encounter some traffic getting off the ship and thru the process.  But as said above, 2 hours should be enough time.  

Edited July 30 by MeHeartCruising

[The Traveling Man]

5 hours ago, Poteet said:

Hello everyone.  I am a first time cruiser setting sail on the Norwegian Prima from the US in August.   My question has to do with the disembarkation process.  At the end of the cruise, we arrive in Southampton at 6:00 am.  I have a transfer to London scheduled for 8:00 am.   I am not sure if I have given myself enough time to disembark and go thorough immigration/customs and still make my 8:00 departure for London.    Does anyone how long it takes (appx) to disembark? I understand I can request an early disembarkation time but still not sure about immigration time.

 

Thank you.

We were on the Pr1ma for its very first visit to Southampton on 23 September 2022.  To say that the debarkation process was a bit disorganized and chaotic would be a great understatement.  It has been reported since then that things have improved at Southampton, but our experience was terrible.  We had arranged to travel by bus to Heathrow, departing Southampton at 9:00 AM for a mid-afternoon flight.  We left our Pr1ma stateroom and walked to the elevator, luggage in hand, at 7:00 AM.  We then joined the line in the atrium to pass through the security checkpoint.  I would estimate that approximately half of the 3000+ passengers on board were already in line when we got there.  At least 1000 more joined in behind us before we managed to exit the ship more than 90 minutes later.  The holdup was that the British Customs / Immigration / Border Patrol assigned only one agent to our ship.  He stationed himself on board, just prior to the ship's security checkpoint.  He examined the documents of each passenger.  Although he spent only a few seconds with each passenger, it took him about an hour per 1000 persons.  We had allowed two hours to exit the ship, get through Customs, find a taxi to take us to the bus station, and board our bus.  It took us two hours and one minute, so we missed our bus.  There were no seats available on the next scheduled bus, so we had to take a taxi all the way to the airport, a very expensive trip.  As I said, it seems that things have improved at the Southampton Cruise Terminal in the past two years, but that's our story.  I would recommend adding an extra hour to your anticipated debarkation time, then taking an interesting book to read if you should find yourself waiting that extra hour at the bus stop.  Good luck and bon voyage.

Edited July 30 by The Traveling Man

[complawyer]

we have done it the opposite way, a few times. london heathrow to southhampton is about an hour +. Most airlines would suggest you arrive for your flight at least 2 hrs prior to departure, 3 for international flights.

 

youre not giving yourself any wiggle room in case something goes wrong/emergency.

 

if all goes well, (the good lord willin and the crick dont rise), heathrow is HUGE!!!. and you'll still have check in, check your luggage and get to your gate'

 

i sincerely hope you make it in time, but imho, this looks like a disaster waiting to happed.

 

regardless, good luck!

 

if possible, try and get a later flight, or spend a couple of nights in london if youve never been

[complawyer]

im truly sorry, i misread your question, please disregard my response!

[Poteet]

Thankfully not trying to catch a flight, just a tour into London.  Thanks for all the replies.

[KeithJenner]

Your issue is that this is the end of a transatlantic.

 

If this was a round trip then you would have no problem at all, but as you are coming from the US anything could happen.

 

It depends to an extent where they do immigration (sometimes they bring people onboard to do it prior to arrival, but if it is done at Southampton then it could take a long time.

 

It also depends on what ports you visit on the way, as things could be done there.

 

You will probably be ok, but unfortunately with transatlantics these things are very unpredictable.