Getting To Southampton For Your Cruise

Getting to Southampton will be a common problem to face for many UK cruise fans. Southampton is the main embarkation port for cruises leaving from the UK and whilst in the past it had excellent air links, that’s not so much the case these days. For my NCL cruise I was working to a budget so did things a little differently than normal.

Southampton is quite a distance from Liverpool, and there are a variety of ways to get there.  A person can take a flight, they can take a train, they can take a private car if they are feeling flush. If you are UK based then you can even drive down and leave your car, several cruise lines have deals on long term stays.   I decided I was going to take the National Express from Liverpool, via Heathrow Airport to Southampton.   I have never actually been on such a coach before so this in itself was quite an exciting thing for me.  Another aspect of this “economy drive” was that it was an overnight coach so I wasn’t having to pay for a very expensive hotel in Southampton on the night prior to the cruise.   This coach would leave Liverpool One Terminal at around 11 at night, and arrive in Southampton Harbour Parade at about 8am on the day of embarkation.  

Despite what The Divine Comedy in their 1999 smash hit “National Express” would have you believe, the National Express does not have a jolly hostess serving crisps and tea.   Luckily, I was aware of that so I made sure I had plenty of small snacks and drinks to see me through the next 8 hours or so.   Specifically, I had prosecco and a Tesco Meal Deal.  You are not supposed to have alcohol on these buses, so I was very discreet.   I was glad also that I got to sit quite near the front and didn’t have anyone needing to sit next to me for the whole journey, so it was very comfortable.     Nice big leather chairs, WIFI, dark, quiet.   Result! 

The Divine Comedy were right about one thing though – all life was on this bus.   One couple particularly stood out.   I would find it had to describe them except to say, they looked (and smelled) like they and their clothes have not seen soap and hot water in many a moon!   They initially were sat up near the front, but I think they were making the bus driver sick because they (and their dog) were made to move to the very back of the bus.   A cloud of noxious fumes followed them as they made their way to the back, and all you could see was heads bobbing, noses being held and lots of people pulling faces.  I was glad I had my lavender mint roll on and I was able to liberally wipe it all over my wrists and hold it up to my face for a while.   I fell asleep for a couple of hours and before I knew it we had arrived at Heathrow Airport, where we got off the bus and waited for the next one.  There was a massive fight at this bus stop between some drunks and some security.    Death threats and all sorts being thrown!   Me and another girl off the bus got as far away as we could, but obviously not too far – we still wanted to see the action!    The bus to Southampton was not quite as swish – slightly smaller seats, no WIFI and my close neighbours were young children with noisy I-pads.   But it was daytime now, so it wasn’t an issue. 

Southampton hotels can be extremely expensive on the day before a cruise leaves, especially if it falls on a weekend, if this is the case it may be best to try and arrive on the morning your cruise departs.

The bus arrived at Southampton Harbour Parade and from here it was a relatively short walk to the ship.    Long enough to want to stop on the way at Starbucks, but it was sunny and dry and far too early to be getting onboard anyway so a nice walk was exactly what the doctor ordered.     I got to my cruise terminal, left my case with the porters and went into Southampton to do some last minute shopping at Boots.  There’s always something you forget isn’t there – on this occasion for me it was lip balm.   I spent a very pleasant morning in Southampton, even stopping off at a Wetherspoons for the obligatory half a lager! Next stop the cruise itself. 

_{ps. Just for reference in the past when there has been more than just me travelling we’ve often used private cars to get us from Heathrow or Gatwick. If your first port of call in the UK is one of the big southern airports and you’d like to get to Southampton in the quickest most comfortable way (the southern train network is a disaster zone a lot of the time) then I can pass on the details for the contacts I’ve built up over the years. Far more luxurious and also cheaper than services like airporttaxis-uk.co.uk and all the other services that advertise heavily on Google. The drivers used over the many years have become good friends}. _{Just leave a comment if you’d like the details.}