Heathrow Airport customs and Royal Caribbean transfers

[markm]

Flying into Heathrow and cruising out of Southampton. We are on the West Coast of the US and our relatives we are cruising with are on the East Coast. For both of us to arrive at approximately the same time at Heathrow we will land at terminal 5 and they will land at terminal 3. My questions are. (I ask air2seaa but they can't answer)

1.  Due both terminals have their own baggage claim and customs?

2. Air2sea said Royal Caribbean transfers will meet us in the "arrival area" but he did not know if that meant the arrival area in terminal 3 or in 5 or both

I ask because its about $100.00 more to arrive at the same time and early enough (7am) to not have to rush, but if I have to get to another terminal is not worth it

 

[gregorykicks]

You would have to take a shuttle train to get from 3 to 5 or vice-versa. They each have their own baggage claim, customs, and pickup areas. 

Especially when you consider the chances of a flight being delayed, I don't think it's worth trying to arrive at the same time. 

[JBC1]

Each terminal has its own immigration and customs areas.

John

[Pima1988]

If you are using their shuttle to get to the port they will stop at every terminal.

The thing to realize is as the buses fill up, they will not open the doors.  They travel as a group.  So let's say they know they need 4 buses.  At terminal 1 the 1st 2 buses open their doors number 3 and 4 do not.  Bus 1 fills to capacity.  Number 2 doesn't.  Terminal 2 bus 2 and 3 open their doors, number 1 and 4 don't.  So on and so forth.  Thus, if you are hoping to ride the shuttle on the same bus that probably not going to happen.

Are you flying non-stop?  If not can you somehow meet the east coast people and fly all together.  IE when we flew to italy from NC, there was no direct flight.  We had the option of flying from Raleigh to Atlanta, Newark or JFK and then onto Italy.

[Fairlynew]

My family group of 6 flew in at different times.  We met in the baggage claim area of the terminal that the majority of us flew into.  We used a private shuttle because it was significantly less expensive for our group than using Royal's shuttle.  You may want to explore this option.  For us, meeting in baggage claim of one terminal worked well, but I would imagine that if you used a private shuttle, you could ask them to pick up from 2 different terminals.  You will probably save money as well.

[ChessE4]

On a related matter, we discovered to our chagrin that the $100 transfer to the port would have been included in the price of a pre-cruise excursion.  It would have involved arriving a day early and staying in a local hotel, but adjusting for the transfer price, it would have been worth it (the excursion ended at the port).

When we traveled in 2015 we had no trouble locating the Royal rep at baggage claim, and we were then directed to the appropriate location to wait for the bus.  We actually had enough time to get a quick bite and go the ATM for local currency.