Royal transfer Southampton->London Heathrow airport

[cedricmr]

Hi guys,

Upon arrival in Southampton (UK), Royal offers a bus transfer to London Heathrow airport.

Who has information? Booking possible on the boat? price? Thank you

[FOB]

Not sure on the costs for the RC transfer but you can get a coach from the coach station in Southampton (a short taxi ride rom the port) direct to Heathrow T2 or T3 (and there are transfers between terminals if needed) for about £18. 

The buses run on a regular basis

[Pattycruise]

I am unfamiliar with royal price but you can book it via your travel agent or if you booked direct with Royal call them.  You’ll need to supply them with your flight info so they can ensure your flight is within the approved timeline for them to sell you that product.,

[ChessE4]

Used it in 2015, and it was not cheap. Found out later it would have been better to book excursion with drop off. Royal did a good job gathering everyone at airport. Someone stole wife's suitcase at disembarkation.

[teddy]

I know this isn’t answering your question about Royal’s transport, but…

 

Back in October of this year we took National Express from Southampton to Heathrow Terminal 5.  For two of us with reserved seats it was £57,50. 
 

The coach station was an easy walk (for us) from the ship.  There isn’t much for seating at the bus station, so that’s something to be aware of. 

[Traveling Mike]

I just got off the phone with Air2Sea and they gave me prices for transfers to and from the airport.  If you also look on your web booking page for excursions the last day they often have the shuttles there with information and pricing.

Note:  depending on how much time you have, I have used this company in the past to have an excursion before going to London or the airport:  Tours from Southampton Cruise Terminal to London - Tourist England

[smokeybandit]

National Express was recommended to us by a couple of Welsh pinnacles we met on a recent cruise.

[teddy]

16 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

National Express was recommended to us by a couple of Welsh pinnacles we met on a recent cruise.

it was easy. 
 

We’re using them again when we cruise from Southampton again next September 

[FOB]

national Express would be the company that runs the coaches from the coach station. They are a main provider of long distance bus travel in the UK

[Matt]

The first time I cruised from Southampton, I booked the Royal Caribbean bus transfer from Southampton to Heathrow.

I booked it in the Royal Caribbean app when it asked for my departure preferences. 

It worked well, and I would have done it again this past summer, but I didn't remember to book it in time before the end of the cruise.

[SplashOfWater]

We just did the opposite route. We arrived in Southampton yesterday for a cruise (not on Royal) taking the National Express Bus from Heathrow terminals 2&3 to get here. It was a direct route after visiting all the airport terminals. Clean bus, good price. We booked In advance and paid an extra 5 GBP each for the Change & Go option, which allowed us to change our bus time 12 hours on either side of the booked time. We did end up changing to an earlier bus because we made it through customs early. We paid a total of less than 50 GBP for the two of us. Check out https://www.nationalexpress.com/

[Pattycruise]

6 hours ago, SplashOfWater said:

We just did the opposite route. We arrived in Southampton yesterday for a cruise (not on Royal) taking the National Express Bus from Heathrow terminals 2&3 to get here. It was a direct route after visiting all the airport terminals. Clean bus, good price. We booked In advance and paid an extra 5 GBP each for the Change & Go option, which allowed us to change our bus time 12 hours on either side of the booked time. We did end up changing to an earlier bus because we made it through customs early. We paid a total of less than 50 GBP for the two of us. Check out https://www.nationalexpress.com/

Can you do that if you have reserved seats?

[SplashOfWater]

15 minutes ago, Pattycruise said:

Can you do that if you have reserved seats?

I don't know. We didn't reserve seats. 

[teddy]

8 hours ago, Pattycruise said:

Can you do that if you have reserved seats?

We had reserved seats on a 1145(ish) bus in Southampton and were able to get on one around 9ish 
 

We didn’t get the same seats we had reserved on the later bus….the earlier bus wasn’t full and they let us get on after general boarding. 
 

We seriously overestimated the time it would take us to get from the ship to the bus station. It was much more comfortable waiting at Heathrow than the cramped National Coach station in Southampton.  

[Pattycruise]

10 hours ago, teddy said:

. We seriously overestimated the time it would take us to get from the ship to the bus station. It was much more comfortable waiting at Heathrow than the cramped National Coach station in Southampton.  

That station reminded me of a car rental place.  Not a lot of space to be waiting around. 
so they let you e to am earlier bus but not board till last, even though they let you have reserved seats? Sounds odd.  We had reserved seats from London to Southampton and the fellow passengers in the waiting area seemed polite enough until they started forming a line to get on that bus, I thought they were giving away free money.  I was so glad I had paid a small amount extra for reserved seats so I didn’t have to worry about where I’d be sitting. 

[teddy]

26 minutes ago, Pattycruise said:

so they let you e to am earlier bus but not board till last, even though they let you have reserved seats? Sounds odd

Originally the person behind the counter told us the earlier buses were full when we asked about changing.  When the one at 930 had a couple seats left due to no shows, he asked us if we wanted to hop on.  

[sfrome]

For an early July 2025 arrival in Southampton, RCI quoted their shuttle to Heathrow at $95.95/pp ($191.90).  I booked a private car instead through Blackberry Cars (BlackberryCars.com) for 2 pp at a cost $188.46 (150.00 GBP).  Our preference was to take the private car rather than ride on a bus.