Disembarking, customs/immigration, and getting to London

You will receive tags and a note letting you know when your ‘assisted’ disembarkment time will be - if you don’t need help with getting luggage off the ship, you can simply take it off yourself. The time that this can start on the Southampton side was 7am - I’m not sure when the you have to be off the boat time is, but my guess would be around 10. ONE KEY thing they don’t actually tell you, is that you have to have your room key to ‘check out’ when leaving the ship. So don’t forget this! It will be right when you go across and in the bridge. I thought it was immigration, so had my passport out.

Immigration actually occurs while you are on the ship and there is no ‘stamping’ of the passport on the England side. The ship does ‘passport checking’ a few days before you land - it was really just a line up and they briefly look at it. We did search for it on the England side and even asked where it was. The attendant actually just said that they let everyone in, so don’t worry about it. I’m not sure if he was joking or not… Customs I believe was a tiny window, but we didn’t have anything and mostly it seemed like people bringing their pets and checking vet records.

We didn’t preorder a cab to get to the train…I’m not sure how people did that, but really, had I to do it again, I would have just hopped in a cab! We ordered an uber - took forever and it was essentially just a pre-ordered cab. We did book the train that morning for the first one that went all the way to Waterloo - there was a bus connecting for the very first train and we could have taken that (as we made it in time), but we already had our train ticket and I didn’t have things set up and padded enough to put my computer gear below on a bus. So, we ended up spending time at Costa. Get the receipt, because at the bottom of that is the code for the Costa bathroom…someone was in there for 30+ minutes, so we gave up and went to the train station, where there was an area with restrooms and coffee also.

Cunard offers transport from the boat to London and/or the airport - I believe these were around 100 pounds per person. Our costs added up to about 80 pounds for the two of us - train tickets and 2 cabs. If you have a lot of luggage, this may be a good option for you, but if you NEED assistance with the luggage, I think you have to book the private transfer - I’m not sure how much that costs.

Note - the train does NOT have separate areas for luggage. I asked the attendant and he said most people put them in the bike and/or wheelchair area. We just walked to the very first car where people weren’t already lined up and put our luggage next to us in the row - it was fine. Also, use the restroom in the train station before you go! The toilets on the train were disgusting - literally urine an inch thick on the floor pouring over the lip of the door…

From Waterloo, we took a cab to our hotel. I have to say, the cabs were literally a highlight of the trip. They were all so knowledgeable, nice, and helpful - really, just take the cabs! I believe we took 4 or 5 during our 5 days in London and all but the last one that was during morning rush hour across town was less than 20 pounds.