My wife and I will be completing our British Isles cruise on Golden Princess on Friday, July 27 at Southampton dock. Ship is supposed to arrive at 05:30 AM. My QUESTION relates to the time that we can reasonably expect to be allowed off the ship to obtain our luggage and what procedural matters, if any, must we go through before we are "home free"? Reason for asking is that we must tell a taxi service what time to meet us at the dock. Any thoughts appreciated! Would 9AM or 9:30 AM be a reasonable expectation or am I way off base?

Princess usually will ask you to fill out a form as to what time you are flying back home after you disembark.

The earlier the flight the sooner you HAVE to get off.

Also if you have a tour planned for early that morning then you will be getting off sooner.

Princess likes to get those tour people off that have booked a tour WITH Princess, BUT if you have someone waiting for you on the dock....then just go to the exit.... they CANNOT keep you on the ship if you are ready to disembark and have someone waiting.

Good Luck

Percy

There will be plenty of Taxis lined up at Southampton, no reason to reserve.

Thanks for the quick replies. We will have a local taxi service taking us to Heathrow to catch a plane to Vienna at 3 pm. So, if we tell them that we have a prebooked taxi waiting for us at 9AM there shouldn't be a problem getting off, correct? Anyone know what the earliest time they start letting people off. This will be the end of the cruise. Thanks.

As soon as it gets into port and is cleared by customs. I'd guesstimateanywhere between 6:30 am onwards barring any special circumnstances. If you are willing to carry off your own baggage you can walk off as soon as disembarkation begins, just see someone at the reception desk and inform that you'll be carrying your own bags. We always do that, it saves hours of waiting time.

sorry for typos.