Cruises - Transfers London - Southampton / Hotels London

Mrs. Stiff and I are cruising the British Isles in August and will be spending a few days in London in advance. Outside of booking with the cruise line (apparently $100 / couple each way by coach) are there easy / quick / economical ways to get from London to Southampton and then from Southampton to LHR?

Secondly, I intend to use Hilton Hhonors points for the hotel in London. I'd be grateful for recommendations on Hilton properties in London - preferably close to the tube. I'm certainly open to other recommendations as well.

Thanks all.

Try www.viator.com. I have used them for transfers in Portugal and Vietnam and everything went perfectly. There was someone to meet me at both places. You can pay by credit card in advance.

Some information about transit options to the cruise ships here:
http://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/heathrow_southampton.htm

If you're staying a few days in central London, you can get a train from Waterloo to Southampton Central bus station. Cost is around £34 per person. Return tickets can be cheaper - but you're better off taking the bus on the way back to Heathrow (unless you want to stop in London on the return leg too).

My experience last time with the Princess to Southampton was good. However, we have to take the taxi back (from the Airport Holiday Inn) to the assembly point at T4. A taxi driver asked us the night before that he can transfer us to the port for 100 GBP, which is not bad, if we hasn't paid for the transfer to the cruise liner.

Port transfer is one of the money making machine of the cruise liner.

Our TA has advised that transfers via Princess are about $100 per couple each way. The city pick-up is at Victoria Station (is there a Hilton-preperty hotel nearby?). I'm inclined to find other options to the port, though with Princess transfer to LHR they will take some responsibility to get us there. The other issue with that is they tend to want you out early if you arange private transfer (or taxi) whereas with noon flights they may allow us to hang around a bit longer. If it is, in fact, $100 each way, it may not be worth saving a few dollars to deal with someone else. With Princess transfer they'll look after our luggage once we arrive at Victoria Stn. all the way to our cabin - that's handy.

Would you consider skipping London entirely? Needing to get to Southampton might be a good excuse to explore the countryside. Rent a car at LHR. Visit Stonehenge. Stay at Winchester or Salisbury. Drop the car off in Southampton.

We used a great independent driver - took us from the cruise dock (Portland) to the airport, with 2 hour stop at a nearby castle. Sending his info via PM.

Would you consider skipping London entirely? Needing to get to Southampton might be a good excuse to explore the countryside. Rent a car at LHR. Visit Stonehenge. Stay at Winchester or Salisbury. Drop the car off in Southampton.

Now that's a very interesting idea. I suspect Mrs. Stiff and the other Mrs (traveling with another couple) will wish to see London, never having been there before. I do like your idea though for another time.

Anyone familiar with the Courthouse Doubletree on Great Marlborough Street? Trying to use Hilton points but our friends will be paying, so trying to balance for both. Description is good. Comments on location or hotel http://doubletree1.hilton.com/en_US/dt/hotel/LHRDTDI-Courthouse-DoubleTree-by-Hilton-Hotel-London-Regent-Street/index.do;jsessionid=ED01260466F7170E3D28187F445173 CD.etc71?ctyhocn=LHRDTDI&brand_id=HI&brand_directory=/en/hi/&xch=826691840,VMMT3MNNQSCCICSGBJBMVCQ

Are you traveling with the other couple from London to Southampton? If yes, it might be worth it to get a private car transfer. If you've not done Stonehenge, you can work that in.

If it is just the two of you, and you can easily handle your luggage, the train is pretty easy, and then you just get a taxi from the station in Southampton. The tickets aren't that cheap, but you can generally get MUCH cheaper tickets if you go to megatrain and book in advance.

On the way back, did you say you were going directly to the airport? The train is a bit of a pain for that as you'd be taking a taxi to the train, a train to the city, and the tube to the airport, if I remember correctly. There are other coaches (less expensive than the cruise transfer) that go directly to the airport, but they also need to be booked in advance.

I would highly recommend cruisecritic.com and the Cunard board in particular. Since QM2 does so many TA's, there are always people discussing this particular transfer.