Originally Posted by
AndyPatterson
This is why the Washington Post travel section reporters, during the weekly chat, ALWAYS recommend arriving in the port city the day before the ship is to sail! This is true even for afternoon sailings. Judging from your itinerary, you were originally to arrive in LHR in the morning of the same day as the departure from Southampton. Was there any reason why you could not fly to LHR a day earlier, and overnight either near the airport or in Southampton? Sure, it would cost an extra day's hotel stay, but you don't have to worry about missing the boat.
This is common sense and FT wisdom for pretty much any event that you absolutely cannot afford to miss (weddings, funerals, cruises, other important functions). Leave a day earlier so in case something goes wrong, you have backup options.
I'm not a big cruise guy, but the only time I booked a cruise, I booked my flights through the cruise line as well. I believe you were pretty much protected, so that if you were significantly delayed, I believed they would (helicopter?) transport you to the ship at it's next port of call. OP, is that something they could not have done? I would have expected them to get me on the ship with such a short time to make that connection.