England and Iberia Day 4

Waterloo to Southampton, and the walk to the terminal

Posted by Brian Hart on August 01, 2026 · 14 mins read
  • Start of day: London, England
  • End of day: Southampton, England, aboard ship

Embark day! Today we board the Celebrity Apex in Southampton for a 14-night round-trip sailing through Portugal and Spain.

The itinerary:

Date Place About
Saturday, August 1 Southampton, England Embarkation, 3:00pm sailaway
Sunday, August 2 At Sea  
Monday, August 3 Porto (Leixões), Portugal Port town of Matosinhos, gateway to Porto
Tuesday, August 4 Lisbon, Portugal Portugal’s capital
Wednesday, August 5 At Sea Passing Gibraltar
Thursday, August 6 Palma de Mallorca, Spain Balearic island capital
Friday, August 7 Barcelona, Spain Catalonia
Saturday, August 8 Ibiza, Spain Late call, aboard by midnight
Sunday, August 9 At Sea  
Monday, August 10 Málaga, Spain Costa del Sol
Tuesday, August 11 At Sea  
Wednesday, August 12 La Coruña, Spain Galicia, on the Atlantic
Thursday, August 13 Bilbao, Spain Basque Country
Friday, August 14 At Sea  
Saturday, August 15 Southampton, England Disembark

We all slept terribly, victims of jet lag. We were out of the hotel by 7:50am to make the walk down to Waterloo for our 8:35am train to Southampton. It’s an easy walk, and we had ample time to pop into a coffee shop for croissants to take on the train.

Four roller suitcases -- black, gunmetal, navy, and a patterned tan one -- lined up on a wide paved sidewalk outside a corner Costa Coffee in bright early morning sun. The shop occupies a brick and white-rendered building with a large plate glass window bearing the white COSTA COFFEE logo; a burgundy A-frame sign on the pavement advertises hazelnut creme delights. A man in a dark t-shirt sits at an outdoor table on the right. A yellow tactile paving strip runs along the left edge of the sidewalk and parked cars sit on the quiet street beyond.

We arrived early enough at Waterloo that the board only told us our train would be somewhere in Platforms 12-29. We walked over to that area and our platform was assigned a few minutes later. Two of our people tapped in with their contactless cards instead of scanning their prepurchased tickets, but we caught it and they were able to tap out a moment later and re-scan without any trouble.

It’s an easy ride to Southampton Central, no transfers needed. Phone screenshot at 7:30am of a rail app's Calling Points screen for the 08:35 London Waterloo train to Weymouth. Train information at the top reads 10 carriages, with a carriage diagram showing two first class cars and a Seats legend for Many, Some, Limited, and No data. The stop list below shows 08:35 London Waterloo, 09:00 Woking, 09:33 Winchester on Platform 2, 09:42 Southampton Airport Parkway, 09:51 Southampton Central, 10:06 Brockenhurst, 10:24 Bournemouth, 10:29 Branksome, and 10:32 Parkstone (Dorset). The phone battery reads 80% and charging.

There’s zero convenient luggage storage for roller bags on these trains, unlike other systems I’d used in Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Norway… You either have to be prepared to hog seats with bags or to lift suitcases up and over your head to wedge them into the overhead racks. Ours fit, but barely. Note: this was one of the two first class cars. Perhaps there are other cars with better luggage storage? Anyway, we all sat at a four-top table. The ride was fine. I was too tired to enjoy it. It was transportation.

We got off at Southampton Central along with another older couple – Dottie (a retired nurse) and her husband – who turned out to be on our same cruise. We’d mentioned our plan to walk to the terminal and they said they were game. Google Maps wasn’t being especially helpful, as it was tough to parse whether we should be walking along the car park or going up the hill on the main road. There’s a convenient cruise terminals sign, but ONLY after you’ve already committed to one direction. Once we were heading the right way, the walk was straightforward.

Walking from Southampton Central Station to the Horizon Cruise Terminal

For future travelers wanting to walk from Southampton Central Station to the Horizon cruise terminal (berth 102), here’s how to do it. (I’m pretty sure this would work for the City terminal (berth 101), just walking further past Horizon, but it’s untested)

Exit the train station through the south exit. We were already on the southernmost platform and had an easy exit; you may need to go up and over some tracks to reach the south exit depending on how you arrive. Once outside, continue directly south across the car park toward the main road, then turn right onto the sidewalk and head up the embankment. At this point you should see a blue sign directing you to Dock Gate 10 and Cruise Terminals.

Looking up at the same blue Dock Gate 10 & Cruise Terminals sign, mounted below a blue shared cycle and pedestrian roundel on a metal pole, with a red SCN S4 route plate. To the right, a large billboard advertises Longleat with the tagline So much to squeeze and Book in advance from 34.95 pounds, showing a close-up of an elephant's eye. Below the billboard a teal Unilink double-decker bus passes on the road, and pedestrians with roller bags -- including a young man in a white t-shirt, grey backpack, and pink shorts -- walk along the sidewalk beside a metal railing.

View up a sidewalk beside a road under a cloudless deep blue sky. In the middle distance, three people walking away from the camera with roller bags -- a young woman with a pink backpack and braided hair, a woman in a pink top with a plaid shirt tied around her waist, and a man in a straw hat, dark backpack, and shorts. A signpost in the foreground carries a blue cycle-and-pedestrian shared path roundel above a blue sign reading Dock Gate 10 & Cruise Terminals with an up-right arrow and a quarter-mile distance. A large billboard on the right shows a dark animal photo. Cars pass on the road at left, and the grass verge is scorched brown from summer heat.

You’ll pass through some nice shade and then follow the sidewalk to the left, and you might catch sight of your ship off in the distance.

A young woman with a blonde ponytail, pink backpack, and a blue sweater draped over her shoulders walks away from the camera along a sidewalk pulling a tan patterned roller bag, wearing shorts and flip-flops. A tall sign in the left foreground reads Traffic signal and speed cameras above a blue shared cycle and pedestrian roundel. Plane trees line the left side; a wide multi-lane road with double yellow lines and a red SUV runs along the right. In the gap between the trees at the center of the frame, the white superstructure of a cruise ship is just visible above rooftops in the distance.

That’s where you’re heading. You can stay on this side of Southern Road the rest of the way. You’ll cross one large intersection with proper walk signals. Further up you’ll come to a second intersection that has no walk signals – look at the traffic lights for the crossing traffic and wait until all lanes are red, otherwise you risk getting squished by turning traffic you might not be primed to look for if you’re from a right-side-driving country.

Once across, continue through Gate 10; the guard will wave you through.

Two teenagers with roller bags stand in the road in front of the stone arch of Dock Gate 10 at the Port of Southampton. The arch is carved with ASSOCIATED BRITISH PORTS and PORT OF SOUTHAMPTON, with BERTH 102-109 on the left pier and GATE No 10 on the right, a clock face set into the top, and a Union Jack on a flagpole above. Through the archway a white cruise ship is visible at the berth beyond a gatehouse and security fencing. A red-headed boy in a white t-shirt and pink shorts and a girl in a navy hoodie and shorts pull black and tan suitcases. Bright sun, clear blue sky.

If you’re going to the Horizon terminal (102), ease off to the left and cross the street at the earliest opportunity, per the advice of the guard at the gatehouse. From there, continue past the car park and make a right turn to reach the terminal.

Walking toward the Horizon cruise terminal, the Celebrity Apex looms over the low modern terminal building on the right, its dark blue hull lettering reading APEX below the funnel, with the orange Magic Carpet platform parked partway up the side. A green mesh security fence runs along the left with construction plant, dump trucks, and a yellow excavator behind it. Two travelers with roller bags -- a man in a white t-shirt, dark backpack, and yellow cap, and a woman with a floral bag -- walk ahead of the camera down the roadway. High-vis-vested port staff and a black van are visible near the terminal doors. Cloudless blue sky.

It’s not a hard walk – certainly easier than my walk from the Civitavecchia train station to Largo della Pace – but you’ll want decent wheels on your luggage.

These directions are also available as a standalone post if you want to share or bookmark just this part.

We arrived at the terminal around 10:15. We cleared security, checked in with Celebrity, and took seats in the terminal. Waiting in the terminal was a first-time experience for us, since we’re usually arriving after embarkation has already started. They seat you in the order you arrived (Priority and Concierge get their own area) and then board you in that order.

Almost everyone who boarded ahead of us either headed to their rooms or went to check in at their muster stations. We made a beeline for the buffet and, I kid you not, we were the very first people into the buffet on an embark day. It was eerie. Embark day buffet is usually a shit show.

The rest of the day was uneventful – regular cruise stuff.

Elevated view from the ship over the Port of Southampton. In the foreground, a long grey warehouse with a navy sign reading Welcome to the PORT OF SOUTHAMPTON, Gateway to the World, beside an empty concrete quay marked with yellow lines. Behind it, a multi-story car park stacked with hundreds of new cars, rows of yellow construction machinery lined up on the dock, a white marquee tent, and a grey naval supply ship moored at a wharf. Beyond the water lies the far shore with a road bridge, wooded hills, and waterfront apartment blocks. Partly cloudy sky.

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