Southampton cruise schedule

Facts checked October 2026 against operator sources. Prices and times change, the booking page wins.

ABP publishes a provisional cruise ship schedule for Southampton that runs about three and a half months ahead and refreshes every ten minutes from the port's live system. It lists each call by ship name, berth, arrival, departure and agent. Berth is the clue to the terminal: 38/39 QEII, 46 Ocean, 101 City, 102 Horizon, 106 Mayflower.

How to read it

The schedule has five columns. Ship name is self-explanatory. Berth is the number that tells you the terminal, listed above. Arrival and departure are given as date and time for calls within about six days and as AM, PM or TBA further out, because the port only confirms exact movements in its Planned Movements list for the coming week. Agent is the shore company handling the call: Carnival UK for P&O, Cunard, Princess and AIDA, Intercruises for Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, Denholm Port Services for MSC and Fred. Olsen. The list on 16 October 2026 ran to 111 rows from that day to 29 January 2027, and it refreshes every ten minutes from the port's live system.

Berth	Terminal	Docks	Typical agent and lines
38/39	QEII	Eastern	Carnival UK: Cunard
46	Ocean	Eastern	Carnival UK: P&O, AIDA, Princess
101	City	Western	Denholm: Fred. Olsen; also Royal Caribbean, Disney, Saga
102	Horizon	Western	Intercruises: Royal Caribbean, Celebrity; Denholm: MSC
106	Mayflower	Western	Carnival UK: P&O Ventura, Aurora, Arcadia

Turnaround or transit

Most calls at Southampton are turnarounds: the ship arrives early, everyone disembarks, the ship is cleaned and provisioned, and a new set of passengers boards for sailing the same afternoon. That is why the schedule shows the same ship arriving and leaving on one date. Transit calls, where a ship on a longer itinerary stops for the day and the same passengers go ashore, are rarer here and show as a morning arrival with an evening departure and no turnaround crowd at the terminal. For a visitor who wants to see ships, turnaround days are the ones: five departures between 16:00 and 18:00 past Mayflower Park on a summer Saturday is the port's spectacle.

The pattern of the week and the year

Saturdays and Sundays carry the seven-night and fourteen-night itineraries that make up most of the programme, so weekends are the heavy days; Tuesdays and Fridays carry the shorter breaks and the Cunard crossings. From May to October the port handled over three million passengers in 2025 across roughly 450 calls, with the record days seeing all five terminals occupied. December drops to a handful of calls a week, concentrated on the Christmas and New Year departures between 12 and 21 December, and January brings the long world cruises: Aurora's 75-night Grand Tour on 2 January 2027 and Arcadia's 106-night world cruise on 6 January.

Where to watch the ships

• Mayflower Park on the waterfront below the walls: every departure from the Western Docks passes within a few hundred metres, with the sun behind you in the afternoon.
• Town Quay and the Royal Pier for ships leaving the Eastern Docks and for the Red Funnel ferries crossing in front of them.
• Ocean Village for Ocean Terminal arrivals in the early morning, with coffee from the marina cafés.
• Hythe pier across Southampton Water, reached by the Hythe ferry from Town Quay, for the whole parade at a distance.

Using the schedule to plan a visit

If you are meeting someone off a ship, the Planned Movements page gives the arrival time to the minute within six days; passengers normally clear the terminal from an hour after arrival, in waves until about 10:00. If you are choosing a sailing date, the schedule shows how crowded the port will be: a date with three or four ships listed means queues at the station taxi rank and full hotels, a date with one ship means an easy morning. If you want to photograph a particular ship, the departure column tells you when to be at Mayflower Park; ships usually clear the berth 15-30 minutes after the listed time.

Ships based in Southampton in 2026

Line	Ships from Southampton	Season
P&O Cruises	Arcadia, Arvia, Aurora, Britannia, Iona, Ventura	year round; Iona and Arvia carry about 5,200 guests
Cunard	Queen Anne, Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria	year round; QM2 transatlantics to New York
Fred. Olsen	Balmoral, Borealis	year round
Royal Caribbean	Liberty of the Seas	summer 2026, first Royal Caribbean season here in 18 years
Celebrity	Celebrity Apex	8 May to 18 October 2026
Princess	Sky Princess, Majestic Princess	32 departures in 2026
MSC	MSC Virtuosa summer; MSC Preziosa winter 2026-27	year round between the two
NCL	Norwegian Sky, Star, Sun	summer
AIDA	AIDAnova February-March; AIDAperla spring	shoulder season
Regent, Silversea, Oceania	selected calls	mainly summer

The ships, one by one

Ship	Line	Built	Guests	Usual terminal
Iona	P&O	2020	about 5,200	Ocean
Arvia	P&O	2022	about 5,200	Ocean
Britannia	P&O	2015	3,600	Ocean
Ventura	P&O	2008	3,100	Mayflower
Aurora	P&O	2000	1,900	Mayflower
Arcadia	P&O	2005	2,000	Mayflower
Queen Mary 2	Cunard	2004	2,700	QEII
Queen Anne	Cunard	2024	3,000	QEII or Ocean
Queen Victoria	Cunard	2007	2,000	QEII
Balmoral	Fred. Olsen	1988	1,300	City
Borealis	Fred. Olsen	1997	1,400	City
Liberty of the Seas	Royal Caribbean	2007	3,600	Horizon
Celebrity Apex	Celebrity	2020	2,900	Horizon
MSC Virtuosa	MSC	2021	4,800	Horizon

Built years and approximate lower-berth capacities are the lines' published figures; terminal assignments follow the autumn 2026 schedule and can change.

Where the ships go

Southampton's geography sets the itineraries. Seven nights reaches the Norwegian fjords and back, or Hamburg, Amsterdam, Bruges and Le Havre on a short break. Ten to fourteen nights cover the Canary Islands with Madeira and Lisbon, the western Mediterranean to Barcelona and Rome, the Baltic to Copenhagen and Stockholm, and the Scottish islands with Iceland in summer. Queen Mary 2's seven-night crossing to New York is the one scheduled transatlantic liner service left in the world and runs from spring to autumn with a Christmas crossing. The winter world cruises leave in early January and return in April. Because almost everything is round trip, the schedule shows the same ship every one or two weeks for a whole season, which makes it easy to plan a date months ahead.

Live movements and the other pages

Alongside the cruise schedule, the port's live information covers Planned Movements for the next six days with exact berthing times, Vessels Underway and Alongside for what is in the port now, Vessels Sailed, and Ships at Anchor in the Solent waiting for a berth or a pilot. Southampton Water is also a container and car port, so the same pages list the container ships for the Western Docks terminal and the car carriers for the Eastern Docks. For a photographer the Vessels Underway page is the useful one: a ship shown as underway inbound will pass Mayflower Park within about 40 minutes.

The lines' own channels

The port schedule tells you which ship is where; the cruise line tells you when to turn up. Every line based in Southampton publishes boarding windows in its app or e-documents two to four weeks before sailing, and the app is also where a delayed arrival or a changed terminal is announced on the day. P&O and Cunard, the two largest operators here, assign windows by deck or cabin grade; Royal Caribbean and MSC let passengers choose a slot at online check-in. Keep both open on the day: the port page for the ship's berth, the line's app for your time.

Weather and delays

Southampton is a sheltered port and weather cancellations are rare, but fog in Southampton Water can hold ships at anchor for hours in autumn, and strong westerlies delay the Atlantic arrivals. The schedule is updated as the port learns of changes; passengers are told by the line, usually by text message, so keep the line's app notifications on during the journey to the port. If a ship is late in, boarding is delayed by the same margin and the terminal asks passengers to arrive at their revised window rather than wait in the hall.

What changes in 2027

MSC Meraviglia replaces Virtuosa from 18 May 2027 for a six-month season. Royal Caribbean swaps Liberty for Freedom of the Seas from May to October 2027. Princess grows to 45 departures. P&O keeps Britannia in Southampton through winter 2027-28.

The shape of the year

Summer Saturdays can see all five terminals in use at once; ABP recorded its busiest year yet in 2025 with over three million passengers and around 450 calls. December is quiet by comparison, mostly P&O, Cunard and MSC turnarounds, with the Christmas and New Year sailings leaving between 12 and 21 December. See Christmas in Southampton for the winter programme.

A turnaround Saturday, hour by hour

Time	At the port
05:30-07:00	Ships come up Southampton Water and berth; pilots board off Calshot
07:00-10:00	Disembarkation in groups; taxis and coaches fill the terminal forecourts; the station is at its busiest
10:00-11:30	Provisioning, cleaning, crew change; the drop-off lanes are closed to arriving passengers
11:30-15:30	Boarding windows; check-in queues peak at the start of each window
16:00-18:00	Departures; the ships pass Mayflower Park and Town Quay in sequence, Eastern Docks ships first
18:00-19:00	Southampton Water clears; the terminals close until the next call

Watching a departure

A big ship leaves the berth with tugs in attendance, turns in the river off the terminal and heads down Southampton Water past Mayflower Park, Town Quay and Ocean Village in about twenty minutes, then past Hythe and Calshot into the Solent. The horn sounds three times on departure, and P&O ships play their sail-away music on the open decks, which can be heard from the park. Arrive at Mayflower Park half an hour before the listed departure, as ships leave early as often as late. The sun is behind the park in the afternoon, so photographs from here are lit; from Hythe pier the ships are side-on against the city.