Does this make sense- Pre cruise

We also like to break up our flight from within the US to Europe by staying on the East Coast one night and then flying to Europe. As much as you are able to prioritize stress free travel, I say do it. You are building in flexibility if your first flight is delayed or cancelled. Same for the Princess transfer - we've found we don't save much if we DIY the transfer. I vote to let the cruise company start taking care of you sooner.

Thank you so much for your input 👍

hey hey d.attard
my own thoughts, i would go 2 days before cruise being on the safe side if flight is cancelled or delayed, adding more stress to get to cruise at southhampton. to me it's more breathing room
as KC posts take the princess shuttle to ship. they will take care of your luggage probably in bus storage, leave the driving to them. make sure what cruise berth you are at.
another option is register for free on cruisecritic.com, go to forums/roll calls for your ship. you can post to see if others on the ship want to share a taxi to port. depending how many ships are in port, many others cruisers will be do the same thing which adds up to the crowds.
cruisemapper.com
lets you know how many chips are in port that day, cklck princess, click port , click may 2026, and scroll down to day departing. will show you cruises departing that day. you can also check other ports you visiting to count how many ships in port (may have 3-5, scroll to ship capacity and will tell you how many more people will be in port. good luck and enjoy
aloha

Good plan,
We have stayed at the TWA Hotel at JFK twice. Both times we had a tour that included a great price for airfare from JFK. The JFK Hotel is expensive (our last stay was about three weeks ago and cost about $500 for the night).

Being able to rest before a long flight is a good thing.

Also, good to book your hotel in England. However, you might look for a hotel at Southampton. We did a cruise several years ago out of Southampton and found a hotel very close to were the ship was docked. I think it was a Holiday Inn (not sure, that was 8 years ago).

Thank you Princess Pupule & geovagriffith for your suggestions

I had booked our flights through Princess when I saw the price from JFK was good- my husband really doesn't like red eye flights so I went with the one out of JFK at 8:45 to land the evening before our flight...now I am questioning my plan-last time ( in 2023) we cruised out of Southampton we took a red eye, then the National Bus to Southampton- stayed at the Leonardo Royal Grand Harbor- it was reasonably priced then - just checked again - YIKES- looks like quite a few of the hotels have gotten pretty pricey- I do remember the Holiday Inn but don't think its there anymore-

Great reminder about cruisemapper- I totally forgot about that site
Did you like the TWA hotel ? I know its expensive but I figured it would be the easiest if we kept the daytime flight....decisions decisions

Again truly appreciate the advice