travel from Harwich, England to Heathrow

I have no personal experience of getting from Harwich to Heathrow, but I learn a lot by researching things like this. Unfortunately, the news (link below) is not good news. Seems rather impossible to get to Heathrow by 08:30 unless your ship arrives in port in the middle of the night. You may be looking at having to change the time of your flight. http://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/heathrow_harwich.htm I found a car service that provides private transfer from the Harwich seaport to any Heathrow terminal. See http://www.londonheathrowtransport.co.uk/ - it's quite expensive, as one would expect, but if you are part of a group (or could get a small group together from your cruise), it might not be so bad to split the cost of a van. In the form on the right side of the screen choose 'Seaport' for question 1 and 'Airport' for question 2. It will then display drop-down menus next to those answers from which you can choose Harwich and Heathrow. Maybe someone else will have a more hopeful response. Good luck! It's surprising the cruise line didn't alert passengers about the need to book later outbound flights out of Heathrow.

Rose, you don't say where you are flying to. I'm assuming that 08.30 is the time you need to start the check-in process (ideally 3 hours before your flight if returning to the US, 2 hours if flying within Europe). What time does your ship arrive and what time can you reasonably expect to be ashore, with your luggage and ready to go? The earliest train out of Harwich leaves at 05.29 and with 2 changes you could be at Heathrow by 08.10, or a bit sooner with 3 changes and using the Heathrow Express rather than the Underground. See the journey planner on www.nationalrail.co.uk for this and later trains. Harwich to Heathrow is at least 112 miles and the fastest route takes you via the M25 motorway around London. Outside of the morning rush you won't do that in much less than 2 hours with a car service, and to get to Heathrow by 08.30 I would add at least another hour, so you would have to be driving out of the cruise port by 05.30. If my assumption is wrong, and your flight leaves at 08.30, then there is no way you can make it (unless someone invents teleportation between now and August 19th...).

We don't know, do we, if the OP means 8:30 AM or PM?

Well, she clearly wrote '0830'. A person who knows how to use a leading '0' in a time stamp probably understands that it would be taken to mean AM.

Of course, you are right, you clever NYC Rose, you. So I have another question for the OP. Is the ship docking at Harwich August 19, the day the OP needs to get to Heathrow and if so, at what time? When will passengers be permitted to disembark? I'm guessing not much earlier that 7:00 or 7:30 AM (aka 07:00 or 07:30). Perhaps the OP will come back and put an end to this speculation.

My first reaction is that it cannot be done. Have made that run in the other direction twice. It just takes time with station and train changes. The train station at Harwich is right at the dock so that is simple but the BIG question is, When do you get off the boat? It could be difficult to get off as early as 5 AM to catch the train. The train uses the Liverpool station which is the east side of London. Got to get across London via cab, maybe to the H Row express or maybe a taxi to Heathrow direct. Lots of opportunities for things to go wrong. I think you need an alternate plan.

I want to thank everyone for all the great information. After reviewing the replies, I decided to change to a later flight. I don't want to ruin a wonderful trip with the possiblity of missing our flight home. Thanks again!

That sounds like a very wise decision. I hope the ticket change didn't cost too much. Have a wonderful trip!