Tante Din

On 9/4/2023 at 2:23 PM, John Bull said:

 

 

Hi Nadine,

 

November 3rd is a friday.

 

Stonehenge is a round-trip of 65 miles, and with say 90 minutes at Stonehenge a total of about 4 1/2 hours.

At a very rough guess around  £ 200 for a pre-booked car. Plus the temptation to spend another hour or more exploring the nearby laid-back & historic city of Salisbury and its magnificent cathedral.

Get quotes from    https://westquaycars.com/ or https://www.aquacars.co.uk/ or https://gunwharf-executive-travel.co.uk/

 

Most folk instead use the train to Salisbury plus the Stonehenge hop-on tour bus from Salisbury station.

Half-hourly train service from Southampton central station, journey time 35 minutes, return (out & back) tickets cost around £13, no need to buy in advance.

 

Stonehenge Tour bus takes about 30 minutes each-way, bus will be waiting on the station forecourt, Not a busy time, but i's probably best to book in advance. And simplest to buy Stonehenge tickets with your ho-ho booking  or from the driver (only by cash on the bus).

Because the Stonehenge Tour runs a limited service in November, make sure to take a train which arrives in Salisbury to coincide with the tour bus. 

Stonehenge is out on chilly & exposed Salisbury Plain, sometimes November has spring-like weather but more often it's chilly & dull, possibly rain. So dress for all seasons.

 

On the return ho-ho get off to explore Old Sarum only if the weather is decent, it's even more exposed than Stonehenge. If you choose to get off there, check with the driver whether your ho-ho ticket is good for the  frequent Salisbury Reds buses which use the same stop - they all go to Salisbury city centre and might save you a long wait for the next ho-ho.

 

Get off the bus in Salisbury city centre, it's worth a couple of hours, including its fine cathedral (tallest spire in the UK, one of the four original Magna Cartas, world's oldest clock)

Then ho-ho if conveniently timed, or local bus or taxi or 20-minute walk to the station for the train back to Southampton. No need to book train times.

 

Stonehenge visitor numbers are limited, on busy days folk need to pre-book a 30-minute Stonehenge arrival window to be sure of gaining admission as soon as they arrive.

But no need to worry about that in November. There's no limit on how long you stay at Stonehenge, but 90 minutes to 2 hours is fine for most folk.

 

Iff you want to keep your options open you could decide on-the-day.

No money up-front, no saving on the train fare by buying in advance, no risk of Stonehenge being up to maximum numbers, the one risk - and its quite a small one - is that the first  Stonehenge Tour bus of the day, 10 am. might be full. You can buy both the Tour Bus tickets and Stonehenge admission tickets from the driver but that needs to be in cash. (card limit is £30)

 

Your luggage. If you're staying in a central Southampton hotel, you can almost-always drop it off at the hotel before you travel. 

If not, take it with you on the train and leave it at the Railway Tavern - the building at the end of the station forecourt, beyond the waiting Stonehenge Tour bus https://goo.gl/maps/cyvXvi7YGKfxgMyV6

£5 per bag.  Don't forget to collect it before you board the train back to Southampton 😏

 

https://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/

https://www.thestonehengetour.info/

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/

 

Pubs in Southampton - try the Duke of Wellington, historic little pub in Bugle Street or the Dancing Man pub/micro-brewery housed in a 12th century stone wool store just a couple of hundred yards from the Duke on the corner of Town Quay. Both offer sensibly-priced food.

https://www.dukesouthampton.co.uk/

https://dancingmanbrewery.co.uk/

 

JB 🙂

Thank you very much for the tipps.

We will have a look at all of it and then decide.

Nadine 

Hey there.

We will arrive von Nov 3rd with cruise ship and thinking about our options.

Maybe someone has a good advice.

We would love to see Stonehenge and after that explore some pubs in Southampton.

We thought about train or taxi.

Has anybody just took a taxi to visit the stones and then drive back?

Greets, Nadine 

Can you tell me your itinerary ?

We will be on board Nov 7th and we do not have Corfu as one of our ports and will be in Katakolon until 6pm at the day before Santorin. 

Just curious when our tests will be on the ship.

Nadine 

Good question.

I was thinking about that before.

We are on a cruise next month and thought about getting $ from the bank for tips.

We live in Germany so I think I don´t have to get them and tip in Euros.

Thank you for your thoughts.

Nadine 

Hey I have a question about tipping on our upcoming Greece cruise.

So we live in Germany and pay with Euros as they do in Greece.

Shoud I pack some dollars for tipping on the ship or should I tip in Euros ?

Nadine 

Hi there.

We habe been to Roatan before and have done all the things from Iguanas to Sloth to Monkeys to Beach.

We are now thinking about an ATV Tour. But without all the other stuff.

Can anybody recommend a tour that is not going to stop at several other things, so just the ATV and nothing more ?

Nadine

Hi there.

We will be in Cartagena in May with NCL Pearl.

We plan to take the water taxi from the ship to old town and then stroll around the city.

Now I don´t know if I should take Pesos or can I pay with dollar ?

We only would need a few drinks and sourveniers.

So anybody been there and can tell me what money and how much I would need ?

Nadine

On 1/30/2020 at 8:33 PM, BillB48 said:

The ship will most likely start its transit around 5-5:30, it will actually go through Gatun Locks sometime after sunrise.  Sunrise in Panama is somewhere between 6 and 6:30.  If you wait until you arrive at Gatun Locks to out on deck, you are not going to find any of the choice viewing spots.

 

After the ship completes the up lockage at Gatun Locks and reaches the Lake the ship will travel a short distance to where the tendering will take place for passengers to disembark to join their shore excursions.  The ship will remain in Gatun Lake until it has a slot for the down lockage.  This normally occurs anywhere from noon to 3PM.  After clearing Gatun Locks the ship will proceed to the pier in (usually) Colon where the passenger on tour will rejoin the ship.  If you don't want to view the morning passage through Gatun Locks, your only option would be to forego the shore excursion and see the one in the afternoon.

 

Most people enjoy the Embera Indians excursion, it is one of the more popular excursions.

Thank you for that information. We are on the same cruise and wondering how the process is.

So you will find me way early on the open decks :-)

Nadine

Hi there.

We will be on a cruise in November that stops in St. Lucia and Barbados.

Whick island should we pick for a Whale Watching Tour....or both ?

Can you recommend a company?

Nadine

Ok. that sounds good.

I thought it may be easier to book with Royal because on our way back we plan with 3 piece of luggage.

Maybe it it easier for us to let Royal handle the luggage ?

Sorry, maybe I expained it wrong.

We need to go from Port Fort Lauderdale to Miami Airport.

We might need to go from Port Everglades to MIA.

I think I saw somewhere something about Transportation with Royal.

Anybody used this ? What will be the price ?

Nadine

Perfect, thank you

On 1/23/2019 at 6:57 PM, Keri's Cruisin' said:

OK i MUST know about this frozen mojito you speak of.....The mojito is my favorite drink but I have never had one frozen. Where did you get this on ship? Boleros?  I need that in my life....

I tried to get one on my last cruise on Serenade.

They searched the whole ship 2 days to find some mint leaves.

Finally they found one and got me a mojito.

I hope this will not be so difficult on our cruise on Navigator in March.

Wish you the best of luck and enjoy when you get one, they are really good.

So we now choosed to rent a car for the last day.

The only thing is that I have to pickit up at the airport, because at the station at port they do not rent these huge vans.

I know there is a flat rate for taxi from MIA to port, is it the same the other way round ?

Nadine

Does anybody know if a Redbull with Vodka would be covered by the package ?

Do they have Red Bull on the ships ? I don´t like it, bu my cousin is joining us for the first time and it´s his favorite drink.

Nadine

Thank you.

I tried Super Shuttle online but they say the adress is our of the service range.

I mailed Larry´s to see what they say.

Uber would be difficult, because if we are off the ship we will have no internt to book them.

 

Nadine

Hi there.

We are looking for a shuttle from port of miami to a hotel at the Dolphin Mall.

We think about a day pass at this hotel so that we can do some shopping and relaxing before our flight at 8 pm.

We will be a party of 6 adults and need to get from the port to the hotel and from the hotel to the airport.

Has anyboy ideas what will be the best way or which company to take ?

We have no idea, because normally I am on vacation only with hubby, so we use rental cars or a taxi.

Greetings from Germany , Nadine

Thank you for all the tipps.

We are thinking about going to surfside.

Is it possible to walk there ?

We are a party of 6 and I saw that thay only allow 5 persons in a taxi.

Do we have to take to or is there another way to get there ?

Nadine

16 hours ago, Hatteras51 said:

I have mentioned the new beach at Surfside Beach several times on this board. This is the section of Surfside that is by Splash Park Aruba.  They have umbrellas and chairs for rent, and a nice snack bar with food, drinks, and bathrooms.  This is a gorgeous beach. The only drawback is that it is close to the airport,  with planes coming and going.  I enjoy that part because the planes that are landing fly in low overhead, and it's fun to watch. 

 

There is an area of beach where the old Bushiri Hotel was torn down last year.  It is not far from port.  There has been rumors that it will be fixed up for day guests but I've also heard rumors that they want to put another hotel there. I'll be back in Aruba in February and I can check on this then.

Hi there.

Can you tell me more about this beach ?

I can´t find other comments about it.

How far ? How do I get there ? Do I have to rent loungers or can I just sit at a bar or something ?

We are going in April and still don´t know what to do.

Nadine

Hey, for our Serenade cruise 2 weeks ago the online check in also required a photo.

I tried it without but was not able to complete the online check in or print my set sail pass without uploading a photo.

Maybe it was the Website or I didn´t get it right, but in the end I had to upload one to print my pass.

Nadine

Thank you for that advice.

So we will just look for a Driver.

Nadine

Thank you.

I don´t want to make a international call to make a reservation.

English is not my first language and I don´t know if this will work.

But the plan is now to get of the ship and finde someone or a tour for the gardens and cruzan.

Nadine

Does anyone know if Izumi has food to take out.

We would love to sit on our loungers and have some sushi as a light lunch.

Nadine

Looks like you're under the Plaza Bar on the pool deck. Yes, you might have cart noises at times. That said, those cabins are pretty convenient to the stair/elevator foyer....and one easy flight to pool and WJ!

Thank you, that is what I thought.

We are still thinking about taking these or one deck down on 9 but then the cabins are spread out a bit.

Nadine