Twickenham

I think the hotel that best answers your needs is the Hilton London Paddington. It's in Central London, so convenient for sights, but directly connected to Paddington station, where you can hop on the Heathrow Express and be at LHR in 15 minutes.

Interesting real-life experience I had a few years ago checking out of a hotel in Barcelona. While the bill was in Euros, they automatically did the dynamic conversion thing and charged my credit card in CAD. When I saw that I insisted they reverse the charge and put through a new charge in Euros, which after a bit of protest they did. So my credit card statement had 3 transactions, the initial charge in CAD, the reversal, then the charge in Euros, with the conversion into CAD done at the CC's exchange rate. The initial charge was a good CA$40 more than the charge in Euros converted - on a bill of a little over 200 euros.

Well, technically you don't have to fly anywhere - you can take the train if so inspired. London to Rome would require an overnight somewhere, but you've got 8 days to play with, so no reason why a couple of those days can't be spent in Paris or Milan. If you're interested in the train option, check out The Man in Seat 61 website's Italy page.

What airline are you flying?

Actually, both Saskatoon and Regina are international airports. But I hear ya on the limited flights. I think the problem you're hitting is that the Vancouver-Singapore flight appears to be seasonal (summer), and you're searching for January. Don't discount going via Europe if it gives you better flights. As you said, Singapore is halfway around the world, so why favour one way around over another?

You're searching far too early. The schedule for the high-speed trains usually turns up about 3-4 months in advance, and the regionale trains will appear 1 week in advance.

My thought is that with a 12:15 pm departure, there's absolutely no reason to maroon yourself in a Heathrow hotel. Anywhere in Central London with reasonable connections to LHR (i.e., with easy access to the Heathrow Express/Elizabeth Line/Piccadilly Line) is available to you. Not that I don't like the Windsor option - I do - but in many ways a London hotel say in Paddington would be more convenient for getting to LHR than Windsor.

Before our latest trip to Portugal, I bought a pair of these shoes: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0B3QNG88D?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1&psc=1 They were amazingly comfortable, very happy with my purchase.

It is not an unreasonable question at all. And it speaks to a subject that a lot of the experts here try to explain to people: just because you're looking at the same flights doesn't mean you're looking at the same tickets. It could be simply a case of fare code differences, it could be a case of Expedia selling you 2 separate tickets on 1 itinerary, or some other difference.

Do not discount the points options so fast. I can tell you from experience that the vast majority of my points have come from sign-up bonuses, rather than everyday spend on the card. Indeed, the point where I became serious about the points game was when MamaTwick and I were planning a possible trip to Asia. Like you, we couldn't face the prospect of 14 hours in coach, so I looked at my options. On September 1st we had zero points in our accounts. By December 31st, we had enough each for a round-trip ticket in business class to Asia. All through sign-up bonuses. And this is in Canada, with much fewer points options than in the US. You say your daughter in into the points game - well, ask her if she can find you a path to your goal.

First things first: does a credit appear on your credit card account? You should be able to see this online. Unless and until any credit appears, pay your TA nothing.

I didn't even stay at LHR on an overnight connection. Definitely stay somewhere in town, preferably convenient to either the tube or train to LHR.

You could do TAP through LIS on the 24th - a nice 3:25 connection. Otherwise you could look at flying to CDG and taking the train down to Marseille - AF has a non-stop YYZ-CDG.

Do not get me started on the ridiculousness of not being able to get separate bills at US restaurants. But to limit myself to your example - the pasta person should pay $50, and the others the price of their own meals. Anything else would be preposterous. To get back to the subject of the thread. It's interesting that one of the most reasonable single supplements I've ever seen was on Seabourn, a line that I would think relies less on onboard spend than the mainstream lines - I remember years ago them offering 110 % pricing for singles on certain voyages.

In terms of UK fees, flying into the UK shouldn't make a difference, but it makes a huge difference flying out. Indeed, for our last 3 trips to the UK, we have flown out of Brussels, Dublin and Paris, each time the trip from London plus 2-3 nights accommodation was cheaper than UK departure taxes from LHR for 2.

Which hotels are you looking at? I was thinking you were looking at the DoubleTree by Hilton London - Hyde Park and the Hilton London Hyde Park; the Hilton is adjacent to Queensway tube station, and the Doubletree is a 3-minute walk. Here's the thing about tube vs. bus. The tube is great for quickly getting from A to B; the infamous London traffic makes the buses much slower, however the big advantage is you can see things. And you're a tourist; you're not in a rush! So while I will take the tube when I have to be a certain place at a certain time, the vast majority of the time I'll ride the bus - on the top deck for the best view😊.

I will echo those who say that as long as you are close to transport (tube, but also buses) you're good. I would have no problems with staying in any of these areas. I've often stayed in the Paddington area so would probably lean towards the 2 options next to Hyde Park (or even better, the Hilton at Paddington station, but I suspect that's way more points). From Hyde Park you can get a bus to nearly as close to Waterloo as the Premier Inn is, or go by tube with a transfer. Actually, to be honest, all of the areas mentioned I would prefer over staying in Waterloo.

I've been to both, and would find that an impossible decision if all things were equal. Love them both for completely different reasons. But not all things are equal, and in the situation you present I would totally do Corfe Castle. And if you really want to do Bath, if you're staying in London pre- or post-cruise, you can easily do it at a day trip from there. I once stayed in a holiday cottage a 10-minute walk from Lulworth Cove. Lovely spot...

Are both flights not on the same ticket? Usually you would check in at your departure airport for both flights if they're on the same ticket, thus no need to do a separate check-in at YVR.

It's fairly straightforward, but will require a connection somewhere. If you want to do a proper train, you can take the Elizabeth Line to Tottenham Court Road then transfer to the Northern line to Waterloo. Or you could do all Underground by taking the Picadilly line from LHR and transfer to the Northern line at Leicester Square. There are a couple of other transfer possibilities, I will let the locals who know about the ease of the various transfers opine on those.

The underlined terms in my last post are links to The Man in Seat 61 website: https://www.seat61.com/index.html

I would call this a very easy first European train trip. Not long, between 2 1/2- to 3-hour trip depending on which train you take, and looking at the Renfe website at random dates you should be able to get tickets in the 20 euro range including seat reservation. We took this train the other way (Barcelona to Madrid) and it was a very enjoyable trip. The one thing that is slightly different from other countries is that there is a security point before going to the platform (bags x-rayed), so just have to give yourself a few minutes for that. The best website for info on anything train related is The Man in Seat 61. The Barcelona-Madrid page details all of the options - there's now 4 different companies serving this market, so you have choices!

Great minds indeed - this was EXACTLY what I was thinking when I read her post - Madrid is a great city, definitely worth a couple of days, and the train is easy, with Madrid's Atocha station being a destination in itself, especially if you like turtles... 😁 BTW, I am in no position to criticize the whole Finnair routing via HEL, as the 2 times I flew to BCN I connected in Istanbul and Warsaw, respectively...

Great plan. The Thames Clipper boats are my favourite way of getting around London. There's also a pier at the London Eye which may or may not be more convenient for you.

Good for them. After reading several stories on the difficulties that wheelchair travelers have receiving adequate service (albeit for air travel), it's nice to see some genuine effort to accommodate.