pink845

Lots of good information on this thread. Thanks to everyone who replied to the OP. From what I have gathered so far, Quest 1. an Oyster card can be purchased at the Underground Tube Station in Terminal 4 at Heathrow. Is that correct. I will be arriving Terminal 2 so I will have to make my way there using somehow. Appears to be a bus according to Google maps. Hmm. Quest 2. Has someone done this. Quest. 3. Can we pay with cash for the Oyster cards. We will be in town three days so we would want to load let's say for Zone 1 - to 6 at least 50 GBP on each card. Can we pay cash and load the card. Quest 4. How much is the fee to buy the actual card. 5 GPB; 10GPB. What is the fee. Appears to be a CAP per day, once we meet it, then all remaining travel for 4:30 am to 4:30 am in free. Is that correct. And finally, can we get our money back if we put too much on the card. And where would be do that. I remember with the Sydney Australia card we had for their transit, we had to mail in our card to get our money back. What a hassle that was. I will take a look at the videos that were posted as well.

Tedferg, do a Google map search From Terminal 2 to your hotel (add the time of the night you expect to leave Terminal 2) and google maps will compute for you. I added in my hotel, Crown Plaza Terminal 4 from Terminal 2 and Google maps indicated I would need to walk 6 min to Heathrow Central Bus Station = take the bus for 6 minutes and then walk another 6min to my hotel. Try it for yours. I am now myself trying to figure out where / which / kind / of ticket /pass to buy as I will be in London for 3 full days.

Going to be in London for three full days prior to our cruise in August. Right now staying at the Crown Plaza London Heathrow Terminal 4. But would like to go into London and see the sights during the 3 days. LHR is in Zone 6. What would serve us best, 3 one day travel cards per person for off peak travel 14.40 GPB each or buying an Oyster card and putting 14.10 GPB on 2 cards X 3 days totaling 42.30 GPB, upping to 55.GPB to be on the safe side. We also want to head to Windsor Castle one of the days. Do we have to pay a fee to purchase the Oyster Card in addition to the money we add to it (above) to cover the daily cap. Can Oyster or Travel Cards be purchased at London Heathrow Terminal 2 where we land. I know we need to take some sort of transportation also to get to our hotel that first morning to drop off our bags. A whole lot of confusing. We know the commute is approximately an hour from our hotel to downtown but that is fine as we are saving loads of dollars as we are using points staying at the Crown Plaza. My husband keeps saying we have to use those points eventually anyways and we are getting good value at the Crown Plaza. Downtown prices are crazy expensive even with points.

Years ago, 20 years ago, when we last visited them, we were able to touch the stones. Not any more I am hearing.

We will be at Dun Laoghaire on a Sunday this summer. I went to the DoDublin website and for our date the cost would be 30 British pounds per person and includes a ho ho bus that we would never use. We are big walkers. So forget ho ho for us. The train ride which is half a hour into Dublin appears to cost 2.50 British pounds per person. More our style and I like that price much better. We like to put foot to pavement and feel what is around us. Trains appear to start at 9:18 am and run every half hour. We will get off at Pearse Station and start our journey to sightsee from there. Seems like a five hours would allow us to get a lot done. We are there from 7 to 7 but because it is a tender port, we have to keep in mind ship shore excursions get off first so this timing works very well indeed for us. If you check out u tube, people do a good job of showing us what the situation looks like upon arrival.

We too will be in Dublin on a Sunday this summer on our Princess cruise. Thanks to all for the heads up on the train times. I will check the Dart website and I also knew there is a bus 7 and 7 A but it takes a bit longer to get to Dublin using those. Bear in mind as well that this is a tender port and ship tours do get priority on those tenders. I checked out u tube and there are quite a few people twho have done walking tours and it is great to see everything in color as people walk along with their go pros and narrate. We are going to skip the Book of Kells as people are saying that it is overrated. Pages are turned frequently and you never know what you will get and it is hard to see much with people all around. A lot of people prefer the manuscripts and ancient bible fragments at the Chester Beatty Library (Free) in the Gardens of the Dublin Castle. The churches and cathedrals are lovely and worth a photograph as are the various bridges, and the lovely historic architecture all around abounds. Grafton Street worth a look as well. Merrion Square, the grounds of Trinity College (minus Book of Kells). If we make it to Temple Bar (or area) fine, but not necessary for us. I think it should be a fine day.

Years ago, we simply rented a car at Heathrow. Used Sixt if I remember correctly. Got heavily insured, however, and drove to Bath. We also stopped at Stonehenge too.ly. Drive to Stonehenge an hour or so then another hour to Bath. Lovely day. In fact, might do it again this year when we are in London a few days prior to our British Isles cruise this summer. Just watch that driving on the left. Years ago, we were able to touch the stones but I think that is not the case now. A barrier fence or something up now, I read. Will have to check that out. Maybe someone know.

Actually, we have for years now bought the Princess Future Deposits on the ship at the Future Cruise Desk or whatever it is called these days. We always DO This early on the cruise to make sure that IT IS DONE PROPERLY. They always have new people trying to lure people to buy these future cruise credits and they can easily make a error. So we fill out the form and specifically in a red or other colored sharpie pen indicate we want the $100 charged to our CDN credit card (we put that number on the sheet) and it appears all the time on our CDN credit card statement as $100 CDN. If you are using a USD credit card for your on board charges, you have to pay special attention as Princess will charge that Future Cruise Deposit to your USD credit card if you DO NOT PUT YOUR CDN NUMBER DOWN. Why pay USD for something when you can pay CDN. And when we receive our OBC on board a future cruise, we are pleased as punch that the OBC is always in USD. I think this is just fabulous. When we call up Princess and book our cruises, we make sure that the cruise is given to us in CDN dollars and that $100 Future Cruise deposit is applied against the Canadian dollar cruise. Never had a issue.

Air Transat may be cheaper. BUT WE STAY AWAY FROM THEM as I consider them in the same vein as Sunwing. Lousy!!! We stay with regular scheduled airlines like Air Canada. I do not like Air Canada either but as they have more planes, we are usually able to deal with them much easier in the event of a flight change or air craft change. The lesser of two evils.

We try to stay away from cruises in late August on that coast. Hurricanes, bad storms etc... Hmm.

Go directly to your credit card company and dispute the 6th charge. All locators computer generated. Btw airline credit card company, they will know exactly which locator got duplicated and charged twice. Agent will not be able to do a refund. It needs to be the credit card. Normally, when the ticket is issued, email with Locator is sent to the email address on file. Did you receive six emails or 5.

Thanks for this excellent tip. We were in the ABC islands in January when I came across information that stated we should be using only reef approved sunscreen. Had never heard of this type of sunscreen and glad that Superstore has it. Thanks. Now I know the reason I have been accumulating those President Optimum points, I can use it on that sunscreen. I usually buy LaRoche Posay sunscreen and that is over $40 bucks. I am so so sensitive, just like the reefs.

I echo the previous poster. Get your application in. Pay the $50 bucks. Heck, even better, apply for a CIBC Infinite Gold card, and CIBC will credit you $50 bucks on payment of the application. Whole family has had the cards for years and years as long as they have been available. Made our lives so much easier in and out of the USA. No taking off shoes, belts, all that jazz. Avoided all those long silly lines. Renewal for family members came up prior to pandemic and we did the renewal applications on line and everyone got approved fully but me. Huh. I I was conditional and needed an interview. Really. Then my interview got cancelled days after pandemic was declared Mar 11 2020 and I had to reschedule 5 times only to be cancelled each time and finally a card arrives in the mail not having an interview at all after all. So this are happening for people who have had their little renewals in limbo for 3 years. But apply in any event as this silliness will be long going. Ha ha.

Sooo many questions, soooo many answers. Thank heavens our kids are no longer in university, or grad school. Wow, finally paying their own way!!! We normally opted for New Years cruises as the timing of those nasty pre Xmas exams were problematic as sometimes the exams were the day prior to the start of an Xmas cruise. Quick and dirty. Book the airfare that fits all your family members with the exception of your son. For him, Book a fully refundable / changeable airline ticket. Yeah, it will cost more but save you so much aggravation. As soon as you get the date for his particular return to school (wherever he gets accepted), call the faculty and they will be able to tell you THE DAY HIS PROGRAM RECOMMENCES in JAN. Exam dates will be out by June but not the nitty gritty of each course exam date) which is the problemo you have with a Xmas cruise. Again, one of my kids had a program where his return to school date was a full week after the standard return in Jan. That was a great. And another kid has a program where the Dec exam date was like the day before a December cruise (but he had a fully flexible ticket and we were able to get him out late at night). Was great. Happens in some of the professional schools. After a couple of close calls with Xmas cruises, we simply booked only New Years cruises . Once you have all the answers, you can then refund his fully refundable ticket or to hunt around for a cheaper one. We always book directly with the airlines. Never, EZAir, or Expedia or any of those outfits. It is hard enough to deal with Air Canada on a good day and even harder with all these other third parties. Again, keep in simple.

Stay in Vancouver, or better yet, rent a car and drive up the Coast to Whistler. Even in summer, it is a nice drive up the coast. Spend the night at the Fairmont there. Rent some bikes up there. We have done this many times in the summer and of course snowboarded in the winter too. Victoria the city is pretty but the entire island of Vancouver needs a lot more than a day (more like a couple of weeks).

We investigated this requirement that 75% of our British Isles cruise upcoming this summer be charged to the TD Card with TD Insurance representatives directly over the phone (I called several times over several days to make sure I was getting the right information and jotted down all their names and locations) and had them send me the link to the Insurance Certificate so that we / them could go through line by line the certificate as it pertains to Medical, Trip Interruption and Trip Cancellation coverage because we too had moons ago (under 2 years) bought several of the Future Cruise deposits with Princess for $100 bucks each) and I wanted to make darn sure, I had coverage for all the above. So for us, everything, hotels, cars, the cruise, the air, the whole darn trip is on TD with the exception of $200 bucks (the future cruise credits) and TD told us specifically, we will be covered for all the above, M, TI and TC). Did not ask about the luggage, but we are not checking anything this time so not worried there, but if we were we would normally buy a separate policy through RBC Insurance for Luggage alone to get a higher value covered than what our credit cards usually offer. TD was not willing to sell a separate luggage only policy in the past. On top of this, there are monetary limits on the TD policies (check each credit card separately depending on which TD card you have) as to how much trip cancellation money is covered and how much Trip Interruption is covered. We have found that based on the price of our trip / airfare (all those prepaid expenses) that we of course have exceeded the limit and are having to purchase additional cancellation insurance and additional trip interruption insurance. As we have yet to make final payment on the cruise, days prior to that payment being made, we will purchase that top up insurance. Worth every penny in my opinion. Insurance is such as pain and they try their best not to pay, so it is up to us to read the fine print.

Every day, like, gosh, how many times per day am I getting silly emails from Princess with deals, more deals, and deals for West Coastal, and Mexican cruises. out of LA or San Francisco. Well, I guess Princess must be seeing a real drop in the number of bookings. People not wanting to head to Mexico with all the violence going on down there, especially around Mazatlan. So with people not venturing onto the Mexican cruises, naturally the push is on to fill those Coastal ones, and push even more on the Coastal up to Vancouver, and then Northbound to Alaska on one of those deals. Got a mini suite for the price of a balcony. Crazy. I feel like Princess is paying me to go with so much on board credit as well. Happy times are here.

If you booked the cheapest option on EZair, then even 45 days prior to your cruise, you will not be able to pick seats for free with Air Canada. You will still have to pay for your seats after the 45 days. It is only 24 hours prior with cheap seats that you can get your seat allocation for free. Air Canada is pretty lousy unless you are buying the Lattitude fare and paying in full or the Economy Flex (depending on the route). And, be watching the clock at exactly 24 hours, because the seats get eaten up quickly. Middles are always available. We never book with EZair. We prefer to buy directly from silly Air Canada because we have found that the difference between direct with Air Canada and Ezair is maybe $10 bucks. Yes, you do not have to pay for the air on the spot with Ezair, but it is so not worth it. We like to deal with the beast directly. Complaints so much easier. Buy insurance and you are all set in terms of cancellations and interruptions and getting to the ship. All the jazz that Ezair claims to offer. Not worth the hassle.

We are leaning ourselves into renting a car. We want to see a more cdn perspective and travel on our own steam.

Gobux, please let us know how you fare with the car rental as we too hope to do the exact thing in August to see the Giant's Causeway. From what I have read you should heavily insure the car. Accept all the fees for excess as it is called in Ireland. So if the rental rate is 100pounds for the day, also add the fee that allows you to return the car with damage, hopefully, not but that will be another 20 to 35 bucks added on. Also seems gps is also another charge. The insurance we have in Canada does not carry forward to Ireland or Scotland for us. Not sure about you. Also they drive on other side of road but most of the drive to causeway is highway anyhow. Years ago when we were much younger we would rent in England and drive no issue but our reaction times are a bit slower now. So we are hesistant about driving in foreign countries now on the opposite side. We only want to see causeway not Belfast and seems all tours throw in some other jazz like shopping or distilleries that have no interest to us. So Belfast is a problem port for us and not interested in paying exorbitant fees of Titanic museum when i can watch documentary instead. Love to hear how your car rental goes. Causeway appears to be about 1.5 hours from City Airport. And you can stop at a few other spots at your leisure as well. Again, I hate bus tours waiting for everyone to crawl back on board and the stragglers who hit the bathroom at the last moment and then cut into our precious time at the various future spots. Car rental is the way for us usually but my only caveat is be aware of opting in for the extra insurance coverage excess it is called that is beneficial should you get a bump or two and di not want to pay any deductible at all. Also we only rent with the big outfits the international names we all recognize not go jo cars. My thoughts Cheers

I am on with Princess right now, and about to pull out my hair, simple questions, basically impossible for agent to answer without getting assistance from other agents. She kept on directing me to purchase my transfer from Victoria Coach Station. I kept asking about Heathrow transfer as it is right there on the website. And, I prefer airport location for my transfer. Finally, she comes back with Terminal 3 is where passengers are to gather to take the Princess transfer to Southampton. And, she told me not to arrive prior to 7:30 am. Thank you. Okay.

Hello all, On the Cruise Personalizer, the transfer location has Heathrow Airport (but no Terminal number given). We arrive a few days previous to the cruise in late August 2023 and will be spending time in London, however, our intention is to spend the night previous to the cruise at an airport hotel. We have a selection of hotels from which to choose (no cost due to points). We are going to purchase the the Princess transfer for simplicity purposes. My husband prefers taking the ship transfer to the ship in Southampton and not having to deal with the luggage as Princess takes care of that for us. Yes, it is a pricy option but with all the strikes on the rail line (one happening right now actually), and always some riot or so, or some other job action, we prefer to stay away from the rail line. So, we would like to know at which terminal the transfer passengers are to gather.

We do not like to board with the masses. We always wait until the end. Then our room is ready and it is smooth sailing from then onwards. We take the latest possible boarding time.

Can we still CARRY ALL OF OUR LUGGAGE (All bags) not just carry-ons onto the ship as we check in as we have done in the past. (meaning, by pass the porters completely). We have always done this as we do not arrive at the ship until 2 pm when the cabins are already available. Hope we still can. I know we have to physically put the bags (heavy sometimes) onto the security scanner, but RCCL used to allow this. I hope they still do. . That way you do not have to wait for luggage delivery and can unpack right away.. Is this still the case.

Careful. The train station at Civitavecchia does not have working elevators!!!! Seems not a priority in Italy and anything for handicapped also. Trains work great. But I do recall each time we have either cruised out of Civitavecchia or arrived back at Civitavecchia and made our way to the train (a bit of a walk) unless now there is a bus (hmm) to it from the pier, walk is about a mile on good sidewalk but watch out for the fact that you have to lug your suitcases up and down those stairs about 14 steps. We always do it ourselves but just a caution. Trains in Italy cheap.