Island2Dweller

There are frequent trains from Gatwick to St Pancras, and twice per hour from St Pancras to Dover. So if you intend to stay overnight in London, it makes sense to pick a hotel near St Pancras. But date and time matter, as occasionally engineering works can change the train options.

Not a personal recomendation because across London I always use public transport, which is almost always faster and inexpensive. But I see positive reports from others for Blackberry

That's peak time for long haul arrivals, so immigration will be busy. The "average" is to allow an hour to get through immigration and collect bags but might be longer as you are at a very busy time. The recomended approach is to tell your car service provider the flight number and they will recommend a suggested pick up time - and they can monitor flight arrivals. The road journey should be about an hour but again this is peak morning rush hour so could be longer

Where exactly are you disembarking? Assuming you are moored against HMS Belfast, then you'll step ashore on the south side of the Thames. Your disembarcation point is very near London Bridge station. From there, you have a number of options. The easiest and most comfortable (air conditioned all the way) is to take the Thameslink train from Platform 5 to Farringdon. There you switch to the Elizabeth line to Heathrow. (There are lifts down to the subterreanean Elizabeth line so it an easy transfer) Do not buy any ticket. Just touch a contactless credit card (or smartphone or smartwatch) at the entrance gate at London Bridge and use the same device to leave at Heathrow. That will charge you £13.30. If you are using the mooring just downriver of Tower Bridge then come back for difference advice.

To clarify - that is generally true for longer distance routes. On short distance commuter routes, there is rarely any advantage in buying before you travel. And in many cities (London being one example), you don't buy physical tickets at all for local travel, just use a card.

There hasn;t been any. There was one instance of some louts near Downing Street a few days ago. Nothing since

Yes I agree, as we were discussing an intra Europe flight - I'd accept it as a badly worded comment.

With most European airlines (BA included), business class is the same seat as economy. What you get for the extra money is an empty middle seat, better catering, and lounge access. You do not get more legroom.

Check again on 21 September. Those who live in places with a predicable climate can struggle to grasp how changeable and unpredictable British weather is. No one knows what it'll be a week ahead let alone a month. Any long range forecast you see has a low probability of accuracy. You need layers. The good news, on average it's a lower rain month. (But no guarantee!)

Getting off at Grays rather than Tilbury is the thing to do. There is a taxi office at Grays - there isn't one at Tilbury. Distance in the cab will be about the same from either station. Note that the rail route from Slough (you change there from the Windsor train) into central London has suffered poor reliability recently. Check status early and often to ensure the trains are running as they should. Easiest route is an Elizabeth line train from Slough into London. This will be headed for Abbey Wood, Switch at Whitechapel (same platform) to another Elizabeth line train towards Shenfield. Go one stop to Stratford and switch to the Jubilee, one stop to West Ham. There you will get the C2C train to Grays. All these interchanges have stairs/lifts. Your problem is that if you are in Windsor and things go wrong, a taxi to Tilbury is not a quick option. You need to get right from one side to London to the other and traffic can be dire. Your choice whether to still do this but it's too high risk for my taste

The primary risk is that if your first flight is late, and you miss the second flight, the cost and hassle of sorting new tickets is all down to you. Will your travel insurance cover it - my policy will not pay out unless there is at least three hours between flights. An unlikely risk (but certainly not unknown) is that one or both flights gets retimed between now and March. Again, the cost of changing tickets will be down to you. You will need to clear immigration and customs in both London and Lisbon. Only immigration takes time, customs right across Europe is intelligence led and you generally will not see a customs agent.

Almost correct. Wait on same platform for the next train that is going to Southampton. (The next train might be another one for Portsmouth - but there are clears signs above the platform telling you where each trains is headed for, so it's not complicated)

I know you have said you want to visit Paris before Southampton. But truth is that there is no easy route between the two. The Eastern flight is the least hassle, but (as pointed out above), no guarantee the route will keep operating. Any other option involves hassle and transfers, and will take longer than you might expect.

I haven't been able to find any official notice on this. But my instinct is that UK Border staff will not be on duty at 6am at the terminal on a Sunday. Earliest I would expect is 7am, but might be as late as 9am.

This is not a great option in Tilbury. It's about a mile from the cruise terminal to the railway station. There is a public bus to the station six days a week - that does not run on Sundays. We can give more detailed advice if we know exact date and whether you are headed to central London or an airport (London has six airports)

The train ride is just short of 90 minutes. Entirely doable. Cheaper tickets (called "advance", which is a particular fare type) will be available about 10/12 weeks before travel date. These can be as low as £15 if you book as soon as the "advance" fares are released. The exact release date for these tickets isn't an exact science, but keep checking around that window. The "advance" ticket is only valid on the train you nominate. Walk up fares on the day are also available, are valid on any train* but will cost more. Between £40 and £55 (varies between weekday rush hour or off-peak. *Off-peak tickets can be used on any train except weekday rush hour)

As others have noted, you have multiple tube routes, all will work. I would choose to walk across the river (using Hungerford Bridge) to Embankment station. The District/Circle line from there to Tower uses bigger trains and they are air conditioned, so even if busy they're not as claustrophobis as the traditional tube type train.

You can buy an Oyster if you want (each card costs £7, not refundable) but Oyster is no longer the dominant payment method. Contactless (bank card. smartphone, smartwatch) is now the usual payment method, has no upfront fee, and can be used to more destinations than Oyster.

It wouldn't have made any difference where you were sitting. You landed on an easterly approach, which means you did not fly over central London at all. Most approaches are westerly approach, which does go over central London. But it all depends on the wind. About a quater to a third of the time, they fly the easyerly approach

What's your attitude to risk, and do you have travel insurance that will cover missing the flight? You "should" be able to make a flight at 1300, but you have a number of risk factors. Your ship should dock by 0800 but that is not guaranteed, occasionally vessels dock late. Your transfer uses some of the most congested roads in Europe, and even a small shunt can cause massive queues. Booking your own flight means you carry all the risk if that flight changes. Airlines do retime flights, and might move it forward. A more frequent occurence than you might imagine. All quite small risks, but the cost of missing that flight is presumably very high... All down to risk appetite

The trick is to avoid the height of the morning rush hour. If you took the 1028 train out of Southampton, you'll be in Waterloo before noon. You'll have no problem with bags at that time of day.

It's less than a hundred miles from Geneva to Lyon. No flights, but lots of trains

You can buy the rail tickets at London Bridge (mainline station, not underground station). Then use them on the train (towards Charing Cross) one stop from London Bridge to Waterloo East, which is linked to the main Waterloo station. Your ticket will be from "London Terminals" which means it is valid from London Bridge, you don't need to pay separately for the ride to Waterloo. No advantage in buying in advance and unlikely to be any queue to buy at the ticket office in London Bridge at a weekend. Why does the ticket booking engine show the expensive "anytime" fare for a weekend when you never need to pay that fare? Oh - you could write a doctoral thesis on the complexity of UK rail fares combined with the idiocy of whichever sixteen year old programmed the ticket buying sites.

The train from Waterloo goes to Riverside, not W&E Central. Whether is the best option depends where you will be staying in Central London, If it's somewhere near Waterloo / South Bank then this is a good option. If elsewhere, using the Elizabeth Line to Slough then switching to the shuttle train into W&E Central is better. If you use the line to Riverside, you need a traditional paper/card ticket. Buy on the day, either from ticket office or machine. If you use the Elizabeth line option, don't buy a physical ticket, just use contactless bank card (or phone or smartwatch).

National Express do run to Victoria coach station. That's not especially handy for either of the hotels you mention. If you want the fast and cheap option, use the underground (tube). One change needed (same platform / 2 yards walk). The stations you would use for either of these hotels have lifts, so easy with luggage.