smm0218

Londoner here.

 

Covent Garden - have lunch at The Crusting Pipe and enjoy the live music.

If you like Jazz check out The Pizza Express website for what's on.

The genuine half price Theatre ticket booth is in Leicester Square : TKTS

For the most amazing steak in town check out : Relais d'Entrecote which has a few locations.

The genuine half price Theatre ticket booth is in Leicester Square : TKTS, I thought I saw something like this mentioned somewhere but couldn't remember the name or where it was. You saved me a lot of searching.

Also appreciate the places to eat suggestions.

 

We also have an 8:00pm rule. If we have to arrive in a city in the morning we schedule activities to keep us awake until 8:00pm local time. One activity is a city bus tour where we take turns drowsing off and actually do see something of the city.

 

Once 8:00pm hits we crash and get a good nights' sleep.

DH and I were just talking about that after I mentioned this thread to him. I hadn't set a time on it, like 8PM but did tell him we had to stay up all day. Nice to have my feeling on how to deal with it confirmed.

Thanks

Hi there. Doing long O/S is flights for us Aussies is the only way. ��.for me it is necessary with adult children living all over the world. I did smile when I saw yours was ‘only’ 8 hours, that being said it’s a long time to sit still while fairly squished. So what to bring....definitely a horseshoe neck pillow. A warm scarf or pashmina to either wrap around or cover yourself with...the plane aircon can often be cold but don’t forget to direct it onto you when your flight starts. A choice of mints and fruit pastilles to suck. Ear plugs and eye mask to try to sleep regardless of whether it’s a night or day flight....after 8 hours you’ll be in a new time zone so Sleep does help. And a lip bal. All these things live permanently in my carryon. It’s the price we pay for seeing the world.

Oh and whilst in Barcelona you simply must walk Las Ramblas to the fresh food market to sit and have the most amazing tapas I have ever eaten. I’m envious. Enjoy.

Hadn't thought about lip balm, or mints to suck on, Adding to list.

Thanks, Sandi

I wish we only had 7 hours, I think with our layover ours it just under 12. (sucks having only a medium airport, we always have to fly somewhere else first.)

Flying Delta leaving here mid afternoon arrive around 7:30am next day. DH can sleep anywhere, me not so much.

Appreciate the hints and tips.

More More

Thanks, just over 2 months to go

I'm starting to research and get ready to book a cruise on Royal Princess (Liverpool). I'm trying to get a bit of an idea about how much extra money I should be budgeting for all the basic extras (excursions). l would be fly in from NY to Southampton (the flight is about $1,700 per couple w/extra leg room) stay over 2 nights before cruise in London. I'll be looking into a bunch of non-cruise bought excursions as I know they tend to be much cheaper. If you were on a budget, what would still be the thing/attraction you would spend the money on? What was worth it? What wasn't? I know everyone has differences and preferences just trying to get some sense of what to expect money wise. I tend to be a little budget minded so 5 star, top of the line, exclusive type of expenses usually are not that important to me. I'd rather go see and do more things then spend the money that way.

Right now, I'm attempting to get a handle on how much money to allocate for what is probably the same cruise, incl. Liverpool, different date (leaving June 6th.)

I made a list of the ports and then research to see what different things there were to do there. Money is important, but I may never do this again so how enjoyable I thought it would be (8 person rather than 45) was also a factor.

May total for excursions was £581 per person & €338.50 which sounds great until you add in Exchange rate and for 2 people which gives me a total of just under $2500. Then you need to add in incidentals, food souvenirs and that place you want to go to that you didn't know about.

I've planned on doing Guernsey, Dublin, Liverpool and Edinburgh semi-DIY. We are also doing a post cruise excursion (to Bath & Cotswolds) which is included in total. FWIW here is what we have planned:

Guernsey DIY: probably what to Cornet Castle and a couple other places. Sometimes skipped so didn't want excursion

Cobh / Cork - eCoach to Blarney Castle and Kinsale

Dublin: Book of Kells, maybe Dublin Castle, walk through Temple Bar area, find a nice pub for authentic irish meal

Liverpool: Ferry Across the Mersey and walking around. May go see Terracotta Warriors at Tate (I think)

Belfast: Giant's Causeway with City and Causeway tours. May hit Titanic Museum before reboarding

Greenock / Glasgow: Tour with Discover Scotland (I think) to Loch Lomond Trossachs National Park etc and Inveraray Castle. Most go to Stirling, I wanted to go to Inveraray.

Invergordon / Inverness: tour to Loch Ness & Culloden

Edinburgh: taxi pick up at dock with drive to St. Andrews, after St. Andrews will be dropped in Edinburgh for 2-3 hours, hopefully shuttle back to ship

Le Harve / Normandy: excursion to Normandy Beaches (this was one of our splurges)

Feel free to email if you have specific questions sandi at sandimorris dot com

Hope this helps

Sandi

I don't know if it will help anyone else but I found https://www.city-walks.info/London-en/Map.html to be helpful. I have so many things I want to see/do while we are in London 7 days pre-cruise and was having a hard time figuring out where everything was in relation to everything else.

There is a search box that you can fill in what you want to see. It marks it on the map for you and the map is interactive so you can move it around. I think I end up with 20+ locations. You can print the map but you may have to move it around and print more than once to get everything. It includes underground stops but not buses as far as I can tell.

It is really helping in planning how to see what I want (and need) to do.

Of course YMMV

Sandi

And yes, do make sure you get back to the ship on time when you get off. It's easy (and if you're using a private tour guide or company, they will ask you like every hour to confirm when you're supposed to get back. I've NEVER had one cut it close). Yet, people always mess up both of these...so it's important to at least give it some thought.

To go along with getting back on time, make sure you are on ship's time which isn't necessarily local time.

Sorry Sandi, I never saw your question. I have a cheap set I found on eBay

from China or Hong Kong. Later we received the same items as favors at a fancy dinner! So I was able to give them to my sis and SIL.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3in1-Clip-On-Fisheye-Camera-Lens-Wide-Angle-Macro-For-iPhone-Universal-Phone-Lot/123033835817?hash=item1ca5635929:g:be4AAOSwh5hZoNrG

Thanks for getting back to me, I still have a couple of months so all is good. The picture really helped to know what to look for.

Something to think about, I was surprised how much cheaper our flight was coming home the day after disembarkation. We are going to able to do a full day tour, be dropped off at a hotel near Heathrow, have a leisurely breakfast and fly home. Our tour is with International Friends. I saved enough on the plane fare to pay for hotel and then some.

Just a thought.

OP smm0218, which cruise are you on? We depart Southampton on June 30th [emoji3]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

We leave June 6th so I'll be able to answer questions for you.

Sandi

My TA has told me about 2 drops since I booked. I told them about 2 before they had a chance to tell me.

We hired a private tour that included 4other people. It was advertised as an 8 hour tour as I recall. Our guide was waiting for us at the port in a minivan after tendering. We took a tour of a distillery (Kingsport as I recall), then on to St. Andrews where we ate lunch (in the town) first and then did the one-hour tour of St. Andrews walking part of the new course and the 16-18th holes of the Old Course. We were given time to do some shopping before we headed back to the ship. It was a great day. I purchased the tour through aviator. Cost last July was $238for 2./quote]

 

We were able to book StarFish Taxis to pick us up at the port, take us to St. Andrews and then drop us back in Edinburgh for a little time there before making our own way back to ship. They have been very helpful working with us on pickup time due to tendering.

No music

I assume that you are going ashore independently. Passengers on Princess tours are handled differently.

 

 

The Patter will give the time and place, but they usually start giving out tickets around the posted arrival time. Line begins about 30 minutes earlier.

Thanks, Yes we are going to try to get to St. Andrews via private means. DHs bucket list item and I'm really hoping we can do it.

On the Royal everyone, except those on Princess tours, going on a tender must report to the Symphony DR, deck 5 mid ship. The DR opens about 1/2 hour before tenders are ready. Lines will form outside of the DR. It is one person, one tender ticket. If two or more are going ashore together then all must be there to get their ticket. Once you have your ticket you find a place to wait in the DR until your number is called. My first hand experience is that those that have priority tendering, Elites and Full Suites, did not receive tender tickets. As they enter the DR they are placed in a special line and board the next tender(s) out. So no, those with priority can not pick up a ticket for you. At some time during the morning tender tickets will no longer be required. I can't answer your question about pick up timing. I expect it depends on the port and how many tenders can dock there at the same time.

Thank you. That's what I needed to know. I'm making arrangements to call for our pickup as soon as I have our tender tickets with hopefully an idea of how long it will be until we disembark. Which I do realize will depend on several factors.

This is only our 2nd cruise and we did not have to tender in Alaska. We will be on the Royal.

We have 2 ports, Guernsey & Edinburgh (South Queensferry), where tendering is required.

I understand Guesnsey is missed frequently and sometimes So Que.

Assuming they are not skipped how does it work? We are not Elite or anything so will be standing in line (I assume) to get tender tickets? How early can we get in line? Do we both (or anyone we are going with) have to be in line or can one person get all tendering tickets? If we are going with someone that does have some type of Priority status can they get tender tickets for us?

Since we will be having someone pick us up what is a good time to tell them to be there to get us?

Sorry for all the questions, just trying to figure out how all this works.

TIA, Sandi

Don’t get an expensive room, you’re never in it! My first cruise I booked a window room, which was awesome to be able to see the land every morning. However, so not necessary. We are going on our second cruise in 2019 and I booked an interior room and would never book anything else. We were never in our room!!

I agree. Our TA tried to talk us into a balcony (which I thought I would love but was trying to keep expenses down.) It was rainy and a little chilly the whole time and I seriously doubt we would have spent time out there. We were able to find several spots on the ship next to windows and thats where we spent the little bit of time we were actually on the ship. We were on excursions every port day.

I'm really glad that's our first stop (if we actually do get to stop.) After a week in London before cruise this sounds like a very relaxing way to spend the day,

No status, just a peon. But I can get up early to stand in line

Just for a different perspective, instead of the train, we did a van tour to the Yukon from Skagway (requires passport) and it was fabulous. Driver stopped numerous times for photo ops (smallest desert in the world and numerous lakes) and at the end drove through town and told a lot of stories about Skagway. We both thoroughly enjoyed it.

About what time were you able to get off the tender? Trying to figure out what kind of time we will have in both Guernsey and Edinburgh.

FWIW, we found the library (not card/game room) to be very quiet. We were on the Norwegian Pearl and there was a inside lounge at the top of the ship that had seats close to windows and we spend a lot of time there watching the ocean. It did sometimes get loud as there were a lot of families not appeared to have never heard of "inside voice" but we usually managed to move and find a quieter spot. They sometimes had entertainment there and then we'd go find another spot. I spend a lot of time walking on the promenade deck (holding my breath as I walked by the smoking areas) and except for shuffle board area it was usually pretty quiet. Casino was smoky even when not open, just walking through, so with asthma you will want to avoid.

Study the floor plans of the ship before you go and see if you can spot some out of the way places. Ask on the forum for the cruise line you are on for suggestions of quiet areas.

Good luck, I hope you enjoy the cruise more than you think you will.

I would say you were very lucky. I am regularly on the pier before 8:00 but very often the first tender doesn’t arrive till then

So if I were going to be picked up what is a probably time I should tell them?

Thanks

We were picked up at 8:00. As I remember I had no problems getting our group assembled on the pier by that time. We had a minivan full.

Thanks, that helps.