ziggyuk

1 hour ago, graphicguy said:

Nice VID!  I'm sailing on her next month.  I like the Observation Lounge.  This is making me excited for the cruise.

He has 3 parts to that transatlantic trip, above is part2 so you might want to see the other 2 parts.

Ep1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VQpcapZVic

Ep2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HUgHxcaS44

Ep3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHb7SImDE_U

Here is a video that includes (@24:00) the new reduced observation lounge and shows the bar.

8 hours ago, Richbal said:

We will be docking at Holyhead, Sunday 0800 - 1700, June 23, 2024 aboard Holland America and would love to come to Wrexham for a pint & lunch but have been unable to rent a car (Sunday all are closed) and cannot make contact with a car & driver for hire.

OBTW we got hooked on the documentary Welcome to Wrexham but really hardly know the rules of the game.

We just want to say we've seen it albeit very briefly.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

You should be able to hire a taxi, not a recommendation but an example with online contact options:
https://www.holyheadtaxi.co.uk/

The train could work but it's very tight and would give you very little time in Wrexham, the station (Wrexham General) is right next to the club grounds. There is normally a direct train but being a Sunday it involves one change if you take the right train. You won't have long in Wrexham but it's doable.

The 9:38 for instance would get you into Wrexham for 11:48.with a change of train in Chester.

You would be looking at getting the 13:33 back (back at 15:59) so all that traveling for just 1 hour 45 minutes.

Personally I would take the earliest direct train possible to Chester and spend over 3 hours there.

Book tickets via trainline https://www.thetrainline.com/

Keep an eye on strike days though as the railways have been having regular industrial action and strike days. These are announced at least 2 weeks in advance so you just need to check online closer to the time.

eg: https://inews.co.uk/news/train-strikes-when-full-list-dates-2878182

33 minutes ago, BritTen55 said:

We are arriving on Wednesday so hope we will be okay.

Looks like you will be fine for next Wednesday the 1st May, they have to give two weeks notice of strikes so it won't change now.

https://www.timeout.com/uk/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-rail-strikes-092022

All National Express coaches have toilets so you can get up to use those and take the opportunity to stretch your legs and there is no limit to visits 😉

Otherwise, as you are in a motor vehicle you should be seated with a seatbelt on (legal requirement now). Longer journeys have comfort breaks, I doubt a 4 hour journey will include a stop though, your schedule will show if there is a stop.

What a shame, I did not get it on either of my cards this time 
I have only just seen this but don't think I missed it as I check every day for new offers, it's rare I miss a day.

58 minutes ago, fruitmachine said:

Have you got a link to an official EU document or similar for this?  I know it's what CLIA said, but I'd like to see for myself!

I'm afraid I don't have a link to this, this is from personal experience, various websites and others experience such as @lebreos as posted above.
Real life experience always works out this way.

When you visit an EU country on a cruise you are classed as transiting during your stop in port, no days are therefore counted against your 90 day allowance.
Even if you join the ship in an EU country you should be signed out as you board the ship, so only the days from arriving in the EU and boarding the ship are counted against your 90 day allowance.

27 minutes ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

 Well hello Tony and Antony . We hope that you are well and enjoying life . Any cruises planned ? We have had a busy Spring with some racoons in the roof , meeting our new in laws and a case of identity theft . What a pain ! Additionally , Pat was in the hospital last week. If you would like to chat please use our scubacruiserx2 @gmail.com account .

  @F19810 We will bounce this question off of our TA here in Florida who is pretty up on these things and return with an answer if she can be of any help .

All good thanks, funny enough we just got back from a cruise yesterday, you reminded me to update my signature.
We have done two short weekend cruises with MSC since we met in January 😂
They were both on the same ship and both to Hamburg, it's great for a weekends entertainment, we are 20min from the port and flew straight home ready for work on Monday.

The next big one is NCL Jewel LA to Tampa, Panama Canal in November.
Pass on my best wishes to Pat for a quick recovery.

12 hours ago, zqvol said:

If you upgrade you get the promo that is effect at that time, so you might lose the extra point, but would get one for being in the Haven. 

You say that and it's what I expect but not my experience.
I booked on a double points promotion, then did a paid (not bid) upgrade when there was a treble point promo on, I hoped to get the treble points but would have been happy with the original double points.

When I got back home from my cruise, I was awarded 1 point per night. I spoke to my PCC who spoke to Florida and the message came back that it was the upgrade that caused it and no further explanation. To this date it irritates me and I still don't know why. My PCC claims he tried and tried to get the points but was told there was nothing that could be done.

I actually suspect he did not apply the promo to my booking when he upgraded me because he has always been evasive about the reasons for the lack of points.
Either way, it shows you have to be on the ball, then check and check again when doing these things

1 hour ago, TenneSea said:

My husband is a car guy/collector.  He has several classic, old Porsches and and old Land Rover truck.  He doesn't know it yet but, we are spending most of the next day at the Motor Museum in Beaulieu - just bought the tickets last week.  

 

This whole trip is made possible by taxis (and 2 Uber rides).  Our trip over the Atlantic is on Caribbean Princess, then 10 days in England, then fly home.  This is our first transatlantic cruise and we're just a little apprehensive but love cruising so, we'll be fine.  Yep, the taxis are pricey but we don't want to haul luggage on trains and busses.  Our last UK car rental ended in a collision with a bus so it's a big no this trip.  We have some really, really awesome private tours lined up.  This trip will be epic !

 

Thanks for your helpful tips !

Fantastic, it's a great museum, gardens and house, something for everyone.

I am probably telling you something you already know but Uber is a bit difficult in the UK. They are licenced by the different cities and can't operate where they are not licenced.

They can operate in Southampton so a trip to or from that city is no problem, however you can't use them to travel in unlicensed areas. 

As an example, living in Ringwood, I can ask for a pick up to go the Southampton even though Uber have no licence to operate in my town, but I can't order and Uber from Ringwood to Bournemouth as neither of those places licence them.

Licenced areas in the south and South West are:

South East:

Southampton

Brighton

Portsmouth

South West:

Bristol

Bath

https://www.uber.com/en-GB/blog/changes-to-where-drivers-can-receive-trips/

13 hours ago, TenneSea said:

Such great information.  This is the company doing our private tour: https://www.southamptoncruisetours.co.uk/ 

 

They (he) seemed to be very knowledgeable about New Forest and is great to respond quickly to any question or suggestion I have. If you have heard anything negative about them, I'd appreciate knowing that.  I had a hard time finding a tour guide that was available.

 

We are staying at Montagu Arms in Beaulieu and doing Beaulieu the next day on our own.

 

The tours that we have planned and all of the taxi reservations are pricey, but if they just all show up, I'll be a happy camper ! 

 

Thank you for your reassurance on the taxis and for all of the helpful tips.

Nothing bad that I'm aware of, taxis are unfortunatly expensive in the UK, day rates can work out well though. To be honest, although expensive there is no better way to get around, if you hired a car you would be planning your own routes and possibly miss so much.

I don't know if you like cars but Beaulieu National Motor Museum is fantastic, I love it as I love my classics, I have a 1958 Austin Healey Sprite and a 1957 Triumph Thunderbird.
https://www.beaulieu.co.uk/attractions/national-motor-museum/

2 hours ago, John Bull said:

 Hi, Ziggy,

 

I'll strike a deal with you. 

I promise to visit the Royal Oak sometime this summer, if you promise to do likewise with our favourite Forest pub, the Alice Lisle in Rockford 🙂

 

JB 🙂

I will, I have not been the the Alice Lisle in a while, I also like the close by Royal Oak at North Gorley, we often drop in there for a pint while on a bike (electic, I'm a cheat 😂) ride on the forest.
The Red Shoot is also OK at Linwood, It's a Wadworth pub but it's nice and has a Micro Brewery.

On the subject of Brewery's, Ringwood Brewery has closed down now, very sadly for us, it was always going to be a disaster after Marston's took it over and were subsequently bought by Carlsberg to become Carlsberg-Marston's.
It was always a decent brewery tour there for tourists and locals alike, they even let people behind the bar hand pulling their own pint's.
Ringwood beers will now be made near Birmingham 😢

28 minutes ago, Kat in CA said:

I am confused about online check in. If check in opens May 6 at midnight… if I live in California and embarkation is in Southampton, what time should I check in?

Which line? Online check-in for NCL opens midnight Florida time, regardless where you embark.

1 hour ago, John Bull said:

@ziggyuk Since the pick-u is Lymington & the drop-off in Beaulieu I feel sure the taxi driver will know the Forest. And how to avoid the log-jam of Lyndhurst.

 

Ask the driver to include Rhinefield Ornamental  Drive (which also means automatically avoiding Lyndhurst) and Bolderwood Arboretum then Beaulieu (about 25 miles).

And - if time & pocket allow - from there to Linwood, Ringwood and back via  Burley & Brockenhurst to Beaulieu, showing you the different aspects of the Forest (about 40 miles total).

What say you, Ziggy?

 

JB 🙂

 

JB, I agree, a walk at the Ornamental Drive and maybe see the near-by Knightwood Oak (oldest tree in the forest dating from 1600), Bolderwood Deer Sanctuary is close as well (but be aware you may not see deer) is another nice walk.
I always recommend Fritham, close to your Linwood selection, but it's lovely by the lake and I always take people there for practically guaranteed horses.
I think Burley is a do-not-miss, the old cottages (some dating back to 18th century) and again in the village centre and near the cricket pitch almost guaranteed horses and donkeys.

There are lots of lovely old pubs in the New Forest for lunch and I really would recommend that option to step back in time. I can give that some thought, but the Royal Oak at Fritham is an nice old thatched pub which you might be near at lunch time.

I only warn about the taxi drivers as some of the Southampton ones have little knowledge of the New Forest, in terms of a days sight seeing. Don't get me wrong, they know how to drive people from A-B and avoid traffic but if you ask some of them to take you on a sight seeing tour they might get a bit lost for ideas, hence the possible advance planning recommendation.
I think you have that here in spades.

For Gatwick I would take the train but just be aware there are still occasional strike days to contend with, they are announced well in advance though so check online.

It sounds like you are not in a hurry, so unless there is a need to get off the ship first, book a later morning train and maybe even have some lunch is Southampton.

You can call an Uber with the app if you want, but the journey to the train station is very short and the saving will be tiny over a regular taxi. There will be lots of taxis outside the ship so I would personally not bother with Uber unless it's a currency thing, I guess if you won't have UK£ an Uber might make it simpler.

It is walkable to the station and I have done it many times but with cases and two young children I would just take a cab, it is not expensive and for 4 people it's well worth it.

Personally I would go straight to the hotel and leave the bags in storage, or if you have taken a more relaxed exit from the ship just check-in and freshen up.
 

I guess it all depends on how much time you have after the cruise and how much you want to pack in, if I have the time, I tend to go for the relaxed option rather than rushing from place to place.

EDIT

PS, I recommend booking train tickets in advance on Trainline.

https://www.thetrainline.com/

You will get an exit stamp as you get on the ship.
All the stops in the EU will be counted as transit stops and don't count towards her 90 days, so as far as time in the EU that adds to her allowance goes, it will be just the time period from landing in Portugal and getting on the cruise ship.

36 minutes ago, musicismylife said:

We are doing a transatlantic that ends in Dover and then staying an addition couple of weeks in England. We will need to rent a car, pick up in Dover and drop off at Gatwick. Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations? Or should we try renting in Canterbury instead?

 

Thanks!

All the big chains operate out of Dover and all the big companies should allow a drop off to a different location.
It's always going to be more expensive to drop off at a different location but you really don't have a choice, if you took a bus or train to Gatwick and hired from there it would probably cost more in the fares.

I'm not sure where Canterbury comes into the equation but I can't think of a reason it would be an advantage to hire from there as you are still returning to a different location.
If you have a favourite car hire company where you have status, try them or, my advice, is to use Kayak to do a comparison.
https://www.kayak.co.uk/cars

On the Jewel class it tends to be in the Bliss lounge, they attach a cloakroom ticket to each bag and give you the other half of the ticket as a receipt. The bag is kept in a roped off area with a member of staff looking after them. We always use this service.

11 hours ago, TenneSea said:

ZiggyUK, You are the person who lives in New Forest?  

 

We did not get to NF last August.  But, we're coming back in May and spending 2 days in New Forest and 2 days on Isle of Wight.  I am so excited to see everything.  I have booked a taxi for a day to take us through New Forest, picking us up where the WightLink drops us in Lymington and then dropping us at our hotel in Beaulieu. 

 

Thank you for all of the information you have shared.\

 

Yes I am 🤩

Fantastic, I know you will love the New Forest. If you have a taxi for the day, it will be a great way to see it.
It might be worth checking his/her knowledge of the NF ahead of time, some of the Southampton taxi drivers don't know the forest for sight seeing that well, so if they don't you might want to plan a good route.

I can only say that my experience, living here, is pre booked taxis are very reliable in the UK.

It would not hurt to confirm the reservation 24hrs in advance for peace of mind, but I do not consider this nessesary.

10 hours ago, KeithJenner said:

That’s interesting, thanks.

 

I was just going from what others have said on here, as I’ve never bought or sold them myself, but the impression I got was that they weren’t transferable.

 

Thanks for the clarification.

The other interesting thing is they always convert them on the exchange rate of the original purchase, so unless you track back the $/£ exchange rates you never really know the value you will get once converted.
I bought two once with different purchase dates, I was given different GBP values and the explanation was that its based on the exchange rate at date of original purchase.

I historically always bought them on social media as an when I wanted them instead of buying a load on the ship that could expire, now they don't expire I just buy on the ship now and keep a stock of them.

24 minutes ago, insidecabin said:

 

Get one of the multi currency cards then use local ATM for no charge.

 

(Just watch there are loads in Europe that charge, proper bank ones are usually ok)

 

Loads of choice, we use Revolut(need the physical card for ATM).

You an me too, been doing it for years, I also have a credit card I use specifically for traveling as it has no overseas fees, the exchange rate is perfect as its the international rate and you just pay interest on cash advances from day one which is standard, and not much.

2 hours ago, KeithJenner said:

Cruise First, which can be bought online are US only, but anyone can buy Cruise Next. However Cruise Next can only be bought from NCL onboard ship (they can be transferred so it is possible to buy them from other people although that market is probably smaller for GBP priced vouchers).

 

If you are planning on booking more cruises I would strongly recommend buying some Cruise Next for the discount if nothing else. Just don’t get tricked into spending the discount onboard. The discount is applied against the cost of the vouchers.

 

I book direct.

Keith the value of a CN is always $250, no matter what currency it is converted into it can be transferred back to US$ then back to a different currency if you wish. I bought some before in Canadian dollars, NCL converted them back to US$ then into sterling for me. Initially they put them in my account as $250 so I had to get them moved to GBP.

There are not so many now that the expiry has been set to 2099 for obvious reasons.

@tashaaa They can be bought on social media groups but I can't name them here. They generally sell for half the face value, which s the same as on the ship (better than the ship if buying just one) but you will have to pay any payment fees (paypal etc)

Not many people are aware they can be converted, I bought a load in GBP for a very good price online once because they were in GBP and nobody else wanted them, al the ones in US$ were being snapped up while the others, for lower asking price were being ignored.
 

2 hours ago, tashaaa said:

Do most of you use a travel agent for booking or do it via NCL webpage?

 

I use a PCC (NCL Personal Cruise Consultant) and he is great, I got his email and direct number and he looks after all my cruise needs. Some people use travel agents as they can often get some OBC or other perks but I like my PCC.

As you are new, another tip, you can also get up to $250 non refundable OBC as a shareholder perk if you own 100 shares:
https://www.nclhltd.com/investors/shareholder-benefits

I will add to this, you can reprice without a fee in Europe as long as you are upgrading and pay more than the original booking, even 1€/£1. I once re-priced a cruise and paid £10 a head to go from inside to balcony, the ocean view cost less than the original inside booking and would have involved a fee to cancel and rebook.
Also, after final payment you can get a FCC (as in the US) but only with a full price booking not with a guarantee cabin.