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Mabbiesmum

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Posts posted by Mabbiesmum

    Are we being too ambitious--day trips to Liverpool and Paris from London

    in British Isles/Western Europe

    Posted

    I regularly use Virgin trains and booking tickets requires a little research and patience. Advance fares, the cheapest ones, a seldom available 12 weeks out - best fares are probably available around 6 - 8 weeks before travel. Regular checking is the best way to achieve your preferred fare. Availability is very much dependent on how many have already been sold as carriers only offer so many on any service.

     

    Travelling very early, the first train leaves at 5.27, is inexpensive. Travel between 9 android 10.30 is probably the most expensive.

     

    If you can put the Virgin trains app onto your phone this is a good way of quickly checking fares and you may even be able download an e-ticket. Not quite if it works for non UK purchases.

     

    JB is obviously not a train fan but the service is very quick and relatively comfortable.

     

    A little tip. An advance fare means you must travel on a specific train and you will be allocated a seat on that train. The allocation system fills up a carriage at a time so you will find the first couple of carriages will be rammed and others further downloaded the train may be empty. You do not need to sit in your allocated seat but can move to a different carriage.

     

    I hope you make it to Liverpool

     

    Sent from my Nexus 9 using Forums mobile app

    Are we being too ambitious--day trips to Liverpool and Paris from London

    in British Isles/Western Europe

    Posted

    If you are able to book your trains to Liverpool in advance using the Virgin trains website , available 12 weeks in advance, then you can book advance tickets for around £45 per person.

     

    Would recommend the combined tour to the childhood homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney with the National Trust, needs to be booked in advance.

     

     

     

    Sent from my Nexus 9 using Forums mobile app

    MSC Fantasia from Guadeloupe

    in MSC Cruises

    Posted

    From MSC website

     

    The company uses six main languages for its communications: English, Italian, German, French, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. The order in which these languages appear is determined exclusively by the number of guests in each language group as a proportion of our total guests.*

    ***

    The cabin information booklet and other printed material used on board are available in different versions for each of the six languages listed above. The order of the languages used in our menus changes depending on the area of the world in which each ship is located.

     

    Sent from my Nexus 9 using Forums mobile app

    "Are you ready for some pain?" OR "Why you should buy travel insurance."

    in Norwegian Cruise Line

    Posted

    As someone from the UK I find the US system of travel insurance a bit baffling. Obviously most of us don't have private medical cover and any sort of a trip invariably means leaving the jurisdiction of the NHS. DH and I have a joint annual travel insurance policy which cost £135 for the current year including pre-existing conditions.

     

    For that we get £10m medical cover, £10m repatriation, £2m personal liability, £20,000 personal accident, £2,000 baggage, £5,000 cancellation, curtailment or airline failure.

    Sleepless on Ventura

    in P&O Cruises ( UK )

    Posted

    I make no complaint about the efforts take to save the life of a fellow passenger, I only suggest that as the crew of Ventura knew at least an hour before the event that passengers would be required to leave their cabins it would have been kind to offer stunned people dragged from their beds a mouthful of water

    Sleepless on Ventura

    in P&O Cruises ( UK )

    Posted

    Arrived back today from a 6 night trip on Ventura calling at La Rochelle, Bilbao and St Peter Port Guernsey.

     

    I regret to say that I was not at all impressed by the scheduling on P&O's part!!

     

    The stop at La Rochelle was on a Monday, when everything is closed until 2 pm.

     

    Our second stop should have been Santander but when we arrived on board we were given a note saying the stop had been changed because there was a problem with the allocated berth. I fully appreciate that sometimes destinations change but not letting us know until we arrived at the port strikes me as a cynical ploy to prevent those who like to organise our own excursions from making alternative arrangements. My DH had spent considerable time planning our day.

     

    I am happy to report that we had a delightful day in St Peter Port and for once P&O actually managed an efficient tender service.

     

    The icing on the cake was the events of the early hours today. At 2 am there was a shipwide announcement calling emergency teams to the medical centre. At 3 am there was another announcement that a helicopter was coming and we should stay off our balconies and keep the door shut.

     

    At 4 am we were taken out of our cabins and sent to the theatre for safeties sake whilst the helicopter action was taking place. Again I have no complaint about being kept safe but would it have killed them to at least offer us a drink?

     

    By the time we returned to our cabin I was beyond sleep although my DH, who fortunately was doing the driving, managed to catch a little more. Frightening to think of lots of sleep deprived people making their way home.

     

    The helicopter crew were unable to evacuate the sick passenger but I am happy to report that he was still alive when he was finally disembarked at Southampton. I hope that continues to be the case.

    P&O Arcadia - Scandinavia & Russia First Ever Cruise

    in P&O Cruises ( UK )

    Posted

    I would definitely second Alla tours for your visit to St Petersburg, our group was about 12 people and the guide was very good at dodging the large groups.

     

    Everywhere else we just did our own thing. Would recommend visiting the Vasa museum in Stockholm, Sweden's "Mary Rose". Very easy to do on your own, download the audio guide from their website before you go (don't forget your headphones).

     

    Unless you good at getting up very early the sail away from Stockholm is spectacular

     

    Sent from my Nexus 9 using Forums mobile app

    Shuttle buses

    in P&O Cruises ( UK )

    Posted

    There is a very pleasant walkway from the dock at Helsinki to the town. It isn't a short walk but very pleasant on a sunny day.

     

    Copenhagen similarly has an enjoyable pedestrian walk past the little mermaid.

    sea legs help !!

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    Like you I didn't know if I would be sea sick or not before our first cruise so I bought a giant tub of ginger capsules (literally just ginger in a gelatin capsule, great if you don't like the taste) before our first cruise and we both took one every morning, including the day of departure.

     

    Happily we have never been sick and discovered that we both like rough seas but we still take our capsules very morning, just in case :D

     

    Hope you enjoy your first cruise.

    Wine purchase ?

    in British Isles/Western Europe

    Posted

    Very much depends on the route your driver takes to get to the cruise terminal. Ideally you want one of the big supermarkets (Sainsburys, Tesco, Waitrose) or there is a Marks & Spencer in the West Quays shopping centre and an ASDA (not my favourite) at the Western Esplanade, both of which are close to the port.

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