Globaliser

If you don't need a private car all the way, then it sounds like the public transport option would work too: taxi to Southampton Central station, train to London Waterloo, taxi to the JW Marriott Grosvenor House. It would be rather less pricey. This is true, but I don't understand why it's such a big deal for anyone who can handle their own luggage. There is almost no step up into the train, and many thousands of people take suitcases on these trains every day even though there's no dedicated luggage storage. It's no worse than taking the Tube with suitcases, which is also done by many thousands of people every day. You just improvise, and everyone else improvises around you.

I haven't researched this exhaustively for your situation, but the likely reason is the rules for different possible fares, along these lines. If you price USA-Athens//Athens-Rome//Rome-USA in a single itinerary, a price will be returned that is fared in one of the following ways: 1. 50% of USA-Athens-USA with no stopover needed (fare A) plus 50% of USA-Athens-USA with a stopover in Rome (fare B). Fare A must be combinable with fare B. If you're lucky, fare A could be the same as fare B - in other words, the rules of the cheapest fare allow the stopover. However, sometimes the cheapest fare does not allow stopovers, so fare B is more expensive than fare A and the combined price goes up. Also, sometimes the cheapest fare cannot combine with fare B, so a more expensive fare must be used for both fare A and fare B. 2. 50% of USA-Athens-USA with no stopover needed (fare C) plus 50% of USA-Rome-USA (fare D) plus 100% of Athens-Rome (fare E). Fare C, fare D and fare E must all be combinable with each other. In this situation, you don't need fare D to allow a stopover. However, it may be that the cheapest fares cannot combine with fare E (especially if fare E is a different airline's fare), so more expensive fares must be used for both fare C and fare D. If you price USA-Athens//Rome-USA alone, then the price is 50% of USA-Athens-USA with no stopover needed (fare C) plus 50% of USA-Rome-USA with no stopover needed (fare D). The only real restriction here is that fare C and fare D must be combinable with each other, but because it isn't difficult to find a single airline (or airline group) that offers both USA-Athens-USA and USA-Rome-USA fares, this tends not to be a problem. That is why open-jaw pricing for itineraries like USA-Athens//Rome-USA can work so well. And in your particular situation, it really doesn't matter that Athens-Rome is on a separate ticket.

The header photo on that website page seems to show the current cruise terminal. If that's right, then I imagine that any such "coexisting" would only occur if the venue was accidentally double-booked.

That's one of the best descriptions of those abominations that I have ever seen.

This seems very unlikely. Once you strip out the low-fare airlines (Ryanair, easyJet and the like), there are very few scheduled passenger flights at Stansted and even fewer that might even arguably be usefully used by passengers starting in the US. I wonder whether the agent was either just reading from a script, or dredging up some hazy personal knowledge about the names of some London airports. London City has far more possible flights than Stansted.

Is this the "Park Plaza London Waterloo" at 6 Hercules Road SE1 7DP? If so, I agree that you need a cab. You don't have any other realistic option. Personally, I wouldn't leave any later than 8.00 am. It's not that the road journey will take long, but I would be allowing some margin for either not being able to find a cab, or a pre-booked car not turning up on time.

No, the OP's cruise was always going to be Athens-Athens. The options for flying were: USA-Athens-Rome-USA on one ticket, which was proving to be too expensive. USA-Rome-USA with a separate Rome-Athens-Rome nested inside. USA-Athens//Rome-USA on one ticket, with an additional Athens-Rome on a separate ticket. There is no "separate ticket" problem with an additional Athens-Rome ticket, because the OP has the cruise interposed between the USA-Athens and Athens-Rome flights, and a multi-day stop in Rome interposed between the Athens-Rome and Rome-USA flights.

Even if you select only Virgin Atlantic, you will see that every destination listed is at T3.

Unsurprisingly, the airport's website can help: Which terminal? Find out the terminal your airline uses at Heathrow.

I was reading the paper this morning and saw something that made me think of this thread: a review of a Bilbao restaurant in the Old Town, less than a mile from the Guggenheim. (It may also be accessible via this link or this link.)

I think that the Beautiful South did a song about the present situation.

If this is for a disembarkation in Southampton on Saturday 2 September 2023, you are too early to get prices for the train anyway. You can generally only book up to about three months ahead, and I think that as of today you can only book up to about 12 or 13 July 2023.

Note spelling - Southampton - as that's useful for searches. This is Sunday 3 September 2023? Arriving on Norwegian Dawn, departing on Anthem of the Seas? The cruise ship schedule currently says berth 102 and berth 101 respectively. These are at the City Cruise Terminal - map here.

The airline is responsible for rebooking you if your flight is cancelled. A piece of European legislation called Regulation 261/2004 may have a part to play in this, but that is all that I am going to say about it because there are some people on this board who neither live nor work in Europe who seem to think that 261/2004 is only about compensation after the fact (which it isn't). In any case, there's nothing that you can do about this unless and until the airline cancels your flight. As this is not a case of the airline cancelling 200 flights a day (or even 200 flights a week), it's difficult to see what backup plans you can make now unless you just want to shell out in advance for additional tickets knowing that there's one set that you will just throw away. The main thing you can do now is to work out what alternative flights there are, just in case your flight is cancelled - although the chances are that the airline will simply put you on another of its Rome to Lisbon flights that day.

Is this for Friday 1 September, with scheduled time in port from 1100 to 2100? And are you prepared to rent a car and drive yourself?

How long have you had them ? New notes were introduced in February 2020. I think that the easiest check for Bank of England notes is to see whether they're plastic. If they're plastic, they're current. If they're paper, they're obsolete. The designs of current notes are shown here: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/current-banknotes. Obsolete notes are shown here: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/withdrawn-banknotes. Instructions for exchanging old notes for new are here: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/exchanging-old-banknotes and https://www.postoffice.co.uk/banknote-exchange. A bank may also be prepared to do this.

Then that makes things a little bit easier if you do want to do Windsor, as Terminal 5 is on that side of Heathrow. Also, when you get back to T5, your hard deadline is that you need to scan in at the entrance to security no later than 35 minutes before your scheduled departure time - so you're probably a little less pressured for time than if you were flying from one of the other terminals.

Is this on a through ticket, or are you on two separate tickets? And is this British Airways --> British Airways, or Virgin Atlantic --> Virgin Atlantic, or some other combination of operating airlines?

From what the OP has said, there's no reason to assume that they are not. So they now have some perfectly good options for both situations.

If the OP is on a through ticket, so their bags are checked through, it won't take anything like that amount of time to get out. If they are on an eGates passport, they should normally expect to be able to walk out of customs and into the public area within 30-45 minutes of the aircraft arriving at the gate. Similarly, if they don't have to check in again on their return to the airport, they will have ample time if they enter security 60 minutes before their onward flight.

See a dinosaur! Even if a dinosaur doesn't appeal, the museums in this area (the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum) are all a stone's throw away from South Kensington Tube, which is on the Piccadilly Line and can therefore be reached direct from any of the Heathrow terminals. Assuming you are connecting on a through ticket, so you don't have to deal with bags or checking in again, you've got enough time to make one worthwhile museum visit.

Such a hotel does not exist. Travelodge Woking Central or Premier Inn Woking Town Centre would seem to tick more of the OP's boxes than most. The Railair bus isn't free, but it would easily allow: Tell me, am I being a bit naughty with this one? 😛

One big advantage of having a centrally-located hotel is that you can stop in at the hotel from time to time during the day. You may want to drop off some shopping, or you may just want to put your feet up and have a power nap. And you have the option of doing this on the spur of the moment. It'll feel much more like home for the couple of days that you're there. In contrast, if you're in an airport hotel (or a hotel in any other non-central location), it'll be a big chunk out of your time just to go back to the hotel and then come in to town again.

Of course, anyone who's in Dartmouth and who's interested in good food really ought to try Andria.

I can see a number of one-stop itineraries on the way back. Even if you discard connections at ICN (Korean Air), HKG (Garuda on the first sector) or TPE (very long connection time), that leaves a decent Emirates one-stop itinerary (EK369 --> EK241) with a 2:45 connection at DXB.