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We have booked 3 back to back cruises with Diamond Princess for August and September. The reason why we booked 3 shorter segments is because the longer durations were sold out. I checked my Personalizer for shore excursions for the day the ship is docked in Yokohama during the change over day, and I could only see 2 debarkation tours, ending at the airport. So I double checked the Princess website for the same date, but using one of their longer duration itinerary (15 days) with Yokohama in the middle of the itinerary. I could still only see the same 2 debarkation tours. I find it very unusual that Princess would not offer any other regular excursions for Yokohama for passengers who are still staying on the ship. I called Princess and spoke with an agent and he said that they were the only 2 excursions (the debark tours ending at the airport) that he could see listed on the website as well. So my question is: (A) For the folks who have sailed with Diamond Princess on an itinerary to Japan, if they had Yokohama in the middle of their sailing, were there any regular excursions (if they indeed exist) that they could book with Princess, since they are not debarking? (B) For the folks who have done back to back sailings, with Yokohama as the end/start ports, were you able to also book the regular excursions (if they indeed exist) with Princess, even though you are doing a back to back sailing? (C) For the folks who have done back to back sailings, on the change over day when the ship is docked in Yokohama, do you have to go through the whole custom, check in process again as if you are embarking for the first time? If we want to just leave and do an excursion with the ship or do some independent sightseeing, can we leave in the morning like 9am, and get back say 3pm. Or we have to come back around Noon to re-check ourselves though custom again? Any other info on the Diamond Princess is welcome. Especially the entertainment, the type of music the bands play, dancing opportunity.. etc. Thank you in advance.

We are considering the Celebrity Beyond for this July to Europe. It's a 10 days sailing. Does anyone have the daily programs from the ship they can post here. We are curious what the evening programs are. A few years ago we sailed with other Celebrity ships, and they offered a pre-recorded Ballroom music hour from time to time in a lounge. Do they offer that in the Beyond? Is the Club used for dancing most of the evenings, or is that space mainly used for shows and other events? What is the age demographic of the ship? Any info on the Beyond is welcome. Thank you in advance.

Thank you everyone for replying my post. Has anyone ever done an excursion from the port of Avonmouth, Bristol before? The link read2learn sent me regarding the shore excursions really did help a lot, thank you. The only port missing on that list is Avonmouth on the itinerary we are considering for July . We also enjoy Lain dancing and club dancing like ECS, WCS, bachata, and night club 2 step. We do find certain ships play more of a mixed genres of music, while other ships stick with mostly rock and roll and old hits and not much else. We are comparing this ship with the Regal Princess's British Isle itinerary, and we have found the age demographic of Princess is more similar to our age group. So wonder if there are a lot of younger families on Jewel in July since it's a school holiday. Any other info on the ship is welcome. Thank you in advance.

We are considering the Jewell of the Seas for July to the British Isles. Some of the ports we are not familiar with. We have never been to Holyhead, Avonmouth, Bristol, Dover, and Liverpool. I looked everywhere on the internet to see if I could search up the shore excursions but nothing worked. The link that you can type in the ship and sail date for the shore excursions to show up does not work. We don't have a booking number so there is no way I can see them. I even called Royal Caribbean but they couldn't help either. Does anyone know if there is a way I can see what excursions are offered in each port with Royal Caribbean? We enjoy a bit of ballroom dancing and we would like to know if there is a pre-recorded ballroom hour in one of the lounges? Or if the bands play a variety of music that would offer some ballroom dancing opportunity? Some ships do and some ships might tend to play more high energy pop music only. What is the age demographic of the ship? Any info on the ship is welcome. If anyone has the daily activity schedules they can pose there, it would be really appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Thanks CruiserBruce for replying my post. Just curious, you mentioned there was a lot of dancing in the BBK venue. What kind of music were people dancing to? When we went on a Holland America cruise years ago, they played mostly Blues music in the BBK, and was not easy to dance to. There were very few dancers there.

We are considering the Nieuw Statendam in July to Europe. Just wondering if the band in the BB King Club plays mostly Blues music, or do they play a mix genre of music. We enjoy doing some ballroom dancing, is there a chance we might be able to do a Waltz, Cha Cha or Rumba? The Rock and Roll club, do they play mostly high energy hard rock music? Is there a "silent disco" event on the ship, or any pre-recorded ballroom music in a lounge at some point. Does anyone have some of the daily agendas they can post here. Any info on the ship is welcome. Thank you in advance.

We enjoy some ballroom dancing and would like to know if there is a pre-recorded ballroom music hour in one of the lounges? I remember sailing on the Epic before, and the bands would play the occasional Waltz, Cha Cha, Rumba ..etc in one of the lounges. Do they still have a live band playing in the Manhattan Club during dinner time that you can dance while you are having dinner? What type of music do the live bands play? Can anyone please post some of the daily activity sheet here so I can look at what the entertainment is. We just sailed with the NCL Sun in January, and they actually had a pre-recorded ballroom music hour in one of their lounges. But their entertainment was very minimal. They had one production show, and 2 more shows with a flamingo couple and the rest of the journey they had no guest artist at all for our 11 day sailing . Very surprising. Does the NCL Epic still have a show with a guest artist every evening? Years ago, the had the "Burn the Floor" production show and it was really good. How is the production shows nowadays? Any info on the Epic is welcome. Thank you in advance.

We are considering the Celebrity Apex or Celebrity Beyond this July in Europe. We enjoy doing some ballroom dancing and wonder is there any ballroom dancing opportunities on these ships? On other Celebrity ships that we have been on, there were certain evenings that in a given lounge, there was pre-recorded ballroom music. Do they offer that on the Apex or Beyond? In general , how much dancing opportunities are there with either live music or music played by a DJ in a lounge? How is the entertainment on these ships? What kind of music do they play in the lounges? Does anyone have any daily activity print out that they can post here? Any information on these ships are welcome. Thank you in advance.

Their website is www.dot2taxi.co.uk. Their address is DOT 2 DOT MAIDENHEAD TAXI1st Floor, ART House, St Peters Road, Maidenhead, SL6 7QU. Has anyone heard of them before?

Has anyone ever used a car transfer service called dot2taxi.co.uk? I got some reasonable rates from them regarding our transfer from Heathrow to Windsor, Windsor to Southampton, and from Southampton to Heathrow. But I can't find any reviews for them anywhere on the internet. Also on our email exchange they were always very brief and never went into details of their service. I got most of the information on their website. So just wonder how reliable they are. Any other car transfer company info are welcome. Thank you in advance.

The U.K. Cruising board has been down for a few days, so I couldn't pose my question there. Wondering if the folks on this board could help. We are sailing on Cunard Queen Victoria in May. We will need a car transfer for the 2 of us from Heathrow airport to Windsor, where we will stay in a hotel for 1 night. The next day we will need a transfer from Windsor to the cruise terminal in Southampton. Then at the end of our cruise, we will need a transfer from Southampton to Heathrow airport. With our luggage, we are not into taking a train. We have gotten some quotes from a few taxi/transfer companies, they vary in price quite a bit. Does anyone have a taxi/transfer company they have used that they would recommend? We don't need a luxury car, just a reliable service will do. Thank you in advance.

We are booked on the Queen Victoria in cabin 4124, which is an obstructed ocean view. Just wondering if any folks have a picture of that cabin. There are several cabins on that deck close to each other, all listed as obstructed ocean view for the same price. So I picked cabin 4124, but wondering if there is another cabin in that area that is less obstructed. As I know there is different degrees of obstruction from one cabin to the next. If you have any picture of this cabin or any cabins close to it, please post them. Thank you in advance.

Our flight does not leave till 4pm, so we only need to get to Heathrow by 1pm. So it's either stay on the ship until we absolutely have to leave, or get to the airport hours before we have to be there and wait.

We are planning to book a car transfer from Southampton to Heathrow airport. Just wondering, what is the latest time we can stay on Queen Victoria before everyone absolutely have to leave the ship? I need to estimate when we should request the car to arrive. Any car transfer service suggestion is also welcome! Thank you in advance

Thank you everyone for replying my post. There are a lot of valuable information for us to look through. Thanks again everyone!

We are flying into Heathrow airport from an overnight flight from Canada. So we will definitely be tired when we arrive at Heathrow at 6:30am. We plan to stay 1 night in Windsor to visit the castle before heading to southampton the next day to start our cruise. Would it be easy to find a cab while we are in Heathrow to take us to Windsor, or should we pre-book a transfer service? We have 2 suitcases, 2 carry on each and would not consider taking the train. Approximately how much would a cab cost? Could anyone suggest a taxi company that has a reasonable rate? We would need a transfer from Windsor to Southampton the next day as well. Thank you in advance.

Thanks TW6cruiser for your quick reply! I will continue my investigation for hotels in the area. The Macdonald Windsor is one we are considering, but have not made a decision yet.

Hi TW6cruiser, thanks for your reply. Could you please tell us which transfer company did you use for your transportation from Windsor to Southampton? We were reading some reviews from TripAdvisor on the Macdonald Hotel, they were mostly good but did have some negative reviews about cleanliness. But it seems like you folks were happy with the hotel. Was the breakfast good, and the bed comfortable and the room clean? Please share more of your experience. Thank you.

We have been on many ocean cruises with various lines, but have never been on a river cruise before. We are particularly interested in visiting Budapest, Prague, Passau, Vienna. Trying to decide between a coach tour and a river cruise. We feel that a river cruise is more convenient because at least we don't have to pack and unpack every few days. We are from Canada, and we have to work out the logistics of getting to the cruise port a couple of days before the cruise. Since all these river cruises depart from small ports, we would have to fly into a major city in Europe, then either take a train or a regional flight to get to the port. We plan to spend about 7 to 9 days on the river cruise, and maybe stay in a hotel before and after for 2 couple of days. We would like to select a cruise line that is reasonable, not necessary luxurious, since we have a limited budget. Ideally, if there is a small lounge one can do a bit of dancing after dinner, would be a bonus. Could anyone please suggest which cruise line we should start to look at? We looked at some itineraries that sail on the Danube, we can recognize some of the town's names, but a lot of them we have no knowledge of. We are thinking of July and August. Is the water level on the Danube going to be a problem? Any information on the most scenic destinations, cruise line suggestions, where are the most convenient towns to pick as a departure or ending points, would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

We are flying into Heathrow airport on an overnight flight from Canada. We will be arriving to Heathrow around 8am. We are deciding where to stay for 1 night before our cruise starts the next day. We have been to London several times so we are not planning to go into London this time. We have also visited Winchester, Portsmouth, Oxford, Salisbury, and Bath before. So we would like to see something new this time. We have not visited Brighton before, and wonder if it's a place worth visiting. Although it seems it's a bit out of the way of the direction we would want to go to from Heathrow. We will be travelling in early May. Could anyone please suggest what little town that is interesting we could visit for a day before going on our cruise at Southampton the next day. Ideally, it should be somewhere between Heathrow airport and Southampton. We don't want to go straight to Southampton to stay in a hotel either, because there is not much to see in Southampton. Also, does anyone have a private car transfer company they have used that they would recommend? We are 2 people and do not need a huge car. Thank you in advance.

Thanks for your replies. In fact, come to think of it, a few years ago, one time during the "Welcome Back Party", I remember there was someone at the door saying to guests, that they were not allowed to take the drinks out of the lounge. So that' why I thought what if the same would happen in these lounges if we order a free drink and want to take it out of the lounge, and someone might stop us. So just want to be sure that it's OK to do that .

We have attained our Elite level with Royal Caribbean. Celebrity will match that level when we sail with Celebrity on our next cruise. With Royal Caribbean, we are allowed 4 free drinks per day, at any lounge. I was told by a Celebrity representative on the phone, that the happy hour from is from 5-7pm. The free drinks are unlimited, but you can only consume them in the lounges, but not in the restaurants. We are not big drinkers, but we wouldn't mind a glass of wine at dinner time. So my question is, would you be able to order a complimentary drink during the happy hour between 5 and 7pm, bring it out of the whatever lounge you order it from, and into the dining room? When we bring a glass of wine into the dining room, I can't imagine a waiter will come up to me and ask me if I have purchased that glass of wine from some other lounge, or if it is a complimentary glass of wine and therefore technically not allowed to be consumed in the restaurant? Has anyone, being a Elite member or above, ever got their complimentary drinks from a lounge between 5 and 7pm, and taken the drinks out of that lounge to either a restaurant, or their cabin? It just seems kind of not very user friendly, whereas Royal Caribbean is more accommodating. Thanks in advance.

We are considering Ms. Ossterdam for South America in February. We looked at the ship tour videos posted on Youtube. It looks like there is only one lounge that has a dance floor. I think it might have been the old BB King lounge that is now called Rolling Stone? The Ocean Bar just has a Piano and no dance floor. Is there another lounge that has a live band or DJ that has a dance floor? We also enjoy ballroom dancing. is there a chance we can do that on this ship? Or does the band normally play mostly high energy music? Any info on the ship is welcome. Thank you in advance.

We are flying into Lisbon next week and will be arriving at 5:30am in the morning. Just wondering if it's better to pre-book a taxi service for around 7 am. Or would there be a lot of taxi readily available at the airport. Are there any particular taxi transfer companies you would suggest? Thank you.

Thank you everyone for replying my post. They are all very valuable information. I am reading through everything and my research continues!