John Bull

Agreed, and makes it difficult-to-read. If poor eyesight is the reason for using caps., instead try lower case but in a bigger font-size and/or in bold face Much more user-friendly JB 🙂

Hi, and welcome to Cruise Critic, @mom says started with "I believe you are hunting unicorns." but then goes on to suggest an answer - an answer which I rate as the best option, altho there are a few caveats.🙂 At the end of a summer season in Europe, many ships re-locate to bases in places like the Caribbean or Florida. And at the end of that winter season they re-locate to places like Europe. These are called re-positioning cruises. And they are bargain cruises because the ship has to sail in order to re-position. Many of them including some P & O and Marella, and US ships which spend their summer in Southampton relocate from or to Southampton altho the US ships generally re-locate to Florida or San Juan. P&O and Marella - and perhaps Fred Olsen and others - include a one-way transfer and flight as a package with the cruise. That's one caveat - unless Mum stays in the Caribbean for the entire winter (she wishes 😄), it will involve her taking one flight. Because fly-cruise flights to the Caribbean are daytime, and it's best if you fly with Mum, probably Autumn is the best time - you and Mum both book for the last 15-day Caribbean cruise of the season, then you fly back at the end of that cruise while Mum stays on the ship as a back-to-back second cruise for another 5 to 7 days in the Caribbean before returning to Southampton on the ship (second caveat - it will probably include one or more repeat Caribbean islands) . That way round also means that by the time you & Mum part company she'll know her way round the ship and the crew and the routines and she'll have made friends with some doing the same b2b cruise. Your fly-cruise will be 15 days, hers will be about 28 days. All three flights will be on P&O chartered flights and with the same super-easy transfers that you've done on your previous cruises. Third caveat is that I don't think there are any single cabins on P&O ships, so Mum's cruise back to Southampton will be subject to a single-person surcharge Marella do much the same thing, one minor inconvenience is that their chartered aircraft includes clients on hotel-based holidays as well as cruisers so you don't get to avoid airport formalities when you arrive. Marella ships are older, but smaller than ships on P&O's Caribbean cruises and they're very friendly ships. Ships of other cruise lines do much the same thing, but - most re-position between mainland Europe and the Caribbean - that brings in a different passenger mix and language problems as well as an extra flight.. - even re-positioning to or from a UK port you'd probably have to arrange your own flights & transfers, and you'll have to be off the ship by about 9.30am on your last day - no fun when you've got an evening flight home. There are 21-day no-fly P&O Caribbean cruises out of Southampton throughout the winter, but most days are sea-days and only half-a-dozen Caribbean ports. I suggest you check the web-sites of UK cruise-specialist travel agents. We're not permitted to name them on Cruise Critic, but googling will lead you to half-a-dozen or more well-established UK specialists. Then phone them. They know their stuff and can sort out suitable options. They can also point out the various pros & cons. Once you've figured the best bet, don't be afraid to barter. Can they add in airport parking? A cabin up-grade ? A discount on the one-way cruise? When you've figured the best deal, go back to the agent that you found most helpful and ask them to match that deal. But if they can't quite match it, go with them anyway - a good agent is worth their weight. I wish you happy huntin' JB 🙂

Yep - itinerary is top of the list for us too. But a lot - especially those on short cruises such as the Caribbean from the US - book a "resort ship" & won't even get off the ship at many ports, and they're the target market of the over-sized leviathans with all the whistles & bells of a resort hotel. Each to their own. We cruise for the destinations, and whilst other factors play a part only the depth of our pockets has a significant influence on our choices. Our best cruise ever was 28 days in SE Asia on a very very old & tired ship with little entertainment, a pool about 15ft x 12 ft, no casino, no speciality dining, no TV other than a rolling movie DVD each day, no balcony cabins. No en-suite - just a bucket in the corner. No beds - just hammocks. * Yes, the risk of a ship not making every port. But the few that we've missed have been mainly in the Caribbean and weather-related. JB 🙂 * Please be aware that I have a tendency to exaggerate.

Yes, winds affect large ships far more than small ships. Like a big sail instead of a small sail. It was a factor in the Evergreen container ship blocking the Suez Canal a little while back. Our captain on Azura aborted two attempts to enter St John's, Antigua because of high and variable winds, not a problem for a much smaller ship that day. Bigger ships also have a deeper draught, so wind or currents or other factors which take a ship off a narrow channel can mean touching bottom. JB 🙂

You said that "My understanding is as a Non EU citizen departing a Third Country we are not subject to Schengen days" and I correctly told you that yes, you are subject to the 90 day rule. Yet it appears that you were already aware of that 🙄 It would have helped if you'd mentioned at the outset that you've spent - or by then will have spent - 90 days in Schengen in the preceding 12 months.🙄. Now you want to know whether this trip or that trip or the other trip can be counted as "in transit" . Is that grabbing at straws? I don't believe that either Madeira or especially Amsterdam (UK to Amsterdam to UK ??????) would be counted as "in transit" but on that matter you need advice from someone more knowledgeable than me, and I wouldn't have responded to your question in the first place. JB 😡

Yes. But you've mentioned only a port of call on Madeira and a 7-day cruise out of Malta. So how will a cruise from UK to Schengen countries & back to UK last for about 3 months ? 😕 JB 🙂

British passport-holders don't need a Schengen visa as long as it's not for stays totalling more than 90 days in a year 🙂 JB 🙂

For a port-of-call visit to Rome, by train from Civitavecchia is pretty simple - free port shuttle to port gate, payable (pennies) bus from port gate the train station, cheap return tickets for the over-subscribed direct regional trains with the options of getting off at Roma S Pietro (for Vatican) or Roma Ostiense (for Circo Massimo, the Colosseum, the Forum etc ) or at Roma Termini station. But this isn't a port-of-call for you. You'd have luggage on two buses, luggage on a train packed with cruisers, and then have to get from station to hotel. A private trnsfer is what you need. https://www.romeinlimo.com/ is highly rated by Cruise Critic members Dubrovnik The port is a couple of miles from the walled city, you'll need transportation. There's a local bus service (sorry, don't know the details) or ship's over-priced shuttle service to Pila Gate, the most convenient entrance to the walled city ("over-priced" shuttle bus but it's easy and the price difference is small-beer). Last time we negotiated a taxi at the ship's berth to the cablecar station at the top of Mount Srd, had a couple of beers or coffees with a panoramic view, then bought one-way cablecar tickets down to the walled city. Years back we "walked the walls" - highly recommended. No need for a tour - just transport from & to the ship. But the city gets pretty crowded. Croatia's currency is now the Euro. Kotor. You might be berthed at the pier or tendered - tenders go to the cruise pier. It's 100 yards via an underpass under the main road) to the historic town centre. Very pleasant. Consider a boat trip to Our Lady of the Rocks or hop-on bus to Perast - tickets sold on the pier or in the underpass. No need for a tour. The sail-in is glorious. Or if you're as lazy as us, the sail-out is the same. Corfu. Simplest & cheapest is the frequent local bus from port gate to the town centre (about 10 minutes). Two castles (strictly-speaking I think its a castle & a fort), shops, bars etc. Probably the best of your ports for shopping. There's more to Corfu than the town, but you'd need a tour or rented car. JB 🙂

Hi, & welcome. I see you've already found the Ports-of-Call boards on Cruise Critic. There's stax of info already on those boards. For each destination, go to the appropriate board (let's say Italy), and in the little "search" box (right-hand end of the blue banner) type in the name of the port or city (let's say Rome). Leave "this forum" as it is, and click on the little spyglass at the end of the search box. Give the magic a few seconds to work and you'll end up with all the posts on that board which mention Rome https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q=Rome&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=464 Do the same with the other destinations. Gotta go out now, others will chime in & I'll put in my four eggs later JB🙂

No contest. Brussels is a modern commercial city, home pf the EU administration and associated offices & businesses. It has few sights of interest and they're spread around the city. It's also a very boring 70 miles & about 2 hours from the port by road or by rail. Bruges is about 6 miles & 15/20 minutes from the port. Known for its canals as "the Venice of the North" (altho that's a big over-statement), it was for many centuries a major port for wool, lace etc until ships got bigger and the river silted up. Historic buildings, cobbled streets, shops for chocolate, lace & other local products, bars & cafes & attractions, all in a compact city centre. It's understandably where most cruisers visit, altho there are other options like Ostend, the Atlantik Wall, seaside resorts, and Sluis (actually in the Netherlands). I'd put all of those places & more ahead of Brussels JB 🙂

Yes, sadly CC members' favourite Smiths was a casualty of the pandemic. These have been recommended frequently on Cruise Critic https://westquaycars.com/ https://www.aquacars.co.uk/ (as @Crown Vic's post) https://gunwharf-executive-travel.co.uk/ All three are based at the Southampton end https://www.blackberrycars.com/ Based at the London end. JB 🙂

Not entirely true - I understand that under US contracts the cruise line has a free hand to change itineraries at will, but the OP is in Scotland, and presuming that he booked from the UK or in the EU the contract is subject to much stronger consumer protection laws. If a cruise line chooses - of its own free will or for reasons within its control - to make significant changes to the itinerary or any other major changes it is in breach of UK and EU (and I think Aus.) contracts, and would have to refund, recompense, cover costs etc. I had reason to challenge a missed port of call due to a mechanical issue which meant that shortly after leaving a port the ship had to turn back because of a faulty generator and we spent the next day in that port waiting for a spare part to be flown out. The cruise line gave meagre comp. Maintenance is within a cruise line's control, and I felt it worth significantly more. It never reached a Court of Law because the cruise line buckled under the threat of court action. Check your contract with the cruise line - if you can find the equiv. US contract you'll see the differences. Things like the weather, industrial action, or civil unrest aren't within the cruise line's control, but there are no troubles in Mediterranean Egypt, or in Istanbul or areas like Antalya where cruise ships visit, and no governments (US or UK or EU or most others) currently advise against travel to those places - but of course if that changes for the worse it becomes something beyond the control of the cruise line. I do agree with @1025cruise that it's risky to rely on making a particular port because there are so many reasons why a ship can fail to make that port. BTW Istanbul is worth waaaaay more than a one day port of call. And not that difficult or expensive to fly there for a few days JB 🙂

Just a note of caution ................ The Piraeus to Athens ho-ho bus goes via the Acropolis entrance. But unless it's been changed in the last few years, the "Athens on your own" transfer bus (Royal Caribbean, perhaps others) drops everyone at Syntagma Square, by the Parliament building - a 15 min walk to the Acropolis entrance. Somewhere there's an elevator. It's only for those unable to walk up, and I don't know its location. Worth researching if its important to you. JB 🙂

About 1 1/4 miles, 25 minutes as Gumshoe's post. But only one major road to cross, and you have the choice of a number of sets of traffic lights to help you to cross it. All on level ground, sidewalks all the way. No worries for most folk - unless it's a wet day https://maps.app.goo.gl/Lps2AocMFzqmoxgK9 JB 🙂

https://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/southampton_accommodation.htm Those are almost-all of the Southampton city centre hotels. Most are modern, some are historic. Some expensive, some not. Most full-service, some with just basic facilities. But you get what you pay for, and there are none that I would caution against - except the Mercure Dolphin whose future in uncertain. See the little thumbnail map at the bottom of that page. With luggage you'd need a short taxi hop to Mayflower terminal (red A on that map), so any hotel is as convenient as any another. Ocean terminal (red D) is walkable even with luggage from hotels blue 8 & 15, mebbe 4, 5, 6, 7 & 14.. Most convenient hotels for the city centre, old town, waterfront, pubs, restaurants etc are Blue 4 Premier Inn West Quay , Premier Inns are the UK's biggest & best budget chain, the West Quay one is popular with cruisers Blue 5 Holiday Inn Herbert Walker Ave is particularly popular with those sailing out of City cruise terminal, which is directly behind the hotel. Beware - the city's two Holiday Inn Express's are way out on the city limits, very inconvenient., Blue 6 Leonardo Royal. Don't confuse with the Leonardo, which is a little inconvenient and in the centre of a traffic gyratory. Blue 7, Pig in the Wall is a quirky boutique hotel, set in the old city's wall. Blue 8 Ennios is another boutique, in a former brick warehouse over the owner's Italian restaurant of the same name. Blue 16 Moxy, next door to P.I.West Quay, is a quirky recently-opened Marriott brand, rapidly becoming popular with cruisers. JB 🙂

In England, taxis available on spec. at cruise terminals and at taxi ranks or hailed in the street are licensed as "Hackney Carriages", and drivers are obliged to accept passengers for any destination within the borough. So even if you wanted to go only a couple of hundred yards from Mayflower to Horizon they would take you. But there's a minimum fare, plus time/distance charges so the driver doesn't lose out - they're regulated & metered so the two miles from Mayflower to Ocean will cost you about £8.50 including a £1 docks surcharge. https://www.southampton.gov.uk/media/03dd4axz/2023-table-of-fares.pdf A pre-booked Private Hire taxi eg Uber wouldn't be interested in your little hop, but If you wanted to go to, say, Heathrow airport a metered Hackney Carriage taxi would cost a fortune - you should pre-book a Private Hire taxi at a pre-agreed price. But for Mayflower to Ocean a taxi from the rank makes absolute sense JB 🙂

Or, tongue-in-cheek, where ships berth on Grand Turk is Carnival Overseas Territory & its official currency is Carnival group sea-pass 😏 JB 😏

The "Spice Island" - one of my favourites 🙂 Take your beach gear with you and check out the vans available at the pier - you want one that'll take you up into the Rainforest. Stops for spice stalls & demos and a waterfall, back past Fort George would be a bonus, and ask your driver to drop you at Grand Anse beach & not too far from the ferry pier. Food & drink outlets or order from your (payable) beachfront sunbed & shade. Return to the ship on the frequent little open ferries ("!ferries" sounds a bit grand for them 😀) at about $5 one-way. If you just want a beach day, take those little ferries both ways. Or try the Rum Runner. Join the Rum-Runner boat from close to the ship, for a party atmosphere. BUT BEWARE - Lots of boat excursions include plenty of rum punch - they're a freebie so understandably pretty weak, & we drink them down like beer. Presuming the Rum Runner's cocktails to be the same, we quaffed the first two or three. Bad move - the Rum Runner doesn't mess, they go heavy on the rum, and we were well away. We don't remember much of the trip, apparently other passengers carried us back aboard our ship & dumped us on our bed - we woke up at sea.😂 JB 🙂

Been a long time since but - there's a concentration of cafes & restaurants in Casemates Square - they mainly offer "tourist-fodder, but because it's a dedicated fish-and-chippie Roy's Fish & Chips is hopefully better than the usual bought-in ready-battered ready-frozen fish and frozen fries you'd likely find from outlets in the Square with a broad menu. https://gibraltar.com/en/travel/restaurants-bars/roys-fish-and-chips.php - near the other end of Main Street & opposite the Governor's residence, The Angry Friar was always my choice of a pub It also provides good snacks & meals https://maps.app.goo.gl/icFSA6PJvQbGXEyx5 https://gibraltar.com/en/travel/restaurants-bars/the-angry-friar.php JB 🙂

Yes, chilling on the beach - or more likely your friends will recruit you as their designated photographer 😀 But yes, if it's an excursion with friends go along and enjoy the day. JB 🙂

Hi, and welcome to Cruise Critic, You haven't given us any clues. Whereabouts in the world? Which cruiseline? Given that information we can direct you to the appropriate forums for your cruiseline and port. You can find them from the main menu https://boards.cruisecritic.com/ In the meantime I think it almost-certain that you can skip the zipline on the excursion, I doubt they'll frog-march you and handcuff you to the zip-line 😏. For instance plenty of folk take a snorkelling with turtles catamaran trip without even getting into the water. But just like that snorkelling excursion, the zipline will be a significant part of the experience and you'll be paying full price, so you might find something vaguely similar at a lower cost - even DIY transport to a beach, sunbeds and food & drink from a beach bar. JB 🙂

USD pretty-well everywhere. Many Caribbean countries' currencies are tied to the USD, same as Channel Islands & Gibraltar pounds are tied to the GB pound. The exceptions quoted by others, Martinique & Guadeloupe (plus the French half of Sint Maarten) are actually French departements just like Normandy, Brittany etc. and their currency is the euro. At tourist outlets in those places USD will very probably be accepted, altho not necessarily at a favourable exchange rate. In shops geared to locals, on buses etc USD are often not accepted, but in many cases plastic solves the problem. In any case if you travel to mainland Europe you'll probably have some euros stashed away somewhere. A couple of other things about using USD anywhere in the Caribbean - $2 bills aren't accepted, and the same often applies to soiled notes - If you use USD in outlets geared to locals, their tills are geared to give change in local currency. If for instance in a grocery shop you want to buy just a $2 bottle of pop with a $20 you'll get a very expensive bottle of pop and a stack of souvenir money. So when you get your dollars ask for plenty of 5's & 10's and use your week in the US to get some change in 1's. Don't overdose on cash, plastic is widely used in the US and becoming much more widely used in the Caribbean. And when using plastic decline any offer to charge your card in GBP "for your convenience" . Your card issuer will always give a better exchange rate. This also applies if you are cruising on a US ship - always but always have your card charged inn ship's burrency. JB 🙂

That was back in 2010 !! Long after Pol Pot's "killing fields", but I remembered it from when it was news. And of course before the building boom-and-bust. A few weeks ago, responding to a post on Cruise Critic, I mentioned a grubby but interesting little fishing village in the countryside down the coast from Sihanoukville. The OP asked me where it was - If i'd even known the name of the village I couldn't remember it, and it took me ages to find it on googlemaps . Check it out on this Googlemaps link https://maps.app.goo.gl/aoNVtobZu5P5x7id9 and you'll understand why I struggled to find it, no longer in the countryside but amongst the high-rise buildings. Some photos of it on that thread https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2976738-sihanoukville-kog-rong-kog-saloem/#comment-66706105 Yes, we know exactly what you mean by the peoples' "mellow" attitude. Life is what it is, stay laid-back and happy despite circumstances. Can't offer any comparisons with Siem Reap because we didn't go there - un-obliging ship's captain refused to sail the ship along about 300 miles of dusty roads 🙃 I remember our first visit to Lass Vegas - we drove from lonely Death Valley at dusk, and ended up on a different neon-lit planet 😃 But couldn't help but see the other side of Vegas Vietnam was much livelier than Cambodia, but tourism was in its infancy which meant it was difficult to fix things up but ridiculously cheap. An all-day junk cruise negotiated at the pier & getting lost from civilisation amongst the limestone karsts of Ha Long bay was something else. And the mist (which is normal for the bay) added to the eerie watery moonscape. About a dozen of us at $10 a head. As I understand it, now crowded and waaay more expensive And I'd organised a speedboat from Saigon (small ship, we ported in the city) up the Saigon River to the Cu Chi tunnels. Booking it was fraught because of the language barrier, wasn't too sure how big the boat would be, whether we'd find sharers on the ship (we booked it on the grounds that we reckoned it worth the cost even if it was just the two of us), and whether even the guy would show. But he was good as gold waiting for us at the ship, boat would have taken twice as many as the 8 of us but it meant we all had great seats with the wind i our hair, and it cost us about $10, each, same as a van to Cu Chi. I now see speedboats to Cu Chi professionally offered on the internet. Apologies for the long screed, as you may have realised, the best cruise we ever had - and on the rustiest old tub we've ever sailed (Loveboat's twin-sister), but such a homely ship & crew, & congenial company.. JB 🙂

I used to drive ships' bus transfers. If you book with the cruise line it will be a bus chartered by the cruise line, all the passengers will be your cruise-mates, and it will take you and your luggage direct to your cruise terminal. Exactly the same as coaches chartered by cruise lines for airport transfers Yes, ships' transfer buses leave from Victoria Coach Station in central London - that's the same coach station as the time-tabled cross-country National Express (think Greyhound) buses, and that's possibly the reason for confusion. You have the option of instead booking with National Express for a much lower fare (around £9), it's a direct service from Victoria coach station to Southampton (two or three stops en-route, but no changing buses), driver loads & unloads luggage, same as ship's coaches. But they go to Southampton Coach Station. From there a couple of cruise terminals are only a 15 minute walk, or it's a taxi costing no more than £10 to any cruise terminal. I usually try to persuade folk to save their money by booking Nat Express. Some understandably prefer the security of being the cruise line's responsibility from the moment they board the bus, but also there are luggage constraints. Since you mention lots of luggage, perhaps better for you to stick with a Princess transfer, which has no limitations on luggage - in fact they don't book out every seat because of the risk of too much luggage for the bus's belly-lockers and exceeding the coach's maximum gross weight. I hope that explains the reasons for conflicting reviews.. JB 🙂

About 8 - 10 years ago..... Bonaire - quite small, not much happening there. One time we took an escorted quad-bike tour, quite good fun, Another time snorkelling on Klein Bonaire, a small island opposite the cruise piers, just a short boat ride - best snorkelling we've done in the Caribbean. Willemstad, Curacao. Loved it. The town is very Dutch. We were berthed right in town on the channel which links the lake to the sea, & alongside the floating pedestrian bridge which is pulled open & closed by a tug - when closed to allow a ship to pass there's a free ferry launch. But larger ships berth at the cruise terminal at the end of town, a10-minute walk then cross that bridge to the town centre. Quite expensive compared to other islands. We didn't leave the town. Grand Turk. It's a Carnival-brands port. Not our sort of place - nothing local just a beach & Carnival -owned or leased shops & bars (you can use your sea-pass). Make it a beach day, don't bother with snorkelling gear. Grand Caymen. Tendered. You can fix up a boat-trip to "Stingray City", a sandbar about ? 1/2 mile / One mile? out to sea. Water is only about waist-high on the sandbar and it's teeming with wild stingrays. Harmless, they'll swim between your legs etc. Worth taking snorkelling gear but don't bother with the fins. A great experience, likely to be busy (over-busy?) these days In the past year or two .......... B.V.I. (Road Town, Tortola?). Two main choices - boat excursion to "the Baths of Virgin Gorda", a water-side boulder formation on the island of Virgin Gorda. There's a cheap ferry service, but being an island off Tortola there's no Plan B if the ferry has a problem. Ship's excursion of course costs a lot more, but the security that a boat problem is your ship's worry & not yours, cos it's a long swim to your next port 😏. So your choice will depend how lucky you feel. - Local buses & vans from the cruise pier to Cane Garden Bay. Pleasant ride with good panoramic views, to the best beach on the island. Dominica, Was very backward. now more switched-on. Vans at the pier to go up into the rain-forest or river-tubing. Very worthwhile. Dom. Rep. (Romana) Not very attractive, better in the countryside. We took a ship's excursion to Cueva-de-las-Maravillas (quite a lot of steps) and a area of iguanas, followed by a river trip (lots of rum punch) - pleasant, but not overly-exciting. JB 🙂