John Bull

IMHO it's best to keep it simple by quoting only the second inbound flight. The Heathrow Express (or Elizabeth tube line) to Paddington would work for a hotel in the Paddington area, but for an un-confident singleton using it for a hotel in many parts of central London it would be a costly or complicated disaster. JB 🙂

Yes, Princess provide transfers to LHR and LGW (and usually central London) Saturday mornings 🙂 are usually easy on roads leading to London (often clogged on roads from London on summer saturdays). Unless there's an unusual major delay, journey time by ships' transfer coaches about 90 minutes, by private transfer about 75 minutes. I can't imagine it being easier than flying from Southampton - like most big international airports it's a bit of a zoo - crowds, long lines, long walks, T 5 has two satellite departure areas. Southampton is a sleepy one-terminal airport, departure gates right by the arrivals hall, aircraft right by the terminal exit, no lines, people who smile, etc. Airfares a little higher from Southampton, but balanced by the higher cost of travel to LHR. We frequently fly from Southampton for domestic & some European destinations. JB 🙂

I'm not aware of any cruise line which offers shuttles to Southampton airport. The two useable options are by train or taxi. There are several trains per hour from Southampton Central station to Southampton Parkway Airport station, 10 minute journey, fare only £4.70 pp. You then use the elevators at that station to cross the train lines, and the airport terminal is less than 100 yards. To the airport by taxi from the cruise terminal will be about £23. But If you need a taxi from your cruise terminal to Southampton Central station that'll chop into the savings, so a taxi direct to the airport (about 20 minutes) is probably be a better bet. JB 🙂

Yes, as sane as the inventors of Tin-Tin & the Smurfs and the clog-wearing weed-smoking bargees 😜 JB 🙂

In all of those countries credit cards are very widely-used - even for just a coffee or a beer. Don't rely on them solely, have a few pounds or euros in your pockets.. Perhaps maintain about $50 to 100 in both euros & GBP, topping up at an ATM if necessary. And check first if you're going to commit to something which might cost that or more, such as a meal or a long taxi ride. Best not to rely on a single card in case of a glitch, and don't rely on Amex or Diners because they're not so widely accepted. If you don't have a card with zero foreign currency fee, get one now. Your countrymen can suggest cards. Merchants might offer to charge you in the currency of your card, some might even present their card-reader with that automatically done. Always but always pay in local currency - check that before you sign or PIN or swipe and insist. Your card issuer will give you a better exchange rate than any merchant. That also means that the figure on the card-reader is the same as on the price-sticker, menu, check, etc. Currency in Northern Ireland is the pound, but they have their own bills. Ask (apologetically) for change in English pounds to avoid complications elsewhere/ In the Republic of Ireland they use the euro, sane as Belgium and the Netherlands JB 🙂

I have no idea where Princess' 7 hours comes from 🤔 Along with other cruise lines, they usually recommend their transfer coaches for flight departures after 12.30 or 1pm. Yes, barring a massive hold-up a pre-booked car will get you to Heathrow in time - as will ship's transfer coach. The first coaches leave at about 8am, but if you're prepared to disembark unassisted (from about 7am) a car booked for 7.15 will give you an extra hour of wiggle-room. If you don't want or can't handle hauling your bags off the ship, you can book a car for 7.45 and whatever time you're allocated for disembarkation you can request at Guest Services the first disembarkation slot, usually 7.30, citing your onward travel arrangements - it just means them giving you bag labels of a different colour. Southampton to Heathrow by car is 1 hr 10 mins only in light traffic. by coach it's closer to 1 1/2 hr. On a weekday the road to Heathrow/London will be thick with traffic and likely to take 1 3/4 to 2 1/2 hours, again a further 15 to 20 minutes by coach But if this is a saturday or sunday morning you're in seventh-heaven - no commuters. JB 🙂

Worst than that - when I was a kid, my mother decided she couldn't properly clean the house as well as holding down a job, so she arranged for a lady to come in every friday to clean and tidy. But she was house-proud and didn't want the cleaner to see us in a bad light, so every thursday we had to clean and tidy the house to make it presentable for the cleaner.🙄 JB 🙂

"Back -on-board" time or "last tender" time is promoted in various ways and always on a notice at the gangway. In ports where the ship is tied-up at the pier, the latest "back-on-board" time is usually 30 mins before sailing. At the few ports where the ship may lie off-shore and you are ferried to the ship by tender, the "last tender" time is usually 60 minutes before sailing. That's the latest that you should be at the tender pier, you don't have to be back on the ship by then. If there's a line for tenders they will continue past "last tender" time until the line has been mopped-up. On the few occasions when a ship goes into a different a time-zone, ship's time might or might not be changed by one hour to match local time - usually changed if it stays in that time zone for a few days, not usually changed if it's in that time-zone just for the day. You'll be made aware of any time-zone changes, but if ship's time isn't the same as local time it's always ship's time that's used- so don't be misled by local clocks or your electronic devices. That's when a cheap "Mickey Mouse" watch is handy. Note the number of times I've used words like "usually" or "might be". Check before you get off the ship. JB 🙂

Your plan - certainly going up - is going to depend on the timings of other ships. All of them will tender the vast majority of their pax to the old quay, near the lower cablecar station. JB 🙂

@Hlitner knows his stuff about Normandy SNCF - Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer (Chemin de Fer = Road of Iron) is a train operator Like many transport operators it partners with major operators of other forms of transport. So for instance you can buy some bus tickets from the SNCF website - but not for Le Havre to Honfleur, because it does not partner with small local operators Flixbus or Bus Verts, the only operators of buses on that route. Flixbus operate two buses per week 🙄 Bus Vert's website was always pretty incomprehensible even to those with a reasonable command of the French language. Just a few awkwardly-timed buses during the week depending on school term-time, and no suitable buses on a sunday. Now I can't even get past irrelevant stuff on their home page 🙄 https://busverts.fr/category/maison/ And the bus station (Gare Routiere)is a half-hour walk from the cruise pier. Certainly a few cruisers have used local buses in the past, but I wouldn't recommend it. And you can't buy tickets from SNCF. JB 🙂

Dover - yes, if you have time Dover Castle - one of the very first Norman castles, in continuous use from the 12th century to WW2. Magnificent Keep with views of France. Roman lighthouse. Medieval, 19th century and WW2 tunnels. Military museums. Well-worth a full day, you need at least 2 hours. The other ports are secondary - niche places. Are you on a small ship Jersey - you will port or tender into St Helier. We lodged on Gorey Harbour in the shadow of Gorey Castle aka Mount Orgueil Castle), but it's 20 minutes from St Helier. Elizabeth Castle lies off St Helier on a tidal islet - walkable across the sandbar at low tide, also accessible at high tide on a tall amphibious bus. Dial "Elizabeth Castle amphibious bus Jersey" into google-images. That bus is a five-minute walk from the harbour, add 15 minutes if you want to walk across from there at low tide. 17th Century, younger than Gorey Castle but still interesting. Bristol - even if you're on a very small cruise ship, should your captain try to sail up the River Avon to Bristol you'd all very quickly get stuck 😃. You'll berth in Avonmouth or Portbury, about 8 - 10 miles from Bristol, 20 - 30 minutes by road. Train service from Avonmouth, not from Portbury. Bristol's major attraction is SS Great Britain (google it), about a mile down-river from the city centre so visit it on the way to or from Bristol Lived in the UK most of my life - never visited any of the other places. JB 🙂 ,

Normandy has a lot of regional food & drinks - that sounds like an interesting day. Not the usual brandy distilled from grapes - that's further south in Cognac & Armagnac - but apple brandy Calvados (the farmyard stuff is fiery), cider (ditto), Pommard (mid-way between Calvados & cider). And pear brandies & liqueurs Benedictine, a herbal liqueur. Pork is big in Normandy, naturally-salted lamb, scallops & oysters & mussels, tripe (if you have a strong stomach 😮), soft cheeses like Camembert, Pont-Leveque, & Neufchatel, glazed apple tart & apple-filled crepes. Rough earthenware Calvados jugs make an excellent & inexpensive souvenir, provided that they survive the journey. Gotta go now - I'm feeling hungry 😏 JB 🙂

August is usually hot hot hot. Ideal for sitting in a shady spot behind a tall cold beer. Not ideal for sight-seeing September usually makes more sense JB 🙂

You should clear airport formalities within about 90 minutes. That's more likely if you have a biometric passport (little camera icon on the front cover) because you can use the machines at immigration instead of joining a line for a manned booth. Timing & routing to your hotel as per @Globaliser's post. So excluding any exceptional delays, aircraft seat to hotel lobby before about 1.30pm (but don't make any commitments for that time). If you arrive at your hotel before check-in, most hotels will hold your cases for you - you might even get checked-in immediately. JB 🙂

Tipping isn't the norm. in Norway, but neither is it regarded as an insult. @JHCruiser123 - if you do tip, not at anywhere near American levels - just a few k to show your appreciation for excellence. Elsewhere in the world you need to check whether payment by card is accepted. In Norway you need to check whether payment by cash is accepted. Last year, at our final port-of-call and with too many k still in our pockets, we stopped for a coffee. When it was presented I got out my cash, only to be told that the establishment doesn't accept cash. There was no notice to that effect, so we said "sorry, we don't have cards, only cash". and left the server to drink the stuff for herself. In the absence of any notice I rate that as reasonable in an establishment which deals primarily with foreign visitors We managed to spend all our k elsewhere, and in an extra tip for our cabin steward (it was early-season for the ship). Having a few k would be sensible, but you could probably get by with no cash at all. JB 🙂

There's also the option of a wedding on the ship - check out the cruise line's website or e-mail them. I don't know the legalities, but its an option which isn't dependent on the ship making port. JB 🙂

RCI, and to perhaps a lesser extent NCL, are "fun" ships. Celebrity and Princess are more laid-back and - dare I say it - more refined. But we choose cruises based more on their itineraries and prices JB 🙂

I rarely venture into the big bad city, the Elizabeth line is quite new & I've not yet travelled on it. One route is the Piccadilly tube line from Heathrow - as @Globaliser's post it's the start of the line so no trouble getting seats & luggage together. Buy tickets to Westminster / Zone One. Easy cross-platform change at Baron's Court to the District line. Off that District line train at Westminster. From Westminster tube station it's something under a mile to your hotel, over Westminster Bridge then a slightly mazy walk. If you take a taxi, stay on the same side of the road (bridge on your left) to hail one - that'll avoid a circum-navigation of Parliament Square. But I'll defer to advice from those who know London better than country-boy JB. JB 🙂

HI again Amy, I share your grief with technococololgy This formatting in sympathy 😄 That address is indeed the marina. 15 to 20 minutes walk. https://maps.app.goo.gl/K3ytuXXTqcFuhPtD9 9 am is quite late for an arrival, I suspect it'll be more like 8am arrival & disembarkation from 9 am. Are the arrival times quoted for the other ports similar or earlier? But regardless, it's a bit of a risk. One time we rented a car and circum-navigated the island. Most of it was very scenic, but the south coast was almost all in long tunnels. Tunnels aren't very scenic.🙄 On another occasion we took the cablecar up to Monte, then descent on a wicker toboggan https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=41437dda0f3602d3&rlz=1C1GEWG_en-GBGB999GB999&sxsrf=ACQVn0_1lub_4KJNvM6qf3RaYrxZD-E-Tg:1706643072268&q=funchal+toboggan+ride&tbm=vid&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjilNLw7IWEAxU1gf0HHc5JBEoQ0pQJegQICxAB&biw=1346&bih=670&dpr=1.25#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:0c16b81e,vid:7wZugMQpcSU,st:0 (not our video, one of several on YouTube) From the cruise pier by retro bus (or tuk-tuk or taxi) to the cablecar station, which is just past the marina. Up in the cablecar to the first station, Monte Palace Gardens. Short walk round the corner to the start of the toboggan ride. The ride takes you about half-way down to Funchal, then walk or haggle a shared taxi to the town centre. Fun day, not too expensive. More posts on the Europe, other Mediterranean ports (??🙄??) board Here are some https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q=Funchal&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=149 Super island, super people JB 🙂

"Advance" tickets have to be bought from about 8 weeks out (up to 12 weeks on some routes). Sometimes they're available as close as the day before travel, sometimes not available a week or more out. The major drawback is that they're only good for the train time that you've booked - fine if for instance you're staying at a hotel reasonably accessible to the station, you have no excuse for missing the train. But if for instance you're flying into London Gatwick (LGW) and booking a train from there to Southampton you have no control over flight cancellation or delay, or the time to pass thro the airport formalities. In those circumstances you risk wasting your tickets, or sitting at Gatwick station for an hour or two because you were too cautious about the timing. (Trains from LHR to Southampton aren't a viable option) Advance tickets aren't amendable or refundable - if you don't get on your chosen train your tickets are trash. Since you're lodging in London pre-cruise cheap "advance" tickets to Southampton or Dover make sense. JB 🙂 ps Dammit - Welsh Dave beat me to it 🙃

Hailing a taxi in the street is fine for short hops within the city - but is by far the most expensive way of going to the port, especially if the driver uses the meter. Pre-book a fixed-price private transfer, preferably direct but alternatively by asking your hotel to book it. JB 🙂

OK, so walking up-hill is a problem. How about walking down-hill? For good reason folk stress about the lines for the cablecar, but for most people walking down the zig-zag path from Fira to the tender pier isn't too strenuous - the steps are wide and shallow, and the path has a solid chest-high wall Top to bottom takes about 20 minutes. There are plenty of places where you can sit for a break - even a couple of bars Whilst other may disagree, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to folk of average mobility. But only you can decide for yourself JB 🙂

International Friends is a trusted and long-established coach operator, comments on Cruise Critic about their cruise tour-transfers are overwhelmingly positive. You won't be spending half the day on a scenic tour of London hotels - they use several vehicles for pick-ups, then transfer to the tour coach en-route. But they don't quote how long at Windsor - this will of course depend on any delays before the coach arrives in Windsor, and reports of any delays between Windsor and Southampton. A small worry is that on a summer saturday the route to Southampton is usually clogged with Londoners heading out of the big bad city to the south coast - but the scheduled arrival time is at least 60 to 90 minutes ahead of latest check-in time. Like any responsible transfer organisation their priority is getting you to your ship in good time. I'll hazard a guess that on average the time spent at Windsor is about two hours - "sufficient" for just the castle but not generous. Guides aren't permitted in the castle - you can employ a castle guide but most folk are happy with the audio-guide On the other hand if Windsor is a priority it avoids the loss of a day in London. A day-trip to Windsor from London would be a much more leisurely affair - about 6 hours, more if you cut into the evening. As you're probably aware there are direct trains from Waterloo station to Windsor Riverside station, a 5 - 8 minute walk from the castle entrance. Broadly half-hourly service, journey time just under an hour e/w, £16 return pp. In summary a day-trip to Windsor from your London hotel. then a train to Southampton on the morning of your sailing day would be cheaper, more in-depth and more leisurely. But you'd lose a sight-seeing day in London. Those are the choices, but we can't choose for you. Your choice might depend on how many days between flying in and sailing out. (BTW - if you choose to travel to Southampton by train, "advance" train tickets are half the cost of the walk-up fares but come with a caveat. Ask again if you're not clear about this) JB 🙂

The quay at Funchal is well over 1/2 mile long long, so it depends on quite how far along your ship is berthed. There will e taxis at the ship. And retro buses partway along the quayside https://maps.app.goo.gl/jPjhUxtoiD9zjMPc6 And can you quote the location you need to be at to meet the excursion operator? JB 🙂

Since this will be a berthed port-of-call, half-an-hour before advertised sailing time at the latest would be normal though folk tend to allow for longer. Because of the distance your time in London will be quite limited. Your ship will almost-certainly be at Horizon Cruise Terminal, but double-check that on https://www.southamptonvts.co.uk/Live_Information/Shipping_Movements_and_Cruise_Ship_Schedule/Cruise_Ship_Schedule/ If you go to London by train..... Horizon Cruise Terminal is about a 15 to 20 minute walk from Southampton Central station. Take a train to London Waterloo station, there are 2 to 3 per hour, journey time is about 90 minutes.. Don't take a train to London Victoria station - they're less-frequent and take 2 1/2 hours 😮 You need to check at what time you are likely to be able to disembark, then from about 8 weeks out you can buy on-line cheap "advance" tickets - for return tickets that's £25 to £30 instead of £55. But those cheap advance tickets are only good for the train time that you've booked - miss that train and you'll have to pay the full walk-up fare for the next train. For the return to Southampton aim to catch the second-to-last or even the third-to-last possible train, leaving at least one train to spare in case you are delayed heading back to Waterloo station. https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/journey-planner/ Alternatively consider a private or shared tour (check your cruise Roll-Call to see if anyone is looking for sharers) or ship-sponsored coach tour. But don't even think about renting a car to drive the sights of London 😮 JB 🙂