John Bull

Yep. She's in Portsmouth. https://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/ JB 🙂

Wherever floats your boat, and Bath is certainly popular. Very attractive Georgian city, centred on the Roman Baths, and Jane Austen connections. Hourly direct train service from Southampton Central takes just under 90 minutes, and advance-purchased return tickets cost £31 or less. Yes, the station (Bath Spa) is in the city centre and most of the sights (Roman baths, Pulteney Bridge etc) are in easy walking distance, the Royal Crescent is a further 10 - 15 minutes. JB 🙂

A 3.00pm scheduled flight should not be a problem, you have three main options. 1. At about £16 pp the cheapest option by far is by National Express bus. The 9.00am bus gets to Heathrow about 11.00am. You definitely need to pre-book to be sure of a seat, and you'll need to know your airport terminal. Add a max. of £10 for a taxi from any cruise terminal to Southampton coach station. If you're allocated a disembarkation slot later than 8.00am, go to customer relations and ask for an earlier slot, citing your onward travel arrangements. In normal times the 11.00am bus would be "OK" but these aren't normal times, plus it gives you no wiggle-room for any delay en-route. https://book.nationalexpress.com/ 2. All cruise lines offer their own transfer buses to Heathrow, they each go direct to a single LHR terminal - the first one leaves from about 8.00am, but you have a wide time window and even the last one - which leaves about 9 - 9.30 & takes the stragglers to all LHR terminals - will arrive at LHR in good time for you. Folk on this thread have mentioned Princess - if indeed you are on Princess their transfers have always been good value at about $65 pp. But other lines including RCI & Cunard at over $100 pp have been more expensive than a private transfer for two or more people. 3. For suggestions of private transfer operators, scroll thro' the top sticky thread on this forum. But ignore Smiths for Airports, who sadly were a casualty of the Covid restrictions. Because of rampant inflation, especially fuel costs, the private transfer prices on that thread (and the cruiseline prices that I've quoted above) will be out-of-date. There's no direct train service from Southampton to LHR, it involves a London-bound train to Woking, then a tortuous RailAir bus from there to LHR. Expensive at over £40 pp, and takes longer than the bus. Not recommended, but it's a frequent service, there's no need to pre-book, and time is not a great problem for you, so it's a good Plan B if your other arrangements go belly-up. I don't know whether you can buy a thru train+bus ticket at Southampton station, or you have to buy a train ticket to Woking then a RailAir ticket from the bus driver. But don't buy a "train ticket to Heathrow" - that involves a train to London Waterloo, then crossing central London to London Paddington for a train back out to Heathrow. JB 🙂

I kinda figured that. It won't be a highlight of your vacation, but it'll do the job and won't require a lot of fuss or money. 🙂 JB 🙂

Ray is thinking of the Holiday Inn, Herbert Walker Avenue, in the centre of the city by Dock Gate 8. But sorry to say, HI Express Southampton West isn't a good location - it's on the city's western boundary - suitable for those with a car because it's handy for the motorway, but sorely lacking in local services. The only eatery in walking distance is the Walnut Tree pub, but the good news is that it's just across HI Express' parking lot, a 5-minute walk. We've eaten there just the once, it's OK. It's a family pub, geared to those with kids & not the sort of place for a romantic dinner or a quiet drink. Broad menu, very competitive pricing, the food is very acceptable but don't expect freshly-prepared gourmet food or a long wine list. OK for one night, and probably not worth a 5 mile taxi ride to try the restaurants in the city centre or a 20+ minute walk to the Horns Inn or the Balmoral Beefeater pub.. Don't trust the website's "food served til 10pm" - like most pubs & restaurants that means they take food orders til 8.30 or 9pm. https://www.farmhouseinns.co.uk/pubs/hampshire/walnut-tree-farm/?utm_source=g_places&utm_medium=locations&utm_campaign= JB 🙂

Never trust auto-correct 😉 BoB certainly has a well-deserved reputation for having a bad temper - and October/November & Feb/March are the most likely months. We take the same attitude as klfrodo's Brit friends, and just to rub it in the North Sea and English Channel are also much more likely to cut up rough at that time of year - when we cross to France in winter we take the tunnel rather than the ferries. We've never taken the ferry to the Spanish north coast, but we've sailed cruise ships across BoB a few times without problems - and leviathans like Oasis o t Seas don't get tossed around like ferries. And even at that time of year it's waaaaay more likely that you'll have a smooth crossing rather than a rough one - but it's a risk. And now that you know the score, even if you have a smooth out-bound crossing the same risk for the return crossing may play on your mind 🤞. JB 🙂

How's a visitor going have confidence that in the 24 hours or less before sailing away a couple of expensive bottles ordered & paid-for are waiting for them wherever, as ordered, and intact? 🤔 No, G., these are circumstances where you look, choose, pay, and carry all in one go. I've spent plenty of time in London, G., including a 6-month spell working out of Dover Street. And spent time in the square mile with the entitled products of Eton & Harrow & Winchester who are their fathers' sons. Too many of them full of themselves, but not-very-bright. And my dealings with Whitehall have always been protracted & fraught. Nah, not got much time for the city types. 😉 BTW I remembered a post of yours years ago about LHR duty-paid "duty-free" in arrivals between customs and arrivals hall . You said the place usually wasn't up to much, but that one time you got a stack of great value champagne. I took a look next time, very little stock and no bargains. Being a cynic, I see it as an opportunity to get visitors to buy what they presume is a duty-free bargain before they're able to see High Street prices. JB 🙂

Premier Inn Dover Central and Dover Best Western Plus, both on Marine Parade. JB 🙂

Ladysail and the OP were both looking to buy in Southampton. 🙄 Southampton isn't the big bad city, peopled by arrogant yuppies introduced by their nepotistic muppy parents or their "old school tie" contacts into over-paid red-braces-wearing City jobs or dark-suited & booted civil servant jobs, and who have more money than sense. But should any of them stray to Southampton, Majestic have wines at £400 a bottle for them as well as wines at £4 a bottle for the impoverished, and 1500 other wines in between for the rest of us. If you know of a wine store in Southampton with a wider selection, more knowledgeable staff and more realistic prices please share. JB 🙂

Yes, that's correct. Applies to a few countries around the world JB 🙂

Yes, plenty of outlets in town including M&S. But unless you're overniting or on a B2B, the most convenient depends on your transportation to Southampton. By train (or if you're a true connoisseur), Majestic Wines is directly opposite Southampton Central station. By National Express, ASDA's rear entrance via the multi-storey parking lot opposite the coach station By private transfer with a driver who doesn't know Southampton well, Tesco in Easton Lane, Winchester, just off junction 9 of the M3. There are no shops other than refreshments & nik-naks at the cruise terminals JB 🙂

99% of the ships using Southampton are cruises which turn around (ie start and/or finish) there, just a tiny few are on a port-of-call visit. https://www.southamptonvts.co.uk/Live_Information/Shipping_Movements_and_Cruise_Ship_Schedule/Cruise_Ship_Schedule/ And the same for Dover https://www.doverferryphotosforums.co.uk/dover-cruise-schedule/ Virgin, Marella, Fred Olsen and others turn around at other UK ports - places like Portsmouth, Liverpool, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Tilbury, occasionally Bristol (Avonmouth). But many other cruise ships calling at those ports are on a port-of-call visit, ie cruises which don't start or finish there.. But your best bet is to visit the websites of cruise-specialist travel agents. We're not permitted to name agents on Cruise Critic, but just google "cruise specialists UK" On most (all?) of their websites, you can narrow down available cruises by quoting things like date/s, destinations, cruise lines ................. and "Sailing from" 🙂 JB 🙂

All cruise transfer coaches call at all Heathrow terminals (except T1, which no longer exists). Normally there are at least two cruise line agents in the arrivals hall of each terminal with Princess boards - when a coach has been called up, one agent leads passengers to the coach. I don't know whether things have changed but when I used to drive cruise transfers, coaches were scheduled to be at Heathrow coach park at 8am & the first coaches called forward by about 8.30. Depending on the total number of passengers, there are usually two & sometimes three coaches circulating at the same time. Most passengers can expect to be on a coach within about 20 minutes of entering the arrival hall but the coach may trawl other terminals. Each coach is usually full after 2 or 3 terminals, it's released to travel to port, and another coach called forward. Cruise line transfers are expensive (Princess less expensive than most), but the system is both slick and flexible, pretty quick & easy for passengers. I think the coaches run til about 1.00 - 1.30pm, but later if a flight is delayed. Drive time to Southampton is about 90 minutes in normal traffic. Coaches don't normally stop en-route, they go from the last airport terminal direct to the cruise terminal (no chance of buying wine en-route or at the cruise terminal). Most coaches have a bathroom, I think Princess is one of the cruise lines which insist on one. BTW most coaches are contracted from various Southampton coach operators. If yours is sign-written Princess - no, your cruise line doesn't have its own coaches. One of the coach operators is also called Princess. JB 🙂

I didn't measure it 😉 but I guess walking the walls took us a very leisurely 60 minutes or thereabouts. Great if not too hot. Yes, plenty of taxis at the port. Price is by negotiation, I think we settled for about €30 port to top cablecar station (steep, narrow & twisty road. good views). Buy your one-way cablecar tickets from the souvenir shop in the cablecar station (we used credit card). Entry to the walking the walls only at Pila Gate. Pay in kuna or by credit card. Taxi rank & buses back to the port from outside the Pila Gate. I think we agreed €15 for a taxi. The Croatian government embargo on accepting foreign currencies ended back in June, most places in Dubrovnik & Split & other touristy places now accept euros. But not other currencies like USD. Yes, it was a great way to spend the day - we prefer to do our own thing even though we don't learn as much as we would with a guide. JB 🙂

The place for your post is the RollCall for your cruise. But you are effectively on several B2B cruises, so there'll be several changes of cruise-mates and several RollCalls. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?type=forums_topic&search_and_or=or&search_in=titles&nodes=234&q=Oct October Have fun JB 🙂

Southampton isn't a tourist city, it has enough to interest the visitor for a day. But because it's a railway junction, it's a good base for day-trips by train with direct train services to places like the historic cathedral City of Salisbury 35 minutes (then Stonehenge by ho-ho bus), the historic cathedral city of Winchester 15 minutes, the historic dockyard & ships and other attractions of Portsmouth 50 minutes, the Georgian city of Bath, the Victorian seaside resort of Weymouth, the cathedral city of Chichester, the bohemian resort of Brighton http://www.projectmapping.co.uk/Reviews/Resources/SWR map 6c.pdf and https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ There are also ferries from Southampton to the Isle of Wight (30 minutes fast-ferry, 60 mins traditional ferry) then a short bus ride to Queen Victoria's favourite home, Osborne House, or ferries across Southampton Water to Hythe (Hampshire) then taxi to Beaulieu. And if you rent a car for just a day or two, that opens up dozens more places from a Southampton base. Google those places, (google "visit Bath, UK", "visit Salisbury, UK" etc), see what you think And use this forum's search box for posts about those places. Good range of shops, restaurants, pubs, entertainments & other services in Southampton city centre. All of the hotels in the link below are in the city centre. https://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/southampton_accommodation.htm Hotels numbered 1, 2 & 3 in blue on the little map at the bottom of this linked page are directly opposite Southampton central train station. They're only a 15 minute walk to The Bargate, the centre of the city, but those numbered 16, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, & 11 are closer. A quick note on some of those hotels........ 1 Novotel is a pretty standard 3+-star hotel 2. Ibis is not quite up to Novotel standard 3. Ibis Budget is probably cheapest in the city centre, perhaps a bit limited for more than a night or two. 16. Moxy's is a quirky Marriott brand. 4. Premier Inns is the UK's most popular budget chain, Premier Inn West Quay is by far the most convenient of Premier Inns' Southampton hotels. 5. Holiday Inn is right by Dock Gate 8 for City cruise terminal and rooms at the back look over the terminal hence popular with those sailing NCL, Celebrity, MSC and various other cruise lines. 7 & 8 Pig in the Wall and Ennios are boutiques - Pig in the Wall is built into the city wall, Ennio's a converted warehouse. 9. Southampton Harbour hotel (recommened by exlondoner)is the only 5-star hotel in the city. Expensive - my only visit was for a traditional roast sunday lunch, very good. But inconvenient for the city centre, and even more so for the train station. 10 Mercure Dolphin is an historic coaching inn. History has its disadvantages, such as variable room sizes and sloping floors. 15. Room 2 (recommended by D&N) is in a quiet no-thru-road, across a small park from Dock Gate 4 for Ocean cruise terminal. The city centre's hotels are mainly modern, standards vary broadly in line with prices, some I'd prefer over others but there are none that I'd choose to avoid, Port Royal's recommendation of Limewood is in the New Forest, about 10 miles from Southampton. It's one of several I could suggest for those with a rented car, but not for those without. BTW, there are flights to Malaga from Southampton airport - super friendly and easy little single-terminal airport, very different to the zoos of London Heathrow London Gatwick, etc. Perhaps also from nearby Bournemouth, but for both SOU & BOH you'd need to check whether there are flights in January. JB 🙂

No. They (all?) stop at Terminals 4 and 5 which are on different sides of the airport then they go to Heathrow central bus station for T's 2 and 3. From there they go to central London's Victoria coach station via one stop in Hammersmith, west London. You'd need a local bus or the hotel hoppa or a taxi between any terminal and hotels near the airport. For one that's tolerably close you'll probably find that a taxi from the rank costs little more than two hoppa tickets. Can't help further, but if you post your hotel (or hotels that you're considering) hopefully you'll get help from someone who knows the airport better than this country boy JB 🙂

That rain was the day we passed about 50 miles off Kusadasi. But since Death Valley had flash-floods last week .................... 😉 JB 🙂

Jeez, this thread is boring me silly. Plans for ETIAS were approved by by the EC in 2016, and the start date planned as "early 2021". Then January 2023 Eventually it announced that the start date would be May 2023. Hence the lack of confidence in the new date of Nov 2023. You surely know, my feathered friend, that wheels grind slowly in governments - and even more slowly in conglomerations of governments. Dates get put back as regularly as estimated costs escalate. But dates are rarely brought forward - and since ontheweb's travel starts in August the prospects are 99.99% certain that they won't need to worry. Check it out six months before you travel makes a lot of sense to me. JB 🙂

It's out-of-season in the eastern Med., but I can't be specific about Kusadasi. I couldn't find an official cruise ship schedule for Kusadasi. Independent websites are less reliable than port websites, but I checked a couple which showed Celestyal Olympia, Mein Schiff 5, and Oceania Nautica in port on 22 October - they're small and medium size ships (if your ship isn't one of these, it would demonstrate how unreliable independent websites are 😉). So in theory not too busy in the port, but of course cruisers aren't the only visitors to Kusadasi & especially Ephesus. And it's a saturday, there might be a weekend boost to visitors https://www.whatsinport.com/Kusadasi.htm https://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/kusadasi-port-623?tab=schedule&month=2022-10#schedule It won't be too hot in mid-October, but that's when the climate changes from pleasant end-of-summer to sometimes-cold & often-wet beginning-of-autumn. That was brought home to us quite vividly a few years back. We sailed out of Istanbul to Israel in early October. Weather was glorious in Istanbul, pool deck was packed on the sea-day past Anatolia. Good weather until a week later as we returned past Anatolia, when it was cold, windy & wet, and the decks were empty. Istanbul was unpleasantly cold. All of which is the long-winded way of saying at that time of year the weather is in the lap of the gods. JB 🙂

Princess normally use Ocean cruise terminal and Mayflower cruise terminal. Mayflower is some way into the docks & isn't so good for walking, especially with luggage - a taxi makes sense from any hotel, so the hotel's location isn't important All of the hotels in the link below are within a short taxi ride of the train station, the National Express coach station, and all of Southampton's five cruise terminals - some are easily walkable. https://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/southampton_accommodation.htm Ocean is walkable from hotels numbered 16, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, & 15 in blue on the little map at the bottom of this linked page. The hotels I've listed are also easily walkable to the waterfront, the walled old town, and the main shopping street and West Quay Mall on the northern side of the town wall. The Bargate (the main gate thro the city wall from the London road) is the centre of town. A quick note on some of those hotels........ 16. Moxy's is a quirky Marriott brand. 4. Premier Inns is the UK's most popular budget chain, Premier Inn West Quay is by far the most convenient of Premier Inns' Southampton hotels. 5. Holiday Inn is right by Dock Gate 8 for City cruise terminal and rooms at the back look over the terminal hence popular with those sailing NCL, Celebrity, MSC and various other cruise lines. 7 & 8 Pig in the Wall and Ennios are boutiques - Pig in the Wall is built into the city wall, Ennio's a converted warehouse. 15. Room 2 is in a quiet no-thru-road, across a small park from Dock Gate 4 for Ocean cruise terminal. The city centre's hotels are mainly modern, standards vary broadly in line with prices, some I'd prefer over others but there are none that I'd choose to avoid. Two main choices for transport from Heathrow ....... National Express bus. Takes 2 hours .By far the cheapest option, but frequency is quite limited & you should pre-book one which gives you a minimum of 90 minutes from your scheduled touch-down. https://www.nationalexpress.com/en Private transfer. It's a 90 minute drive. Because of the two years of Covid and now the fuel price-hikes I'm a little out-of-touch on prices but I guess around £120 to £130. Try https://westquaycars.com/ and https://aquacars.co.uk/ and https://www.blackberrycars.com/ (Smiths for Airports, popular with cruisers, are no more - a casualty of the pandemic) There's no train service between Heathrow & Southampton. Best train option is a RailAir bus to Woking or Reading station and a direct train from there. But it's slow and expensive, only useful as a Plan B. f your arranged transport goes belly-u. Go to the information desk in the airport terminal and ask about RailAir to Southampton. If another Princess ship is sailing on your travel day I guess you could blag seats on its Princess transfer bus. Just remember to tell the driver so that he stores your bags separately & hand them back to you at the cruise terminal, or they'll be going off on their own cruise 😉. Then taxi to your hotel. BTW, don't expect too much of "Southampton old town". Southampton was heavily blitzed in 1941/42, so it's an incongruous mix of historic and post-war. JB 🙂

I concur with your TA. JB 🙂

Sorry, no. Nowhere in the docks, and no duty-free in town. And to the best of my knowledge no duty-free for arrivals at any of London's airports. If you want duty free you need to buy airside at your US departure airport - though if you're after a couple of bottles of wine I'm not sure you'll find wine in airports' duty-frees. If you plan to spend time in London there are plenty of places to buy (duty-paid) wine. Or if straight to Southampton, post your cruise terminal (or ship and sailing date), and your transportation to Southampton (train or bus or private transfer or ship's bus transfer) and I can suggest places in Southampton. JB 🙂

We've over-nighted at Korcula on a laid-back gulet cruise, but didn't travel out of the town. Very pleasant port, a good selection of bars & restaurants. And you'll find the island much more relaxed and far better value than in Dubrovnik. The island's coast seemed rather featureless, but I suspect it's more interesting up in the hills. We've visited Dubrovnik a few times, two cruises and a road-trip. On our cruise a couple of months back we took a taxi one-way from the cruise port to the cablecar station at the top of Mt Srd. Magnificent panoramic views looking down on the walled city and coastline from behind a couple of tall cold beers. Then down in the cablecar to the lower station, which is just a 5 minute walk down to the nearest city gate at Vrata od Buže We'd already walked the walls on a previous trip, and in cooler weather. But if its not too hot, it's great fun. You can walk the entire length or duck out halfway round. The only entrance to walk the walls is at Pile (also spelt Pila) Gate. City is crowded, but there are tucked-away places like on the waterfront. JB 🙂 PS We've hooked up a couple of times with Hank& his better half, at Southampton and DC/Gettysburg. Any cure in sight for your addiction to the evil black Irish liquid, Hank? 😜

Ephesus is about 30 minutes from Kusadasi and opens at 8am, so you can go there straight off the ship. And temperature-wise and crowd-wise that's a good time to go. But unless you book a personal tour or use a taxi, you'll not be in control of when you leave. A taxi will drop you at the entrance where you should be able to pick up a guide or a guidebook, not sure f there are audio-guides. Driver will then wait for you at the other end of the site. But be aware that there's virtually no written info at the site so without a guide you'll not know what you're looking at. On your way back from Ephesus you can decide on the market or Pigeon Island - I don't believe you'll have time for both, mebbe not even for one of them. Time available and weather might dictate which of the two you should aim for. JB 🙂