John Bull

The problem with the train from Blankenberge is that the train is only hourly, and you get to Blankenberge station by ship's shutlelbus (payable or included in cruise ticket) meaning you can't plan when you'll arrive at the station. So you could waste up to an hour. And that's a shame, because the train is quick, comfortable and cheap. The map Richard's blog shows the rail station, bottom left. It's a pleasant & level 15 - 20 minute walk to the Markt / Belfort Tower. The express bus & ships' "Bruges on your own" transfer buses drop on the little island to the right (east) of the train station - they're not permitted into the cobbled centre. From there you cross over Minniwater by the little red bridge and thro Minnewater Park to the centre. Also a pleasant and level 15 - 20 minute walk. BTW the canal cruises are all in similar open boats (because of the low bridges) all follow the same route, and all are the same price. There are boarding points for the canal cruise at various points along the canal - you are returned to the point where you boarded, so your cruise is same length wherever you board & you see the same sights but in a different order. So if you see a short line at one boarding point, join it. JB 🙂

Looks more like an altercation about just who is entitled to use that sun-bed 😂 JB 🙂

It'd be very crowded. It's very crowded even out of season without a cruise ship within miles. Very pleasant. But very small and very crowded. JB 🙂

Hi, Theo, Yes, there'll be a line of taxis at the cruise terminal. But these are metered taxis, fine for a hop of a few miles but expensive for the 20 miles to Portsmouth. Because the destination is outside Southampton city limits you can barter a price if the driver agrees - or the driver can decline that journey, leaving you to lobby the line. So far better & cheaper to pre-book a fixed-price private transfer, for example .... https://westquaycars.com/ https://aquacars.co.uk/ http://www.southamptontaxis.net/ https://gunwharf-executive-travel.co.uk/ Or by train to Portsmouth Harbour. Or by National Express bus to Portsmouth International Port and then Portsmouth Harbour. Is this for a cross-Channel ferry to France or the Channel Islands? They all depart from Portsmouth International Port. if you're looking for a hotel it means you'll be spending some time in Portsmouth - the only hotel at the International Port is a Premier Inn, and there are very very few local facilities. So unless perhaps you're booked on a ferry at daft o'clock in the morning, you'd do better to book a hotel close to amenities - shops, restaurants, pubs, attractions, etc. Two areas to consider ............ Near The Hard / Portsmouth Harbour, a 5-minute taxi ride from the International Port. The Isle of Wight ferries sail from Portsmouth Harbour. Portsmouth Harbour is handy for Portsmouth Historic Dockyard - a day's-worth of attractions, including Nelson's HMS Victory (still a commissioned warship), the ironclad Warrior and Henry V111's Mary Rose, and a variety of displays in the dockyard buildings. And the Gunwharf Quays shopping / entertainment complex with its iconic Spinnaker Tower. I'd recommend Holiday Inn Express in Gunwharf Quays, or for something a bit different the Royal Maritime Club - originally for sailors, now a very good quirky 3-star hotel with maritime connections and usually a sprinkling of Royal Navy clientele. Or Southsea seafront, a ten-minute taxi ride from the International Port or a five-minute bus ride from Portsmouth Harbour. Portsmouth & Southsea are conjoined cities- only locals know where the boundary is. But whereas Portsmouth is a Navy city, Southsea is a vacation resort city. Pebbled beach, waterfront promenade with views to the Isle of Wight, D-Day museum, Henry V111's diminutive Southsea Castle, ice-creams and candy-floss and kiss-me-quick hats. Best-known hotel is The Queen's Hotel, but there's a very wide selection. https://www.visitportsmouth.co.uk/ https://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/ https://www.booking.com/hotel/gb/exhiportsmouth https://www.booking.com/hotel/gb/royal-maritime-club JB 🙂

Have you no faith in the ship's navigator? 😉 🤣 JB 🙂

Hi Ombud, An e-Passport is one which can be read automatically,. No need for it to be inspected by an immigration officer. In the immigration hall you join a separate line. At the bottom of the front cover (of a UK passport and - according to the web - a US passport) is a little circle in a split box, like a symbol for a camera. This indicates that the passport is chipped, including facial shape & possibly other biometric data. You hold your passport on the pad, look at the camera, and pray that the gate will open. Just like self-checkouts at grocery stores, there are staff to help with any problems. It's no quicker per-person than the line for an immigration officer, but it means there are many many more gates - because of that it's usually a lot quicker. https://www.dhs.gov/e-passports You need to know your LHR terminal in order to book the Nat Express bus. You mention a bus at 2.15pm, but that's from Terminal 5, mainly for British Airways. That bus leaves Heathrow central bus station at 2pm - from T2 and T3 it's a ten-minute walk to central bus station. T1 no longer exists. Nat Express currently doesn't serve T4, arrivals at T4 need to get to either T5 or central bus station using the free inter-terminal transport, takes 15 minutes plus. https://www.heathrow.com/at-the-airport/terminal-guides/which-terminal - but your terminal should be noted on your booking. It's very difficult to predict how long thro' airport formalities, at LHR it's reckoned at about 90 minutes. Then of course there's whether your flight is on-time, and whether it is indeed T5. So it's pretty border-line. If you sail same-day, the later bus (3.15 / 3.30pm) is due in Southampton at 5.25pm - most ships will have sailed by then. Even the 2.00 / 2.15 pm doesn't get to Southampton until 4pm, probably after latest registration time. In the circumstances I suggest you book ship's coach transfer. If that's not possible, go to the terminal information desk in the Arrivals Hall and ask to book the RailAir bus to Woking rail station, where you board a Southampton-bound train (usually 3 trains per hour. Both options will cost a lot more than the Nat Express bus - £50 to £60 pp. If you're not sailing same-day, I suggest you book the 3.15 / 3.30pm bus. If you get thro in time for the earlier bus - and if there's space on it - you can take it on payment of a £5 amendment fee, If you book the earlier one & miss it, same applies - but if the later one is fully-booked then it's a 65 mile walk to Southampton !! JB 🙂 .

If a cruise ship visits Tangiers, the souk is right by the port gate & it plus the old town are easy to DIY, though you'll be pestered (there's a western-style hotel in the souk, you can get a beer, coffee, whatever and some un-pestered peace & quiet in there) A decade since we were last there, but lots of "guides" offering their services - it's actually simplest to agree to have one (costs peanuts, they get commissions from shops, taxis & such) because that stops you from being pestered by other "guides". Consider taking a taxi ride to Cap Spartel and Hercules Cave, about an hour round-trip - agree a price first. If your ship goes to Tangiers Med Port be aware that it's in the back of beyond, 30 miles / 50 minutes from Tangiers. Ship's shuttle (or a long & painfully-slow local bus ride) is needed. We found that out the hard way - took a ferry from Algeciras, not knowing it had switched from Tangiers to Tangier Med. 🙄 JB 🙂

I'm not aware of any suitable scheduled tours from Heathrow. There are private tours, - depending on your numbers that could be very expensive, but you could take your luggage with you & be dropped off at your central London hotel. https://www.touristengland.com/tours/heathrow-layover-tours/ Bear in mind that private guides are not permitted in Windsor Castle - it's either an official castle guide or an audio-gude (the audio-guide is perfectly good enough) But Windsor is pretty easy to DIY, by taxi or bus or train ................... . Easiest & quickest is by taxi. A pre-booked private-hire taxi or Uber (usually a fixed price, can be booked when you arrive but has to be pre-booked) will cost about £35 - £40 one-way. For best value choose Uber or a Windsor-based operator like https://www.royalwindsortaxis.co.uk/. You could ask your hotel to call one for you. But you don't want a "black cab" like those ranked-up at the airport - they're metered, and expensive for anything but a 2 - 3 mile hop in the city.. By train or bus+train is a little complicated - better to take a direct Green Line No. 703 bus or FirstGroup bus No. 8 from Terminal 5 to the Parish Church in the centre of Windsor, just a two-minute walk from Windsor Castle. Journey time about an hour. Cheap and simple. But they only call at terminal 5. https://www.windsor.gov.uk/visitor-information/travel-information/getting-here/by-bus-and-coach JB 🙂

Save a couple of strikes on your keyboard - it's Southampton, not South Hampton 😉 I can think of a couple of city centre hotels which provide transfer to cruise terminals, but not worth mentioning because they simply call a taxi, which saves you just £5 to £10. Some hotels on the city boundary (eg the Doubletree at Chilworth) or outside the city offer cruise transfers, but they're poorly located for local amenities. The hotels on the thumbnail map at the bottom of the linked page are all city centre, none is more than a £10 taxi ride to any cruise terminal. https://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/southampton_accommodation.htm Most of the hotels listed are fairly bland but perfectly acceptable modern national or international brands, quirkier ones are the Pig in the Wall, Ennios, and Mercure Dolphin (plus White Star Rooms, which isn't shown). Some are more conveniently-located than others. And some are better than others, but differences are clear from the prices and I don't think that any are to be avoided. To those wine outlets listed by Polk01 add Marks & Spencer in West Quay Mall (same mall as John Lewis / Waitrose) and the Co-op (called "Welcome") right by Premier Inn West Quay and Moxy's. All are grocery stores with wine aisles, Waitrose & M & S for the better wines, ASDA for the better prices and a wider range. Or if you're serious about wines, Majestic Wines (on Western Esplanade opposite the train station and just 5 minutes from West Quay) is a specialist with a huge range and knowledgeable staff. https://goo.gl/maps/bMjWpmZ5g8Pjw7hd7 https://www.majestic.co.uk/stores/southampton JB 🙂

Makes it even more impossible.😟 IF they were on the cruise RollCall and IF that RollCall hasn't been wiped in the meantime, then you have a route. Otherwise any other chances are 99.9% doomed to failure. Many of us have been there, and put it down to experience. JB 🙂

Put simply, the weather / temperatures thereabouts can't be trusted. In the south of England / northern France, September - especially early September - can be very very pleasant. Probably not for sunbathing but certainly for sightseeing. I guess around 20C, less any factor for winds at sea. As a general rule the further south, the warmer the weather. Into October the weather usually changes - shorter days, cooler nights. But an "Indian Summer" can last thro to November - or autumn storms (usually late October into November) can arrive early. So it's a bit of a lottery. Because of the potential for storms in the English Channel, we avoid sailing out of England mid-October onwards, and if we visit mainland Europe then we book the Eurotunnel rather than ferries. And once out of the English Channel, you're into the Bay of Biscay. BoB has a reputation for being very bad-tempered at any time of the year, but even in late autumn & late winter it's more-often smooth than stormy. Even at the worst time of the year, the weather & seas are more likely to be fine rather than grim - and September increases the likelihood of fine weather. But you never know - so pack for warm / cool / dry / wet. But don't bother with long-johns or snow-shoes 😉 JB 🙂

We joined a van that was touting for business just outside the port - there were several operators offering different tours, much like in the Caribbean. Cana was just one of several brief stops in a pretty wide-ranging tour & was conveniently on the route to the River Jordan & Sea of Galilee. Sorry, don't recall the name -in fact we probably only ever knew the name of the driver/guide. But that was about 10 years ago. When we returned in 2019, arrangements at the port were very different - we walked out of the port to the train station (5 - 10 min walk) for a visit to Akko / Acre, and altho we weren't looking for a tour I'm sure that if there were any we'd have seen them. So unless anyone else chips in, I guess it's back to Google / TripAdvisor etc. JB 🙂

They are currently experiencing an unusually high number of calls. Your call is important to them and will be answered as soon as possible blah blah 😉 JB 🙂

I've never heard of Corporate Flyer either, except as a generic term. Nor is it a left-over from FlyBe, who used to fly that route. I think you need to concentrate on Princess Note that you can add 15kg for £20 e/w. JB 🙂

Loganair's checked allowance is 15kg or 23kg or 30kg, depending which ticket you paid for - Fly, or Fly Flex, or Fly Flex Plus.. Both parties should know which ticket was booked / paid for, but since Princess booked then Princess should tell you what they booked BTW, hand luggage is just 6kg. https://www.loganair.co.uk/travel-help/luggage/ JB 🙂

Cruise ship art "auctions", and Park West Gallery in particular, have a long-standing reputation for being over-priced. If you want to buy as an investment, buy from a reputable source after getting expert advice. Go to a cruise ship "auction" and buy something only if you particularly like it, you consider it good value for you, and you want to keep it. Or, better still, do the same as most folk - only go for the free sparkling wine 😉 JB 🙂

28 days S.E. Asia, Cruise-line "Voyages of Discovery", ship "MV Discovery" You've probably never heard of the cruise line, only operated the one ship & went bust a few years back. You've probably never heard of the ship either, but if you ever watched The Love Boat you'll know her. At that time she was the Island Princess, twin sister of the actual Love Boat - Pacific Princess - and was her stage-double for many episodes. She carried about 650 pax. A rusty 40-year old tub by the time we sailed her, and she was scrapped a few years after the demise of Voyages of Discovery. She didn't do round-trip cruises, instead she sailed the seven seas like a tramp, visiting ports off the beaten path & rarely repeating a port Ours included Komodo, Semarang, Padang Bai, Port Klang, and up the Saigon River to berth in Saigon. Passengers booked segments of 14 days or longer. Because fares were in the economy category, her clientele was mainly retired university lecturers, lawyers & such, who sailed her for many months at a time - when we next sailed her a year later we re-met folk who''d been on her the whole time! Very limited ship - narrow twin bunks in the many cabins which were too narrow for a double, no casino, a swimming pool the size of a postage stamp, no premium-pay restaurants, a lounge-style theatre with many columns. But a classic shape with tiered stern, a promenade deck separated from the bridge by just a wicket gate - you could hear the captain swearing at an incompetent pilot-boat helmsman. Free bridge tour - a proper ship's wheel & not a computer joystick, and a useful sign for the helmsman saying "keep ship upright"🙃 I recall departing a port past Queen Elizabeth - she blasted out a greeting on her horns, Discovery replied by an officer waving a big red-painted wooden hand from the flying-bridge.🙂 Hard-working entertainment team, including a "proper" murder-mystery. I say a "proper" murder-mystery because a few years later we went to one on an RCI ship - we were the only team who got that one wrong because the answer was so very very obvious that we'd over-thought it. Port lectures - proper history and background information rather than an excuse to sell ship's excursions. No live TV, but films (like the Bob Hope / Bing Crosby "road to ...." series) relating to the ports we were about to visit, local entertainers brought aboard at overnight ports. Frequent deck barbies, and proper sailaway parties. Things that require effort rather than money. But the biggest factor by far was the passengers & crew. Crew were all from one Philippine village, they knew our names, they knew our preferences, they knew how far they could josh us. We dined on a table of 8, hit it off with another table of 8 & went ashore mob-handed to bargain with van drivers & such. We'd beat their price down mercilessly, but make it all back up with the tip if it was worth it - which it always was. A cruise we'll always remember, but a cruise which sadly has no equivalent in today's world - unless you know of one ??????????????????????????????????????. RIP MV Discovery 😟 JB 🙂

A few important factors ............ 1 - You are unlikely to be off the ship much before 7am. If your transfer operator is based in the Dover area, they will know the usual disembarkation times and are likely to query a 6.15 booking, a London or Stansted based operator is much less likely to have experience of that. 2 - Stansted ain't Heathrow !!! Whilst the distance & usual journey times are similar, they're in different directions around the M25 (London orbital road) - fewer slow parts but the potential for a major delay (and no alternate route) at the Dartford Crossing, where traffic in your direction goes thro a tunnel under the River Thames. You can only breathe easily once you're on the other side of the Thames. 3 - Neither you nor the OP have mentioned your flight time, or destination (short or long-haul, domestic or international), or the availability of a later same-day flight. These are all big, big factors 4 - Your flight is on a sunday. Joy of joys 🙂 No commuter traffic, far less truck traffic, not too much leisure traffic at your time of day or in your direction. Excluding the aftermath of a big incident, your journey should take less than 2 hours. But we can't confidently advise without knowing your flight time or destination or later alternatives. JB 🙂

A pre-booked private transfer LHR to central London will cost you £45+ A taxi from the rank at LHR will cost you £70+ A pre-booked transfer LHR to central London is at the fixed booked price, altho some may charge for excess waiting time eg if your flight is late. A taxi from the rank at LHR will be metered and the fare is a combination of distance & time - if you're in a traffic jam (you're likely to be in several) the cost will rack up - and up and up and up and up. A pre-booked private transfer to LHR from your Southampton cruise terminal will cost in the order of £130+ (up significantly from about £85 pre-Covid due to fuel price-hikes) A metered taxi from the terminal rank will cost you an arm & both your legs. Probably £250+. Since you'll be leaving the taxi's registered area you can negotiate a non-metered rate for the 65 miles to LHR, mebbe even walk up & down the taxi line at Southampton trying to get the best price - but don't expect a lot less than the meter cos the taxi will be returning empty. (Private transfer operators can mainly tie in times to LHR with bookings back from LHR, so no empty mileage.) Like you, I'm a bit of a free spirit - but there's no reason you'd want to hang around LHR, and every reason you'd want to be back at LHR by a certain time. I see this as no-brainers. Pre-booked transfers are the way to go. Or train or tube or Nat Express bus LHR to central London, Or Nat Express bus Southampton to LHR.. But leave hailing a cab for just short city journeys of a mile or three. Lots of LHR private transfer operators. For Southampton to LHR try https://westquaycars.com/ https://aquacars.co.uk/ https://www.blackberrycars.com/ http://www.southamptontaxis.net/ https://www.trustedairporttransfers.co.uk/ JB 🙂

There are stax of cheap coach day-trips to Gib from the Costa Del Sol resorts. For example https://juliatravel.com/en/products/Gibraltar-Sightseeing-Full-Day-Tour-from-Costa-del-Sol/ Probably from Malaga too. But the timings don't usually work out for a Malaga cruise port of call- they leave the Malaga area around 7.30am and get back 6.30pm or probably later. The private tour that you mentioned .................. is it truly a private tour or a shared tour? Important - If a shared tour, is it specifically for those on your ship? Either way, it's likely to cost waaay more than a coach excursion, but probably viable for a RollCall group of 6+ Or you could rent a car - the route is very simple, and if there's two of you finding a couple to join you via your RollCall would halve the cost. Things to bear in mind..... - It's about 2 hours each-way. - There are frequently long lines of cars at the border. I don't know whether a private tour gets preference, but certainly if you rent a car it's best to use a carpark near the border and cross by foot - very quick procedure for those on foot. Then a local bus (just a euro or two) from the frontier to the town (Casemates Square). - A local taxi or van for an Upper Rock tour (I don't think private cars are permitted) takes just under 2 hours (no need to pre-book), your remaining time in the town then back to the border, collect your car, & back to Malaga. - If your next port-of-call is Tampa you won't want to miss the sailing cos it's a very very very long swim, so give yourselves plenty of wiggle-time. - There are several car rental agencies in walking distance of Malaga port. - You'll need your passports, and possibly some Covid paperwork - do check whether the private tour drives you thro the border Some background info on Gib in these threads https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q=Gibraltar &quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=149 JB 🙂

Not much different to flying to other countries - lines at the airport for immigration, retrieving luggage, hauling luggage to a transfer bus, taxi or whatever, fighting downtown traffic, etc. And obtaining an ESTA - all just to join a cruise ship which then sails to the Caribbean. And at the end of the cruise, being thrown off the ship with our luggage by about 9am when most west-east Atlantic flights are in the evening. 😟 My comparison isn't really with other countries, it's with those seamless UK - Caribbean fly-cruises.🙂 I don't understand why some Brits fly to Florida or Galveston for a Caribbean cruise - even if I had loyalties to a US cruise line, I'd switch loyalties for a Caribbean fly-cruise from the UK. JB 🙂

Sailing from the US is slightly problematic for those of us on other continents because of the grief and expense of entering the US just to cruise straight out again. As Brits we have a wide choice of direct Caribbean fly-cruises - cruiseline-chartered aircraft from UK regional airports, no immigration, no luggage carousel, no customs, not even airport terminal. Instead, off the plane & onto transfer buses to the port. Luggage follows in a truck, we don't see it from when we check in in the UK until it appears at our cabin. Similar for the return home - and not ushered off the ship first thing in the morning, instead the run of the ship until our flight transfer is called. Brilliant. The US can't compete with that.🙂 We've done many great road-trips in the States - for a 3 to 6 week stay the airport grief is worthwhile. JB 🙂

Senor Frog's is a phrase I've seen time and again - and I don't know whether it's a particularly popular actual bar owned by Senor Frog, or a euphemism for any bar where customers over-indulge. Any answers? JB 🙂

Halfway round the world to Australia, same as Bruce (but probably in the opposite direction). But for anything like that distance I cant imagine anyone goes from airport to ship, then ship back to airport. We had stop-overs in Kuala Lumpar, a New South Wales road-trip before the cruise and a few days in Sydney post-cruise. JB 🙂

As per Globaliser's post, "black cab" drivers are obliged to take you regardless of how short the distance. There's a minimum charge of about £4. Then a combination of distance & time - so it's not possible to give an accurate figure in advance because it depends on traffic conditions, but probably about £6 total. Poor value, but probably well worth it if you have luggage. I suggest that you comply with the boss's assessment that you take a cab - ' cos if you don't, you'll be the one lugging all the bags 🙃 JB 🙂