John Bull

whichever city you choose, you,ll arrive about midnight or later, so do check the hotel’s ability to cater for late night arrivals. JB 🙂

Since you ‘re coming from the west, Holiday Extras offering at Marchwood is tolerably convenient. Established and respected organisation. Shuttle-bus service to the ship included. https://www.holidayextras.com/southampton-port-parking.html JB 🙂

I have a personal preference for Salisbury, it’s more laid-back than Winchester, which always seems crowded and hemmed-in. Salisbury cathedral is in a quiet close, five minutes away from the hub-bub, and there are more city centre river walks - It’s the confluence of five small rivers. Cathedral is younger but more spectacular, and has an original 1215 Magna Carta (like a Bill of Rights) Much wider selection of historic but affordable city centre pubs, restaurants and hotels too. Rail stations for both are a five-minute drive or 15-minute walk. Trains from Salisbury to Southampton half-hourly, from Winchester 3 per hour. Of course others will have their own favourite, but as per Harters’ post I don’t think either will disappoint. JB 🙂

Yes, Mykonos and Corfu are chalk & cheese - Corfu is seven times bigger. And come to think of it, so are the streets 😉 And knowing which ships are in port won't help unless you know which are on a port-of-call & which are on a turnaround. I still say, don't worry about it. But if you're there on a saturday that'd probably be best. JB 🙂

Hi, and welcome to Cruise Critic. I would have thought ships' excursions for October would already be published. Most Cruise Critic members do their excursions independently of the ship - some DIY with local transportation, some use local tour operators. But in some circumstances - tight scheduling, unreliable local transport, absence of a Plan B etc - even experienced cruisers sometimes choose ship's excursions. If you tell us your ship and your ports-of-call we can give you an idea of what's worthwhile. George mentioned your cruise's Roll Call. Go back to the main menu https://boards.cruisecritic.com/ After the cruise line boards are the Roll Calls. Click on your cruise line & navigate from there to your ship. All the threads start with the sailing date They're not in chronological order, when someone posts on one it goes to the top, just like this and the other forums. So you need to scroll through to find the one with your sailing date. There's likely to be folk on your cruise posting on there looking for excursion sharers. Post on there anyway, to say Hi to your ship-mates. Bon voyage JB 🙂

Its not really worth worrying about - this isn't some little Caribbean island. Ships turning around in Corfu on your day won't affect you - the vast majority of their passengers joining or leaving will be travelling direct between port and airport. And Corfu gets a lot of land-based vacationers, so passengers of a couple of ships on port-of-call visits will not add greatly to the throng. Except maybe on a saturday, the main turnaround day for land-based vacationers - they'll be joining the bun-fight at the airport and the rest of the island will be relatively quiet. JB 🙂

Budget locations include Victoria, Kensington, Paddington, & Kings Cross - Victoria is the most convenient of these & walkable to a number of sights, Kensington is just a couple of tube stops further & handy to the "Museums District", Earl's Court is further west from Kensington, and a little further from "tourist" London than Canary Wharf. Victoria is on the ho-ho routes, Kensington & Paddington are on ho-ho feeder routes and of course Paddington has a fast direct train to Heathrow (if you choose Paddington area, buy the train tickets to Heathrow well in advance - prices start off very reasonable, go up as the date approaches & are highest at walk-up. All of the areas mentioned are "respectable" and not considered unsafe. The tube system does make central London a great deal easier, so do pick a hotel close to a tube station. Tube trains are super-frequent and fast. The main problem with areas outside "tourist" London is the time taken to go back to a hotel to freshen-up between day-time touring and night-life, so there's a tendency to soldier on through or to dine locally in the evening Going back to Canary Wharf > LHR, changing trains at Paddington isn't as troublesome as regular changes of tube trains - the Heathrow Express from Paddington to LHR is luggage-friendly. JB 🙂

Southampton to London tour/transfer Best bet is one of the offerings of International Friends. Choose one of the first three https://www.internationalfriends.co.uk/shore-excursions-and-cruise-transfers.html Long-established, reputable & reliable tour coach (bus) operator, they added cruise tour-transfers some years ago. Seamless tour-transfer from cruise terminal to central London hotels - more about that below. Confusingly, identical tour-transfers are offered on the London Toolkit website.🤔 Pre-pandemic, London Toolkit used to promote the International Friends' tour-transfers - I don't know whether they have simply re-vamped their website or switched their allegiance to a new competing operator. Price differentials are mainly due to the way add-on admission fees are treated, but there are still smallish differences - see for yourself. https://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/southampton-from-london-via-stonehenge.html#southampton-london BTW flip thro other pages of that London Toolkit website & save it - it's a mine of logistical information. Other transfer options offered on both sites (cars & vans) are poor value, you can do a lot better independently. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ London hotel. Location-wise, not a great choice. Canary Wharf is the centre of London's commercial district. It was developed on disused docklands, and its high-rise office-blocks have taken over as London's commercial hub from the traditional "Square Mile" which is between St Paul's cathedral & the Tower of London. Consequently Canary Wharf's hotels are used mainly by business people & weekend rates are low. It's east of all the main tourist sites in London, which are very broadly between the "museum district" of Kensington and the Tower of London / Tower Bridge. So all your exploration will start with a west-bound tube ride on the Jubilee line or the new Elizabeth line of the tube, or the tube- connected DLR (Docks Light Railway). But probably adds only mebbe ten minutes to journey-time. The hop-on bus tours don't go out to Canary Wharf, you'd need to take the DLR to the Tower of London or the Jubilee line to London Bridge to pick up a ho-ho. https://content.tfl.gov.uk/standard-tube-map.pdf If you take one of the tour-transfers from Southampton the operator might get you to Canary Wharf for a small supplement, or can suggest the nearest hotel served & you can hail a taxi to canary Wharf. Canary Wharf is beyond the eastern tourist sites whereas LHR is west of central London. So a private transfer will be a bit more expensive than one from a more-central location. Don't just hail a cab for that transfer - it will be horrendously expensive. Hailing a cab is convenient for a mile or three, but not for the 20+ miles to LHR. Instead, pre-book a private-hire taxi (Londoners call them mini-cabs). lots of operators compete for London / LHR transfers, sorry I've got no recommendations. Or, much more cheaply, the new Elizabeth line of the tube runs from Canary Wharf to LHR. It's a new line, not as-yet fully bedded-in and altho the tracks run direct between Canary Wharf and LHR I don't know whether you need to change trains. Needs some research, or mebbe a Londoner can chip in. Altho the tube isn't luggage-friendly, Canary Wharf is close to the start of the Elizabeth line so you shouldn't have trouble getting seats with your luggage around you. But if you have to change, that may prove very difficult at the wrong time-of-day. So,, all-in-all not a great choice of hotel. If you can switch to another Marriott (Marriott County Hall is ideally-located, many major sights and lots of restaurants, bars etc easily walkable) then consider doing so. But if you stick with Canary Wharf it's not the end of the world. JB 🙂

As per Globaliser's post. Yes, for LHR to a Westminster hotel with your amount of luggage, a direct pre-booked private transfer is definitely your best bet. Sorry, no recommendations - I've never needed one BTW, "minicab" - more of a London word than a British word - doesn't have anything to do with the size of the taxi, they're regular sedans which have to be pre-booked, rather than the iconic London "black cabs" (which aren't all black) which can be hailed in the street or found at taxi ranks and which are expensive for a 15-mile journey between LHR & central London. From that end of Westminster, a National Express bus to Southampton from Victoria coach station might be cheaper and more convenient, but takes about an hour longer than a train from Waterloo. And you'd need to pay for your excess luggage. There's also a direct hourly train service from Victoria train station to Southampton, but it takes a different route - 2 1/2 hours rather than 1 1/2 hours from Waterloo. If you take the train, buy your cheap advance tickets from about 8 weeks out. Those tickets are only good for the train time that you book (miss it and those tickets are trash) but they cost anywhere between about £10 and £20 pp versus regular walk-up tickets at £39 pp. Check the timetable for any date in July or August to see those prices & terms. JB 🙂

Yes, Stonehenge tickets bought thro the ho-ho (The Stonehenge Tour) admit you anytime. Ibis is very convenient to the station. And only a 10-15 minute walk from Horizon cruise terminal is an easy 10 - 15 minute walk if the weather's fine and you're feeling energetic. But only TGI Friday and MaccyD are close by. Or IKEA or ASDA for a cheap breakfast For a selection of proprietor-run pubs & restaurants you need to walk past the modern West Quay entertainment & dining complex (chain restaurants) to old-town / waterfront, a level 15 - 20 minute walk. The Duke of Wellington in Bugle Street (historic pub), the Dancing Man (pub & micro-brewery in 14thC. stone Wool House on the corner of Bugle Street & Town Quay) and on Town Quay - more expensive but quality to match - Ennio's (Italian) & next-door La Regata (Spanish). And on the other side of the road Kuti's Brasserie (Indian, in the former Royal Pier ballroom. Have eaten at all of them over the years & never been disappointed. But bear in mind that's just one guy's opinion, so google the name + Southampton UK for reviews, menus, photos & such. One other, a 10 - 15 minute walk in the opposite direction is Papillon. It's a re-purposed 19th Century church opposite the Mayflower Theatre in Commercial Road. Beautiful interior. Dined there a couple of times pre-theatre when it was called The Vestry, New ownership last year, so can't comment on the food etc. New website is https://papillon-southampton.co.uk/ A couple of other restaurants nearby. Whichever you choose, being a friday (or saturday), it's best to pre-book JB 🙂

Yes indeed. One of THE places to be back in the '60's. So cool that they built a swish marina (Puerto Banus). But as carlmm says, those days are long-gone. It's not "Spain", and the route is a boring autopista. Does the ship offer Ronda or "the white villages"? Much more "Spanish, and attractive mountain routes. The cruise line might provide their Spanish excursion/s with a shuttle to the border, and a tour coach waiting on the other side. This is to avoid a potentially long vehicle queue (in either direction) at the border (reasonably quick on foot). And, for the same reason, if you -or anyone else - is considering renting a car to visit Spain I strongly suggest booking a car from a depot convenient to the border in La Linea. Frequent buses in Gibraltar to / from the border cost just a couple of pounds / euros. JB 🙂

I'm just a country boy, cap'n - I know my way around the south of England, but not so much about the big bad city. Globaliser is one of our London experts - and is correct in saying there's no train from LHR to Waterloo - you'd need the Heathrow Express to Paddington station, then the tube (London's metro) to Waterloo Station. Heathrow Express is excellent with luggage, the tube can be very difficult with luggage, very very difficult with two checked bags & a carry-on each. I can't find your original question, and I just want to clarify why you want to go to Waterloo station. Will you be spending time in London & based at a hotel near Waterloo station? If so, I'd suggest a pre-booked private transfer. About £50 - £60 Or are you planning LHR to Waterloo in order to then take a train to Southampton? If so, via Waterloo isn't the way to do it. You have better bus or train or bus+train or private transfer options options LHR to Southampton JB 🙂

There's far more to Waterloo than just a field. There's a ruddy great man-made cone-shaped mound overlooking the site & topped by a ruddy great iron lion. Plus alongside the mound a circular panorama of the battle, not dis-similar to the one at Sevastapol. Depictions of the battle at the battlefield. Both in one google street-view https://goo.gl/maps/hReZkrC4UBKw9Sc37 And an underground museum somewhere in the vicinity. But Hougoumont Farm is just an archaeological site. And the railway station is 225 miles away. 😉 JB 🙂

Yes, more than 8 passengers plus driver requires a higher level of driving licence and standard of roadworthiness and operating premises / workshop etc. But your number is what it is, and 8 plus luggage can get cramped in a smaller vehicle. You need a long-wheelbase van, with 12 to 15 seats and luggage space behind - most transfer operators don't operate them, but there are plenty which do. I don't know any in the London / Heathrow area, snowballs' mum has quoted one & google will offer others by pumping-in "12 - 15 seat private minibus Heathrow" That doesn't work so well for "Southampton" instead of "Heathrow" because google is cluttered with agencies, - you really need to book direct. But some coach operators in Southampton also offer minibuses. I've driven for Angela coaches - long-established & well-respected operators, and they have suitable minibuses. https://www.angelacoaches.co.uk/ And Coliseum Coaches, now part of the Lucketts Group certainly had them, worth an e-mail. JB 🙂

The problem with Portsmouth Historic Dockyard for a turnaround day is that the day is trunkated even if same-ship, same-cabin. For instance, a second safety drill? Direct hourly train takes about an hour, Portsmouth Harbour station is a 3-minute walk from the dockyard gate. You need a minimum 3 hours to see Mary Rose, walk over HMS Victory, and either exhibitions in dockyard buildings or walk over Warrior. Doing it justice is more like 5 hours plus. Winchester is easy - 10 minutes by train, 2 - 3 trains per hour, 15 minutes £12 return pp. The main attraction is the Cathedral. Salisbury pretty easy too - half-hourly trains, 35 minutes journey time, £12 return pp. Again main attraction is the cathedral - not as old, but more spectacular. The National Motor Museum & other attractions of Beaulieu are via the little ferry from Town Quay across Southampton Water to Hythe, then a taxi from Hythe about 6 miles across a corner of the New Forest. Arrange wit the driver to collect you at an agreed time - there's no taxi rank at Beaulieu and the bus service is woeful. Links to the above in my thread posted by the Old Bear In Southampton you'd have time for the Tudor House & Gardens and Solent Sky. Tudor House, recently restored, is Southampton's finest old building (much of the old city blitzed in 1940 / 41. https://tudorhouseandgarden.com/ Used to be known as Tudor Merchant's House, but changed to avoid confusion with the nearby Medieval Merchant's House (behind the Duke of Wellington pub) which is much much smaller & only open at weekends. Solent Sky is volunteer-run (one an old friend of mine tho I've not seen him for a few years). Exhibits major on aircraft with local connections & include an original Spitfire (designed & built in Southampton before the factory was blitzed, then construction continued in factories & workshops around the area until new factories were built in the Midlands. And a Supermarine S6A seaplane, fore-runner of the Spitfire which won three consecutive international Schneider Trophy events. Hawker-Siddeley, de Havllland, Avro, Folland & other aircraft with local connections, and a Harrier jump-jet cockpit in which you can make yourself comfortable Also a Short Sandringham flying boat (Southampton was the country's premier flying-boat port in the few years of their hay-day just before WW2. Their terminal was Berth 101 - now the site of City Cruise Terminal, they took off & landed on Southampton Water. Their maintenance hangers at Calshot Spit survive, now used for adventure training. You can see them starboard side on the spit of land which juts out where Southampton Water joins the Solent, behind the coastguard tower and diminutive Henry V111 castle. Other aircraft including & parts & stories. The volunteers are enthusiastic, friendly & informative. https://www.solentsky.org/ Convenient for a bite of lunch, between the two are several pubs including the Duke of Wellington & the Dancing Man and a number of restaurants. JB 🙂

1.Out-of-date map, been a pub/micro-brewery for a number of years. 2. Probably best not to mention that to the landlords 😀 JB 🙂

QM2 will be at Mayflower Terminal (berth 106) on both of your dates. There are several rental agencies equidistant from the cruise terminal, vaguely walkable in 20 - 25 minutes but to save time for any of them take a short taxi hop (under £10). Taxi rank at the cruise terminal, rental agency can call you a taxi when you return the car. Europcar & Hertz in a service road off West Quay Road behind City Cruise Terminal. Enterprise, National & Alamo opposite the train station in Western Esplanade. A few local rental agencies too but unverified. Avis, SixT , and others are at the airport, inconvenient. JB 🙂

A good chance you'll make it in 90 minutes, but N.E. buses to central London are pretty frequent so can I suggest you play safe and allow two hours (or even 2 1/2). By booking a flexible ticket you can switch to an earlier bus (there'll probably be space), but if you book the one for 90 minutes and miss it you could be in trouble if later buses are fully-subscribed. JB 🙂

Hi, Kirsten There are private game reserves adjoining Addo Elephant Park, about an hour from Port Elizabeth. Addo is a South African National Park - altho "Elephant" is in its title, it has a wide variety of game. Just like its big brother, Kruger National Park, it can be driven by anyone in a private car so you can rent & drive or fix up a tour with a safari organisation or just a P.E. car + driver. No need for a jeep or 4WD. But the National Parks usually close at dusk & re-open around dawn. Those who lodge (little bungalows, some parks with small hotels, tents, etc) within the parks have to be at their camps by dusk. No night safaris at Kruger, probably the same at Addo. But private reserves do offer night drives and night walks. altho I suspect they may be part of a package of usually 3 days, 3 nights. And expensive. We've driven Addo, and we've seen a couple of private reserves adjacent - including a large one on its north side across the R342 road - possibly that's https://www.shamwari.com/ Google lists several others under "private reserve near Addo" Check their websites & mebbe e-mail them. The National Park is https://www.sanparks.org/parks/addo/ Sorry, can't help with the port - we were on a road-trip. JB 🙂

Harters has given you the general idea. In most restaurants you'll be greeted at the door or at a service point, sometimes at the bar - you don't just bowl along & sit at an empty table because they may be fully booked or some tables reserved even if there's no sign on the table. In most pubs, unless there's a service point inside the main door or the door to the restaurant part your best plan is to head to the bar and ask "Hello, is the kitchen open?" or "Hi, two of us for dinner?" or somesuch .That's how it is at the Red Lion, as will be obvious when you walk in - dining is upstairs. Yes, the Red Lion is a very historic & attractive building, especially inside - but it's very small and clientele is mainly locals dropping in for a pint. When we've dined there we've been on a narrow balcony overlooking the bar. Food is good value, lots of "pub" meals like curries, hotpots, cottage pie & such as well as steaks etc.. Quality is very acceptable if not exceptional. Service is laid-back & informal. Best to book. BTW there are a couple of other Red Lions in Southampton's suburbs. Ennio's is very much an Italian restaurant. Excellent service, excellent quality, not cheap but allowing for quality & service it's decent value. A place which may have opened since your last visit.............. The city's historic 13th C. stone-built Wool House, on the corner of the waterfront a couple of hundred yards down from the Duke of Wellington was the Maritime Museum before the fancy new "Sea City" museum was built. A few years back it opened as a pub & micro-brewery. Much bigger than the Red Lion but the same drinking downstairs / eating upstairs. My favourite is the beef rag-and-bone. Again, best to book. http://dancingmanbrewery.co.uk/# Ennio's to West Quay is about 10 - 15 minutes. Either up High street to the Bargate or past the Duke of Wellington and Tudor House, some modern housing & thro the city wall. JB 🙂

Fuel has always been cheaper in the US, usually less than half of the UK price. That's because over half the price in the UK is tax and duty. 😟 But the up-side of that is that any increase in the base price is consequently a much smaller percentage of the total price. A couple of months back about £1.35 per litre. Currently about £1.80 a litre - equates to around $8.50 per US gallon. It's only a couple of miles from So'ton coach station to QE 11 cruise terminal. JB 🙂

Difficult to say following the recent huge fuel price increases. £10 would have been the max, but mebbe £12. Most Southampton taxis accept visa & mastercard, - ask before you board. JB 🙂

For my sins I'm a Southampton fan. That's excellent advice from Dave. I was going to "like" it but I can't bring myself to do that for a West Spam fan 😜 JB 🙂

Are you sure you'll be disembarking at 6am? Arrival time & disembarkation time aren't the same thing. Ships sail past me to arrive at Southampton around 4am to 5.30am, but disembarkation is 7am or later. It doesn't help that some cruise lines quote expected disembarkation time as "arrival time". If you can't get conformation of your dis-embarkation time from the cruise line, can I suggest you pre-book a taxi / private transfer from a Haifa operator -they're likely to know the normal dis-embarkation times. JB 🙂

We find It's always best to carry some local shrapnel. An ice-cream van, an unexpected bus fare, toilets, etc. A few years back on a tour of St Petersburg, as is often the case lunch was included but not drinks. The restaurant accepted only roubles - no foreign cash, no cards. We drank beers, others had to make do with water.😉 And left-over currency seems so easy to spend 😀 JB 🙂