John Bull

Yes, if you like a quiet and attractive village near Southampton and with good public transport options, Brockenhurst nicely fits the bill It's in the New Forest National Park, Carey's Manor is on the edge of the village just a ten-minute walk from the railway station and village centre. The other well-known hotel in Brockenhurst is Balmer Lawn, a further 5 - 10 minutes walk & surrounded by the New Forest. Or the Thatched Cottage hotel is a quintessential English period property, just a two-minute walk from the station. We've not stayed at any of the hotels, but we know the village fairly well. Brockenhurst has several decent pubs, restaurants, a couple of tea-rooms, and local shops. Altho it's only a small village (it'd bore you after a day or two), mainline trains stop here because it has a branch line to Lymington. So half-hourly -or-better (or poorer-on-sundays) direct mainline service west to Bournemouth, Poole, Dorchester & Weymouth and east to Southampton & Winchester (and other routes like Portsmouth or Salisbury with a train change at Southampton) Plus half-hourly trains on that branch line to the Solent coast at the yachting town of Lymington - and a ferry from there across to Yarmouth, on the Isle of Wight. Any of those places fit comfortably into a day trip. https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ Brockenhurst is also on two of the three New Forest ho-ho routes. The New Forest isn't just forest, it's a mix of woodland and heathland with wild ponies plus a smattering of cattle, pigs, asses, deer etc. Lots of walkks, cycle hire at the station. https://www.morebus.co.uk/about-NFT About 5 miles from Brockenhurst is the village of Beaulieu, home of a complex which includes the National Motor Museum, The Bishop's Palace, the Abbey ruins, and a small "secret army" museum - this was a training school for spies who were parachuted into France in WW2 to liaise with the French resistance. https://www.beaulieu.co.uk/ Or for something completely different - for a base with everything pretty-well on your doorstep consider the conjoined cities (only locals know where one ends & the other starts) of Portsmouth & Southsea. Portsmouth - home of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard is worth a full day and more with visits to The Mary Rose, Nelson's HMS Victory & Warrior, the workshops & sheds, plus outliers by boat to https://www.nmrn.org.uk/our-museum/submarine and https://www.nmrn.org.uk/our-museum/explosion Pubs & fortifications of Old Portsmouth, shopping & entertainment complex and Spinnaker Tower at https://gunwharf-quays.com/, fast-ferries to Ryde, Isle of Wight. Southsea - holiday resort, seafront esplanade with Henry V111's small Southsea Castle, adjacent D-Day museum & other attractions, views and hovercraft ferry across the Solent to Ryde, on the Isle of Wight. Direct trains to Southampton, Chichester, Arundel, Brighton But this ain't no country village, it's very much a city break JB 🙂

The cruise terminal behind Holiday Inn is City Cruise Terminal. Mayflower Terminal is a little further up-stream. If your ship is Sky Princess, she mainly berths at 38/39 (QE 11 Terminal), deep in the docks. With luggage, a short taxi hop is advised for both Mayflower and QE 11. Current cruise ship schedule at https://www.southamptonvts.co.uk//Live_Information/Shipping_Movements_and_Cruise_Ship_Schedule/Cruise_Ship_Schedule/Cruise Port map at https://www.southamptonvts.co.uk/Port_Maps/ (zoom in on the bottom map) JB 🙂

My take on iconic places that are worth several days but a long way from the port-of-call (eg Paris from Le Havre, Berlin from Warnemunde, London from Southampton, Hanoi from Halong Bay, and a dozen others) is that there are plenty of other places much much closer to the ship that you can explore on a port-of-call day, and you should put those iconic places on the back-burner for some future vacation of several days when you can make a proper fist of it. Or, if your ship's embarkation / disembarkation port is suitable, you could build in some pre-cruise or post-cruise time. But do go for it, even in a trunkated port-of-call visit, if you don't expect to ever be able to return in the future BTW, if Paris is your last port-of-call on a cruise which ends in Southampton or Dover you can ask in advance for the cruise line's permission to jump-ship in Le Havre, so that you can spend post-cruise time in Paris & fly home from there. Most cruise lines will allow this, some won't. The only part of your cruise that you'll miss is the overnite. back to Southampton or Dover and the haul up to a London airport next day. Your air fare out to London & back from Paris will be about the same as the simple return fare if you book "multi-city" (aka open-jaw) return tickets. JB 🙂

Nothing to do with Covid, but yes, a copy-n-paste - the Dolphin had been booked by the Govt for immigrants. Sorry, Yehootu, didn't bother to check if things had changed - saw no reason why it should. But it has - Mercure Dolphin now back available. JB 🙂

Aloha The cruise terminals & city centre hotels etc are on a thumbnail map at the bottom of this page https://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/southampton_accommodation.htm All of the hotels on that map are within a £10 taxi ride from any cruise terminal Cheapest is Ibis Budget - clean and modern but small rooms and very limited facilities. We've found Ibis Budget elsewhere in the UK to be perfectly adequate for an overnite. Most expensive is Southampton Harbour Hotel, built to resemble a cruise ship. We've enjoyed sunday lunch there, and taken a sneak-peek of the rest of the ship (sorry - a sneak-peek of the rest of the hotel 😉), very nice but very expensive. Best-located for a very short walk to the city's few old-town sights, the waterfront, shopping, pubs & restaurants are Premier Inn West Quay (blue 4 on the map) and Ennio's, (blue 8 on the map) and the hotels between those two. Premier Inn is the UKs biggest & best budget chain and the West Quay one is very popular with cruisers. The adjoining Moxy's is a quirky Marriott brand, recently opened. Leonardo Royal has a range of rooms, Holiday Inn is a rather gaunt rectangular building typical of the 1970's but very popular with cruisers - it overlooks City Cruise Terminal. Hole-in-the-Wall and Ennios are interesting boutiques - Hole-in-the-Wall is actually built into the old city wall, Ennios is an Italian restaurant with rooms above converted from a historic warehouse. The Mercure Dolphin Hotel is currently contracted to the government & not available. A range prices and standards and styles, but none on that list need to be avoided JB 🙂

Hi, Lorinda, Altho' some might disagree, IMHO Le Havre itself is pretty boring There are two obvious destinations from Le Havre ...................... The sights of D-Day. The closest US sight, about 1 3/4hrs away is Omaha Beach / the American cemetery - both are evocative and with plenty to see, and there are other US sights nearby such as Pointe du Hoc and the Longues battery. There's no suitable public transport, you need either a tour or a rental car. Overlord Tours is the best-known tour operator tho' there are others, and your ship will also offer D-Day tours. DIY by rental car is surprisingly easy, but you need to research the route, the sights & the logistics. Sharing via your cruise's RollCall would halve the cost. Check your ship's departure time - for most it's 8pm. Honfleur For an easy laid-back day, a small & attractive fishing / tourism port on the other side of the Seine estuary & about a 30 minute drive from your ship. By bus is possible but awkward & a very very limited frequency especially on sundays. Most folk share taxis. If you rented a car you could also explore the coast a dozen miles beyond to the small twin towns of Trouville & Deauville. Again, finding sharers halves the cost. JB 🙂

Depends whether you have the front to do it and can ignore potential open hostility. 😀 You'd make yourselves very unpopular if you carried your luggage off when the bulk of passengers are disembarking - corridors, queue for lifts, gangway & such. Not chastising - just saying 😉 JB 🙂

As an Irish friend of mine would have said, the easiest way to get to Killarney is to not start from Southampton 🙃 Direct flights to Shannon from London Heathrow or London Gatwick Direct flights to Dublin from Southampton. Short taxi hop from ship to Southampton central station. The direct train journey from Southampton to LGW (in the airport) is hourly & takes about 2 hrs, or the direct National Express bus to LHR (in the airport) also about 2 hours, limited frequency. Fly to Shannon. You'll need a bus or taxi from Shannon 14 miles to either Ennis or Limerick train stations, from there the train journey to Killarney is 2 1/2 hours with two changes. Frequency every 2 hours. Or taxi from ship to Southampton airport, 7 miles. (with luggage, a taxi to Southampton central then train to Southampton airport isn't worth the small saving) Fly to Dublin Express bus from Dublin airport to Dublin Heuston train station takes about 30 minutes. The train from Dublin Heuston to Killarney involves one change, journey time 2 hours (further but simpler & quicker than from Shannon) , frequency every two hours. We find Skyscanner the simplest, most informative and most comprehensive website for flight times & costs https://www.skyscanner.net/ But you'll need to make dummy flight bookings on the relevant airline websites to see the total cost - luggage add-on charges in particular make a big big big difference https://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/planjourney/search (pre-booking train tickets from about 6 - 8 weeks out often saves a significant amount, but those pre-booked tickets are restricted to the train time that you've chosen) https://www.nationalexpress.com/en (pre-booking is advised) https://journeyplanner.irishrail.ie/webapp/#!P|TP!histId|0!histKey|H95062 (sorry. no personal experience of Irish trains) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Most hotels anywhere in the UK will happily hold luggage for guests free-of-charge for a few hours, mebbe even overnight, before check-in or after check-out. Two weeks would probably prove difficult but you could e-mail a few. Left-luggage facilities other than in central London are rare in the UK, storage companies offer larger storage units than needed for luggage. But you could try https://www.mbe.co.uk/southampton who I believe offer luggage storage altho it's not mentioned on their website - worth an e-mail. Left-luggage at UK airports, including Southampton (SOU) , LHR and LGW, but would be expensive for two weeks. Or ask your cruise line/s. A juggling act to figure the cost of London - Shannon or Southampton- Dublin, and whether/where to store luggage. JB 🙂

My answer's probably still the same - nearest taxi rank is Weymouth promenade, 14 miles away 🤣 No on reflection I'm wrong. Nearest taxi rank is at Wool station, only a six-mile walk. 🤣🤣🤣

Yes, assuming your ship is in port for a full day, you should have plenty of time for Lulworth cove & Durdle Door (and for a 30 - 40 minute walk across the headland between the two if that takes your fancy) and the rest of your time in Weymouth. But no, its not easy to get a taxi from the port - it's a secure port, no taxis or tours either inside or outside the port and there's no taxi rank or car rental agency nearby. You take the shuttlebus from the ship to the port gate or a nearby stop, or into Weymouth. Yes, for your trip you can find a taxi in Weymouth, but like most places in Europe hailing a taxi for the day is not recommended because it won't suit your screen-name and you're no well-placed to barter on-the-fly - in England & the rest of Europe hail a taxi only for a short one-way hop of no more than about 5 miles. Added to the cost, you lose time taking the shuttlebus from Portland to Weymouth and finding a taxi-driver who is personable & informative, & willing to do the job. The only plus with doing that in England instead of mainland Europe is that the driver's native language is quite similar to your own 😉 So pre-book a tour. I've no experience of tour operators there, but here's the result of a "search" of this forum for threads that mention Portland - scroll thro them and you'll find some recommendations https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q=Portland&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=148 Because even pre-booked tour operators aren't permitted in the port, they ask clients to take the free port shuttlebus to meet them at (usually) Portland Castle just a three minute drive from the ship. If you're going to consider a tour, although Lulworth cove & Durdle Door are very pleasant & laid-back there are other choices also worth considering, including Corfe Castle, the Jurassic coast, Dorset Downs and their villages, and Thomas Hardy's Dorchester. At the end of your tour you can choose..... - to keep the driver while you explore Weymouth & then be taken back to Portland - or probably cheaper but a little more fraught, book the tour only as far as Weymouth & then head back to Portland on the shuttle-bus or hail a taxi (about 5 to 6 miles, 15 to 20 minutes, at a guess £15 to £20) JB 🙂 Edit- noticing MAVIP's comment, yes the shuttlebus stop in Weymouth is a ten-minute walk from the centre & as mentioned no taxi rank nearby. But taxis on the seafront promenade in the centre of town.

Luxor from Safaga is one of those rare occasions that I'd recommend taking a ship-sponsored excursion. It's over 3 hours / 160 miles, most of which is remote desert with no "Plan B" if anything goes wrong. In this port, ships' tours are often late back - including the one we were on - but nobody's "on-edge". One of the rare ports where cruise lines' over-blown "the ship won't leave one of its tour groups stranded" is actually important. Same applies to Petra from Aqaba and Cairo from Port Sokhna, with the added complication of both being secure ports. JMHO as always JB 🙂

Yep, easy to find on the CDC site.. Those of us who don't trust the video-link technology required get ours done in-store locally by online appointment at a Lloyds pharmacy. https://lloydspharmacy.com/pages/covid-19-lateral-flow-test JB 🙂

I've filled in a bit of detail for you 🙂 JB 🙂

Shore Emotion is not a tour operator, It's a booking agency which "organises tours & activities through partnerships with authorised and carefully selected local operators." And despite incorporating "Shore" in their name, they don't specialise in cruise ship excursions, there's nothing innovative about their "filtering excursions based on their duration and the time the ship remains in port. Cruise passengers will thus only be able to select their tour out of those that will bring them back to port in good time." Specialist cruise tour booking agencies offer excursions only to cruisers, so everyone on the tour is a passenger on your ship - which means not spending valuable time touring other pick-up points, and concentrates their minds on getting all of their passengers back to the ship on-time. You can generally get a better deal, better information, and more-personal attention if you book direct with a tour operator. Often googling some of the agency offerings will lead you to the tour operator Shore Emotion reviews are generally good, but its well worth reading the poor ones - and bear in mind the reviews cover a wide range of visitors, hotel-based as well as ship-based. And booking agency reviews generally reflect on the the tour operator rather than the booking agency. Same review-hunting applies to tour operators, and personal recommendations - through Cruise Critic for instance - are better. Booking a tour thro' a one-agency-covers-all might be OK on a land visit or a pre or post-cruise stay, but if you insist on using a one-stop booking agency for a port-of-call visit I advise one which offers tours specifically for your ship. Just MHO as always JB 🙂

Worrying Best I've seen by far was Sharm El Sheikh, Red Sea. That was about 10 years ago. I wonder what that's like now JB 🙂

We went from Port Douglas, about 40 miles north of Cairns. The largely-dead coral - and consequent poor showing of fish - is down to the warming of the ocean & perhaps accelerated by too many clumsy snorkelers. I don't know whether this is typical of the GBR. I hope not, but I suspect that tour boats are restricted to specific areas to preserve the bulk of it - our boat went to clearly designated areas, and other boats were in the same areas. I guess you're going to have to research to find the best places - and whether boats are permitted there. But I'd advise you to strike Port Douglas, and probably Cairns. 😟 JB 🙂

Don't look on the 2 1/2 - 3 hour e/w drive as a chore - you'll get wide views and a good idea of the majesty of the Highlands 🙂 If you book a private tour (Invergordon Tours recommended by CC members, but there are others), the obvious route is the heathlands via Achnasheen on the A835 & A 390, But for much more dramatic scenery I suggest returning via the A87 past Eilean Donan castle, along Loch Duich, through much more mountainous scenery than the out-bound route, Loch Cluanie, then along the shores of Loch Ness with mebbe a stop at Urquart Castle (the iconic ruins seen in most photos of Loch Ness).Then back to Invergordon via either the Muir of Ord, or to the top of Loch Ness, Inverness and cross the Moray Firth & the Firth of Cromarty. Adds about 30 minutes to the journey time, but this is an example of the journey being as important as the destination. Would be more expensive than 6 seats-in-van, but you could recoup than with sharers via your cruise RollCall. https://goo.gl/maps/jbGWhMDmuSi3GTpQ8 In September sunrise will be before 7am, and sunset after 7pm. JB 🙂

Yep. A good track-record is valuable, so usually no desire for a change of name. 🙂 For the most part, a poor track-record can be be overcome by a simple change of name.🙄 JB 🙂

Great Barrier Reef. Seriously damaged, grey & pretty lifeless JB 😟

An update from a member who's recently ported at Portland. No tour vehicles permitted in the port - and no walking in or out of the port. Tour operators tell their clients to take the free port bus from the ship, it drops them at Portland Castle. So take that free port bus - you might be able to persuade the driver to drop you at the D-Day museum, or it's a five minute walk back from Portland Castle. Best to catch the bus back to the port at Portland Castle, it might not be possible to flag it down from elsewhere. I was told it's a decently-frequent service. JB 🙂

Thanks for that.🙂 Sorry, more questions just to clarify ......... Can I presume that's the port's own free shuttlebus, & not the (usually payable) ship's shuttlebus to Weymouth? And back into the port the same way? Bus readily available, or at set times? JB 🙂

Hi Rick, The transfer fare will be around or above £100. So a £20 tip would be 18 - 20% - which I'm aware is the sort of tip which would normal in a Tennessee restaurant , and I guess (never needed one) a private transfer driver in the US. But for the reasons explained, the USA is the odd-man-out, staff in the US rely more on tips to make up their wages and tips are significantly lower in Europe and most of the world, where 10% is considered generous. I used to drive coaches in Southampton, including cruise transfers & tours - always glad to see Americans boarding my coach $$$ Diff'rent place, diff'rent strokes. So don't take umbrage at being corrected, but its probably best not to advise American-level tips outside the US. 😉 Regards JB 🙂

May I ask about your experience of booking Dorset Tours. Not the tour operators themselves, but the hoops that you / they had to go through. I'm aware that because it's been a secure port, taxis & vans haven't been permitted in the port to ply for hire, and there's no taxi rank at the port. So I've advised that cruisers can take ship's shuttle buses to Weymouth or walk out of the port, but for anything else they need to pre-book. Do you think that's still current? Did your van pick you up at the ship, and do you know if the driver had a screen sticker or have to present the booking paperwork to get thro the port gate? Or did you have to meet it outside the port gate? TIA JB 🙂

It's a pound to a penny that Eli means Leeds Castle, not the city of Leeds 😉 Yes, Leeds Castle is a few miles from Maidstone. Which airport & what time is your flight scheduled to land? And can I presume that your ship leaves next day? I ask because this would be a pretty full jet-lagged day after a red-eye flight I know little about Uber - on the rare occasions that I've used it (& only for local 10 minute drives) I've phoned when I need a ride, and the times & prices are fluid according to demand & supply. For a longer drive such as you plan we'd pre-book with a private transfer operator, and quote number of pax, amount of luggage, and how long waiting at Hever and Leeds castles. To my fellow-Brits who use Uber - Is this something that Uber do?????????? JB 🙂

In the UK & Europe, wages are subject to a legal minimum rate - so drivers, waiting staff, etc get decent wages. Tips should be earned - they're the jelly on the recipient's bread and butter. Some Brits don't tip to anyone, as a matter of (their) principle. The rest of us tip according to the standard of service that we receive - for a transfer driver that's things like promptness, condition & cleanliness of the car & driver, help with luggage, a smooth & safe drive, and a generally friendly & helpful attitude. For Heathrow to Southampton - about 65 miles, 75 minutes without delays, fare nowadays something a little north of £100, we usually give £5. But that's just us, there's no right or wrong - and if we ever had a sub-standard experience it'd be zilch Unless you can perfect a British accent your driver will be hoping for more - £10 from Americans will keep him/her happy. £20 (ie 18% to 20%) is way too much for most, and I concur with G. about anyone who gives £30 JB 🙂