John Bull

The obvious place is the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, just into the New Forest and 30 minutes from Southampton. Many many dioramas and vehicles, from famous land speed record cars to mundane working-men's cars. Plus Top Gear Challenge cars and cars from film & TV. Lord Montagu was a pioneer motorist, he introduced King Edward V11 to motor cars and the Rolls-Royce "Spirit of Ecstacy" (the flying lady mascot) is based on his secretary, Eleanor Thornton. To give you some interest too, the complex also includes the Bishop's Palace House and just the shell of the abbey, which was sacked by Henry V111 during the dissolution of the monasteries. Plus the little "Secret Army" exhibition - special forces dropped into France to link with the French Resistance were trained here. https://www.beaulieu.co.uk/attractions But you won't have time for both Beaulieu and Highclere Castle. So if you're keen to visit Highclere, feel free to delete this post - I won't tell 😉 There's also Brooklands Museum, at Britain's first motor race-track with an awesome banked corner. It's not far off-route on the outskirts of London https://www.brooklandsmuseum.com/ JB 🙂

Hi, Stephanie, The route itself from London to Southampton is pretty boring, but there are places off-route that are worth visiting. Direct route from central London is about 2.5 hours. Only about 8 miles off your route near London is Windsor and its castle More-or-less on your route near Southampton is the historic city of Winchester and its ancient cathedral If you're Downton Abbey fans, the setting (Highclere Castle) adds about 30 minutes / 25 miles to your route. Or by adding 45 minutes / 35 miles you could go via both Stonehenge and Salisbury with its magnificent cathedral Or by a totally different route but only adding 30 minutes / 15 miles, Portsmouth with its historic naval dockyard & ships (incl. Nelson's flagship HMS Victory and Henry V111's Mary Rose) and the conjoined resort city of Southsea with its little castle, D-Day museum, and long Solent-front promenade waterfront looking across to the Isle of Wight. Google those places, see what you think. If you choose Winchester or Salisbury or Portsmouth, consider lodging there instead of Southampton - all are interesting, historic, have good selections of hotels, pubs, restaurants, shops, etc, and are all within about 30 minute from Southampton. Or if you have any special interests, post them - I (and others) might have suitable suggestions JB 🙂

Just to clarify ............ The "supervised" or "observed" £30 rapid antigen test offered via Princess' link is a self-administered test done at home (or somewhere else with video-link) while being supervised by live video. It's fine if you have - and are confident with - the technology of a video-link and the efficiency of the test provider. The going rate for a supervised antigen test starts from around £20 As per your post, the supervised test linked by Princess is £30, which is also the going rate in the UK for a rapid antigen test administered in-store by a clinician, the time-scale is broadly the same as a video-supervised test. Several in-store locations in Southampton, doubtless in populated areas of Scotland too - see my previous post. Since you can take the test up to 2 or 3 days before the sailing, it's best to do it before you travel to Southampton, in order to travel with confidence. Every source that I've seen for both in-store and video-supervised tests says that an appointment is required. If my reading of Princess' website is correct, they are continuing to also provide antigen testing at the cruise terminal for €60, I don't know whether that needs to be pre-booked. Apologies if I'm teaching grannie to suck eggs, but a PCR test is a totally different animal - the sample has to be tested in a laboratory, so the price can't be compared to an antigen test. The cost varies wildly from around £70 to £200+, mainly dependent on how quickly a result is needed. Whether a PCR test is needed or the simpler & cheaper antigen test is good enough depends on a number of factors including the cruiser's vaccination history, the requirements of the destination countries, and the requirements of the cruise-line. Princess' "cruise health" FAQ page for Southampton sailings sets out the requirements very simply and clearly. https://www.princess.com/plan/cruise-with-confidence/cruise-health/frequently-asked-questions/uk-southampton-cruises/ JB 🙂 .

I don't often disagree with that nice Mr Google, but I'll make an exception here. At some point during October (occasionally earlier, occasionally later) the autumn sets in, and we fairly often see stormy seas. Clocks go back to Greenwich Mean Time late October - by then evenings are dark, the loss of an hour takes the gloom into commuter time, and it makes me feel that winter has arrived. Grey skies, & cool evenings are a part of life at that time of year - but the big risk for cruisers is the greater chance of stormy seas. Fingers crossed for early October, cross fingers and toes for late October. But, to repeat, British weather is unreliable - you can't even bank on bad weather. JB 🙂

Southampton's not a tourist town, there are probably no more than half-a-dozen day-trips a year by coach to Stonehenge. But by train & ho-ho is inexpensive & much more flexible So my suggestion is very much the same advice as the Captain. Here's verbatim my answer to a similar question, together with links (do use the links to check whether my post is up-to-date). - train from Southampton central to Salisbury every half hour, journey time about 30 minutes, return fare about £12. No need to pre-book, just give yourselves some time to buy your round-trip tickets at the station. - take the Stonehenge ho-ho from the forecourt of Salisbury station. Buy your Stonehenge entry tickets from the ho-ho driver. Stonehenge is sometimes over-subscribed so folk who arrive ticketless may have a long wait until numbers on-site are below capacity. And those who pre-book on-line have to book a half-hour time-slot for entry and they risk delayed entry if they miss their time-slot. But tickets included with the Stonehenge ho-ho (and coach tours) have priority for anytime entry. Most folk spend 60 to 120 minutes at Stonehenge. - You may have enough time for a stop-off at Old Sarum on your way back to Salisbury altho that will impinge on your time in Salisbury, it involves some walking, and is dire in wet weather. When you leave Old Sarum return to the bus stop to continue back to Salisbury city centre - you don't have to wait for the next ho-ho, your ho-ho tickets are good for any "Salisbury Reds" bus and I think that all of them using that stop go to the city centre (but check with the driver to be sure). - Get off the bus in Salisbury city centre - a very pleasant historic and laid-back city. Do make time to visit Salisbury cathedral. It's in the city centre, it's magnificent, it has the tallest spire in the UK, and it contains an original Magna Carta (kinda like a Bill of Rights) and a clock reputed to be the oldest in the world. - Return to the train station - a 20 minute walk, a short bus or taxi ride, or on a ho-ho if suitably timed, and train back to Southampton central Buying your train, ho-ho and Stonehenge tickets on the day means that you won't have wasted any money if your plans change. https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ (website doesn't yet go out to your date, use any same-day-of-the-week in the next couple of months, and check again closer to your date) https://www.thestonehengetour.info/ In October the ho-ho only runs hourly, the first at 10.00am from Salisbury station, so bear this in mind when planning your journey. Bring cash, on the ho-ho there's a contactless limit on cards. https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/ https://www.salisburycathedral.org.uk/visit If your visit is on a sunday, trains are less-frequent and there are restrictions on admission to Salisbury cathedral. JB 🙂

Lloyds Pharmacies offer in-store fit-to-travel antigen tests by appointment at most of their pharmacies, £29.99,. Results / certification in about 20 minutes. https://lloydspharmacy.com/pages/covid-test-for-travel Click thro to "book appointment" for a list of stores and enter the post-code (zipcode) of your hotel for the nearest one. Boots Pharmacies offer much the same for £30, but at a limited number of their stores. https://www.boots.com/services/covid-19-testing/covid-19-rapid-test-service Start off by scrolling down to Click here for the full list of stores which currently offer this service near the bottom of the page Most ships offer the same at the cruise terminal on embarkation day, costs more. JB 🙂

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No. The bailiwicks of Guernsey & Jersey print their own bills, but they are GB pounds. So just use GBP 🙂 I guarantee you'll have no worries with spending, but make sure you're not given C.I. bills in your change because they're not valid elsewhere in the UK. (Staff in the Channel Islands are aware of this & avoid giving C.I. bills to visitors, but mistakes can happen) Exactly the same as Gibraltar. Scotland & Northern Ireland also produce their own bills, but they're totally interchangeable with Bank of England bills. Wales use GBP. Southern Ireland (Republic of Ireland) use Euros. JB 🙂

Hi, and welcome to Cruise Critic, I'm not sure you CAN book a slot - our experience has been that cruise lines allocate slots. Most folk want to board early, cruise lines - including Princess - introduced staggered embarkation a few years back because queues used to be horrendous until about 1pm. And embarkation is so much better for the change to allocated times. If you attempt to register earlier than your allocated slot, what happens will depend on the staff in the cruise terminal and the circumstances. If there's a short queue and the time is tolerably close to your slot most staff will likely board you there and then rather than turn you away, but its a risk. You can certainly drop your (labelled) luggage early, even your (labelled) hand luggage - but keep passports, cruise paperwork, medications etc on your person. NB luggage will be delivered to your cabin door, but that may be some time later. If you're waaaaaay early, its only a short walk from your likely terminal, Ocean Cruise Terminal, to Town Quay, the city walls. pubs etc. You might get better info if you quote your embarkation port (I'm guessing it's Southampton). And ask on the board dedicated to your cruise line https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/119-princess-cruises/ (Edit - hey presto, the moderators have moved your question to the Princess board) All first cruise are great. Have a good one. JB 🙂

Good advice from Tring. Good advice too from Globaliser. Although Globaliser spends too much time in London 😉 A service charge is very common in central London, and in many places frequented by international tourists - but in few places where locals are the main trade. We eat out frequently, and I don't recall when I last ate in a place that had a service charge. Or a cover charge, or a charge for unwanted bread on the table, or with potato or veg (other than additional "specialities") charged as extras. If there's a service charge it must by law be mentioned on the menu. The law also says a menu - plus mention of any service charge - must be displayed outside premises, though sometimes that doesn't happen. When there's a service charge (usually 10% to 18%) I suggest you don't tip extra. If there's no service charge, leave whatever you think is appropriate. Zilch is appropriate if the service is poor. Or if the meal is sub-standard or poor value (OK, not the server's fault but there are plenty of jobs for servers, and poor tips will encourage them to work for a better establishment). Unless there's a service charge, for good service we too leave about 10%. Kinda difficult because leaving coins seems a bit cheap, so paper money for a regular meal for two means deciding £5 or £10. And foreign money isn't a great idea, altho in tourist areas waiting staff can build enough to change it to £ from time to time. But you can (almost?) always add it to the card charge . Sometimes for an exceptional meal in a small restaurant we'll "buy a drink" for the chef and have it added to our bill. Yes, I've seen tip jars in pubs but always ignored them & like Tring I put change in a charity box on the counter. In a quiet pub or hotel bar, where its just you and the bartender getting your heads together to sort out the world's problems (can't leave it to just hairdressers & taxi-drivers) it's normal to include the bartender in a round of drinks. Tipping for taxi drivers is disappearing, not helped by Uber account charging. But for a good private transfer driver in a good car, about 10%. Less if you can perfect an English accent.😉 Globaliser's best comment is " If you try to impress someone by flashing large amounts of cash, they may respond politely and they will gladly take it off you. But that doesn't necessarily reflect what they are thinking inside. It won't necessarily be gratitude, or even respect." Agreed. It'll more-likely be "what a mug". JB 🙂

Hi again, The bit of beach by Mykonos harbour is small, scruffy, muddy - no facilities & nobody uses it. Best beach is Paradise ( Psarou) beach, about 4 miles from cruise berths or 3 miles from Mykonos town / harbour. Town & harbour are very attractive harbour lined with bars & cafes (and Petros the pelican wanders the waterfront), with immaculate little lanes behind and the iconic row of windmills behind them. Well worth part of your day, but for a beach get a taxi to Paradise beach. Sorry, can't help with Heraklion - haven't been to that end of Crete JB 🙂

9.52pm Now very clear on the third webcam 🙂

I'm now watching Virtuosa live from my balcony at Lee-on-the-Solent on the mainland. She's passed Cowes. But both webcam 3 and the Marine Traffic map are on a delay of about 5 minutes.

Left her berth five minutes late - but she was facing up-stream (mebbe late arriving thismorning so had to leave turning round until sail;-away. Took half an hour to turn, a bit tight. Probably forget the second cam - it's buffered on my screen & still in sunset even tho its now pitch-dak outside. The bright lights near the left end of the sweep of cam 3 are Britannia with Virtuosa behind

Just passed the webcam on P&O's Britannia posted by Defbref , which is now sailing ahead of her

Now full-on in the first cam JB 🙂

8.16pm Currently turning at the head of Southampton Water https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-1.400/centery:50.890/zoom:13 JB 🙂

Yes, a poor & unusable selection of webcams in Southampton. But sailing down Southampton Water she'll show on this cam at Netley Abbey, a few minutes after leaving Southampton Docks https://www.webcamtaxi.com/en/england/hampshire/netley-cam-southampton-water.html Mebbe ten minutes later, where Southampton Water joins The Solent, she'll swing hard to port to pass Cowes (from left to right) on the Isle of Wight https://www.camsecure.co.uk/cowes_webcam.html By far the best of the three, at Ryde on the Isle of Wight https://isleofwightwebcams.co.uk/webcams/solent-view/ will also pick her up near the start of its left-to-right sweep as she turns out of Southampton Water and stays close to the Isle of Wight coast (avoiding the Brambles Bank mudflats on the mainland side). Toward the end of the sweep you see on the far shore the tall Spinnaker Tower at the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour. On the near shore is Ryde Pier & hovercraft pad, where most cruise ships go mid-channel and at the end of the cam sweep they usually pass the other side of the two Napoleonic "Solent Forts". The port website says MSC Virtuosa isn't scheduled to depart until 8pm tonight, it's dry but cloudy at the moment, but you should certainly see her fully lit-up Here's what she should look like (this photo in Liverpool) JB 🙂

When we got back from Olympia, we tried the long beach on the town side of the harbour (ie turn right out of the harbour).. Deserted, no beach bars or other facilities. Went in for a swim. Portuguese men-of-war. We got out in a hurry 😮 I'm guessing that the beach mentioned by jas as being the other side of the sea wall is on the left as you exit the port. Googlemaps isn't very helpful, but there's certainly a beach-bar. Beach looks rather small - but better than sharing with Portuguese men-of-war 😄 https://goo.gl/maps/evhfyP3o7o9bVCKF6 JB 🙂

Ooops, I forgot. British sarcasm doesn't travel well 😉 JB 🙂

Industrial action - by French port workers? Surely not 😉😉😉 🙄🙄🙄 JB 🙂

No, it's not easy to mis-interpret Idub's post. Only someone with an entrenched and blinkered viewpoint will easily interpret that post as meaning a ship can disobey the port authority.🙄 The rest of us automatically assume that the port authority and the weather / tide / currents are OK for a ship which wants to delay its departure. We've been on ships that were able to wait, and on others that couldn't for those reasons. You do seem to want to prolong arguments with other posters on this thread 😟 JB 😟

A centuries-old brand, but in more-recent years it's produced by Bulmer's - the UK's premier cider-maker. Not as bland as the stuff produced under the Bulmer's name, but it's become more like a standard mass-market cider. Clear rather than cloudy.. Semi-sweet rather than dry. Gassy rather than flat. All the things that most drinkers prefer, but perhaps "scrumpy" in name only. Enjoy - it won't clean your tonsils 😉 JB 🙂

Pre-booked fixed-price transfer will be significantly cheaper than a taxi from the rank, and no fingers-crossed whether the driver has a half-decent command of English. Can't remember who we used, but it was one of the well-recommended listings by googling and we had no problem. JB 🙂

With a bit of research, Istanbul & Canakkale & Alanya are all easy DIY Ephesus from Kusadasi needs a guide for it to make any sense - either in a pre-booked tour (the best option), or negotiate a taxi & pick up a guide when you get to the entrance. From Izmir it needs a pre-booked tour. JB 🙂