markeb

What are you overall plans? One night in the UK before the cruise or two? I tend to agree with gnome12 that you're using up a lot of time going to Southampton and then coming back to London. I'd be much more inclined to go into London on your arrival day, take that day to see what you can, explore more the next day, then take a bus or train to Southampton for your cruise. But I'd need some idea of your overall itinerary to really give any options. You'll be jetlagged the first day, but if you're in Waterloo, for instance, you can wander many of the historic sites of London on your arrival day. You won't have those options in Southampton... United uses Terminal 2 at Heathrow.

Actually early disembarkation at a different US port for an emergency is still illegal. In the cases I've read about CBP used enforcement discretion and waived the fine. And somewhere in the 80 pages of contractual terms and conditions you agreed to when you bought your cruise I'm pretty sure you agreed to pay the fine as a pass through from the cruise line, since the fine is to the ship's operator.

For the OP: The (abbreviated) version of the answer, which is "NO", from CBP. I believe the fine mentioned is now around $875. https://help.cbp.gov/s/article/Article-23?language=en_US The situation you're describing is exactly the situation prohibited in 46 U.S.C. § 55103 (b). If you do a global search for PVSA on Cruise Critic, you should find multiple threads where the CSRs of multiple cruise lines really didn't know that answer. And the booking systems will generally allow you to book an illegal cruise (Back to Back from one US port to another where the individual legs were legal) but it gets caught later on some sort of compliance audit (also numerous threads). And the crew onboard will definitely know the rules.

I'll wait for one of my British friends to correct me, but bubble and squeak is cabbage and potatoes. Black pudding is a blood pudding. I've never seen bubble and squeak on a full English; black pudding is kind of hit and miss. A typical full English would be eggs, baked beans, tomato, sausage, mushrooms, and toast. Thick English bacon is also common. As Mark_T said, there are variations. The most common I've seen is swapping sausage for bacon (and maybe occasionally getting both).

Why not?

You've got a lot on your list! Agree with GTJ and Nitemare that the HOHO is best for a single loop overview rather than as transportation. And things that are almost on top of each other may be an hour away on the loop, depending on the loop. And some things loop back for no real benefit. Since you're staying near Times Square you would walk through it and past Rockefeller Center to get to St Patrick's. With crosstown traffic, it could take longer to drive back to Times Square and get through heading downtown towards the ESB than it took you to walk over in the first place. You do want to pick sites that are close together and do them together. Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center, St Patrick's, the Empire State Building, and the Flatiron Building are very close to each other. You can see them all walking down Fifth Avenue (with a slight detour to Radio City Music Hall). The Chrysler Building is a bit of a detour, but doable. Grand Central back to Times Square/42d Street is one of the best crosstown subway routes and could save you a lot of walking from the Chrysler Building. Consider going to Top of the Rock for your view of the ESB. Lump the downtown/Financial District sites together on one of your days. For Central Park, look at what you really want to see. It's a pretty nice walk from the southeast corner of the park (Fifth Avenue and 59th) past the rink to the Carousel, down the Mall to the Bethesda Terrace, and the Lake. That's a nice taste of the Park that won't take all day, but it does require some walking. Manhattan is huge. Edit your list. Allow time to sit down and relax!

These really aren't even comparable. Ship builds are capitalized and go straight onto the balance sheet and don't impact their income statement. They probably can capitalize revolutionizing existing ships as well. I mean it's money and cash flow either way, but it's not going to be an operational expense. "Keeping up standards" in the restaurants would be a pure operational expense. Different accounting completely and other than their needs for cash, wouldn't even compete with each other. Agree they need to do it, but it's not an either or financially. And I'm pretty sure there are other advantages to the Edge Class ships over upgrading the older ships. More capacity, more efficient, and likely as not the same expense or less for actual crew (not hotel staff).

The cabins will have at least one Type F 220V and two Type B (US grounded) 120V outlets. If you're using multi-voltage electronics, it's probably useful to bring a couple of E/F to B adapters so you can use the in the US Type B outlets. Not applicable to fixed voltage items, hair dryers, etc.

Sorry trying to make it more clear, but failed. The premium waters cost less than the upper limit of the classic package. They're expressly excluded from the classic package; you have to pay full price for them.

You pay full price for the premium waters. Pay the difference only works for alcoholic beverages; the Evian would be less than the top value for the Classic package so there is no difference to pay. Don't remember the actual price Evian. We've had premium package and don't have a problem with the cans.

They were thongs in Oklahoma, too. I don't remember when they became flip flops. Agree it's not real relevant to the original question or the grand scheme of the world. 🙂

I don't recall the MDR. There was a long thread a few years back where someone was turned away from the Elite Happy Hour for wearing some form of sandal. As I recall it was a heeled sandal with a thong toe. And a lively debate on CC... My wife wears some form of sandal most nights and has never had an issue. I think what you're probably recalling is the "flip flop" debate and whether, for instance, a leather flat sandal without a heel strap is a flip flop. (For the record, I say no, and I don't recall if I was in the minority on that. Celebrity bans something they don't define and where people don't agree on the definition.)

The compromise we've found over the years is to buy our own masks and snorkels (DW needs corrective lens inserts) and rent the flippers. That way you generally get better quality and fit in the mask and a better snorkel. And that doesn't take up that much space (you also get a case for the mask, which makes it less likely to get scratched up). The flippers are the issue for space.

You have to link the accounts if they aren't already. The spouse can see their status by logging onto their own Celebrity account. If their status isn't the same as yours, they aren't linked and you'll need to call the Captain's Club to link them.

I'm pretty sure the answer to that is "no". Certainly nothing like Space Dust... Equinox had Dogfish Head 90 Minute back in August. It was in the premium package, though. If you're sailing a ship with Craft Social, you should have a decent selection of beer, but all the good stuff will be priced over the Classic package, and some of it over the Premium.

Not if it results in higher ROE for stockholders.

It's a Type E/F outlet. I wouldn't use the adapter posted. Actually I can't believe anyone sells an ungrounded Type C adapter with grounded US outlets! That's insane! Your US outlets are no longer grounded with that arrangement. And adding an electric load with the extra outlets is highly questionable and generally unnecessary. Sorry prmssk, but that does not look like a safe adapter in the least! And those are going to be low powered 12 W USB A outlets. Very slow for any modern USB devices, which are rapidly going to USB C anyway. Type C outlets are used in most of Europe, but they're ungrounded by design. Germany and France use E/F. You can plug a Type C plug into an E/F outlet, but you'll lose the ground.

I'm going to assume you're not joking. The concept is so pervasive in business and government today that you just assume everyone knows what it is... Black Belt is the highest level of certification. Wikipedia short read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_Six_Sigma#:~:text=Lean Six Sigma is a,value creation in business processes.

Ine and Cotswold Eagle have given some great advice. The canal boat rides are definitely worth it! If you're in port long enough and want to do something different, the other thing that comes to mind is a trip to Zaanse Schans. It's a location that can expand to fill your available time, unfortunately, but along with the windmills, there is essentially a living history museum that might interest the kids (and the adults; we loved it!). I'll defer to Ine on how much time it would take; we spent most of a day. There might be an excursion from the ship, or you can take the bus from Centraal pretty easily.

How long will you be in port?

Budget, number of days, other interests? See things in depth or drive by? Too many options and permutations.

Time for me to stop. That’s not necessarily true. But beyond Cruise Critic. Enjoy your next cruise.

You’re misunderstanding. I don’t. I have no more data they’re different than you have that they’re the same. You’re putting a lot of credence to changes in numerical scores. I have no data to know if those are real differences. They may be. They may not be. That’s my point.

The mean only matters if the survey populations are actually statistically the same... For the record, I suspect there is a difference. But if the difference is due to population differences as much as scoring, you're dealing with selection bias. You can't fix selection bias with statistics. An actual analysis of comments would give a very good idea if there's a real change. And arguably be much more relevant to decision making. You just need a lot of text files and an underpaid (or unpaid) 23 year old grad student... I haven't been following cruise reviews; my next two cruises are on Celebrity and pretty much locked in. After that, I'm thinking somewhere near Florence and Montalcino and a nice vineyard. Which has nothing to do with cruise reviews. We want to do something different, and a lot of that is well away from the ocean.

Next Wednesday? How long are you in port? What do you enjoy doing? Are you wanting to do something on your own? How are the kids? The Normandy coast to Amsterdam is quite a change! Lots of options. If you're talking next week, the Anne Frank house is probably out, which is unfortunate. I have a couple of ideas, but I'd like more information... And I'm sure others will have ideas as well!