Cotswold Eagle

Not necessarily - with a modicum of planning (Advance train tickets) the difference is only about £5. I personally would pay a much larger premium than that to spend an hour or more less on a train over a bus 😀

The Advance fares on the Waterloo-Southampton route start at £14 Standard and £19.80 First. I’m surprised you have never seen them, they are widely available.

A rather important clarification needed here is from where exactly? Have you a hotel booked in London? And if you are implying that you can't handle your luggage, your desire not to spend much money may be a difficult constraint! Hopefully you realise that Southampton is 80 miles from London.

Have you seen this specifically in relation to a cruise ship calling at a first Schengen port after departure from a third country, as in this example? Such an approach would seem to be a breach of Section 3.2 of Annex VI of the Schengen Border Code, which has specific rules relating to cruise ships and states that entry checks should only be carried out on “passengers going ashore”.

Let’s not make this thread as complicated as my recent attempt at a simple update on the EU’s EES and ETIAS 😀 OP, BA’s inability to handle API consistently is a well known problem (or series of problems). A quick internet search will throw up examples of exactly the problem you are having. Or you may wish to post in the Cruise Air section here, where you may find frequent flyers who have seen it before. Be assured it will be resolved at check in at the latest.

Good grief. This craziness is exactly why I posted just a broad brush update on implementation dates. Either one is going to have to supply information for EES, or not. Nothing you can do about it, not worth worrying about it. ETIAS implementation is not finalised. Don’t worry about it until it is. It’s really that simple.

Further to previous discussions on the introduction of an electronic travel authorisation for non-visa nationals to enter the Schengen area, the European Commission has announced that the necessary precursor system, EES (collection of biometric data at the external border), will commence on 10th November. ETIAS, the approval required before travelling, should follow six months later, so we would expect to see it operational from May 2025 (at this point the Commission is just saying first half of the year) Practical implications: - from November, photo and fingerprints will be collected on first crossing of the external Schengen border (valid for three years thereafter) - from May, non-visa nationals (including most UK and US citizens) must apply for an ETIAS before travel to the Schengen area There is no requirement or process to apply yet. There will be a lot of publicity nearer the time and air/sea carriers will check. If you are seeking further information, please, please check you are reading an official EU website - there are plenty of unofficial ones out there, many of which will no doubt turn into unnecessary and expensive intermediaries, if not outright scams.

Absolutely not! ESTA is only required by people travelling under the Visa Waiver Program, which clearly you would not be as you don’t require a visa to enter your own country. BA has some poor IT, which can result in unhelpful messaging (although I wonder if you have yet completed your API including US passport, which should override an ESTA flag).

Yes, it's one of those fabulous English things where THE Borough is part of A borough (yes, Southwark). It's the area around Borough High Street and over towards Bermondsey Street. Despite working there for several years, I don't know if there is well defined area, but you kind of know if something's in the Borough or not 😀 The origins are in the defended approach to the south end of the original London Bridge (but so is the name Southwark!)

There are, of course, public transport options between Southampton/Portsmouth and London, but many of our American friends seem reluctant to use them 😀

Just to say, the term 'downtown' is not really used in the UK (although expressions such as 'going down the town' are). In London, there's a very tiny chance it could lead to confusion because there is a small part of Rotherhithe in south east London known as Downtown - it was between the Russia Dock and the river, and even as late as the 1980s had a reputation for being a very insular and somewhat strange place. Certainly not what a tourist would expect as 'downtown'. And London doesn't really have a 'city centre' - we talk of central London, but that is a significantly large area (which varies by individual's definition), so it's always best to be more specific - in the OP's case it sounds as if they are staying in Waterloo.

Yeah 😀 I just did a dummy booking for the luggage store at Milan Central Station and it came out at €232... There are probably cheaper stores, but, absent a very obliging hotel, it's probably going to be cheaper to ship.

The Monday is Spring Bank Holiday (a fixed holiday on the last Monday in May, which replaced Whit Monday holiday many years ago). [Bank Holiday is the UK term for public holiday, being days the banks would close]

There are companies that specialise in baggage shipping other than the commercial couriers you mention, including the company that operates the left luggage facilities at many U.K. airports and railway stations, https://www.left-baggage.co.uk/en/services, You could drop off your extra luggageat the airport as you leave. Another one, which does pickups from an address and so may not be as convenient, is https://www.mybaggage.com/shipping/ I do not have direct personal experience of either company, links provided for you to rearsrch 😀

It’s significantly worse, as generally is any route that involves a change at Green Park to or from the Piccadilly line. Just to illustrate what we mean by the cross-platform change at Barons Court, in this photo there’s a District line train on the left, which I am about to board, and a departing Piccadilly service on the right, which I just got off. it’s really that simple. And there’s a lovely bench to sit on under cover if you have to wait a few minutes for the next train 😀 [Eagle eyed viewers will spot this is the platform for trains into town, but it’s the same set up on the other platform for trains towards the airport]

I hadn't heard of this new (2023) hotel, but looks good. For other locals struggling to place it, it's seems to be a refurbishment of the large commercial building that is the link from Vauxhall Bridge Road to Wilton Place, right by the side entrances to Victoria Station. There used to be a very useful Argos store on the ground floor, which I expect is no more 😀 Good location if you want to be in that part of town. It will only take that long if you get lost 😉 `About 10 minutes, I'd reckon.

JB is broadly right, but note that Advance tickets can only be changed BEFORE the departure of the first booked service, after which they have no value. (Useful for changes of plan, not for missing the booked service.) The rules are quite opaque and depend on how the ticket was purchased, too, so I'd say not worth factoring into this scenario. Incidentally, there is no such thing as an Advance Return - you buy two Advance single tickets, but the booking engines make that quite simple these days and show the options when a search is made for a return. To add more complexity, to JB’s delight, SWR do now have a semi-flexible return, which is like an Advance on the outward (i.e. valid only on a booked service), but can be used on any return service, so you could leave London whenever you liked that day. This would have been good if you were sure which train to London you wanted (more useful for those already in Southampton, rather than arriving!) It’s slightly cheaper than a Super Off Peak Return, but ties you to a particular time to London, and they have to be purchased the day before at latest. So if I were you, I’d just rock up at the station at your convenience, and buy Super Off Peak Returns, which will be valid on any outward and return trains that Sunday.

Some confusion here. Thalys, which was never Dutch (the rail company in the Netherlands is NS), no longer exists - former Thalys services are operated by Eurostar, as mentioned above and on previous threads, the so-called Eurostar Red trains. I’m intrigued why tickets bought through SNCF caused an issue. They certainly sell Eurostar tickets (and indeed are the majority shareholder of the Eurostar group). But, yes, tickets for Amsterdam-Paris can be bought on the Eurostar website.

Crikey, this is a question we haven’t had for a while! A lot (all?) of the multi-currency ATMs in central London were owned by Raphael’s Bank, which rather quietly concluded its slide into liquidation in 2020. I don’t know of them being replaced, but I haven’t really looked at any ATMs since then anyway. I expect there will still be some at the airports run by the forex firms (TravelEx at LHR, Change Group at LGW?) But as you say it will be an expensive route, as they will charge (and take the margin) for a double exchange - USD to GBP, then GBP to EUR.

That's simply not true, I'm afraid. The largest operator of rail services is a public body (the so-called operator of last resort) and the network itself is in public ownership via an arm's length body. It's hard to see how any Train Operating Company, however owned, can operate trains over a closure on the network, which is not in their control, Even if it was, railways frequently require repair, safety work and upgrading. So, yes, not running trains at all is often their only option, but in accordance with their franchise and regulatory requirements they will lay on alternative transport, as in this case. Wow.

Not on the class 444 units used on Waterloo - Southampton (as per the video Globaliser posted). They are ideal for long distance commuting, but SWR use them heavily on holiday routes, and lack of luggage space is a well known issue. Anyone who commutes on these services will be well used to this issue!

Rule 2 of Cruise Critic: NEVER use the Drain! To be fair, it is a lot better after the refurbishment 20-ish (?) years ago. Although I haven't used it post-COVID, I would not recommend it to a tourist at 0830 heading to the City...

It's a good shout generally, but the London Eye pier doesn't start operating until after the OP needs to be at the Tower.

I absolutely agree with your choice of Tube line, but Westminster is significantly closer to the Park Plaza than Embankment, so I'd head there straight over the bridge.

First rule of Cruise Critic: NEVER change at Green Park (particularly with luggage) 😀