Cotswold Eagle

9 minutes ago, Shaporama said:

We can then use the Heathrow Express to and fro.

You may know this already, but if your cruise is some months away you can get very cheap early bird advance tickets for the Heathrow Express, some as cheap as £5-50 each way, which is an absolute bargain! Others here will suggest the tube or the new Elizabeth Line, but it does of course depend a bit on where you are heading for in London. 

This thread has rather drifted from the original OP's request for a hotel near St Pancras! 

4 hours ago, Shaporama said:

We've booked a room at the Hilton Garden Inn Heathrow, adjacent to Terminals 2 and 3

This needs just a little care with the name of the hotel. The HGI London Heathrow Airport is actually at Hatton Cross, one tube stop from the airport. But it sounds as if you have booked HGI London Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3, which is actually attached to Terminal 2 by a covered walkway, so ideal for your flight.

As you are sticking to your plan to stay at the airport, in your shoes I would look into the possibility of a transfer straight to Heathrow from Tilbury, rather than in to the centre of town, It is, of course, a longer transfer, but you wouldn't have to worry about hauling your bags around - drop them at the hotel and then jump on to one of those trains  into town for your day sightseeing, safe in the knowledge your luggage is where it needs to be. I haven't looked at the relative costs or timings, though, I must admit! 

1 hour ago, Shaporama said:

Thanks Globabliser.  We are staying overnight at Heathrow before departing the following afternoon.  So we should have enough time to enjoy a day in London.  Granted this is way too little time to really take advantage of so many things that London has to offer, but we've been there multiple times before and plan on returning for longer visits in the future.

 

Thanks!

I can see no advantage to staying at Heathrow in this scenario. If you can cancel your reservation, I would suggest finding a hotel in town, drop your bags there, enjoy the day  and evening in London, have a leisurely start the next day  and only head out to the airport when you need to for the afternoon flight. 

5 hours ago, Steerpike58 said:

Question: is 'Hop On, Hop Off' a specific brand or do all the operators get to use that term? 

Didn’t you answer this question in your own post? There are several operators in London (and other European cities). Big Bus and City Sightseeing are international brands. 

5 hours ago, Steerpike58 said:

Question: do all the 'hop on, hop off'-like services offer the same, or different, itineraries? 

Different routes. There is a wealth of information about them on this board and online. As m’colleague from Scotland says, they should not be confused with a transport pass to quickly and conveniently get around a city. Two different requirements. 

Oh, shops can take whatever they like as payment - glass beads, if they wish. My point is that Manx notes are the equivalent of glass beads as they do not represent British pounds and are not legal currency. They cannot be paid into a British pounds denominated bank account, unlike Scottish or Northern Ireland notes, so a shop might get stuck with them or need special exchange arrangements (some currency exchanges will take them, but it's not a foreign exchange transaction either....)

This is why the Manx government states, "the Manx pound, which is equivalent in value to its United Kingdom counterpart, however can not be spent outside of the Isle of Man".

6 hours ago, Harters said:

It is a complex legal situation (which I make no claim to fully understanding)

Legal tender has absolutely no relevance to what means of payment shops choose (and it is entirely their choice) to accept. A business can’t be forced to accept anything.  Legal tender has an extremely narrow, technical meaning. As it happens, Scottish banknotes aren’t even legal tender in Scotland. 

The real question is are they legal currency throughout the U.K. and Scottish and Northern Irish notes are because they are recognised by the U.K. Parliament as being denominated in pounds sterling (British pounds).  
Pounds issued by the Crown Dependencies, Overseas Territories and Gibraltar are entirely different currencies backed by their own governments, who have chosen unilaterally to peg them at par with sterling and to make British pounds legal currencies in their territories. 

3 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

other parts of the UK

Unlike Scotland and Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man is not part of the UK. As mentioned up thread, it is a Crown Dependency. 

2 hours ago, grammawmoses said:

I thought I was buying direct from Hop On Hop Off but my tickets are from Golden Tours and they are 48 hour London Bus Tour.

Some confusion here, I think. Golden Tours ARE one of the four(?) Hop On Hop Off bus operators in London. 

43 minutes ago, Globaliser said:

t's relatively uncommon to find a business in England (especially a large one) refusing a Scottish note.

Funnily enough, I saw a sign just the other day, "We are unable to take Scottish or Northern Ireland notes at the moment" and it struck me you don't see that as much these days.

The 'at the moment' made me wonder if there'd been a spate of forgeries in the (tourist hotspot) area.

The OP has also posted in the Spain board, where this question belongs, so I’d suggest further replies should be in that thread for the benefit of others too. 

3 hours ago, cayman said:

Thanks for the info.  Do you know how to get to the Tulip Gardens from Delft?

Do you mean Keukenhof Gardens? On King’s Day or are you staying in Delft?
 

From Delft, I think your best public transport route would be train to Leiden and then the special bus to Keukenhof from the station there.  Combination transport and entry tickets will be available from the Keukenhof website next month:

https://keukenhof.nl/en/ 

7 hours ago, Host Bonjour said:

Not to bring up a sore subject, but why would it be needed in the UK? Though I can understand still requiring a visa

The UK’s ETA scheme is, of course, nothing to do with ETIAS. As it happens it has just come into effect, but only for Qatari nationals, and will apply to nationals of some other Middle East countries from February. Eventually, it will apply worldwide. 
https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2023/10/25/electronic-travel-authorisation-eta-scheme-factsheet-june-2023/

The point of any ETA scheme is that they only apply to people who do not need, and do not have, a visa.  

7 hours ago, Host Bonjour said:

Or has it sort of reverted back to a status similar to the old EEC?

I am not really sure what you mean by this, I’m afraid! The UK is a third country in EU terms and the UK’ s ETA will eventually apply to EU citizens, as ETIAS will apply to those of the UK. 

8 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Question about cost---does the proposal still include free for those over 70 years old?

It’s not a “proposal” - the ETIAS Regulation is a legal act of the EU, so the Commission is required to implement it. 
 

Article 18 of the Regulation sets the fee (€7) and exempts under 18s and over 70s from paying it. The fee can be changed (through delegated acts by the Commission) to cover costs, which is a requirement. 

Yes, that's the Council's current timeline. I'm not sure if the EES delay is the sole reason - unless they look further into decoupling, ETIAS can only be about 6 months after EES, but that assumes all is well in the ETIAS programme too! I'd take Spring 2025 as a 'no earlier than' date 🤣

When the Parliament agreed the text of the Regulation in July 2018, the Commission was saying “end of 2021”. I doubt any Euro-watchers believed that even then, though 😂

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_18_4367

Following their publication in the Official Journal of the European Union (EUR-Lex), the regulations will enter into force 20 days later, which will enable eu-LISA to start building the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) and make these new information systems operational by the end of 2021.

3 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

A 1.30 flight would give me no worries, as I would just leave earlier than we did.

But you were in the lounge 75 minutes before that flight, why would you want to leave earlier? 😀

56 minutes ago, styme123 said:

What time slot should we choose if our ship docks at 6:00am and we are doing self-walk off and carry-on luggage only?

You can only book a slot from three days before. You fill in your flight details and the system will give you suggested slots based on their predictions. You can usually choose from really quite early to very early indeed!! This all assumes you won't have fast track through status or booking, nor Previum. 

7 hours ago, 3redheads said:

Gives us an extra day in Amsterdam.

Never a bad thing 😀

Personally, I would have been very relaxed about your flight, but everyone's risk appetite is different, and it certainly removes any last night worries and allows you to have a carefree disembarkation rather than scrambling off at 7 am! 

2 hours ago, 3redheads said:

Lastly,  you do remember all the issues AMS had in Summer 2022? It's better, but not completely fixed. See point 2 above. 

I was not aware of the issues.  I will research.

I wouldn't bother. AMS had a horror with security delays last summer (and I don't know why CruiserBruce didn't just say that!). I don't know what his source is for saying that it's not completely fixed, but there are no systemic delays there at all now to the best off my knowledge. In any case, the appointment system mitigates the risk. 

2 hours ago, Globaliser said:

from the Hilton there's a rather unscenic walk through the multi-storey car park and then over the railway lines to get to the South Terminal; in contrast there's a shorter walk from the Sofitel to the transit and that tips you out almost inside the South Terminal.

Yes, very good point, although the walk from the Hilton is at least all under cover. I think people just like to feel that they are at the right terminal! And if you are going to use the station more than once, maybe that goes in its favour. 

But the  transit to the South Terminal from the North is so easy and both the Sofitel and Premier Inn are right by it, as you say, so I'd always go there. It's nothing like LHR, which is more like 3 separate airports sharing two runways 😀

3 hours ago, TouchstoneFeste said:

Sounds plausible for a fast overnight to catch an early morning flight. Thanks for this.

As long as you understand the concept (nature of the rooms and lack of anything else in the hotel), why not? Personally, I like to have somewhere to eat or drink that isn’t an airport outlet, but that’s a choice. 
 

The Courtyard by Marriott is about a 10 minute walk (signposted, I think) from the South Terminal. I don’t know it all, I’m afraid. 

12 minutes ago, gdlamberth said:

Any thoughts about Hilton at South Terminal?  Our plane departs from the South Terminal and the Hilton appears to be very near the train station also.  We'll be coming up by train from SOU.  Our thought was we'd drop our bags at our hotel at Gatwick then take the train into London for the afternoon/evening, come back to hotel get some sleep and catch our 1300 flight the next day.

Greg

It’s absolutely fine and obviously marginally more convenient for the South Terminal and the station. Also more facilities, such as a gym.
 

I use the Premier Inn purely on price, although there are good rates to be had at the Hilton (I just looked and it seems to have a standard HH members’ advance rate of £136, which is tempting - the nature of most of my travel is short term planning and I have seen it at £170, I think) - essentially I trade off the price of my dinner for the inconvenience of using the inter-terminal shuttle! 
 

Another vote for the Premier Inn North Terminal. It is literally across a road from the North Terminal and the first thing you come to is the station for the inter-terminal shuttle to get to the South Terminal in a few minutes. 

It's huge (about 700 rooms, I think) and at busy times the restaurant and bar can get little overwhelmed in my experience, although I think staffing issues have eased. If you want dinner, book a table at the restaurant as soon as you check in. 

In recent times it's consistently been about £100 per room. 

5 hours ago, edinburgher said:

book their transport  many months or even a year ahead when ticketing and timetables come available, as pricing usually increases as availability decreases.

Airline pricing is generally a lot more nuanced than that, using various revenue management strategies. Advice is quite often not to buy when tickets first go on sale as prices may be set high to 'catch' people who have plans and want to secure the flights. Similarly, it is not unusual for prices to rise towards the flight date, as airlines know there will be a percentage of last minute travellers who are not particularly price sensitive.

Google Flights have various tools that can help with this and I certainly wouldn't dismiss a Christmas trip on the basis it might be expensive, when now might be a great time to book 🎅😀

9 hours ago, BentPicketRanchGirl said:

Warren St station, which is close to King's Cross station

I don’t know the significance of you saying this, but Warren Street is not particularly close to King’s Cross - it’s the best part of a mile away. Only two stops on the tube, though. 

47 minutes ago, TravelinTess said:

 Royal Albert Hall may have a production of the Nutcracker while you are in the city.

Not this year. The Royal Ballet are doing at the Royal Opera House throughout December and in to January, though.