FionaMG

Very interesting. Thanks very much. ☺️

Did you get any information about what happened to Titanic's two sister ships?

The people look so tiny standing at the foot of the waterfall. The scale is simply staggering. 😮

Thanks @John Bull. This is incredibly helpful and much appreciated. 😊 While we're not, strictly speaking, committed regarding accommodation, we're actually flying straight to Southampton from Faro, so it makes sense to stay there. The unexpected turn of events I mentioned was getting a cracking deal on the flight that had previously been running at over €700 for the two of us one-way, which is the sort of price you have to contend with when you live in the Algarve and fail to take the English school holiday dates into consideration when booking your cruise! 😂 And on top of that I got a promotional deal for a 3-night stay at the Ibis, which has also saved us a ton of money over our original plans. 😁 We are planning to go into London on one of the days so that DD can catch up with her pals from uni, so that does just leave us with the one full day to do Portsmouth, so the year-long ticket for a single day it will be. And by signing up for the Dockyard's newsletter, I can get us £10 off the walk-up price, so that brings it down even more. 😁 I'm glad you mentioned about the Gosport attractions not being suitable for a one-day visit because I would not have realised that. Thanks again for taking the time to provide such great info! 🥰

Thinking about doing a day trip here from Southampton in September (an unexpected turn of events means we'll be staying 3 nights in Southampton pre-cruise). I've had a look at the Dockyard website and I'm confused about the tickets. It looks like if we want to spend the day there we really need to get the Ultimate Explorer ticket which is valid for 12 months, since the one-day ticket only lets you into one attraction. Am I reading that right or am I missing something? It seems silly to be buying a ticket that's valid for a year when we only want to visit for the day.🤷‍♀️ @John Bull and anybody else familiar with it, can you share any insight, please?

@scottie99, would you mind posting a copy of the departure times? I'm on the same itinerary in September and it would be very helpful. Thanks very much and enjoy the rest of your cruise. 😊

Oops. Fixed it for you. 😉

That one is definitely available to book on the Portuguese site. I just checked it now. So hopefully you don't have anything to worry about. 🤞

They may just be updating inventory in your market. I can see both of those sailings on the Portuguese website.

This is me and my DH exactly! 😂

B2B cruises are essentially two separate cruises. Could you go on just one of them and move the other to next year, not necessarily in suites? I've never booked a suite so I don’t know if the amount of the deposit is different from a standard cabin, but as far as I know all suite deposits are non-refundable so the change fee of $100pp to switch to a different sailing will probably be less than the amount of the deposit you'd lose by cancelling. Hope you can work something out.

I know they're a bit controversial but MSC are doing very similar routes next year, sailing from Hamburg in Germany.

You should also be able to get the Day 1 printed compass from Guest Services. On my last couple of cruises I've not even had to wait in line because the GS agent walking the line had them to hand.

Lots of great information @kands6191. I knew about the sun trolley but not the water trolley or the electric vehicles. Thanks for sharing. 😊 Slight hijack of the thread topic, but what did you think of home 2 suites, as I was looking at that one too since I have some Hilton points?

Perfect. Thanks very much. Appreciate the assistance. ☺️

How can you tell which are which? I'm looking at the hotel website. Some room descriptions specify the "original tower" and some the "executive tower" but there's a bunch in between that don't specify. It just says 9th to 12th floor. Is that a clue in itself? Thanks.

Bummer. That does not sound hopeful. 😕

I agree, it does seem very far out. 😕

Hope the weather clears up for you. 🤞

Fabulous itinerary. Looking forward to following along. Have an amazing trip! ☺️

In order to have people embarking in several ports along an itinerary they have to set a defined amount of inventory to each departure port. Early on, if they see one departure port is selling better or worse than others, they may do a reshuffle to maximise occupancy. This is why you will often see random A-to-B cruises with odd durations crop up as they try to fill leftover "holes" in the inventory. So it may just be that they have already filled the inventory initially allocated to Copenhagen for your cruise.

@OCSC Mike that is very handy to know. Duly noted for future use. 👍

You could be right. With Royal's IT it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. 🤦‍♀️

The problem with speciality is that it blocks a certain amount of time for your booking, usually a couple of hours. If you then do a mock booking to see what other times might be able you can't tell if the ones underlined in red are only blocked because of your own booking or if they are actually full. So say I have a lunch booking at Jamie's at 1pm and decide I want to go at 12.30pm instead, I'd have to cancel my original booking to see whether 12.30 is available. And then I'd lose any promotional price I might have benefited from even if the new time is available.

There isn't. Same thing with bookings for specialty dining. It's stupid and a pet peeve of mine. I think I read somewhere you can call but that pressuposes a) that you have time to call and b) that you get an agent who actually knows what they're doing. It really shouldn't be so hard. 😤