gumshoe958

46 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Royal Caribbean International has nothing directly to do with Celebrity Cruises. They are two separate cruise lines that are owned by the same parent company, Royal Caribbean Group. 

True, but they are becoming more closely aligned and Jason Liberty’s strategy is clearly to position Royal as the younger, family-oriented brand that feeds passengers to Celebrity as they get older.

1 minute ago, Cruiscs said:

Correct but looking at other options

Why are you getting cold feet? What are you looking for that Silhouette can’t offer?

4 minutes ago, Cruiscs said:

We dont mind an older crowd. Prefer that over tons of kids

I’m confused. Your other posts in the roll calls suggest you’ve already booked on Silhouette in September?

4 minutes ago, Cruiscs said:

Really? Where a lot of families on pur Edge cruise. But that was in august 

Exactly. Plus Silhouette’s an older ship, it’s a longer itinerary and Europe tends to skew older. It will not be a young crowd.

Yep, Odyssey.

The average passenger on Silhouette will be twice as old as you.

6 hours ago, SEA DOGY said:

I’m still struggling trying to decide which the best way to get to Southampton from LHR 

Do you need to book in advance if you decide to use National Express are they at the Airpot terminal or you need to take a taxi ? How about private transportation which companies to use. TIA 

You would be strongly advised to book National Express in advance. If there’s still room on the coach you can buy a ticket on the day but they’re often full and they only go every couple of hours so it’s a big risk.

If your flight arrives at Terminal 4 or 5, the coach stops right outside arrivals. If it’s Terminal 2 or 3 (all US airlines) you’ll have to walk to the central bus station - about a 10 minute walk, underground with moving walkways to help.

9 hours ago, Cruider said:

Anybody have info or can suggest ways of getting to Dover from Gatwick other than Carnival transfer.

We are arriving June 26 from Canada.

That’s not the easiest journey to make by public transport and if Carnival are offering a direct transfer I wouldn’t rule it out.

Otherwise, your options are limited to taxi, private car transfer (both expensive, allow about 90 minutes) or train (several different routes, all involving at least one change of train, allow around 2.5-3 hours).

2 hours ago, BodaciousB said:

Just booked a quick getaway in September out of Portsmouth on Resilient Lady. Due to my work schedule I'm considering flying into Heathrow (from the U.S.) the morning of embarkation and I'm thinking that a private car transfer would be the safest bet to get from the airport to the cruise terminal, this thread is so long but I'm not sure if the advice herein applies to Portsmouth as well as Southampton as the two cruise ports seem to be about 25 miles away from each other. I know the trains are an option and we won't have much luggage for a 4 night cruise but if I'm reading things correctly it seems we'd need to change trains twice and given that we will be tired from the overnight flight I'm not sure I'd want to deal with it. Is it crazy to fly into Heathrow on the same day we embark? I've got 3 flights to choose from that would get us in between 6:30 and 11:00 am. All aboard time is 4 pm for a 6 pm sail away. Thank you! 

I think most people here would advise against flying in on embarkation morning, particularly long-haul. If everything goes to plan you’ll be fine, but if your flight’s cancelled or significantly delayed your options may run out very quickly.

Your options for transport between Heathrow and Portsmouth are:

National Express coach (every couple of hours, journey time 3.5 hours)

Railair bus to Woking then train (every half hour, journey time 2.5 to 3 hours)

Pre-booked private car transfer (journey time 75-90 mins but expensive)

16 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

I highly doubt that. They spend a very long time to develop new shows & starting from scratch that late doesn’t seem feasible.

No need to start from scratch. Keep the second, smaller in-house production show, ditch the expensive musical and replace it with cheap headliners if required. 
 

Whatever the plans were for Utopia, I suspect they may have been ripped up following the sudden departure of Nick Weir.

3 hours ago, Biker19 said:

The app lists a band called The Dukes Live! in the Music Hall - not rock but dance music.

They’re a covers party band, not a tribute act.

48 minutes ago, LINDAE3213 said:

I seriously doubt i will blend in with my jersey accent...but what happened to being a tourist friendly destination?  And even if i connect my s9 galaxy android smartphone with an intl plan and pay the daily fee  and it does not work  ...i have verizon...then what?  Things happen...phones dont work  get lost get stolen  if my trip is tied to the use of a smartphone what's the backup plan?  

If you’re convinced your phone will get stolen, your cards will get skimmed and you won’t get to see anything, perhaps you shouldn’t travel. 
 

It’s simply a fact that London is becoming increasingly cashless and anyone without a smartphone is at a disadvantage.

Sure, you can get by using cash and without a phone but chances are you’ll end up paying more, queueing for longer and being turned away from some businesses.

I’m sorry you don’t like it but that’s just the reality of life in London - and many other major world cities - in 2024. 

Even the US is (slowly) moving forwards - try navigating Disney World without an app these days. 
 

56 minutes ago, napria said:

So flying to Heathrow is preferable to flying to Southampton, regarding ease?  I dread sitting in a car for 1 1/2 to 2 hours after the long flight.

In which case it’s a minimum of two connections. The obvious route is SAV-ATL-AMS-SOU which can be done with Delta/KLM. Just note there are only a couple of flights a day from Amsterdam to Southampton so there may be some long connections.

The drive from Heathrow to Southampton takes 1 hour 20 minutes minimum. That’s with no traffic in the middle of the night. 
 

If you have checked luggage it will take at least 40 minutes from aircraft to landside, more if your luggage isn’t off quickly.

So yes, it’s possible you’d make it but you’d need all the stars to align. Any delay to your flight, at immigration, at baggage reclaim or on the motorway and it’s game over.

Do you really want to spend the whole journey stressing about whether you’ll make it? I would strongly urge you to get an earlier flight, preferably the day before. This is far too close for comfort.

1 hour ago, vjmatty said:

I’m kind of the opposite because the long flight is a lot less crappy on the way back, since it’s a daytime flight rather than an overnight one. For some reason they’re also cheaper and I don’t have to spend miles for business class since I can find business seats under $1k. Also there is no short flight, since we usually either sail out of NY or Bayonne, or take the train and stay with the kids and grandkids for a few days.

There’s less demand for lie-flat seats on day flights, largely because many corporate travel policies only allow employees to fly business class if it’s a red-eye.

5 hours ago, Harters said:

Interesting. It may be a particular London thing. I don't know anywhere in the Greater Manchester area that is card only. Of course, almost everyone is paying by card anyway. 

London buses haven’t accepted cash for ten years now.

Yes, you can cancel any time for a full refund (up to about 48 hours before sailing, then once on board you can cancel for OBC).

3 minutes ago, Thejuggler said:

I stayed in a Premierinn just outside London on Friday night.  The basic wifi was hopeless and I couldn't tether as we were surrounded by buildings so no signal!

 

I was on the tube a lot yesterday and the majority of passengers used smartphone to pay fare.

 

I recommend Joolz Guides youtube channel for anyone visiting London.  Well produced videos covering all sorts of stuff.  He also now has a book with some self guided walks.

Fairly standard tbh. They have to offer free wifi as people expect it in 2024 and their competitors all do. But they make it as useless as possible to make you upgrade to the premium wifi. It’s a budget hotel - you want frills, you pay extra.

13 minutes ago, Island2Dweller said:

I'm slightly puzzled by the number of posters on this forum who seem convinced that taking their credit card out of their wallet will cause them to lose it.  Use of cards (or smartphone or smartwatch) is now the dominant payment method for travel in London and it works just fine for millions of folk here.

You can still buy an oyster card if you wish, but that has a £7 (non refundable) upfront fee and is valid to fewer destinations than bank card.

Me too! And many of them from the US where, until quite recently, it was common practice in restaurants to give your card to a waiter who would take it out the back for several minutes and return it with the total left blank for a tip!

There’s absolutely no point in getting an Oyster card unless you’ve got kids who are too young to have a debit or credit card.

For comparison, Uber is currently (Sunday morning, so quiet) quoting just under £60.

Sure, you’ll have to walk to the car park next to the terminal to find your driver as opposed to having your driver meet you in arrivals, but it’ll be considerably cheaper.

6 hours ago, Luckynana said:

After reading  @gumshoe958and @Island2Dweller's comments about the size of the Premier Inn rooms, I'm going to begin a new search of hotels.  We plan on staying in London for 5 nights, and prior to Covid waylaying our plans back in 2021, we had reservations at the Park Plaza Westminster Hotel.  I'll probably just look into that hotel and talk to my TA for more input.

 

Just reading your comment about the Tower being in the City of London, which is a city within a city with lots of history has me getting really excited about out trip! 

 

A friend of mine who grew up in England suggested we buy the Oyster card prior to our visit to get around.  I've read of people finding it easier to use their credit card for travel, but I'd rather not take a chance losing my CC.

 

Thank you for your input!

Just to be clear, it’s only rooms in the ‘Hub’ hotels that are tiny. The rooms in standard Premier Inns like Tower (Bank) are larger.
 

Premier Inn is a budget chain - think Days Inn standard - but they have a decent reputation for being consistent, clean and comfortable. 

As for getting around, if you have Apple or Google Pay on your phone you can use that instead of a physical credit card. 

7 hours ago, JBCall said:

 

Yes.  My wife's grandmother (who passed before they could meet) grew up in the area before emigrating to Canada.  So our thinking was to spend a little time there to soak up the vibe of her family history.  If we have time we may try to get to a couple of the more standard tourist highlights.  We are staying at the Novotel Greenwich (off Greenwich High Road).

 

Do you know the likely time difference for the train versus a car service from Southampton to our hotel?

 

Thanks.

Thanks for the info.

By car, Southampton to Greenwich will take a minimum of 2 hours 15 minutes if there’s no traffic, but probably more.

By train, the quickest route would probably be Southampton to London Waterloo, Waterloo East to London Bridge, then London Bridge to Greenwich. Which can be done in about 2 hours 10 minutes (fast trains run every half hour).

With four of you plus luggage, I’d be minded to book a car service. I’m guessing it’ll cost around the £200 mark to Greenwich.

The 11:07 would be playing it very safe IMHO. Assuming your flight is on time you’d probably be at St Pancras well in time for the 9:07 and certainly for the 10:04. 
 

The off-peak ticket is valid on any train that day. With an Advance ticket you can change it on the day, paying the fare difference plus a £10 fee as long as you change it before the train you originally booked departs.

If it were me, I think I’d book a £15.50 advance for the 10:04. If your flight is delayed and you’re not landside at Heathrow until after 8:30 (but before 10:04), stop by the airport rail station ticket office before catching the tube, and get them to change your ticket for a later train.

Just be aware that the ‘Hub’ hotels tend to have much smaller rooms, which don’t always have windows. 
 

The Bank (Tower) Premier Inn is indeed very close to the Tower of London and a short stroll to St Paul’s Cathedral and across the river to attractions like the Shard, Shakespeare’s Globe and Borough Market.

It’s in London’s financial district though, so not much going on at night or weekends if you want to be near restaurants and nightlife. Very close to the tube though, so easy to get around.

There will be multiple performances at different times on different days.

Set the app to the current sailing and you can get an idea of when they are.