gumshoe958

I believe shuttle buses to Blankenberge are organised by the cruise lines. There are no direct trains between Zeebrugge and Blankenberge, they are on completely separate lines. The coastal tram should be running though, unless there’s engineering work or something.

This. Anyone who paid €400 for a transfer to FCO only has themselves to blame for not doing any proper research beforehand. There are numerous transportation options - shuttles, trains, cabs - none of which cost anywhere near €400. If only there was an online forum where cruisers could seek advice first …

Cheapest - National Express coach direct from Heathrow to Southampton. Runs every couple of hours from Heathrow central bus station which is a 5-10 minute walk from T3 via underground tunnels with moving walkways. Then a short cab ride at the Southampton end. Simplest - private car transfer, door to door. Not cheap though, it’s at least a 90 minute drive.

One of the highlights of last year’s Wonder TA was a music festival, where every musician on the ship played a short set in the Aqua Theatre. Lasted about 4 hours, great idea. I’m also on the Jewel TA right now and there are two daily lectures on sea days including a very informative one on the next port of call. Otherwise it’s pretty much the normal Royal sea day fare as @ReneeFLLsays - trivia, bingo, game shows, movies, dance classes etc. There’s a guest choir and a flash mob type event. And yes, the bigger the ship obviously the more there is to do. But the overwhelming majority of TA guests are seasoned cruisers and many bring their own activities - games, crafts etc. You quickly settle into a routine and it’s a very relaxing way to spend a fortnight.

Premier Inns are all pretty much identical. If you were ok with one at Heathrow, expect much of a muchness in Southampton. Not many frills but consistently clean and comfortable with reliable food & drink options.

You can’t walk it as pedestrians aren’t allowed in the tunnel that leads out of the central terminal area. So your options are taxi, Uber/Bolt, public bus (routes 105 or 111 run frequently from the central bus station to a stop next to the hotel) or the overpriced and infrequent Hotel Hoppa buses from T2 or T3 arrivals direct to the hotel. Technically a taxi can refuse to take you - drivers don’t like short hops as it means they miss out on a potentially lucrative fare into central London. In practice you’d be unlucky if that happened and should be ok.

Heathrow, annoyingly, is on a separate spur off the main Reading to London line with no direct access from the Reading direction. So from Reading you’d need to get off the Elizabeth line train at Hayes & Harlington and transfer there to a Heathrow train. Alternatively, there’s a direct bus service branded Railair which leaves from just outside Reading station every 30 minutes and takes between 40 minutes and an hour, depending on your terminal at LHR - so about the same as the train.

Further - just over a mile so a 20-25 minute walk.

Yes and yes. It takes between two and three hours to get to the locks at IJmuiden, depending on whether the ship has to turn around after leaving the terminal (some turn around in the morning as they arrive, others in the evening as they leave).

The Ibis Budget, together with the Ibis and Novotel on the same site, are the closest hotels to the Horizon terminal that NCL uses. Easily walkable in less than 10 minutes.

How are you getting to the airport? If by taxi or private transfer, as long as you’re on the road by 8 you’ll be fine. But if by National Express coach or cruise line shuttle bus, that’s too early for comfort and I’d call NCL and ask for a later flight.

A quick Google found this obituary for a man with grandchildren from Seattle called Stephen & Joelle and great-grandchildren called Ethan & Jordan. Got to be, surely … https://nationalpost.remembering.ca/obituary/max-adler-1065368737 And then another quick Google found a lady called Joelle Baron, nee Adler, married to Stephen living near Seattle: https://www.spokeo.com/Joelle-Baron/Washington/Sammamish/p3410933171 May or may not be them. But maybe a starting point? The internet is a scary thing …

Assuming you’re staying in the hotel I think you’re staying in, it’s a half mile 10-15 minute walk from the coach station so up to you whether you choose to walk or take a cab. Leonardo have two hotels in Southampton. The former Jurys Inn is on the northern edge of the city centre, by a park in quite a studenty area (there’s a university next door). But it’s easily walkable from the centre and its many shops and restaurants. You’ll need a cab to get to the cruise terminal. The other one, the Leonardo Royal, is in the south of the city centre, the same distance from the coach station but nearer the shops and much closer to the cruise terminals, therefore very popular with cruisers.

Don’t feel the need to seek out a Wetherspoons. They’re a huge national pub chain with cheap beer and microwaved food. Very popular, always crowded and definitely not “different” or local. Pizza Express, to be fair, is far nicer than it sounds. Pleasant, full service restaurants with pizzas that are a big step up in quality from Pizza Hut or Domino’s. Still a chain though!

It’s perfectly doable, on the understanding that if anything goes wrong (delay to ship’s arrival, delay in disembarkation, unscheduled motorway closure etc) you won’t have an awful lot of contingency time. So it’s really down to your appetite for risk. If you’re the type of person who’ll spend the entire cruise worrying about whether you’ll make your flight, you should rethink. It’s really not worth the stress. But if you’re a ‘what will be will be’ YOLO type of person, go for it because there’s probably a 90% plus chance everything will be fine. Just have a Plan B in mind as back-up.

This really is worst case scenario stuff. In the unlikely event of a flight cancellation or severe delay, assuming @ssawjo is flying in from the US or Canada there are likely to be any number of rerouting options that would get them into Heathrow later the same day or possibly early the next day, still in plenty of time to make the ship at Southampton. So my advice is - chill!

You can use it at any restaurant that’s open. Problem is on port days, you’ll struggle to find one that opens for lunch. Maybe Johnny Rockets and Sabor after 2 or 3PM, but unlikely to be earlier.

Yes, when it rains that gap (which is Central Park) gets wet! It’s good for the plants though! Oasis class ships rely heavily on outdoor facilities like Central Park, the Aquatheatre, Boardwalk and waterpark to keep passengers occupied but if it’s cold and wet they tend to be deserted. Yet 6,000 people have to go somewhere so the remaining indoor venues just become very crowded. Of course the open decks on Quantum class will also get wet, but more of their activities and large venues are under cover like 270, Seaplex and a much larger Music Hall, so there are more places to go when it’s cold and wet. And crucially, Q class ships have a pool with a retractable roof.

MSC should match you to their top tier, Diamond. You don’t get a lot though - one free dinner at a specialty restaurant is probably the best perk. And a dance class. Tbh in terms of loyalty perks, Royal sets the bar pretty high and takes some beating thanks to those drink vouchers. I’d lay money on Liberty ‘enhancing’ them at some point.

As long as you’re off by 8 you’ll be fine. It’s only a 90 minute drive, 2 hours max.

Exactly. And as long as people are willing to pay $1500 for a covered chair on a beach or $200 for a couple of hours in a water park, right now that somewhere else is Coco Cay. Sure, cruise fares are high out of Southampton. But if people aren’t buying drinks, spa treatments, speciality dining and excursions that means little.

Isn’t the whole point of Quantum class that it’s more of an ‘indoor’ ship and WAS designed specifically for ‘cold’ markets like the UK? Yet we Brits still moaned about being sent Anthem every year despite her being a hugely impressive ship, second only to Oasis class which is clearly incompatible with the UK. Fact is we’ll happily moan about whichever ship we’re sent, and maybe Royal’s had enough. It can make much easier money elsewhere and leave us to whinge to our heart’s content on P&O and MSC. (Or - far simpler and probably more likely explanation - new CEO, different priorities. Fain saw potential for Royal to grow in the UK. Liberty doesn’t.)

Indeed. But I bet the bean counters have. Presumably Royal has signed multi-year deals to licence Cats, Mamma Mia, Hairspray, We Will Rock You, Grease & Saturday Night Fever. If and when those deals end, I’d lay money on them not being renewed.

I don’t think it is. To quote the article linked upthread: ‘Weir said the version coming to the ship won’t be a rehash of the 1939 MGM film production or the Broadway version adapted by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jeremy Sams, but something unique to the ship. “I think everyone knows that I’m a future-forward type of creator. I like to look to the horizon,” Weir said. “We’re going to do something to ‘The Wizard of Oz’ that’s never been done.”’ Royal is moving away from licensing existing shows. That costs a lot of money and means sacrificing creative control. I’m confident this will be an entirely new, in-house production.

Not the movie or West End musical versions though. It’ll be a Royal in-house production.