gumshoe958

To add: On CocoCay it is absolutely possible to spend no money and have a perfect day (sorry!) - there are literally thousands of loungers (with umbrellas) all over the island and most food is included. All the bars will give out free drinking water. At ports of call you are absolutely free to do whatever you want. You do not have to buy a shore excursion. If you do, then yes it’ll include transportation to and from the port. Most tours are overpriced but the one advantage is they guarantee the ship won’t leave without you if there’s a delay for whatever reason. If you do your own thing, make sure you’re back in good time. There is no passport control in the Bahamas or Saint Marteen. Disembarkation can take a while if everyone tries to get off at once but the line moves pretty fast and there’s normally more than one gangway. Shows are all free but you’d be wise to book to guarantee seats. Reservations normally open online 4-8 weeks before departure. Most on board activities like the water slides are also free. To summarise, Royal will try their hardest to upsell you almost everything. That’s where they make most of their money. But you can still have an amazing time without buying anything extra. Symphony is an incredible ship, you’ll love her.

To answer a few of your questions: Drinking water is freely available throughout the ship, from dispensers. It’s perfectly safe to drink the water from the bathroom tap, although it may not taste very nice and will rarely be very cold. A few other free drinks are available from the Windjammer buffet including lemonade, iced tea and - at breakfast only - juices. Your meals in the main dining room (MDR) are all included. But Royal will try to sell you an upgrade to various specialty restaurants including a steakhouse, Italian and sushi bar. The quality is better than the MDR but you’re absolutely under no obligation to upgrade if you don’t want to. If you’ve selected early traditional dining you are locked into that 5pm time - although there is typically a 15 minute grace period before they shut the doors. If you want to eat later you can go to the Windjammer, or call before your cruise and ask to move to My Time Dining, where you choose when to eat.

And boy did they reprice it. Very glad I put a hold on earlier!

You haven’t done anything wrong, but presumably no-one here has used these companies. I haven’t heard of any of them. Have you looked them up on trustpilot? The third one is very highly rated. The first one definitely is not.

You’ll have no problem getting a cab to take you from the terminal to the station. The walk, while short and perfectly doable, involves crossing a couple of very busy roads and isn’t particularly pleasant. YMMV. There are two ways to get from Southampton to Windsor by train. Via Reading & Slough, as you’ve found, which will almost certainly involve using elevators to change platforms at both those stations. The other, which I’d recommend, is via London, which has direct trains every 30 minutes both from Southampton Central to Waterloo and from Waterloo to Windsor & Eton Riverside. It’s a single, level, easy change of trains at Waterloo with no stairs or elevators involved. So that might be easier, if a bit slower and maybe pricier. Yes, the trains have washrooms. If you do go via Slough, it’s not a lovely place despite its proximity to Windsor. I wouldn’t really recommend staying the night there if you don’t have to.

Exactly. Pending just means a bid hasn’t been rejected yet, which many are quite early on if they’re too low and it’s obvious they haven’t got a chance. Pending bids are still in with a chance right up until departure depending on last minute cancellations and no-shows. But if it turns out there are no cabins or suites left to upgrade to, they’ll be rejected eventually.

You will have to ask your cruise line, as some allow it and some don’t.

That kind of depends where on deck 12 you are.

Probably cheaper to get the work done in Spain than in the US.

Welcome to the crazy world of Britain’s railways! Ticketing is extremely complicated and not at all customer friendly with a bewildering array of options - sometimes dozens of different fares for exactly the same train. But to cut a very long story short, different lines are run by different operators, all of which sell tickets for any journey by any operator to try and ensure there’s a joined-up national network. So yes, LNER will sell you a ticket for SWR even though you’ll never set foot on an LNER train. Why some operators accept bookings from overseas and others don’t, who knows. But it’s silly and unhelpful and feels very regressive in the era of Apple Pay and Google Pay.

How old are your children? If they’re 10 or over, and you all have biometric US passports, you can all use the automated e-gates to clear the UK border, which should speed things up. If they’re under 10 or you don’t have biometric passports you’ll have to see an immigration officer which may slow things down if there’s a line. The other unknown is baggage reclaim, but even on a bad day (not unknown at LHR) I’m still confident you’ll comfortably make the 2:20 coach. The coaches stop right outside arrivals at T5 so there are no long walks involved and there are a couple of cafes in arrivals once you’re through customs if you find yourselves with time to kill. Sensible move to buy the Change & Go upgrade though.

I agree. The primary reason Royal is contemplating a new class of smaller ship is to serve home ports that can’t handle Quantum, Oasis or Icon class. It’s not so they can offer ‘interesting’ ports of call or longer or more diverse itineraries. That’s Celebrity’s job.

The easiest way is the direct National Express coach (bus) from Southampton to LHR. However the times aren’t ideal for you: there’s one at 7:30, which I’m not sure you’d catch even if you’re off the ship early, and one at 9:45 which doesn’t arrive at LHR until 12:00 which is very tight for your flight. So although it involves a change en route, I’d advise catching the train from Southampton Central to Woking, then the Railair bus from there to LHR. That runs every 30 minutes and the 8:30 train, for example, would get you into LHR by 10:45.

48 minutes from plane to bus is tight. US flights normally arrive at one of the T5 satellites B or C, which means waiting for and riding a transit to the main terminal. Immigration is usually pretty fast if you use the e-gates (as most US citizens can) but there can be lines if you time it wrong. So while it’s doable if all the stars align, personally I’d aim for the bus half an hour later which then gives you more time to change between bus and train at Woking.

It’s any continuous 24 hour period you choose, starting from the moment you activate it. When you get on board and on the ship’s wifi you can either activate via the app or go to login.com to set up your account and choose whether to redeem your Diamond voucher for just 24 hours, or put the value towards a longer period - up to you.

Yes, seek advice from Royal. Your brother’s past may not be an issue at home, but some countries may take a different view and refuse entry to someone who’s previously been arrested for a sexual offence.

I’d be prepared to bet plenty of people bid on every category they’re offered, regardless of whether they really want it. Just because they think they’re getting a bargain upgrade, even if they’re not.

The algorithm just offers you the next six or so categories immediately above yours. Logic doesn’t come into it.

You don’t have to reserve as there’s always a standby line but if you want to get in early to get good seats yes, you should. You can reserve for all shows in the main theater, the Aqua theater and the ice rink. Until recently reservations opened around the start of the month before departure (eg start of April for a May cruise) but there’ve been reports lately that they’ve been opening earlier than that. There’s no consistency, you just have to keep checking.

London isn’t great for Christmas markets tbh, but what few there are (Trafalgar Square, South Bank, Leicester Square, Covent Garden) should be open by then. Christmas lights will be on by then in the major West End shopping streets (Oxford St, Regent St, Bond St). There’s also the incredibly popular Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park which you have to pre-book (not free). Finally I highly recommend the Kew Gardens Christmas light trail which is always beautiful and, while very popular, feels a world away from the hustle and bustle of central London. Again, you need to pre-book.

I think it comes down to your attitude to risk. If Anthem’s on time and you’re among the first off, you’ll make it. But there’s very little room for manoeuvre and even a 30 minute delay in disembarking would scupper you. I’d be minded to go for the 4pm flight. Yes, it’s a pain having to hang around Southampton but you don’t want to spend your whole cruise worrying about disembarkation day. And the 4pm flight would get you to EDI at roughly the same time as the train.

The EI124 arrives DUB at 10:25. The earliest LHR flight you could reasonably catch leaves at 12:00 and arrives 13:25. So once you’ve got your bags and gone landside you’re probably looking at a 15:30-16:00 arrival at Southampton, and that’s as long as all the stars align. Sorry, but I fear that’s a non-starter. With the earlier EI122 you’d have a very good chance but even I, who quite enjoys the thrill of the chase, wouldn’t dare try this one.

If your ship is due to dock at 10:30 you won’t be allowed off until 11:00 or later, so there’s no way you’ll make a 10:45 train. It’s a very popular train with limited space so I’m not surprised that the departures when the ship’s in dock are already sold out.

Air Canada flights arrive at Terminal 2B at LHR, the satellite terminal which is indeed a long walk to immigration and customs. Aer Lingus flights arrive at Terminal 2A, the main building with significantly less walking and - crucially - no immigration checks. If @Jack E Dawson has an option to fly directly from Dublin to Southampton, though, that would be a no-brainer in this situation. Just have a Plan B ready via London in case the Chicago flight is late or the Southampton flight is cancelled.

You will have to clear immigration at Dublin before proceeding to your connecting flight. Thanks to the Common Travel Area (CTA) agreement between the UK and Ireland you won’t have to clear immigration again at Heathrow, but you will have to clear customs. 99.9% of the time that’s just a walk-through though - no queueing involved unless you’re extremely unlucky and get stopped.