gumshoe958

That perk is reserved for people who book restaurants individually at full price. As long as you’re prepared to be a bit flexible with times you shouldn’t have a problem getting decent reservations.

It is true that you can only book once on board. Royal will make a courtesy reservation on night 1 or 2 but you’re free to change it to wherever and whenever you want. Do this asap after boarding at any restaurant. You can make your other reservations at the same time.

They certainly can sell out, yes. Looking at tomorrow the 8:00 is completely full and the 11:45 has only one seat left. Mind you there are five ships in port tomorrow, which is a lot. On your arrival day there are only three. The 9:45 might be a bit too early as it gets into Heathrow at 12:00 and you may find you can’t check in to your hotel that early. Then again the 11:45 would leave you with time to kill in Southampton assuming you’re thrown off the ship by 9:30. YMMV I guess.

I had to search around for an answer to this as it’s certainly not publicised by Eurostar, but I found a Twitter thread last month where they said they do still sell carnets (10 tickets) on board at the moment, and they still expect to be selling them through the summer. However paper metro tickets are gradually being phased out so there’s no guarantee how long that’ll last. And Eurostar say they no longer sell the replacement Navigo cards.

If you fly into Gatwick, there is an hourly direct train to Southampton Central. It takes about 2 hours and there’s no need to book in advance (although you can, and it’ll be cheaper, but you must stick to your specified train). If you fly into Heathrow, there’s a direct National Express roughly every 2 hours. It takes just over 2 hours and advance booking is strongly recommended as coaches can sell out. So time-wise Gatwick probably just has the edge in terms of convenience of onward transport. But there’s not much in it so go with Heathrow if the flight times are better.

The Intercity Direct trains between Rotterdam Centraal and Amsterdam Centraal run up to four times an hour and take about 40 minutes. There are frequent metro trains to take you from near the cruise terminal to Rotterdam Centraal. If you allow 3 hours’ travel time in total you can work out whether you’ll have enough time to see what you want to see in Amsterdam.

Or just walk from the station. 10 minutes max.

See this thread. Lots of suggestions there.

Intercity trains are still running every 30 minutes between Schiphol Airport and Schiedam Centrum, which is very close to Rotterdam. From there you can either transfer to the Rotterdam Metro or take a cab to your accommodation.

Quite a few cruises start in Edinburgh over the summer, mainly on the high end small ship lines like Windstar, Seabourn, Azamara, Regent and Oceania. Even a TA to Boston! Newcastle only seems to have one, on August 29th on the Costa Favolosa, either 8 nights ending in Dover or 12 nights ending in Amsterdam.

Any option other than the direct flight from Southampton takes at least five hours once you factor in the journey to London, Heathrow or Gatwick, time to check in for the Eurostar or flight and the journey into central Paris if you fly. The Southampton flight is a no-brainer in terms of time and convenience, although fares can be quite high at weekends.

Easiest - fly. There’s one direct flight a day from Southampton to Paris Orly, on Eastern Airways, perfectly timed for cruisers at around 10:30am. Flight time 1 hour 20 minutes. Otherwise you’re looking at a train, coach, cab or private transfer into London from where the Eurostar train to Paris runs frequently - but total journey time is a minimum of 5-6 hours.

The 8.15 bus should be fine, but you can add the Change & Go supplement during the booking process if you wish. After deplaning you will first clear passport control. Assuming you have a biometric US passport (most now are) you can use the automatic E-gates rather than queue for an immigration officer. You just put your passport in the machine, look at the camera and hopefully it matches your face and lets you through. After that you reclaim your bags and walk through customs, then you’re landside. If you arrive at Terminal 2 or 3 (all US airlines and Virgin) you’ll need to make your way via the underground walkways to the Central Bus Station. It’s a 5-10 minute walk and clearly signed.

Off-peak and super off-peak tickets never sell out. You can buy them on the day if you want, or you can buy them in advance online and add a seat reservation (free).

I agree. But given that a Civitavecchia stop is non-negotiable because Rome is the big draw on that circuit for most Americans, I suspect Royal would consider those ports would add too much mileage for too little gain.

Bear in mind Southampton to Tilbury is 120 miles, so at least a two-and-a-half hour drive (more if the M25 motorway is jammed up which it often is) and I wouldn’t expect much change from £200, if any.

Because of their size, O-class are limited in the ports they can visit. They’re too big for Greece or the Adriatic so they’re pretty much limited to the western Med circuit.

To add - it might make more sense to stay at Gatwick rather than Southampton the night before your flight. There are plenty of airport hotels, and it would mean a later start without the worry of delays on the roads or trains.

Southampton to Gatwick is a 2 hour journey by train or car and you’ll presumably want to be at the airport by around 9. The train would be cheapest - direct services leave Southampton Central at 6.08 (arrive 8.12) or 7.12 (arrive 9.09). (This is Mon-Sat. There is no viable train option on a Sunday.) Otherwise it’s a taxi or private car transfer but I would expect that to cost £150-200 and take around the same time - maybe longer if the traffic’s bad, which it often is.

The fast train from Dover to London St Pancras takes just over an hour and runs every hour, so it’s entirely doable as long as the ship’s in port long enough. The problem is choosing what to see in London. It’s a huge place and the sights are very spread out, so you won’t even scratch the surface in a day. It’s one city where a HOHO bus tour is worth considering.

It’s doable, but you have very little margin for error if there are any delays in disembarking. You’d really need to be in a cab by 7.30 at the latest. Much depends on your attitude to risk and the implications of missing your flight. But no, I wouldn’t anticipate any customs or immigration delays unless the UK Border Force is doing random spot checks, which it occasionally does.

So true. And why I never, ever, sail P&O.

Tipping isn’t mandatory or expected like it is in the US. But if you must, £1 a bag is fine.

Very easy walk, even with luggage. It’s half a mile, so 10-15 minutes.

Tram #26. You’ll see the stop just across the street that runs past the terminal. You need the stop on the side of the tracks nearest the terminal. The #26 is the only tram that serves that stop so you can’t go wrong. They run every 7-10 minutes. Alternatively just walk - it’s only 10-15 minutes.