gumshoe958

There’s no set price. It can and does change - both up and down. The good news is you can cancel for a full refund and repurchase if it goes down after you’ve bought it. So the usual advice is to buy it, then keep checking in case it’s come down.

How much data do you think you’ll use? 1GB may not get you very far for 24 days and you could find yourself racking up those extra $10/100MB charges quite quickly. Only you know how much you’re likely to be online.

There are five separate cruise terminals at Southampton. If your ship’s docked at the City Terminal, that’s an easy 5 minute walk from the HI and you’d honestly be there by the time you’d loaded your luggage into a cab, driven there and unloaded again at the terminal. For any of the other terminals a cab would probably be easiest. The HI reception staff can help call one for you, or use Uber. Southampton has no shortage of cabs so finding one shouldn’t be an issue.

I’d have thought the tattoo is the reason for the Johnston Terrace and Chambers Street stops closing, rather than the festival? Certainly whenever I’ve been in Edinburgh in August Chambers Street closes to traffic at some point each afternoon to be used as a coach park.

The bread. I could live entirely on that bread. And the cucumber martini is sublime.

August in Edinburgh is EXTREMELY busy. You have the Edinburgh Festival Fringe - the biggest arts festival in the world which takes over virtually every venue in the city centre with about 3,000 different shows - not to mention the actual Edinburgh Festival, numerous other festivals and the military tattoo at the castle. All of which attract hundreds of thousands of people and make getting around the city by bus, car or on foot slow. So yes, it’s walkable but be prepared for huge crowds. And it’s a hilly city, in case that’s an issue.

They’re a big national chain, nothing wrong with them but definitely not the authentic British pub the OP desires.

That’s encouraging. What about ships that are yet to enter service?

It’s about a 5-10 minute walk. Children are welcome up until 9pm. You can book a table online: https://dancingmanbrewery.co.uk/table-booking/

Yes, a private car from Southampton all the way to Holborn will be expensive. I’d use either National Express direct to Victoria coach station or the half hourly train to London Waterloo, then jump in a taxi or Uber from there to Holborn (which should cost around £15-25 depending on traffic). From Heathrow to central London, there’s no need to pre-book a private car unless you really want the driver to meet you in arrivals. That would cost more than a taxi or Uber which would be roughly £70-90. Alternatively you could try the Elizabeth line (about £13 each) which, being new, is pretty easy to navigate with luggage with plenty of elevators and step-free access to & from trains. If you’re going to Holborn, get off at Tottenham Court Road and jump in a taxi there.

Montenegro is in the Balkans, not the Baltic. About 1,200 miles away.

Princess use three different terminals at Southampton - the QE2 and Mayflower terminals would both be about a 35 minute walk (1.5 miles), and the Ocean terminal is closer - about 20 minutes (1 mile). If your cruise is in 2023 you can find out which terminal it’s scheduled to dock at here: https://www.southamptonvts.co.uk//Live_Information/Shipping_Movements_and_Cruise_Ship_Schedule/Cruise_Ship_Schedule/ (Berth 38/9 = QE2 Terminal, Berth 46 = Ocean Terminal, Berth 106 = Mayflower Terminal)

Once you have your luggage, it’s about a 10 minute walk to Heathrow Central bus station via clearly signed underground tunnels (including some moving walkways, if they’re working). The 1345 bus is certainly doable, but I would recommend buying the £5 “Change & Go” add-on which allows you to take a later bus if you miss it, subject to availability.

At least there is a bit of time to put right anything that needs putting right on Icon and Utopia. Of more concern is whether these panels were also installed on, say, Odyssey or Wonder.

They get excellent reviews but there are two red flags for me. 1) Insisting on cash only: why? Britain is rapidly going cashless and card and contactless payments are increasingly the norm. Even buskers carry card readers these days. Cash doesn’t always get declared to the taxman however … 2) An admin fee on top of the deposit: why? Charging a fee to pay by credit or debit card is now illegal in the UK but unspecified “admin fees” are a grey area. This company wouldn’t get a penny off me, however well reviewed its guides may be.

Agreed. Or just stay in London and get the train down to Dover on embarkation day. They run every hour from St Pancras station and take just over an hour.

That’s not an easy journey by train as neither Glasgow Airport nor St Andrews are on the rail network, so you’d need to catch the airport bus into Glasgow (every 12-15 mins), then a train from Queen Street station to Dundee (twice an hour), then a bus to St Andrews (every 10 mins). All of which takes around 3 hours. An easier option would be the airport bus into Glasgow, then the hourly X24 bus direct to St Andrews. Which also takes about 3 hours but with one simple transfer at Buchanan bus station. The upshot is it’s a long journey on public transport, however you do it. By car it takes between 90 minutes and 2 hours so that would be faster, but a cab or private transfer wouldn’t be cheap, as you’ve discovered.

No Uber anywhere near there. And Invergordon is a small place so taxis will be limited. You’d be advised to pre-book any journeys you need if you’re not planning to take an organised tour.

Most convenient for the cruise terminal is the Best Western Plus Dover Marina Hotel. But it’s still a mile/20 minute walk so you may want a taxi - the receptionist would help get you one. There are a few other hotels in Dover town centre including a Travelodge and Premier Inn but they’re all pretty basic. It’s not the nicest of places - the castle and famous white cliffs are its saving grace. Most Brits would only ever go there to catch a ferry to France.

Pre-book to be safe.

Yes, I received that email two weeks before final payment and again one week before. I guess it may depend on your email preference settings. If you’ve opted not to receive emails from Royal at some point in the past, they probably won’t send a reminder. Or of course it could go straight to spam. But they definitely do send reminders.

At La Spezia, as with a few other European ports including Zeebrugge, you’re not allowed to walk around the dock area and must catch the port shuttle from the ship to the terminal. Lots of useful info in this thread from last year:

Assuming you have a biometric US passport (one with a chip that can be read by a machine), immigration should be quick as you can use the automated E-gates without the need to see an officer and unless something’s gone wrong there are rarely long queues. Customs is just a walk through, no time at all. So the big unknown is baggage reclaim. But from plane to landside I’d estimate on average it takes about 45 minutes, give or take.

I doubt very much that your second attendant spent her evenings relaxing. Knowing Royal they hadn’t yet replaced your first attendant so when he left the second had to service his cabins in the morning, then hers on another deck in the evening.

Taxis pick up from right outside the cruise terminal.