CruisinD

Thank you again for the recommendations and confirming Bahia Cabana was the correct one.

 

This is her first grown up vacation without the parents. She's always cruised with us so of course, being the mother, I have to make sure she's in a safe area.

Royal,

Please confirm that the Bahia Cabana is the one to avoid. The replies are not clear to me. I've stayed at the Bahia Mar and it is decent but personally would never stay at the Bahia Cabana, although the restaurant is ok.

We will also be arriving in Southampton and will be staying at a hotel in Westminster. I had hoped to buy our train tickets in advance, but the railroad website says they do not mail tickets outside out the UK. Apparently you can buy tickets on the website for pickup at the station, but you must use the same credit card in a ticket machine at the station to get your tickets. Unless you are one of the few Americans who have a "chip & pin" credit card, this option will not work and you still have to get the line to see a live person for your ticket.

 

Unless the weather is bad in London, we plan to walk (and roll our one suitcase) from Waterloo station to our Westminster hotel (about ¼ mile).

 

Bob

You do not need a chip and pin card in order to retrieve your tickets from the machine. I've been buying tickets in advance for UK trains a couple of times a year, for a few years. Buy on line, then you get an email confirmation with the Conf# on it. When you are at the station, you simply insert the card you used to buy the ticket into the machine (it's also another security for name verification) and it prompts you to enter the Conf#. It then prints out your actual tickets. Be sure to get all of them! There is usually more than one card: ticket, receipt and a seat reservation card if you've reserved a seat. The card I have been using (last used Oct/Nov 2013) does not even have a chip, let alone chip and pin!!!

Easy. If you have a problem, I would guess you could always go to the ticket office and have them straighten it out for you. I have never had a problem.

Perhaps you are not using a UK rail site. I use eastcoast.co.uk for all the info and then either book via them or the actual train operating company website.

As mentioned earlier, perhaps for this particular journey the advance savings are not much. But I buy tickets for longer trips (London-York, London-Edinburgh for example) and the savings when buying advance tickets is substantial. Advance tickets go on sale about 12 weeks out depending on the train company and weekday or weekend. Note that Advance tickets do limit you to the actual train/time booked; there is not flexibility once you have booked.

Hope this helps someone.

Denise