MrsNancyG

Lovin it Michele! Keep goin!

Thanks everyone! I knew I'd get the answers I needed here! :D

Happy sails to you...

Hey all, when you disembark in NY are there taxis or whatever just sitting around waiting to take people to JFK or would I behoove myself by prebooking a car service to get us to JFK? Thanks in advance!

Happy sails to you...

I think you're right, I don't want to miss out and I LOVE, LOVe LOve that you used the term "experience"! Each and every journey you take SHOULD be an experience! Is that really so wrong?! :o

I think you just hit the core of the whole "what does a butler do" issue that seems to make frequent appearances here on Cruise Critic.

 

I would surmise that many people are less interested in what the butler actually does and more interested in ensuring that they don't "miss out" on asking for anything they are allowed to in order to get their money's worth out of the experience.

That's so cool! Didja use the service?

'

Here is the bath menu that was hanging in my bathroom. [ATTACH]296732[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]296733[/ATTACH]

Actually, Michelle, I don't think I'm gonna be at all shy about utilizing the butler. Norwegian now has a bona-fide menu of baths your butler can draw for you! LOL :p

JB, thank you so much! You really are a wealth of information. I'm happy to say I'm in negotiations with one of the car services you recommended already and am fairly sure we will be booking with them.

For us and our needs it's all about comfort and experience. I couldn't possibly give up the hotel in New Forest! It's just so ENGLISH! LOL No, in all seriousness, since I won the cruise, I honestly don't mind going the extra expense for the tour by car to the perfect hotel.

Thanks again!

Hi, Nancy,

 

As you'll have learned from other posts, Heathrow is on the Southampton side of London - so central London's sights are 16 urban miles in the pposite direction, before the haul to Southampton & on to Brockenhurst.

 

If you are keen to see London's sights, & if you can change your hotel reservation to a hotel in central London, then that's the way to go about it.

I'm presuming that you have an overnite flight to Heathrow & that you can handle jet-lag tolerably well.

Expect to be out into the arrivals hall 60 to 80 minutes after your flight lands, and in central London about an hour after that, depending on your choice of transport.

 

Various options for transportation into central London, which is best will depend on your needs & where the hotel is located.

Cheapest at £6 per person is the tube (London's underground) & it's not so desperately inconvenient, even with some luggage, if your hotel is close to a Piccadilly tube line. Journey time about 45 mins.

National Express bus (worth pre-booking) is almost as cheap, & convenient for a hotel in Victoria. Journey time about 50 mins.

The Heathrow Express train is quite expensive at about £20 per person, but convenient for a hotel in Paddington. Journey time 15 to 20 mins.

Or take one of those options & complete your journey in one of London's iconic black cabs.

Or if you want to pre-book a private transfer from Heathrow to central London it'll cost about £45 & take 40 mins to an hour.

 

You can fix a transfer combined with a tour of the sights, I guess about 2 to 2.5 hours excluding stops.

If you don't combine transfer & tour, then once you've checked into your hotel (you can leave your bags even if you're too early to access your room) you can jump on a ho-ho. Best route is probably Original's yellow route, it has a live commentary & a complete circuit takes about 2hrs 15mins. You'll see all the main sights except Buckingham Palace - buses aren't allowed past the Palace so you get off at a stop just around the corner & return to the stop to wait for the next ho-ho. Frequency about 10 to 15 minutes. It's a relaxed way of getting a good overview of London, ideal if jetlag catches up with you.

 

After a long afternoon & the evening in London, head for your ship next morning. By direct Nat Express bus if your hotel is in Victoria (2.5 hrs, & up to £18 pp, again strongly recommended that you pre-book) or by direct train (3 or 4 per hour from London's Waterloo station, journey time about 90 minutes, about £36 pp) or also by the same trains from Waterloo for as little as £4 pp by pre-purchasing non-amendable Megatrain tickets - though Megatrain tickets are only available on a very very limited number of those trains.

It's also possible to travel to Southampton by train from Paddington station, about the same cost & journey time as regular trains from Waterloo, though that involves one change of train.

Again, you may want to start the journey with a taxi hop to the bus or train station. And it's a £5 to £7 taxi hop from Southampton bus or train station to any cruise terminal.

Or pre-book a private transfer from hotel to ship, about 2 hours, about £130. I guess with a reasonably early start (about 9am) you could fit in a visit to, say, Stonehenge & Salisbury on the way. At extra cost. of course. And if you're not totally shattered.

 

If you are committed to the Brockenhurst hotel, a pre-booked car service can take you from Heathrow to central London for a tour, then transfer you to Brockenhurst. See later in my post.

 

And if you are committed to the Brockenhurst hotel, and you want to see something other than London, then a private transfer from Heathrow to Brockenhurst makes sense. A simple direct (and mainly boring freeways) transfer should cost about £120 with either www.smithsforairports.com or www.westquaycars.com

Various places to visit on the way - Windsor & its castle, or Hampton Court Palace (both a few miles from Heathrow), or Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey) near Newbury, Stonehenge, & the historic city of Salisbury. Highclere, Stonehenge & Salisbury would make a very worthwhile day. Stacks of other alternatives too. But of course making deviations & adding stops will be a great deal more expensive.

West Quay's tour section, www.discoverthesouth.co.uk uses their most experienced & knowledgeable drivers for tour-transfers.

Note: these are Southampton-based car services. Best to use Discover the South if you want to start with a central London tour, other drivers will know their way around but not be able to add to the experience. All will be fine for a transfer from central London or Heathrow to Southampton or Brockenhurst, but Heathrow to central London is off their turf & they wouldn't be viable.

 

Some useful websites:

http://www.londontoolkit.com/

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/standard-tube-map.pdf

http://www.nationalexpress.com/home.aspx

(ignore the cruise terminal option, it doesn't apply to your cruise, your destination in Southampton is coach station.)

http://www.theoriginaltour.com/UserFiles/Originaltourmap13(2).pdf

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

http://uk.megabus.com/megatrain.aspx

 

JB :)

Thank you both very much! I have some research to do! :D

ahhh, I see where there would be much confusion. My knowledge of England is horrific and I am sorry for that. The deal is we're cruising a transatlantic from Southampton to NY. Flights into Heathrow (which I assumed was in London) were far more affordable than into Southampton. I am flying in the day before and am staying (per recommendation) in Forest Park for the night then taking another short transfer to the ship. I appreciate the info on the car companies mentioned by Pet and will work from there! Many thanks!

I would very much appreciate any recommendations anyone might have for car services in the Heathrow area to take us on a leisurely sightseeing ride to our hotel in the basic Southampton area. I understand that the sightseeing is going to hike the price, but it's probably my only time to ever get to go to London, so even a car tour is better than none. Many thanks in advance!

I would very much appreciate any recommendations anyone might have for car services in the Heathrow area to take us on a leisurely sightseeing ride to our hotel in the basic Southampton area. I understand that the sightseeing is going to hike the price, but it's probably my only time to ever get to go to London, so even a car tour is better than none. Many thanks in advance!

I would very much appreciate any recommendations anyone might have for car services in the Heathrow area to take us on a leisurely sightseeing ride to our hotel in the basic Southampton area. I understand that the sightseeing is going to hike the price, but it's probably my only time to ever get to go to London, so even a car tour is better than none. Many thanks in advance!

There seems to be quite a lot of people on this board who are discussing suites, perks for suites, which suite to book. Is there a discount for suites for returning cruisers? Special discounts somewhere? What am I missing?

For my first NCL cruise on the Pride the difference between a balcony and a suite is $2700 per couple. That's another cruise for us. Are regular balconies that bad that so many upgrade to suites or are most NCL cruises on this board just wealthy;). Inquiring minds just want to know the secret.

Speaking only for myself, of course, our upcoming cruise is in celebration of a huge milestone. As such we felt it deserved going first class. We've always scrimped and shortchanged ourselves and pampered our children. This is one time where OUR being pampered is in order. Also, some people prefer to cruise less often but with a higher class cabin, while for others more cruises with lower category cabins is their preference.

There are no wrong ways to cruise, only personal preferences.

BTW, we usually have a balcony stateroom and have always been happy with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox1eM1edUzA

 

again, sorry. can't seem to embed the video into the forum so have to post link :/

thanks for your attention and hopefully your views too :)

 

 

Nicknamed 'The Epic Sailaway', this video is of the Norwegian Cruise Line's new ship Norwegian Epic leaving the port of St. Thomas. This video was filmed from another NCL ship, Norwegian Pearl as part of my two week Caribbean cruising holiday on 26th December 2012. The Norwegian Epic is the third largest cruise ship in the world to date and will soon be beaten by NCL's newest addition to its fleet, the Norwegian Breakaway. The largest cruise ship to date is The Oasis Of The Seas apart of the Royal Caribbean fleet.

Life is so much easier with a Like button. :D

Have any of you used the butler to unpack your luggage and toiletries? I think I would love someone taking out the toiletries and putting them in my over the door shoe hanger, it is such a pain!

 

 

Thank you very much!

We pack that over the door shoe hanger with what is being kept in it then zip up the individual compartments and just roll it up and put it in the suitcase. GL :D

My experience as of late has been less about how often we vacation, but the fact that we're cruising in a Suite on NCL which has become the issue. I swear if one more person points out to me that I can do 3 cruises for the price of this one, I may just snap. Do people honestly believe that I booked passage without even noticing what I was going to pay as compared to the other options available on that ship?!

I'm an accomplished person, yanno. I graduated high school, briefly went to community college, studied court reporting, worked as an administrative assistant, married, have raised two great kids and live a better-than-average life in an upper middle-class suburb. I've been known to shop for groceries and even balance a checkbook.

Yet time and again I hear about how many other cruises I can take for the same amount of money by downgrading. ummmm, I KNOW that. We booked what we WANTED and know what it costs. Why is it so important for people to involve themselves and point out the obvious as if it is something only they can see?

. Now I only wish they worked in reverse as well. I would love to call them up on the way home and have them clean the house and shop for the groceries. :D

Ohohoh!! I want that! hehe

What's the difference between this and an ad on TV that shows a juicy flame broiled burger at Burger King that's chock full of juicy meat and trimmings? I doubt BK will put a disclaimer on a TV ad that says: "Disclaimer: you will actually get a dry mangled piece of questionable meat with a sliver of lettuce and a mushy old tomato slice".

LOL I spit! I actually spit! OMG LOL

It is funny how all of you are so convinced it is about the shrimp and not about the fact that they are using false advertising.

Maybe the term "false advertising" is just a little bit harsh. I sincerely doubt the powers that be over at NCL sat around the boardroom desk and maliciously agreed "lets show the old picture with the new menu. Nobody'll notice and we'll save a lot of money! muhahhah" It was overlooked for a time is all. Mistakes are unfortunate, but they do happen, this was simply an unfortunate mistake.

You actually made my point. Thank you :)

Please re-read my post. The OP was thanking NCL for finally posting the new Cagneys menu (although they posted the new price long ago). I think the OP was a bit silly with the shrimp but fair is fair. I dont see the heaven/hell or black/white analogy you mention. I think the OP thread is harmless but brings up a valid discussion. To discard the OP thread all together and attack it is what I am against. Totally harmless thread. So actually WE AGREE if you think through it ;)

Although I willl disagree with you about the menus. If NCL has options to pre-book restaurants (with no refund) then it is not only FAIR, but RIGHT and JUST, they post the REAL MENU. To surprise someone on the spot as you suggest is wrong. But NCL finally did post the new menu so it is done ;)

What I have to wonder is though, if NCL wouldn't just honor the old price from the time of booking even for the new menu? That would certainly make up for any misunderstandings because of the new menu and price. And if you disliked the menu, I bet they would just refund your prepay and probably book you into something you would prefer. I mean at the end of the day you are really talking about the totality of customer service, right?

IMHO...Every complaint about the SAMPLE menu is just additional evidence that NCL should consider in making the decision to remove menus from the website. Getting a menu when you arrive at a restaurant is sufficient.

While this does make sense, it kind of makes me sad too. I love my daydreaming leading up to the cruise. I can look at the menus and be transported there in my mind, even if only for a moment. Just sayin

the cheerleaders will never admit to that.

I've decided to resign my post as NCL cheerleader. I'm now Captain of the Pep Squad! :D

I admit that through my first 2 cruises I had no idea you could order doubles or halves of stuff, although the half thing confuses me a bit...anyway, I digress, my point... when the waiter brought a second helping of escargot after seeing my excitement, I thought it was a rare and special thing. I had no idea of the options. (We had two little ones with us at that time, so we had a table just for us. I could not bring myself to subject other people to that little domestic scene of domestic bliss.) My last cruise when the kids were older, someone at our table actually placed a double order and that's when I found out about that little nugget.

But one thing I really do agree with which I saw someone mention earlier, if someone even just mentioned in jest to the waiter that the picture showed a lot more on the plate, more would have been there before they could blink an eye!

Yayyy Team! :D

Xena, while I've had the pleasure of speaking/typing with a bunch of really nice people here, there is really only ONE person I truly hope to cruise with and meet someday....YOU!

Unfortunately I don't know if I'll be back on her before the end of the year.

Think April 20, 2014! :D

 

Yes please do the slides. They are a ton of fun! You can work your way up to the Free Fall!

Terrific video, makes me wish I didn't have back issues and could try it myself!