mamkmm2

Taxi without a doubt. You don't want to be lugging suitcase through unfamiliar tube stations with a deadline to meet.

 

The evening before your departure talk to the concierge at your hotel the evening before you depart. Arrange for a fast checkout and an early call (Croissant and coffee?), and ask him/her to arrange a taxi for you. With a 6am meeting, I would aim to leave at 5:30.

Not a departure but a day-trip to Paris. Same principle holds however so I understand.

Last Carnival ship I was on, anyone under 16 was given a band and told to wear them during the entire cruise or get stopped by crew and returned to their parents.

Remember folks, this really isn't about your parenting, and isn't about what your kid may or may not like, it isn't about what is convenient, or whatever. It is absolutely about the cruise line protecting itself from legal battles because of accidents, etc. You really think they would spend all that time and money on armbands if they didn't feel they had to? :rolleyes:

24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

 

BTW, I think you mean Queensway station - as far as I can see, that's the closest Tube station to your hotel. Also, the main road that runs along the northern edge of Hyde Park there is Bayswater Road, not Oxford Street.

Yes, exactly. As you can tell I'm a little rattled at suddenly having to change plans. I'll get over it but I still feel silly for having missed something so obvious as to what time the tube started running in the morning. :rolleyes:

Using walk-it.com I figured out that it is a 30 minute walk at a decent clip from our hotel to the Oxford Street tube station and then it is an 8 minute tube ride from Oxford Street tube station to King's Cross/St. Pancras then we'll need time to find the meet up point which is on the St. Pancras/Eurostar side of things.

I'm thinking cab is better. LOL. Save the confusion and time. Just a matter of locating the best place to get the cab that time of the morning ... we have to check in at 6 am at St. Pancras.

Well, the information I have here definitely changes what I had hoped to be able to do. I have two choices ... a cab (for the two of us) from our hotel or close by then to St. Pancras for our 6 am check in (tour group)

or

a relatively quick walk from our hotel to Oxford St. station for the first tube of the day and then take that to King's Cross/St. Pancras.

Next question, how early do the cab's run in London? I'll be honest here and say in my nearly 50 years of life I've never taken a cab so consider me a total novice and be gentle. :o

Sorry for the confusion. We are staying at the Grand Royale London Hyde Park with an address of 1-9 Inverness Terrace, Bayswater, London, W2 3JP, United Kingdom.

Thank you.

For those in the know, what would you consider the quickest route from Hyde Park area to St. Pancras very early in the morning? The Tube? Walking?

Mildly surprised by that. Alcohol is not inadmissible, although it may be dutiable. Possibly it was Cuban? They were still asking me about Cuban cigars when I passed through CBP preclearance in Bermuda last week. (I didn't have any). Seen people lose bottles at the Canadian border (northbound), but that's different.

Nope, simply "lost" in the bowels of the ship. They had their tag where it had been turned in as soon as they got back on the ship in Cozumel but it couldn't be found come disembarkation day.

We have cruised Carnival many times and somehow keep missing this "party boat". That will depend on the fellow passengers.

I've heard the same thing, but my experience with Carnival was of the "party ship." LOL. It may have been the itinerary. It may have been the other passengers. Who knows? But when I say drunks in the hallway at all hours I mean ALL hours, including three in the morning when a lot of them seem to be trying to make their way back to their own cabins. Nothing like hearing, "Hey! Somebody know where my cabin is?! I gotta take a p***!!" Several times until someone from another cabin got involved which finally got the ship personnel to intervene and help mister clueless to find his cabin. :rolleyes:

Thank you everyone for the feedback! I'm leaning towards this activity now with just a commonsense caveat that the weather might impact the experience. To be frank, I got better feedback here than on TripAdvisor. TAdv always makes me wonder how many paid reviewers are on there given how different some of my experiences of a place/location are from what some people write about in their reviews.

Thanks again for the great input.

My experience at the airports in Florida is that they are very, very picky about imports of any kind. Follow the rules and you are mostly fine though they may still give you a hard time ... I know, doesn't make sense but then nothing in life does 100% of the time.

I had the same experience in Seattle coming back from Alaska. A small tin of mints got me the full shake down and eleventy dozen questions. :rolleyes:

Just go through the declaration process. I've seen people lose a lot of booze during declaration but we didn't experience that when we brought back some rum from a Caribbean trip. But several people on the same cruise came up shy of bottles if not the entire contents of what they put in.

There is a lot of money invested to reach each of those levels. Considering the current economy I'm surprised that the cruise lines aren't doing more to keep their passengers loyal. I'm not looking for more perks I'm just surprised they aren't out there. I've noticed more people shopping around to get the best deal rather than sticking with just one cruise line. I've also noted more people are less willing to overlook certain "foibles" that happen on the cruises these days ... elite status or not. If they have a bad trip they are switching to another cruise line so I think the loyalty door swings both ways as it were. LOL

The "purse" or "back pack" issue is something to consider when you are out on excursions, especially in any areas prone to pick-pockets. Someone from CC introduced me to the Safepac brand of purses and bags. They have both women and men's styles. There are a lot of safety features built in. I got my purse from Amazon when it was on sale but there are other places you can order them from.

Did this very cruise on the Carnival Victory this passed August. Loved Key West, and we are from Florida. It isn't as wild as it has been in years passed but I am more than ok with that. Carnival is definitely a "party" ship and some of it was a little out there in terms of passenger behavior. Loud drunks in our hallway at all hours. Ugh. Be prepared and it won't bother you IF it happens. Each cruise is different because of the passengers.

Very nice review!

Just how "worth it" is the London Eye? It looks cool but looks can be deceiving so looking for some honest opinions here.

Thanks!

Some itineraries aren't all that good of a match for certain personality types. Hubby and I think going to an all-inclusive land resort is very vanilla and bland. We like to do things on our own and crowds are something we avoid when we can.

But our desire to see Alaska and the need to economize prompted us to check out a cruise offered by an ad that came to our attention in our email. We called the company who hooked us up with a TA and the rest, as they say, is history. The cruise line was Princess and it was an absolutely amazing experience.

That said, we tried Carnival in the Caribbean with a port in Cozumel. Had that been our first experience cruising it would have been our last if you know what I mean. I like excitement but drunks in the hallway at all hours simply doesn't do it for me. I won't discount the Carnival line completely because other people really like them, but they aren't the line for us. We aren't "old" either as we in our 40s at the time. Hairy chest contests and the like just don't thrill us. And being from Florida a Caribbean cruise was about like laying out beside our own pool.

Basically all I'm saying is that everyone is different. The uniqueness of each cruise line may make it an enjoyable cruise from some and then that same cruise line doesn't thrill someone else. I'm sorry your FIL has closed his mind but I'm very happy that you've found what works for you. Congrats and have fun!

Check with your phone carrier. Even if the service is only available while you are in port it will cut back on the number of minutes you need to buy for the ship.

For example, we just got off the phone with Verizon. Our ship can't use their travelplan so access would only be when we are in port. They have the following available for the International/British Isles and our one day in Paris (charge is per line used):

$10/day, only charged for the days we use it ... uses our current plan data, etc. but only works on the days we are in port.

$40 - Talk: 100 min, Text: 100 sent msg / unlimited incoming, Data: 100 MB Overage charges are $.25/min, $.25/msg, $25/100MB

$85 - Talk: 250 min, Text: 250 sent msg / unlimited incoming, Data: 250 MB Overage charges are: $.25/min, $.25/msg, $25/100MB

$25 - Data: 100 MB, Talk: Pay As You Go, Text: Pay As You Go $25/100MB

$50 - Data: 250 MB, Talk: Pay As You Go, Text: Pay As You Go $25/100MB

My husband is going to get the $10/day to access our plan. That said, I am also going to buy a small on-ship plan through Princess. I'll offset the need for both of those two things by looking for free wifi sites while we are in port and bringing along a small tablet device. This will let us access our email, get online to check reservations as needed, check up on my parents and our kids, and I'll be able to download pictures and then upload them to our sharing site instead of trying to send them by email or txt.

For our purposes no single plan works perfectly so we are building in redundancies.

Book private excursions in advance online, this will sometimes even get you a discount. ;) When we went to Alaska on Princes, both Skagway and Juneau were extremely busy and we were there early in the season. Locals told us that it gets even busier later in the season and trying to book when you disembark would be crazy and waste precious port time. At least booking in advance you know for sure what time the tours are supposed to be instead of waiting to check when you arrive.

My understanding is that it stays on the bus with you when you are heading to the airport because you have to claim it immediately ... no unattended bits of luggage.

Or, you could take a later flight and do an excursion that takes you from your ship to Heathrow via a stop or two. We are doing a private transfer/excursion that takes us to Salisbury, Stonehenge, and Windsor before dropping us at our Heathrow Terminal with more than plenty of time prior to our 8:15 pm flight out.

It's up to you. But if you really do need that early flight out I would utilize the Princess transfer. While it is more expensive, if you are in a rush to get to the airport you'll get one of the earliest disembarkation times. Just hope your ship arrives in port on time to pull it all off.

Whatever your choice please remember that a kid is a kid and the cruise lines have had their own problems with molesters and kids getting hurt. Disney, Cunard and Carnival (and perhaps others as well) have had crew arrested and convicted of molesting kids. Cruise ships are full of strangers ... some of them drunk strangers ... who may not have the same behavioral boundaries as your family. I'm not judging, nor am I trying to tell you what to do. I have five kids of my own, from adult with a baby on the way to a 12 year old, and I'm just sharing our own cautious decisions.

Whether they join the kids' activities or not, make sure they know what the rules are, what the plans are, and what the consequences are if they fail to hold up their end of the bargain. Then follow through. And include the use of the ship's app which is actually pretty useful at keeping track of each other though there may be limitations if the kids are in a directed activity in the kids' space area.

Just my 2 cents.

Some cruise lines/ships tend to be stricter about the movement of unattended minors around the ship. Check with the kids' program if you are signing them up for that. They have to scan in and out with their cruise card and sometimes it is a scan in and stay in until their registered adults comes to get them.

I don't know specifically about other cruise lines but on a Princess ship a 12 year old will be in the youth center and not with older teens. That doesn't happen until after they are 13. A 12 year old would be in the "Shockwave" program that is for 8 to 12 year olds and does have stricter rules than the older teens.

With a £2.10 starting balance, I started a journey at a station where the minimum fare was £1.50. The maximum fare of £5.30 was deducted, to take the balance to -£3.20. The actual fare was £3.10, so on touching out I was refunded £2.20, and the card was left with a negative balance of -£1.00 (which it still has).

 

Test number three: If your Oyster already has a negative balance, you can't use the one more trip thing on the bus.

Thanks for the follow through! It is much appreciated. Probably some of a negative balance would be covered on the card deposit.

Personally? Any meal I don't have to cook is a good meal. Sometimes they are even great or excellent.

I don't do "frou-frou" food and I'm not a foodie by any stretch. I'll try something outside my comfort zone so long as it isn't something too far out there for me. I'm not picky, just careful not to give myself indigestion.

On the other hand what I consider a very good meal could be boring to down right horrifying to some and vice versa.

So what I do is take all I hear on these forums with a grain of salt and then make my own decisions. So far, I haven't really had all that much trouble having a really good meal while on a cruise.

Our second cruise was to Cozumel and even though we are from Florida I have got to tell you it was so hot hubby and I both nearly got heat exhaustion. So bring some way to stay hydrated that doesn't include alcohol which will only dehydrate you more. One of those battery operated/spritz bottle fans will really help with the heat if you can keep them filled.

Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen.

Small personal first aid kit with OTC meds because that stuff on the ship is doggone expensive and when you need it your need it and don't want to have to wait 'til port when you'll have to search for it.

Men will need several of those wicking type t-shirts that pull the wetness off of them.

Loads of good deodorant.

Cannot emphasize COMFORTABLE SHOES enough. Also, something that saves the bottom of your feet from the heat of walking in Cozumel. Flip flops are not going to cut it.

If you are going to the beach, a mesh draw string bag for wet items, beach stuff, etc. Easy to dunk and then hang in the shower to dry once you get back to your room.

Hair ties. Trust me, the last one you have is guaranteed to break or disappear when you need it most so have some extras for just in case.

Sunglasses ... unless you need the expensive prescription kind just bring a couple of pair of cheap-o types that way if they break, get lost, scratched, or whatever you aren't out big bucks.

If your face is sun-sensitive, or you haven't acclimated to summer sun yet, bring a wide brimmed hat. This will also help if you have light-sensitive eyes.

Something I saw someone else do is they bring their oldest beach or bath towels with them and rather than bringing wet and sandy towels back to the ship, they toss them or donate them after their day at the beach is over.

Did I mention sunscreen? Because yeah. Sunscreen. My husband is Hispanic with naturally tanned skin tone and he still fried like an egg during our day in Cozumel.