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LIVE: Royal Princess, Trans-Atlantic, Sept. 10-25, 2018


geoherb
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I know we don't get on the ship until Monday, but I thought I'd start with our trip so far. We left North Carolina on Tuesday morning and got to London that night.

 

We are leaving Monday on the Royal Princess for its trans-Atlantic cruise from Southampton, England, to New York City via Rotterdam, Hamburg, Bergen, and St. John’s. We left home this past Monday afternoon, spending the night at a hotel near our home in North Carolina, ready to catch a 6 a.m. flight to London via Newark. This is the first time we’ve flown to Europe during the day instead of overnight. I liked it. Our flights were without any major incidents, just a little bit of occasional turbulence. They were on United Airlines.

 

Last year we flew on Delta over to London and on Virgin Atlantic on the way home. I preferred those two airlines for food and service. On the flight from North Carolina to Newark, all they served us was beverages. It would have been nice to have had a bag of pretzels or peanuts or a cookie for such an early flight. On the flight from Newark to London, we got two meals—a good hot breakfast in the morning and turkey and cheese on a roll in the afternoon/evening. They did provide free wine with both. I had a glass with the turkey sandwich.

 

 

We did have free movies on the flight from Newark to London. I got to watch three I had not seen: I Tonya, Love Simon, and Call Me by Your Name. It passed the time. I couldn’t hear well with the little earphones they provided, but I turned on the closed captioning so I could read what I missed.

Landing at Heathrow at night was different. Last year, we arrived so early in the morning that we did not have much of a wait to get through Immigration. This year we waited nearly an hour in the line for people not from the UK or EU. Those from the UK and EU had about a five-minute wait. I think they need to rethink their staffing levels to make things a little more even.

 

 

We took the Tube from Heathrow to Waterloo—the Piccadilly Line to the Jubilee Line. I planned out the journey to find handicapped accessible stations so we wouldn’t have to carry our bags up and down stairs. It worked. We are staying at the H10 Hotel on Waterloo Road. It’s five or six blocks from the Tube station. It seemed like a long walk last night, and I stopped at the Travelodge nearby to see if we were heading in the right direction. Last year, we had a bit of a mix-up getting to our Kensington area hotel, walking a lot farther than we should have. It turned out that we were practically across the street from the H10 at the Travelodge. The woman at the reception desk was able to point it out another block up the street.

 

 

The receptionists offered us drinks while we checked in—a choice of cranberry juice, cava, orange juice, or water. We both enjoyed a mimosa. Our room at the H10 is clean and modern. The beds are comfortable with three pillows apiece. (When we stayed overnight at the hotel near home, I brought two pillows when I went back to our house for our toothbrush charger after finding out we’d only have one pillow apiece.)

 

 

There are two strange things about the hotel room. One is that the door between the room and the bathroom is just a frosted glass sliding door. The other is that the bathtub/shower is a huge step up from the floor. CPASam slipped last night getting out of the tub but thankfully did not fall. We found the nonslip mat for the tub floor, and he’s learned to grab the sink for support getting in and out.

 

 

The room has an electric tea kettle and a selection of tea bags. There are also some chocolates and there were cookies in a little individually wrapped package. I used one tea bag this morning, and it was replaced. We ate the cookies, but we did not get more today. The hotel offers a breakfast buffet for £22 per person. We won’t be eating there. I walked a couple of blocks to the Tesco Local and bought us bagels, yogurt, and bananas for breakfast.

 

 

We walked to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre this morning for the tour and exhibits. It was very interesting. Our guide was Dom, and he was very good. We were there a couple of hours. Afterward, we walked across the Millennium Bridge—and new pedestrian bridge across the Thames (or at least new to me). When we were here last year, we never crossed the river. We ate sandwiches and a pasta salad at Eat. It’s a chain of convenient food—soups, salads, a couple of hot dishes and soups, and premade sandwiches. I thought the food was very good for the price we paid.

 

 

I booked us free tickets to see the Sky Garden a couple of weeks ago. I’m glad I did. The views from there (35th floor) are great. I did get in trouble with a guard by holding my camera above the glass. I had it securely strapped around my wrist and wasn’t leaning it over the edge (since I am tall enough). But he still reprimanded me. He caught others doing the same thing, and even one guy was getting ready to stand on the ledge when he caught him. We could have eaten in one of the restaurants, but it would have been four times the cost of what we paid for lunch. And we still got to see the great views.

 

We caught the Tube to Piccadilly Circus after enjoying the Sky Garden. We bought tickets at the TKTS booth to see A Comedy about a Bank Robbery for tonight. Afterward, we took the Tube back to our hotel for a little afternoon nap. Before going to see the show, we ate at an Asian restaurant near the Lambeth North Tube Station. It’s about a block or two closer to our hotel than Waterloo (but there are stairs there). Dinner was tasty and very reasonably priced—less than £25 for the two of us (two entrees, one sushi appetizer, and a glass of wine). We then caught the Bakerloo Line to Piccadilly Circus. We were early, so we had time to enjoy watching some dancers and then walking down to Pall Mall to see the Travellers’ Club where I worked 36 years ago. I went in last year when we were here, so I did not need to go in tonight.

 

 

We still had some time before they would let us into the theater seating area, but the bars were conveniently open. I had a Pimm’s Cup. It was nice and refreshing. The show was very funny and the staging excellent. They kept surprising us with some great effects. During the intermission, I had to try the ginger stem ice cream. I shared half with CPASam. It was very good as well. We caught the Bakerloo Line back to Lambeth North and walked back to our hotel. I had made a note of two of the bus routes that would have taken us back, but we just missed one of the buses and I did not want to wait. It ended up that a bus from the other route would have gotten us back to the hotel about the same time we did on our own.

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Agree american carriers could do a lot better. We fly Air France because we can go non stop from San Francisco to Paris... purchase premium coach worth it. I only fly American Airlines when I have enough miles to use on an open jaw flight for a TA. American does okay on the transatlantic portion but non on the flight across the usa.

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we have sailed the Royal from Copenhagen to NY. On American airlines in general - nothing special. Our last trip from London to Calif. we were on Virgin Atlantic and they have won my heart. Between service,. how they treat passengers etc,. they are a winner.

 

This year we are doing the transatlantic from Barcelona to Ft. Lauderdale. we are flying on virgin atlantic again to London and almost can't wait. And I hate to fly but that airline is different. Like flying in the olden days. lol

 

You haven't left London yet and your entire trip sounds phenomenal.

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Virgin Atlantic from California to London is crazy expensive. It looks like we would be much better off flying a different airline across the US and then booking Virgin Atlantic from there. We're booked on a 12 day Search for the Northern Lights and then after that doing the same TA from Barcelona to FLL but these cruises are for fall of 2019.

 

I'm watching to see what your transportation plans are from London to Southampton with your luggage and such. We have much to learn.

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There are two strange things about the hotel room. One is that the door between the room and the bathroom is just a frosted glass sliding door.

 

Thanks for your "live." Looking forward to the rest of your trip.

 

In Asia last year the hotel rooms were even stranger. The half the wall between the room and the bathroom was not a wall, but clear glass. I finally found a switch that lowered a shade to cover the window.

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We are taking the National Express coach from Victoria to Southampton on Sunday. One of the reasons I booked our hotel in Waterloo was to be close to the train station. But unfortunately they're performing track maintenance this weekend. The train would get is to Romsey and then we would've had to transfer to a coach there for the last few miles.

 

Last year, when we stayed in Kensington, we took the train from Paddington. We had to change trains in Reading. It was easy.

 

The word for the day is Hamilton. I booked tickets for the musical back in April right after I booked the cruise. We are going to the afternoon matinee. We will walk to the Tate Modern this morning.

 

The best part about our flights was booking through Princess. I still have a hard time believing how reasonable they were priced. I booked the cruise while they were running a special of up to $300 off EzAir. They ended up a lot less than I thought they would --$700 cheaper than I found on my own per person.

 

And flying over in the daytime will be what I'll look for on our next trip. It's been so much easier to adjust to the time change, even if we did have a little nap yesterday afternoon.

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Thanks for your "live." Looking forward to the rest of your trip.

 

In Asia last year the hotel rooms were even stranger. The half the wall between the room and the bathroom was not a wall, but clear glass. I finally found a switch that lowered a shade to cover the window.

 

My wife stayed in a hotel (I think in LA but can't remember for sure) on a work trip with a weird bathroom. Fortunately she had the room to herself. The bathroom wall was clear glass so anybody sitting on the comode was fully visible to the main part of the room. The shower was also clear. Very odd. I don't know who would design something like that. I really have no interest in watching somebody taking care of business on the john.

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We booked our upcoming November cruise under that promo with the "up to $300 off" of air fare. Since we just have to fly from Sacramento to LA and back we ended up with free flights! Very cool. It definitely won't be free to fly from California to London!

 

I'm making a note of your travel arrangements from London to Southampton. I'll copy your info into a Word doc and save it in the folder for the cruise where we will be doing that transfer and refer to it later on. :)

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There's lots of good info on the British board about different travel options. The coach is the cheapest. It was around $15 for the two of us. Even trying to economize, things start adding up.

 

It's a beautiful morning here in London. I walked back to the Tesco Express for breakfast: cherry yogurt and oranges. We have bagels leftover. Eating a light breakfast saves money, but I'm planning on trying out a place that gets rave reviews on Yelp one morning, maybe tomorrow.

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I arrived in London Heathrow early morning today Terminal 3. Be aware that how many flights are arriving the custom line for non UK and non EU citizens can be very long. The entire arrival hall was jammed mostly with US citizens and the snaking line to get to an official was well over an hour. I have never encountered this before in UK but I suppose it was due to the arrival of many US flights simultaneously. I would guess there was about a thousand in line....and no one for UK/EU in their line. Everyone was very nice but it was a trying experience.

 

Princess had advised me to call their US 800 # since I had two cruises on hold until the 8th. When I heard the details from CC of the new sale I asked if they would extend the “holds” no deposit until September 11 from September 8 since they were booked under the sip and sale and I will probably book under the new sale after considering and on board ship.... I have an Ocean View and in fact rebooked under it....but I don’t want to make deposits until on board and have been able to figure out all details. I did it this way since both cruises are in “high demand” next Fall. Fortunately I got right through without holding to a Princess agent and the call was less than 8 minutes. One of the cruises is high priced due to being on the Sky and another because of the unusual itinerary. I didn’t expect the cruise price to come down much on the

Ocean View since it didn’t qualify for the sip and sale but did come down a little. Mike

 

 

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Edited by bobby3334
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Thrak, I am also pricing airfare for SFO to LHR for next year (June) and currently for five of us in economy Virgin Atlantic is actually the cheapest. They are at $4400 while United is $4800 and British is $8000 (!! - and on British you have to pay to select your seats, while on the other two you don't). I track their airfares and make note of the lowest, then I will know when to pounce on a good deal.

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Yes, we will need a cruise to relax after London. The Picasso exhibit at the Tate Modern was wonderful. It focused on 1932, but did include a few earlier works that he exhibited in a retrospective that year. We had about an hour to view a few of the other galleries. Lots of great art and some pieces that just make you wonder what the artists were thinking.

 

This trip we've gotten around by walking and the Tube. It's been easy with Oyster card. Last year we primarily used the buses because the routes came right by our hotel in Kensington.

 

Hamilton was terrific. A woman from San Francisco sat on our row. She'll be on the cruise with us. I can't believe she flew in this morning and still made it to the matinee. She said the wait for immigration was even worse than we had.

 

Our seats were good for the price. Sometimes I had to lean down to see the actors on the balcony portion of the stage.

 

The tube ride back was crowded. I guess that's what happens at rush hour. We missed a couple of trains and caught the next ones. When I worked in London, I got off at 4 and had a head start over a lot of workers. Plus there are a couple more million people here now and it's still tourist season.

 

We ate lunch at Mister Lasagna near the theater. They had about a dozen different lasagnas to choose from. I had the pesto and CPASam had meat and ricotta. Both were tasty and filling. I was disappointed that the ice cream available at intermission was Hagen Das. I skipped it. I would have loved having some more of the ginger ice cream I had at last night's theater.

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P.S. I'm writing this from my phone now. My laptop battery is very low, and I want to conserve it. Our hotel doesn't have an outlet that I trust for it. There is a little outlet for razors that I can recharge my phone. Please forgive any typos.

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Thanks. I'd love to stay on board for another cruise but we can't.

 

We had a light and quick supper at a healthy fast food restaurant named Leon. It's near the Tate Modern. I had the prawn salad and DH had the veggie burger with baked waffle fries.

 

We stopped at Sainsbury' s for a bottle of red wine and some chocolate chunk shortbread cookies for our dessert. I thought about some ice cream, but they only had big cartons or things we can get at home.

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We were up early this morning and went for breakfast at the Corner Cafe on Hercules. It's about a 10-minute walk from our hotel. The food was very good English breakfast fare. I had fried eggs, veggie sausage, mushrooms, bubble and squeak, bread, and chamomile tea. DH had scrambled eggs, baked beans, hash browns, bacon, bread, and tea. It was a lot of food for a good price, a quarter of what breakfast costs at our hotel. We were the only tourists in the place. All of the other customers were workmen. No women at all eating there.

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My wife stayed in a hotel (I think in LA but can't remember for sure) on a work trip with a weird bathroom. Fortunately she had the room to herself. The bathroom wall was clear glass so anybody sitting on the comode was fully visible to the main part of the room. The shower was also clear. Very odd. I don't know who would design something like that. I really have no interest in watching somebody taking care of business on the john.

The first time I stayed in a room at the M casino in Henderson Nev. the glass window of the bathroom was opened to the rest of the room, then behind the door was a switch and a shade came down between the the 2 panes of glass. There may have been a switch in your wife's room also.

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