Help with pre-cruise stay in London

[markeb]

3 minutes ago, Blue and Green said:

I guess we were there on a good day since that was not our experience.

I think you said you got there early. That’s a big help. It also depends on time of year, and even the weather. We went on an unexpected rainy day last summer and the entire museum was a zoo. Oddly, the sculptures from the Acropolis were fairly clear. The Rosetta Stone was surrounded. Who knows!

[dickinson]

44 minutes ago, fruitmachine said:

Remember that early starts will be the most difficult and late evenings the easiest - your body will still think 8 or 9 in the morning is still the middle of the night for at least a couple of days.

We found the opposite to be true this past fall on our trip to Athens.  It was 7 hours later to us.  We went to sleep early but we were up early and at the hotel breakfast when it opened at 7am or a few minutes later.

[Turtles06]

22 hours ago, dickinson said:

I did read somewhere someone's review with doing W Abbey and then Churchill War Rooms.  They did the Abbey at opening (9:30) and booked Churchill War Rooms for 3 pm and said timing was fine because they had plenty of time for lunch (I think they ate though at the cafe in W Abbey).  

 

On another thread you'd started, I posted about doing exactly that (so perhaps it was me 🙂).  Arrived at the Abbey at 9:30, immediately went to the desk to book the Verger Tour for a time after our visit to the Diamond Jubilee Galleries (per our pre-booked timed ticket).  That was all fabulous and took up the entire morning.  Walked toward the Churchill War Rooms (had a 3pm booking) and had lunch at some pub along the way.  Might have been able to make an earlier time for the War Rooms but we of course didn't know in advance exactly how long we would spend in the Abbey and definitely did not want to feel rushed for time.

 

And I totally agree with @markeb that you can (and we did) spend hours in the Churchill War Rooms.  It depends on your interest in the subjects.  I found the entire place fascinating and probably stopped to read just about every exhibit sign. 

 

 

 

[Turtles06]

On 5/8/2024 at 11:37 AM, dickinson said:

We want to go to: 

 

1. Tower of London (want this one first thing in morning but not sure of best way to get there from hotel.  3 of us). 

2. Buckingham Palace tour

3. Westminster Abbey (probably first thing so we can purchase a Verger guided tour)

4. Churchill War Rooms

 

It would be nice to also fit in the British Museum (not sure best way to get there or if it is walking distance)

 

As others have noted, you have a chock full itinerary, even without the British Museum.  I'm not trying to add to it, I just wanted to suggest something you may not have considered, perhaps in lieu of something else (maybe Buckingham Palace), and that's a guided tour of the Palace of Westminster (aka the Houses of Parliament). 

 

We did this in 2018; the tour is about 90 minutes long, and it was one of the best tours we've ever taken, anywhere.  The Palace has incredibly opulent rooms, and you walk through many of them, learning about history and about what you are seeing.  And then, a major highlight, we visited the Chamber of the House of Commons.  We got to stand in the rows of seats (only elected Members may sit in those seats, as we learned) while the guide discusses what happens in the Chamber, who sits where, the history of the Chamber, etc.  It was a "pinch me" moment to actually be inside such an iconic place that I'd only seen on TV.  (And I say that as an American.)  

 

Just throwing that out there (especially since your hotel is so convenient to Parliament).

 

https://www.parliament.uk/visiting/visiting-and-tours/

[Turtles06]

7 hours ago, kflietst said:

we are going from London to Windsor with an experienced tour guide.who will get us to Southhamton in time to board our ship.

 

@kflietst Do you mind sharing the name/website/contact info for this guide?  We may be interested in doing the reverse at the end of a transatlantic cruise arriving in Southampton. 

 

Thank you!

[dickinson]

@Turtles06 Yes, it was yours.  Thanks.  I think we are moving things around (haven't purchased any tickets yet).  We will be there two full days along with the afternoon we arrive (arrive into Heathrow at 1030 am) and the day we leave. We are taking the train to Southampton the day before cruise.  Discount tickets are not yet available so if we do something in the morning we can take an afternoon train but I want to take an early afternoon train to have time to walk around Southampton.  

 

I had checked about going to Parliament (maybe a month ago?) but only dates were on Saturdays.  I just checked and they now have dates available during the week when we are there.  Oy!  Now to figure out how to fit it in 🙂

 

We previously used International Friends at the end of our cruise going up to London and will use them this trip also.  We went to Salisbury Cathedral, Windsor Castle, and Stonehenge.  They drop you off at your London or Heathrow area hotel.  It is an all day tour. They also have transport leaving London and going to Southampton but stopping along the way at maybe Windsor Castle or Stonehenge.  This might be the company the other poster was talking about.  Here is the link: http://internationalfriends.co.uk. 

Edited May 9 by dickinson

[Turtles06]

33 minutes ago, dickinson said:

We previously used International Friends at the end of our cruise going up to London and will use them this trip also.  We went to Salisbury Cathedral, Windsor Castle, and Stonehenge.  They drop you off at your London or Heathrow area hotel.  It is an all day tour. They also have transport leaving London and going to Southampton but stopping along the way at maybe Windsor Castle or Stonehenge.  This might be the company the other poster was talking about.  Here is the link: http://internationalfriends.co.uk. 

Thanks very much. I do know about International Friends and I’m glad to know you’ll be a repeat customer. 
 

We’ve been to Salisbury and Stonehenge before, but not Windsor, so we just want to visit that on the transfer from Southampton to London.  That would also give us more time there. It might require a private transfer/tour with them, and I plan to inquire about that. 
 

Have fun planning your trip! 

[Eno]

We purchased a 3 day London pass but you really have to plan your day to make it worth it. At Tower of London we were able to join the line for those with tickets. Never had a problem using the pass. Returning next year for another cruise from Southampton. May just buy a 4 item pass vs day passes as want to go to the British museum this year and not have such a packed itinerary. But back to the borough market for lunch - sausage rolls from the ginger pig are calling me back. 

[kflietst]

5 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

 

@kflietst Do you mind sharing the name/website/contact info for this guide?  We may be interested in doing the reverse at the end of a transatlantic cruise arriving in Southampton. 

 

Thank you!

We booked it through International Friends.  I believe they have 2 options...one is for a small group and one is private. I believe there was also a tour listed with Get Your Guide.

[Turtles06]

50 minutes ago, kflietst said:

We booked it through International Friends.  I believe they have 2 options...one is for a small group and one is private. I believe there was also a tour listed with Get Your Guide.

Thanks, that’s very helpful. We are looking at International Friends. 
 

Enjoy your trip!

[markeb]

For whatever reason tonight, I'm looking through pics of our last visit to London last summer. The timing revolved totally around the British Summertime festival (BST) in Hyde Park, highlighted by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. But we had an amazing visit to one of our favorite cities in the world.

 

I suspect my British friends here on Cruise Critic will give me the same eye roll as I'd give them for places in NYC or Washington, but...

 

If you're around Buckingham Palace and have a little time towards the end of the day, look up Duke's Bar. It's off Saint James, in Duke's Hotel. Supposedly the hotel was a rendezvous point for members of the royal family over the years. But in the 50's, the bar was frequented by a former intelligence officer and aspiring author, and in that bar he was inspired to describe a drink combining vodka, gin, and dry vermouth and name it after the female lead of his first novel. The Vesper. The author was Ian Fleming, and the male lead was of course James Bond in Casino Royale.

 

There is a relatively relaxed dress code at Duke's (long pants and I think a collared shirt for men), and there can be a wait. Not too long generally as there's a strict two martini limit. They are unique and amazing and highly recommended. Forget the show of the martini bar on Celebrity!

 

[Cotswold Eagle]

9 hours ago, dickinson said:

but I want to take an early afternoon train to have time to walk around Southampton

Without wanting to be rude to the place or its residents, why would you cut short your time in one of the great cities of the world, where you clearly don't have time to see everything you want to, so that you can 'walk around Southampton'? 😀

[dickinson]

5 hours ago, Cotswold Eagle said:

Without wanting to be rude to the place or its residents, why would you cut short your time in one of the great cities of the world, where you clearly don't have time to see everything you want to, so that you can 'walk around Southampton'? 😀

We were in Southampton in 2015 on turnaround day so walked around.  We saw ancient Roman walls, Tudor House (one and done), etc.  Our traveling companion has never been so really just want an hour or two to walk around after dropping off our luggage at the hotel.  I also need to walk after being in passive motion for a while. We also will probably want an early dinner.

Edited May 10 by dickinson

[dickinson]

9 hours ago, markeb said:

For whatever reason tonight, I'm looking through pics of our last visit to London last summer. The timing revolved totally around the British Summertime festival (BST) in Hyde Park, highlighted by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. But we had an amazing visit to one of our favorite cities in the world.

 

I suspect my British friends here on Cruise Critic will give me the same eye roll as I'd give them for places in NYC or Washington, but...

 

If you're around Buckingham Palace and have a little time towards the end of the day, look up Duke's Bar. It's off Saint James, in Duke's Hotel. Supposedly the hotel was a rendezvous point for members of the royal family over the years. But in the 50's, the bar was frequented by a former intelligence officer and aspiring author, and in that bar he was inspired to describe a drink combining vodka, gin, and dry vermouth and name it after the female lead of his first novel. The Vesper. The author was Ian Fleming, and the male lead was of course James Bond in Casino Royale.

 

There is a relatively relaxed dress code at Duke's (long pants and I think a collared shirt for men), and there can be a wait. Not too long generally as there's a strict two martini limit. They are unique and amazing and highly recommended. Forget the show of the martini bar on Celebrity!

 

Interesting!

[Turtles06]

45 minutes ago, dickinson said:

We were in Southampton in 2015 on turnaround day so walked around.  We saw ancient Roman walls, Tudor House (one and done), etc.  Our traveling companion has never been so really just want an hour or two to walk around after dropping off our luggage at the hotel.  I also need to walk after being in passive motion for a while. We also will probably want an early dinner.

 

One suggestion in Southampton:  the Sea City Museum.  It has a very interesting exhibit called "Southampton's Titanic Story."  As you may know, many people from Southampton worked on the ship, and so the disaster was especially devastating for the city.   The Museum is very walkable through the center of town from wherever you are likely to be staying

 

https://seacitymuseum.co.uk/exhibitions/southamptons-titanic-story/

[SSAtlantic]

On 5/8/2024 at 6:04 PM, markeb said:

Since you were there in  017, TFL has gone to contactless payment. You can use any contactless credit card (obviously use one with no foreign transaction fees). You each need a unique card.

I have a question about credit card usage.  Can my DH and I use the same credit card account as we each have a card? Also, can I hand DD my card to use after I tap in?  Her card does not include no foreign transaction fees.

[markeb]

It has to be a unique card per individual. Check your cards; most credit card companies now give a different number to each person on the account even though they're the same account. The card itself is probably "unique" even if it has the same account number. My wife and I share card accounts but routinely use Express Transit in NY and also have used it in London. You have to tap in and out with the same card, so you can't "double tap" in and share a card. In that case it may make sense to get an Oyster for her.

 

Edit: See the TFL link in Post #9. It's a wealth of information.

Edited May 14 by markeb

[Globaliser]

18 minutes ago, SSAtlantic said:

Can my DH and I use the same credit card account as we each have a card? Also, can I hand DD my card to use after I tap in?

 

As markeb says, as long as you and your husband have two different physical cards, you should be OK.

 

For your daughter, one other option might be to load one of your cards onto a phone, providing it has NFC (contactless) functionality. AIUI, the phone should then count as a further "card" which your daughter could use in addition to your two physical cards. But one potential disadvantage (seeing as you would be sharing one card account) could be that if your credit card company sees three charges coming onto the card account every day from the same merchant, that could trip some fraud or similar detector on the card account.

 

What are the foreign transaction fees? It's easy to get unnecessarily hung up about these. If you only travel in Zones 1 and 2, you won't pay more than £8.50 per day for your TfL travel. At a typical forex rate of 3%, the fee would be the equivalent of 25p, which is really not worth worrying about. Also, TfL only sends one charge to the card per day, so even if there is some form of per-transaction charge, you'd only pay it once per day.

[T-2]

We were last in London some 20 years ago and my memory is failing me on reading these underground Tube maps, I'm hoping you won't mind adding a bit of info. When you look at a map it will sometimes shows a location like Waterloo with a white circle on Bakerloo, , then another white circle next to it might be for Jubilee, then the next 2 white circles might be for Northern or Waterloo & City, are these stations stacked on top of each other or are they connected by corridors without having to go out to street level? Trying to guess how you approximate how much time it might take going from one line to another. I hope that makes sense what I am trying to understand.

Second part to the question please- does the tube station ever connect when there is a train station with the same name or do you need to know to go up to the surface to transfer to the train line- like to get from Waterloo to Windsor we change for the Elizabeth Line at Tottenham Court Rd, do we go above ground to do that? Maybe this will all seem more obvious once I am there 😄 

[markeb]

If you pull up the actual London Tube map, https://content.tfl.gov.uk/standard-tube-map.pdf, there's a legend in the lower left. The white circles are a direct interchange (in some cases I'm pretty sure there are level changes). The white circles with connected to another white circle are internal interchanges; you don't leave the Tube to transfer, but you'll probably walk. From the Tube to National Rail (or the Thames boats), you'll leave the Tube. It's actually pretty straightforward. 

 

Once you're in a Tube station that connects to a National rail station, you look for the rail emblem (the two parallel red lines with arrows). So from the Paddington Station on the Heathrow Express you'd follow the Yellow or Green signs for the Circle or District Line or the Purple signs for the Elizabeth Line. From the Tube you'd follow the red arrowed signs for the Paddington rail station. In some cases you may exit the Tube station. In some cases they share a facility. It's actually amazingly simple. Although the map is amazingly complicated. 

[gnome12]

29 minutes ago, markeb said:

Although the map is amazingly complicated. 

For the amount of information that it provides, it is actually a model of simplicity. That is why it is the model for subway/metro maps around the world.

Edited May 15 by gnome12

[markeb]

2 hours ago, gnome12 said:

For the amount of information that it provides, it is actually a model of simplicity. That is why it is the model for subway/metro maps around the world.

 

Once you figure it out, it's brilliant. Unless you think it's vaguely representative of London above ground! But it does take a bit of time to figure out!

[T-2]

markeb- I want to say thank you on two counts- One that you explained it so well that it makes perfect sense to me and Two, that you were able to understand the question I struggled to even present in the first place - I was wishing they had 3D renderings of the stations and now I can envision it just fine- cannot thank you enough- I feel like we'll be fine and not just losing time wandering. 

[Cotswold Eagle]

6 hours ago, T-2 said:

Trying to guess how you approximate how much time it might take going from one line to another.

Don't bother! As markeb says, the map is not a physical representation, so you can't make that guess anyway. There is a table of values for street to platforms and interchange times at each station that is used by the various online journey planners, such as TfL or National Rail, which therefore do the work for you. 

 

6 hours ago, T-2 said:

Waterloo to Windsor we change for the Elizabeth Line at Tottenham Court Rd,

I guess this is to get to Slough to connect to the train to Windsor & Eton Central? from Waterloo it makes much more sense to take the direct train from Waterloo to Windsor & Eton Riverside. 

Edited May 15 by Cotswold Eagle

[T-2]

You guessed right, we have bought tickets but didn't know the other would have been the better destination. I have already paid for them but had based the choice on reading that the Windsor & Eton Riverside should be avoided because it was then a steep hill up to Windsor Castle. At least this will help someone else avoid my mistake, I would have much rathered the direct train.