What city should I fly into?

[momofmeg]

We are leaving on Thurs. for our weekend pre-stay in London. We are staying at the City Inn Westminster, where it seems most of the CCers are going to be. British friends of ours from our first cruise are meeting us at the hotel on Fri. and are going to be our sightseeing guides for the afternoon and have dinner with us.

On Sat. we have booked an all-day excursion to Canterbury, Dover and Leeds Castle. We booked with Evan-Evans, a UK tour company recommended by CC posters on our roll call pages. (Check out the posts on the Jewel list for 6/19/06) It was 1/2 the cost of the same trip offered by RCI. Evan-Evans has a great website, too, and I booked online.

On Sun. we will see more of London on our own. The hotel is in the heart of the major sightseeing area and near a tube station and the Thames.

The Jewel of the Seas leaves from Harwich on Mon. 6/19 on a 12-night cruise to the British Isles/Nor. Fjords, with stops in Le Havre, Plymouth, Dublin, Cork, Greenock, Flam, Alesund, Bergen and Amsterdam. We booked a package with RCI and it includes airfare, breakfast at the hotel, all the shuttles and luggage transfers. We DON'T want to mess with trying to coordinate all that ourselves. We fly into Gatwick and out of Heathrow. I'm so excited, I can hardly stand it!!! :D

 

1/02 Explorer E. Carib.

1/03 Explorer W. Carib.

8/03 Summit Alaska cruise/tour

2/04 Adventure S. Carib.

2/05 Galaxy Panama Canal

6/19/06 Jewel Brit. Isles/Nor. Fjords + 3 days in London

 

Kathie I keep loking for posts on your cruise. I am guessing you are home by now.

[momofmeg]

Liverpool and Manchester are neighbouring cities and there is a frequent train service (every half hour or so I think) from Manchester Airport to Liverpool. Also I doubt a taxi would cost the earth.

 

If you want to visit Liverpool (and I wouldn't blame you) then Manchester Airport is your best bet.

 

Nick.

 

thanks NIck. It sounds as though that is our best bet and then after our Liverpool visit to take a train to the London airport and then take the Royal Caribbean trasportation train/bus/shuttle? to Hariwick. I am sure we could do something that costs less-but that will be the simpliest! Thanks for your help!

[Globaliser]

... then after our Liverpool visit to take a train to the London airport and then take the Royal Caribbean trasportation train/bus/shuttle? to Hariwick.

I'm not sure you'd find getting back to a London airport very easy by train.

 

If you get a train to London, you'll end up at Euston station. To get to Heathrow involves the Tube, or Tube/taxi plus Heathrow Express train. To get to Gatwick involves Tube/taxi plus train. Both are therefore quite complex; if you're going to Harwich and you're at Euston you might as well do Tube/taxi to Liverpool Street plus train to Harwich International station, which is at the dock.

 

If you want to do the cruise line transfer, your best bet is probably to fly from Manchester to Heathrow, or possibly Gatwick (more frequent flights to Heathrow, but you need to check where the cruise line will transfer you from). Then you can take the cruise line's transfer.

 

Other slightly more exotic suggestions:-

1. Fly from Liverpool to London City by VLM, taxi to Liverpool Street, train to Harwich.
2. Fly from Manchester to Stansted by Air Berlin (possibly the best low-fare carrier in the world), then taxi to Harwich.

[momofmeg]

I'm not sure you'd find getting back to a London airport very easy by train.

 

If you get a train to London, you'll end up at Euston station. To get to Heathrow involves the Tube, or Tube/taxi plus Heathrow Express train. To get to Gatwick involves Tube/taxi plus train. Both are therefore quite complex; if you're going to Harwich and you're at Euston you might as well do Tube/taxi to Liverpool Street plus train to Harwich International station, which is at the dock.

 

If you want to do the cruise line transfer, your best bet is probably to fly from Manchester to Heathrow, or possibly Gatwick (more frequent flights to Heathrow, but you need to check where the cruise line will transfer you from). Then you can take the cruise line's transfer.

 

Other slightly more exotic suggestions:-

1. Fly from Liverpool to London City by VLM, taxi to Liverpool Street, train to Harwich.
2. Fly from Manchester to Stansted by Air Berlin (possibly the best low-fare carrier in the world), then taxi to Harwich.

 

Really? I am amazed. When we came to London several years ago we took a train all the way from the Airport to I think it is called Earl court where our hotel was. Now we did have to get a taxi then-but simply because we went in the WRONG direction-we were only 3 blocks from our hotel!

 

I told hubby NEVER AGAIN! I would rather pay the 50 quid for a taxi-as that was too much tube and train riding-and then to get lost within just a few blocks of where we wanted to go! we took a car service when it came time to go back.

 

So if we take a train to London and then a taxi or car service to the airport-or maybe the train all the way to Harwick and a car service to cruise port?

 

We still have a year to plan.

 

Hubby has a friend that lives in Liverpool. He suggested we just take a flight to London from Manchester-he said the trains are not that much less expensive then a flight and a flight is simplier-so we may do that.

 

by the way-I did figure out your link to the Baltic thread. I am not computer savvy-duh!!!!!!

[Globaliser]

Really? I am amazed. When we came to London several years ago we took a train all the way from the Airport to I think it is called Earl court where our hotel was.

If you flew to Heathrow, I suspect that you probably took the Tube to Earls Court. That's on the Tube line that serves Heathrow.

 

While Tube trains are technically trains, a lot of Londoners distinguish between the Tube and the other train services.

 

In any case, the reasons why it's not easy to get from Liverpool to a London airport by train are not because the London airports are not served by trains. They are. It's the changing from train to train, or train to taxi to train, that makes it less than easy. I gave you sample trips in my previous post.

So if we take a train to London and then a taxi or car service to the airport-or maybe the train all the way to Harwick and a car service to cruise port?

It's a matter for you whether you want to go straight to Harwich. But, as I said before: "... if you're going to Harwich and you're at Euston you might as well do Tube/taxi to Liverpool Street plus train to Harwich International station, which is at the dock." It's a matter for you whether you'd prefer to do that or to take a taxi from Euston to either Heathrow or Gatwick and then get on a bus from there.

Hubby has a friend that lives in Liverpool. He suggested we just take a flight to London from Manchester-he said the trains are not that much less expensive then a flight and a flight is simplier-so we may do that.

I'm glad that he's on the same page that I am. As I said, if you want to do the cruise line's transfer, that's probably the simplest option.

 

I'm glad you found the links to the other threads!