John Bull

As previous posters have said, ID isn't required for run-of-the-mill purchases JB 🙂

All cruise lines offer (usually payable) shuttles to Pile / Pila gate. As per @edinburgher's post, local buses run to the same gate and it's also the most convenient place for taxis to drop you (there's a rank outside the gate) Last time we went to Dubrovnik we negotiated a taxi to take us from the port up the winding road to the cablecar station at the top of Mount Srd (don't remember the cost, but certainly more than direct to the city). Glorious views on the way up and at the top. A couple of lazy beers looking down on Dubrovnik from on high, then we took the cablecar down (one-way tickets from the souvenir shop in the cablecar station). This meant an easy 5-minute downhill walk from the bottom station to Buza Gate into the walled city. Or if you want a two-way cablecar trip, get a taxi from the port to drop you at the lower cablecar station, avoiding an uphill walk from Pile Gate. JB 🙂

I agree with everything in @gumshoe958's post. For a private transfer, what personal details are you being asked to provide? The operator will need to know the number of adults & the number and ages of the children. And the number of cases - usually the number of checked cases & cabin cases, and any other luggage, because with four passengers that will impact on whether an estate car (station wagon, if you still use that term) will suffice or you need a small minibus (don't say "van" because in the UK that's what you'd call a panel van 😵) . They will also want your e-mail address. And details of your flight so that they can track it's arrival. Payment with booking usually means card brand (Visa or M/C or - if accepted, Amex or Diner's), card-holder's name, the long number on the card, expiry date, and the last three numbers of the CVV on the reverse side of the card. The driver may want to see the card when you arrive A cell-phone number is also very useful (and you should carry their phone number with you) in case of difficulties in meeting). They shouldn't need your passport details, address, other names of passengers, etc., and certainly not your PIN. Current price range for a car is about £130 to £150, I'm not up-to-date on van prices. JB 🙂

There is a great deal of disinformation on Cruise Critic & elsewhere about power on cruise ships. Here are the definitive facts.............. Because ships sail at sea, electrical power cannot be grounded. And because of the distance from land, cables from power stations would be too long. So instead of electrical power, cruise ships use smoke power, fed by the ship's funnels. Instead of electric circuits there is a system of narrow smoke conduits. When there is a leak in the smoke system an appliance stops working, and the breakdown is usually accompanied by smoke from the appliance or wall socket. Hence the need for smoke alarms in cabins. Appliances like flat irons, tumble-driers, motorcycles and pizza ovens are particularly susceptible, which is why they're not permitted in cabins. Engineers can usually fix the problem by finding the source of the escaping smoke in the conduit or appliance, and applying insulating tape to seal it. When the source of the escape is sealed the smoke stops, & unless it is smoke-logged the appliance starts working again. Sometimes the escape of smoke is too large to be taped, in which case WW2 light-cruisers and destroyers will be deployed to provide enough smoke to keep essential systems working while repairs are carried out. Passengers will be sent to their muster stations - they are not permitted to use the elevators to get to their muster stations because of the danger of escaping smoke in confined spaces. I will give a more-comprehensive reply later, but nurse has told me that I must take my medication and go back to bed. JB 🙂 House-bound for the day - bored, so terribly terribly bored 😏.

As Bruce's post, plastic is widely-used in Europe even for the smallest transaction. But do carry some reserves of local shrapnel for the occasional market or street-purchase, or for un-manned outlets where sometimes machines often don't accept cash, or even a public toilet. Yes, €100 seems like a good starting point, perhaps just $50 in Turkish lire. You can always use an ATM to top-up, but beware the rip-offs. This website is for Brits, hence the examples in GBP but the same applies you https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/7-ways-to-avoid-being-ripped-off-at-the-cash-machine-on-holiday-aYL9I3s6e0Z0 If your ship's next cruise is a similar itinerary, you can use up your euros & lire by giving them to crew who have gone the extra mile - or pig-out on Baklava 😋 JB 🙂

The donkey path can barely be seen in that photo, it's further to the left. Here's a video of walking down it (there is a video of walking up it, but my health would probably suffer if I just watched it 😂). Take about 25 mins to walk down JB🙂

The Bay off Biscay has a reputation for being pretty bad-tempered. All a matter of luck, but in the summer months she's very much more likely to be benign. We've crossed on various occasions between May & September and she's been a sweetie. Worst BoB experiences on passenger ships tend to be on ferries - a lot of ferries cross BoB. You don't mention your ship but the vast majority of cruise ships are much bigger than ferries, and a good big-un is smoother than a good little-un. JB 🙂

Hi, Lew, At Southampton, different cruise-lines offer different excursions for B2B cruisers, anywhere between none and up to about 4 or 5. IIRC they have included Salisbury & Stonehenge, Bath, central London - and a Pullman-style steam train trip though that would be dependant on the date. I don't recall Winchester or Portsmouth although either would be simple & worthwhile. So you'll just have to wait until RCI publish their offerings. But compared with her sisters, Splendour is a small ship (about 2000 pax) so don't expect a wide choice, if any. For independent excursions or DIY you first need to check - arrival time in Southampton (7am disembarkation is usually possible since you won't be carrying luggage) - Back-on-board time for B2B'ers. This might be as late as 30 mins before advertised sailing time or as early as 90 - 120 minutes before sailing if you're obliged to go thro another registration and/or safety drill in Southampton. - If you have to change cabins, this is another complication which may affect your timing. Be warned - it can prove difficult to get this information from cruise-lines until you board or unless you can get the information via the ship. Booking seats-in-coach or seats-in-van for excursions in Southampton is nigh-on impossible. It's not a tourist city, the only regular excursions are for locals - the timings almost-certainly won't suit, and many destinations won't appeal to you. You can book a private car or shared van tour with a taxi / transfer operator, but that will be expensive. Finding a qualified guide for a particular destination would be difficult, but you can ask for a knowledgeable driver (https://westquaycars.com/ have a touring arm called Discover the South). For a van you'd need to accept responsibility for the cost and seek sharers thro your cruise RollCall. Suitable places would be The New Forest (starts 20 minutes away), the Jurassic Coast (starts around Corfe Castle, about an hour away), Highclere Castle aka "Downton Abbey" (about an hour away), Blenheim Palace (about 80 minutes away), the Weald & Downland Museum (about an hour away), Arundel Castle (about an hour away). In your limited time those places are impractical by public transport. Southampton Central station (no more than a 7 to 8 minute taxi ride from any cruise terminal) is a rail hub, so there are a lot of DIY options, including train to the ancient cathedral city of Winchester, about 15 minutes & £9 return, or Portsmouth, about an hour & £14.50 return (get off at the end of the line, Portsmouth harbour, for the Historic dockyard & ships) or the laid-back city of Salisbury about 30 minutes. Depending on your time in port, from Salisbury station you can take the Stonehenge hop-on bus to Stonehenge - total travel time from ship back to ship including waiting for trains etc would be about 3 hours, so you could have 60-90 minutes at Stonehenge and an hour or more in Salisbury. Monday to saturday trains on all these routes are half-hourly or better, less-frequent on sundays https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ Or the hourly Red Funnel vehicle ferry across The Solent to East Cowes on the Isle of Wight, an hour and £14.90 return for foot-passengers. Then 10-min. local bus - 3 per hour - to Queen Victoria's favourite residence, Osborne House https://www.englishheritage.org.uk/visit/places/osborne/ designed in Italianate style by her husband, Prince Albert. https://www.redfunnel.co.uk/isle-of-wight-ferry/plan/timetables If all of that is too much for you, Southampton has enough to interest you for a day. Places like https://tudorhouseandgarden.com/ , https://seacitymuseum.co.uk/ and https://www.solentsky.org/ Self-guided walks like https://cruisesouthampton.com/walking-itineraries or guided walks on saturdays & sundays https://www.visit-hampshire.co.uk/dbimgs/Southampton Old Town Walk.pdf and plenty of shops, cafes, pubs Check out the highlighted places via google & the search box on CC's British Isles forum JB 🙂

Scheduled local bus services to Honfleur are infrequent, the timetables are complicated because they depend whether it's during school term time or school holidays etc, and you need to get to & back from the bus station (by the train station), about 1/2 hr walk from the cruise terminal. But this is a new shuttle service set up with the cruiser in mind, and resolves those problems, albeit at a "tour" price rather than a "local bus" price. https://beelehavre.com/en/circuits-en/le-havre-honfleur-tour/ JB 🙂

ATOL - or ABTA. If they quote an ATOL or ABTA registration, check it out - if it turns out to be fictitious it's almost-certainly a scam. In the meantime I'm still confused by the OP's post. Is @4380in Aus? Or the UK? Or elsewhere ? The terms of the contract must be in line with the law of the country from which the booking was made. "Chat" tells us nothing. Chat on a website? Whose website? "Yes via thier website" tells us nothing. Which cruise line is involved? Princess has been mentioned by one responder but not confirmed by the OP OP initially said "The problem seems to be the quote was per person not total price-but nowhere does it say this." But later says "the screenshot included fly cruise and pp prices so obviously I knew it would be double that ( for 2 passengers). Confirmation is double that figure ( so 4 times advertised)". So which is it? OP says "I was sent a link and paid a £500 deposit." How was that paid? Credit card? There are safeguards - dispute it with the card issuer (Visa or Matercard or whoever) Debit card. Fewer safeguards, but there are some. Dispute it with the bank. An intermediary like PayPal ? I don't know my stuff on them. Bank Transfer ? A big possibility this was a scam, probably with no cruise at all. Contact the bank & police but almost-certainly no recourse. This is @4380' s only contact with Cruise Critic, presumably just to seek advice. But we're going round in circles, we need full background in order to give any sort of worthwhile advice JB 🙂

The original post quoted was back in 2017 The "private" tour at $160 would not have been a small-group tour, it would have been a coach tour pretty-well identical to the ship's coach tour at $199, but booked independently rather than with the ship. That also ties in with ships' mark-ups. There are van options but significantly more expensive. Tours-by-locals offer what appears to be a similar itinerary by car @ 2,322 USD for up to four JB 🙂

Can't help with the cost of ship's tour, but the current price of the full-day independent coach tour which we took last year is €134,. You can elect to pay extra for a booked meal - meals were booked-out when we booked but we were very happy with filled rolls etc at the same venue. Pick-up is at the cruise terminal, timings are geared to ships' times. Full refund if the ship fails to port. We thoroughly recommend https://www.norwayexcursions.com/en/tour/alesund-from-fjords-to-trolls/ They also offer van tours JB 🙂

Alesund. We took an independently-booked full-day coach (bus) tour from the cruise pier with https://www.norwayexcursions.com/en/tour/alesund-from-fjords-to-trolls/ Easy on-line booking, excellent tour, excellent operator, excellent guide, excellent vehicle & driver. sensible price. You can book with or without lunch - lunches were already fully booked but we were very pleased with a selection of filled rolls and fresh local strawberries at the same venue overlooking a waterfall They accept un-booked passengers if they have seats to spare, but there were on spare seats on our coach. They also offer van / private tours, same itinerary, obviously more expensive. If you google "alesund to trollstigen" you'll find others with similar tours, but I have no hesitation in recommending the one we used. Haugesund We just headed into town across a bridge (the part of town with the cruise terminal is a few yards off-shore). The hop-on bus is a waste of time & money. Just the other side of the bridge there's a pleasant waterside, and one block from the waterside up the hill is the main street. Plenty of shops, bars & cafes for a lazy day. If you want something more-exciting you need to book for somewhere out of town. JB 🙂

I certainly agree you shouldn't just stay on the ship - it'd be a shame to waste the one day when you can see some of this country. If you don't want to take the long haul to PP, check out the ship's more-local offerings or negotiate with vans (not tuk-tuks) at the port to leave Sihanoukville in the rear-view mirror for a local countryside tour to Ream National Park. We did this, and our day also included a waterfall, a 10-15 minute long-tail boat ride to a little off-shore island (Kaoh Chanloh ?) for a swim & beach-time, and the afore-said grubby fishing village. The price was silly-low, but because it was such a memorable day we doubled it with the tip - and I'm not a generous man. Ream Nat Park is the opposite of Sihanuokville, clean and pleasant and relaxing. At the temple in the Park, for a donation of pennies we received a blessing and the promise of a long life. Since it cost practically nothing I donated double in order to live to the age of 150. It seems to have worked, I'm now well over half-way there 😏 To PP by ship's excursion would make sense because of the distance & the roads, but altho Cambodia is very backward it's not dangerous & the people are friendly. JB 🙂

It's over 100 yards - you'll need a full minute 😏 The tender pier is the same one as where cruise ships moor, Left out of the port gate, over the water and the park is on your left https://maps.app.goo.gl/KMo79H1cKHPhMaFi9 JB 🙂