skittl1321

Well, with the crowdstrike fiasco I haven't been able to access the boards today, and I am on vacation again tomorrow- I'll be back in a week to continue to our on-board experience.

ARE YOU READY?! It's cruise day! We have waited SO long for this cruise. We booked it December 2022. A year and a half later... a family cruise on MSC, and a solo cruise on NCL (both booked after this) later... it's TIME TO CRUISE WITH ROYAL! We started with breakfast at Premier Inn. Same selection as yesterday (obviously). I wish tomatoes with breakfast were a thing in the US. I love tomatoes. The mushrooms would have been really good if they were warm. Are they supposed to be cold in the UK? We walked from the hotel to Waterloo Station, and that was an easy walk- easier than getting TO the hotel, which felt onerous as the sidewalks were bumpy, and it seemed long since we didn't really know where we were going. The sidewalks were still bumpy, but having done the walk many times the previous two days to get to the underground and to bus stops, we knew exactly where to go. We booked our tickets to Southampton via Trainline. Advance fares are much cheaper than sameday fares, and I booked on April 8th when the fares were released. For all four of us, the train tickets cost $58.50. The bus was cheaper, but my kids really wanted to go on a train, something we had never done before. We chose to get to the station about an hour early, worried that it would be crowded and difficult to find our platform. For anyone doing this in the future, there is no need at all to be early. 15 minutes would be plenty. We did find a bench, but you can't even go to the platform more than 10 minutes or so before the train leaves. We had the platform listed in our app, but it didn't even show on the board for a really long time. Waterloo station was also extremely easy to navigate, and not busy at all despite arriving at 8:30 am, which I would have thought was somewhat of a rush hour on a Friday. The train departed on time at 9:35. It was not at all crowded, which is good, as there is no room at all for baggage. Our luggage sat on chairs next to us. Presumably if the train was full it would sit ON us? I'm not really sure. Backpacks could go on overhead racks. The kids sat in front of me, and chose a chair with a table, which was a huge novelty. They enjoyed the train ride, but I was glad it was pretty empty, as they were really excited about the cruise, and while they did stay in their seats, they did so like jumping jacks... At least they were quiet, right? We arrived at Southampton just before 11:00 a.m. We chose to walk to the port, and the walk had sidewalks the entire way, but they were bumpy and it was somewhat difficult to carry the cases. I don't know if there is another way, but the way we went we had to cross the tracks OVER them, which required going up a staircase. I would only recommend walking if you are somewhat fit and can carry your cases pretty easily. My husband said the walk was no problem at all for him, but I felt like it was more difficult than I expected, to push/pull a very heavy suitcase. I'm in the middle of PT for an achilles/calf injury though and spend a good number of days not being able to walk from my couch to my kitchen...but in Iceland, I could do 2-3 miles fairly easily. If that helps gauge how the walk is. It was very easy to enter the port, and again there are sidewalks the whole way. We were able to see the ship from the train, but were really excited when we entered the port and were getting REALLY close. Quite honestly, although huge, like other megaships we've been on, it didn't have a WOW first impression. The colors are very subdued. The terminal experience was super easy. I had chosen 12:00 check-in, we arrived just a bit before that, were able to drop off our bags, and walk in. There were a few lines, but only a few moments in each one. SO easy. The terminal staff was all friendly, and the terminal was nicely decorated. We stopped for a photo on the way to the gangway. We were lucky enough to experience Northern Lights last winter at home. (I say experience because you couldn't see them with the naked eye, but with our cameras.) And the kids are obsessed. We stayed up all night taking photos and watching as the colors changed. (And our house: For reference, I live on a busy road with a lot of light pollution.) AND THEN- we were on the gangway! It's cruise time!!!

I am guessing you all are ready for me to get to the cruise, but it is really bothering me my photos didn't load correctly, so I'm going to drop them all here in case anyone did care... First off- the rental car. We booked from Hertz, an automatic, "Nissan Versa or similar". We went small knowing we didn't need 4 wheel drive and having had similar experience were confident our large suitcases would fit. They did, but any rolling carry ons would have been tough, we were fine with backpacks at the kids feet. Also, a photo of the kids in their booster seats eating car Peanut Butter and Jelly. I always look for rental car photos to see if my luggage will fit. It was tight, for sure, but it worked. The rental car was $333.07 for 3 days. Hotel images: The exterior of Dalur HI, the lobby/cafe booths (kids area behind the glass wall)- this was at like 3:30 am, so the lights were off, and the quad room. The bathroom had a shower with curtain just in front of the toilet. The hotel cost 97,998 ISK, or $717 or 3 nights. Seljalandsfoss Walking out of Gljufrabui- my son was having some difficulty staying on the rocks and not falling into the stream so he got carried out. It was cute. Dyrholaey clifts

Up next- our full day in London. We picked a morning activity and an afternoon activity. Again, we were trying to take it easy so that we wouldn't tire out before the cruise. Up first: Premier Inn breakfast. It was very good, though everything was room temperature, nothing was actually warm. They also said they served a variety of egg types and vegetarian meats, but I couldn't figure out how you could get any of those things. We started the morning riding a bus. The kids LOVED the double decker bus, and insisted on sitting at the front of the top. It was like a carnival ride they were so happy. We took the bus to about Tower Bridge, and then walked across to our destination, Tower of London. We selected Tower of London for two reasons- one, I wanted to see the crown jewels, and two, my daughter is OBSESSED with the musical SIX (she saw it for her 5th birthday and it has played on replay for the past two years) so she wanted to see the Tower for the Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard connection. We purchased the Historical Royal Palace membership, which was 80 pounds for the family of 4. Since we also plan to go to Hampton Court Palace, this saved us some money on the tickets. We got the the Tower of London at about 10:00 am, it opens at 9 am. I told everyone we needed to go directly the the crown jewels, and that was the right choice. There was NO queue at all. Inside it was a bit crowded, but we were able to see everything without more than a few moments of waiting at each display. It is almost hard to believe those are real, and I think my kids didn't really connect they were anything more than the rhinestone tiaras they own. We then spent a few hours going through many of the exhibits, trying to explain some of the history to the kids. There was one interactive area, and sadly, most of the displays were broken, so the kids didn't really get to try anything out. The one display that was working there was so much queue jumping, we finally just gave up. Other visitors were really rude. Probably the weirdest thing that happened is when we were walking up a staircase (on the left hand side, as MOST people were doing,though a lot of people were also walking on the right); and two American women shoved down past us yelling "I know you're not British, you walk on the right". It was truly bizarre. (I honestly don't know if British people walk on the right or left/ I walk on the right, but I also drive on the right; so I assume when you drive on the left, you walk on the left. But it seemed like most people were walking on the left. Either way, I'd never purposefully run into someone on a staircase just because I thought they were wrong....) Looks like I took no pictures at the Tower. You couldn't where the Crown Jewels were, and the exhibits I was mostly busy wrangling kids and trying to explain history to them. After that, we were ALL hungry so we headed to Devine Restaurant, chose because it was close and had good reviews on TripAdvisor. It was amazing. Some of the best chips/fries I have ever had. The kids just got bagels (one with cream cheese, one with peanut butter; I forgot to ask for not toasted, as my kids are weird; so they weren't super happy), I had curry half rice/half chips, at the recommendation of the man working there, and it was fabulous. My husband had a panini and he said it was great. I really highly recommend this restaurant. I feel like it had the "friendly, talkative British-man" behind the counter, the kind who calls every woman who walks in love. Great experience. From there, we went to the activity my son chose- The British Museum. He wanted to go to see mummies. We warned him SEVERAL times ahead of time that mummies do not come to life like they do in TV. But I think he was still kind of disappointed. We spent some time in the Egyptian wing, and again, it's just hard to fathom that this stuff is real. My husband is a polyglot, so it was cool to see the Rosetta stone and tell the kids about how it contributed to the understanding of the Egyptian language. We then went and saw the mummies and I think my daughter thought it was cooler than my son. I really wanted to go see all the Roman stuff, but the WING WAS CLOSED. I was devestated. After 6 years of Latin, I was really looking forward to seeing some of the artifacts in person. I guess I will need to go to Rome... The museum was really crowded and hot, and my son had enough. He started throwing a fit, and we couldn't get him calmed down, so my husband picked him up and high tailed it out of the museum. My daughter and I took a bit more time to look at things as we walked out, but we cut our visit an hour or two short from the plan. Because my son was clearly worn out, we decided to head back to the hotel for an hour's rest, making sure to point out Big Ben on the way, the kids were so excited to see it because they know it from Peter Pan. We used tripadvisor to find a fish and chips place for dinner, and the one we originally tried to go to told us their card machine was down, so we had to find a back up. We ended up at Masters Superfish, which also had excellent reviews. Sadly, I did not like dinner. My husband said the fish was good, but the chips were floppy and did not have near the flavor of the ones we had at lunch. I ordered a mushroom pie, and it tasted like a frozen pot pie- very gelatinous and soggy pastry. The restaurant did provide free bread, pickles, and prawns, and that was where my daughter found her love of prawns- which was a perfect thing to find out before the cruise. (The pickled onions were incredibly overpowering. I love pickled onion on some sandwiches, but just an entire onion on it's own- wow... not for me. The bread was really good.) We had mapped out a walk that would allow us to pass by Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Buckinham Palace, but the kids were too worn out. So we went back to the hotel and watched cartoons until they fell, quickly, asleep. Guess I will need another trip to London to see those... (And a million other places I wanted to see...) We were all very excited, because tomorrow is CRUISE DAY!

We woke up super early in the morning (like 4:00?) to make the drive to Keflavik for a 7:00 a.m. flight. It was nice how the sun never sets, as we didn't need to drive in the dark. We were pretty nervous about getting the car dropped of, to the airport, bags checked, etc. We didn't need to be. Although the drive does take awhile, Hertz makes it very easy to drop off the rental car, even at 5 am, and shuttled us to the airport instead of us needing to walk the 10 minute walk. The airport check in was very slow, but we were able to make it to the waiting area with plenty of time. Icelandair has you take buses to the airplane, and then board using stairs instead of a jet bridge. The kids thought this was amazing. Icelandair is a budget airline. They include a soft drink in coach, but no food at all- For adults. You can preorder meals and snacks, and we chose not to. But kids, kids are provided a snack box. It varied each flight (twice it was cheese, carrots, and gummy snacks; once it was pasta salad). The kids didn't care for the cheese sandwich or the yogurt in this box, so - snacks for adults! On each leg of the flight the kids were also given either coloring books, or an activity pack that included a stuffed animal (a horse and a puffin, we got each twice), a sleep mask, and a reusable sticker pack. Needless to say, the kids love Icelandair. The in-flight entertainment was also very good, although one leg the TVs were not working, so I guess 3/4 good. I was disappointed that 90% of the programming did not have any subtitles, English or otherwise, as I really need to read movies to be able to understand what they are saying. Our arrival to Gatwick was uneventful, and it was super easy to go through immigration and get our bags. We arrived at the North Terminal, had some drama with broken trains, but eventually got to the South Terminal where we could catch our train. We took the train and then made the transfer to the Underground (it's SO nice that kids are free on the underground and buses!) and arrived at Waterloo station. We stayed at Premier Inn- Waterloo; selected for three reasons- proximity to the train station to get to Southampton, I've heard the breakfast was good, we've heard the beds were comfortable. The beds were NOT comfortable. It was one of the worst set of nights of sleep I've ever had, with tremendous back pain. I was very disappointed. The room was very small, but we were in the middle of London, so what do you expect. In the quad room we had 3 beds side by side with enough space for a child, but not an adult, to stand between the beds. There was a small desk, and a bathroom with a tub/shower. The tub was very deep and difficult to get out of if you are short (I am). But I liked the bathroom. Not so much the room. The hotel location was great, but I would not stay here again because of how uncomfortable it was. My son chose to sleep on the floor after trying to get comfortable in the smallest bed for a few hours. Reception provided a duvet so we could make it a bit cushier on the floor, and he slept well down there. So, our time in London was VERY short so we picked a very small number of touristy things to do. By the time we got to our hotel, it was about 3:00 pm, so we decided going to Borough Market would be our activity for the day. We tried a few things: A delicious bao bun (expensive, but wonderful) Indian food (they were out of what I wanted, I don't remember what I ended up getting.) This was a full meal, and priced what I'd expect to pay for a meal: Pork sandwich (Husband liked it, I wanted the veg one) Viral chocolate covered strawberries (amazing chocolate, super fresh strawberries, but who are they kidding with the price! Wow. I think it was 8 pounds) We shared everything, but since my daughter "chose" the strawberries, my son chose a vegan cinnamon roll. It had great reviews. They both tasted paella, but didn't like it enough to buy a full serving. Finally we had a lavendar lemonade that was being advertised as a "swiftie lemonade" which was enough to sell to my daughter. Also, it was pink. Borough market served as lunch and dinner. We probably could have packed in another round of sightseeing, but not wanting to exhaust ourselves before the cruise, made it an early night, watched some cartoons on TV and went to bed.

After lunch, we headed to Gulfoss. My daughter didn't want to go, she said she had seen enough waterfalls, and can we go to the pool? I told her this was a waterfall she wanted to see. Thankfully, I was right, she was impressed, and we actually spent a ton of time at the site. First, we walked down the stairs a viewpoint. From there, you can walk along a pathway to the side of the falls. Getting VERY VERY wet in the process. The rain had stopped, and since this wasn't a 'walk behind' waterfall, my daughter and I had ditched the raincoats. Oops. Still, totally worth it. It was so cool. Then, we went back to the top of the falls, and my son and husband walked to another viewpoint while my daughter and I hung back. I don't think she will make a career as an influencer, as she wanted to take cheerleading pose pictures, but then immediatly said "that's too embarassing, people can see me", despite the fact that no one was near us. (She did say I could post the photo though.) It was a very cool site, and we all enjoyed it. After Gullfoss, the plan was to go to Bruarfoss, Thingvellir National Park, Porufoss, and Helgufoss. I think we had a mutiny on our hands, so we drove the 2 hour back to the hostel (which did actually involve driving through the national park) and went to the pool. We will need to visit Iceland another time to see the rest. Hot dogs for dinner, ice cream for dessert and ready for a very early morning to get to the airport- time to go to England!

Third day in Iceland, and it was time for some stops on the Golden Circle. Spoiler alert: Like the first day, this one got cut short. Gotta be flexible when traveling with kids. We started our day at Kerid crater. We actually spent quite a bit of time here, walking all the way around the rim, and also hiking down in the bottom. Despite the cloudy day, the water was absolutely beautiful. It rained off and on while we were here. Next was a stop at Faxafoss. We had a break in the rain, and it was dry when we got there, but was sprinkling while we were looking around. Like many of the sites there was a parking fee here, though it was minimal. We were the only people there the 30 minutes we were at this site. The kids were NOT up for hiking, so we just stayed at the overlook and ate pop-tarts. We had a bit of a long drive to Geysir. By the time we got there it was POURING. This was also the first stop of the trip where it was crowded. REALLY CROWDED. It was crazy. We saw the Geysir while we were walking up, then stood in the rain for about 5-10 minutes and saw it again. I had hoped to wait another round, because I've never seen a Geysir before, but the kids were OVER it and no one wanted to be in the rain anymore. This is not the Geysir that goes off (and the one that does is not "Geysir" whose name the word came from). It's just bubbly little pool on the side of the walkway that I thought looked cool. So we walked back to the car, stopping at the visitor center for the toilet. Everyone was hungry and cranky, so we decided to go with the tourist trap lunch. The bad news:This was Disney World pricing. It was $80 for 2 sandwiches, a soup, 2 donuts, and 1 powerade. The good news: Look how happy these formerly hangry children are. More good news: That was the best tomato soup I've ever eaten. My salmon loving daughter turned down the sandwich because it was smoked, but my husband like it. My son didn't love the bacon sandwich, but we were able to pick between salad, soup, and bread and everyone got enough of a meal.

Hmm, my photos are showing as links... it's too late to edit, but if a photo isn't showing up and you're thinking "wow, I wish I knew what that particular photo was, let me know and I'll try to reupload it. So, day 2 was a more lazy day in Reyjavik. I am usually 'go-go-go' on vacation, but planned this to not overload the kids. We had some oatmeal for breakfast and then drove to Hallgrimskirkja, which has free parking. We did not go in, but did play on the swings by the church. Swings are a very important part of traveling with kids. From there, we ventured to Rainbow Road. Nearly every store was still closed, it was about 10 am. So we window shopped, which really, with my kids, is all we can do, they just touch everything no matter what we say. We also loved this painted sidewalk. Then we found a bakery and tried some treats. The kids really liked the chocolate cinnamon role, but I thought it was a bit dry. The other bun had a curry flavor that was interesting. I'm not sure I'd try these again, but it was something new. Next, we walked back to the car (stopping at a little play area, and to pet some cats), and drove over to the harbor. We had booked a Puffin Cruise with SpecialTours.is. It was a nice little informative cruise, we saw TONS of puffins, but they are tiny birds, so I'm not sure it quite lived up to the kids expectations. My husband did get a couple of good photos though. It's been over a week and he hasn't processed any of his photos in lightroom, and I figured I should get the review done before Anthem repositions out of Europe, so his pictures just won't be part of this. After the cruise, we went back to the hotel for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and then headed to Laurgardalslaug, a local pool. This was SUCH a good idea. We had decided not to go to Blue Lagoon or any of the hot springs with the kids, and visit the pool instead, and I think for sure it was the right choice. First off, the pool cost 1,330 krona, which is under $10 per adult, and is free for the kids. So the price was right. Second, it was block from our hotel, so super easy to walk to. Third, it was heated. Fourth, it had an AMAZING waterslide for my daughter, and two small water slides that both my daughter and son enjoyed. The water was also shallow so that when my son decided he wanted to swim without floaties, he could actually stand up. The first visit, there was practically no one there, it was amazing. Since the cruiseship didn't have a waterslide, my daughter was THRILLED to get her sliding in. My husband said the slide was crazy violent- and he would FLY out of it. But my daughter is obviously way lighter, and she said it was super fun. I went twice, and did not enjoy it (very fast, and dark) but it wasn't painful. The pool was wonderful, mostly locals, but the desk was prepared for tourists and explained how all the rules worked. You get a wrist band which allows you into the locker room, and also serves as a key for a locker. Super handy. So, no photos, unfortunately, but cameras are not allowed in the pool area at all. The only thing that is somewhat unique (to Americans) about icelandic pools is the rules for the locker room. You MUST shower, naked, before getting into the pool, and wash your hair and body with the provided soap. We prepped the kids for this, because my son is terrified of showers, and he did OK with some hesitation, and my daughter, was suddenly super shy about the idea of a locker room shower. It was fine though. Just a lot more walking around without clothes on in a locker room than I have ever done in my life. You also leave your towel in the shower area, rather than bring it out to the pool with you. I met one american in the pool who said she got yelled at by the locker room attendant for showering with her swimsuit on. There are literally signs EVERYWHERE that say you must remove your swimsuit, and no one else has one on, and the front desk woman showed me a card written in 5 languages with the instructions. I was told there are private stalls available, but I didn't see where they were. To leave, you insert your bracelet into a machine that opens gates, kind of like a subway ticket. On the way out there was a tourist who didn't speak English or Icelandic who couldn't figure out how to get out of the gates (I don't know where his bracelet was). So when I put my bracelet into the machine, he pushed me out of the way and walked out the gates, leaving me stuck. I had to flag a staff member over to allow me through. But WTH? That was the weirdest thing ever. Who does something like that instead of flagging someone down for help? There is a hot dog stand just outside the pool, so we had icelandic hot dogs for dinner, as well as the tiniest soda I've ever been served, even by European standards. We took the food back to the hostel and played card games and went to bed early.

Thanks for following along! Our trip wasn't Med, but let me put in a huge vote for Iceland! I want to go spend a full vacation there now. Hmm...maybe an iceland cruise.

We stayed at the Dalur-HI hostel. We selected a quad room, which was two sets of bunked beds and a private bathroom. The hostel had free parking, which was a plus. They provided linens, but not towels (I think they were available to rent), so we packed two turkish towels (light and takes up very little space) and each adult shared one with a kid. That worked out just fine. The room came to 97,998ISK for 3 nights, with all taxes and fees, making it about $240 a night. The quality of the beds varied- I slept on the top bunk two nights and thought it was fine. But the final I slept on the bottom and thought it was horrible. My husband also did not like his bed. The duvets were very nice, and plush enough that when my son decided to sleep on the floor he didn't complain about the concrete. The property was really nice, with a shared kitchen that had dishes, a fridge, a kettle, and a stovetop. It did not have a microwave. We mostly just used the kitchen to heat water for oatmeal, but I appreciated having access to dishes. There was a big outdoor area to run around, although we had bad weather. They had a cafe (including some beer on tap) on property, though we did not purchase anything. The lobby had tons of seating that we used to play games, and also a kids room, though the toys were more for young toddlers, our kids still had a bit of fun playing with them when no one else was in there.

Flying to Iceland was a 6 hour overnight flight, taking off at about 7 pm, and landing at 6 am local time. The kids each slept about 3-4 hours, the adults didn't manage to sleep at all. We picked up our rental car, it was a Hyundai or some sort, but rented as "Nissan Versa or similar". We stayed near the city, so this car was perfect for our needs. Our cases fit, exactly. Backpacks fit around them, and at the kids feet. We packed Bumblebum booster seats; our kids are in high backed, or sometimes car seats, at home, but this followed the law, and we preferred to renting unknown carseats. In rainpants, our youngest had a little trouble sitting properly, so we did have to remind him to sit upright and back more than we do at home. But they are inexpensive, and a good option for travel. They fit easily in our carry on backpacks (we used 2 cases, and 2 backpacks for our luggage, it was a bit of a tight fit for 14 days, 4 people, and multiple seasons, but we managed.) One thing you hear a lot is to combat jet-lag you have to hit the ground running the first day. We planned a drive to Vik with a number of stops along the way. Because of the nature of traveling with kids, cold rainy weather, and just being worn out, we didn't make our last 3 stops, but we did manage to keep them MOSTLY awake (a few naps in the car, but not more sleep than a normal day with naps) until bedtime. I will just have to go back to see those last few things we missed. The day started at Seljalandsfoss, a really cool waterfall you can walk behind. From there, we walked about five minutes to Gljufrabui. This was our favorite waterfall of the trip. It's a bit hidden inside a tiny canyon, and with the rain the stream was high so you had to rock scramble and walk through water to get to it, so it really felt like an adventure. Then we went to Skogafoss. The kids and Kevin hiked all the way to the top (there are stairs), but I have wrecked knees and have been in PT for an achilles tendon issue for a month, so I stayed at the base. This was really gorgeous- super powerful. And finally the Dyrholaey cliffs. It was here that the kids were just DONE. It was cold, still rainy, incredibly windy, and because it was such a dreary day, I think the amazing view just wasn't quite what it could be. So we went ahead to the hotel, back in Reyjavik. You might notice we never stopped for meals- Iceland is crazy expensive for food, so we had packed oatmeal, poptarts, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Pro-tip, if you don't want to pack knives (I was worried plastic ones would break), popsicle sticks make great spreaders. I made everyone sandwiches in the car, and we had poptarts for breakfast. We of course, also had water bottles. We had heard gas prices were crazy, but for a full day of driving, more than 400 km, it was only about $43.

We got back last week from our first Royal Carribean cruise. This report will cover our entire trip, which includes a bit of a pre-trip detour in Iceland. Who are the travelers? There's me- 42 year old Mom; previously cruised 4 times on Carnival (all but the last time were fabulous, and that last one was so downhill, we don't cruise with them anymore), 1 time on Celebrity (Xpedition, so a bit different from their main brand), 1 on MSC (amazing!), and once solo on NCL (also amazing, but the steak wasn't good). My husband, Kevin, turns 43 on this trip- has done all the cruises with me except NCL. And my two kids L, age 7, and A, age 5. They joined us on MSC last year, and LOVED cruising. Their favorite things to do were to play in the pool and drink fancy drinks. Sorry to tell you kiddos, no drink package this cruise... We booked the trip about 18 months before sailing, so we got a great rate and went with a junior suite. All of our cruises, except 2 oceanviews, have been in balconies, and we especially find a balcony essential for traveling with kids. My son is still scared of showers, so we booked this room for the tub. It was an excellent choice, more on that in the room review. The itinerary was selected because I really wanted to go to Europe, and my daughter especially wanted to go to Paris. Now, I know Paris isn't a port city, but I should have spent more time looking at the map. It's too long of a day from Le Havre for us to actually go to Paris, not with little kids (or at least, not with MY little kids.) In retrospect, this probably wasn't the right itinerary for us, but we enjoyed exploring new places. Planning a European cruise is A LOT more work than Alaska or the Carribean (and well, Galapagos we didn't do any planning, they did it for us), and doing any excursions is very expensive (same as Alaska, really). But I'm getting out of order here... So let's start. We live in about 4 hours from Chicago, so we drove to the airport and flew from there, rather than risk a connecting flight. Remember how I told you that I got a great deal on the cruise? When it came time to buy plane tickets I nearly passed out at the cost. I looked into changing the cruise to the carribean, but prices were so high that an oceanview would cost the same as a jr suite for most of the itineraries I looked at. So then I looked at flying ANYWHERE in Europe, not just England (London, or Southampton); I looked at Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin- basically the thought was "if I can get to Europe, we can get a train to Southampton. We ended up deciding that flying Icelandair to Reykjavik and connecting to London-Gatwick was the way to go. And Icelandair has a cool stopover program where you can extend your layover a number of days, and thus, the Iceland part of the trip was born. We flew ORD-KEF, then stayed in Iceland for 3 days, then flew to LGW, spent 2 days in London, then traveled to Southampton. But again, I'm jumping ahead... So let's start in Iceland.

Oh, phenomenal!

Thank you. I think we would be safe to arrange for a 9:00 transfer, assuming we are off by 8, that leaves an hour for immigration.

What time is self disembarkation able to leave the ship, please? And on the opposite end, what's the latest time?

It is for suite passengers only

I used Trainline to book our tickets on embarkation day, so I do have an account there. Advance tickets just opened. Does the Southampton train station have luggage storage if we choose to have lunch in Southampton to take a later train? That would allow us to book advance tickets without worry of not being able to use them, and that certainly is the most affordable option. We don't travel with much luggage, but would have 2 large cases and backpacks each, so not great for wandering around. Thanks for your advice. We aren't in a hurry, since the flight is the next day, but we also have limited time in England, so want to do something to make the most of it, while not totally wearing the kids out.

Hello! I am traveling on Anthem of the Seas this June. We have most everything sorted, but I am stuck on the return trip because there are too many options, and I'm terrified of making the wrong choice. We are traveling with 2 adults, and 2 children (age 5, and 7), and flying out of Gatwick the day after we arrive in Southampton, staying at the Premier Inn North Terminal. Here are some things that stress me out: 1) Is it better to take a train, coach, or car to our hotel by Gatwick? 2) How do I know what time to book it for, since I cannot guarantee the time we are able to get off the ship? 3) Will it be difficult to find an uber to the train station after getting off the ship? Google maps says it is a 30-45 minute walk, is it actually walkable to the train station if it is difficult to find a car? 4) Do I have to pre-book tickets, or would it be easy to take a train? We are hoping to go back into London for the some of the day, although worried our kids will be too exhausted (again, worried about advance planning; because with kids you just don't know; although, it doesn't seem like there is anything near the airport area, so we kind of don't have a choice but to go to touristy area of London). Do we go to the hotel first and hope for early check-in/bag storage, or do we take a train from Southampton to London Waterloo/Victoria, store our bags there, tour, and then take a train to Gatwick? Other things I'm considering- once I figure out how to get to Gatwick, maybe we take a train to Brighton instead and just have a wander around? Or book a private transfer from the cruise port and stop by Windsor? But I worry we will just be too tired to enjoy it. Please help! Thank you so much.

I have both a bank and a credit union and both told me "use an ATM there, the exchange is way better". They can do exchange, but it is really not a thing as much as it used to be.

I don't buy it there either, but I also haven't already paid for food to be included at the movie theater. The expectation of cruises, at least used to be, that food is included. Everything is an extra charge now it seems.

Those restaurants have procurred a different license.

If you are in a boot, highly recommend going on Amazon and getting a shoe lift/equalizer for your other foot. Those boots kill the hips.

Another vote for a knee scooter. A million times better than crutches (but bring those too just in case). Personally I would NOT get an electric scooter. They can be difficult to manuever, especially in crowds. If you can get around OK, I don't think it is worth the additional hassle.

Just as an FYI- antibiotics do not treat viruses. Unnecessary use of antibiotics make the problems we have with bacterial resistance to antibiotics worse, and there are fewer and fewer effective antibiotics out there due to overuse. Antibiotics are used for bacterial infections. OP- I hope your dog is better.

I guess it's all relative because one or two drinks a day for a week doesn't seem like "very little alcohol". Makes perfect sense to keep the drinks package! Especially if you are also having sodas. I cancelled the FAS drinks package for my cruise, I figured I would pay out of pocket if I wanted a mocktail, but in the end, didn't get any at all, since I added the soda package, soda was enough for me. Even that gets a bit expensive per day (I think it's about $9 per day? As opposed to $22 for the FAS package) so next cruise will probably be water only and buy a soda at dinner every few days. I have never taken a cruise where I've spent $22 a day on drinks, so for me, that free package is really expensive!