Globaliser

This is not true. In the UK, unions must give at least two weeks' notice of any strike. So even if you don't receive any notification, you can check for yourself two weeks before you travel.

Realistically, I don't think there's any way you'd be able to get that much time in London. You'll probably need to store your bags somewhere, which would take time; and then you'd also have to allow time to retrieve them before your train to Paris. At some stage, you'd need to transfer yourselves and your bags across town from Waterloo to St Pancras. And you do have to allow time for check-in (including security and immigration) at St Pancras before boarding your train; Eurostar's recommendation is to arrive at St Pancras 90 minutes before departure time, and ISTR that there were times recently when you really needed that much time. So lunch, yes, but probably very little more than that.

What time is your train to Paris?

sddsddean is right about this if you book those cheaper fares, which are Advance fares that are valid only on the booked train. If you want flexibility, you can also choose to pre-book a flexible ticket which (on that route) is at the Anytime (walk-up) fare of £52.00. You might choose to do so in order to avoid the hassle of buying a ticket after reaching the station. If you pre-book a flexible ticket, you will be asked to specify a train - but you do not have to travel on that train even though you have pre-booked, and you can travel on any train for which the ticket is valid (which on that route is, I think, every train).

You may think that it's "expensive", but actually you're probably paying a cheapie rate and not for a full-fare ticket. Those with status (which can be from any oneworld airline) also think it's much less ridiculous. History shows that those who don't have to pay for pre-allocation (which also includes full-fare passengers) can account for something like two-thirds or more of the passengers in the cabin. These are the more valuable customers whom the policy benefits.

If you're travelling on a through ticket, then any LHR departure time from 13:40 would be legal (although not necessarily advisable) - that is the official Minimum Connection Time for this connection. So you have a further 3½ hours on top of that, which should give you an indication of the generosity of margin that you have. You do not need to arrive at LHR three hours before your flight to Barcelona. If you are there 60 minutes before your onward flight, you will have enough time to drop your bag, clear security and get to the gate. A private inter-airport transfer is considerably more costly than necessary. National Express run a perfectly good inter-airport transfer service.

I remembered that Mrs f. had actually been kind enough to describe the Moxy at the time: Moxy Hotel Southampton Moxy Hotel Southampton Moxy Hotel Southampton

0 stops is very unlikely. On the current timetable, the fastest trains generally have 3 intermediate stops, and the other fast trains generally also stop at Clapham Junction. It actually looks like there aren't any slower trains in the current timetable, but IIRC there used to be a third train every hour that took about 15-20 minutes longer and called at more intermediate stops. It's actually more important to check that there are 0 changes. There's generally no reason to choose a journey that requires you to change between London Waterloo and Southampton Central. The exception is if there are engineering works or there is disruption for some other reason, in which case things will by definition be out of the ordinary anyway. But mickeysgal is absolutely right: before you book, you will be shown the journey time (or you will be able to work it out from the departure and arrival times). I think that for an occasional user there are few if any good reasons to use the Trainline to book, but that's already been covered earlier in this thread.

Your TA's advice is bad advice. Of the three main options, staying at an airport hotel for two nights (when you want to see some of London) is the least good. Commuting between the airport and a Bath Road hotel (because that's essentially what you'll be doing) will be either time-consuming and aggravating, or expensive, or both. This includes the day of your cruise, because if you use the NCL transfer from the airport to Southampton, you will probably have to go from your hotel back to the/a terminal at the airport. Why is it too late for you to change your plans? Also, is there a reason for your assumption that you'll arrive at T3? All other things being equal, there's as much chance of you arriving at T5 as at T3.

The home page for the hotel's own website - https://www.marriott.com/en-gb/hotels/souox-moxy-southampton/rooms/ - says: All rooms have a 42-inch LED TV with premium entertainment options and high quality sound system

Fast trains from London Waterloo to Southampton Central take roughly 1¼ hours.

That depends on what criteria make it "good" for you. Personally, if my body clock is running on East Coast time, I prefer the latest possible flight. From NYC, that can often be nearly midnight, so arriving in the UK just before noon = 7 am NYC time, and your body will have been demanding sleep throughout the flight so you have a decent chance of getting some. Trying to navigate an airport and an arrival city when your body and brain think it's 2 am (and you haven't slept) is a big contributor to these short East Coast overnights feeling like hell on earth. For me, that's a high priority criterion.

Here's a moving illustration, in time lapse, of activity at this time of the morning. The landing aircraft are probably about a minute apart from each other in real time.

I don't think that's enough time. A 6.30 am arrival is one of the worst times of the day to arrive at Heathrow if you need to clear immigration. (For context, the night curfew is basically lifted at 6.00 am. The first non-curfew flight will land at 6.02 am, and then for the next hour or so it's pretty much a constant and continuous stream of arriving aircraft, mostly long-hauls on widebodies; there are so many at this time of the day that it's one of the periods of the day when Heathrow will sometimes use both runways for landings at the same time.) Even if you can use the e-gates, there will very probably be queues for them which can take quite a few minutes to navigate. If you have checked bags, you'll also need to get to BA's check-in counter at Terminal 3 before that closes. I can't immediately remember whether that's 60 or 45 minutes before departure, but you would have to be physically present at the check-in counter before 7.25 am or 7.40 am or else the electronic shutter will come down and you'll have missed the flight.

Why are you going through immigration at all? Do you have two separate tickets? And which are your operating airlines? Which terminal(s) are your flights to/from?

And it's a Fuller's, which ISTR from previous discussions is a pub company that has a reputation for decent pub food.

The official interactive map does now show the Queen's Arms. Start here - https://maps.heathrow.com/?poiId=1701 - and zoom in on the south end of Level 5.

The easiest would be to take the direct train from London Victoria to Southampton Central, if it's running when you need it. The train takes a relatively long time, but hotel is basically above the railway station so you don't have to spend any time or energy schlepping to another station to get a train or a coach. The main caveat is that there is/was a proposal that these direct trains would cease with effect from the next timetable change, which will be in ?May 2024. So it will be worth checking that before making final plans. (But it is far too early to making final plans anyway.)

For more advice, try that which you can get starting on this page: https://www.seat61.com/Germany.htm - the second section is "Train travel within Germany". When I booked Frankfurt to Munich a few years ago, there was no reason to book anywhere other than bahn.de (and I think that you will now end up on a bahn.de page even if you start with bahn.com). Where are you starting from in Hamburg, and where are you going in Berlin? That might point you to whether there's a good reason to get the train from or to any station other than the Hauptbahnhof (Hbf) in either city. One thing you may want to bear in mind is that the historical reputation that German railways have for efficiency is, to put it politely, under a bit of strain. So do be prepared for the possibility of disruption to your journey. Fortunately, it sounds like your trip will not be time-critical. For some further non-paywall reading, try: Your next excuse is on platform 5 – German train travel has become an experience worthy of Kafka ‘It’s the same daily misery’: Germany’s terrible trains are no joke for a nation built on efficiency

They won't be expecting a tip. But if the driver has been good, friendly and safe - that is to say, doing more than just doing their job - then I will often tip a few pounds. But it wouldn't be any more than £5.

Although this recent post referred specifically to using a HOHO bus, the same applies to using a London Pass to "see" as many places as possible. In short, you won't; you'll actually just fail to see more places.

Exactly. If you plan a "stopover" (ie more than 24 hours): sometimes you can use the same fare as with a shorter connection, because that fare already allows stopovers; sometimes you can simply use a different through fare that allows stopovers, which may or may not be more expensive than the original fare used for a shorter connection; sometimes you'll be offered two end-on-end fares combined, if there are two such fares that can be combined on the same ticket and that's cheaper than a through fare; and sometimes (but rarely) you'll have to buy two separate tickets because there's no valid through fare that allows a stopover and you also can't get any viable combination of separate fares. You really have to try it out and see. And it can make a difference, because if you have two separate fares their rules may be different, and your trip could in effect be governed by the more restrictive set of rules.

Indeed: I suspect that whatever the OP saw saying "Terminal B" refers to their departure from Orlando, not to JFK.

Are you sure about that? You are often made to pay a higher fare if you have an en-route stopover, but it won't necessarily result in being fared using two separate end-on-end fares.

How much earlier? Do you mean arriving in Southampton the day before sailing, or are you thinking of earlier than that?