Globaliser

No, during that period there will be no direct trains from Rotterdam to London either. From either Amsterdam or Rotterdam, you will need to take a train to Brussels. These will include Eurostar trains. When you get to Brussels, you will have to change trains (taking all your luggage with you) in order to clear immigration, customs and security, before boarding another train from Brussels to London. As discussed in another thread, the itineraries offered by the Eurostar website don't leave a lot of time for those steps at Brussels, so that change could be quite stressful. Here's the previous thread on this topic: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2976257-amsterdam-to-london-post-cruise-eurostar-won’t-be-running

You may want to note that direct trains from Amsterdam to London are being suspended for about 6 months from mid-June 2024, and the number of direct trains from London to Amsterdam reduced from four daily to three for that period. The current plan appears to be to restore direct services in both directions from 8 December 2024, which is the date of a new timetable, but as everything depends on the progress of the relevant phase of the reconstruction works at Amsterdam Centraal station, I wouldn't want to bet on that date not slipping. As always, it's worth reading seat61.com.

It's one of the two best views in London. 😉 (That will be understood by aficionados of City of London architecture.)

In an earlier post, I included a picture of a typical train door, showing a small portable ramp facilitating the boarding of a wheelchair user. Indeed, on the Tube there are actually now many stations at which a wheelchair user can board and alight directly from the platform, with no ramp needed.

Seeing these prices (which are correct) startled me, so I went to have a look at the website. I saw that you can get a timed fast track ticket online for £45, and the £50 ticket has the flexibility of being untimed. Having done the London Eye more than once, and therefore knowing what it looks like to go once around a big wheel, it now seems to me to be pretty poor value at these prices.

This does bear repetition: As a generalisation, UK trains don't have steps, but UK coaches do.

I think that kflietst may be disembarking on Tuesday 24 September 2024.

When you say "one full day", is this the day that you disembark from the ship, or are you spending two nights in London? If you are thinking of the day that you disembark from the ship, you won't have "one full day". It's going to take you half a day to get fro Southampton to London and check in to your hotel. You will really only have half a day, plus an evening.

What you can do has little to do with "this area", because realistically you're going to have to take public transport to get to some of these places. It would take you about 2 hours to walk from your hotel to the Tower (unless you keep your head down, walk at a Londoner's pace, and look at nothing en route) - it's four miles away. You can only see Big Ben from the street, anyway - it's part of the Houses of Parliament and there is no public access to that part of the building. Depending on when you're going to be in London, the same may apply to Buckingham Palace, which is only open to the public for a few weeks each year. But you may want to allocate some time to seeing the Changing of the Guard, if you're interested in doing that. St Paul's, the Abbey and the Tower are basically the only places that are open year-round. If you give each of these half a day, then you can have a worthwhile visit. But as markeb says, do check opening hours for planning purposes.

Just checking to see whether you understand that Glasgow and St Andrews are two different cities on opposite sides of the country, more than 70 miles apart; and similarly Heathrow is in a different city from Southampton, and is almost 80 miles away? If you have a ticket to travel by train, you do not need a platform ticket. Platform tickets are for people who want to access the platform (eg to see a passenger off or help with their luggage) but not travel.

Flying to Southampton airport would be really convenient and avoids having to transfer there from a different city. But the choice of airlines, flights and times is pretty limited.

Actually, yes, some other airlines do. But seeing as we've established that Delta's Comfort Plus is only a "scam" in that the name's a bit of marketing exuberance, rather than because Delta tells any untruths about what you're actually getting (which is just an economy seat), we may as well leave that there.

And in other news, tomorrow the sun will rise in the east. Just what did you think you were going to get when you bought Comfort Plus? Did you think you were going to get anything other than a standard economy seat with a bit more legroom? What made you think that? Did you even read the product description?

Which flight are you on? AA729 at 0945 or AA737 at 1300? If it's the later one, then I'd certainly echo what Zach1213 says. There really is no reason to hole up at the airport for 24 hours including overnight. Even if you're on the early one, there's a good argument for not wasting a day of your life there. There are a couple of other options for food, though, in addition to the landside stuff at T3. You can easily walk over to T2 (via the underground walkways) and use the landside food outlets there. Heathrow's website has lists of what's available in the terminals. Or you could go to the Hilton Garden Inn that's basically attached to T2, which I think has a restaurant and a couple of bars. If you take a train to T4 or T5, there are also hotels attached to each of these.

Do you have to do both London and Paris after the cruise? I don't know whether you're asking as part of planning for the end of your Norwegian Getaway trans-Atlantic cruise in April 2024. If you're doing a round-trip cruise from Southampton, then one approach would be to do London before the cruise and Paris after the cruise, although the details still depend on itinerary and cruise line.

As sddsddean has said, for some specific journeys such as Heathrow to Southampton, routing and frequency considerations mean that a direct National Express coach may be the best option for that journey. There are other journeys for which that is also true. Similarly, there are other journeys like central London to Southampton for which the train is clearly the best option for routing and frequency reasons. This reflects the fact that Heathrow is not in (or anywhere near) central London - that's the primary reason why the answers are different for these two different journeys. More generally, if both rail and road are viable and equally convenient routes for any particular non-local trip, rail will usually be faster, more predictable and more comfortable. This is why (as a massive generalisation) it tends to be more expensive to take the train than to take the coach. Central London to Southampton is an example of that. If you happen to be staying next door to Victoria Coach Station, then the National Express coach may be a decent option. But if it's equally convenient to get to London Waterloo (railway) station, and you're not having to watch every penny, the train will generally get you to Southampton more quickly and in more comfort.

If I recall correctly, these will say "Arrivals" and "Baggage reclaim".

I can't work out what's happened to cause one sector to be booked in economy. I'm only working with random dates, but even if I allow VCE-MAD to be priced in economy, specifying business for MAD-CLT-CLE forces VCE-MAD to be booked into business (and even then, that trick only produces an IB code for VCE-MAD, and it can't be booked on an AA code). So I think that you need to find out from AA what baggage allowance is written on your ticket for each of the sectors. I don't have a recent cash AA ticket receipt to look at so I don't know what they show and whether they should be explicit about the baggage allowance for each sector.

The obvious first guess is on that flight, business class has no availability in the booking class that you need. There are other possible reasons, but one would need to have a lot more information to try to work it out. Venice-Madrid and Madrid-Charlotte are both international, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you can check any bags, let alone two. There are plenty of international fares that come with no checked bags, or with only one checked bag included. You have to find out what the included baggage allowance is for what you've bought, and in particular whether you'll have two bags even on the flight on which you're booked in economy, which may depend on the reason why you were booked in economy. But really you should have been told all this before you paid for the tickets.

I think that Iberia aircraft on this route should have business class, so if you have to fly economy you will want to check whether you have actually been booked on to a Vueling-operated flight. Whichever it turns out to be, your safest approach is to assume that each operator will apply its own rules for cabin baggage. In other words, organise yourself to comply with the most restrictive rules.

You could always just walk into Waterloo station and take your pick from any number of breakfast options there, like thousands of commuters do every day.

That definitely sounds like the best option from all those you've mentioned in this and your other thread.

I asked someone who flew from AMS on Friday afternoon about how the security queues were. Basic answer: "Queues? What queues?" That's because "Things are getting better" does not sell newspapers or online impressions. Just because nobody says that things are now back to normal, it doesn't mean that they aren't back to normal. After all, it would be surprising for the same things to be happening two years later.

No, it's not the proper term. This is because the Munich to Florence/Rome ticket will (on the basis of what you say) be a separate ticket. That means that technically, you are ending one journey at Munich and then starting a completely separate journey there that has nothing to do with your first journey. In contrast, if you have a through ticket for Charlotte-Munich-Florence/Rome, you are then truly connecting at Munich. This has practical consequences. Most importantly, if your Charlotte to Munich flight is late and you miss your Munich to Florence/Rome flight, then you've missed it and the airline won't be obliged to do anything for you (in the same way as if you'd simply overslept in Munich and missed that flight). In contrast, if you are connecting at Munich and you misconnect there because your first flight is late, the airline is legally obliged to reaccommodate you on an alternative flight(s) to get you to Florence/Rome. Depending on your attitude to risk and on what the consequences are of missing the second flight, you may therefore want to be more generous with the time between flights. And you will (as JM0115 rightly says) very probably have to clear immigration, collect your bags, clear customs (usually a formality), and then check in for the second flight before the time that check-in closes.

The current National Rail conditions of carriage (wef 6 February 2022) say: 23.1 You may take up to three items of luggage into the passenger accommodation of a train unless: 23.1.1 your luggage is such that it may cause injury, inconvenience or a nuisance or it may cause damage to property; 23.1.2 there is not enough room for it; 23.1.3 your luggage would obstruct doorways, gangways or corridors; 23.1.4 the loading or unloading may cause delay to trains; 23.1.5 your luggage is not carried or packaged in a suitable manner; 23.1.6 your luggage is one of the prohibited items shown in the list shown in 23.4 below; 23.1.7 a Train Company has set out any special conditions relating to the carrying of luggage on their own train services. In such cases these conditions will be made available when buying your Ticket in advance and will be shown on the Train Company’s website. I think that these default rules are in theory applicable to all the usual domestic train operating companies. (I haven't checked Eurostar's provisions.) In addition, some TOCs have set out special conditions. For example, LNER says "Please note we only allow three items per person. A maximum of one large suitcase, a carry on bag and small handbag can be brought onboard." The maximum size of the permitted suitcase (singular) is 90 x 70 x 30 cm. LNER is not alone, although it attracted adverse media attention at the time that it started publicising this (for example, this article - which also has interesting inaccuracies as well as photographic evidence of why the limits are sometimes needed). GWR also publicises limits: What you can bring small cases and bags. These can be kept under your seat medium-sized cases and bags. Perfect for overhead racks - just like on a plane larger items - up to 25 x 40 x 70cm is fine. These should be stored in the dedicated luggage areas If you can’t find any space on the train, speak to one of our on-board staff. We may have to store your luggage in a different carriage, so make sure you label and lock your cases. What you can’t bring more than 3 pieces of luggage. Or anything larger than 30 x 70 x 90cm anything that might cause an injury, obstruction, or damage luggage that might cause a delay when it’s being loaded and unloaded I think the TOC that is most likely to concern cruisers is SWR, which doesn't seem to publicise limits. And actual enforcement is another matter altogether (see a more sober specialist press article here). But whatever hilarious conclusions that previous thread reached, whenever it was, I think they must now be looked at in the light of these expressly-stated limits. I suspect that where cars are concerned, luggage is likely to bulk out before it weighs out. AIUI, this is common in the parcel business, too, both by air and road.