HRPro

Bon Voyage Bob and Holli. We're leaving Southampton one day later on the Iberian TA passage. Looking forward to another wonderful TA. All the best to Holli!

Susan

Just spent two days pre-cruise in Salisbury--lovely Town with beautiful cathedral and lots of very nice B&B's. I wasn't impressed with Southampton and can't imagine staying there 4 days especially with all the other beautiful places nearby to spend your time including Salisbury and Winchester; however. If you do as JB suggests and use it as a home base to travel out from, you should be OK. I did the British Isles cruise in July and had a fabulous time. Enjoy!!

Sorry didn't read the title--obviously we did not disembark in FLL in July--it was Southampton.

Vista Lounge and Deck 7 in July as well.

I will be taking the bus/train from LHR to Salisbury via Woking on Thursday. Is there any advantage to purchasing the tickets online before I go or should there be plenty of availability on the bus/train? The online price is 31.40 GBP for single with no return, so no discount tickets available. Also will be taking the train from Salisbury to London Waterloo, so I have the same question about whether to purchase online. Unfortunately the Megatrain option doesn't work as it gets me into London later in the afternoon.

Many thanks as always for the help from the experts.

Susan

Fascinating and beautiful photos. Thanks for sharing a side of London that most of us tourists don't think to explore. Really enjoyed your photographic review.

Pricing is interesting for the 2016 cruises. I'm booked on the April 2016 but was initially on the Fall cruise. Sailing single, I pay attention to price and difference is huge. I want a Baltic cruise plus TA, prefer the Fall but for price chose Spring this time.

Watch the prices for the Fall cruise. We found this to be the case for 2015 when we were making reservations last year. The 2015 Spring TA was so much cheaper that we cancelled our original Fall TA and booked the Spring. Then in January, prices for the Fall TA came down significantly, so we booked the Fall TA and still planned to take the Spring TA. Unfortunately, we were not able to take the Spring TA, but I kept my cruise for the Fall TA, which had another significant price drop this Spring. It never did get quite as cheap as the Spring TA, but the prices are now much closer than they originally were. I'm really looking forward to the Fall TA next week as I much prefer to get the long flight out of the way first and gain time daily rather than losing time as you do on the Spring TA.

Susan

Bob, really excited to see your Live From and will look forward to following along. I'm heading out on September 2 for a couple of days pre-cruise in England before boarding the Royal for a Northern Europe/TA from Southampton to Fort Lauderdale. I remember you and Holli from our first TA on the Royal in October 2013. What a great cruise.

Please give my best to Holli and bon voyage!

Susan

There are 2 dining rooms on deck 6. Portofino, just off the piazza and Amalfi which has only access from the aft elevator or aft stairs. Do you remember which one was the one that was open for lunch.

Thanks

 

Theo

It will be the one located just off the piazza.

Fantastic photos of one of my favorite cities--thanks for posting and sharing your art. You're a very talented photographer!

I have booked my hotel with an advance rate , so no second thoughts allowed , lol. I am happy though , as the hotel is beautiful.

http://www.redonline.co.uk/travel/book-places-to-stay/the-kensington-hotel#image=4

 

We are not going to be eating at any top restaurants ( we will have just gotten off a 14 day Crystal cruise - enough eating! We will need to walk. ) nor do we really do anything " nightlife " wise. I have looked at google maps and checked restaurants near the hotel and see lots of casual options for a family of 5.

 

We loved St. James Park and Hyde Parl last visit and plan to picnic. We loved the Natural History Musuem and felt we just scratched the surface. We didn't visit V&A nor The Science Museum and I know we will love both.

 

We can leave the neighborhood one day and explore . I think we will have to visit London on many occasions to really get a feel for all of the amazing things to do.

 

I would love to live in England for at least a year. A dream...will have to settle for three nights for now.

 

 

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Enjoy London. It's one of my favorite cities in the world, and I get to visit it twice this year. Always something fun to experience.

My grandaughter who was traveling with me in July went with me to the Elite/Platinum event every evening and no one said a word. Of course, she wasn't drinking the specialty cocktails but she did enjoy the appetizers and virgin cocktails with her UKP.

I have to give kudos to Princess for promptly handling my recent request for OBC and stock transfer. Sadly my DH died very unexpectedly this spring and the Carnival stock was in his name. Due to estate settlement, I didn't even try to get OBC for the BI cruise in July with my grandaughter, but decided to try it for my upcoming TA with my daughter. I faxed in a statement from our financial advisor that didn't even have my name on it along with a letter explaining the circumstances and faxed it to Princess exactly 14 days before the cruise--the absolute latest deadline. I really expected them to deny the request or at least ask for more documentation, but the next day it was approved and showing in my Personalizer. Outstanding customer service in a most difficult situation--I really appreciate Princess.

Last fall on a ten day Mexico cruise I think we had 5 practices. They were all on sea days and lasted roughly one hour each. Lots of fun.

On our recent Royal cruise to the British Isles, we only had two sea days but we still had Pop Choir--I think we practiced about three times--all on the sea days followed by a performance in the late afternoon in the Piazza. We practice in the wedding chapel, usually for an hour. It's great fun. We sang music from the Sound of Music on our July cruise.

Excellent, thank you. We'll be in Amsterdam next month for the day, and the map will be very helpful.

We have stayed on Baja and Caribe decks on the Royal and Regal in mid-ship mini-suites and have never had an issue with privacy. Both of these decks are far down that there is really very little impact. We have always stayed on the port side under the Seaview Bar, and as has already been mentioned, there is almost no privacy issue on the port side. On the starboard side, I would not want to be on Riveria or Marina decks under the Seawalk, but anything from Baja and lower there is not an issue. Enjoy!

does anyone know if "Nat" is still on the Royal Princess? He did zumba and other dance classes on the ship?

Nat is not on the Royal Princess or at least he wasn't on in July when we cruised the British Isles. He was on Royal Princess for its' first TA, and I also enjoyed his zumba and dance classes. Sorry not to have him back on the Royal.

Traci, I also have enjoyed your live from's especially your last one since we were on the British Isles cruise right after yours. I am so sorry about your Mom--the love and strength of your relationship shown through in your writing. May the good memories of your travels together, especially your last cruise, bring you comfort during this time of grief. With deepest sympathy and condolences to you and your family.

Susan

It would be more expensive getting a taxi rather than pre-booking a car service, but I agree with you it's much easier - just go out and grab the next taxi in the queue. Although I have to admit that it's stories like yours that keep me using the Heathrow Express into Central London - just so much easier and more comfortable.

WE also had a similar experience although I think our driver was just late and they didn't want to admit it. We arrived on time, had a fairly long delay in immigration, but were right on my estimated time that I had specified with the car service. We too looked for information desk and found one small cabinet--not large enough for a desk that had information posted, but that's not where we finally found our driver. I had wandered all over the area looking for him and he finally showed up about 25 minutes late. We were not happy campers about the delay. Once we met the driver, the service into London was fine and without major delays. Having done a car service, I'm now inclined to go back to taking the tube into London or Heathrow Express--much quicker than driving in.

We took the Big Bus HOHO and had a great experience. They do have live guides, and we took two different buses and had great guides both times. Also wait times were not long. We also took the included river cruise from the Tower to Westminster pier and enjoyed that as well. I do understand the concern about the HOHO buses in London traffic--the drivers are pretty aggressive, but they are certainly convenient for tourists. We also stayed near the London Eye, and both the major HOHO buses have convenient stops in that area.

Just reporting back after our July 8th BI cruise. We tendered into South Queensferry and had absolutely no problem getting early tender tickets on the Royal Princess. We were on the first or second tender and arrived at the tender dock by 7:45. We walked to the train station and caught the 8:00 am train into Edinburgh--very easy and convenient. Edinburgh is very easy to do on your own, so don't feel that you need to do a Princess tour for transportation into the City. The local shuttle bus service also worked well for those who chose that option. We had plenty of time to tour Edinburgh Castle, Holyroodhouse Palace, Mary King's Close and the Royal Mile. It was a full day and we caught the train back to SQ in plenty of time to catch the tender back to the ship. In addition to ship tenders, they also used a local ferry as a tender. The local volunteers were very friendly and helpful.

We're just off the Royal and you no longer need the app. Very easy to set up onboard including the text feature. It's very useful and a great way to keep in touch onboard.

We took the Peincess shuttle into Dublinat $8 pp--drop off is Kildaire Street, which is near Trinity College and close to a HOHO stop. Very convenient and easy.

I have fairly thick hair, but did fine with the hair dryers on the Royal/Regal. I used to always pack my own, but took a chance on the new dryers when we sailed on the Royal two years ago and they worked just fine. I'm glad to avoid the extra weight/space of packing the hair dryer.

I think you'll be fine with a 12:45 flight. We just came back from a BI cruise and had a 2:30 flight from Heathrow. We had one of the latest departure times from the ship at 9:30 and were at Heathrow by 11:00, so with an earlier flight you will likely have a 7:30 or 8:00 am departure, which should get you to Heathrow by 9:30--plenty of time to make a 12:45 flight. We did take the Princess Transfer from Southampton to Heathrow, and the buses left right on schedule.