John Bull

No contest. Brussels is a modern commercial city, home pf the EU administration and associated offices & businesses. It has few sights of interest and they're spread around the city. It's also a very boring 70 miles & about 2 hours from the port by road or by rail. Bruges is about 6 miles & 15/20 minutes from the port. Known for its canals as "the Venice of the North" (altho that's a big over-statement), it was for many centuries a major port for wool, lace etc until ships got bigger and the river silted up. Historic buildings, cobbled streets, shops for chocolate, lace & other local products, bars & cafes & attractions, all in a compact city centre. It's understandably where most cruisers visit, altho there are other options like Ostend, the Atlantik Wall, seaside resorts, and Sluis (actually in the Netherlands). I'd put all of those places & more ahead of Brussels JB 🙂

Yes, sadly CC members' favourite Smiths was a casualty of the pandemic. These have been recommended frequently on Cruise Critic https://westquaycars.com/ https://www.aquacars.co.uk/ (as @Crown Vic's post) https://gunwharf-executive-travel.co.uk/ All three are based at the Southampton end https://www.blackberrycars.com/ Based at the London end. JB 🙂

Not entirely true - I understand that under US contracts the cruise line has a free hand to change itineraries at will, but the OP is in Scotland, and presuming that he booked from the UK or in the EU the contract is subject to much stronger consumer protection laws. If a cruise line chooses - of its own free will or for reasons within its control - to make significant changes to the itinerary or any other major changes it is in breach of UK and EU (and I think Aus.) contracts, and would have to refund, recompense, cover costs etc. I had reason to challenge a missed port of call due to a mechanical issue which meant that shortly after leaving a port the ship had to turn back because of a faulty generator and we spent the next day in that port waiting for a spare part to be flown out. The cruise line gave meagre comp. Maintenance is within a cruise line's control, and I felt it worth significantly more. It never reached a Court of Law because the cruise line buckled under the threat of court action. Check your contract with the cruise line - if you can find the equiv. US contract you'll see the differences. Things like the weather, industrial action, or civil unrest aren't within the cruise line's control, but there are no troubles in Mediterranean Egypt, or in Istanbul or areas like Antalya where cruise ships visit, and no governments (US or UK or EU or most others) currently advise against travel to those places - but of course if that changes for the worse it becomes something beyond the control of the cruise line. I do agree with @1025cruise that it's risky to rely on making a particular port because there are so many reasons why a ship can fail to make that port. BTW Istanbul is worth waaaaay more than a one day port of call. And not that difficult or expensive to fly there for a few days JB 🙂

Just a note of caution ................ The Piraeus to Athens ho-ho bus goes via the Acropolis entrance. But unless it's been changed in the last few years, the "Athens on your own" transfer bus (Royal Caribbean, perhaps others) drops everyone at Syntagma Square, by the Parliament building - a 15 min walk to the Acropolis entrance. Somewhere there's an elevator. It's only for those unable to walk up, and I don't know its location. Worth researching if its important to you. JB 🙂

About 1 1/4 miles, 25 minutes as Gumshoe's post. But only one major road to cross, and you have the choice of a number of sets of traffic lights to help you to cross it. All on level ground, sidewalks all the way. No worries for most folk - unless it's a wet day https://maps.app.goo.gl/Lps2AocMFzqmoxgK9 JB 🙂

https://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/southampton_accommodation.htm Those are almost-all of the Southampton city centre hotels. Most are modern, some are historic. Some expensive, some not. Most full-service, some with just basic facilities. But you get what you pay for, and there are none that I would caution against - except the Mercure Dolphin whose future in uncertain. See the little thumbnail map at the bottom of that page. With luggage you'd need a short taxi hop to Mayflower terminal (red A on that map), so any hotel is as convenient as any another. Ocean terminal (red D) is walkable even with luggage from hotels blue 8 & 15, mebbe 4, 5, 6, 7 & 14.. Most convenient hotels for the city centre, old town, waterfront, pubs, restaurants etc are Blue 4 Premier Inn West Quay , Premier Inns are the UK's biggest & best budget chain, the West Quay one is popular with cruisers Blue 5 Holiday Inn Herbert Walker Ave is particularly popular with those sailing out of City cruise terminal, which is directly behind the hotel. Beware - the city's two Holiday Inn Express's are way out on the city limits, very inconvenient., Blue 6 Leonardo Royal. Don't confuse with the Leonardo, which is a little inconvenient and in the centre of a traffic gyratory. Blue 7, Pig in the Wall is a quirky boutique hotel, set in the old city's wall. Blue 8 Ennios is another boutique, in a former brick warehouse over the owner's Italian restaurant of the same name. Blue 16 Moxy, next door to P.I.West Quay, is a quirky recently-opened Marriott brand, rapidly becoming popular with cruisers. JB 🙂

In England, taxis available on spec. at cruise terminals and at taxi ranks or hailed in the street are licensed as "Hackney Carriages", and drivers are obliged to accept passengers for any destination within the borough. So even if you wanted to go only a couple of hundred yards from Mayflower to Horizon they would take you. But there's a minimum fare, plus time/distance charges so the driver doesn't lose out - they're regulated & metered so the two miles from Mayflower to Ocean will cost you about £8.50 including a £1 docks surcharge. https://www.southampton.gov.uk/media/03dd4axz/2023-table-of-fares.pdf A pre-booked Private Hire taxi eg Uber wouldn't be interested in your little hop, but If you wanted to go to, say, Heathrow airport a metered Hackney Carriage taxi would cost a fortune - you should pre-book a Private Hire taxi at a pre-agreed price. But for Mayflower to Ocean a taxi from the rank makes absolute sense JB 🙂

Or, tongue-in-cheek, where ships berth on Grand Turk is Carnival Overseas Territory & its official currency is Carnival group sea-pass 😏 JB 😏

The "Spice Island" - one of my favourites 🙂 Take your beach gear with you and check out the vans available at the pier - you want one that'll take you up into the Rainforest. Stops for spice stalls & demos and a waterfall, back past Fort George would be a bonus, and ask your driver to drop you at Grand Anse beach & not too far from the ferry pier. Food & drink outlets or order from your (payable) beachfront sunbed & shade. Return to the ship on the frequent little open ferries ("!ferries" sounds a bit grand for them 😀) at about $5 one-way. If you just want a beach day, take those little ferries both ways. Or try the Rum Runner. Join the Rum-Runner boat from close to the ship, for a party atmosphere. BUT BEWARE - Lots of boat excursions include plenty of rum punch - they're a freebie so understandably pretty weak, & we drink them down like beer. Presuming the Rum Runner's cocktails to be the same, we quaffed the first two or three. Bad move - the Rum Runner doesn't mess, they go heavy on the rum, and we were well away. We don't remember much of the trip, apparently other passengers carried us back aboard our ship & dumped us on our bed - we woke up at sea.😂 JB 🙂

Been a long time since but - there's a concentration of cafes & restaurants in Casemates Square - they mainly offer "tourist-fodder, but because it's a dedicated fish-and-chippie Roy's Fish & Chips is hopefully better than the usual bought-in ready-battered ready-frozen fish and frozen fries you'd likely find from outlets in the Square with a broad menu. https://gibraltar.com/en/travel/restaurants-bars/roys-fish-and-chips.php - near the other end of Main Street & opposite the Governor's residence, The Angry Friar was always my choice of a pub It also provides good snacks & meals https://maps.app.goo.gl/icFSA6PJvQbGXEyx5 https://gibraltar.com/en/travel/restaurants-bars/the-angry-friar.php JB 🙂

Yes, chilling on the beach - or more likely your friends will recruit you as their designated photographer 😀 But yes, if it's an excursion with friends go along and enjoy the day. JB 🙂

Hi, and welcome to Cruise Critic, You haven't given us any clues. Whereabouts in the world? Which cruiseline? Given that information we can direct you to the appropriate forums for your cruiseline and port. You can find them from the main menu https://boards.cruisecritic.com/ In the meantime I think it almost-certain that you can skip the zipline on the excursion, I doubt they'll frog-march you and handcuff you to the zip-line 😏. For instance plenty of folk take a snorkelling with turtles catamaran trip without even getting into the water. But just like that snorkelling excursion, the zipline will be a significant part of the experience and you'll be paying full price, so you might find something vaguely similar at a lower cost - even DIY transport to a beach, sunbeds and food & drink from a beach bar. JB 🙂

USD pretty-well everywhere. Many Caribbean countries' currencies are tied to the USD, same as Channel Islands & Gibraltar pounds are tied to the GB pound. The exceptions quoted by others, Martinique & Guadeloupe (plus the French half of Sint Maarten) are actually French departements just like Normandy, Brittany etc. and their currency is the euro. At tourist outlets in those places USD will very probably be accepted, altho not necessarily at a favourable exchange rate. In shops geared to locals, on buses etc USD are often not accepted, but in many cases plastic solves the problem. In any case if you travel to mainland Europe you'll probably have some euros stashed away somewhere. A couple of other things about using USD anywhere in the Caribbean - $2 bills aren't accepted, and the same often applies to soiled notes - If you use USD in outlets geared to locals, their tills are geared to give change in local currency. If for instance in a grocery shop you want to buy just a $2 bottle of pop with a $20 you'll get a very expensive bottle of pop and a stack of souvenir money. So when you get your dollars ask for plenty of 5's & 10's and use your week in the US to get some change in 1's. Don't overdose on cash, plastic is widely used in the US and becoming much more widely used in the Caribbean. And when using plastic decline any offer to charge your card in GBP "for your convenience" . Your card issuer will always give a better exchange rate. This also applies if you are cruising on a US ship - always but always have your card charged inn ship's burrency. JB 🙂

That was back in 2010 !! Long after Pol Pot's "killing fields", but I remembered it from when it was news. And of course before the building boom-and-bust. A few weeks ago, responding to a post on Cruise Critic, I mentioned a grubby but interesting little fishing village in the countryside down the coast from Sihanoukville. The OP asked me where it was - If i'd even known the name of the village I couldn't remember it, and it took me ages to find it on googlemaps . Check it out on this Googlemaps link https://maps.app.goo.gl/aoNVtobZu5P5x7id9 and you'll understand why I struggled to find it, no longer in the countryside but amongst the high-rise buildings. Some photos of it on that thread https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2976738-sihanoukville-kog-rong-kog-saloem/#comment-66706105 Yes, we know exactly what you mean by the peoples' "mellow" attitude. Life is what it is, stay laid-back and happy despite circumstances. Can't offer any comparisons with Siem Reap because we didn't go there - un-obliging ship's captain refused to sail the ship along about 300 miles of dusty roads 🙃 I remember our first visit to Lass Vegas - we drove from lonely Death Valley at dusk, and ended up on a different neon-lit planet 😃 But couldn't help but see the other side of Vegas Vietnam was much livelier than Cambodia, but tourism was in its infancy which meant it was difficult to fix things up but ridiculously cheap. An all-day junk cruise negotiated at the pier & getting lost from civilisation amongst the limestone karsts of Ha Long bay was something else. And the mist (which is normal for the bay) added to the eerie watery moonscape. About a dozen of us at $10 a head. As I understand it, now crowded and waaay more expensive And I'd organised a speedboat from Saigon (small ship, we ported in the city) up the Saigon River to the Cu Chi tunnels. Booking it was fraught because of the language barrier, wasn't too sure how big the boat would be, whether we'd find sharers on the ship (we booked it on the grounds that we reckoned it worth the cost even if it was just the two of us), and whether even the guy would show. But he was good as gold waiting for us at the ship, boat would have taken twice as many as the 8 of us but it meant we all had great seats with the wind i our hair, and it cost us about $10, each, same as a van to Cu Chi. I now see speedboats to Cu Chi professionally offered on the internet. Apologies for the long screed, as you may have realised, the best cruise we ever had - and on the rustiest old tub we've ever sailed (Loveboat's twin-sister), but such a homely ship & crew, & congenial company.. JB 🙂

I used to drive ships' bus transfers. If you book with the cruise line it will be a bus chartered by the cruise line, all the passengers will be your cruise-mates, and it will take you and your luggage direct to your cruise terminal. Exactly the same as coaches chartered by cruise lines for airport transfers Yes, ships' transfer buses leave from Victoria Coach Station in central London - that's the same coach station as the time-tabled cross-country National Express (think Greyhound) buses, and that's possibly the reason for confusion. You have the option of instead booking with National Express for a much lower fare (around £9), it's a direct service from Victoria coach station to Southampton (two or three stops en-route, but no changing buses), driver loads & unloads luggage, same as ship's coaches. But they go to Southampton Coach Station. From there a couple of cruise terminals are only a 15 minute walk, or it's a taxi costing no more than £10 to any cruise terminal. I usually try to persuade folk to save their money by booking Nat Express. Some understandably prefer the security of being the cruise line's responsibility from the moment they board the bus, but also there are luggage constraints. Since you mention lots of luggage, perhaps better for you to stick with a Princess transfer, which has no limitations on luggage - in fact they don't book out every seat because of the risk of too much luggage for the bus's belly-lockers and exceeding the coach's maximum gross weight. I hope that explains the reasons for conflicting reviews.. JB 🙂