John Bull

Scheduled local bus services to Honfleur are infrequent, the timetables are complicated because they depend whether it's during school term time or school holidays etc, and you need to get to & back from the bus station (by the train station), about 1/2 hr walk from the cruise terminal. But this is a new shuttle service set up with the cruiser in mind, and resolves those problems, albeit at a "tour" price rather than a "local bus" price. https://beelehavre.com/en/circuits-en/le-havre-honfleur-tour/ JB 🙂

ATOL - or ABTA. If they quote an ATOL or ABTA registration, check it out - if it turns out to be fictitious it's almost-certainly a scam. In the meantime I'm still confused by the OP's post. Is @4380in Aus? Or the UK? Or elsewhere ? The terms of the contract must be in line with the law of the country from which the booking was made. "Chat" tells us nothing. Chat on a website? Whose website? "Yes via thier website" tells us nothing. Which cruise line is involved? Princess has been mentioned by one responder but not confirmed by the OP OP initially said "The problem seems to be the quote was per person not total price-but nowhere does it say this." But later says "the screenshot included fly cruise and pp prices so obviously I knew it would be double that ( for 2 passengers). Confirmation is double that figure ( so 4 times advertised)". So which is it? OP says "I was sent a link and paid a £500 deposit." How was that paid? Credit card? There are safeguards - dispute it with the card issuer (Visa or Matercard or whoever) Debit card. Fewer safeguards, but there are some. Dispute it with the bank. An intermediary like PayPal ? I don't know my stuff on them. Bank Transfer ? A big possibility this was a scam, probably with no cruise at all. Contact the bank & police but almost-certainly no recourse. This is @4380' s only contact with Cruise Critic, presumably just to seek advice. But we're going round in circles, we need full background in order to give any sort of worthwhile advice JB 🙂

The original post quoted was back in 2017 The "private" tour at $160 would not have been a small-group tour, it would have been a coach tour pretty-well identical to the ship's coach tour at $199, but booked independently rather than with the ship. That also ties in with ships' mark-ups. There are van options but significantly more expensive. Tours-by-locals offer what appears to be a similar itinerary by car @ 2,322 USD for up to four JB 🙂

Can't help with the cost of ship's tour, but the current price of the full-day independent coach tour which we took last year is €134,. You can elect to pay extra for a booked meal - meals were booked-out when we booked but we were very happy with filled rolls etc at the same venue. Pick-up is at the cruise terminal, timings are geared to ships' times. Full refund if the ship fails to port. We thoroughly recommend https://www.norwayexcursions.com/en/tour/alesund-from-fjords-to-trolls/ They also offer van tours JB 🙂

Alesund. We took an independently-booked full-day coach (bus) tour from the cruise pier with https://www.norwayexcursions.com/en/tour/alesund-from-fjords-to-trolls/ Easy on-line booking, excellent tour, excellent operator, excellent guide, excellent vehicle & driver. sensible price. You can book with or without lunch - lunches were already fully booked but we were very pleased with a selection of filled rolls and fresh local strawberries at the same venue overlooking a waterfall They accept un-booked passengers if they have seats to spare, but there were on spare seats on our coach. They also offer van / private tours, same itinerary, obviously more expensive. If you google "alesund to trollstigen" you'll find others with similar tours, but I have no hesitation in recommending the one we used. Haugesund We just headed into town across a bridge (the part of town with the cruise terminal is a few yards off-shore). The hop-on bus is a waste of time & money. Just the other side of the bridge there's a pleasant waterside, and one block from the waterside up the hill is the main street. Plenty of shops, bars & cafes for a lazy day. If you want something more-exciting you need to book for somewhere out of town. JB 🙂

I certainly agree you shouldn't just stay on the ship - it'd be a shame to waste the one day when you can see some of this country. If you don't want to take the long haul to PP, check out the ship's more-local offerings or negotiate with vans (not tuk-tuks) at the port to leave Sihanoukville in the rear-view mirror for a local countryside tour to Ream National Park. We did this, and our day also included a waterfall, a 10-15 minute long-tail boat ride to a little off-shore island (Kaoh Chanloh ?) for a swim & beach-time, and the afore-said grubby fishing village. The price was silly-low, but because it was such a memorable day we doubled it with the tip - and I'm not a generous man. Ream Nat Park is the opposite of Sihanuokville, clean and pleasant and relaxing. At the temple in the Park, for a donation of pennies we received a blessing and the promise of a long life. Since it cost practically nothing I donated double in order to live to the age of 150. It seems to have worked, I'm now well over half-way there 😏 To PP by ship's excursion would make sense because of the distance & the roads, but altho Cambodia is very backward it's not dangerous & the people are friendly. JB 🙂

It's over 100 yards - you'll need a full minute 😏 The tender pier is the same one as where cruise ships moor, Left out of the port gate, over the water and the park is on your left https://maps.app.goo.gl/KMo79H1cKHPhMaFi9 JB 🙂

Yes, excellent plan.🙂 You'll get to Edinburgh same-day because if Plan A doesn't work out the train timing and route via the airport/parkway plus no financial advantage in buying the train ticket in advance makes it an excellent Plan B. Your only financial risks are the taxi to the airport (something over £20) and the airfare if Plan A goes belly-up. There should be taxis immediately available if you disembark early un-assisted, but if you want to be sure you can pre-book one https://westquaycars.com/ or https://radiotaxisonline.co.uk/ or https://door2doorcars.com/ I suggest for 7.15 - if you're off the ship a little earlier it'll probably already be there Train due at 9.23 so you have plenty of time if Plan A fails. Coffee shop & snacks in the airport's small single terminal, more-substantial food upstairs. Or coffee shop at the station You'll see the train station on your left a few yards before the airport's small single terminal, The station ticket office (ensure that your ticket is via Birmingham New Street) & coffee shop on the opposite platform, which is the platform for your train. (elevators on the platforms if you need). Bon Voyage JB 🙂

For most restaurants & pubs, saturday evening & sunday lunch for sure, and often friday evening. That's in all price ranges Some you really need to book for any evening. I don't know of any in Southampton which require a deposit or even a card number with booking, so there's nothing to lose by booking. As per @Thejuggler's post, cancelling a booking isn't a problem - it's a matter of good manners to cancel with as much notice as possible, but even if you phoned to cancel around the time of your booking because of something like a car or taxi problem that gives them the opportunity to offer your table to a walk-in. More and more now take bookings on-line on their websites. And there's the facility to change or cancel a booking same-way on their e-mailed confirmation. BTW folk eat out later in the UK than in many parts of the US. Bookings are taken for times up to 8.30 or 9.00 If you have any particular places in-mind I can perhaps be more precise. JB 🙂

😀😀😀 I originally wrote "say hi to Greyfriars.......", then I checked the web to whether it was Bobby or Bobbie and saw the protestations about wearing-out the little lad's nose. So the devil in me changed it to "pat his nose" just to wind up the natives. Seems I succeeded😛 And it does show how many folk get to know his story All in fun 😏 JB 🙂

Royal Caribbean certainly used to sell drinks packages mid-cruise at the pro-rata daily rate but it had to be for the entire rest of the cruise. And there were a minimum number of days - like @wcook I rather think that's around 4 days, for a 4-day cruise it might not even be possible to book a cruise-long package. If you're wine-drinkers I suggest you try the house wine before deciding on a wine package - the house wine is cheaper than any packages. I doubt anyone has ever had a problem using up $200 credit on a 4-day cruise 😏 JB 🙂

Scotty. By train it's more inconvenient for you because your date, 26th May, is a sunday and there are fewer services on a sunday. The only option around 8am is the 8.26 at £93 and that goes via a cross-London change - I take the same negative attitude as you to that route Altho it's an hour later the 9.15 via Birmingham is the obvious choice. For that train the ridiculous ticketing shows the walk-up fare is £111 but the more-restricted Advance ticket is £202, Try explaining that @Globaliser and @Cotswold Eagle 😃. Split-ticketing is also more-expensive& the Avanti West Coast route isn't an option. And Globaliser's £66 5-split ticketing probably won't work for your sunday date All of which makes it simpler for you, Scotty - at Southampton Central station buy through tickets to Edinburgh for the 9.15 train at £111. Again, because the pricing makes no sense, can others please check that I haven't goofed. .The direct tram from Edinburgh's Waverley station to the airport is frequent & inexpensive, and IIRC luggage should be no problem. Or your rental agency may be able to switch your pick-up to a city centre location. But I still think a switch to the 4pm flight is the safest and easiest option. Whatever you choose, don't delay in case the 4pm flight books out. JB 🙂

Some hope of returning to the original reason for your thread, Scotty - we're in the middle of a theoretical ding-dong 😏 But a hopefully helpful post on its way in about 10 mins JB 🙂

I've always accepted that not all complexities are nonsense - ever since I was a kid it's been more expensive to take a train that arrives in London before 10am on a weekday. Whether you say that's to avoid over-crowding at commuter-time or supply-and-demand or screwing-the-commuter or whatever, there's a reason. Low prices to encourage travellers to use train times at quiet times makes sense. But some commuter-time trains into London are now available at Advance ticket prices at well below half the cost - that encourages day-trippers who know about Advance fares - £22 single vs £54 single - and want to get to London earlier to book those commuter-time trains, adding to the over-crowding at that time, which make a nonsense of the afore-mentioned reasons. 🙄. And presumably those commuters who find it worth the effort will book Advance tickets for each day because that's cheaper than a season ticket 🙄. Hugely higher fares on long-distance journeys for those who "don't know the ropes" have no logical reason and are another nonsense. Logic says that fares should be cheaper for long distances - more income for a single transaction, more competitive against road or air, etc. So there's no logic in a higher ticket price for a complete journey than for buying at the same time different tickets for various short sections on the self-same trains running at the same time on the same day - the pricing is clearly screwed-up 🙄. Then there are RailCards. They cost about £30 for a year and give about a third off most journeys (not all journeys, that'd be too simple). Probably another wheeze instead of a season ticket for those who qualify and who go thro the ropes. But no use to visitors who make only a few short journeys Lots of other complications including those due to different train operators, who have competition on some routes but have a monopoly on on most routes - a private operator having a monopoly on essential services. And all this on tracks which are owned & maintained by the govt. If you believe that ticketing isn't unnecessarily complicated, you surely heard the national sigh of relief when it was mentioned yesterday that it was to be made simpler, altho that was also promised a while back by a party with a different-coloured rosette.. Look what a mess the privatised water supply & sewage monopolies have made of those services - fat salaries and bonuses for the bosses, fat dividends for shareholders, and services which through under-investment are falling apart with hosepipe bans after a few dry days, and un-treated sewage in our rivers and seas and on our beaches after a single day of rain. I regard privately-owned businesses as a good thing when there are competitors, I regard them as a nightmare where there's no competition. Which kinda shows I have no particularly strong right or left political views, and at the General Election I will probably vote for Screaming Lord Sutch, the Loony Party, or Lord Bucket-head. "That was a Party Political Broadcast on behalf of the All Politicians Are a Waste of Space party. We now return to our scheduled programmes" JB 🙂.

To clarify why @Globaliser has mentioned five tickets but just two trains 😕😕😕 That's taking split-ticketing to the next level. Three tickets for three parts of the first train journey, two more for two parts of the second. No need to get off & back on at the intermediate stations, just as long as the routing goes via those stations Sneaky, but perfectly legal and there are websites which specialise in it. Shows how ridiculous the fare pricing is.🙄 But one of the political parties appears to have picked up this thread, seen my comments, and today announced that their election manifesto will include re-nationalising the trains, simplifying fares and ensuring that everyone gets the cheapest fare without all the faffing around. If they win the election (some time late this year or early next year) expect that to happen within the next 10 to 20 years 😏 In the meantime please address your train enquiries to @Globaliser cos JB is spending too much time lying down. JB 🙂