Surreyman

Further confusion for those on this side of the pond. However, important to note that yes, indeed, you buy stamps and process your mail at the Post Office.;)

You can buy stamps there along with many other things. However, as with much of Europe, you can buy stamps at many other outlets as well.

I'm intrigued after reading about the bus since my husband and I used the train to visit Oxford. Never occurred to us to investigate the existence of a bus.

 

Going via train was super easy, although now that I'm thinking about our day, the train station is a longish-but-doable walk from town. We took a taxi both directions. I'd be curious to hear the advantages and disadvantages of the train VS bus. Prettier scenery? More direct route? More central drop off point? Price?

Oxford railway station is less than a five minute walk to the town.

Cruises leaving from Harwich will normally offer parking plus dedicated coaches to the ship.

Sorry, fish and chips has to be just that. No horrible sauces or gravies on it. Just plain old fish and chips.

Quite agree. Whoever thought of adding anything but salt to fish and chips should have quietly let the idea slip.:)

Do you know anything about the London County Hall Hotel?

 

 

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I've stayed in the premier lodge in county hall.

It is fine if all you are looking for is somewhere to rest your head.

Travel lodges are ok, but they are the cheaper end of the market, followed by Premier Innn.

These are not really hotels for a long stay although they are clean and comfy.

Having said that there was a TV programme a few years ago about an elderly couple who lived in one as they found it cheaper than living at home.

It really depends on what your budget can stand as there is a hotel for every price bracket in London.

I may be wrong but I don't believe you can purchase gift cheques from banks in Canada either. There's a whole different set of rules and laws that apply to the financial institutions. Post Offices in the UK are kind of unique in the financial services they offer and it goes way back to when few people actually had a bank account. All pensions and benefits used to be paid through the Post Office. But really, why worry about what another country's regulations are - when in Rome and all that.

Yes the Post Office is different in the UK from some other countries. It is also not the same as the Royal Mail which actually collects the mail and delivers it.

On my last trip to Europe (2011) to include a couple of weeks in France and Italy and a seventeen day TA cruise out of Venice. I found that the Amex card was accepted at all the places that accepted Mastercard and Visa. These places were not all high end places but included small family wineries in Tuscany and more. Besides the Amex Platinum Card, the Amex Delta Card does not charge a foreign exchange fee.

 

Using both the Amex Platinum and Delta Card for my personal and business purchases have allowed my family and me to fly using frequent flyers miles to Europe several times in the last fifteen years with me in Business Class at very little or no costs. I have found the costs associated with Amex to be of no consequence over the long run.

Amex appeals to certain people, but I would not recommend that one relies on it without bringing another card with you.

My point: was if the government forbids banks to sell checks to non-customers for security reasons, why would they do precisely that through the post office? It is simply a matter of government saying it can do exactly what they forbid others from doing.

I don't think it's a government edict. As I said above, gift cheques are an unknown concept in the UK.

I went into every major bank in the UK and was told the same. No exchange of US currency. they directed me to M& S, train stations, or airports. Do you think I am making this up??? To what end??? They all said I needed to have an account with them to exchange currency. Why on earth would I have an account with, say, Lloyds when I live in Arizona???

I live in the UK and have changed money in banks I don't bank with, so I don't know why they wouldn't for you.

Odd they would direct you to Marks and Sparks or a railway station. As I say few railway stations have exchange facilities. If I was directing someone somewhere other than a bank I'd suggest a travel agent or post office

I have just gone through the exercise of trying to get a Chip & PIN card for an upcoming trip to Spain. I called all the banks that issue my cards and researched several websites that rate cards. Here is what I found:

• one apparently complete success: Barclay Arrival Plus -- comes with Chip and preassigned PIN which they say clearly is a full-on credit-card PIN; you can change the PIN (that raises a red flag, because I thought the PIN was burned into the Chip -- but they explain that you have to use it once at a staffed location in Europe, then the card will be updated for use in kiosks with your new PIN) -- no Foreign Transaction Fees, excellent rewards (2% on everything and an extra 10% if you redeem for travel expenses), big points bonus in first three months, annual fee waived the first year.

• Citi now issues cards with Chip and ATM PIN -- some CC posters say they have been able to use the ATM PIN in Europe for credit card transactions -- but the Citi cards I have charge 3% Foreign Transaction Fee.

• Amex Platinum cards can be reissued with Chip -- but no PIN, so they will only work if your salesperson knows how to do "Chip & Sign" procedure [note: this is the full-on Platinum card with $450 annual fee and no waiver, not the Delta card that also says "platinum"]. Other Amex cards don't even have the Chip option yet

• there are a couple of credit unions that have full Chip & PIN, but joining them is somewhat complicated

• Chase will be switching all its cards to Chip & PIN by the end of the year, but that doesn't help for travel this summer

 

[sorry if I'm duplicating information already posted on this thread -- I did a search and "Barclay" had no hits]

The chip and the PIN are two separate parts of the security. If the PIN was encoded in the card then so,some acquiring the card could access the PIN.

The PIN can be changed to something more memorable or if you think it may have been compromised in some way.

I saw someone mention Amex - don't bring Amex cards to Europe - very few places accept them.

They charge far too much commission to the vendor for them to find it worth supporting. The overwhelming majority of credit cards in the UK have no annual fee, whereas American Express does so this doesn't make it attractive to the user.

In a somewhat related way (money problems while traveling) we learned the hard way in 2012 that banks (all banks) in the UK will not change US currency. In the past we always took some cash as the major banks would change it at a better rate than travel checks. Scary when no one wants to take our currency. When questioned, the banks fell back on that old tired line "it is to prevent drug dealers money laundering". BS, or as the Brits say: bollocks! We were not trying to change millions, just a middle aged US couple on holiday trying to change a few hundred $$. Now you have to go to money changers at the airport, train stations, or Marks & Spencers. Guess how much they charge for the privilege!!

Any bank in the UK will change dollars to Stirling I've done it many times, you must have been asking the wrong question. B*****ks is not the same as BS and is not used in polite company. There are rather more outlets than you quote who will change money, and not many of them will be at railway stations.

Britain is known for their stifling regulations. A couple of years ago we were in London for a nephews wedding and wanted to give him a gift check - of the sort any US bank will sell. No bank would sell a gift check to anyone not having a long term account relationship - they cited the necessity of preventing terrorists from anonymously funding operations.

 

We went to a post office and had no problem anonymously buying a postal money order (read: "check") - so much for consistency.

There is no concept of a gift cheque in UK banking, some organisations will provide what is effectively a voucher but not a cheque.

A postal order is still in use in the UK but not by many people.

There are strict money laundering rules over account opening in the UK.

After reading all these posts, what concerns me the most is that a suitcase(s) can go missing on a ship from the elevator lobby to the dock the next morning. It's not a very long distance to travel and not that many people will be handling them.

 

We tend to expect this to happen when we fly because there are a lot more factors involved, falling off belts, many people handling luggage, layovers with mislayed luggage.

 

But disembarking a ship?.....Not that many places to lose a suitcase.

 

Hope that HAL finds the luggage, looks at the reason it was lost and fixes the hole in their system.

I do wonder if the luggage is collected in a set order. For example when the OP carried her luggage to the elevator, perhaps they were collecting luggage to go to another ship- say.

By not leaving her luggage by the door as requested it then got treated, despite the label as if it should be in the pile to go to the other ship (as I say that is just an example I don't have any details). Had she left it outside the door instead it would have been collected with the other luggage going to her destination.

Perhaps someone who knows could throw some light on whether or luggage is collected together and then sorted "below stairs" or whether luggage is collected by destination. The latter would reduce the amount of double handling but would explain why people are asked to leave their luggage by the door not carry it to a member of staff.

Each bag had the 'Grey 2' disembarkation tag on it. We each had a personal luggage tag on the outside with all details. Mine is a Canadian flag tag, my mothers is a giant wine glass. Copies of the our passports were inside the bag. Each bag also had a bow attached to it to distinguish it further.

 

 

All other tags (previous flight/ ship boarding) were already removed. There should have been no confusion from that.

 

 

Rochelle

Copies of passports inside checked luggage - not a good idea.

Hand luggage for anything like that - or email yourself them in a PDF so you can download them if needed or both.

Swice - you asked about Kiel. One of us is a model train railroader and we took the train from Kiel to Hamburg for the day. It has the largest train layout in the world. You don't have to do that, but my point is that Hamburg is an easy and cheap day trip from Kiel. Others in our group took the train to Lubeck.

 

From Warnemunde, we took a short train ride to Rostock. Cute town with good shopping street

A short train ride from Rostock will take you to the Mollie train which gives you a steam hauled ride to the coast and back.

I brought that up earlier on this thread ( see post #55), however no one picked up on it.

I totally agree with you. I have written to HAL about it and received an answer that that nothing to do with the concern.

Terri

HAL decide their policy and as someone else said higher up, the cost of a few overpriced drinks is insignificant compared to the thousands the holiday costs.

I guess it's easier for them to tell their staff one bottle per person per cruise than have a whole set of different rules per cruise.

I have no responsibility to explain anything to you. The question for me is why you feel the need to question every single thing I post. I find it very creepy.

I find it creepy that you post so much but a lot of your posts seem half baked and you don't explain yourself so I guess we are even:D

I'm talking about sneaking liquor in your bra.

Given you didn't quote anyone in your post, how was anyone expected to know that?

The lengths people will go to to smuggle stuff on blows my mind. I wish I had that much free time.

It's not that time consuming, You buy a bottle of wine and you put it in your hand luggage.

You must be very busy if you can't spare the time to do that.

Is this fair or ludicrous? BTW I am not on the World Cruise so I don't have a dog in this fight.

News just in - life isn't fair.

If he is entitled to wear one (by which I mean of recent Scottish decent) then why not, but remember a lot of the tartans are made up as we English suppressed the wearing of tartans and many date only from the 19th century.

And she did say that the deadline was approaching, or maybe past, for having the bags outside your door.

No she didn't say that, there was quite a time to go - she did say had to get to the casino by 11.

Another quick question. How was the weather in general? As I said we are going in August and I am already starting to give some thought about what we are going to take. I am not sure if we take jackets or not. I know it is going to be hot but just thinking about the space jackets take (light ones or fleeces).

 

We are headed to Belgium for a few days afterwards.

In the med, you are unlikely to need a cost; If you are going to Belgium at the middle to end of August, you could well need a coat. However there is no guarantee that it will be warm or cool, it really depends what blows in.

I'm asking for others experiences so I can gauge whether the policy is actively enforced.

Go on, admit it: you were sent here by HAL to sniff out those who plan to smuggle wine on board by asking people if they have or intend to do so ;)