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scottbee

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Everything posted by scottbee

  1. Sorry about the prices out of YVR. The USA puts a large amount of taxes on International arrivals, whereas it's free to cross the land border; putting YVR at a big disadvantage. You could also consider the BLI/Bellingham airport; just across the border, who do have direct flights to DEN on Southwest (although it's only a couple of days/week)
  2. Tipping in Europe is much less prevalent than in the USA. And you certainly wont come across porters like those in Fort Lauderdale who give the impression that they'll throw your bag in the ocean if you don't tip.
  3. But then again, Southampton FC did just hire away Swansea FC's manager; so there's always a connection.
  4. It's important to understand that the ticket would involve two or three different train operators. Looking (for example) for Saturday Aug 5; National Rail (and Southwestern who are the primary operator at Southampton) don't even show a price right now. For journeys that involve multiple train operators, I would recommend you do visit other sites, especially those that specialize in split ticketing (buying each operators ticket separately). However, understand that Southampton->Glasgow is generally going to route you on Southampton -> London Waterloo London Euston -> Glasgow and it will be up to you to get across London with your luggage. For a journey like this, you might want to consider flying from SOU/Southampton (not London) airport, which is just a few miles from the cruise terminal
  5. However, you can't actually buy tickets from "NationalRail.co.uk" but they at least redirect to the correct train operator. My point was more aimed at a bunch of similar sounding sites, and "thetrainline" etc etc However, there are still some advantages at starting at the train operators site, because often they have special fares - for example Southern had a family rate, and a traveling together rate (both on weekends only), which only showed if you started with a link from their website... and yes, splitting tickets (like trainsplit) is very worthwhile when using multiple operators, and a great example is Southampton-London Paddington.(via Reading).
  6. You're right, it's 33rd Street Station, one block from Penn Station. Still, a great way of dealing with it.
  7. 6 weeks ago. $22+tip for a Lyft XL (6 passenger - 3 of us with luggage)
  8. You'll want to check which dock you're scheduled at, but if it's the City Cruise Terminal (Royal/Celebrity), the Holiday Inn is next door. A taxi ride would take 30 seconds. You'd spend more time loading the cases into the car than if you just walked it.
  9. I'm going to add something here, which a lot of visitors to the UK don't quite understand. The British Rail system is actually multiple different companies, sharing (mostly) the same track. Think of it as different airlines at the same airport. What that means is that the company that operates Southampton Central to London Waterloo (South Western), is a different company than operates Southampton Central to London Gatwick Airport (Southern), which is a different company than operates Southampton Central to Bristol (Great Western). Now the really important part. If you're buying tickets, you will almost always be able to get the cheapest tickets, without booking fees, on the RAIL OPERATORS website. Not 'National Rail' not "Railwhatever", but https://www.southwesternrailway.com/ and https://www.southernrailway.com/
  10. You don't even have to buy tickets, just tap your credit card on the fare gate. (although if you want concession tickets for 65+ you do need to get them from the machine)
  11. Recently boarded a cruise ship in Bayonne, and we went from MidTown Manhattan to Bayone by PATH train from Penn Station to Grove Street (Jersey City), Lyft from Grove St to Cape Liberty/Bayonne It's a good system because for $2.75 you avoid both the slow and expensive part of leaving the city on a pretty decent speed train, and then the Lyft was quick and easy. Train Penn-Grove St $2.75/ea; LyftXL $22 from Grove St to Cape Liberty. whereas the estimated LyftXL straight from mid-town was around $100.
  12. If you have tap/wireless on your credit card you don't even need to buy a ticket. Just tap the fare gate with your credit card when you get on and again when you exit. Done. If you don't have tap on your credit card, there are ticket machines that take credit/debit cards; Canadian cash or coin. Also, if you want to save yourself some walking, and make it downhill at the Waterfront Station end, use the exit onto Granville street (the end of the platform that the train entered the station from). This is marked "Way Out - Granville" and don't use the exit that takes you into the Station complex (and the signs that direct you to other lines/seabus). Once you're up to street level (there are elevators), turn left on W.Hastings St, walk one block, turn right, and the cruise ships are two blocks dead ahead (slightly down hill). Enter the parking level of Canada place (there's a not well market footpath to the left of the vehicle ramp), and the cruise terminal is on the P1 level of the parking garage (seems strange at first, but you'll see it works really well).
  13. I can't imagine anyone actually taking a taxi, bus or transfer from YVR to the cruise port. The subway (aka Skytrain Canada Line), leaves from the airport, to 2 blocks from the cruise terminal, and will be both faster and cheaper than a taxi. There are elevators at all stations, and the trains are designed with luggage and airport passengers in mind and are roll on/roll off without steps/gaps.
  14. I've seen it a few times with people in casts who pay to get an exit row (and more legroom) only to find out on board that they don't qualify to occupy an exit row (and generally they're not happy about it)
  15. Sorry if I didn't make this clear enough Ticket1: Ohio-ATH FCO-Ohio Ticket 2 ATH-FCO (there are a lot of carriers, ITA, Agean, SkyExpress, RyanAir) This ticket should be around US$150 w/ luggage fees
  16. Easy to find a one-way flight in Europe for next to nothing
  17. The biggest con of flying into SEA and taking the bus is the time. The coach ride is scheduled at a 5-6hr journey, depending on time of day, and the various stops along the way it makes. SEA is South of Seattle, which means you have to drive through metro Seattle, which has bad bad traffic. quickcoach.com have their summer schedules posted now. As for flying from Vancouver to MSY and where you clear US formalities, the answer is "It depends". If you're flying from YVR to a US destination *directly* (say YVR-DEN-MSY) you'd likely pre-clear in Vancouver prior to boarding. However, late-night flights out of Vancouver this wouldn't apply. If you're connecting via another Canadian city (say Vancouver-Toronto-New Orleans), you'd clear in Toronto, prior to the US bound flight.
  18. The Canada Line is roll-on roll-off, and drops you 3 blocks from the Canada Place cruise terminal. I can't imagine many scenarios where it isn't the easiest and fastest scenario. (under $10/ea) Most cruise lines will charge 35-40/each, a taxi is flat rate (just under 40+tip), Uber/Lyft might save a few dollars. All of those options can take 15-60 minutes longer than the Canada Line.
  19. You want to book it as 'open jaw'. On almost all airline search engines you'd want to search 'multi-city' and put in CMH-ATH/Athens and FCO/Rome-CMH as your flights. You won't run into the prohibitively prices one ways that you would by trying to book them separately (assuming above you were flying from CMH/Columbus) Also you're looking a month too early. A lot of airlines will only price tickets for 11 months out, so wait until the end of next month. Example result though for March 2024/ CMH-BOS-AMS-ATH FCO-JFK-CMH is under US$1000
  20. Depends on exactly which train you end up on, but yes, there's a place to stash luggage when you get on board, there are racks above the seats, and if it's not busy you can just stick your luggage in a seat opposite you.
  21. I'll second the advice of Taxi/Train. Take a taxi to Rotterdam Centraal Station, and catch a train to Schiphol Airport. There are trains constantly, and Rotterdam to Schiphol on the faster trains (leave every 10-15 mins) takes only 25 minutes. At Schiphol Airport you take the escalator up from the platform and you're in the terminal building. To put it in perspective, the driving time is about 45-60 mins from the port to the airport You can get train prices/etc at https://ns.nl/ https://ns.nl/
  22. Yep, QBC (ICAO: CYBD - I mistyped it above) is an oddball, although quite a few of the smaller coastal airports have some weird IATA/ICAO combos, with quite a few not having [international] ICAO codes at all, but instead Transport Canada 4 letter codes, such as ZEL, YAA and XQU (yes you can book commercial flights to all of these). Note that weather and flight planning all use the four letter codes, the three letter codes are used by travel agencies. There's a few weird ones in the USA too; normally for the lower 48, you just add a K in front to go from IATA to ICAO (LAX/KLAX), however AZA/KIWA is a notable exception. It wouldn't surprise me if at some point in the future they just drop the 3 letter codes altogether and just use a single system; but I'm sure theres a lot of "I dont want to change" out there.
  23. Actually not. While the majority of IATA [used by travel agents/airlines] codes for Canadian airports start with a Y, however CXH and QBC are two [on commercial flights] I've been to, both here in BC. Note that CXH-YWH (right in your back yard) is the busiest commercial air route in the country, in terms of departures/day. Now when you get into the four letter ICAO codes [used by pilots], it's a little different, with all starting with a C, and most just being a C prefixing the three letter IATA code, but not all, with CZBB (YDT) a notable exception not too far from you; and likewise QBC (CYDT) If you're confused by ICAO vs IATA; think of it this way; you'd buy an airline ticket from YYJ-YVR, but the pilot would file a flight plan for CYYJ-CYVR
  24. Mahoney and Sons (X on map) is perhaps 500ft from the ships, not sure how much closer you can be and still be sitting at a bar. If you want to see the ships, you can walk the whole top level (in Green) of Canada Place, and you're maybe 50ft from the ships
  25. Southwest have been serving the BLI/Bellingham airport since Nov 2021. April marks the addition of Denver (1x/week) to their schedule out of BLI.
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