Globaliser

Both bits are in fact true, but that's not the reason for there being no immigration. Although both France and the Netherlands are in the EU, the reason is actually that they're both in the Schengen border-free travel area. However, there is also no customs when travelling between Amsterdam and Paris. For this, the reason is indeed that both countries are in the EU. If you're going from central Amsterdam to central Paris, then actually (absent special circumstances) it would be a bit mad to choose any other form of public transport.

It looks like LINK has an ATM map that will show you ATMs that dispense non-GBP cash: https://www.link.co.uk/cash-locator - you need to set the appropriate filters. (For those who don't know, one of the things that LINK does is enable us to get cash from any bank or building society's ATMs, regardless of whose customer we are - so LINK has an interest in identifying all connected ATMs.)

I remember one occasion when we were in a restaurant, sitting on the next table to a couple who did spend much of the evening audibly talking to each other about us. Speaking in Afrikaans, which they clearly thought that we could not understand. They must have been new to London.

If you've gone into central London, there's almost never any point in going back to the airport to get the cruise line's transfer. (It's a real misnomer to call that "a shuttle", given that it's a couple of hours on the road.) From central London, simply take the train to Southampton (to be precise, from London Waterloo station), then a cab to the pier. You really don't have to go the night before, either. That assumes that the age and composition of the group doesn't make that impracticable. But if you can contemplate all taking the Tube from central London to the airport with your luggage, you'll have no problem taking the train to Southampton.

Maybe they changed to speaking in Welsh whenever they were talking about you? 😉 Many years ago, I went to North Wales for work (also on Anglesey, as it happens). When I walked into the room, all of the people already there were having an animated non-work chit-chat that didn't concern me and which could and did carry on without involving me at all. But they all immediately switched from Welsh to English so that I could understand what they were talking about. It was a startling but enormously welcoming gesture, which (as you can see) I've never forgotten. Nor the subject-matter: it was about an incident involving sheep, but I should say no more.

In the past, there certainly have been ATMs in London that will dispense euros, so I wouldn't be surprised if some can still be found. However, there are rather fewer normal ATMs than there used to be (because rather fewer people now use cash at all - both in the UK and in much of the eurozone), so the same may well apply to €-dispensing ATMs. And it's almost certain that even if you find one, it will charge you handsomely if you use it.

If you're able to select a seat, then it's usually the case that nobody else has already selected that seat, and that will then be the seat that you have selected. That means that it will be in your reservation - but (as FlyerTalker says) that selection is only ever a request, it does not form part of your contract with the airline, and the airline can change it at any time for any (or even no) reason. So far so good. The difficulty comes if you try to extrapolate from a seat map to the question of how "heavily booked" the flight is. This runs into lots of difficulties. There's a difference between reservations and ticketing: So what do you count as a booking? What do you count as "fully booked"? How about reservations (both ticketed and unticketed) that have no seat requests? How about bookings on fares that don't allow seat selection at all until check-in? How about reservations that are still taken when every seat on the aircraft has already been requested? (Although this last factor obviously isn't relevant if you're looking at an empty seat map rather than a full one.) Even greater difficulty comes if you try to extrapolate from a seat map to the question of what fares will do. There's a common misconception that airlines sell seats like a supermarket sells tins of baked beans: on a 100-seat aircraft, there'll be 5 tins at $1, 10 tins at $2, 20 tins at $3 and so on, and once the $1 tins have been sold, then everyone else will be paying $2 or more. But that's not how it works. Every single thing about pricing is dynamic; it can change at any moment. You could find that although the airline will offer 9 seats at $1 today, if you book four seats at $1 today then tomorrow you'll find that the cheapest seat is now $5. This can happen if that sale of four seats pushes the selling profile of the flight (plotted against time during the selling cycle) above the predicted profile, so the flight is selling better than modelled. You could then find that nobody else books the flight for two weeks, and - even though the flight's status has been completely static during that time - the selling profile has now dropped below the predicted profile, and cheaper prices are once more available - perhaps even back at $1. So, in short, don't think that looking at a seat map - or anything other information that's publicly available about a flight - is going to tell you anything reliable about loads or pricing. The only reliable information that comes from an airline is how much you will have to pay today to make a booking (and even that is subject to confirmation when you try to book, because your booking might still be refused). Anything else is guesswork - and you can be assured that the airline is much cleverer than you, and holds much more information about the flight than you could ever know or find out.

For what it's worth, the train that departs Havant at 1118 is one of the trains that joins up at Barnham. It's scheduled to arrive at Barnham at 1140. The other train comes from Bognor Regis and is scheduled to arrive at Barnham at 1137. Both trains (once joined) then depart for London Victoria at 1144. It's that 7-minute stop at Barnham that, to me, seems to be the best reason for changing at Barnham rather than Havant, given that both points have same-platform changes.

You'll be fine with that timing. Obviously, there are no guarantees that something won't go badly wrong on the day, but it won't be the routine operation of a rail replacement bus service that causes it - it would have to be something that would have given you serious trouble even if the trains had been running on the full normal route.

Where are you flying from? If that's what you're doing, there may be better options than the train to Waterloo in any event. This is not true. People sometimes travel within countries for much more critical purposes than merely going home after a cruise, whether that's domestic or international travel. Wherever you're going, if your journey has a more important purpose or is more time critical then it's worth looking at all of your options more carefully.

It sometimes happens. For example, it's not practicable to run rail replacement buses to/from London mainline terminals. So when the line from one of those stations is closed, you can end up having to take a completely different route - for example, Euston to St Pancras by Tube or taxi, train to Bedford, bus to Milton Keynes, and only then head north to Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow on an Avanti West Coast service that would normally have started from Euston. In your case, you have the option of a direct rail replacement bus over the closed section of the line, which usually works. You also have the option of taking a taxi to board your train at a different station - which was a great suggestion by gumshoe958, and hard to beat given that you're actually starting at the cruise terminal). You have the option of different modes of transport altogether: National Express coach, or private car all the way. You could, in extremis, travel on another day. With all those choices, it's hard to see how things could go "disastrously wrong". Countless thousands of people travel between Southampton and London every day, of which cruise passengers are only a minority. There'll be no panic in the streets. But as you mention DB, I do admire the creativity of their crews' delay announcements. They're more entertaining than ours.

It depends on how old you are. If you're under 18, they're over in a flash. But if you're of an age when you have parental responsibilities, OMG they last forever.

Part of the answer is that it's because the alternative is simply to offer no service at all that day. If a rail replacement bus is provided, that's got to be better for people who really need to travel. Also, in my experience, train operating companies often have an incentive to arrange enough buses. If the bus arrangements are inadequate and you get delayed, you may get compensation. An anecdote: A family member had to take a rail replacement bus to bridge a gap half way through a journey. There weren't enough buses, so he missed the onward train and had to wait an hour for the next train. That entitled him to compensation of 100% of his fare. A couple of weeks later, the same rail replacement bus was necessary to bridge the same gap. There were plenty of buses, and he made his onward train with time to spare. I don't know exactly how it works if the rail replacement bus is at the beginning of the journey. But it's not like train operating companies do this stuff simply to annoy us.

The $572 price was on SAS both ways (although the source is ITA Matrix and I haven't checked the price directly with the airline). Two reasons contributing to why SAS is quoting you higher fares for the dates you're looking at: the inbound date is in high season (which is worth $250 on its own), and it's a weekend (worth another $50) rather than midweek. Plus there'll be the usual other variables, like some flights having no availability in the cheaper booking classes, so the theoretical lowest fares aren't available on them. However, I find it hard to believe that one can still get a price of less than $500 round-trip (half of $962) for a departure in July 2024.

I suspect that all of us who frequently travel internationally will tell you that, generally speaking, there is no such thing as "generally speaking" for timing the purchase of air fares. You've already identified the only possible generalisation - and even that is only a generalisation because sometimes the very cheapest fares for a particular trip are available only a matter of days before travel. But I don't know what prices you are seeing or for what routings. Just at random, using ITA Matrix, for a one-week round-trip for one passenger departing ATL tomorrow (30 July) to AMS, I see fares starting from $1,255 (one-stop) or $2,504 (non-stop). For a 6 August departure, these are $1,125 and $1,179. For a departure on 14 May, the corresponding prices are $572 and $1,514. So I'm not sure what is "almost double" what else (ie what you're comparing to what), and I suspect that with a bit of work you could probably find some cheaper fares for May 2025 than you are already seeing, if you're prepared to be flexible about how you're getting there. Beyond that, though, explanations (and speculation about the future) would need more information and then more work.

If you search for stuff, you'll get better results with the correct spelling of Southampton. Your question reminds me of the apocryphal builder's advice: you can have it good, fast or cheap, or any combination of two. You have to work out what your priorities are, and make some choices depending on your appetite for risk. The reality is that Eastern Airways operates one flight a day. It has filed schedules up to the end of northern winter 2024/25 (Saturday 29 March), but not beyond that. I don't know whether it's committed to operating the route beyond then. So you plan on the basis of this option, you may find yourself having to re-plan later if it turns out that these flights aren't going to continue. Eurostar's trains from Paris to London only go to London St Pancras International. There are usually a dozen trains or more on Sundays. And although it also hasn't filed schedules beyond mid-February, there's rather more certainty that it will do. There are also scheduled to be a dozen flights from Paris Charles de Gaulle to London Heathrow (evenly split between Air France and British Airways) on the Sunday that's the day before your cruise, and nine more to other London airports on easyJet. But in the case of either a train or a flight, you'll then have to get yourself from London to Southampton, and you'll have to work out when and how.

I don't think Norse Atlantic has a business class (in the long-haul sense). It's premium economy, as described above.

If both OSL-HEL and HEL-PRG are in business class, you should get access to the appropriate lounge at both OSL and HEL simply because you're flying in business class from each airport (unless you've bought a "Business Light" fare, according to the oneworld website). I think that the rule that you've quoted is primarily intended to cover the situation where the onward short-haul/domestic flight is in economy (although it also provides that you can use a first class lounge at the connecting point even if the onward short-haul/domestic flight is only in business class).

You're being such a pedantic stick-in-the-mud. I mean, if McDonalds can rustle up some staff to put in some extra shifts just by making a couple of phone calls, why can't a safety-critical function of an airline work that way too? And just like McDonalds, if the staff are a bit fatigued, the airline could just treat them to a free coffee.

That's not obvious from this walk-through video. But the usual advice is just to keep your luggage with you (you have to carry it onto the train yourself anyway) and improvise with whatever space there is around you. You may end up taking up more than two seats, but everyone understands that that's sometimes necessary. To make things a bit easier, take the train a bit later in the morning, and sit further back where it's likely to be less busy (particularly as the train gets closer to London).

A refund of a fare difference is different from compensation.

A few random general tips on using the Tube, seeing as this thread’s an opportunity for them: 1. If you’re in a line of people passing through the ticket gates, you do not need to wait for the gates to shut before you touch your card on the card reader. As long as your card has been read, you are clear to walk on through the gates. 2. Don’t walk right into the gate or stand right up against the gate paddles when you touch your card on the card reader. You can trip the anti-tailgating sensor, which will stop the card reader working. Instead, hold your card out slightly ahead of you. If you’re using a card rather than a phone to pay, this also gives you the best chance of being able to walk through without stopping. 3. There are all sorts of things you can look at when you touch your card on the card reader. But actually, there’s only one thing that you should look at: the coloured light next to the reader pad. This is yellow when the reader is ready to read the card. When it turns green (and beeps once), it means that your card has been properly read and you can walk on through the gates. If it turns red, then your card hasn’t been properly read and you should try again. (If this happens when the gate paddles are shut, they won’t open.) You may have to take a step back to untrip the anti-tailgating sensor. 4. When you get to the platform, don’t just stand there. You’ll be blocking the way for everyone behind you. Move along the platform to make space for others. And you’ll have a better chance of getting more personal space, compared to the bit of the train that will be packed with all the lemmings that just stopped as soon as they got onto the platform. 5. You don’t have to get onto the first train, unless you’re really in a screaming hurry. If the first train is packed, waiting for the next one could make things much more comfortable. Especially if the next train is only a minute or two behind – the platform indicators will normally show you how far behind they are. Sometimes a one-minute wait makes all the difference between standing in a sardine can and having several seats to yourself. 6. If you’re going to change trains, work out which line you’re changing to and in which direction you’ll then be heading, before you get to the station where you’re going to change. The first journey is good thinking time and space. Realising that you're not in Kansas only when you've just stepped onto a busy platform is not so good. 7. On escalators, stand on the right. 8. Also on escalators, ignore the signs that require you to carry a dog. Most of us don’t have dogs with us. 9. Oh, and MIND THE GAP!

In this specific instance, if I were a betting person I would put some money on cheaper fares becoming available later. This is the current availability display for the eight scheduled flights that day: BA552 J9 C9 D0 R0 I0 Y9 B9 H9 K0 M0 L0 V0 N0 O0 Q0 S0 G0 BA548 J9 C9 D0 R0 I0 Y9 B9 H9 K0 M0 L0 V0 N0 O0 Q0 S0 G0 BA546 J9 C9 D0 R0 I0 Y9 B9 H9 K0 M0 L0 V0 N0 O0 Q0 S0 G0 BA560 J9 C9 D0 R0 I0 Y9 B9 H9 K0 M0 L0 V0 N0 O0 Q0 S0 G0 BA556 J9 C9 D0 R0 I0 Y9 B9 H9 K0 M0 L0 V0 N0 O0 Q0 S0 G0 BA538 J9 C9 D0 R0 I0 Y9 B9 H9 K0 M0 L0 V0 N0 O0 Q0 S0 G0 BA554 J9 C9 D0 R0 I0 Y9 B9 H9 K0 M0 L0 V0 N0 O0 Q0 S0 G0 BA558 J9 C9 D0 R0 I0 Y9 B9 H9 K0 M0 L0 V0 N0 O0 Q0 S0 G0 You see that there is a pattern: there is inventory in the two highest business class booking classes, and the three highest economy class booking classes, but nothing else. To me, that suggests a deliberate decision not to take bookings at present for anything other than the most expensive fares. Inventory will get put into the cheaper booking classes at a later date, when the airline has a better idea of what it will actually operate, and of what it expects the yield mix to look like. (And possibly when some of the lowest-rent end of the market has already been successfully dumped onto other airlines.)

How about the Nightjet? If you're planning to spend 12 to 15 hours on the train, you may as well go direct, and also save yourself a hotel night at the same time. However, with a 1515 arrival at VCE it might be a bit brave to book this for the same night.

Really? I thought it looked pretty smart when I was there about six months ago. Anyway, the OP's only going to be there for about 45 minutes between trains, so it's probably not enough time to get poisoned. A quick search suggests that it will be the change point for any single-change route between Southampton and Liverpool. The most obvious alternative would be to cross London. But London Euston is at least as big and chaotic as Birmingham New Street; my personal experience is that Euston's been a zoo every time I've used it recently.