Thejuggler

Expiry date of your old card is exactly that and it will work until the end of August. The new card arrives early, no need to activate it yet. Don't intervene and pay manually, especially so,close to the date of payment or you could be back on here saying two payments have been taken.

Unless you have access to the P&O booking system you will never know if a cruise is 'almost sold out'. 18 months out I doubt it is. Cabins are released to the market in batches and what you see online may not be the same as what can be accessed by agents. There will always be empty cabins to allow fluid pricing to work effectively and upgrades are offered as the cruise gets nearer. GTY fare is what is left and your allocation may change a number of times before it is finalised, but you will only be told once.

Stavanger. If weather is good the Anthony Gormley statues trail. Map is available on line. If not Oil Museum or Sardine Canning Museum are good for children, our daughter enjoyed them both. Madeira. Taxi to the Lido area where you can have time swimming with fishes. You could also take a dolphin sightseeing trip from the port area. Lisbon. Train to Cascais, takes about half an hour, for a day on the beach. Alesund, Troll wall and Troll Road day trip. Fantastic day out.

The amount stays pending until it is called upon. I booked holiday accommodation and a hotel back in March which didn't need paying for at the time, but the amounts were pending until I checked in and paid for the stays in July.

Not had a need to use cash for a few years in most places. Being on a cruise the need to spend is also reduced. As a back up a Starling current account debit card and Barclaycard Rewards Credit Card both give free foreign use including ATM cash withdrawals should you have no choice but to use local currency.

Berthing arrangements will also be a P&O operational decision. If they can't/won't use the Seawalk they have to tender and P&O operational policies will come into play.

You don't need a large increase in decks or length to have a very large increase in sail area. IIRC from a talk by a Celebrity officer Eclipse has a sail area of at least a hectare. A 10 knot wind against 26,000 sq m of steelwork is a huge amount of force, kinetic energy is based on velocity squared, so stopping a ship isn't easy once the wind gets hold of it.

Skyscanner is just about OK for research, but I wouldn't go near it unless you really know what you are doing, you need to be very careful. Where a connection is required the skyscanner flights won't price these as one flight, but will call it 'self-transfer'. What this actually means is if your first flight is delayed or cancelled and you miss the connection, tough! The fact they have a full page of information on what their different transfers means is enough for me to think twice. If you click a link to book the actual flights you need to double check what site you are booking through, where it is based, under which regulations you are booking etc. You can be lead to all sorts of sites which remind me of the bucket shops of the 70s and 80s.

Google flights is an excellent resource which gives you all options, so you can sort by direct or one stop flights and it gives layover times.

On the return there is left luggage at Manhattan Penn Station. Leave luggage, have your six hours then you can then get the Long Island Railroad train to Jamaica station and change there for the Skytrain to JFK.

We have had a double in balcony cabins when a pullman was used, on both Ventura and Grand Princess Daughter was about 3 and 6 when we did it. Its generally frowned upon as it means using the ladder from the end of the bed and it may not fit, but chances are a toddler will be lifted up there and an adult can climb on the pullman by standing on the bed.

The deck plans give capacity of all cabins, C503 has two pullmans. We have had a B deck with 2 pullmans. Makes no difference if there are only 2 of you.

Only had a few lunch stops. Voss and Trollstigen were both Norwegian buffet which was excellent and included alcohol. Advertised cost for drop in customers was £50 and the beer was £10 a bottle, so for a £90 tour good value! We also had lunch in St Petersburg. Even our then 12 year old daughter was given the quarter caraf of Vodka! the meal wasn't the best.

Only been to Bill's once and for good reason. Expensive, poor quality and badly managed restaurant. Find an independent cafe.

Boarding passes are issued when you check your luggage in as the luggage tracking number is also required. The airline then knows which luggage to remove from the flight should for whatever reason you are not on board the aircraft at gate closing time.

Having been to a couple of talks on Celebrity about ship operation and navigation the calculation for speeds isn't that complicated. Enter the two ports, the leaving time and arrival times and the system then calculates the speeds required to achieve the route in time taking into account weather and other constraints. We did a Faeroes to Norway on Eclipse with a day at sea and never did above 10 knots, because that was the speed required for the distance to be covered in the time available.

If its an ABP car park use it. Drive in, remove luggage, van arrives, takes luggage, you walk to the ship. On return pick up luggage from hall walk to car and away. For night before stay we just look at Premierinn site and choose the cheapest within no more than an hour drive from the port.

One reason why is stated, Covid. It killed the tourist industry for the best part of two years. Any UK company doing private tours for cruise passengers will have been hit heavily and when things opened up staff had found other jobs. Its the same reason UK airports are struggling, they can't get staff. Brexit also hasn't helped as tourism work is good work for foreign students, especially those with language skills. Unfortunately getting work in the UK as a non UK resident is now far tougher than it once was.

P&O have painted themselves into a corner. Being UK based they have always prided themselves in having drinks priced similar to UK pubs. They have then introduced a drinks package, but to keep this profitable are now playing games with rules and prices. They need to make a decision. If they want to profit from packages they need to increase the bar prices by a huge amount and charge what a 5 star London hotel charges and not the local Wetherspoons.

I suspect the difference will be marginal. Its expensive because Heathrow to central London is a long way. Rush hour will be more expensive due to the traffic, but a black cab can use bus lanes, an Uber can't. If you want cheap consider using the Tube or Heathrow express rail service.

Invergordon tours look like they do a trip.