Bob++

Buckingham Palace is near Victoria. Waterloo is on the South Bank, still handy for most tourist sites. The Tower of London is easy to access via a river bus. Waterloo is the Railway station for direct trains to Southampton and Victoria is where the coaches leave from,

We booked in advance, but that was three years ago. The information should be on their website.

I would decide where I wanted to be first. For example - if I was heading for Southampton after, Waterloo or Victoria would be sensible. Google Maps will show hotels and today's prices, which would give you a head start.

I'm with JB on this - Windsor is an excellent place to spend a day even if it rains. Find a hotel that allows a bag drop in the morning and the day is yours. I have stayed at the Castle Hotel Windsor, which is a five-minute walk from the Castle. It gets mixed reviews but our room, though small, was fine for one night and dinner in the restaurant was excellent (though pricey). Location is everything really https://castlehotelwindsor.com/?utm_source=mybusiness&utm_medium=organic Edit: This assumes that you are not coming on May 7th.

My advice is to talk to a good cruise agent. They can advise you on all the options and prices and can often get discounts and credits not available when booking direct. If gratuities are optional, just add the cost to the price of the cruise. Do some research. Cruise lines vary in their ethos. For example, Disney is very child-oriented as you might expect. P&O still have a dress code of sorts in the evening. Celebrity is slightly upmarket but more casual than P&O. You need to think about where you want to go. Southampton to Southampton means sticking to the UK and Ireland, Northern and SE Europe. If you want to go to the Mediterranean, you will either have to fly home or fly to join.

We went to a local pub for lunch last weekend. They don't offer menus (though they were available on request) they have a QR code on the table. That put a menu on my smartphone and we chose our meals and paid for them with not a word to anyone. The food (mediocre) arrived fairly quickly, and after we finished we got up and left. While the tech worked as it should, the whole encounter made me think of some science fictional meal where the food is dispensed from a slot and no on has to speak to anyone else. Soulless and sterile.

It looks as if they pick up at stops 11 - 15, right outside the terminal building at the arrivals level.

cheesy and poor value for money. Take a cruise, but skip the lunch.

There will be no problem with taking a packed lunch. I have no doubt that if you ask, you could have one made up for you.

London hotels are expensive, Expect to pay around £150 to £200 per night to stay in the more popular areas. The Premier Inn in Westminster has been popular with pre-cruise visitors in the past: https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/hotels/england/greater-london/london/london-county-hall.html?cid=GLBC_LONCOU You can save money by staying further away, but that means spending more of your time travelling.

I suggest that you check out the thread dedicated to travel between Heathrow and Southampton.

The train, via Waterloo costs around £45, while a private transfer could cost four times that. The journey time looks to be about the same. Assuming no mobility problems and the ability to handle one's own luggage, the train looks like a no-brainer.

Since you are leaving the ship, the 'depart' time is immaterial. You will dock at 5am but you will probably not even notice. There will be plenty of information for you to help you through the debarkation process. You will be expected to pack all bags that you aren't carrying the night before, and they will be waiting for you when you leave the ship. We always try to work it so we can get some breakfast on board before we leave. You should also know that "London" is probably 80 miles or so away from your port, so you will have to arrange transport. This thread is worth a scan: https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2662148-transfer-southampton—london-incl-lhrlgw-train-car-other/page/19/#comment-64231409

It seems not: Due to the hotel's location within the terminal building, unattended luggage cannot be stored prior to check-in. Secure luggage storage is available within the terminal building for a small fee. You could try emailing them: gatwick@blochotels.com

When they are not on strike, we have found that railway staff are generally very helpful, although one does have to ask. My wife is a powered wheelchair user and she regularly travels to Portsmouth on her own. We book assistance and they help with her single bag and put ramps up so she can drive onto the train. More often than not, she ends up in first class. Last summer, she had to change at Southampton and the lifts were out of order. Rather than let her struggle down and up the stairs, they diverted the train to her platform - much to the displeasure of all the people waiting on the scheduled platform.

Wow! That's the very definition of a port intensive cruise. It reads more like a river cruise than ocean:🙂I would need a holiday after that to recover. It certainly takes you to some out-of-the way places. The scenery should be magnificent. Be sure to take some warm clothing though. In North Cape, the average temperature of the warmest month (July) is around 10.6 °C (51.1 °F).

Premier and Travelodge do not have safes in rooms. At the lower end of the price range, they shave every expense they can. In any case, the security offered by typical hotel safes is largely illusory. It'll keep your kids out (probably) but any serious burglar and, most likely any member of staff, will open it in seconds. All of them have to have an override code in case you leave it locked when you check out. The staff who clean the room will most likely have that code so that they can check it as part of preparing the room for the next guest (the same will apply to the safe in a cruise ship cabin too). If you want proof, have a look at some of the videos on this site: https://www.youtube.com/@lockpickinglawyer/search?query=hotel safe My wife puts her jewellery in her carry-on luggage on flights, in her handbag while staying overnight somewhere and we just trust that the staff on the ship is honest. The safe is a handy cupboard to put small items that you don't want to mislay anyway.

As someone who has done both, I would say the Norway has great scenery and some history, while The British Isles has a load of history and some great scenery. A lot might depend on your ports of call.

I find this an odd question. Why would anyone not be able to travel from London to Berlin? Train is a possibility, but involves a couple of changes and would take all day. There are a dozen direct flights a day. Any of the usual search engines will give you the details, but you need to be careful of baggage allowances, especially on the cut-price airlines. There is also a wide choice of flights from Berlin to Florida although you may have to look hard for a direct flight.

We did a coach tour round Guernsey. It was on a day trip from Jersey not a cruise though. I think this is the one: https://www.icw.gg/

The East Coast line is by far the most scenic, but it means getting from Kings Cross to Waterloo in London. The transfer in Birmingham on the Western route is only a change of platforms in Birmingham New Street station. Unless travelling by train has a particular appeal, I would choose to fly.

My immediate thought was that Uber would be more expensive than the usual taxi firms (West Quay and Aquacars) that cruisers use for this trip, but their fare estimate site suggests £125 which is broadly the same. They do, however, make it plain that the price is an estimate, so the actual price may well be higher. If it was me, I would pre-book with one of the two companies above. They have proven reliability and the price is a quote, not an estimate.

Have you thought about flying via Dublin (Shannon) and spending a few days there before or after?

If you choose the minibus (van) route, I suggest that you pick a Southampton firm, rather than a London one. Try this company for a quote: https://www.airlynx.info/get-a-quote/

The train takes a couple of hours and a car half-an-hour less. The train fare is around £18 each, plus the cost and hassle of getting to and from the stations at either end. A taxi will charge around £150 total, door to door. https://www.aquacars.co.uk/ are a Portsmouth taxi firm but are frequently used by Southampton cruise passengers and well recommended