Pride Copenhagen-London Questions

[jimlssi]

We are looking at this segment 31 Aug-15 Sept. Pride arrives London at 7AM "subject to tides". Given the time necessary to clear customs/immigration/

disembarkation, I am doubtful that we could make an 11AM flight departure from Gatwick. As I recall, it is quite a ride from city center out to Gatwick. Can anyone confirm my suspicion? If this is the case and we lay over a night at Gatwick, will the airport transfer coach from the ship drop us at a Gatwick hotel? With regard to suites, does "shower only" in 224 and 225 mean that those bathrooms are smaller? And, if no tub, is there no retractable clothes line? Thanks for your help.

[Martita B.]

Jim,

You will not be able to disembark and drive to Gatwick for an 11:00 am flight. I think you might need to stay the night in London. As to Seabourn's transfer, you would need to book at one of their Hotel options.

(I think they offer 3)

As to the shower only bath. The bath will be about the same size as the tub bath. I don't recall a retractable clothes line. (I've stayed in 232 many times as my Mother needed the shower) You might purchase a "travel" line and just take it with you......the bathes are large with two lavatories.

Your voyage will be most memorable.....always magical and unforgettable!

Martita

[DaveD]

Jim,

 

I agree with Martita that you will not make an 11:00 am flight from Gatwick.

 

As for the retractable clothes line in the shower, suite 232 on both the Spirit and Pride have one fitted so I would assume that all the shower cubicles have one as standard. Somebody else that has stayed in either 224 or 225 may be able to confirm this.

 

Dave

[bldsld]

There is a retractable clothes line in each suite.

[Martita B.]

Denyse......'guess I never did notice the "clothes line" since I always use my colorful "balloon method" of drying! Works everytime and quick!

Hugs sent!

MB

[CruisinMatt]

Martha, please share your method. It sounds intriguing.

[Keith1010]

Jim, my wife and I are booked on this cruise. We are looking forward to it.

 

You are correct. Gatwick is a very long ride from downtown London and Martha is absolutely correct, an 11:00 AM is tooo early.

 

There are two hotels right at Gatwick Airport. One is the Hilton and the other is the Sofitel. If you are flying out of the North Terminal I would go with the Sofitel as it is a fairly short walk (about 5 minutes) from the Hotel to the Terminal. Baggage carts are in close proximity to the hotel.

 

So, one option is for you to purchase transfers from Seabourn to get from the cruise ship to the Terminal. The worst case is that you have them drop you off at the North Terminal and then just get a baggage cart and you can walk over to the hotel. Another possibility would be for you to just ask the driver if he could drop you off at the Hotel after he has dropped off the passenger's at the terminals. Unless you want to run around London the day you get off the ship, the good thing about staying at the airport is that it will make it very easy the next morning when you fly out of Gatwick. You won't have to worry about getting up extra early to catch your morning flight.

 

Keith

[jimlssi]

Thanks everyone for the information.

Jim

[jimlssi]

Martita,

I understand what you are saying about the 3 Seabourn hotels, but I am referring to the direct-to-airport transfers for pax who are flying out on day of disembarkation. I have just found that Hilton is connected to the Gatwick South Terminal by a covered walkway, and I am working out how to get there from the dock short of using a taxi or limo. We would need to be at the airport by 730am on the morning of our flight and I just think it would be more convenient to stay right there at the airport. BTW, I have not disembarked Seabourn (this is only our second cruise with them) in London before. Is this dock area populated with taxis? Failing all else, I know that I can arrange a limo pickup.

Jim

[norm2002]

There won't be a massive number of taxis at the place you actually disembark the ship plus it will be expensive to take a regular taxi to Gatwick as this is outside their usual journey area. Your best bet would be either to take a bus to Gatwick, if Seabourn are arranging one, or to make your own limo arrangements online. This will almost inevitably be cheaper than a limo arranged on the ship. Try a google search under 'minicabs' as well as 'limo'.

[jimlssi]

Keith,

At this point, I don't think we will "do London" on our day of disembarkation, so will go straight to a Gatwick hotel. We will be flying out the next morning on Delta to Atlanta. The Gatwick airport map puts Delta in the north terminal ( I will see if I can confirm it with Delta), so we will be using Sofitel. All very convenient. I think I can probably arrange the coach transfer on the ship, but I will have my TA confirm this. Even if no one is getting off the coach in the north terminal, or the driver will not let us off, we can use the carts or a porter and hoof it ( I think there is a monorail also) from the south terminal to the Sofitel. I will let you know when we have booked, so we can stay in touch. Thanks for your help.

Jim

[johnnycruise]

You are correct - Delta is in the North Terminal at LGW.

[jimlssi]

Keith,

They have my deposit now, so we are going!

Jim

[Keith1010]

Jim, wonderful news!!!

 

Keith

[dd@sea]

Jim and Kieth,

We will be on the same trip and have just solidified our plans for this great trip. We will be flying in two days early to Copenhagen followed by a three night stay in London. We just read our Seabourn Herald and are looking forward to the 2 restaurant and the ship after dry dock. Can't wait.

[Keith1010]

dd@sea, glad to hear that you will also be on this cruise. As we get closer I'll post something so that maybe all of us can meet early in the cruise for a drink.

 

We are flying in ahead of time as well and will spend a few days in Copenhagen prior to the cruise. This will be our first time in Copenhagen.

 

Keith

[dd@sea]

Keith,

Please do keep in touch and we all can meet at the Skybar. We will be at the Marriot in Copenhagen. Looking forward to meeting you.

[jimlssi]

dd@sea and Keith......

We are arriving CPH at 9am on Aug 29th, so will have a day and a half to explore the city. I have not made any hotel reservations yet, but it looks like one could get the Marriott on a direct booking at considerably less than the ships rate, but of course we would not have the airport-hotel-ship transfer/ porters/breakfast in the deal. A private limo charges US$104 and a taxi US$28 for airport to hotel and I suspect about the same for hotel to ship. If I correctly read the Seabourn hotel rate (one room/2 people) at Marriott, it looks like they take the basic direct booking rate and just double it! Any thoughts? Keith, please do send up a post as we get closer so that we can all meet for that drink on the ship, if not before at the (?) hotel. Jim and Davi

[cruisr]

Hi,

 

If you want to do it very economically you can take a cab from Tower Pier to the London Bridge Underground station which is across the river from where you will disembark. From there you can take the Thameslink to Gatwick airport. The cab should be no more then 5GBP across the river to the underground station. The station is handicapped accessible and has ramps to the platforms so you don't have to worry about the stairs with your luggage. When you get to Gatwick you can get a luggage cart and walk to the Hilton. You can get more information at http://www.thameslink.co.uk That would be the least expensive and also the quickest way. If you want a car service I can recommend the one I always use and recently used them in August when I left from Tower PIer on the Seabourn Pride. It is British Airport Cars and their website is http://www.britishairportcars.co.uk

 

London is great and a wonderful place to start or end a cruise.

Bon voyage

[dd@sea]

Jim and Davi,

We did book with the direct line for Copenhagen Marriott. It includes breakfast too, I think. From our research so far, we think we will probably taxi in from airport. We will be arriving on the 29th but not until around 5:00 p.m. that evening. We have been to Copenhagen before and will probably revisit some sites and/or meander the next day. Hopefully, we will run into you then.

 

In London we will be staying at the Renissance Chancery for three nights.

 

We can't wait to return to our 'spoiling days' on Seabourn.

Tom and Deanna

 

Cruisr,

Thank you for the info on the London transport sites. We want to book a car for our pick up at the ship to the hotel and then the hotel to Heathrow three days later. We will look into it.

[beargal]

Keith way back in the summer we chatted about this cruise with you. We are flying into Copenhagen on 30 Aug. Unfortunately to use frequent flyer miles we have to go through Amsterdam so we don't arrive until 11:30. We are staying at the Hotel Skt Petri with another couple that are also cruising with us. We enjoyed Copenhagen on our pre-cruise last Sept. The canal tour was our favorite as we had a beautiful sunny day and it was interesting to see the city from a different vantage point.

 

We know we are not flying back from London for at least a week after we dock, but we are not sure if we are going to stay in London or travel further afield. If we do stay in London it will most likely be at the Renaissance Chauncery since that is the hotel my husband uses when he is in London.

It looks like this may be a popular cruise with other folks on Cruise Critics, so we may get a chance to get to know some folks prior to the cruise which is always fun!

[Keith1010]

This is great. Looks like several of us will be on this cruise together.

 

Beargal, nice to hear from you again and glad to hear that you and your husband are booked on this cruise as well.

 

We are staying at the Marriott in Copenhagen for the pre-cruise. We are in the process of finalizing our Hotel plans in London as part of our post-cruise.

 

Keith

[cruisr]

Hi,

 

What a great trip you are all going to have. I actually stayed at the Chancery Court Hotel a few years back and loved it. It is just down the street from the Holborn underground and you can walk to the British Museum and actually to the theater district, too. The hotel use to be the home of an insurance company before it became a hotel and it is set back from the street so it is dead quiet.

 

Enjoy COpenhagen, the cruise and London. Looks like this sailing will have a lot of CC people on it.

 

Bon voyage

[jimlssi]

beargal and dd@sea.....

Since you have toured CPH before can you give me some suggested "must see" sights in the city? I have the usual guide book stuff but always like to hear from those who have gone before. We will have one and a half days before embarkation. Thanks. Jim

[bgood]

jimlssi,

 

If I may be so bold. There are a couple of things I liked especially.

 

1. The canal tour is a hoot. The guides will typically ask in about four or five languages who's on board, then proceed to give commentary in all required. Amazing. Interesting perspective on the town and sees a lot and easy on the feet!

 

2. The Carlsberg Glyptotek museum is a great art museum if you like that--runs the gamut from classical to modern.

 

3. IF you love modern art and architecture- the Louisiana Museum is about 30km out of town, a great building in a great setting filled with wonderful art.

 

bgood