2 night stay in LONDON before CRUISE?

[AdventureTwins]

You all are so awesome! We had a wedding this weekend with friends and I'm so glad Im back! Going back to read comments!

 

[AdventureTwins]

On 8/8/2019 at 1:23 PM, phabric said:

Who are cruising with?

 

All the cruise lines offer air.  They each call it different.

Princess - EzAir

Royal Caribbean - Air2Sea

 

You or your agent can make air travel arrangement.

 

Princess - on your Personalizer, under your cruise, at the top - Travel Arrangement.  Once air is released, you can book.  

You choose - class, ARRIVE on (NOT the date you leave), leave on, stops.  

Choose - flexible - no payment until final payment

                               - no penalty to change/cancel

                               - can Modify/cancel up to 45 days before cruise

               - restricted - pay at time of booking

                                 - cost to modify/cancel

 

You will get a Princess Air Booking # and Airline Booking #.

 

Once booked, check daily or often your Travel Arrangement (flight), encase the price goes down

- Click Travel Arrangement 

- Your booking will show

- at the bottom of that page, GREEN section - Modify 

- add - class, Arrive on, Leave on, Information like before

- new price will show

- if the same price as what you have, exit the page

- if cheaper - continue 

- it will show old price and new price

- continue - accept

- you will receive a NEW Princess and Airline booking numbers  each time you Modify your booking

- with each change you need to re add airline member number, seats

 

I book Princess flexible and check direct with the airline and at final payment I choose the cheapest price.

 

For my Athens-Rome Cruise, my Flexible Air started at $2,340/pp Premium Economy with watching the price the air at final payment is $1,745/pp.

 

If you purchase air direct, you are locked into the price, with Princess flexible you can watch for sale/price reduction and not pay until final payment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is the Air2Sea - www.air2sea.com?  I'll check them out.  And I'm sailing with Royal Caribbean. We also would need to call them because we booked directly with them. Just wish we could do our flight early. The hotel is proving to be a task in and of itself!  

[AdventureTwins]

QUESTION:  For those of you in the US headed to UK or have done so, should a good guestimate for airfare be around $2500 per person? We are in Colorado, US.  Leaving August 2020 London.

 

[cft8]

For Royal Caribbean, you can get to the Air2Sea site through this link: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/plan-a-cruise/transportation

 

I think that $2500 per person is probably more than enough to budget. We flew from Denver to Gatwick on Norwegian for about $1800 per person in their premium class last year. I was seeing fares around $800 for economy class on legacy carriers. We are hoping to book with Norwegian again for 2020, however they are having some financial issues as well as engine issues with their Dreamliner fleet so I'm slightly hesitant. 

[ducklite]

17 hours ago, AdventureTwins said:

QUESTION:  For those of you in the US headed to UK or have done so, should a good guestimate for airfare be around $2500 per person? We are in Colorado, US.  Leaving August 2020 London.

 

You should be able to do better than that, but that's a very safe budget amount, it shouldn't be more than that.  You might even be able to find premium economy or extra legroom seats for less.

[ducklite]

5 hours ago, cft8 said:

For Royal Caribbean, you can get to the Air2Sea site through this link: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/plan-a-cruise/transportation

 

I think that $2500 per person is probably more than enough to budget. We flew from Denver to Gatwick on Norwegian for about $1800 per person in their premium class last year. I was seeing fares around $800 for economy class on legacy carriers. We are hoping to book with Norwegian again for 2020, however they are having some financial issues as well as engine issues with their Dreamliner fleet so I'm slightly hesitant. 

I don't think I'd put my cruise fare on an airline which has been within a few days of insolvency several times.   I was looking at them when trying to get to London for the funeral of a friend with a one day turnaround, that was a safe bet as they hadn't announced the potential for entering administration in the next week.  But for a cruise?  Nope.  No way.

 

[shofer]

We did a 15-day TA from Southampton to Fort Lauderdale last November on Celebrity Silhouette.  You can read my review attached.  Our travel agent booked our airfare through Celebrity for $200/pp.   We booked our own airfare home from FLL.  If you are the least bit jet-lagged, 2 days in London won't be enough.   I thought we would hit the ground running and was not expecting DH to be so exhausted.   We did take the National Express Bus from LHR to the Victoria coach station which was 0.3 miles to the Grosvenor.  I found a good deal online for the hotel.   We just reversed it 2 days later for the bus to Southampton.  Very reasonable and comfortable.

15 DAY TRANS-ATLANTIC.rtf

[AdventureTwins]

On 8/13/2019 at 11:13 AM, shofer said:

We did a 15-day TA from Southampton to Fort Lauderdale last November on Celebrity Silhouette.  You can read my review attached.  Our travel agent booked our airfare through Celebrity for $200/pp.   We booked our own airfare home from FLL.  If you are the least bit jet-lagged, 2 days in London won't be enough.   I thought we would hit the ground running and was not expecting DH to be so exhausted.   We did take the National Express Bus from LHR to the Victoria coach station which was 0.3 miles to the Grosvenor.  I found a good deal online for the hotel.   We just reversed it 2 days later for the bus to Southampton.  Very reasonable and comfortable.

15 DAY TRANS-ATLANTIC.rtf 46.18 kB · 9 downloads

We are planning on hitting only a few stops in London, well that was until we saw the video of a couple taking the bullet train to Paris! Bahaha! We should be able to do our airfare here in another month.  Your airfare from Southampton to FLL was only $200 per person? We can't even get across the US for that little! Great job! We are expecting it to be high and hoping it will not be crazy expensive! Thanks for your review! 

[shofer]

1 hour ago, AdventureTwins said:

We are planning on hitting only a few stops in London, well that was until we saw the video of a couple taking the bullet train to Paris! Bahaha! We should be able to do our airfare here in another month.  Your airfare from Southampton to FLL was only $200 per person? We can't even get across the US for that little! Great job! We are expecting it to be high and hoping it will not be crazy expensive! Thanks for your review! 

Have you tried to book the airfare through the cruise line?  We were on United which had a non-stop from O'Hare to Heathrow.  Could never have done that on our own.

[WoodstockGirl]

If I may add my little two cents worth to the hotel aspect of this discussion. I too highly recommend one of the very affordable Premiere Inns.  Their niche is to be very clean, minimalist, efficient hotels. High quality bed mattresses and linens, but save with smaller room sizes, and fewer frills. The one we stayed in in London is right by the London Eye, the Westminster Bridge and around the corner from a major train station. Across the street is a large court, with little restaurants and stores all lined up on the edge. Also a Starbucks!  Very convenient for grabbing a bite.

We compared prices of several throughout key spots in London before settling on this one.  One key reason? Besides the location, it has Air Conditioning! Not all the hotels and Inns in London do. On a hot day, air Conditioning is not an option for me; it's a must.

Edited August 23, 2019 by WoodstockGirl

[AdventureTwins]

3 hours ago, shofer said:

Have you tried to book the airfare through the cruise line?  We were on United which had a non-stop from O'Hare to Heathrow.  Could never have done that on our own.

They said it's not time yet. But we did want to go that route.

[AdventureTwins]

1 hour ago, WoodstockGirl said:

If I may add my little two cents worth to the hotel aspect of this discussion. I too highly recommend one of the very affordable Premiere Inns.  Their niche is to be very clean, minimalist, efficient hotels. High quality bed mattresses and linens, but save with smaller room sizes, and fewer frills. The one we stayed in in London is right by the London Eye, the Westminster Bridge and around the corner from a major train station. Across the street is a large court, with little restaurants and stores all lined up on the edge. Also a Starbucks!  Very convenient for grabbing a bite.

We compared prices of several throughout key spots in London before settling on this one.  One key reason? Besides the location, it has Air Conditioning! Not all the hotels and Inns in London do. On a hot day, air Conditioning is not an option for me; it's a must.

No AC? Yikes and we will be there in August!

[WoodstockGirl]

On 8/22/2019 at 11:52 PM, AdventureTwins said:

No AC? Yikes and we will be there in August!

 

When you are picking a hotel, check the amenities for A/C or no A/C.  Premiere Inns usually mentions that.  Don't know about the others.  Historically in the past, London doesn't typically need A/C in summer.

[Marseydotes]

Agree, London typically is fine without A/C. However, recently, weather has been less predictable. A month ago, they had highs of near 100. Personally, I am checking for A/C for next July!

[h20skibum]

I will try to touch on some things that others may not have, and relate a little of our first time experiences to London, and cruising from Southampton.  We just cruised from there in July this year.  In our case, we spent one night in Southampton before the cruise, and three nights in London after the cruise.  If you want to read about how we did things, I did a review that you can find here.

 

 

First, your flights.   Your budget for flights should be more than enough, depending on what class you want to fly.  I used google flights to track flight costs, and I started tracking a year and a half prior to our cruise.  The first year, I did it as if we were sailing that year, and then tracked when flights first opened up this past year when we were cruising.

 

I found that Tuesday and Thursday flights were the cheapest, and that flight costs were the lowest between 3 and 4 months prior to the cruise.  Since we knew we were going to be in San Francisco the month before and after our cruise, I was tracking nonstop flights from there to Heathrow and back.  I would not consider anything that wasn’t nonstop, because it would just drag things out too much.  We used Virgin Atlantic, and our flights were $1,000 pp round trip.   This was for their mid-level economy.  It did go down to around $850 pp around the three month mark, but I had already bought by then.  I was also tracking United and British Airways, and their prices were about the same.

 

By the time you get in, collect your bags and make it through security and to your hotel, you will be tired, even if you manage to sleep on the plane.

 

London Eye - Buy a fast track pass online, instead of standing in the queue.  Our first day, we went in the afternoon, and all tickets had been sold for the day.  Even going back the next day, and buying the fast track at £40 each, our time to enter the fast track lane was about an hour and a half after purchasing the tickets.  The regular line was about a 4 hour wait.   If you purchase online, you will save about £3 each, and you can pick your time.  Just make sure you do it far in advance, because summer will be busy.

 

The Staterooms tour at Buckingham Palace are only open 10 weeks during the summer, so if you are there too early in the year, you may not get to tour these.   Once again, when we were there, the tours were operating on a timed entry, so if you can purchase your tickets online, do it.  One day we got to the Queen’s gallery at opening, and all tickets were already gone for the day.  Evidently, they had already sold enough advance tickets online.

 

We stayed in Victoria, very close to Victoria Station, and only used the underground once.   Our initial plan had been to use it to get to Heathrow, but after riding we knew we didn’t want to struggle with luggage to save a few bucks.  We used a car service from our hotel to Heathrow, and it was a very relaxing way to go.  Our cost was £70 for the service in a Mercedes sedan.

 

For the trip to Stonehenge, make it part of your transfer after the cruise.  As others have said, it is too far out, and will take up one of your days and take away from other things you may want to see.

 

Now, for a couple other tips.  Use a credit card with no foreign transaction fees.   If it doesn’t have a tap and go chip (which many cards in the US don’t have yet), you may find some places that can’t take your card.  We just used cash in those instances.   Also, if they give you a choice of running your card in $ or £, select £ and let your card company do the conversion.  It is lower than what they are converting at the point of sale.

 

Some hotels have US electric adapters in the rooms.  We stayed at the Park Plaza Victoria London, and they had sockets for US.  We had our travel converter with us, but didn’t need it there.

 

I know I did a lot of planning for our trip, so it is good you are getting started on yours.   And for your cruise, remember to pack your formal wear.  Unlike the Caribbean, 80% sailing from Southampton will be dressed on formal nights.

 

Enjoy your time there.  We met the friendliest people sailing from there. 

Edited September 3, 2019 by h20skibum

[AdventureTwins]

On 9/3/2019 at 12:58 PM, h20skibum said:

I will try to touch on some things that others may not have, and relate a little of our first time experiences to London, and cruising from Southampton.  We just cruised from there in July this year.  In our case, we spent one night in Southampton before the cruise, and three nights in London after the cruise.  If you want to read about how we did things, I did a review that you can find here.

 

 

First, your flights.   Your budget for flights should be more than enough, depending on what class you want to fly.  I used google flights to track flight costs, and I started tracking a year and a half prior to our cruise.  The first year, I did it as if we were sailing that year, and then tracked when flights first opened up this past year when we were cruising.

 

I found that Tuesday and Thursday flights were the cheapest, and that flight costs were the lowest between 3 and 4 months prior to the cruise.  Since we knew we were going to be in San Francisco the month before and after our cruise, I was tracking nonstop flights from there to Heathrow and back.  I would not consider anything that wasn’t nonstop, because it would just drag things out too much.  We used Virgin Atlantic, and our flights were $1,000 pp round trip.   This was for their mid-level economy.  It did go down to around $850 pp around the three month mark, but I had already bought by then.  I was also tracking United and British Airways, and their prices were about the same.

 

By the time you get in, collect your bags and make it through security and to your hotel, you will be tired, even if you manage to sleep on the plane.

 

London Eye - Buy a fast track pass online, instead of standing in the queue.  Our first day, we went in the afternoon, and all tickets had been sold for the day.  Even going back the next day, and buying the fast track at £40 each, our time to enter the fast track lane was about an hour and a half after purchasing the tickets.  The regular line was about a 4 hour wait.   If you purchase online, you will save about £3 each, and you can pick your time.  Just make sure you do it far in advance, because summer will be busy.

 

The Staterooms tour at Buckingham Palace are only open 10 weeks during the summer, so if you are there too early in the year, you may not get to tour these.   Once again, when we were there, the tours were operating on a timed entry, so if you can purchase your tickets online, do it.  One day we got to the Queen’s gallery at opening, and all tickets were already gone for the day.  Evidently, they had already sold enough advance tickets online.

 

We stayed in Victoria, very close to Victoria Station, and only used the underground once.   Our initial plan had been to use it to get to Heathrow, but after riding we knew we didn’t want to struggle with luggage to save a few bucks.  We used a car service from our hotel to Heathrow, and it was a very relaxing way to go.  Our cost was £70 for the service in a Mercedes sedan.

 

For the trip to Stonehenge, make it part of your transfer after the cruise.  As others have said, it is too far out, and will take up one of your days and take away from other things you may want to see.

 

Now, for a couple other tips.  Use a credit card with no foreign transaction fees.   If it doesn’t have a tap and go chip (which many cards in the US don’t have yet), you may find some places that can’t take your card.  We just used cash in those instances.   Also, if they give you a choice of running your card in $ or £, select £ and let your card company do the conversion.  It is lower than what they are converting at the point of sale.

 

Some hotels have US electric adapters in the rooms.  We stayed at the Park Plaza Victoria London, and they had sockets for US.  We had our travel converter with us, but didn’t need it there.

 

I know I did a lot of planning for our trip, so it is good you are getting started on yours.   And for your cruise, remember to pack your formal wear.  Unlike the Caribbean, 80% sailing from Southampton will be dressed on formal nights.

 

Enjoy your time there.  We met the friendliest people sailing from there. 

Fantastic!  Thank you so much for this! I am planning this trip myself so this is awesome for me! 

[Bob++]

On 9/3/2019 at 7:58 PM, h20skibum said:

London Eye - Buy a fast track pass online, instead of standing in the queue.  Our first day, we went in the afternoon, and all tickets had been sold for the day.  Even going back the next day, and buying the fast track at £40 each, our time to enter the fast track lane was about an hour and a half after purchasing the tickets.  The regular line was about a 4 hour wait.   If you purchase online, you will save about £3 each, and you can pick your time.  Just make sure you do it far in advance, because summer will be busy.

 

The London Eye is an interesting experience, but IMHO not worth £40 each and certainly not worth spending more than half-an-hour standing in line for.

[milolii]

We frequently book flats as well.  We are planning a trip next summer year and Ii was looking at the same one we had in 2016, which we  loved. But that was December,  2016.  I read the recent reviews over the past three months about the heat and also street noise after opening the windows to gain fresh air.  

 

I think We will be looking for a hotel with AC.  We have stayed at the Park Plaza   Westminster Bridge, but it is expensive. 

 

Have been on the London Eye, very expensive. Book in advancement if you do it. 

We have done the following: 

Got Oyster cards in advance.

Got some funds in advance 

 Visited to the state rooms Buckingham Palace, this is usually open  late July -September

Went to Tower of London- very fun

Also got tics to the Ceremony  of the Keys at the Tower of London one night. Look I their website

Did Thames River  Cruise 

have used justairports and the Tube from/to airport.  We used Justairports for a mid morning arrival. Tube in rush hour. Might check to make sure  there is an elevator or escalator at your tube station.  

HOHO very slow, skip that  

The areas mentioned are good places to lodge, with only 2 days location is critical. 

Agree waiting until the day you went  to visit an attraction- may be sold out.

 

Good of luck with your decisions. You may have to return to see more.  

 

[josh_hutchings]

Just make sure you are preferably next to a major train station. That shoulw make getting to/from the port much easier.