kwren

Kathie - for us it's a matter of time, but DH will be retiring or at least cutting down soon so this might be more feasible for us. We didn't have enough time to do more, but next time...

Grandma - I get hungry when I reread it or look at my pictures!

jacketwatch

It's nice to hear that formal night dress codes are being followed. Some may not like formal nights but I think if you do it then do it right.

I am following your nice TR!

kwren

I guess that's about it for my report here (unless I think of something else to add later). We got off the ship in Southampton and needed to call Enterprise to pick up a car. We didn't have a phone but I have to give kudos to the staff at the pier - they sent me upstairs to an information desk which happily put the call through for me. This was the start of 4 days of incredible customer service...whether we asked for it or not.

For anyone needing a car after disembarking, Enterprise "will pick you up" there just as in the US and is about a 5 minute drive away. Don't take the train into Southampton and walk to a rental facility - just use the Herbert Walker Ave, dock gate 8 office. It was fast and even better, the manager checked us out and spent more time than I've ever seen talking to us about the car and driving in England. The car was clean and had no problems.

Also, when I booked the car from the US, I was told that I could not return the car in London, that none of those offices would accept a one-way car, and that I would have to return it at Heathrow. NOT TRUE! I'll leave the explanation for when I continue my report on the Europe forum, but suffice it to say here that 1. I was warned here about not driving into London but did and survived! and 2. we found out that we COULD drop off anywhere to avoid going back out to Heathrow and ended dropping the car off only 2 miles from our hotel. Bottom line - the US office would only let us drop off at the airport (thus getting an extra airport drop-off fee) but once in England, tell them when you pick up the car where you would like to drop off and it will work out for you.

When I get around to it, I will continue with a very brief report on our trip to Stonehenge and London over on the Europe forum. Thanks for sailing with me!

Kathie

And thanks for posting your report!

Grandma

Muchas gracias…. and looking forward to the rest of your trip!

kwren

Thanks for the comments about my report. I'm glad you all were following along.

I just noticed that I had started to write about entertainment but never pushed the submit button so in the interest of completeness, here is the nutshell version (since I officially finished my report!):

ENTERTAINMENT/OTHER ACTIVITIES

Different from Carnival or Royal Caribbean, this ship had less of the nightly glitz. It did have a stage show maybe 3 times, but not with a huge company. The other nights featured a comedian (without all the profane language), a wonderful tenor, and two violinists with electric violins. We enjoyed the variety.

I already mentioned the Captain's cocktail party where you weren't allowed to shake the captain's hand but to make up for that ( ) they gave you free wine or champagne when you entered. Found out that you could also order anything else without charge too. I mentioned movies, but didn't mention the 3D showing of Madame Butterfly. That seemed like an unusual choice but we went anyway. There was a smallish casino which always seemed quiet (maybe we weren't there at the right times), trivia games, etc.

Now that should be it!

jacketwatch

Awesome. Thanks for your TR. actually I have seldom seen TA TR's here. Yours was well written and gave a nice picture of what they are like and of Cunard and I appreciated that!

Cheers, Larry.

kwren

Thanks Larry - glad you enjoyed it!.

jacketwatch

Your welcome!!