Our European Adventure: London, Paris, Barcelona, Lisbon, Vigo, La Coruña to Southampton

[greensombrero]

The Beginning

As the plane banked I looked out the window and caught my first epic view of London.



This was the moment I knew it was actually happening, we were going to see London and adventure through Europe as a family.

It all started back in March of 2024. Disney Cruise Line released their summer 2025 itineraries and I had a placeholder burning a hole in my pocket. The Barcelona to Southampton repositioning cruise really caught my eye. I’ve traveled South America pretty extensively many years ago and I’ve always wanted to see Spain. Never been to Europe and I figured we could add a few more places. It would be my oldest daughter’s last summer before she graduated high school. So I took a leap of faith and booked it on open day for gold.

Now you may be wondering if I was cruising out of Barcelona, what was I doing in a plane over London? Well I knew I wanted to take a direct flight if at all possible. Which from our home airport left only a couple options. Initially I figured we’d fly to Paris. Early on I confirmed we should take the high speed TGV train from Paris to Barcelona. I grew up as a train kid and had a favorite childhood book that talked about the TGV in Paris. It was always a bucket list item to actually ride it. That had to be how we got to Barcelona.

As the planning progressed and we moved into airfare actually being offered I found a direct flight to London might be a better option. Additionally my wife’s top city she wanted to see was London and we realized we probably need to do any extra touring we wanted before the cruise, not after given my kid’s schedules. Additionally London would mean taking the train through the chunnel to get to Paris.

Planning this sort of an adventure took a lot of time and effort which I guess was good because I love it and it felt like it took forever to finally get to this point:



I should probably take a moment and introduce myself. I’m Bryan, a lifelong travel addict, somewhat recent DCL addict and the family travel planner and adventure guide for my family of 4 kids and a beautiful wife. I’ve written trip reports here in the past but it has been a minute. This cruise though is pretty unique and reports from family trips to Europe are fairly uncommon. So I thought I’d write up our adventure and pass along what went well, what we learned and what mistakes we learned from.
Zooming in on my airport gate picture you might notice that our travel day wasn’t perfect. Oh it started well enough. I was up rousing the kids bright and early at 4:30 AM. Why was I up at that crazy hour? Well we read when traveling to Europe it could be helpful to shift your sleeping hours the 3 days before your flight by going to bed early and getting up early. This was to combat jet lag and all in all I think it worked pretty well for our family.

I was out for my final morning run in the USA for a while when I got the first indication of travel day fun. A Delta App notification on my watch indicated my flight was delayed but it only looked to be by a few minutes. I arrived home to the family being a little concerned but it was only delayed by like 45 minutes at this point.

The kids were super antsy to head out. Normally we take morning flights so this waiting at home was not their favorite. Our airport was rebuilt recently and has decent seating but despite my kids' protests I said we don’t really want to sit there and wait more than necessary. Finally it was time to leave. Parking, check in and security all went smoothly. I loved that I didn’t have to take my shoes off now!

Arriving at the gate though we fairly quickly realized the delays were going to mount. The flight coming in was delayed and they needed time to turn things around. At one point they made a very concerning announcement that we couldn’t board because maintenance was still onboard fixing an issue and they had no idea when they’d be done. Fortunately ten minutes later we could finally board. The total delay was only about an hour and half in the end.


We got to board fairly early and I quite liked the leg room my son and I had. It’s worth sharing a few tips here about our airfare as it was one of my biggest concerns with planning a trip to Europe. Our travel agent gave us some excellent advice. She set us up with a Delta Vacations package. This let us use and earn Skymiles with Delta while getting a better price through booking airfare together with a 3 night hotel stay. We locked in a price and only had to pay a deposit with the remainder not due until 30 days out. We even got to reprice when prices dropped and our agent watched and saved us like $600.00. In the end we covered almost a whole person worth of cost with miles and it just turned out great!

A month or two after booking I was debating the best seating arrangement for the family. It was my family’s first time on a wide body jet and I wondered if we wanted to do 2 and then 4 or 2x2x2 in rows behind each other. I happened to notice in the Delta app we could upgrade to Comfort+ for only $50.00 per person for the to Europe portion of our trip. Given we wanted to try and sleep heading to Europe it made a ton of sense to try and be a bit more comfortable and it was an incredible price. So we snagged it. It worked out well, everyone got some rest. I still can’t fully sleep on a plane but I dozed and got probably the best rest I ever have flying. Well on the way home I hit an exhaustion wall and crashed but more on that later. We didn’t have Comfort+ coming home and everyone definitely valued the difference though I don’t think I’d pay a ton for it especially on a shorter flight.

I’ve detoured long enough though. After our 9ish hour flight we arrived at Heathrow airport. There was a fair amount of walking but everything was smooth. We couldn’t use the automated immigration gates because my youngest was 9 at the time. We were directed to a family line to see a border agent and it was fairly quick. Luggage was easy and after landing about 11 am we were on the Heathrow Express by about 12:20 PM.



There are multiple ways to get from Heathrow to London but I elected to use the fastest public transit option and take the Heathrow Express. Children 15 and under travel for free meaning I only had to buy 3 tickets for our family. There are steep discounts if you purchase in advance. So it ended up being 66 pounds total. The pro is it is direct and fast to Paddington station. It was a comfortable train and there were luggage racks for suitcases. Definitely designed for travelers with luggage. The con is you can only go to Paddington station. I debated taking the tube the rest of the way to our hotel but didn’t want to navigate it with luggage. Besides, we had to try a London Black Cab. This way we traveled by plane, train and automobile.



We just grabbed this cab from the taxi stand at Paddington Station. I love that they have cabs for 6 but they don’t have a ton of luggage space. It was a good thing we had a low luggage strategy, more on that later. Also a warning half of you have to travel backwards which I also am not a big fan of. The cab ended up being 33 pounds so I don’t think we saved money vs taking a cab all the way from the airport. However we didn’t have to fight traffic to get into London. More importantly it was hot and the London cabs are not air conditioned. It was more pleasant to minimize our cab time so I don’t regret the approach.



We stayed at the Citadines Trafalgar Square. This was the hotel booked with our Delta Vacations package and isn’t one I ever would have found. We are big Marriott points users and always stay at Bonvoy affiliated properties. We ended up liking this option though. It was more of an apartment style hotel and we had a two bedroom room I’ll discuss more later. I loved that it was in an older historic building as evidenced by this stone outside. I guess by Europe standards maybe not that historic but still cool.


Our room wasn’t ready but they helpfully stored our luggage so we could solve the family’s number one need at the moment, food. Everyone was hungry, the plane breakfast wasn’t bad but it was a bit weird and a few didn’t feel great after a long flight and didn’t eat it. Now though everyone was starving.

My wife and kids watched several videos about how much better McDonalds is in Europe before we left. So they really wanted to give it a try. Sometimes you just go with it. So we walked up to the McDonalds we saw from the cab in Leicester Square.





I liked my burger. I would say the bun was better than back home and the halloumi fries were tasty. They kind of have a mozzarella stick vibe. We also tried a number of different dipping sauces, the curry one was quite good. Was it incredible? No, it was McDonalds but in London it felt more In and Out than McDonalds if I can make that quality comparison. Everyone was filled and happy. That location though was pretty busy and a little crazy. There seemed to be a lot of student groups from other European countries out and about.

Our strategy for beating jet lag aside from shifting our sleeping hours leading up to the flight, and sleeping on the flight was to stay up upon arrival until bedtime. So I was happy we were walking around. You just can’t get the experience of walking in a European city anywhere in the US. Such different architecture and so many things to see.



This is Charing Cross, one of many beautiful train stations we’d see on our trip. This one would end up playing an unexpected heroic role for us. More on that later. I'm at the photo limit so I'll continue in the next post.

 

[greensombrero]

London Day 1



I haven't introduced my family yet. This was the first of many .5 selfies we took on our adventure. Joining me for this trip was my amazing wife who fortunately supports and even encourages my travel and DCL addition. We also had all our kids: 17 yr old daughter, 15 year old son, 13 yr old daughter and at this point 9 year old son. He would turn 10 in Barcelona and get a birthday I suspect he won't soon forget.

I booked a 3pm reservation for the London Eye. It was on my kids list of things they really wanted to do. I thought a ride might keep them excited and awake so we did it.



The London Eye was just across the Thames from our hotel. We enjoyed the walk across the Golden Jubilee Bridge and our first sight of Big Ben.

The con to the London Eye is that even if you have a reservation you have a wait, longer than I expected. We weren’t really thrilled to queue in the heat for about 45 minutes. They do have more expensive tickets that I believe cut the wait and also give you a flexible time. I didn't want to spend that money so we just had to wait.

The views from the London Eye though are pretty cool.





The other challenge was that the ride is pretty long. In some ways that is good, more value for your money. However when you are tired after flying across the Atlantic and queuing in the heat the kids were done before we were ready to get off.



Overall I think the London Eye is a cool thing to do in London. It isn't super repeatable but I don't regret doing it. I don't think it is a great travel day activity to help keep you up and fighting jet lag though, lesson learned.

After we got off we went back to the hotel to formally check in and explore our rooms. The front desk agent told me he put us in a bit bigger room so we'd have more space. I'm not sure if ours may have been unique in its layout. They were in an older building after all. It was a bit different. I'm horrible at remembering to take hotel room photos before my kids spread out so you'll just get the most unique feature.



It was two levels with a very tight spiral staircase between the two. Kind of fun and kind of annoying at times. On the main floor we had a little kitchenette with a flat top burner, microwave, sink, dishwasher and little fridge. There was also a table and couch that turned into a sofa bed that my girls shared. They said it was fairly comfortable.

The room featured a split bathroom design but was a bit different from the variety you find onboard a DCL ship. The main floor bathroom was just a toilet and sink. Upstairs was the sink and shower/tub. This meant if you needed to use the facilities in the night you had to navigate down the spiral staircase. Fortunately they had a motion detector triggered light on the stairwell.

Also upstairs were two bedrooms. One had a double bed. The other had two twins but they were placed so close together it almost felt like a single bed. Originally we planned on the boys taking that room but with the beds so close together and their particular sibling dynamic that meant they didn't have enough buffer space not to drive each other crazy. So my oldest and I took that room and my wife and youngest the other. Overall to find a hotel room that slept 6 in Europe is nearly impossible. To have it work with the Delta package we booked even less likely. So I have no real complaints. The staff at the hotel were great! Definitely felt the service level was there. They had a great filtered water dispenser to fill our refillable bottles. There was also an included fancy coffee machine if that is your thing. They did offer a continental breakfast in the morning but it wasn't included in our rate so we never did it.

One of the best features was self service laundry. It all ran through an app you download on your phone. You could reserve a machine and pay in the app then it would unlock it for you to start it. Very useful and we did a couple loads the night before we left. This was a long trip with limited luggage so laundry would be a thing.

On that note here is a quick rundown on our luggage strategy for a family of 6 in Europe. We bought travel backpacks on Amazon for each of us. The brand was Sinaliy and they turned out great. We had everyone pack the bulk if not all their clothes and personal items in their backpack. We did expand them and used them as overhead bin carryons rather than personal items. When not expanded you could fit it under a seat. For personal items the kids all had a cross body water bottle holder bag my wife also found on Amazon. I don't recall the brand but they had a couple small pockets that they could put a snack or the main pocket was big enough to hold their phone.

For all our backpacks and the water bottle backs we bought little travel combo locks so we could lock zippers together and deter any would be thieves. I read all about pickpockets, scammers, etc in Europe. There was no way a family of 6 wouldn't stand out so we just made ourselves less easy targets with the locks on bags and being aware of our surroundings. We didn't have any issues and never felt unsafe on the trip. Definitely don't let the youtube videos scare you.

The last part of our luggage strategy was pure genius on the part of my wife. She bought a new luggage set on Amazon a while ago that was on sale with 3 pieces that came nested in each other like those Russian stacking dolls. One was a big checked bag, a medium one and a carry on. For Europe we packed in the medium one then nested it in the big one with some shoes around the edge. We bought a second set and did the same thing. So we had two medium checked bags but nested in two large suitcases. The idea was as we accumulated souvenirs we'd take the medium bags out of the big ones and have 2 empty large suitcases to fill. However early on in our travels when we were taking trains and cabs we'd only have 2 large suitcases and backpacks to deal with. The strategy worked brilliantly and we were able to take what we needed for the trip and come home with everyone's treasures! This included my daughter who wanted to buy a sweatshirt in each city we visited. We did bring those vacuum packing bags with a hand held pump to compress clothing down as well. All in all it just worked really well for us.

Enough practical tips. How did we end our first day? Well I hadn't made dinner plans because I didn't know how we'd feel but we were all doing pretty well with the time change and long flight. I'm not sure who suggested it, maybe i just saw it on Google maps but we ended up not being very original. We saw we could get a reservation in an hour at the Hard Rock Cafe in Picadilly Circus so we went for it. I know more American food but I am actually really glad we did it. We walked over there and got to see more architecture. Also the Hercules musical banners.



We also discovered Hard Rock sells souvenir drum sticks with the name of the city on them and custom artwork for the location. My 15 year old is a percussionist with the marching band and indoor percussion group at high school and this became a really cool souvenir for him to collect. We got drumsticks at every Hard Rock we could. He now has them for London, Barcelona and Lisbon.

Anyhow the dinner was good, everyone liked their food and we had a great server. So while not super original it was a great dinner.



We got a picture with the famous lions of Trafalgar Square on our way back. Following up on our hotel it really was an incredible location. We absolutely loved where it was located for exploring London. That is perhaps the best thing about the Citadines at Trafalgar Square. So while it didn't feel like a typical American hotel we were very happy with our stay and would absolutely stay there again. With that we were all very tired and ready for bed so I'll end this day's post.

 

[Bad Pink Tink 2.0]

Loving this trip report. I used to live in London and will be back there soon visiting friends. I did the 5 night Spain cruise which had stops in La Coruna and Vigo in 2024, so Im very interested to see what you did in those ports. Links to my trip reports are in my signature. Im also on The Fantasy from Southampton next week, on the 3 night France cruise.

Glad you went to the UK McDonalds. Its something I always recommend Americans do. Yes its fast food and McDonalds, but the burger patty is 100% British beef and traceable from farm to factory, by UK / EU law. The fries are also just potatoes, oil and natural flavours. Theres actually YouTube videos comparing the ingredients in UK McDonalds and American McDonalds, and you will be shocked at the differences.

Love that you went to Hard Rock. I used to work for Hard Rock in Germany and Scotland. Its an urban myth that its American. You actually went to the original first Hard Rock which opened in 1971. Hard Rock was originally opened in that exact location by 2 American men Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton, who wanted to bring the American diner experience to London. That location is also where the guitars and music memorabilia started. In the 1970's a lot of musicians used to go there, including Eric Clapton, who was a regular. He was going on tour and wanted to make sure that when he got back his favourite table would be held for him. So he gave Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton, a guitar to put on the wall, to mark his table. Pete Tousand from The Who heard about this, and brought in one of his guitars, to do the same thing, with a note that said, "mines as good as his, love Pete" . And thats how guitars and all the music memorabilia became part of Hard Rock

 

[greensombrero]

Loving this trip report. I used to live in London and will be back there soon visiting friends. I did the 5 night Spain cruise which had stops in La Coruna and Vigo in 2024, so Im very interested to see what you did in those ports. Links to my trip reports are in my signature. Im also on The Fantasy from Southampton next week, on the 3 night France cruise.

Glad you went to the UK McDonalds. Its something I always recommend Americans do. Yes its fast food and McDonalds, but the burger patty is 100% British beef and traceable from farm to factory, by UK / EU law. The fries are also just potatoes, oil and natural flavours. Theres actually YouTube videos comparing the ingredients in UK McDonalds and American McDonalds, and you will be shocked at the differences.

Love that you went to Hard Rock. I used to work for Hard Rock in Germany and Scotland. Its an urban myth that its American. You actually went to the original first Hard Rock which opened in 1971. Hard Rock was originally opened in that exact location by 2 American men Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton, who wanted to bring the American diner experience to London. That location is also where the guitars and music memorabilia started. In the 1970's a lot of musicians used to go there, including Eric Clapton, who was a regular. He was going on tour and wanted to make sure that when he got back his favourite table would be held for him. So he gave Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton, a guitar to put on the wall, to mark his table. Pete Tousand from The Who heard about this, and brought in one of his guitars, to do the same thing, with a note that said, "mines as good as his, love Pete" . And thats how guitars and all the music memorabilia became part of Hard Rock

Thanks for following along! I loved La Coruña, one of my favorite places I've visited and we did something super fun there so stay tuned. Vigo is also beautiful but was less exciting for us. I'm pretty sure I've read one or more of your trip reports in the past maybe even in prep for this trip. I read so many things over the year plus we waited.

Yeah I am glad we tried the UK McDonalds. I don't eat there at home but it was fun to try. The better ingredients definitely stood out.

I did not realize the history of Hard Rock. Thank you for sharing!

 

[greensombrero]

London Day 2

I was pleasantly surprised to find I woke up our first morning in London feeling good. While I've done some long flights to South America I've never had such a larger time zone change and really wasn't sure how I'd fair. I had purposefully given us a late start for the morning so I headed out for a run along the Thames.



From our hotel I headed east along the river towards the Tower Bridge. There were others out running so I didn't feel out of place until the path started to veer away from the river and I felt I was getting into a business area with a lot of commuters. At that point I turned around and ran the other direction to Big Ben. You can't go any further without crossing the river so I went back ran around the block and got myself a full 5K in. It is always fun to run somewhere new.

After the run I cleaned up and everyone was up and doing well. We had a 10:40 AM reservation at the British Museum. Tickets are free for the museum but you can sign up for an entry time and as we'd learn it is worth doing so. I did need to figure out breakfast and decided maybe we should try and find a place near the museum. We needed to get going to have time to eat and make it to the museum on time.

It was time for our first adventure on the Tube. I ordered Oyster cards for the kids through visitlondon.com. You do pay a bit to have them shipped internationally but it was nice to have them in advance. I just put 15 pounds on each which ended up being perfect. You can pay for the Tube with an Oyster card or with any contactless credit card. You just can't share a card and you have to tap in and out with the same card. So any contactless credit card without international transaction fees works. With kids though buying a Oyster card is a great solution.

We walked the short distance from our hotel to the Embankment tube station. I have to give the workers there a 10 out of 10 for great customer service. I knew I was an inexperienced tourist and didn't want to cause an issue so I asked how we handle the gates with my 9 year old who is free. They realized we had just arrived and he pulled me over and added the young visitor discount on my teens oyster cards. Those 11 - 15 get half price fare and they will load it on a visitor Oyster card. I had read about it but loved they were proactive at making sure we got it.

Personally I love public transit on vacation. I don't really love to drive and I've already said I'm a bit fan of trains so I was all about taking the tube. I think by the end of the trip my kids were a little less enthusiastic for my insistence of trying every subway system we could in Europe. To start with though it was fun.

We ended up eating breakfast at this place because it had great reviews on Google and was near the British Museum.



Interesting name but some of the best breakfast sandwiches we've ever had. It was really really good. Apparently they are a chain and there are locations in California and some other places in the US. I had just never heard of them before. I'm not sure if it was just this location or if they are all as good but it was really good food. As we were leaving they realized it was our first time there and they asked if we tried the hash browns which we didn't. They gave us a couple to go. They are the hash brown round things you can get at a few fast food type places but they were not like any I've had before. They were so good! I would definitely eat there again and will have to check one out here in the US if I find myself near one.

Unfortunately Google Maps gave us some bad directions to the British Museum. It took us to the rear entrance which is where you go if you don't have timed entry tickets. There were larger queues and I was glad when they told me to go to the main entrance however the museum is so big it was quite the walk around the block to the main entrance. If you have a timed ticket though you just walk through security and right inside super easy no queue. So plus one for getting a prearranged time.

This is the front entrance.



The British Museum is huge with a ton to see. My kids aren't all big museum fans so we didn't plan to do more than see some of the highlights. My wife and I were super interested in the Egyptian exhibits, the Rosetta Stone and whatever else we saw along the way.



I do believe this was Cleopatra's mummy which is pretty cool. However it isn't that Cleopatra, still cool though.



It was cool to see the Rosetta stone! I love languages and it was a key to unlocking our understanding of ancient texts so definitely one of those cool things to see.

There was a whole gallery with interesting clocks we found ourselves in.



London was hot while we were there. We dogged the worst of the heat wave I believe but it was still quite hot. The temperatures on paper seemed like nothing to us but we quickly learned London is not built for the heat. I had assumed visiting the British Museum would be a great idea on a hot day but no it is not air conditioned, at least not all of it. They had some big fans blowing but some of the smaller galleries were quite toasty. The larger ones not so bad but London is just not equipped for high temperatures.

We spent some time in the gift shops as well but after about 2 hours we were ready to move on. We only scratched the surface but I am glad we went. Given it is free you don't have to spend a ton of time there for it to be worthwhile. Though if you wanted to you could totally make a day of it.

Our next stop was Hyde Park. I'll share a picture of a greener part because much of the park was looking pretty parched and brown from the heat. This area was great.



We stopped by a little visitor booth and got a map. The park is huge and we didn't have a plan but the map was helpful. We also grabbed some ice cream bars at the snack shake next store. There may have been better options in the park but no one was really hungry after breakfast and an ice cream bar was perfect to cool us down.
We stopped by the Holocaust Memorial Garden



We also saw something about a Reformer's Tree that sounded interesting but we discovered the tree is gone and now it is just a monument to the tree.



It probably would have been smart to have done a bit more research before we headed to Hyde Park to understand what we were looking at. The main reason we went was my wife had read in so many of the historical fiction novels she enjoys about people enjoying Hyde Park in the early 1900s. She really wanted to see it. She was surprised to see there were a ton of adults enjoying the park, playing lawn games and having a great time, just like in her books! I believe British school wasn't quite out yet so not many kids. It took us back a bit just how many adult groups were enjoying it on a Thursday afternoon but we thought it was really cool they were!



One part of the park I knew a bit about from history was Speaker's Corner. I took some flake from my kids from trying to find it. There isn't much there but this sign so I missed it at first. I did want to at least say I'd been there. Overall the park visit was enjoyable and I do recommend stopping by if you are exploring London. It was another place we could have spent a lot more time than we did but if you are just wandering without a plan it was enough time.

Now that we were at this corner of the park we were just down the street from the Disney store. So up next due to photo limits is our pilgrimage to the Disney Store.

 

[tkd lisa]

Thanks so much for this report. We're heading to Europe for our cruise in about10 days and I'm scouring the web for recent information. And I learned something from you. I didn't know kids were free in the underground. Both my grandchildren are under the limit, so thanks!

 

[greensombrero]

Thanks so much for this report. We're heading to Europe for our cruise in about10 days and I'm scouring the web for recent information. And I learned something from you. I didn't know kids were free in the underground. Both my grandchildren are under the limit, so thanks!

Awesome you'll have a great time! We really liked London though if we go back I think we'd want to explore more of the UK. There is a ton in London but we got enough and want to see what else is out there.

My understanding is under 11 on London public transport like the Tube is free. If you take one of the national rail service trains the rules are different. For example if you head up to Watford Junction for the Harry Potter Studios tour we had to buy a ticket for our youngest.

I'll try and finish up my London portion this weekend for you but if you have any questions let me know. We also did Stonehenge on the way to the airport after Southampton. It's relatively close to Southampton for a pre/post visit. If you are considering that and have questions let me know.

 

[greensombrero]

London Day 2 -- Afternoon / Evening



We decided to walk from Hyde Park down to the London Disney Store along a street that I think is called A40. Not sure if it has a better name but that is what Google Maps says. There were lots of stores along it and we stopped into a nice souvenir shop and everyone left with something they were excited with. We had lots of ways the kids could earn souvenir money leading up to the trip. I prefer they have a budget they get to stick to and evaluate how they want to spend even if I am a bit generous in my chore payouts leading up to the trip.

As we entered the Disney Store it was clear they were pushing the cruises from Southhampton. Not only was there this sign in the window but they were playing that old Sea Cruise song. It wasn't a Disney cut either so unless it is in some Disney movie I'm not thinking of it must have been to push the cruises.



They actually had quite a bit of exclusive London merchandise. I was surprised because we were disappointed by the New York Disney Store. Of course I didn't take any pictures to share because I didn't think about it.

We all really wanted a reason to buy Pouchy from Inside Out 2 but we couldn't think of one especially since he didn't come with dynamite inside.



My oldest decided she needed a London Loungefly. To be fair it was cool and she has a job so she has her own money to burn. One tip though they do give a Disney Visa discount at the London Disney store however it doesn't apply to any London themed merchandise or Loungfly. The problem is the Disney Visa also has international transaction fees. My first thought was a 10% discount would outweigh a 3-4% fee. However by the time the manager came over and approved the discount and mentioned most of the stuff we wanted wouldn't be covered I felt committed and didn't think quick enough maybe using it was a bad idea, oh well. I think after I did the math it was almost break even. One of my kids got some discount eligible clothes they wanted.

After our shopping spree it was time to head back to the hotel for a bit before our fun evening plans. I used Google Maps for most of our Tube navigation. I had heard many prefer CityMapper and I did download it but force of habit I tended to just pull up Google. One flaw I discovered with Google is it seemed to really prefer avoiding transferring between Tube lines and would recommend walking further instead. We came out with this view.



Which was cool for everyone but meant we had a bit of a walk back to our hotel. We could have transferred to another line and got off at our normal station. We didn't realize that though at this point but would learn as we spent more time in London. Not that we minded the walk today but when it was raining our last day it was nice to know. So my point is maybe CityMapper might do a better job of showing you options that involve less walking if that is a concern, but I didn't experiment to find out. Once you ride the Tube a bit it isn't hard to start to figure it out on your own if you go back through the same area.

So what did we have planned for tonight? Well first I got us reservations at the Sherlock Homes Pub a month or so before the trip.



I found it online, it was really close to our hotel and had decent ratings. I wanted to eat at least once in a pub and thought this might be fun. There was always a big crowd outside drinking. It was definitely something we weren't used to seeing. It seemed everyone just hung out outside. I was glad we had a reservation but once we went in we realized the crowd was outside and the indoor dining room wasn't crowded.

The pub is themed and has a recreation of Holmes study.



We really enjoyed our food. I was a bit worried it was more of a touristy place and we might not but I loved my fish and chips, my son said it was one of the best burgers he has had and the rest of my family was happy. I got to try mushy peas with my fish and chips. I eat my vegetables but they weren't anything super exciting but fun to try. The star of the meal though was the Sticky Toffee Pudding we ordered for dessert. If you go to a British pub and it is on the menu you have to try it! I had read about it in advance and boy was that good advice, so good! Maybe it wasn't the best pub in town but we enjoyed it and the theming was fun.

Our tummies nice and full we were ready for our evening entertainment. I don't remember exactly how it came about but when we were talking with my kids before the trip about what they wanted to do somehow the idea of a "Ghost Tour" came up. I ran across theghostbustours.com somehow and after reading about it decided to book it for this evening. I realized it left right across the street from the pub and just down from our hotel so it was super convenient for us.

Imagine a Jungle Cruise Skipper meets a Haunted Mansion host and gives a city tour in an old original style double decker bus painted black focusing on murder and death in the city. That is what it was. Our guide was hilarious, lots of skipper humor. It was much more of a theatrical event than anything else including a little bit of a Haunted Mansion experience at the end. The tour was actually a great tour of the city.

I got my first view of the Tower Bridge, which was on my bucket list of things to see.

We got to see Pye Corner which is where the London Fire started. They did a couple stops where we got out with the guide to look at things and hear him tell stories. Most of it was riding. They had a TV on both levels with cameras so you could see him speaking wherever he was on the bus and he moved about the bus throughout the tour.



We drove past the address of Sweeney Todd and saw much, much more. The tour does focus on famous deaths and executions. It gets a little macabre and there were a couple graphic bits about a hot poker etc. It still felt family friendly but might not be appropriate for really young kids. My teens though absolutely loved it. It was a highlight of the trip for my 15 yr old son. We did learn a lot too and see things we wouldn't have otherwise.

My youngest also really wanted to ride a double decker bus and while they have the new ones in regular service it was pretty cool to be on one of the originals even if it had a paint job.



The total length of the tour was a little over an hour and again was super entertaining. 11 out of 10 would highly recommend and if we were back in London we'd do it again. I don't know if the quality varies by the guide but ours was phenomenal.

After a really fun day we were all ready for bed. We had an earlier morning planned for the next day as it would be Harry Potter day for this family full of HP fans. I think that night I did buy our train tickets from Euston station to Watford Junction. If you are going up to the HP Studios from London you can take the Tube to Euston station then you have to switch to one of the national rail service trains and take it to Watford Junction. It's about a 20 minute train ride. I found if I prebooked online tickets through London Northwestern Railway we could get a group pass and save quite a bit of money. We picked a specific train time for leaving but specified an open return time and could take any of their trains back that afternoon. I think there may have been more than one railway servicing that route so we just had to stick with one of their trains. You technically can do a tap to pay like the Tube for this train but we saved a lot of money prebooking. Also kids who are free on the Tube aren't on this train so my youngest needed a ticket too.

We bought our studio tour tickets as part of my kids Christmas present and I added on the Harry Potter themed English tea with it because it sounded cool and fun. Our tea time was 11 am and then we got tickets for the studio tour after that. So I just figured out a comfortable train time. They have free buses that shuttle from Watford Station to the studio tour for those with tickets. So I just gave ourselves time for the bus ride and a little cushion and figured out what train we'd need to take from Euston and what time we needed to take the Tube from our Embankment station. Our tickets were for the 9:39 train that got into Watford at 9:59. Maybe a bit earlier than we needed but since we had never done this before I figured a little extra time wouldn't hurt. So with a plan and a warning we needed to leave the room about 8:45 AM the next morning, again with some padding to be safe, we all headed to bed.

 

[tkd lisa]

Awesome you'll have a great time! We really liked London though if we go back I think we'd want to explore more of the UK. There is a ton in London but we got enough and want to see what else is out there.

My understanding is under 11 on London public transport like the Tube is free. If you take one of the national rail service trains the rules are different. For example if you head up to Watford Junction for the Harry Potter Studios tour we had to buy a ticket for our youngest.

I'll try and finish up my London portion this weekend for you but if you have any questions let me know. We also did Stonehenge on the way to the airport after Southampton. It's relatively close to Southampton for a pre/post visit. If you are considering that and have questions let me know.

Thanks for the offer. I've actually visited the UK frequently for work and seen Stonehenge. We're doing 3 days in Edinburgh pre trip and 3 in London post cruise.

 

[Disnsyncey]

loving the report! so fun!
and I see that the DCL blog was on your trip too!

 

[greensombrero]

loving the report! so fun!
and I see that the DCL blog was on your trip too!

Thanks!
I heard that he was on our sailing though I have no idea if I saw him onboard.

 

[greensombrero]

London Day 3 -- Leaving the Muggle World

As was my role though out this trip first task this morning was to hunt for breakfast for my family. I really did want to try doing a full sit down British breakfast but it never worked out logistically. This morning we just needed something light since we had our tea at the Harry Potter studio tour at 11am.

I saw a place called buns from home on Google maps and decided to check it out. They have delicious buns of various types. They don't make them onsite but I saw them being delivered fresh that morning.



I got a variety of flavors and they were all very good! I think they have multiple locations and I'd definitely recommend them.

Everyone ate while getting ready and as is often the case with my family if I'm worried about being on time to something we generally end up early. I mentioned in the last post we had a specific train from Euston station to Watford Junction and the WB studios we needed to catch. Given we were taking the tube there I wanted to allow plenty of time. I didn't think it'd be a big deal to get to Euston station early and it wasn't technically but I learned a thing or two.

Number one is train stations in Europe are much bigger busier places than any train station I've been to in the US. Maybe there are some east coast ones that would be an exception but I was expecting maybe a couple train platforms not what we found. It was fine but there isn't a lot of seating for the number of people so we had to stand.

There were some shops including a convenience store type place where we went and looked at British candy and chips. I got a Lime Coke Zero because I haven't seen that flavor in the states in a long time. However we mainly stood around watching the big train board waiting for our platform to be called. Not gonna lie I kind of thought that was cool but my kids not so much. They don't tell you your platform until just a few minutes before. So showing up super early has its cons but eventually we boarded the train.

I love trains and looking out the window, especially someplace new. I didn't really take any pictures though but I found this one to give you an idea of what this train is like and more importantly I like the houses out the window.



All the houses in the London area at least were close together like what I'd call town homes. I found that really interesting. Most things also look old, much older than I'm used to which makes sense given how long London has been around. By old I don't necessarily mean it in a not cared for way just that you can tell things have been around a while longer. Just one of the things I noticed that I hadn't really expected. Anyhow it wasn't a very long train ride and the scenery kept me pretty engaged.

When you arrive at Watford Junction they have clear signs where to go to catch a bus to the studio tour. The buses are included with admission and seem to run pretty regularly. There was a queue but we were pretty quick exiting the train so we didn't have a long wait. They have a little video on the bus but once again I was mainly looking around.

There are so many pictures I could share of the studio tour but I'm going to just share a few highlights since this trip report is supposed to be about the cruise. You can probably find plenty online. I did love this dragon greeting you in the entrance hall.



We were a bit early for our tea time so we checked out the gift shop. They have all sorts of cool things for the witch or wizard in your life. I heard a pro tip on the dcl podcast that the gift shop is less busy in the morning and tends to be busier at the end when people are leaving. It is so true, it was practically empty. I encouraged my family to make their purchases before we did the tour. We found out they will hold your bags at the front desk. So we did that before we went to tea. I have to say it was a really smart move, it was so pleasant to shop with minimal people and when you end the tour not surprisingly you end up in the gift shop. It was packed and hard to navigate and I'm glad we got to walk right out. So come early, shop early, and they will hold your packages.

On to tea. They had these little caddies with servings for 3 people so we got 2 for our table of 6. There is one of everything for people to try.



Here it is laid out on a plate



You get some themed sweet desserts, a sausage roll, a meat pie and a couple finger sandwiches. There was also a smoked salmon on a cracker not pictured. You also can select from a variety of herbal or regular teas.

The star of the show for me though were these:



Butterbeer scones, strawberry preserves and clotted cream, yes please! I thought all the food was good though and the sandwiches had some different flavors. One did have some shrimp that not everyone was into but I liked that sandwich. It was a bit expensive but given the theming and everything I thought it was worth it. For my kids having a British tea experience that was Harry Potter themed was the perfect combination.

After our tea we headed into the experience. Its worth calling out in general the studio tour is self paced and more like a museum than anything else. It really isn't interactive with a few exceptions. They do start you out though in a bit of a preshow/intro experience. That part is much more controlled, you are kept together in a large group and they don't allow photos in that section. So we will start when you make the grand entrance into the great hall.



I don't think my photography skills are great but it gives you some idea of the scope of the space. I loved the floating candles and they let us know that in the first movie they used real candles suspended on wires. They had issues with them burning through the wires though so later films had them added in post production. Of course now we have LED candles available which is what they currently have.

As I mentioned the tour is largely self guided though they do have cast members throughout you can talk to and ask questions. It is a mix of prop displays and actual set piece displays. This was one of my favorites, Dumbledore's Office.



You know you are half way through when you see the Hogwart's Express. Of course I had to take a photo of it.



Oh one other tip. In general all the gift shop items throughout the our are available in the main gift shop at the entrance. The one exception I noticed is they had some exclusive Hogwarts Railways stuff in a small shop by the train. I'm glad I grabbed a couple things there instead of thinking I could wait and get it at the entrance one.

After you go through the train you exit into the courtyard that signals the halfway point. I'm at my photo limit so we will make it a stopping point for this post.

 

[greensombrero]

London Day 3 -- Hogwarts and Reentering the Muggle World
After you leave the train you go into a courtyard and there is a restaurant where you can get butter beer and various food items, typical grill sort of stuff. It isn't clear from my post but it took us almost two hours to get to this point. There was a lot to see that I didn't share.

Unfortunately this was one of those hard family travel moments. My older son is not a huge Harry Potter fan these days and he does have some neurodivergent tendencies. He was done with all the people and just looking at things that didn't interest him. Especially since the rest of the family are big HP fans and some of them really like to take their time and look at all the details. We ran into a bit of a breakdown. So we got some butter beers and I got him some food since he was a bit hungry and a snack for everyone else to share. They have both a regular butter beer and a frozen kind. I got the frozen kind but most got the regular which did come in a souvenir cup you can take home. It has been a number of years but I think the butter beer options at Universal Studios are better but it was still good.

This might be a worthwhile spot to talk about cell service in Europe because this was the moment I realized I made a bit of a mistake. We have Verizon and have used the TravelPass when we travel in the past. It has gone up to $12 a day though. However on our plan we can sign up for the perk and get 3 days a month for $10 and you can bank the days if you don't use them. So I signed my wife and I up for the perk a few months before the trip and we had banked plenty of days to just use our normal Verizon service throughout the trip. I did that because it was easy and meant we had full phone/text with our normal number along with data for navigation etc. The service worked great throughout the trip and it was a win. At basically $3.33 a day since we had done the monthly perk and banked days, the price wasn't bad. We didn't have any issues with the quality of service either.

I knew my oldest daughter would need service a couple days and I signed her up not as far out but she had a few banked days. For my middle two who also have phones my plan was to offer them an esim if they really wanted data on the trip because I didn't think they really needed cell service and could rely on wifi or if they really needed it a data only esim as they are less expensive. I have travel pass activated so if they got into an emergency, got separated from us etc they could activate their phone to call us and it would just be $12 no big deal. Well they told me they didn't want just data, they were fine with wifi if they needed data, they wanted to be able to text their friends many of whom only have standard sms text.

My youngest daughter was fine without service except she got temporarily separated from us in the British museum and activated it to call us before we realized where she was. My son though really struggled and wanted to text his friends so I ended up paying for some travel pass days for both of them. This was one of those days when it really helped him to just say okay connect your phone. So if I could do it over I would have just signed them up for the perk a couple months ahead and banked them some days too. They didn't need it every day but it was nice for them to have it some. Minor issue in the grand schema of things but if you are traveling with teens spend a bit of time ahead to figure out the best solution for their needs. It was worth it for them to have a connection to friends when we were doing something they really weren't interested in or they were struggling with all the new and different experiences.

Anyhow after our break we enjoyed some of the cool things in the courtyard like the Knight Bus.



You can see Privet drive in the background, apparently I didn't get a better picture. You could go inside though and I thought this was a really cool set setup to see.



This picture has a really cool back story.



As we were walking down "Diagonal Alley" one of the cast members struck up a conversation because he saw my daughter's London Disney Loungefly she bought the day before and was wearing. Turns out he was a former DCL cast member on the Dream. He was asking us when we've sailed and we realized we sailed with him on our last Dream cruise Oct of 2023 from NYC to Bermuda. It's a small world. We asked and he was happy to take this family photo for us.

The second half definitely has less to see than the first half and soon we were at the end where they have the incredible Hogwarts model used in filming. They had a projection mapping show they were doing every few minutes. While we were there they were celebrating the 4th movie and the Triwizard Cup. So the show featured the dragon from that movie/book that chases Harry and rampages on the castle.



It was a cool little show but so was just seeing all the details on the castle in the lights. I'm fascinated by models like this.



As we finished again we saw how crazy the gift shop was and we were glad we did our shopping earlier. It was easy to pick up our things at the front desk, get a shuttle back to the train station and a train back to London.

All in all the Harry Potter Studio tour is an incredible thing to see if you are a Harry Potter fan or movie making fan who loves to see film sets, props, etc. It is more of a museum then a theme park experience so not a lot of interactivity. If you aren't a big fan or have people who aren't in your group you'll want to figure out a plan. There is so much to see some will want to take their time and take it all in. I'm glad we went.

I had no idea when we'd end up back at our hotel so I hadn't booked any dinner plans. We just did the tea and a snack so people were hungry at this point. My older son had heard from a friend that KFC was really good in the UK. It was one of his few trip requests. He also really wanted some downtime in the hotel. So I grabbed him KFC take out, it didn't appeal to anyone else. My daughter really wanted Italian food. This trip reminded me while I love DCL, I don't have to navigate what we are going to eat with my kids .

My wife found a place with good reviews close to the hotel so we walked over. Only we couldn't find it. There was another place with some aggressive "sales people" trying to get us inside their restaurant. Sure sign of a tourist trap. Then we thought we found it next door but the menu wasn't right and we realized the tourist trap like expanded and took over the other place or something because it was the right address but wrong restaurant. We said no thanks and headed to another spot a block away. This one had clear signs they had a rewards program and were going for repeat business, a much better sign of good food. I don't remember the name but it was solid Italian food at a fair price. No Palo but a couple steps above Olive Garden. Everyone enjoyed their meals.

We decided to run over and see Buckingham Palace so we could say we'd at least seen it. The gate was cool but otherwise not much to see.



I imagine if you come for the changing of the guard this place would be packed but it was fun to see the square more or less empty.



Walking back though I saw a cool church and another building I had to take pictures of.





Three days in and I was sill fascinated by the architecture. It is definitely worth taking the time to walk around and see what you see.

That night ended with two important things. The first is I did laundry as it was our last night in this hotel. As I mentioned the hotel had a decent self service facility controlled and paid for via an app. Secondly since I was up doing laundry I decided to try for Notre Dame tickets. They go on sale at midnight Paris time and London was an hour earlier. They open 2 days in advance when we were there at least. I was hoping to snag some early tickets for our morning in Paris before we'd catch the train to Barcelona. I had checked back home a few times and say they seemed to sell out within minutes. Mustering all my Disney rope dropping skills though and with nothing else to do waiting for the dryer to finish I managed to snag us tickets for our morning in Paris. I was excited and ready for bed at that point! Fortunately the dryer finished shortly after as well.

 

[greensombrero]

London Day 4 -- The Tower Bridge Is Not the Tower of London

As has long been the task of Dads everywhere I was sent out in to the London rain this morning in search of breakfast for my family. I was actually a bit excited to experience rain in London. I spent much of my childhood in Seattle so I'm pretty happy and comfortable with rain. The London rain this morning though was very wet rain not the more misty rain we often got in Seattle. By the time the morning was done I'd discover my rain jacket is not London level water proof.

Back to breakfast though my initial plan was to grab food at the Cabman's Shelter. One of the remaining ones that serves food was right down from our hotel. It had been unexpectedly closed due to some issue when we first arrived but reopened the day before. I hadn't realized though they aren't open on Saturday. So that plan went out the window. I saw there was a highly rated sandwich shop open for breakfast in the nearby Charing Cross train station so I headed there. As I entered though these caught my eye.



Let me tell you these pasties were incredible. One of the best things I ate on the whole trip! I had the giant cheese and onion one and it was just really good. Not everyone was interested in one so I also got some sandwiches from the Upper Crust sandwich shop which the kids said were very good. Moral of the story is British train stations often have good food in them.

After breakfast we were going to do one of my bucket list items in London. The main thing I said we had to do. Now I have a confession for many years I thought the Tower of London and the London Tower Bridge were the same thing. I imagined the crown jewels stored in one of the towers of the bridge and the other holding political prisoners. Now I did sort that all out several years before this trip but it was a humorous memory I had as we took the tube to the Tower of London stop.

This is the Tower of London



It just isn't quite the tower I imagine and it is right by the Tower Bridge which you can see in the distance.



I did check with the family before the trip to see if anyone really wanted to do the Tower of London and no one did. I'm not sure if any of them were as excited as I was about doing the Tower Bridge. I got the kids excited because there is a cool fight scene in Spiderman Far From Home that takes place on the bridge.

Now anyone can walk across the bridge on the main level. However if you pay for a ticket you can climb the towers and cross the glass bottomed upper level and tour the engine rooms. As a big fan of bridges as part of my love of trains I of course wanted the whole experience and bought tickets in advance. This was one of a few places in Europe that offered family ticket packages that included adult and child tickets at a discount. Always check for those in Europe if you are traveling as a family. We had to add one ticket because it was only for a family of 5 but still a deal. We did have to pick a time but they were flexible and we actually adjusted it to a better time for us after we got to London.

Our timing was pretty great. We walked up and got in line just as they were preparing for a bridge raising. I was super excited.



Unfortunately just as they got the barriers up it was our turn to go through security. I'm not sure if there was an elevator but we started climbing the stairs. I flew up them which now I regret a bit. I was hoping I could get up to where I could see out and watch the bridge raising. There aren't any windows though out towards the bridge until the top so we didn't actually get to see the boat go through. So I missed reading some of the stuff going up but we did get a photo through the glass floor with no traffic on the bridge. That was cool.



Walking across the bridge is cool, there are nice views but the highlight for me was after we climbed down the far towers. You have to go outside but as you enter the gift shop if you have an admission ticket you can go through and see the steam boilers and engines that make the bridge work. They have been modernized but they have this museum section and I found it very cool.





This is probably not everyone's cup of tea but it doesn't take too long either. I really enjoyed going through the Tower Bridge and was really glad we did. It's not super expensive compared to some museums/sights especially with a family package. It is a unique experience. They did have a lot of signs to read as well to learn about the history of the bridge which was also quite interesting. If you have any interest in bridges, old mechanical things etc buy the tickets. If you just want the views you could walk across for no charge.

I will say I think the photo ops are better on the far side.



Unfortunately the rain really picked up as we left the bridge. It wasn't too bad walking to the bridge but after it was really coming down. My wife and I really wanted to check out the Borough Market. It isn't a bad walk from the bridge but in heavy rain any walk is a little less fun even if you are prepared with rain gear. There are some cool things to see along the river though.

We found a covered market/mall that we cut through to get a little bit dry. It had a really cool sculpture in it.



Not sure what it was supposed to be, seemed kind of a steam punk ship, I liked it.

I envisioned spending some time exploring the market but as we arrived we realized it was super crowded. I'm sure the rain didn't help as people were seeking shelter in the covered area. It was also a Saturday which is probably a busier day. We quickly realized we would have to make it quick with the kids. I saw a pastry stall I really wanted to get some things at. My wife took the kids and went in search of the chocolate and strawberries she had heard so much about.

After I got my pastries I found myself lost in the cheesemongers area. Everyone wanted to give me delicious British and other European style cheeses. I happily took samples and was wandering trying to decide if I could reasonably buy some cheese given we were leaving London the next day. They kept giving me samples and I was really enjoying the break from playing tour guide and sampling such great cheese. When I'm having a hard day I've often swung by the upscale grocery store at home for a visit to their cheese counter. So this was the place for me to get lost.

Only lasted a couple minutes then my wife was calling to reunite. She had gotten everyone chocolate and strawberries.



They were really, really good. The berries had great flavor and who can say no to chocolate? So we all ate ours and then the kids were done and ready to get back to the hotel. There was a nearby tube station that took us to Big Ben. This was a case where Google didn't tell me to transfer but I knew we could transfer to the other line and come out at the station right by our hotel. Saved us some more walking in the rain.

We had actually checked out of our hotel before leaving that morning. They were storing our luggage so we collected it and I asked the best way to get a cab. We loved taking the tube but knew we didn't want to try it with luggage. We were hoping to fit in a single cab again but figured worse case I'd take one of the kids and we'd take the tube while my wife took the others and the luggage. We were going up to another hotel, the St Pancras that is build into the St Pancras train station so we could be right there for our morning train to Paris the next day.

They suggested we use one of the apps to call a cab and I had downloaded Gett so I tried it. Our cab kept getting cancelled. After multiple cancelled cabs I asked the front desk and they said that happens especially on rainy days. They suggested maybe we walk up to the taxi stand at Charing Cross.

Remember how I shared a picture and mentioned it would play a heroic role in our trip? Well it kind of did with breakfast but here is where being close to a train station really paid off. As we walked up we realized the problem with the cabs. The entire street around our hotel was blocked off with a protest parade going on. I'm all for people protesting but it left our hotel isolated with no good way for a cab to get there. No wonder they were cancelling.

So I went into the train station and asked at the information counter, could we take a train from there to Kings Cross because we didn't want to tackle the tube with luggage? I said Kings Cross because it is across from St Pancras which is the international train station and I figured only had international trains. The lady responded no but you can get from here to St Pancras which is across the street from Kings Cross. Oh perfect that will work.

Even better we could use the last of the money on the kids Oyster cards and contactless credit cards to pay. It was only like 3 pounds. We did have to get off and transfer lines at another station but these trains were much better with luggage and it really wasn't a bad way to go. So now I know you can take trains a relatively short distance across London if you have luggage and don't want to use the tube.

Up next: our evening at the magnificent St Pancras hotel and train station, the best Indian food ever and our last night in London.