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Trip Planning to London - Help

Rollercoasters4Life

Rollercoasters4Life

TS Member
I am after a little help on a trip to London I will be making in October with the missus - if anyone could in anyway help I would be extremely grateful.

From Tuesday 7th October to the Saturday 11th October I will be making a trip down south to visit the lovely London for the first time and also be visiting a few other Merlin Attractions during the visit too. This is the planned course of events for the 5 day trip:

Tuesday: London
Wednesday: Thorpe Park
Thursday: Chessington World Of Adventures (Day) / Thorpe Park Fright Night Passholder Preview Event (Night)
Friday: Thorpe Park including Fright Nights
Saturday: Legoland Windsor

I've been Thorpe Park before but that is it for down south so thought we would make a long trip for the other attractions and do Fright Nights at the same time. We have a hotel sorted its near Thorpe Park and are now looking towards sorting out our day in London and here is where I would like some help. The rough plan for London is like this:

9:30 - Madame Tussauds
11:15 - London Eye
12:00 - Sealife Centre
1:00 - Lunch
1:45 - London River Cruise
2:45 - Sightsee - Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, etc.
6:00 - Spot of food
7:00 Go To The Top of The Shard

Now thats the rough idea, things will probably change time wise/attraction wise on the day but we will see how that plays out. To make my questions easier to read I will just lay them out in numbers rather than a big paragraph as it makes it easier to answer and to read, so here goes....:

1) I am looking to park my car outside of the centre of London to A) Not pay the congestion charge. B) Not to pay the hefty car parking prices. Now I was wondering is there a tube station outside of the centre of the London with reasonable full day parking but that has a good link to Baker Street Tube Station (Madame Tussauds) then I can use the Tube (Baker Street Station) to get to the London Eye (Waterloo or Westminster) Anyone have an experience doing this?

2) On the Madame Tussauds, London Eye, Sealife Centre is there a separate queue for Merlin Annual Pass holders or is it just one line? I'm guessing I just go to it like a normal Merlin attraction and queue to go in and no pre-booking is required, e.g Fright Nights.

3) To use the tube I might as well just get a Visitors Oyster Card hadn't I as I am only going to be there for one day. Is it right that there is a maximum cap charge per day so no matter how many journeys you do it will be capped at that highest price like mentioned here: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/travel-information/visiting-london/visitor-oyster-card?intcmp=4043

If anyone could answer any of these questions I would be very grateful and if you have any other tips.

Thanks in advance. :)
 
2. You go to the fasttrack queue on the Eye, Tussauds there is a separate queue, as there is at the SeaLife.

3. There is a cap on Oyster cards, however I have a full Oyster but presume they apply to visitor Oysters
 
For parking there are a couple of options. One is parking at a tube station. Depends which road you come in on but there is one at stanmore which is inside the m25 just off the m1. Its on the jubliee line that goes through Baker street.
A second option is to use a site like just park. Where you rent someone's drive. There are loads about and most of them are very reasonably priced.

We have done a similar day to you in London doing the merlin attractions and its a long day. The sea life centre is massive I am sure it took us well over an hour.
But others here will know the timings of all these places better than I do.

Oyster cards are nice and easy. Very handy if you plan on going back again. Just touch in and out.
Yes they have a daily cap which is lower than buying the same paper ticket. Just make sure you touch in and out so you don't get hit with the full price. If you use the buses you just touch in.
 
As someone else has mentioned, Id recommend parking at Stanmore or Cockfoster's the latter which is the last stop on the jubilee line. You even go past Wembley Stadium and Arsenal station - I dunno, some people wet themselves... ;) It's more expensive in the week than weekends though.

I would do the dungeons too frankly, it's included with your MAP and you also get to use the fastrack entrance so it doesn't take THAT long.

Personally I've always brought 1 day, all zones underground cards. I would normally think the tube is better than buses getting around, although with the problems (strikes, line works & terrorism threats) on the tube at the minute bus might be better. Never tried the oyster card.

Tussaud's can be done in 30 minutes if you don't care much for faff, so that is really dependent on how quickly you walk through. I guess the average is about 1.5hours?
 
Regarding the London Eye, I would be careful as I believe you have to queue with a Standard MAP, but can use the Fastrack queue if you have Premium. That was the case when I've visited during the year and have also seen it mentioned on the MAP Facebook page :)
 
When I first went on the London eye with a couple of friends we did one of the most impressive queue jumps ever!

It was a really busy day and there was a guy at the front of the building shouting to only send one person from your group to get the tickets.

My friend went off to get them and we waiting by the front of the building where the entrance is.
After a while he came back out with the tickets but he came out of the entrance as he knew thats where we were.

So we walked up to the queue by the eye and had our tickets scanned and were on the eye within about 15 mins.
As we got about 1/4 of the way round the wheel I noticed a massive full to bursting cattle pen next to the ticket building, where apparently the exit for the ticket building is. We were supposed to join that queue and it probably would have been a couple of hours to get through that.

I am so glad we did not see it. :cool:
 
Kimberley said:
Regarding the London Eye, I would be careful as I believe you have to queue with a Standard MAP, but can use the Fastrack queue if you have Premium. That was the case when I've visited during the year and have also seen it mentioned on the MAP Facebook page :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the information Kimberley, luckily me and my missus have Premium MAP. :)

smudge said:
I would do the dungeons too frankly, it's included with your MAP and you also get to use the fastrack entrance so it doesn't take THAT long.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately my missus isn't to keen on going to the London Dungeons as we did the Blackpool one and she wasn't a fan. Maybe when we are there I will persuade her though. :p

smudge said:
Tussaud's can be done in 30 minutes if you don't care much for faff, so that is really dependent on how quickly you walk through. I guess the average is about 1.5hours?
Click to expand...

I think we did the Blackpool one in just over an hour at a steady pace - some of the times above are worst case and include travel from MT to London Eye.

Jem8472 said:
For parking there are a couple of options. One is parking at a tube station. Depends which road you come in on but there is one at stanmore which is inside the m25 just off the m1. Its on the jubliee line that goes through Baker street.
A second option is to use a site like just park. Where you rent someone's drive. There are loads about and most of them are very reasonably priced.
Click to expand...

smudge said:
As someone else has mentioned, Id recommend parking at Stanmore or Cockfoster's the latter which is the last stop on the jubilee line. You even go past Wembley Stadium and Arsenal station - I dunno, some people wet themselves... ;) It's more expensive in the week than weekends though.
Click to expand...

I have had a look at parking at Stanmore and parking on someone's drive outside of the congestion charge area and here is what I have come up with:

Option 1:
Stanmore:
* Parking: £5.20 (all day)
*Travel Card Cost: £34.00 (£17.00 each PEAK Travel Zones 1-6)
Total: £39.20

Option 2:
Hamilton Gardens (someone's driveway)
* Parking: £12.50 (all day)
* Travel Card Cost: £18.00 (£9.00 each PEAK Travel Zones 1 & 2)
Total: £30.50

Option 2 seems better but will probably be more waiting in the car to get out of London to the Hotel at the end but less time on public transport so that might make up the ground as hotel is further away from Stanmore. Probably will end up going with option 2.

Just want to say another thank you for your help.
 
I would avoid taking your car anywhere near the center of town. Take it from someone who lives in zone 6... no one in their right mind drives further in than zone 3, especially in rush hour. It will be far quicker to get the the tube than be stuck in traffic.
 
It really is luck of the draw when it comes to London traffic. Another option to consider is going to somewhere like Westfield in Shepard's bush (just outside the congestion charge, but very close don't get lost) and its something like £5 all day.
 
Well we will be setting off from Crewe at about 5:15AM with the hopes of getting into London (Option 2) at about 9AM (includes 30 minutes breakfast stop at services) or am I being optimistic? Then probably leaving London at about 8:30PM.
 
That will be pretty bad traffic wise at that time of day. Avoid the M1, M4, M25, M/A40, North circular... pretty much any road starting with M or A in the south of England tbh!

I still advise parking as far out as you can and getting the tube in. I live on the Uxbridge brance of the Metropolitan line, and it's only about 50 minutes to Baker Street (the Met line also has nice new air conditioned trains, and is rarely as busy as the deep tubes even in rush hour).
 
Of course it's up to you, but I would second what Diogo says and would personally go for option 1 without any doubt. If you hit the traffic, which on a Friday is VERY possible, you could be stationary for an hour at a time. You would be much safer (time wise) using the tube.
 
Oh and when I did the London Merlin attractions I shoehorned in a visit to MeatLiquor for lunch. I advise you do the same...
 
go for tea at dinner by heston at the mandarin oriental. have meat fruit starter. its amazing. not to expensive either.
 
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