pink845

We only book balcony or mini suite cabins on the port side towards the very back of ships. We stay away from Starboard as many ships allow smoking on Deck 7 on that side and we do not want smoke hitting us depending on the wind.   We like the cabins in that location as we can make quick trip up to the Buffet in the morning or basically anytime grab some hot water for our coffee or tea.  We always try to book a couple of floors down from the Buffet so we can simply walk up and down.  Also, we like to watch the wake and a cabin at the back of the ship allows for easy access to Deck 16 and the outside tables on that Deck.  On the Royal Class of ships, we stay away from wake facing cabins as up on Deck 17 smoking is permitted!!!  Never had an issue with motion sickness in the Port Back cabins.  We try to stay away from cabins too close to the front of the ship as we have found they can for some reason have a lot of sand or grit on the balconies.   

We did our August British Isles cruise on the Regal. We have sailed her several times on Trans Atlantics as well. Love the Royal Class of ship.  We love the Atrium or Piazza.  Sitting there and listening to various musicians and watching everyone walk by is entertainment in and of itself.  Grabbing a beverage and a bite at the International Cafe is great.  Plenty of seating.    Our cabin was great.  Balcony had plenty of room.  No rust at all.  Staff pleasant.  Variety of food in dining room is definitely much reduced from even one year ago.  Portions much smaller even to the point that we have taken to ordering an extra entree to share between us in addition to our regular entrees.  We found plenty of choices in the buffet, however, and there have been times, where we were challenged with the main dining room selection, that we simply got up and went to the buffet for a better selection.  I am still disappointed with the fact that room service has a charge.  We do not Plus or Premier.   Perhaps now that the Sun will be cruising, the prices on Regal itineraries for Florida and Galveston may fall as many people will be wanting to cruise on the Sun Princess and it will lead to a drop in prices on the Royal Class of ships.   I am going to stay away from the Sun Princess until the reviews are in.  We always book balconies or mini suites and I see that the prices on the Sun Princess are outrageous and the only balconies that are maybe a tad reasonable are the Cove ones but they seem to all be on the 6th floor with the kids club.   Again, we will stick to the Royal Class of ships. In any regard, the Regal is still top notch.

Interesting.  I never did think about returning to the dining room prior to closing for dessert.  That sounds great.  We will give that a try on the Enchanted in Dec.   Now, in terms of having that extra dessert delivered to one's stateroom upon exiting the dining room, I wonder now whether we would be charged a room service delivery charge for that dining room dessert to be delivered.  Going to try it both ways in December. We do not do Plus or Premium so we do not order room service.

We like the Concerto on Deck 6.  Not a fan of the Allegro on Deck 6 at the back.  We find the ceilings very low in the Allegro and feel very confined there, so we always avoid that one.   We make sure to make reservations on the Medallion app in advance for the Concerto and vary the time of the reservation by the day depending on the time the ship leaves each port.  We love being able to say goodbye outside on our balcony with a beverage and then go to the Concerto.    

We took our transfer via Princess from Terminal 4. Pick up time was 9 30 am. Of course everyone got there early. Very orderly. Agent there very friendly. Sat waiting in comfort. She kept us apprised if bus arrival. We checked out Victoria Coach station earlier in the week and a firm decision, we would never ever sit in a stuffy bus station waiting for a coach National Express or Princess from that Victoria Coach station. For us grabbing the transfer from Princess at the airport is the best way for us. Much more civilized. Maybe it was just a busy morning, the morning we passed by Victoia coach station, but it did not leave a good impression on us. 

All paved.  We took the residental road after the 118 steps. Perhaps it had rained pre your trip.

We were on Regal Princess end of August.  15.95 usd per person was cost of the bus to Donegal Square which could be charged to Princess onboard account.

We saw the bus as soon as we exited the cruise water shuttle. We walked to the train a good 10 min away. Bought tickets at machine. When we finished at the Princes Gardens in Edinburgh, we spyed the same passengers who were queued at Lothian in South Queensferry buying the bus tickets from the agent exiting bus in Edinburgh 45 min aftervwe had arrived by train. Our fare 5.00 return. We are all about efficiency as port time is so precious. What a glorious city. Already planning a land based trip. Cruising is all about snippets. Getting short peaks of intersesting places and then returning for land based vacations.

Between our Cruise and pre and post stays totalling 25 days, we used our cash everywhere. Never turned down ever. We arrived home with no credit card bills. No foreign transaction fees. Nothing. Yes, we see Europe is pretty well all cashless and were queried several times about why north americans are credit card averse or tap and go averse. But no retailer denied  our cash right down to the tiny little grocer.

We had a much longer day in Cobh  7 to 7 pm.   Still if I recall dud not get clearance to exit ship until 7 45 am. Literally  train is right beside ship. Took train to Cork then took B

larney. Beat all the tour buses. Cost of admission to Blarney was 16 euros each. Spent much time at Blarney. Were in the 1 06 pm bus back to Cork. Half hour later on the train to Cobh.  Had 3 pm onwards to bask in the beauty and sunshine of lovely scenic Cobh.  Your day at 4pm is much shorter, better to bare the higher very much higher expense of cruise excursion to Blarney to ensure you are back early to Cobh to enjoy it too. Those Blarney castle excursions sell out fast. For us because of our long day in port our total cost was one fifth of cruise excursion and very leisurely.

We were on Regal Princess at end of August and there was a shuttle bus from the very industrial port to Donegal Square return at a cost of 15.95 usd per person charged to on board acount for anyone who wanted to take it.  The walk into town would be at least 45 min and not pretty. We took an excursion to Giants Causeway and it was a glorious day with beautiful scenery.

Follow up. We were in Dublin on a Sunday and the first Dart did not leave until 9 19 am so we took the bus which was sitting right outside train station at a cost of 2.60 per person. Took 20 min and left at 8 20 am. Dropped off very near to Trinity College and took train from Pearse back to pier. Lovely city. Spent whole day walking city seeing all the sights.

Will our Oyster cards work to pay fare on the public transit buses. Thank you all for the bus numbers and routes. Buses are last resort for us as prefer walking or using tube to get around. We are always surprised when we come up from underground, a new locale, more historic sights. London so lovely.

We plan on using the tube to get around. I was listening to someone on utube mention that London Public transit bus route 11 does a pretty good job of hitting a good number of the London highlights as well. We will not be paying exorbitant price of ho ho bus in London. From what I recall from previous vists, tube and walking for us was wonderful.

We will be buying Oyster cards immediately upon arrival at Heathow putting money (cash that we have bought in Canada) onto them to cover us for three full days of travel.  The reason as Canadians that we will not use our credit cards is because each time a charge is put on that card a foreign currency exchange fee will be added.  I fully understand Uk residents love to tap and go with their credit cards or their phones and that is fine and dandy for you all as no extra foreign transaction fees are added to your fare each time you use those cards to tap and go. We are in a different boat as foreigners. in Canada depending upon the city I visit   we do use our credit cards to tap and go so yes we are very familiar with the activity.

Did you purchase your Greyhound tickets with your credit card.  Does your credit card have trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance.  We have in the past asked our credit card company specifically what happens if our scheduled transportation (reserved with our credit card) does not arrive at our house to pick us up and get us to the airport and we miss our plane to our cruise departure location, would we get compensated.  The answer was yes.  As long as we plan our departure from our house to make sure that we meet the airline recommended check in time, we are covered.  If an accident occurs on the highway and we are stuck in traffic and miss that plane, we are covered.  This is called trip interruption and is a covered loss for us on our credit card. Our coverage starts the moment we step out our house door.   Each time we travel, my husband yet again checks with our credit card company to see if the coverage has changed or not.  

Yes, great fun.  And we return home healthy to boot!!!!

Getting conflicting reports, are Passports being confiscated by Guest Services upon check in Southhampton and held until the end of the cruise for stops in Ireland and Scotland.   Can any recent passengers respond. We are Canadian. 

We always book cruises in CDN Dollars.  On the ship, our onboard account is charged to the USD Visa card we provide.  OBC that we receive is always in USD which is great even though our original booking was made with two $100 CDN future cruise deposits. So we are ahead of the game from the very get go.    

Yes, at arrival at Canada Place (we were there two weeks ago boarding Majestic), we first checked in with Princess then we had to go to another line to be screened by US Immigration, then onto the embarkation area which was true madness.  What a mistake.  I told my husband so.  Never try to board early.  Masses of people waiting. Because this was a new port for him, he wanted to get their early. Total silliness, I prefer boarding in the later hours when it is much more civilized.   So, US Customs checks one's passport and if you have a criminal conviction, I would be a tad worried about being denied boarding the cruise ship.  

As the months move along with more cruises stopping at Belfast, it will be good to hear from passengers with respect to the cost of cabs at the port or if there is a shuttle bus to downtown and how much that is.  Seems last year there was a bus at a cost of $10 GBP each way while a cab was somewhere around $15 GBP each way.  

The first show featured the Princess singers and dancers.  Also, one of the singers sang opera. Pretty good.  First time on a cruise for us to have an opera singer.  She was superb.  Also, sang in either Italian or Spanish and of course English.   The second show, the name escapes me because it truly was lousy was a technical one with lights, etc.  It was also broadcast on the big screens on the right and left in the theatre and was just so busy technically that my eyes were drained by the end.  Hence, we did not enjoy and since we were close to the front, we could not leave.   There was a comedian/ magician as well.  Again, we did not enjoy him at all and that night we sat on the edges and actually left the show.  The orchestra was fabulous however.   I do believe that the opera singer was back for another performance but we had had enough to opera so we simply did not attend.  No wow shows like on RCCL.

On the Majestic few weeks back.  Embarkation was a disaster. We all sat there with no announcements until five minutes prior to boarding when a guy appeared and walked through the hordes yelling Elite, Platinum, this way. Total silliness. No boarding times respected in Vancouver. 

Careful with those aft cabins.  Make sure they are at least partly covered because if it rains, you have no protection.  Also, you have people looking down on you.  Not my idea of a great cabin.    There is also a lot more motion so if one is prone to sea sickness, not the best idea.    Also, for some reason, I believe there is a smoking area aft so fumes tend to migrate.   The good you are not far from the buffet.

Been on a couple of cruises now since Jan 2023.  Last one was Majestic, Alaska a few weeks back.  Our procedure with respect to Covid is as follows. We wear our masks in crowds; we wear our masks collecting food at the buffet.  We tell our room steward on day 1, not to enter our room for the entire cruise. We leave our dirty towels at the door and he drops off new ones in a clear plastic bag.  We do not need cabin service at all. We book a mini suite balcony so we have plenty of space to roam. Mini suites have a large sofa bed as well and we let the fresh air enter the cabin upon our arrival and several times during the day.   In the dining room, we have always had no issue getting a table for two in a more far way spot so not to have to interact with other passengers too much in that dining space.  We have found there is more space in the specialty dining rooms, so we ate in those 4 out of the 7 nights.   Less chance of room steward spreading germs from cabin to cabin if that room steward is not entering our cabin.  He uses the same cloth to clean each cabin we are sure.  Princess has become super cheap there.  Also, we do not ask the waiters to bring water or any beverage to us when at the buffet (I mean, water, tea, coffee, the free ones) because we notice that the waiter cleans the table of the previous table guest and then uses the same dirty cloth to clean the next table and he /she is not see washing his hands or using hand sanitizer at all between the tables and bringing water, coffee, tea, iced tea, whatever to the fellow passengers that request it.  Funny.  Not really. So if we want coffee, we go get it and let it drip into our own coffee insulated mugs.  Just a few things that we do to prevent coming into contact with Covid.  As an aside, there were quite a few fellow passengers wearing masks on our May sailing of the Majestic, and more and more in crowded spots as there are people who in general show no respect for others when they are coughing and sneezing. We see them and hear them coughing into their hands (yes) not their sleeve, leaving kleenex on the table.  Manners people.    Just a few notes about our recent experiences.   Six vaccine doses and counting.  No Covid in 3.5 years and we have travelled quite a bit.