smm0218

marchie1053

"Stirling Castle and Edinburgh Castle are great places to visit, but, depending upon the time you have available, it might be a choice between St Andrews and the castles! "

If I understand correctly DH can't really see the Golf Course unless he plays and he says his game is so bad he doesn't want to try to play (which I'm sure is next to impossible anyway) and has decided he'll just skip St Andrews. Total time in Edinburgh is scheduled to be 12 hours but we have to tender so probably more like 8. I'm still investigating things we want to do but I really hate to see him give up visiting St. Andrews (if he could actually see it) so I can visit castles and shopping.

If you have a chance when you get home and could send me more info after you talk to Robbie that would be wonderful. Thank you.

I'd like to thank everyone for the help in choosing. I choose the Royal Princess itinerary that includes Liverpool. I would have loved an overnight in Edinburgh but it wasn't to be.

I'll be back with more questions as I try to plan the London segment and excursions.

"Thanks for all the kind comments on our photos. I hope you get a feeling for the places we have been through our pictures."

Our cruise is 10 months away and viewing your pix makes me wish it was now! Just looking at all your pix is making me more and more excited, you have the ability to place the viewer in the scene.

Just booked a Royal Princess cruise June 2018 and found this very interesting. Thank you.

Not much to do and and time (and quiet) to sit and read sounds wonderful to me, as long as it's not too many days at sea instead of ports.

Thanks so much for posting. I'm looking at a similar cruise (and having a tough time deciding) so this helps a lot.

Anything you liked or disliked about the Silhouette?

Loved Spinnaker on the Pearl but it seemed like we would not more than get settled in and a "game" would start. Rained and was a little chilly (needed a jacket) most days (in Alaska) so outside wasn't my favorite option for sitting and reading. Cardroom was only quiet very early when it was empty, inside voice appears to be a lost art. Thought Atrium was loud all the time and not terribly comfortable. If I had been able to find a quiet spot inside that stayed quiet consistently and was comfortable sitting and reading or for a game of cribbage it would have been great.

"If the majority of you use an electrical power bar mainly for charging cellphones, tablets and other mobile devices., it might be good to know that on most NCL ships that has undergone major renovations lately, they have now installed several "charging stations" for mobile devices in the cabins. We were on the Jade last month, in a standard inside cabin, and had three different "charging stations". One on each of the lamps that were bedside and one below the TV. Very convenient!"

Also TVs have USB ports, although I didn't try them as the 3 USB ports available worked for us.

Am I understanding correctly that you are unable to walk completely around the ship, on the Royal Princess, without going inside to get to the other side? No walking/jogging track and no way to just walk around? I'm looking at a UK cruise next year (next year it appears it is Royal Princess instead of Caribbean Princess) and that is a big negative. I spent a lot of time outside in Alaska.

Pools are open. We didn't get in as it was rainy almost every day but there were people in them most days. Hot tubs had more people. We were on the Pearl about 3 weeks ago.

"School holidays in England in 2018 from 16Jul to 5Sep, with a half term 23May to 01Jun. In Scotand 27Jun to 20Aug."

Great info. If I understand correctly kids are out of school 23 May to 1 June and then not til 18 July in england and not until 27Jun in Scotland.

That really helps.

Azamara looks amazing but I only see one British cruise and it is way out of our price range, even for a once in a lifetime trip.

Great, I was hoping the smoking laws were like here and the less we have to deal with passports the better.

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2 more dumb questions.

Smoking in public places and coaches (buses) and trains - allowed?

Do you go through customs/immigration when we stop in the different countries (Northern Ireland) it sticks in my mind that since they are part of UK, maybe not but I'm not as current as I should be - yet.

Oceania, Azamara & MSC. Either price, itinerary or date make then back burner options. Cunard has an itinerary I liked but I think we'd hate the ship.

12 day Royal Princess cruise - Dublin Overnight (appears no Wales although they do have a shorter cruise that does include Wales May, Jun, Aug):

Southampton; Guernsey (St. Peter Port); Cork, (Cobh); Dublin (2 days); Belfast; Glasgow (Greenock); Invergordon; Edinburgh (South Queensferry); Paris/Normandy (Le Havre), France; Southampton

12 day Royal Princess cruise (includes Kirkwall, May June, Aug)

Southampton; Guernsey (St. Peter Port); Cork; Dublin; Belfast; Glasgow (Greenock); Orkney Islands (Kirkwall); Invergordon; Edinburgh (South Queensferry); Paris/Normandy (Le Havre), France; Southampton

12 day Royal Princess cruise - With Liverpool (June, July & Aug, so probably lots of kids)

Southampton; Guernsey (St. Peter Port); Cork, (Cobh); Dublin; Liverpool; Belfast; Glasgow (Greenock); Invergordon; Edinburgh (South Queensferry); Paris/Normandy (Le Havre), France; Southampton

12 day NCL Jade (again it appears no Wales, May & Sept)

Southampton, Guernsey, Portland, England Cork (Cobh), Ireland, Dublin, Glasgow (Greenock), Kirkwall, Orkney Isles , Inverness (Invergordon), Edinburgh (Newhaven), Newcastle (Tyne), England, Southampton (London)

RCI Brillance of the Sea (July)

Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Inverness, Greenock (Glasglow), Dublin (2 days), Holyhead, WALES, Cork (Cobh), Guernsey, Amsterdam

Celebrity Eclipse - British Open cruise (July)

Amsterdam, Zeebrugge, Belgium, Cobh (Cork), Waterford, Dublin, Liverpool, Newhaven (Edinburgh 2 days ), Dover Amsterdam

It looks like the Princess with Liverpool hits the ports we'd like but really not crazy about the dates. Also Royal is bigger than I think we'd like and I think I read they have eliminated the all the way around the ship promenade desk? I really enjoyed that on the Pearl, usually 2-3 miles a day.

day flight to LHR, arriving about 9 PM at night. Even though it was still "afternoon" to us, we were tired from travelling, and so by the time we got to our hotel about 11 PM, we were ready for bed, and it was a very easy time adjustment that way.

I was thinking of taking night flight and sleeping on plane but it sounds like the opposite works well and we could start "fresh" in the morning. Really dreading long plane flight but DH says we can't drive. :(

My add-on days are definitely adding up.

It's a shame racecourse tours are hard to come by, we were able to drive up and tour Churchill Downs and I foolishly assumed it would be that easy other places. Kempton seems to have racing in May so that might be a good option while in London.

We did our British Isles cruise in 2013 on Celebrity Infinity and loved it.

 

Here is my detailed review:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=221137

Lovely review. And you confirmed my thought that I'm not going to rent a car and drive with DH. :)

What was wrong with Princess?

I'm getting so excited thinking about seeing all the places I've read about for years, I may a hard time deciding.

Thank you all of you. I did tell my husband parts of the UK are more NO than Alaska, not sure he believes me.

Lots to research to do. I'd love to do "combine with a day in the beautiful Cotswolds" Cotswolds are somewhere I'd like to go, I'm not sure 3 days in London are enough. Anywhere we go it has to be fairly easy navigation (bus train whatever) and someone else driving. One of the reasons it has taken us so long is thinking about trying to navigate DH on wrong side of road with him randomly turning or not turning as the spirit moves him. Not relaxing and not a vacation for me. And we both want to see, he can't if he's driving.

You have no idea how much I appreciate all the help.

Thanks for advice. London may very well be a disappointment, something you have anticipated for as long as I have (30+ years) visiting London, almost always is.

From cruises I've looked at is appears the average time is port is 9-10 hours, so spending 4 hours on road, unless it is really special, or a long held wish isn't something we probably want to do.

Edinburgh, DH would love to visit St. Andrews, not necessarily to play golf, just to see it. I'm interested in castle and just walking around looking.

Liverpool (can't remember which of cruises I'm looking at stop there) but an hour on the Mersey Ferry would be cool. I'm more "Ferry across the Mersey" (one of my all time favorites) than "Hey, Jude." :)

Another thing that would be a special trip for both of us (and I realize it's probably silly,) would would love to visit a British Horse Racing venue (Dick Francis fans from way back.) Doesn't have to actually be racing if would could look around, although racing would be a huge bonus. That might be something we would end up doing from London, since I'm having a hard time figuring what tracks are by what ports.

I'm not sure anywhere is easy to fly to from here (Nebraska) we are looking at 10-15 hours and a couple thousand bucks,depending on airline and what kind of deals I can find.

Thank you so much, You've definitely clarified a few things for me.

"But I don't entirely see the logic of time in London tied in with a cruise out of (and presumably back to) Amsterdam."

Because I REALLY want to visit London but the Amsterdam cruise might be the better option. If we did that I'd add a day at the end to spend there.

After our Alaskan (first) cruise we've discovered we like cruising and I'm trying to plan a cruise for next year for British Isles. We would like to spend at least a couple days in London prior to cruise, I think it might help with jet lag and at our ages we may never get there again.we could enjoy cruise more.

Our Alaskan cruise was with NCL, we had a couple problems on board that they had no interest in resolving (guest services was actually pretty rude) and DH was not impressed with food, so while we will still consider NCL, it isn't an automatic choice.

Cost is important, would like to be able to get a balcony but suites aren't in the budget.

Itinerary is primary, Dublin, Glasgow and Edinburgh are main stops wanted, Wales would be nice.

I'm thinking probably May 2018. While summer would be nicer weather, probably, I'm hoping May would be less kids. We had to dodge a lot of packs of kids on Alaskan cruise.

We did like the freestyle option on NCL, neither of us are interested in formal nights or fixed seating.

So far I've found 4 cruises with an itinerary I like.

Royal Princess

NCL Jade

Cunard Victoria (believe they only have fixed dining and more strict dress codes so probably not an options for us)

RCI Brilliance of the Sea which sails out of Amsterdam appears to be the least expensive, and it looks like it would be a fairly reasonable flight from London. But we are not world travelers or even experienced international travelers and the thought of dealing with airport transfers and immigration and customs would probably keep me awake for a month.

If any of you "way more experienced" travelers would/could voice an opinion, suggestion or option I may not have thought of, it would be great and very much appreciated.