cruisegal415

Can we trade in our pounds and euros at the end of the trip to US dollars at the airport?

So would pre-booking a car service be preferable to taking a taxi from Heathrow?

I see that the tours provided by the usual groups to Edinburgh Castle are only on the outside, as no tour guides are permitted inside. The tours I have seen are about 1.5 hours and cover the outside of the castle. I'm not sure if we should do this or not. I find it interesting to hear the history, etc., and wonder if we would be missing it if we didn't. But the tours I'm looking at start at the base of the hill, climb up the hill, go around the outside of the castle, and take 1.5 hours. I wonder if it would make more sense to take a cab to the top, get out at the castle, and wander around ourselves. I think there's an audio guide. Pro's and con's? We go next month.

On some of the excursions I booked, it says that tipping is expected. Not sure if that means the driver, the tour guide, or both. They suggest £5 per person. Is this not a thing?

We have excursions booked for all the ports on the Princess BI cruise next month and are spending 3 days in London pre-cruise. I know when we went to Europe we had to have euros available to use some public toilets. I assume the places we will be seeing have facilities in them, but doe we need to bring cash to use them? Trying to figure out how much extra to bring for bathrooms.

Looking forward to taking the Beefeater tour. Do they accept/expect tips? How much?

As long as we get it before the cruise!

You are correct. Royal Collection is also the one that has the Beatles Childhood Homes, which we are also seeing. All these places require pre-purchased tickets with a specific time which makes me nervous because it's tricky to plan on the timings if we are seeing more than one in any given day.

Definitely plan to! Bought a membership to the Historic Palaces which includes that, Hampton Court and Kensington as well as the Tower of London.

Just wanted to add my thank you to you as well, the information you are giving is so helpful! I am also on the August 25th cruise, and have learned a lot from your very thorough reviews!

How long would you estimate we should allow to visit the Tower, including the tour and seeing the jewels? We unfortunately only have two days in London pre-cruise and I fear that we will not have enough time to do even the minuscule amount of things we want to!

Great info! I think we will just take a taxi, to save our steps. After the Guinness Storehouse we are doing a Sights and Pints tour which is a walking tour of Dublin. We are also on the August 25th cruise, some of our other Roll Call pax are also following your wonderful review! I also wonder what camera did you use to get these great pics? Or did you just use your iPhone?

Where/how did you get a Beefeater tour? That sounds fantastic!

Was this the best stop to get off for the Guiness Storehouse? That's our first place we are going in Dublin, planning on taking the train. Was there more than one line to get on? (train line, I mean, not a queue line)

After disembarkation begins, you need to shuttle to shore. Even being on the first shuttle will be calling it very close if the shuttles started on time. (I assume you mean a private excursion, not a Princess one.) Yes a private one, Butlers. It worries me because I know that the Princess excursion folks get priority on the shuttles, and I think, then, elites? I guess if we all make it on the excursion, they may just have to readjust the schedule if we run out of time.

How late were you in docking there? We booked an excursion that leaves 30 minutes after disembarkation begins, and I worry that we won't have enough time on it.

We had hoped to book with Annette when we are there in August but unfortunately she has a wedding booked that weekend so she is not available. We did book another similar tour but really was looking forward to Annette as we've heard so many good things about her tour.

For some reason I am so excited about shopping at the woolen mills, even though we live in sunny south Florida and would NEVER have a chance to wear them! Maybe if we get some at the beginning of the cruise we'll be able to wear them during the cruise but we're going in August, so...

where do you get the shareholder request form from?

I received an email today from Princess telling me to book my specialty dining. )We made full payment last week). Went on and logged in and it said you can only make dining reservations through the Medallion app. Ok. Went on the app, clicked on Dining, tried to make specialty reservations, it said it's too early. Then why did I get an email telling me to do it? I thought once you make full payment you can go on and make specialty dining reservations. Recently sailed Celebrity, we were able to buy a package that included 3-4 specialty restaurants in advance, then make the reservations for whichever ones we wanted. I guess Princess doesn't offer that option?

Exactly right. I found another one that is more reasonable but picks up from our hotel starting at 7 am, then goes to Heathrow to pick up passengers there, so it's basically two hours on a bus before they even start the drive to Windsor.

I totally wrote that wrong. I meant, we can take a transfer from our hotel to the port in Southampton (not Heathrow, don't know what I was thinking) that would include a two hour layover in Windsor to see the palace. I am now thinking maybe we should just go to Hampton Court on one day, that way we have enough time to explore as we wish, and then just do the two hour visit on the day we head down to Southampton since it is easier to get to Hampton Court than to Windsor from our London hotel.

We have two full days pre-cruise in London. We'd like to see both Windsor Palace and Hampton Court, and have been vacillating on whether to do a transfer from London to Heathrow that includes a two hour stop at Windsor Castle on the day we embark, or try to see both of them the day before. There are some excursions that will pick us up at our hotel Weds. morning and drive us to Windsor, allow two hours there, then drive us to Hampton Court, and allow two hours there. These are pretty expensive for two people. So now I'm wondering about trying to get to Hampton Court on our own, which I know is doable, but can we take a train to Hampton Court, tour Hampton Court for a couple of hours, and then go to Windsor or vice versa? Trying to get a driver through a company that works with Viator would cost over $700 for two of us, that is too much. Are there cabs or ubers that would take us from London to either Hampton Court or Windsor? What suggestions do you have?

Oh you're right! Thanks for pointing that out!

We are looking forward to our day in Edinburgh as well! Doing our own thing there, looking forward to seeing it.