Cruisin' Along

But just yesterday you posted you were taking a Disney Cruise in January, sailing concierge, for your honeymoon. Now that’s changed.....again? :confused:

Considering the number of kids onboard, I haven’t found it to be a huge issue. However.... we have seen parents completely oblivious to the behavior of their kids. As noted already, the ice cream station is sometimes a mess. On our last cruise our servers had our table and one other with a large family group. The kids were allowed to run around the table, up and down the aisles, and crawl under the table in the MDR every night. The parents didn’t once tell them to sit down and behave.

Edinburgh Castle or the Britannia?

4 hours is not long and keep in mind the need for toilets and refreshments. Depends where you get dropped off but the castle will be nearest and by the time you have done that (don't forget the one o'clock gun) and wandered the Royal Mile area and the souvenir shops, listened to the bagpipe players you will have used up most of your time. The Britannia is just over 2 miles away in Leith and unless your really interested in an old ship I would give it a miss as you just don't have time.

It is going to be tough having only 4 hours in Edinburgh but we will go into this knowing it will be a rushed day. We don’t normally take the ship’s excursions but we will for this one for the insurance that we will be back to Greenock in time.

The ship excursions, at least for this year, were Edinburgh with tours of the castle and Holyrood Palace or the castle and Brittania. We decided against the “on your own” option because of time constraints. My daughter is a huge fan of the royal family, especially Princess Diana, and she really wants to see the Brittania for the historical significance.

We will consider this short trip a sampler of Edinburgh. We can always return for a few days on a future land-based trip if we love it.

l think that's a biggie to me. And extra lobsters for inconvenience is not a bad gesture . And would not be considered free for nothing. My father in law got stuck in the Elevator, yes that would piss me off. Then miss an important port tour to boot. Should of tested system before they blew out the putters and power.

I also agree with this. We have a British Isles cruise booked for next year. After over a year’s worth of planning and anticipation, we would be extremely disappointed to pull into Greenock to find that our excursion to Edinburgh is cancelled.

Thanks everyone.

After talking it over, we really want to see Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Yacht Britannia. It’s disappointing to only have 4 hours there but it gives us a good preview to know if we want to return on a future trip.

There was no charge. The shuttle buses were part of the DCL transportation into town.

 

I don't recall right off, but it was right across the street from Merrion Square Park that we were dropped off/picked up. The buses were pretty steady throughout the day.

Thank you - this is helpful for planning.

We have a British Isles cruise booked for September 2019. The ship will dock at Greenock from 8 am - 7 pm.

The excursion offerings are a little disappointing in that the time is so short. We are considering Edinburgh On Your Own for $84 which involves 2 hours on the bus each way and 4 hours to explore. Our other option is Glasgow On Your Own for $57, with a 45 minute bus ride each way and 3 hours to explore.

We have never been to Scotland. We originally thought Edinburgh was a sure bet as there is plenty we want to see there but only 4 hours to sightsee is ridiculous.

Has anyone here done either of these as port stops from Greenock and can tell us about your experience?

Thank you!

They did when we stopped there on our EBTA in 2016.

Was there a cost? Do you recall where in Dublin it dropped people off and picked up for return to port?

Thanks!

I am really late to this excellent thread about Copenhagen. We will be stopping here on our cruise next September. We are only in port for 8 hours and this is our first visit. It will be really difficult to see and do everything that we would like to.

Thank you for posting the beautiful photos! Makes me even more excited for our visit!

I have to agree, after the first night I would have asked for a new table. I wouldn't have waited for a server to say something nights later.

We considered that but we liked our servers and we had great table locations in all 3 dining rooms.

First 3 DCL cruises we had no issues with kids in the dining room. Cruise #4 we struck out big time. Unfortunately this was the 14 night WBPC cruise this year. Our serving team had two tables - our table for 2 and a large table with a family group of 3 couples and 9 kids ranging in age from about 2 - 10.

Every night, as soon as they got to the table the kids would start running around the table, crawling under the table, banging silverware on their dishes, and running up and down the aisles where the servers were coming out of the kitchen with heavy trays. One night the 2 year old was up walking ON the table. The parents just sat there.

After nights of dodging these kids while carrying the heavy trays, a server from another team angrily told our server that he needed to tell the adults to keep the kids out of the way. Our server said something to one of the dads, who in turn told his wife. Her statement was “what do you want me to do about it?”

How about parenting your little darlings? Pretty much ruined the dining experience. Should we encounter this again, we will probably give Cabanas a try for dinner to get away from the chaos in the MDR.

Thanks for taking the time to post your TR. I’m enjoying it!

Thanks for the beautiful photos and your TR. We love London. We have Norway and British Isles cruises booked for next year (on a different cruise line) so I enjoyed seeing Norway via your photos and will read your British Isles review soon.

I use Travel Guard for insurance because they partner with Costco. The insurance is a premium plan, usually at a very good price. When requesting a quote, though,Travel Guard requires filling in the destination.

I'm not sure what to list for destination on a repositioning cruise.

We are taking a repositioning cruise thru the Panama Canal. Trip insurance quotes request destination. We leave from Florida and end in California with port visits in several countries. The insurance cost varies by $200 depending which port I list as the destination.

What port do you list as destination for repositioning cruises?

Thanks!

As of today, there are only inside GTYs available for this cruise. Everything else is sold out. There will be some cancellations as it nears the PIF date, but probably not as many as in other years. The April 2018 WBPC stops at Castaway Cay and Costa Rica, which historically have not been on this itinerary.

I'm so happy to see you are back! Your TRs are the best. Looking forward to more with giddy anticipation! :D

I'm ready to start packing now for our April 2018 cruise! I'll refrain though and start packing a month prior. :D

I'm enjoying your TR. Hope you have a fantastic vacation! :)

It's reassuring to hear the positive comments about TravelGuard. It's the company we always use but haven't had to file a claim so far.

Talking about having some random photos from Allure. Hope this might solve some mysteries.

 

Thanks for posting this! I'm guessing it's the same for Oasis. I wasn't exactly stressing over our muster station but it's helpful to know where it will be since this will be our first RCI cruise.

Thanks for the fun review and the great photos!

Thanks for the fantastic review! I'm enjoying both the humor and the descriptions of what you saw and experienced. Also appreciate you telling it like it is when things were less than perfect.

What a fun review! I'm enjoying my virtual cruise with you via your TR. I still have to wait over a year before our Oasis cruise. :eek:

This was our view from 10329 on Oasis. We were very happy with the amount of ocean view, plus we loved being able to watch what was going on in the Aqua Theater! Different strokes for different folks I guess.

 

 

We have the last balcony on deck 11 booked for our Harmony cruise. Not sure how much the Abyss will impact our view.

Thanks for sharing the photo. We have this cabin booked for our Oasis cruise. Looks like a fantastic ocean view!