British Isles Cruise

[finsupcruiser]

We are thinking of doing a cruise of British Isles.What cruise line is the best one to choose for British Isles? What is best time of year? :)

[Johanna7]

We did Princess Grand in 2008 (June) and loved it. It was 12 days long, began and ended in Southampton where we went 2 days ahead. Smart move, we loved the place.

 

We made all the ports including Guernsey Island and it was fantastic. I think they vary the ports a bit from one year to the next but other than that, it would be the same. Loved the places in Ireland, Scotland and of course the UK - or is that the whole thing. We did Dover Castle and it was great. In Liverpool we did a full day trip to Northern Wales and Chester so we missed nearly all of Liverpool but made up for it this summer when we were there for a day and did the Beatles Museum and Hop on hop off buses.

 

We often do the Hop on Hop off buses when we can as they are a great way to see the various cities and the commentary is usually quite good. Prices not bad either.

 

Of course you will not see much of the interior but in order to do that, a bus tour would be better but think of the packing and unpacking each day. They call them coach tours but a bus is a bus.

[jocap]

Many cruise lines do an occasional cruise round the BIs in the summer, but Princess seem to do this on a fairly regular basis. Some small lines eg Ocean Countess, Fred Olsen, will go to places the big ships can't manage; One small Princess ship used to do Stockholm to Dublin.

If you go to cruisett.com, and look at their port lists, eg. Dublin or Greenock, you'll see the big ships listed and their dates.

Jo.

[Nanatravel]

Our Crown Princess cruise to the British Isles is only done at the most 3 times in 2011: Southampton, St. Peter Port, Guernsey; Corb, Dublin & Belfast, Ireland; Glasglow, Inverness, Ediburgh, Scotland: Liverpool, England. It will be very busy, but most European cruises are. We sail 5/22/11.

[Rickey 88]

We are thinking of doing a cruise of British Isles.What cruise line is the best one to choose for British Isles? What is best time of year? :)

 

Asking "Which is the best cruise line?" doesn't really give any one much lead as to what you're looking for....

 

Could you be more specific as to the type of line (luxury, low cost, etc.) and what itinerary interests you?

 

As to weather, remember that the UK is well-known for weather that constantly changes - and some will tell you they had great weather and others may say that it rained constantly. There is no real guarantee....

[jocap]

HAL seems to be doing some interesting cruises touching on the British Isles....I see that Rotterdam's TA from FL goes to Cork, Dublin, Liverpool and Ilfracombe; across to Cherbourg then over to Dover....I also notice that Maasdam is touching several Scottish ports, plus Iceland and Greenland. I know little about the line, other than it's owned by Carnival, but some of its itineraries look exciting.

Jo.

[librarian2000]

Did a HAL Caribbean cruise in 2003 and loved it. Our next one is in February on the Nieuw Amsterdam. I would love to do a BI cruise especially on HAL. I'll get to England someday.

 

Barbara from Michigan

[finsupcruiser]

Thanks for input from all. We have sailed on Holland several times and have enjoyed Holland very much. We are looking at Princess and Holland

[LongTimeTvlr]

When in England --- The mostly British influenced (of course owned by Carnival as are Princess and HAL) Cunard line has a "Round the British Isles" cruise leaving Southampton on Sept. 2.

We love Cunard for many reasons, one being it has a fairly strong British flavor with formal afternoon teas, etc., Plus a gorgeous dance floor and excellent dance band with 4 or 5 gentlelmen hosts.

 

We have sailed HAL twice and Princess once and had a good time each time. But we have sailed Cunard now 3 times and loved each one.

 

By the way, don't know if you are interested but I just found a B&B in Southampton for the night before we sail on TripAdvisor that has outstanding reviews. It's called the Mayfair Guest House. It is close the the Mayflower Theater and town center. My hope is that this will make Southampton like another stop on our British adventure, maybe one of the best.

 

Hope you find this helpful.