British Isles and Norwegian Fiords

[Ginger Pop]

Has anyone been on the 14 night British Isles a Norwegian Fiords Trip? We are going July 2006 and am trying to find out how to get to Dover and back from London and how much it cost. We are on the Constellation and hoping to use ff pts. to get to London. Anyone who has done this trip would welcome suggestions for shore excursions also. Thanks.

[Bruin Steve]

I can tell you a lot more in a few weeks...

We have it booked for next month...

 

We decided to use the Celebrity Transfer to get from London to Dover and back...This year, it's $80 per person each way...It leaves from Victoria Coach Station in London and we're staying both pre- and post-cruise at the Rubens at the Palace which is only a couple of blocks away...

 

The other options would be a train or a bus, but those only take you to central Dover and you need to grab a cab from there to get to the ship...But, doing it that way, we could probably save about $40 to $80 each way...The money wasn't worth the inconvenience to us...but to some, I guess it is...

 

We are also going with Frequent Flier miles...Since American allows you to make an extra stop in selected cities in Europe for no extra cost, we've opted to spend four nights in Madrid, then fly on to London on Thursday before the Saturday sailing...our Madrid-London leg takes us into Gatwick and we'll probably take the Gatwick Express train in from there to Victoria Station...it costs £13.00 per person from Gatwick to Victoria...but I have to look into "Southern" which is advertising £9.00 per person for the same trip...Anyone?

 

Our flight home goes out of Heathrow, so we'll probably try hotelink.com for that one...

 

Beware with those ff miles, decent flight availability fills up fast to ensure the best flights, book 11 months in advance...We actually booked each leg exactly 11 months in advance and "held" the booking until we got our leg home booked, then ticketed the whole thing...

 

We've booked shore excursions in each port...stay tuned here for my review after the cruise and you'll find out what we thought of each...

 

Good luck...

[kitty9]

Trains can be the least expensive, but it's a pain hauling all your stuff and walking a ways to get where you want to be from the train stations. A taxi will be terribly expensive as would a private car. With the British Pound being worth so much more than the US dollar, your best bet would be the Celebrity transfers. If you're not staying pre or post cruise, the bus will pick you up at the airport and take you directly to the ship.

[evoni]

Having a private car drive you to Dover might not be anymore expensive then the Celebrity transfer if you have at least 4 in your party as we do. If there are less then 4 of you, then I agree that Celebrity transfers would be the best bet for both money and convenience.

[bob278]

When we took that cruise 2 years ago, we used the Celebrity transfer going to Dover (because we took the hotel package - I wouldn't do that again as I can do better on my own) and a private service for the return and were very pleased with them. Their web link is : http://www.airporttransfers.biz . The driver we had told us that he was in the process of starting up his own company and gave us a business card. The link to that site is: www.redhattravel.co.uk . While the driver was very impressive, I cannot speak about his company as we have not used them, although I will consider them next year when we go for our Baltics cruise.

I don't remember exactly how much we paid, but I feel sure it wasn't quite the same as today's prices (the Celebrity transfers were $65 p/p). A very major caution: get a bigger vehicle than you think you will need. They are all smaller than we are used to in America.

There were 4 of us (with a lot of luggage). Having been forewarned, we asked for the MPV that is rated for 5/6 people plus "some" luggage and requested a trailer. They brought us the next larger van (for 8 people) with no trailer instead and it was tight.

From London or Heathrow to Dover transfers, the MPV with a trailer is approximately 190 GBP (about $350). If you can get another couple, that would compare to $320 for the Celebrity transfer AND you would not have to schlep your luggage to Victoria Coach Station AND you would not have to wait for the bus to arrive and fill up AND you would probably get there before the check-in lines got too crowded. From Gatwick, it would be about $50 less.

The price for the other site is 125 GBP for the van (no mention of a trailer) but still significantly cheaper.

All of this assumes you will be staying in town on one end of the trip or the other. If you are flying directly into and out for the cruise, then I would probably use the Celebrity transfer as the only drawback would be the waiting.

For shore excursions, this is a very personal decision as each person likes different things. The two that I liked best were going to Normandy and the American cemetary in Le Havre and taking the Overland excursion in Geiranger. Other, more active poeple raved about the glacier hike there. We used ship's tours, but that was before we discovered Cruise Critic and found out how easy it is to get together with folks. find a private tour and have more fun for the same or less money.

 

It's a fantastic cruise and one I'd like to take again.

 

Hope this helps.

[Ginger Pop]

Thanks-that really did help.We would have 4 people and never thought of the extra room needed due to the size of the vehicle. Was it cool when you went-we are going July 2006 and just wondering if North Sea was rough or cool at that time of year. I appreciate your comment on liking the cruise. For the amount of money we are spending to go we could do Southern Caribbean on Celebrity for our 4th time and E. Caribean!

[bob278]

When we were there, they were having a heat wave in Londan (I think the temps were in the high 80's), but the further north we went, the better it got. We were never uncomfortable, but Norway was long sleeve weather almost all of the time. I didn't take anyhting heavier than a meduim weight jacket and I was fine. Our sail date was about July 15th.

 

Seas were not bad at all, although the wind was too high for us to get in through the tight entrance to the harbor for our Dublin visit.

I can't say too much about the overall trip. You should get up very early and watch the ship go in through the fjord in Geiranger. It would be about 4:00 AM.

[Nitemare]

Ditto to Bruin Steve's comments. We did this trip last year (best cruise yet!) and used our Delta miles to fly on Virgin Atlantic to Heathrow, and for convenience sake we took Celebrity's bus to the ship. There was tons of traffic and a horrible rain storm (even saw funnel clouds in the distance that did not make it to the ground), but we knew they'd hold the ship for us.

 

But book the ff tickets WAY in advance. We booked in September 2003 for July 2004 and couldn't get Copenhagan (our other choice for similar cruise left from there), but got London with no problem. When we thought about changing our travel dates by 1 day 2 weeks later it was sold out.

[MSBYRDY]

Try the website for http://www.justairports.com, we used them from the ship to Heathrow and they were quite reasonable.

Marilyn

[kayr2]

Hi GingerPop:

 

We did that cruise in 7/04 and loved it. However, no one has mentioned that Heathrow is not the only airport for London. We used Celebrity for our air and transportation and landed at Gatwick. The traffic in London was like anyother major city. Horrendous and it is on the wrong side of the road for us Americans. We use the cruise lines for air and transport as much as possible because if there are any problems, they tend to wait for you but you are on your own with a private company. I did write a comment about the bus driver doing his e-mail while driving in that traffic.

 

In LeHavre, we were tired and just walked downtown. Ireland was awesome.

We took a tour to Waterford, which I could have skipped but the countryside was something else again. In Scotland, we took a train to Glasgow and got on the wrong train going back. Fortunately, we had enough time to make corrections. In Norway, we took the overland glacier tour and would do it again. I booked it early to make sure we had a place. In Copenhagen, we took a bus downtown and went to Tivoli, the one place we both wanted to see and were disappointed in. The ship is not in port long enough to see the nighttime fireworks and Tivoli is probably about the size of a Walmart Supercenter. Few rides and lots of restaurants. If your as old as we are the flowers are the best part. I loved Zeebrugge. We took the walking tour with a canal ride. Zeebrugge came closer to converting me into a history buff than my brother, the history major, ever did.

 

I enjoyed the cruise so much that we embark July 4th for a Baltic Cruise to St. Petersburg, Gdansk, etc.

 

Hope you enjoy your cruise as much as we did.

 

Kay

[CAPinBoynton]

Ginger Pop,

 

We did the British Isles / Norwegian Fjords end of June / July of 2004. Although we were on RCI our info would still apply to private transfers, places, and general information for you. We also used Airporttransfers, and were very pleased. There were six of us with lots of luggage. Even if you decide not to use their services, at least check out their website because they tell you how to judge what size vehicle you will need, as well as lots of do's and don't's when renting a service.

 

Our in depth review with loads of pictures, and also contact information is at www.thepreismans.com

 

Enjoy,

[Ginger Pop]

Thanks.

[Ginger Pop]

Sounds like our 12 day trip will be full of flowers!. Thanks for the help everyone-can't wait to go. Wish we could afford another this yr. but---. 2 yrs. to retirement and then we can do off season from school vacations! As a teacher we follow the kids!

[Ginger Pop]

CAPinBoynton, Thank you for the wonderful website of the pictures. Sure Celebrity trip will be as stunning. Ready to go now!

[goodfun58]

CAPinBoynton,

 

Yes, thanks so much for the terrific photos and sharing them with us.

 

Thanks,

 

Sue

[mhbtravel]

We just returned from a Baltic cruise and use Central Executive travel out of Dover for our transfer. They were great. They have a web site. Contact Peter Hull.

[marne-c]

Ginger Pop: My wife and I are going to be on the 7/15/06 Connie cruise with you. I couldn't find a roll call thread, so I started one.

 

More soon!

 

--Marne

[Ine]

If you would fly to and from Amsterdam and cruise from there it is very easy to get to the cruise terminal, which is in the city.