12-day British Isles Cruise

[jrose41]

Thinking of going on the 12-day British Isles cruise next Summer with my husband and two girls aged 4-year-old and 1-year-old. We will be booking a suite but not sure if we want the mini-suite or full suite. We need the space with our two girls and I love cruising in suite style we had a suite with our Alaskan cruise on Norwegian. We were in the Haven section which was awesome! I had my two year old at that time and our suite was wonderful so now with two kids I know I need that extra space. I have noticed the mini-suites go fast we plan to book next month so hoping my travel agent has good lucking finding us a nice suite. Anyone have any advice regarding mini-suite vs. full suite? Has anyone taken this cruise and if you have any suggestions or advice I would love to know. Thanks! :)

[melody hounddog]

We are doing this trip next year with our two kids - teens though. Full suites will run you roughly double the price of a mini suite. Can't get the exact number right now. If you can afford it - go for it.

 

There are several amenities that go along with the full suite, the most popular being breakfast in Sabitini's. Not all kids at that age are able to sit at breakfast like that and do better at the buffet were they can get in and out.

 

Laundry is free in a full suite and I'm sure that would come in handy with two kids. Not sure if that is worth the approx $6000 increase in price over the mini.

 

Full suites will give you a mini bar set up. Again, not worth much money.

 

I would personally go for the mini unless price is no object. You will have plenty of room. We have stayed in them with our kids when they were much older than yours and we had plenty of room.

 

Here is the link to all the full suite amenities:

 

http://www.princess.com/downloads/pdf/ships/PrincessSuite_eFlyer.pdf

 

Hope this helps.

[seamwoman]

My husband and I had a mini on the BI cruise in May. It was perfect for the two of us but if money is not a problem I would choose the suite if you will have two rooms - the mini is really just one big room. It is a great cruise! Karen

[jrose41]

Thanks so much! The mini-suite sounds the way to go for us! I don't see us using the amenities of the full suite so I think the mini-suite is going to be best and I still have the balcony that we can enjoy but I will be requesting a special lock for the balcony doors so no children can get out without us supervising them. We did this for Norwegian Cruise Lines and it worked out well. Thanks for the replies! :)

[melody hounddog]

Thanks so much! The mini-suite sounds the way to go for us! I don't see us using the amenities of the full suite so I think the mini-suite is going to be best and I still have the balcony that we can enjoy but I will be requesting a special lock for the balcony doors so no children can get out without us supervising them. We did this for Norwegian Cruise Lines and it worked out well. Thanks for the replies! :)

 

Super. I think you made the right choice. If you end up on the July 10th sailing, come join our roll call. By the way, they are having an awesome sale right now on the BI cruises. I think you need to book by Oct 31.

[phabric]

If you plan on doing this cruise, I would reserve before Oct 31 to get Princess' sale, reduced deposit, $100 for an excursion and a dinner for 2.

 

We did this cruise August 16 and loved the ports. It is a very tiring cruise with so few sea days.

 

With 2 children, you will need to do laundry while onboard. The cost of the machine is $2.00 in quarters for the washer and also for the dryer. I would suggest going the night before a sea day or very early on the sea day as it gets very busy on the sea days.

 

Check out the different Roll Calls on the Caribbean Princess for 2013 British Isles cruise. Our Roll Call was August 16 and if you look at Post 2965 it lists all the private tours that we had.

[Shogun]

Hi There

 

If visiting Scotland next year lot going on Ryder Cup, Commonwealth Games vote on independence etc, also New Bannockburn centre opens its on some Prince tours, also Battle of Bannockburn 700 th anniversary

 

Try and get to the Edinburgh Tattoo expect this years will be even more amazing than normal

 

yours Shogun

[deb63]

We normally book suites with NCL also - but went with the mini suite with Princess (for this same itinerary). The price difference was just huge, and while we (personally) love the extra space of a suite, we preferred the extra money for excursions & souviniors.

 

When our DDs were 7 (twins) we went on our first NCL cruise in a mini suite. We did manage well enough, and looking at the cruise ship information the Princess mini suites are larger than NCL's.

 

Shogun mentions the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which is one of the main events we want to see during this cruise. If you are not familiar with it search it on youtube. It looks amazing. To see this event, as well as a few other festivals (like the Book Festival & the Fringe Festival) you would need to pick an August sailing.

 

Happy planning!

[capriccio]

 

Shogun mentions the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which is one of the main events we want to see during this cruise. If you are not familiar with it search it on youtube. It looks amazing. To see this event, as well as a few other festivals (like the Book Festival & the Fringe Festival) you would need to pick an August sailing.

 

Happy planning!

 

The Tattoo is amazing! We were on a BI cruise this past August and it was the absolute highlight of a cruise with many, many highlights :p. We loved the itinerary and were fortunate to participate in some wonderful excursions thanks to a very active roll call.

[DrivesLikeMario]

My British Isles was by far my favorite cruise. Excellent itinerary with all the main cities very close to the ports. This is one area of the world that is best done by ship IMO because the distance is so short to get to the main sites, the area covered is very small in that you can get to wherever you want to go easily, transportation is excellent, language is English and people are helpful.

 

Mini-suites vs. full suites = apples and oranges. Mini-suites will not get you perks if that's what you're looking for - things like free dry cleaning, breakfast in Sabatini's, mini-bar set up, and on & on. The mini-suite basically gets you a glass of champagne at sailaway and more square footage. With 2 little kids, it's very comfortable.

 

One thing I will mention that only mothers would notice is that the bath in the mini-suite is better than in the suite for little kids because it is MUCH easier for them to get into/out of. The ones in the suites are really high up and it's very hard to get up and over. And, there's a wide space between where you'd be kneeling to bath them and the bath itself, so your back is going to kill you reaching over like that to wash their hair, etc.

 

Book before 10-31 to get the 3-for-1 promo going on now. If you can, book during the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in August if you think the kids would sit still long enough to get there and through the show.

 

Make sure you book some castle visits in Wales. The kids would LOVE to wander all over the grounds. They're awesome!