First time cruising in Europe - please help

[MCazer]

We are a family of 4, husband and I are both 51, 19 year old college sophmore and 17 year old (soon to be senior in high school)

 

Taking a 12 night cruise on the Brilliance of the Seas out of Harwich with stops in Copenhagen, Tallinn (estonia), St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockhom, and Skagen.

 

We will be flying from NY JFK arrving Gatwick, London a few days early.

 

Any and all suggestions on what to see and do. We are quite familiar with cruising, as we are diamond members, but having only cruised the Caribbean.

 

Also looking for a nice hotel in London for the first few days. Will need to figure out transport to Harwick, so any ideas on that would be great as well.

 

Oh, and what do you all do about having to wash clothes during your trip? Do you just use the onboard wash/press services from the cruise line?

 

Thanks in advance for any and all recommendations!

 

So looking forward to this trip!

[Irish Cath]

Hello,

 

We ( husband and I) are also taking this cruise. We just booked yesterday! Please come join us on the roll call where hopefully as the cruise draws closer there will be lots of info exchanged.

ttp://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2033197

 

There is a train from London Liverpool Street station to Harwich ( I believe you need to make one easy change) which if booked well ahead of time can cost as little as 9 or 10 pounds each. We will probably take this option as I believe the train station in Harwich is actually just a few steps from the cruise terminal!

 

Catherine :)

[CruiserBruce]

London is covered on the British Isles board, here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=233

 

As we don't know your interests, budget and limitations, hard to give you any recommendations. But each port is covered very extensively here. Compare and combine that info with what RCI is offering as far as excursions are concerned, and you can pare this broad question down into some more manageable sized questions for us to help you with.

[sddsddean]

Use this site to look up the trains and prices

http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/planjourney/search

You want to go from London Liverpool Street to Harwich International. You can use the codes for the stations. Liverpool Street is LST and Harwich International is HPQ ('cos it used to be Parkeston Quay). As said HPQ is right beside the ship and the trip takes about 1hr 20mins, normally with a change at Manningtree (down 13 steps under the subway and up 13 steps). You won't be able to book until about 12 weeks before travel, but early booking is cheaper. Don't forget to check the price a return fare, as its often only a couple of pounds more to come back (eg single £31, return £36) for one date I checked. More info on the British Isles board.

 

Simon

[MCazer]

Thank you everyone, will check out the links! Much appreciated.

 

Good thing I have some time to review it all.

[thecakebox]

We are a family of 4, husband and I are both 51, 19 year old college sophmore and 17 year old (soon to be senior in high school)

 

Taking a 12 night cruise on the Brilliance of the Seas out of Harwich with stops in Copenhagen, Tallinn (estonia), St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockhom, and Skagen.

 

We will be flying from NY JFK arrving Gatwick, London a few days early.

 

Any and all suggestions on what to see and do. We are quite familiar with cruising, as we are diamond members, but having only cruised the Caribbean.

 

Also looking for a nice hotel in London for the first few days. Will need to figure out transport to Harwick, so any ideas on that would be great as well.

 

Oh, and what do you all do about having to wash clothes during your trip? Do you just use the onboard wash/press services from the cruise line?

 

Thanks in advance for any and all recommendations!

 

So looking forward to this trip!

 

We live a little under 2 hours from London, we haven't stayed down there because we always take the train in for the day, but everyone here loves premier hotels. There are several to choose from depending on where you want to be. If you plan to ride the tube around I suggest an Oyster card, it will save you a lot of money :) you can also get a tube app for your phone which really helps with navigating!

[John Bull]

There are frequent train services into London from Gatwick, the station is in the airport's south terminal. The trains can take you to one of several central London stations - Victoria, St Pancras or London Bridge.

 

By far the quickest & cheapest transportation from central London to Harwich is the hourly train, which departs from Liverpool Street station (note: that's Liverpool Street, not Liverpool) & takes to the quayside at Harwich International. It involves one change, at Manningtree. At Manningtree you need to go down steps to cross under the line & up to the platform for the Harwich train - there's no elevator. Unless you have physical difficulties or a mountain of luggage it's an easy change, and the Harwich train is timed to wait for the connection from London Liverpool Street. Its a small four-platform station, & lots of passengers will be doing the same (For the return from Harwich to London, the change is super-simple - from one side of the platform to the other).

Alternatively on days when there's a cruise turnaround at Harwich there's a cruise-special train (around noon) which runs direct from Liverpool Street to Harwich - but its about three times the cost!!

All train details at

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

 

Travel around central London is cheap and extremely easy by tube or bus - unless you have luggage. So best to pick a hotel handy to one of those rail stations from Gatwick or the Liverpool Street station, that way you only need one taxi from station to hotel or hotel to station.

 

JB :)

[Kmcspoon]

My family of five with teenagers stayed at the Ibis Downtown (Commerical Street) before a trip on the Brilliance of the Seas leaving Harwich.

 

We became whatever club members Ibis offered, and booked in advance...and got an extremely low rate on rooms that included breakfast. We could walk from the hotel to London Tower Bridge and surrounding area.

 

Then, the morning of the cruise, it was a very easy walk (for us) to the "Liverpool Street" Station even with our luggage. A taxi would have been a cheap option as well if you have a lot of luggage. Do look for train tickets to purchase in advance. It saved us a lot of money. We chose to take the earlier train that involved a change at Manningtree station, but it wasn't difficult, but there are stairs involved, one down, then back up on the other side of the tracks. There is a direct train for cruise passengers, but it arrived later in the day than my husband felt comfortable doing, but in retrospect would have been fine.

 

As far as laundry, we used the ship's laundry bags. I've played enough Tetris to fold more laundry than you could even imagine into those tiny bags! It came back clean and folded, and I'm sure I earned the respect of everyone in the laundry room for my "cleverness". I also packed a few of those Tide Pods to use a bit of at a time in the sink to wash a few things as needed. I am so used to doing laundry at home or on other ships, I thought I'd miss it...but it was actually a real treat to have someone else do it. I'd use my onboard credit on laundry more than a restaurant or massage, but that is just me!

 

Your kids will love the ship...there is plenty to do. We didn't do your same route, so I can't suggest anything in particular in that regard.

 

Have a great trip!

[MCazer]

Thanks so much for the advice. I joined the Ibis club thing as well and got a really good price and it is in a great neighborhood.

 

Did you happen to notice the Jack the Ripper tours? My kids would love to do one, and they have so many to choose from online. Do you know what else there is to do in that neighborhood or what else your teens found interesting to go see?

 

 

 

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[Kmcspoon]

I've seen the Jack the Ripper tours, but don't know anything about them. Sounds fun for the teenagers.

 

There is so much to do in London, you will have no trouble keeping yourself entertained. You are close to the Tower Bridge and Tower of London at the hotel. Maybe walk there the first day after checking in. You will be super jet-lagged if you are coming from the U.S.

 

You could go down to the Underground just to show the kids how neat they are. There is one near the hotel as well.

 

Good luck narrowing down the possibilities. Sounds like you have a great tour lined up. You may want to explore the train/bus passes available since you will be there a few days. Wish we could have spent more time there.

 

Kmscspoon