HAL regular sails the Caribbean Princess British Isles cruise June 25, 2016

[StartrainDD]

After six port days in a row, we enjoyed a relaxing day at sea. When I went to the International Café to get coffee at about 7:30 AM, the ship was extremely quiet. When we went to breakfast at 8:30, it was beginning to wake. Breakfast was nice and dear dad had eaten earlier so it was just the two of us. We sat with two other couples; one from Australia who are here on a golf tour (there are a dozen couples and everything is prearranged – they play golf on world class courses in every port) and the other couple relative ‘neighbors’ from New Jersey, USA.

 

At 10:00 the photographers offered “The Art of Light Photography Class.” I attended and found it to be informative. We were taken out on the promenade deck, various indoor areas, and finally deck 17 forward both outdoors and to the high-end studio on board. While I was taking the class, DW enjoyed shopping a large “Two for $20” sale where one of the dining rooms was turned into a bazaar. T-Shirts in my size were discovered and several purchases were made, including a nice coffee mug which has the path of the ship with the ports highlighted.

 

A British style “Pub lunch” was offered today in the Crown Grill. All three of us had the Fish & Chips. I thought this was very good fish & chips! We left the grill and found seats near the International Café to enjoy live music in the Piazza. In the middle of the afternoon there was a display of original costumes from “Downton Abbey” in the Princess Theater. The line to view these (a dozen passengers at a time) went from the Theater all the way through the casino and around the Piazza on deck seven. There is no way that DW could stand for that length of time so we passed on this.

 

We were ready early for the second and last formal night of the cruise so we enjoyed more live music, this time by the Guitarist Jonathan Carter, in the Piazza. Dinner was very good tonight and our three German friends returned to share the table. The Surf (Shrimp) and Turf (a small filet) was very well prepared. We left dinner and just made it to the 7:00 show, a production show “Broadway Ballroom.”

 

The show was not as good as the prior production show but enjoyable. After the show we visited the buffet as tonight was “Neptune’s dinner buffet.” There were three types of Shrimp, Crawfish, Snow Crab Legs, Crab Cakes, Sea Scallops, and other seafood available (as well as chicken for the non-seafood lovers). We had a few Shrimp and enjoyed the view from the far aft. Somehow these are the cleanest windows on the ship. It was a very pretty evening with the sun not setting until after 10:30 as we are at about 58.5 degrees north. The sun stays low in the northwestern sky for a very long time.

 

There was “Big band” music and ballroom dancing available tonight in Club Fusion. With a very early start tomorrow DW said there is no way she could stay up. Speaking of tomorrow, we are in Invergordon, Scotland and have a full day private tour with a meet time of 7:40 AM.

 

Arie

[callmedeb]

I feel as though i am taking the cruise with you! Great Job - I look forward to your next installment!

[Alaskanb]

You mentioned Passport receipts -- would you elaborate please. Thanks

[StartrainDD]

You mentioned Passport receipts -- would you elaborate please. Thanks

 

Apparently the Republic of Ireland wants to stamp all passports. Therefore, all passports are collected by the room steward the afternoon after Guernsey. The evening after Liverpool was the assigned time to retrieve passports from the room steward. As we missed the appointed time slot, I needed to get them from the front desk the next morning.

 

We were told that we MUST take our passports along with us in France. We did, as we tend to follow instructions, but at no time did anyone ashore ask to see them.

 

Arie

[StartrainDD]

With an early tour start we visited the dining room at 6:40 for breakfast. One of today’s specials was Blueberry Pancakes and they were enjoyed along with scrambled eggs. Everyone’s breakfast was good and we met our touring group at 7:35. The ship was cleared by 7:10 so we walked right off the ship. It’s a bit of a walk down the pier and then across a small parking / navigation area out the main gate to meet our private Highland Experience Tour by Nigel.

 

http://www.shorexcursions.co.uk/highland_experience_tour.htm

 

Our guide was Thomas, Nigel’s son. We headed out of town and Thomas told us we would not be competing with the tour buses as many of the roads we will travel the buses would not travel on. How right he was! Thomas took us down narrow lanes and showed us some of the famous Scottish Highland Cattle. We also had up close views of sheep more than ready for shearing! Our first actual stop was the town of Dornoch, aka “Royal Dornoch.” We toured the cathedral and enjoyed the many stain glass windows. It was too early to tour the Prison but instead we enjoyed many of the floral gardens that lined the main street.

 

We returned to the van to head to Loch Fleet, “The Outstanding Nature Reserve.” Sure enough, we did see lots of wildlife but the most attracting was a number of seals including infants. They were quite a distance away yet with my super zoom I think I obtained good photos and video. In the far distance, over the loch, we could just see our next stop, Dunrobin Castle. The Castle tour itself was enjoyable but with a few too many stairs for DW. We did really enjoy seeing the dining room, which reminded us of Downton Abbey. Other highlights were the stone main staircase and the drawing room. It was a bit disappointing that no photos are allowed inside the castle.

 

At 11:30 a Falconry display was given in the Beautiful Gardens. This was truly the most spectacular Falconry Display I have ever witnessed. We even had a huge Owl sitting next to us on the front-row bench for 15 minutes! This was the highlight of the stop and the entire day.

 

We enjoyed a light lunch in the castle tea room. Everything we ordered was quite good and prices were reasonable. Next we left the castle and drove over country lanes for an hour to reach the Falls of Shin. It was a bit of a walk from the parking area to reach the falls and that included a number of stairs. DW is really hurting by this point. It was quite enjoyable to see the Salmon leaping to get up the falls. We did not see any actually make it up the falls, although our guide told us that he has seen Salmon successfully make it up the falls!

 

Back in the van for a short time we stopped along the road to see a castle across a river. This was the “Spite castle” built after the third Duke of Sutherland’s wife was disowned from his will (after a family fight). Regretfully the castle has fallen into disrepair and its future fate is uncertain. We continued on to “Millionaire’s View.” This view over the Shin River valley is very enjoyable and we could see for miles. In fact in the distance we could just make out the “Spite castle.”

 

We wound our way down numerous country lanes to the Glenmorangie Distillery. This was a very good tour but it involved a great deal of steep steps and there was no way that DW could do this. The tour did take us through the process from taking barley through the mashing process, until the final result of Scottish Whiskey. I did learn why most “Scotch” has a woody flavor. It is because the barley is dried using Peat as a heat source. This distillery uses only a small amount of peat and I could certainly taste the difference during the tasting at the end of the tour. Their minimum aging is 10 years with many of their products going through a 12 year process.

 

After the distillery tour we headed back to Invergordon, but before dropping us at the port, Thomas showed us a number of the large murals painted on buildings around the town. This really seems like a nice town to explore, but it is now 5:15 with a 5:30 all aboard! We certainly saw an awful lot on this tour and really enjoyed it.

 

Back on board we quickly changed clothes and went to dinner. All six were at our table again tonight and we all had full day tours. Everyone seemed very happy. The show was a comedian ventriloquist, Kieran Powell. We don’t enjoy ventriloquists so we passed in favor of just listening to the Party Band in the Explorer’s Lounge. Dear dad did go to the show and found Kieran to be disappointing. Afterwards I attended the port talk on Edinburgh by local tourist representative Helen Hunt before calling it a night. Tomorrow is our last port in Scotland, Edinburgh!

 

Arie

[StartrainDD]

Waking around 6:30 worked just right for today. We went to Breakfast in the dining room at 7:25. DW enjoyed one of today’s specials, scrambled eggs with Asparagus and claimed Swiss cheese. It was just okay. We went to get our tender tickets at 8:30 and only had to wait about 5 minutes for our numbers to be called. A pleasant morning allowed us to sit up top on the tender for the longer than expected (20 minutes?) ride into the dock.

 

Upon arrival, it was quite a walk up the slippery slope to the street and a few waiting cabs. We took a taxi to the Edinburgh Castle. Our driver was able to bring us right up to the front entrance as we arrived right at 9:30, opening time. The staff told the driver that they would be closing that access in just a few minutes. We approached a staff person about getting a lift for DW to the top of the hill. They told us that was available but the car could not make another trip until after a band performance, and two other parties were waiting so it would be 45 minutes. DW had no place to sit so we chose to walk up ourselves. This ended up being a good decision.

 

With our pre-purchased tickets we walked right in. The ticket buying queue was already extensive. We used Rick Steve’s self-guiding printed tour and it told us a lot. The castle visit was very enjoyable including the Crown Jewels of Scotland. Many photos were taken and a good time was had by all. While at the castle we observed the lines growing and growing some more. We left the castle at about 11:30 and back on the Esplanade we began the Rick Steve’s walking tour of the Royal Mile.

 

The audio tour was very good. We stopped the tour several times to further explore some of the sights. In addition, we did a bit of shopping and tried to direct our purchases to local Scottish merchants. The majority of the shops along the Royal Mile are now owned by one family corporation who are not native Scots. If you visit two shops that have the same merchandise at the same prices, you know these are among those many shops.

 

We toured St. Giles church, the home church of the Church of Scotland. The stained glass at St. Giles is very impressive. We enjoyed a light lunch in the basement café. We also visited the Museum of Childhood. If you can make it up the winding staircase you must still be a child! Dear dad did, at least to the second floor train exhibit. Finally we had a very nice visit at Canongate Kirk (Church), which is the Edinburgh church home for the royal family. The Queen and Prince Phillip had been in attendance the day prior so the church was decked out with floral displays. There is a listing near the front door of the pastors / bishops / priests, etc. who have led this church since the 1100’s. It is amazing that the last three led the church for over 110 years.

 

We finished out tour in front of Holyrood house, which is not open for tours as the queen is currently in residence. We found a willing taxi to take us back to South Queensferry and got in the cab at 3:00. The taxi ride took us through the “New town” and the retail shopping district. We had more traffic than in the AM but were back at the dock at about 3:30. By the way, the taxi fare each way was less than 25 pounds. For three, this was certainly cheaper (not to mention much more convenient) than the transfer offered by Princess. It was a bit more than the 15 pounds each way the local bus service offered the transfer for, but then we would have needed to walk a lot further uphill – not something DW was really able to do.

 

We had no wait for a return tender and were led to the Maid of the Firth, a local tour boat turned into ‘super tender.’ Here is one place Princess dropped the ball. It HAD been raining, and all the seats up top were soaked. There was no crewperson with towels drying off the seats. Not wanting our bottoms to be soaked through, we stood downstairs until kind people managed to make a bit more seating room. It didn’t really rain on the trip back so the boat could have held a lot more people had they simply dried off the seats.

At 5:20 we talked to three people who just returned and they had a 45 minute wait for tenders in the soaking rain. We were happy back on the ship, got ready for dinner, and enjoyed some music in the Piazza before heading to the dining room. Dinner tonight was a winner and everything from my scallops to DW’s “Burger with crabmeat” was very enjoyable. After dinner we enjoyed the guitarist in the Wheelhouse until heading early to the showroom for the “Voice of the Ocean finale.” The showroom filled up early as this was “One show only.” It was being simulcast in Club Fusion for the overflow.

 

We attended the finale of “The Voice of the Ocean” in the theater, one show only, at 8:00. The theater was standing room only by about 7:50. This was very entertaining and we all had a great time. There is a 9:15 enrichment talk on the beaches of Normandy but after our long day touring and with losing an hour tonight due to a time change to Europe time (for France) we called it an evening. I should mention that the ship was nicely decorated for the 4th of July with large US flags in the Piazza, a huge flag cake (I don’t know if it was ever to be consumed) also on display in the Piazza and there were other patriotic decorations throughout the public areas. Tomorrow is a much needed sea day before calling at LeHarve, France on Wednesday.

 

Arie

[StartrainDD]

This was our second and final sea day on this twelve night cruise. No need to get up and out early. I went down to the International Café for coffee at 7:40 and the ship was very quiet. We left for breakfast at 9:00 and guests were beginning to be up and about. Breakfast was good and we shared a table with two other couples. One told a story of their day in Edinburgh which included “Losing” their 17 year old daughter and therefore delaying their tour bus for 20 minutes. I will come back to this later…

 

We attended a 10:00 destination talk on LeHarve and the Normandy beaches. This was fairly informative. We decided to go early for lunch only to find the dining room was not opening today until noon. It was a challenge to find a place to sit. No seats whatsoever were available at the Piazza on any level, and we had to walk to the Wheelhouse bar to find a place to sit. The Caribbean Princess is not a good ship for sea days (at least in colder climate), as there are not enough indoor gathering spaces when it is not pleasant to be outdoors.

 

Lunch was a bit of a disappointment as the “Milwaukee fish fry” entrée was extremely greasy and fishy. It was replaced with a burger which was good but I left most of the bun uneaten as it was not appetizing. Any letdowns at lunch were made up at dinner as dinner was excellent. We all had the lobster and prawn (shrimp) entrée. The portions were ample and delicious. This was followed by the baked Alaska parade to round out the evening.

 

Back to the afternoon I enjoyed music in the Piazza, first by the guitar man Jumari and then a “Dixieland” session by the orchestra. The orchestra was superb, but why they use the Piazza where there is extremely limited seating I do not understand. It seems to me that Club Fusion is quite underutilized and would be a better venue for sea day events that draw a crowd.

 

At dinner we told our table companions that we had seen them going into the Edinburgh Castle as we were leaving. They talked about the $200/head tour with Princess and how when they returned they waited in the pouring rain for over 30 minutes for a tender. It turned out they returned to the tender pier right at 6:00 the “Last tender time.” They were on the tour that was delayed due to the lost daughter previously mentioned. Let this be one more confirmation for us that large ship’s tours are to be avoided if at all possible.

 

Dinner ran long as the dining room was completely full so we missed the 7:00 show. Instead we enjoyed the piano player at Crooners Bar until he was through and moved to the Wheelhouse to listed to Jumari a while. With a very early start tomorrow for our adventure to the Normandy beaches and WWII sites, we called it an evening.

 

Arie

[StartrainDD]

Despite lots of uncertainty that we would actually make it to France due to the recurring labor unrest, we had a marvelous (and sobering) day in Normandy. We were up early and at breakfast in the dining room at 6:40. Breakfast was enjoyable as always and we met our tour companions right on time at 7:40. There was still a line to get off the ship. What causes this line? Partly it is caused by people needing assistance, and we certainly understand that. But what really seem to hold up the line is the ship’s photographers who insist on taking photos right at the end of the gangway, effectively blocking those still on the gangway from getting off. A note about this will go on my survey.

 

We were the first group (out of at least four) to meet their Overlord tour guide. Melanie is a wonderful guide, and she was recommended by good friends who were in LeHavre a month ago. We left the pier and rode about 90 minutes to Omaha Beach. The van has Wi-Fi! This allowed us to catch up on some e-mails, look at Facebook, and see the current exchange rates!

 

Melanie has extensive knowledge about the allied repatriation of France and shared a lot of information with drawings, photos, and maps. Did you know the attack had to occur at low tide (the tidal difference here is 18 feet!)? At high tide the landing craft would have been torn up by German obstacles on the beach, so they had to land at low tide, but that left the troops with hundreds of yards of open beach to cross before reaching any cover at all.

 

From Omaha Beach we visited the American cemetery. We stayed over an hour at the cemetery, visiting the monument to the many missing in action (Including one Coast Guardsman), the chapel in the middle of the cemetery, and the observation areas looking over Omaha Beach (and Utah beach in the distance). Our next stop was at the eastern end of Omaha Beach where several other monuments exist. There are American Flags (along with Canadian, British and French flags) at many places in Normandy, including in front of many homes.

 

Our next stop was the “Pointe-Du-Hoc,” the first major action by the brand new “Army Rangers.” What they accomplished here was incredible. Literally none of them were expected to survive but nearly half of them did, and by taking out five huge German guns they saved countless Allied lives. We saw the special monument to the Rangers and dear dad even walked all the way to the monument which is right on the point.

 

A photo stop was made at a monument to the National Guard. Melanie told us the story of one National Guard soldier who singlehandedly obtained the surrender of a group of 35 enemy soldiers. He did this with cunning use of grenades. He tried to repeat the feat a few days later and lost his life in the process.

 

We drove to the town of Ste-Mare-Eglise and enjoyed a light lunch of Normandy specialties at E Castel Café, recommended by Melanie. This is the first town liberated by the Allied as many paratroopers landed in and near the town, including the famous paratrooper who landed and got hung up on the church steeple. The church has several newer stained glass windows depicting the paratroopers’ liberation of the town.

 

Next we visited Utah Beach. Here is more equipment on display as well as a private museum and a reproduction of the Higgins Boat (the landing craft). Melanie told us that the Allies had much greater immediate success in the attack on Utah Beach, establishing a beachhead within two hours of the initial assault. This was due to many reasons not the least of was the attack of the paratroopers from the rear.

 

On to our last stop on the tour, the small village of Angoville Au Plain. It was in this village that two medics, 19 & 20 years old, saved 78 out of 80 injured soldiers by sheltering them in the town church for over 48 hours before any reinforcements arrived. During this time the town changed hands three times. Among those saved were two enemy soldiers which is what made the German commander leave all those in the church alive and without further harm.

 

We then drove the two hours back to the ship arriving at the Caribbean Princess at 5:45 PM. This was an outstanding tour and highly recommended. We paid Melanie and thanked her again for being a great guide.

 

Back on the ship we went straight to our dining room where Lucian was waiting for us. In fact, until we were nearly finished with dessert we were his only guests! Lucian told us this final dinner of the cruise used to be called the “All American dinner” as most entrees are “American classics.” The waiters all had red, white, and blue vests and ties. All three of us had the steak entrée and while not quite what we enjoy at “Texas Roadhouse” it was a good steak. Petit Fours were offered with dessert and these were quite nice.

 

After dinner we visited the International Café for the final punch on the coffee card. GlenJoy waited on us once again and told us we could visit in the morning for a last brewed coffee before heading out. After this is was back to the cabin to pack and put the luggage out. As we are spending two days in London post-cruise, and much of our clothing is soiled at this point, this ended up being quite the chore. We were able to put two days’ worth of clean clothes in our carry on and have one 48 pound suitcase stuffed with soiled clothes not to be opened until we are home.

 

The two checked bags were put out for pick up at 9:00. We do push the clocks back an hour to Greenwich time tonight so it is not as short a night as it might have been. We are scheduled to disembark at 8:00 for our 8:30 pick up to head to London!

 

Arie

[Ellipooh]

Really informative review, thanks very much for taking the time for your readers' benefit! I sure hope the Downton dresses on on display next year.

 

I am also curious about Passports. I know they get taken from you and later returned (hence, the need for a receipt). I just don't completely understand WHY -- and especially i don't understand how one is allowed off the boat into a foreign country without showing it.

 

Plus, it means that my passport won't show Ireland and Scotland as evidence of my visit??

[StartrainDD]

With the time change I did not sleep well as I was concerned that my phone alarm would get confused by the time change. Everything went exactly as it was supposed to but still it affected my rest. In any case, we were up and headed to the Palm dining room (Deck 6 – Aft) at 6:40 for breakfast. The special of the day was the corn-flake crusted French toast, so I ordered that along with some eggs. The French toast was a bit overcooked so I only ate half of it.

 

We went back to our cabins for the last time to retrieve our hand luggage and headed off to the Coral dining room to await our Red 4 luggage tag to be called. We were in there about 10 minutes when we were called right at 8:00. We found our luggage quickly and walked right out to find mass confusion with many people looking like they had no idea what to do. We were three of those people! We called our prearranged service, “Smiths for airports” and told them we were out front. They said they would call and let our driver know. About ten minutes later our driver arrived with a sign with our name.

 

By 8:35 we were on our way to London, and we arrived at our hotel, the Westminster Doubletree at about 10:50. We paid our driver and the bellhop took our luggage. Our “Princess” shopping bag in which we had put all our purchases ripped and the bellhop found a box to put everything in. Our rooms were ready and the luggage was delivered to them. After a short time we headed out for the day’s touring.

 

I had pre-purchased tickets for Westminster Abbey and the Churchill War Rooms. We visited both those sights and enjoyed the audio tours for both. Westminster Abbey is really something to see, and the War Rooms were timely to see as just the day prior we toured the Normandy beaches. In between the two sights we had a nice lunch in the Westminster Café, an eatery in the lower level of the Central Methodist hall. Everything was quite good and the price could not be beat.

 

We did not realize how far we had ventured from our hotel and in retrospect we should have taken a taxi back. We took several breaks but this was really too far a walk for my DW and also D Dad. We did, however, see a bunch of TV crews and reporters gathered outside the house of Parliament. Seeing the news this evening we figured they were looking for a glimpse of the two finalists to be the next Prime Minister.

 

Back at the Doubletree, after a short break in our rooms, we visited the Executive Lounge and enjoyed some snacks, sodas, and wine. Using the Wi-Fi I found that Selfridges was less than three miles from the hotel with an estimated 20 minute taxi ride. We had talked about trying to visit Selfridges tomorrow (as we were fans of the TV series, Mr. Selfridge) and decided that the break had given us a second wind. So off we went to Selfridges. We enjoyed seeing the windows and the front entry which looks just like it did 100 years ago and on the series. We walked most of the five floors of shopping and found that this is a very high-end store indeed.

 

Leaving Selfridges, we walked along Oxford Street and stopped at one of the street shops that had London based items. Two T-shirts were bought, for DW and DD. It was about 8:00 and I was a bit hungry. We bought some salads and a small sub from a Subway and decided to take them back to the Doubletree. We quickly found a London Taxi and the ride back was quicker as traffic was lighter due to the hour. We enjoyed our small supper in the Executive Lounge before retiring for the night.

 

Arie

[StartrainDD]

Really informative review, thanks very much for taking the time for your readers' benefit! I sure hope the Downton dresses on on display next year.

 

I am also curious about Passports. I know they get taken from you and later returned (hence, the need for a receipt). I just don't completely understand WHY -- and especially i don't understand how one is allowed off the boat into a foreign country without showing it.

 

Plus, it means that my passport won't show Ireland and Scotland as evidence of my visit??

 

Your passport will be stamped at Heathrow (or Gatwick, whichever you are flying into) as evidence of your visit to the U.K. Scotland (and Northern Ireland) are part of the U.K. so there is no passport stamp for those regions.

 

The Republic of Ireland is a separate country (but part of the E.U.). For some reason they DO want to review passports. They put a very nice large stamp in our passport.

 

France (also an E.U. country) does not stamp the passport, but as I said, we were instructed to carry our passports with us.

 

If you are taking this cruise next year, please keep in mind that much may change as the effects of "Brexit" begin to get implemented.

 

I hope this helps!

 

Arie

[StartrainDD]

Today was a very full day. We were up and enjoyed breakfast in the Doubletree executive lounge at about 7:20. Back to the room I checked in for our flights tomorrow. Then we enlisted a taxi by 8:30 heading to the Tower of London. We arrived just before the 9:00 opening and with our pre-purchased tickets (but I had to exchange the voucher for the actual tickets) we were inside by 9:10.

 

Per Rick Steve’s recommendation we made a beeline straight for the display of the Crown Jewels. I am sure happy we saw the Scottish Crown Jewels first. As we were there before any crowds we actually rode the moving walking along the Crown Jewel display three times. Wow. The displays of the solid gold plates and serving wear which are used for the coronation banquets were also just “Over the top.” Later our Yeoman Yarder guide told us there is over a ton and a half of solid gold on display.

 

Next we hoofed it back towards the entrance to meet the Yeoman Yarder “Beefeater” for the first tour at 10:00. This tour was superb and our guide, J Duncan was very animated and informative. He told many stories which “Must be true as they are all in the history books” of the imprisonments and executions which took place at or near the Tower over the years.

 

We left the Tower grounds at 11:25 although we certainly could have spent another hour or two there, but we had timed tickets for noon at the “Sky garden,” the world’s largest roof top garden. The Sky garden is on top of the skyscraper at 20 Fenchurch Street, locally known as the “Cell phone” building. These tickets are free but you must go on line to get them about 15 days before your visit. They are all gone within a couple of days of when they are made available.

 

While up on the garden, we enjoyed a coffee break while enjoying the views. This ended what was preplanned and the three of us discussed options. We decided to get back to the Tower area to take the Ho-Ho “Original tour” around London. Overall this was rather enjoyable and we got a bit of a sunburn as we sat up on top in the open. The London traffic distracts from this tour as there were times we stopped or crawled for a long time. What was supposed to be a two hour circuit took over four hours.

 

About 40 minutes of the four hours was spent enjoying an English Fish & Chips lunch at the “The Old Bell” pub. How did we end up at the Old Bell? Well, an impatient van driver ended up scraping his rear view mirror into the side of our Ho-Ho bus. Not knowing how long they would be stuck there, we were let off and the pub was across the street.

 

After the Ho-Ho tour we got on a river cruise (included with the Ho-Ho ticket) and headed from the Tower pier down to Westminster pier. The River is busy enough but nothing like the roads! We also had very pretty views of all the buildings and attractions along the river and beyond. When we got off the boat, we began to walk back to the Doubletree. This was really too far to walk but all the taxis were on the opposite side heading the wrong way.

 

In front of Parliament, dead dad began talking with a constable who took note of how tired we looked, and waved over a cab from the opposite side of the road into the Parliament driveway. He told us to have a great day and the cabbie was happy to take us back to the Doubletree which ended up taking about three minutes and just under five pounds. This saved us at least 30 minutes of struggle and was the best five pounds we spent all day!

 

We enjoyed a few snacks, including spare ribs, at the Doubletree lounge. We headed back to our rooms to get our luggage all ready for our 5:15 AM pick-up to Heathrow Airport in the morning!

 

Arie

[StartrainDD]

We were ready at 5:00 for our 5:15 pick up by Airport Only UK. Much to our delight our driver was waiting for us. We checked out of the Doubletree and headed to Heathrow. Early on a Saturday morning the trip took just 30 minutes. We were quickly checked in to our flights and sent for a long walk to area G for mobility assist. Area G happens to also be where the Travelex tax refund desk is and we had accumulated a few small eligible receipts so I went and had that taken care of. In about four weeks I may see a small credit on my account.

 

Our flight to Manchester was prompt and our flight to Philadelphia actually left a few minutes early. We fought a headwind all the way back but arrived at 1:35, right on schedule. We must have set a record for getting through immigration, customs, and baggage as we called for our remote parking pick up at 2:06!

 

We arrived home at about 3:30 in the midst of a thunderstorm . Dear dad wanted to get moving to his home so we unloaded the van in the downpour and our trip was over. He arrived home at 5:30.

 

Next - the summary and conclusion!

 

Arie

[StartrainDD]

And the long awaited summary and conclusion follows below! I hope this log/review helps those who may be planning on doing this itinerary later this year or next. We have learned so much over the years thanks to cruise critic members that I always like to pay I forward to the next group.

 

We booked this, our 25th cruise, for the itinerary. Our one prior experience on Princess was not positive, so our attitude was “The ship is our hotel, we won’t go hungry, but this trip is all about the ports.” Our favorite cruise line is Holland America and we have become accustomed to some of the things they offer. I am pleased to say that overall this was a very good cruise.

 

Overall the food was very good. There were a few hits and a few misses, but we saw no need to eat in the specialty dining (except for the pub lunch) and our Coral dining room waiter Lucian was superb, and was the assistant DR manager Roberto who took good care of DW’s special ordered meals. We really liked that the dining room opened at 6:30 for breakfast! This allowed us to enjoy a dining room breakfast before early shore outings. Lucian told us they had just changed that on the previous sailing as the breakfast used to open at 7:00. This is a plus as on Holland America the dining room doesn’t open until 7:30 and that is too late on shore days.

 

Our inside cabin is what we expected, smaller than we are used to on Holland America and the bathroom/shower is tiny. But, we did not spend much time there, as was the plan. Our room steward Rodolfo made sure we never ran out of ice and our room was always clean.

 

The entertainment was better than we expected. Additionally, having three shows on many evenings alleviated the dramatic over-crowding we found on our prior Princess cruise. The shows we attended did all “Fill up” but you did not need to arrive 45 minutes before the show to get a seat. The “One time only” shows held in the late afternoon by shore-based performers are not to be missed. It is difficult to decide between more time on shore or making it back for a show, but the shows were great. We did miss one of them (The Inverness port day) as our tour was “All day.” But we did see the Dublin and Greenock shows and they were five-star.

 

To us a big negative is that Princess does not offer a laundry package like Holland does. In fact, after two more cruises we will reach 4 star on Holland which means free laundry. On a 12 night cruise (followed by a few days on shore) there is no way to pack enough to not need to do laundry. I did the laundry once on about the fifth day and that got us by, but laundry is NOT something I want to do on vacation. To send out what I washed and pay “By the piece” would be over $100, which is also something I do not want to pay.

 

The other big negative is simply the size of the ship and the fact that the Caribbean Princess is not well suited to cold-weather or scenic cruising. Perhaps because we are usually early we had little trouble getting onto a tender to go to shore. However, tendering back from shore Princess seems to really drop the ball. We never had an excessive wait but talked to people who waited nearly 90 minutes to get back to the ship, and many of these were on Princess Excursions. That is simply not acceptable in my book. Even when in a ‘docked port,’ if the arrival time is 8:00 and you want to be off she ship quickly, be prepared to wait in a line to get off. This doesn’t happen with a 7:00 arrival and I think Princess would serve their guests well to adjust the schedule so there are more 7:00 arrivals. Certainly the distances on this cruise between ports are low and this should be achievable.

 

The weather is of course something that cruise line has no control over. For most of this trip the weather was the worst we have ever experienced in 25 cruises, but the only day it really affected us with in Greenock where the mid-day lengthy downpour persuaded us not to attempt any more touring. Late in the afternoon it became very pleasant but by then we were less than 90 minutes from all-aboard. Rain does go with the territory in the British Isles so this was not unexpected.

 

Would we sail with Princess again? For the right itinerary, yes we would. But I would be looking to avoid tendering and short port calls. So what is my final conclusion? This is close between four or three and a half stars out of five. I am going to go with four out of five with the tiebreaker being the early dining room breakfast option.

 

Arie

[DSLibrarian]

Thank you for posting your review. DH & I are booked for this cruise in Aug 2017 (includes the Military Tattoo) so this has been especially helpful.

[Pierlesscruisers]

Great fun reading your review! Thanks.

 

Uh, ansoninc, did you realize that your photo appears to be rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise? :rolleyes: Or am I misreading the photo?

 

Tom

[sunsetbeachgal]

Wow, unbelievable review! Thank you! This cruise is in our future, possibly next year and your notes will be very helpful. We like both HAL and Princess, I agree that there in no better viewing than from the Crows Nest!

[ansoninc]

Uh, ansoninc, did you realize that your photo appears to be rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise? :rolleyes: Or am I misreading the photo?

 

Tom

Tom, I would like to say that i am someone who likes to look at things from all angles, but in this case I have no idea how my picture of the glacier ended up wonky. I guess i will have to break down and read the instructions. :rolleyes:

Diana

[Pierlesscruisers]

Tom, I would like to say that i am someone who likes to look at things from all angles, but in this case I have no idea how my picture of the glacier ended up wonky. I guess i will have to break down and read the instructions. :rolleyes:

Diana

 

Ah, going with the old standby of "When all else fails, read the directions." huh? :p Actually, I like the first sentence reason to tell you the truth!!!

 

Tom

[Bagidlow]

Great review! We are going in a few weeks so we are getting very excited. Approximately how long did it take you to get off the ship in the ports? Also, how do you get the tender times? Thanks for your help.

[StartrainDD]

Great review! We are going in a few weeks so we are getting very excited. Approximately how long did it take you to get off the ship in the ports? Also, how do you get the tender times? Thanks for your help.

 

Tenders will begin about 15 minutes after the stated arrival time. We did not have long waits for tenders to go ashore, but we are always rather early. I read another review and they went to tender about 9:00 and had long waits in both tender ports! The "Early bird" gets ashore quickly.

 

I hate to say this, but if you want to avoid a long wait to come back to the ship, you need to cut the port visit short. Figure on coming back from Guernsey by noon and from Edinburgh by 3:00, 3:30 latest.

 

Getting off the ship in ports with a 7:00 arrival was no issue at all; less than 5 minutes. Getting off the ship quickly in ports with an 8:00 arrival could mean 15 minutes in line. The photographers really hold things up.

 

Hope this helps and have a super trip!

 

Arie

[Posaune]

We have done this cruise three times, so it is obviously our favorite! Tendering is always an issue on this cruise. So many folks want to spend every possible moment ashore and they all arrive back in port in the last hour. Tough to move that many people in an hour! I firmly believe the reason for telling everyone they must take passports ashore in France is the number of people that miss the ship for the return to Southampton. We have seen multiple passengers not make it back each time we did this cruise.

[islandatsea]

Thank you for taking the time to review your cruise. Very informative!

[DrivesLikeMario]

Anyone who is booked on a British Isles cruise is in for a real treat. I think it's probably one of my very favorite cruises. The itinerary is quite intensive and you have to be prepared for a lot of on-the-go tours, but it's so worth every minute of it. I really encourage people to pre-book venues as much as they possibly can and also pre-book private tour guides well in advance as the good ones sell out quickly. The CC roll calls are invaluable with this itinerary so check your roll call out if you haven't already.

 

BTW, it's Yeoman Warders. Just sayin'...:D What a fantastic review OP! It was so well-written and informative. Thank you!

[SLYScorpions]

Thank you for such a detailed, awesome review! DH and I are booked on this cruise for June 6, 2017 and I have already booked a couple of tours. I am a planner and like to know everything I can about where I am going and your info has been so helpful. I really appreciate it! I look at cruise critic everyday (obsessed maybe?)...I just look so forward to my next cruise and planning ahead makes me happy :)

 

Inviting anyone booked for June 6, 2017 British Isles cruise on Caribbean Princess to come on over to the Roll Call!