Report on 6/30/17 CB British Isles Cruise – LONG!

[Suskies]

Just finished our wonderful British Isles cruise on the Caribbean Princess. I'm reporting each day separately so you can jump to whatever you're interested in...

[Suskies]

Background, Introduction,and Flight to London

We are in our 60s and have been cruising since our honeymoon37 years ago. This is our 6th Princess cruise. We’ve cruised on NCL,HAL, and Celebrity, but Princess is our favorite. We were on the CB once beforeon a Caribbean cruise in early 2013. We chose this itinerary because we wantedto see the UK and Ireland, and we chose this particular itinerary, with aDublin overnight, so we could do a Dublin pub crawl.

For me, half the fun of travelingis the research, planning and anticipation. This trip took more research thanusual because we weren’t familiar with most of the ports. We’re “on your own”people, happiest when we’re simply walking around with our own self-guided tourrather than being shepherded with a large group. We’ve also learned thatfull-day excursions on a port-intensive itinerary are exhausting, so on thistrip we avoided those.

When we travel abroad, I use an appfor my Kindle called Maps.Me to navigate around town. It’s an off-line map, andI can mark anything we want to see on it. There’s color coding, so I can markattractions in one color and restaurants in another. It also has a routefeature like Google Maps, so it can tell us the fastest way to walk from onespot to the next. I planned a lot of walking tours by marking everything wewere interested in seeing on Maps.Me, then reviewing the marks, removing theones too far away, and working out the best way to wander around and see therest. Then we walk around each port withmy Kindle in hand.

A few days before we left, welooked up forecasts on Accuweather, which gives daily forecasts several weeksin advance (understanding, of course, that anything past a few days is prettyunreliable). The forecast for every port was cloudy, high in the mid-60s, lowin the 50s, with a 55-65% chance of rain. Couldn’t we have just one sunny dayon this cruise?!? I packed planning to wear layers: jeans and khakis, anassortment of tops that were mostly lightweight ¾ sleeve, a cardigan, and an LLBean rain jacket with a zip-out lining that I sprayed with water repellent. Ibrought two pairs of walking shoes in case one got wet. On such aport-intensive cruise, we don’t pack formal wear, but I packed a couple ofdresses and a pair of dress sandals.

 

DH has never been to the UK, so weflew in a couple of days early to see London and get over jet lag. We chose aBritish Airways flight with an early departure, arriving at Heathrow at 6:30 AMlocal time (1:30 AM US Eastern time). We decided we wouldn’t try to sleep onthe flight and instead get a nap when we arrived. We save our frequent flyermiles to splurge on international business class, and it’s always a treat.

[Suskies]

Tuesday 6/27: ARRIVE IN LONDON

The Soho condo we rented through VRBO.com wasn’t available until noon, so we cashed in some Hilton Honors points for that morning nap at the Hilton Garden Inn near Heathrow, requesting a late checkout. After getting through passport control (very long and slow, even in the fast-track lane for business class passengers) and getting our luggage, we took a Hotel Hoppa bus to the hotel (5 pounds per person one way). We were in bed by 9, got a wakeup call at 1, got a quick sandwich at the hotel, then decided to splurge on a taxi rather than deal with our big cruise bags on the tube into London. There’s a20% surcharge if you pay taxi fare with a credit card, so we paid cash.

 

 

Our condo was great—on the 16th floor of a Soho apartment building, with huge windows with fabulous views of City of London (the financial district) to the east. It rained all day, so for the rest of the afternoon we just relaxed in the condo and enjoyed the rainy view. We ventured out into the rain at dinnertime, found the local pubs packed,and ended up eating at The Diner off Carnaby Street.

 

We quickly saw the effect of the dollar/pound exchange rate on prices here. Sandwich plates are around 8-10 pounds—expensive back when the pound was worth $2, but a good value today. A service charge is normally added to the bill, so no extra tip is needed.

[Suskies]

Wednesday 6/28:LONDON, ENGLAND

We started off the day with fullEnglish breakfasts at a nearby Patisserie Valerie, a UK bakery chain: eggs,bacon (like Canadian bacon), sausage, baked beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, andtoast. I could only eat about half of mine!

We spent therest of the morning on a hop-on-hop-off sightseeing bus tour. We went with theOriginal London Sightseeing Tour because it got great reviews on TripAdvisor,and we really enjoyed it. The bus moved slowly because of traffic, which wasgood because we got to see everything at leisure. There were some detours (thestreets around Parliament were closed, for example), but we got a good look atalmost all the London highlights. It was very cloudy but no rain, thankgoodness. Then we picked up pre-packaged sandwiches for lunch at a Boots (drugstore), ate in our condo, and spend the afternoon just relaxing there.

 

In the evening wewent to a dinner show at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club, just a few blocks from ourcondo in the West End, featuring Ramsey Lewis, a renowned jazz pianist. It wasa beautiful venue, great food, and wonderful music.

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Thursday 6/29: LONDON,ENGLAND

Today we started with a more modest breakfast at PatisserieValerie. Our tour bus tickets included a free City Cruise river cruise on theThames from Parliament up to Greenwich, so that’s how we started the day—achance to see something of England outside of London. The whole trip took about3 ½ hours round trip. It was a very pleasant ride in a nice boat with a veryfunny narrator, and when we got to Greenwich we had about half an hour to walkaround before the boat returned. The scenery was mostly old warehouses thathave been converted into luxury condos, sprinkled with new-construction midriseapartment/condo buildings. We continued to have good luck with theweather—overcast but no rain.

After the boat ride, we walked pastsome iconic sights that we couldn’t see well on yesterday’s bus tour:Parliament, Westminster Cathedral, and Buckingham Palace. We had lunch at theStax Diner off Carnaby Street, then just a short break at the condo beforeheading out for an evening minivan tour of Beatles sights that I found on TripAdvisor. It’s called Ticket to Ride and it’s offered by All Access Tours(londonrocktour.com). It was great! Our tour guide was so enthusiastic, and wesaw so much, including the house where Paul wrote Yesterday, the balcony wherethe covers of the red and blue albums were short and, of course, Abbey Road.

 

After the tour, we had a very good latedinner at Bistro 1, a Mediterranean restaurant in Soho, then collapsed intobed.

[Suskies]

Friday 6/30: BOARDINGIN SOUTHAMPTON

Today we ended our London visit with some sunshine peekingout from the clouds and a simple breakfast at Café Nespresso, basically anupscale Starbucks. Based on advice from these boards, we hired Westquaycars.comto drive us from London to Southampton. The driver arrived by 9 and got us tothe pier by 11. We checked in very quickly. Boarding began around 11:40, andsince we’re Platinum, we boarded about 5 or 10 minutes later.

 

 

We werelucky enough to snag one of our favorite cabins on this class of Princessships: B749, one of the corner aft cabins with a huge covered balcony, on thestarboard side so we’d have a view of the coast as we cruise by. After we dumpedour carry-ons in our cabin, we had lunch in the Coral Dining Room—turbot forme, beef tenderloin for DH. Everything was as good as we remembered.

 

 

Ourcabin steward collected our passports, giving us a letter explaining that thisis required by Irish immigration authorities, and our passports would bereturned later on the cruise. At the Irish ports, however, we were advised tocarry a government-issued photo ID as well as our cruise cards. So if you’re aUS citizen, pack your driver’s license on this cruise!

 

 

Afterlunch we went up to the Lido deck to see the renovations. We liked what we saw.The World Fresh Marketplace stations have large signs explaining the kind offood at each one, and we thought everything looked very good. The 24-hourcereal and milk station is a cabinet that looks a bit like an old-time popcorncart stocked with small cartons of milk and boxes of cereal. The seating areais now mostly gray with touches of yellow and green, so it looks very modernand trendy. The carpet is mostly very pale gray, and I think they’ll have tospend time getting stains out of it. Steamers is gray with teal trim; Planks istaupe and brown with red trim. The very aft sections of Planks and Steamers nowhave easy chairs instead of tables.

 

 

Altogetherwe think the ship looks great, although Club Fusion still has that odd Old Westdécor. We like the big video screen maps by the elevators—they make it mucheasier to find our way around. Everything is clean and in good repair. We’revery philosophical about cruising. Yes, it’s not the experience it was 30 oreven 5 or 10 years ago, but it’s a terrific value—imagine the cost of doingthis itinerary on your own at this level of quality. We enjoy the lovelysetting of Princess ships, the superb service, and the convenience—there’s novacation more carefree than a cruise--and we don’t look for things to complainabout.

 

 

 

Our TAgave us a free specialty dinner, and tonight we ate in the Crown Grille. Ourserver encouraged us to get steaks or chops, so we both got steaks, and theywere excellent. There were four choices for dessert but, trust us, what youwant to order is the sampler plate with small portions of all four. Thepresentation is beautiful and each dessert is absolutely delicious!

[Suskies]

Saturday 7/1: GUERNSEY

(Sorry for the formatting glitches--Microsoft Word and these boards apparently don't like each other!)

 

 

Today was Canada Day, and it was fun to see the Canadianpassengers wearing red and maple leaves. After breakfast in the dining room, weheaded to get on a tender just before 10 AM and had to wait about 20 minutesuntil our number was called. We walked around the historic part of town, and itreally is charming—lots of flowers and beautiful stone buildings liningcobblestone streets. We walked up to Hauteville House, where Victor Hugo livedin exile. We got back to the tender pier around 11:45 and waited about 20minutes to board a tender.

 

 

Todaywas a beautiful sunny day but windy. The sea had considerable swells, and bymidday the wind and swells made getting passengers off the tenders and onto theship a challenge. Our tender hovered near the ship for a good half hour,waiting for passengers from prior tenders to disembark. When we finally pulledup to the ship, we saw the problem. The swells pushed the tenders up and downseveral feet. Every passenger had to wait until the moment when the tender andship were lined up, then had to be helped one by one onto the ship by the crewbefore the tender bounced up or down. Obviously getting everyone off took quitea bit of time. Later in the afternoon the captain announced that he’d had tosuspend tender service temporarily. Then he moved it to the other side of theship, and service returned to normal, but as of 3 PM there were still athousand passengers on shore, and we didn’t depart Guernsey until about 5 PM,three hours past schedule

 

 

Normally DH and I have a travelrule that if it takes longer to travel somewhere (and back) than the time spentat the destination, the trip isn’t worthwhile. We spent much longer going toand from the ship to Guernsey than on the island, but in this case we’re gladwe broke our rule—St. Peter Port really is charming. But some might thinkotherwise. The experience is also a reminder, when on big ships like this one,to avoid itineraries with lots of tender ports.

 

 

 

Once wewere back on board, we had lunch in the dining room—a delicious chicken currydish with condiments—then spent the afternoon relaxing. Tonight was formalnight, so since we didn’t bring formal wear we ate on the Lido deck. The foodwasn’t fancy—DH had shepherd’s pie and I had fish—but it was all very tasty.Desserts were delicious and the portions surprisingly large.

 

 

 

Afterdinner we went to the show “Bravo” which was a mix of light opera and powerballads. We enjoyed it a lot more than we thought. We were surprised by how fewpeople were wearing anything dressy.

[sunsetbeachgal]

Love your review!!! We are doing British Isles on the Royal Princess next June and your review will be so helpful!

 

 

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[Suskies]

Sunday 7/2: CORK,IRELAND

Because of yesterday’s late departure, we arrived at Cobh at10 AM instead of 7:30 and left at 6:30 PM instead of 6. All the tour times wereadjusted; a sheet with the new times was delivered overnight.

 

I really wanted to see some small villages as well as citieson this cruise, and Frommer’s called Kinsale one of the top 10 picture-postcardvillages in Ireland. So for this port we booked the half day “Kinsale SeaSafari” boat excursion. Sadly, when we boarded we learned it was cancelledbecause of problems with the boat, so we booked the half-day Kinsale busexcursion instead.

 

Our excursion didn’t leave until 2:30, so we had a lovely, quiet,relaxing morning on the ship. After breakfast in the dining room, we went toone of the CB’s best-kept secrets: Skywalkers, which during the day is quiet,empty, and filled with comfortable chairs and great views. A perfect place tocurl up with a good book. We had lunch in the World Fresh Marketplace and itwas fine; I had fish and chips and DH had shepherd’s pie.

 

Technology on the CB, by the way, is a work in progress. ThePrincess @ Sea app isn’t hard to get into, but it didn’t always have current oraccurate information. When we boarded, it still showed the prior cruiseitinerary. Later, it often showed today’s itinerary as a day at sea when itwasn’t. Sometimes the Order Breakfast tab was working, sometimes not. Our shoreexcursion for this afternoon disappeared this morning. The weather forecast wasposted only the night before and showed only the high, low, and a symbol forclouds/precip; with the UK’s notoriously rapidly changing weather, hourlyforecasts would be great. Sometimes paid internet access worked, sometimes not(it didn’t work this entire morning), and when it worked, it often loaded veryslowly. On my laptop, the messaging app showed new messages from DH only when Irefreshed the page.

 

But an even bigger issue is that, while we used to turn offour phones and pack them away on a cruise, we now need to keep them charged(along with our tablets and my laptop), and our cabin has just two poweroutlets by the desk, placed so closely together that you can only use one at atime. And there aren’t that many power outlets near seats in public areaseither. So add a power strip to your cruise packing list.

 

Going back to our afternoon: our excursion was a one-hourbus drive to Kinsale, a 45-minute walking tour of Charles Fort, a short drivefrom there into Kinsale, about 45 minutes to walk around Kinsale on our own,and the one-hour drive back. Our guide at the fort was excellent, not onlytelling us about the history of and life at the fort but also giving us acondensed history of Ireland in the process, which was very helpful. We learnedabout the importance of wearing layers on this cruise: when we left port, itwas sunny and a high in the upper 60s, but at Charles Fort it was overcast andvery windy, and I was glad I brought my lined jacket.

 

Kinsale is charming, but between bus tours and locals (itwas Sunday) it was crowded. Our bus guide was great and during the rides to andfro gave us all kinds of information on Ireland, and we saw some of the fabledrolling green hills of Ireland on the drive—it really is lovely. Altogether itwas a nice tour, but we would rather have had a “Kinsale on your own” tourgiving us a couple of hours to walk around more, shop a bit, and maybe getlunch at one of the many excellent restaurants there.

 

 

We got back to the ship at 6:30 and went straight to dinner.I had tandoori shrimp, which was excellent; DH had roast beef which wastough—our first food disappointment. By the time we finished dinner, it wasclose to 9 PM and we headed to our cabin.

[Suskies]

Monday 7/3: DUBLIN,IRELAND

We decided to repeat yesterday’s routine: breakfast in thedining room, relax in Skywalker’s in the morning, then head into Dublin afterlunch. We ate in WFM and again it was fine—I had sautéed shrimp with spicygrilled corn. We took the free shuttle bus into Merriam Square, then did aself-guided walking tour of Temple Bar, North Quays, Dublin Castle, St.Patrick’s, St. Stephen’s Green, and Grafton Street. We then spent about 90minutes in the National Gallery of Ireland, which has a wonderful array ofEuropean art, including two Rembrandts, several Gainsboroughs, and severalImpressionists.

 

 

 

We thenhad an enormous, wonderful Irish dinner at Gogarty’s in Temple Bar—the bestsalmon I’ve ever eaten! Then we went on our musical pub crawl (www.musicalpubcrawl.com), starting atGogarty’s and stopping at two other pubs. It was great--really a movable Irishmusic concert rather than a pub crawl. Two Irish musicians accompanied us, andat each pub we went to a private room upstairs for a performance by them. Theyexplained a lot about the instruments they were using and the songs they weresinging, and it was all a lot of fun. We also had our first Guinnesses and werevery pleasantly surprised by how good they are. After the pub crawl we took ataxi back to the ship and collapsed—my Fitbit said we walked over 20,000 stepstoday!

[Suskies]

Tuesday 7/4: DUBLIN,IRELAND

We purposely left today unscheduled, giving us time forsomething we didn’t get to the day before, or maybe to explore something new,or simply to relax. We decided over breakfast that we’d seen everything wewanted to in Dublin yesterday, and with the next two days pretty busy, wedecided to stay on the ship and make this an “at sea” day. We read, ate,napped, and generally relaxed. DH watched a movie in the afternoon in theExplorers Lounge. We ate breakfast and lunch in the WFM, and the food continuesto be fine though not fancy—I had ham from the carving station. There is alwaysa nice selection of ready-made sandwiches, soups, salad bar, and someinternational foods (today southern fried chicken in honor of the Fourth ofJuly). DH tried a hamburger from the new Salty Dog Grill and a pizza slice fromthe new Slice and found both mediocre (the hamburger is pre-cooked, whichdoesn’t help). Today the WFM had red, white, and blue cupcakes in honor of the 4th—nottoo many takers for the blue ones!

 

 

This evening we ate dinner in the dining room (seafoodskewers with shrimp, scallops, and salmon and an English cottage pie, whichlooked a lot like shepherd’s pie). The dining rooms were decorated with red,white, and blue balloons and tissue paper, and the servers wore red, white, andblue vests—very cute! Then we played 70s music trivia and listened to a good bandplay 70s dance music in the Explorer’s Lounge.

[Suskies]

Wednesday 7/5:BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND

Today after breakfast in the dining room, we took the freeshuttle into Belfast and then walked to Titanic Belfast, a 1 ½-mile walk thattook about 30 minutes. We had booked the deluxe White Star package, whichincluded a one-hour guided tour of the building and grounds, a self-guidedDiscovery Tour of the Titanic Experience, and a self-guided tour of the SSNomadic, one of the Titanic’s tenders. The package also included discounts atthe cafeteria and gift shop and a free souvenir photo.

 

It was a terrific day. Our guide for the first hour wasfantastic, providing a wonderful background on Belfast, the shipyard, and thepeople who worked there. Then we had lunch in the cafeteria, then went throughthe ten or so interactive exhibit areas of the Titanic Experience. It is anamazing museum—one of the best we’ve ever seen. We learned so much about Belfast,its people and its industrial history as well as the Titanic and its sinking.The interactive features were terrific. There was an amusement-park-type ridethrough a recreation of the ship being built, and a 180-degree computer-generatedvideo tour through the completed ship. We really got a sense of what life waslike on the ship and the people who were on it. After taking our time walkingthrough, we decided to skip the SS Nomadic and walked back to the shuttle bus.

 

We were also impressed with what we saw of Belfast—clean,with an interesting mix of modern and historic buildings and a nice downtownshopping area. The city is clearly trying hard to market itself as a touristdestination, and I wouldn’t have minded spending an extra day here.

 

 

When we got back to the ship around 4 PM, we were starvingand order room service burgers and fries. It was cloudy but warm enough to siton our balcony, where we had a wonderful view of the very impressive TitanicExperience building. Of course the burgers spoiled our appetite for dinner, soafter listening to one of the bands and going to the Country & Westerntrivia contest, we got a late snack in the WFM. I peeked into Steamers andPlanks several evenings during our cruise, and they were always deserted, withno more than a couple of table occupied. So I don’t think they will last. ThePB&J station, by the way, is better than it sounds—the sandwiches are anupscale spin on PB&J such as wraps or almond butter. Still, I never saw anytakers and I’m not sure this will last either. And I saw no “breakfast anytime”offerings beyond the cereal carts.

[Suskies]

Thursday 7/6:GLASGOW, SCOTLAND

Today was an example of pre-cruise research paying off. I’man architecture fan, but it wasn’t until I did quite a bit of research onGlasgow that I learned that it’s got amazing architecture from the late 19thand early 20th century. I found self-guided walking tours fromGlasgow Mackintosh and used them to plot our own tour.

 

Greenock, where we docked, is about a 30-45-minute trainride from Glasgow. The train station is about a 20-minute walk from the pier,and the city of Greenock provides a very clear map at the dock on how to getthere. Once we arrived in Glasgow, we started our tour. We saw many interestingbuildings even though two of the buildings I wanted to see are closed forrenovations and covered with scaffolding, including the Willow Tea Room, whereI’d hoped we’d have lunch. We got a really good lunch nearby at Nando, whichspecializes in chicken with African spices. We both got chicken with the mangolime sauce and it was excellent. After lunch we walked around another hour orso then headed back to Greenock and our ship. It was another mostly cloudy daywith highs in the upper 60s. We kept peeling our jackets off and on dependingon the cloudiness and breezes.

 

This evening we had dinner in the dining room—prime rib—thenwent up to Skywalkers to read and watch the ship sail through the Firth ofClyde. The scenery was beautiful. On our last Princess cruise, we realized thedesserts are better on the Lido deck than in the dining room, so we sometimesskipped dessert in the dining room and instead got dessert as an evening snackon the Lido deck. We often did that on this cruise too.

[Suskies]

Friday 7/7: AT SEA

 

We started out today with breakfast in the dining room, thenspent most of the day watching the Isle of Skye, Outer Hebrides, and NorthHighlands float by. Still overcast but the clouds were high and light enoughthat we could see coast clearly. I would guess we were no more than a mile orso off the coast and it was just beautiful. We also watched a “documentary” onthe CB’s dry dock --I put that in quotes because it was really a sales pitchfor all the changes they made. It was interesting but I didn’t learn much new(it did briefly show a renovation of the crew’s bar, which looked great). Wehad lunch in the dining room (London broil and pasta). It was formal night, so weate in WFM, where they had a roast beef carving station…and lobster! Very smalllobster tails, halved for easy picking, as many as you’d like, and surprisinglygood. In the evening we tried the show, but the singer wasn’t very good, so weleft after the second song and went back to WFM to play a board game.

[Suskies]

Saturday 7/8:INVERNESS, SCOTLAND

Today after breakfast in the dining room we walked throughInvergordon—a really cute town—and took the train to Inverness, where we walkedaround and had a good lunch at a place called The Filling Station. Inverness isclearly where North Highlanders go to shop. There was a pedestrian-onlyshopping street, a shopping mall, and plenty of places selling tartan goods butsurprisingly few selling sweaters and other knits. Inverness has some lovelybuildings and beautiful vistas along the River Ness, and we were glad wedecided to spend a few hours there. It was chilly and windy but the sun peekedout quite a bit, so overall our best weather so far. We took the 2 PM trainback to Invergordon. In the afternoon I went to the ship’s folkloric Highlandsshow, which featured four dancers, a bagpipe player, an accordionist, and asinger who sang some lovely ballads, all local. Altogether it was a really goodshow.

 

 

 

Afterdinner in the dining room (chicken and veal), DH won the 60s music triviacontest. We then tried the comedy/magic show, but the magician wasn’t verygood, and we left.

[Suskies]

Sunday 7/9:EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND

There are two ways to get from South Queensferry toEdinburgh on your own (not counting a taxi or Princess’s shore excursion, whichare more expensive): a privately-operated shuttle bus operating from the pier anda train from Dalmeny Station up the hill from the pier. They’re a toss-up: theycost about the same; they both run about twice an hour and take about the sameamount of time; the shuttle takes cash only (round trip is 10 pounds, 15 euros,or 15 US dollars); the train has that hill but the Edinburgh train station isin a more central location than the shuttle drop-off point in Charlotte Square.We decided to do the shuttle bus and it was fine.

 

But today showed that Princess’s large ships don’t work wellat tender ports. It took us two hours from the time we arrived at the diningroom to get our tender number to the moment we stepped off the bus in Edinburgh(the return trip was just one hour).

 

Still, we had a great time. Once again I planned our ownwalking tour. Edinburgh, with its mix of medieval and Georgian architecture, isone of the most unusual and fascinating cities we’ve been to, with so manybeautiful, interesting buildings and streetviews. Right across the street fromthe Greyfriar Bobby statue was another Nando restaurant, where we’d had a greatlunch in Glasgow, and we had lunch there. It was chilly again today (higharound 60) and during lunch our weather luck ran out; it started to rain. Wewalked around for about another hour in the rain and then headed back to theship.

 

In the evening, after dinner, we played Beatles trivia andthen went up to WFM to get dessert and play a game. WFM was crowded everyevening. One reason of course is that half the seating area (in Steamers andPlanks) is now unavailable unless you want to pay. But I also noticed thatmaybe a third of the people in WFM in the evening weren’t eating—they wereplaying games or simply talking. With every other venue having music or anactivity, this and Skywalkers are virtually the only places in the evenings wherepeople can simply talk, and this is one of the few places with tables forplaying games or using a laptop.

 

 

We expected the passengers on this cruise to be similar tothose on the Eastern Mediterranean cruise we did on the Royal a few yearsago—the cruises are about the same length and equally port-intensive—butthey’re quite different. This group is more casual, with fewer dressing up inthe evenings or on formal night. There is a large group of Asian tourists aswell as many Americans, Canadians, and some Australians—not as many Brits as Iwould have expected.

[Suskies]

Monday 7/10: AT SEA

Overnight the clocks were moved forward one hour to give usa day to adjust to Paris time. This was a classic relaxing day at sea: we ate,read, napped, and ate some more. We were about 20 miles off the coast ofEngland, so we didn’t see shoreline, just ships, oil platforms, and windturbine farms. It was sunny and mild enough that we sat on our balcony for anhour or so before it clouded up and started to rain. In the evening we playedHarry Potter trivia then packed most of our stuff.

 

 

Our dinner this evening was the only time on the trip thatwe experienced poor service. Our server forgot to bring rolls; we waited a verylong time for our entrees without explanation; DH had to ask for ketchup forhis hamburger; and our server brought a dessert menu but never came back totake my order—he was too busy chatting with a couple of other passengers. When we left, I told our server we feltneglected.

[Suskies]

Tuesday 7/11: PARIS

Today, well, basically, we jaunted over to Paris for lunch.We booked the “Paris on your own” shore excursion. (We researched taking thetrain, which would have been more fun, but it was more trouble and the samecost so we went with the bus.) We met our group at 6:45 AM, our bus left a bitafter 7, and we were off the bus (near the beautiful Alexander bridge) in Parisaround 11:15 AM. Our guide on the bus was wonderful—she visited every passengerto check on their plans, answer their questions, and offer suggestions. On theway back, she visited everyone again to find out what they did and how theyenjoyed it.

 

We’ve been to Paris, so we had special plans this time. Wewalked over the Alexander bridge and along the Seine, past the d’Orsay andLouvre museums, to the St. Germain area, where we had a leisurely outdoor lunchat Les Deux Magots, famous as a haunt of figures such as Hemingway and Picasso.We were blessed with the best weather of the cruise—a few sprinkles when wefirst arrived, but mostly sunny and warm the rest of the day.

 

After lunch we walked to St. Sulpice Church, which I’vewanted to see ever since reading TheDaVinci Code, then we walked though the Latin Quarter to see Shakespeare& Co., which DH wanted to see ever since reading a biography of Hemingway.Then we walked past the booksellers along the Seine to return to our bus for a3:15 PM departure. Our driver took us up the Champs Elysees and around the Arcde Triomphe before heading back to the ship. Our guide said Princess asked thebus to return by 6:15, and that’s exactly when we pulled up.

 

If you decide to do this shore excursion, I’d suggest youpack a bottle of water and snacks. We stopped for a 20-minute break at a reststop on the drive in, but because of traffic delays we couldn’t stop on the wayback. There is a rest room on the bus, but the guide didn’t recommend it.

 

 

In the evening, after our last dinner in the dining room(strip steak and fish) we played British Invasion trivia and DH won.

[Suskies]

Wednesday 7/12: FLY HOME AND SUMMARY

After breakfast in the WFM, we had to leave the ship at 6:35AM for our Princess transfer to Heathrow for our 12:40 PM flight. We were inthe British Airways Club Class lounge by 9:45 AM.

 

Overall this was a wonderful cruise. The CB is stillbeautiful and the staff are still extraordinary. The food is still very good,even with the move toward less-expensive ingredients; presentation is fantastic.Entertainment and activities are a mixed bag. The ports are charming and interesting—wehad some amazing experiences and a lot of fun, and we feel we’ve gotten to knowIreland and Scotland.

 

But this cruise isn’t for everyone. If you like using aship’s outdoor facilities—pools, outdoor tables and lounge chairs, MUTS, cabinbalcony—this itinerary may be too chilly or wet for you to enjoy. And if acruise highlight for you is having steak for dinner every night (and we havesome family members for whom that’s very important) you might want to consideranother line.

 

One of the things we’ve always liked about Princess ships isthat, even though they’re very large, they typically don’t feel crowded becausepeople spread out among so many different public spaces. On this cruise,between the loss of outdoor space because of the weather and the loss of halfthe Lido dining seating area in the evenings, it definitely felt more crowded. IfI were in charge of Princess, I’d scrub the Planks and Steamers surcharge, letanyone sit there in the evenings, and publicize the hours that Skywalkers isopen for reading and quiet conversation.

 

I also suspect that Princess didn’t think through that theMedallion concept will mean more people will want to use their phones andtablets on board…and will need to charge them…and one usable outlet perstateroom won’t suffice. Princess will need to figure out a way to get moreoutlets into each cabin.

 

 

But for us these were all minor shortcomings and didn’tdetract from what was overall a terrific cruise. I’d be happy to try to answerany questions.

[phabric]

Thanks for the review, it brings back memories of my British Isles cruise on the Caribbean Princess in 2013.

[ChattTenn]

Thank you for taking time to post the review - very helpful. We will do the same cruise next May.

 

Looking forward to the cruise.

 

ChattTenn

[Crystal Niffler]

A wonderful read, thank you. It was lovely reading about your experiences in the restaurants and shops that we Brits tend to take for granted.

[rocklinmom]

Thanks for your review! I am looking at doing this cruise with my family on the Royal next June. Trying to figure out how to afford balcony cabins instead of interiors (no oceanview option on Royal), so with the weather you had do you think the balcony expense was worth it?

[RLK33853]

Absolutely fantastic overview of the itinerary and the ship!!!

Thanks

[gatorguy56]

Great review! We originally had planned to take this cruise this summer but changed it to Alaska. Maybe next year. By the way, there is another available electrical plug behind the tv.