British Isles cruise tips

[crafter188]

We were on the Crown Princess in May 2019 and I thought I’d share a few of the things I found while researching our trip which worked out really well!

 

Pre-cruise:

• We stayed in Southampton a few days before the cruise and one day took the train to Salisbury for Stonehenge. Gary’s cousin, who we were travelling with, is a great researcher and found a restaurant called “The Haunch of Venison” where we had lunch. It is a very, very old, crooked building, great food and a quirky story!  http://haunchpub.co.uk/
• It is an easy train ride to Portsmouth and there is so much to see that a full day and overnight is easily passed. The Historic dockyards are wonderful and interesting and the West Quay area has lots of restaurants. We walked to the Spice Island Inn for a lovely lunch overlooking the busy harbour. Thanks to a fellow cruise critic member for this excellent suggestion!!
• A hint about travelling as a couple by train in UK would be to buy a “two together railcard”. You need pictures for the ID card, but it gives a 30% discount. Also, book your tickets as late as the day before you will be travelling to save on fares, versus buying the day you travel.

 

Cruise ports:

- we did a food tour in Dublin with Delicious Dublin Tours. Our guide was co-owner Ketty and it was a great way to spend some time in that busy city! Their website is here https://deliciousdublintours.com/ A word of caution though is that it took longer to get off the ship than anticipated, so we had to meet the tour at their first stop, which was very stressful and could have so easily been avoided. After the tour, we went to Trinity College; the Library Long Room was fantastic to see, since I am an avid reader! Then we fought (figuratively, haha) our way into the Temple Bar for a beer and some wonderful Irish music.

- I can strongly recommend City and Causeway Tours from the port of Belfast. https://www.cityandcauseway.com/ I communicated with Alister (one of the owners) about the tour, met him on the day and we had Steve (the other owner) as our guide. I went to the roll call on cruise critic and picked up some people to join us, which can be a crap shoot as far as who you get, but we have always had good luck!! It was a fantastic day, including Giant’s Causeway. They found out we were golfers, so stopped at Royal Portrush so we could get a fix of the upcoming British Open (or just THE Open as they call it - haha) and we had lunch in a beautiful little local cottage, which was a true treat. 

- for our stop in Edinburgh (South Queensferry actually), we booked Duncan McNab from Edinburgh Day Tours for a custom tour to St Andrews, since our husbands are avid golfers and St Andrews is mecca! I am sure Duncan would do any tour you want though and he has timing down to a fine science. He was actually starting to fret that we should be leaving St Andrews to make sure we got back to the ship in time and we ended up with lots of time to sit in the Hawe’s Inn at the port (where RL Stevenson apparently penned Treasure Island) for a couple of beer before catching the tender to the ship. Here’s his website http://www.edinburghdaytours.com/

 

Post-cruise:

- if you spend time in London, I highly recommend connecting with Michelle from London from Scratch.http://www.londonfromscratch.co.uk/  She does walking food tours, which we didn’t do, but we were able to go to one of her supper clubs. What an unusual experience - to sit in her home with perfect strangers and enjoy a gourmet tasting meal!!

 

Cheryl

[Adventures ahead]

Thank you for sharing. Sounds like you had a great time. We board the Crown on Aug 5.  Should be warmer than in May. We hope we get lucky and don't get too much rain... lol, just the right amount!🙃

[Highpeaklad]

2 hours ago, Adventures ahead said:

Thank you for sharing. Sounds like you had a great time. We board the Crown on Aug 5.  Should be warmer than in May. We hope we get lucky and don't get too much rain... lol, just the right amount!🙃

 

I wouldn’t bet on it. On Thursday we had the hottest day ever recorded in the U.K. but 2 days later and the central heating is on and we’ve had 2 days of continuous heavy rain. 

 

Bring a brolly, and a jumper, and sunscreen!

[Bloodgem]

7 hours ago, Highpeaklad said:

 

I wouldn’t bet on it. On Thursday we had the hottest day ever recorded in the U.K. but 2 days later and the central heating is on and we’ve had 2 days of continuous heavy rain. 

 

Bring a brolly, and a jumper, and sunscreen!

Don't forget the wellies 

[tillys mom]

12 hours ago, Highpeaklad said:

 

I wouldn’t bet on it. On Thursday we had the hottest day ever recorded in the U.K. but 2 days later and the central heating is on and we’ve had 2 days of continuous heavy rain. 

 

Bring a brolly, and a jumper, and sunscreen!

Thanks for the advice.

[Adventures ahead]

On 7/29/2019 at 9:17 PM, Highpeaklad said:

 

I wouldn’t bet on it. On Thursday we had the hottest day ever recorded in the U.K. but 2 days later and the central heating is on and we’ve had 2 days of continuous heavy rain. 

 

Bring a brolly, and a jumper, and sunscreen!

The only thing I'm counting on is the number of days left before we go!

[tillys mom]

See you soon!

[tartanexile81]

• Be prepared for 4 seasons in a day and bring layers to wear including a waterproof 
• Use Cruisecritic to research the ports. There's lots of information on here and in the cities there's usually shuttle buses, hop-on hop-off, walking tours etc
• Don't feel you have to do whole day tours. This is a port-intensive cruise so PACE YOURSELF

 

 

[mrgoalie]

On 7/29/2019 at 1:22 PM, crafter188 said:

We were on the Crown Princess in May 2019 and I thought I’d share a few of the things I found while researching our trip which worked out really well!

 

Pre-cruise:

• We stayed in Southampton a few days before the cruise and one day took the train to Salisbury for Stonehenge. Gary’s cousin, who we were travelling with, is a great researcher and found a restaurant called “The Haunch of Venison” where we had lunch. It is a very, very old, crooked building, great food and a quirky story!  http://haunchpub.co.uk/
• It is an easy train ride to Portsmouth and there is so much to see that a full day and overnight is easily passed. The Historic dockyards are wonderful and interesting and the West Quay area has lots of restaurants. We walked to the Spice Island Inn for a lovely lunch overlooking the busy harbour. Thanks to a fellow cruise critic member for this excellent suggestion!!
• A hint about travelling as a couple by train in UK would be to buy a “two together railcard”. You need pictures for the ID card, but it gives a 30% discount. Also, book your tickets as late as the day before you will be travelling to save on fares, versus buying the day you travel.

 

Cruise ports:

- we did a food tour in Dublin with Delicious Dublin Tours. Our guide was co-owner Ketty and it was a great way to spend some time in that busy city! Their website is here https://deliciousdublintours.com/ A word of caution though is that it took longer to get off the ship than anticipated, so we had to meet the tour at their first stop, which was very stressful and could have so easily been avoided. After the tour, we went to Trinity College; the Library Long Room was fantastic to see, since I am an avid reader! Then we fought (figuratively, haha) our way into the Temple Bar for a beer and some wonderful Irish music.

- I can strongly recommend City and Causeway Tours from the port of Belfast. https://www.cityandcauseway.com/ I communicated with Alister (one of the owners) about the tour, met him on the day and we had Steve (the other owner) as our guide. I went to the roll call on cruise critic and picked up some people to join us, which can be a crap shoot as far as who you get, but we have always had good luck!! It was a fantastic day, including Giant’s Causeway. They found out we were golfers, so stopped at Royal Portrush so we could get a fix of the upcoming British Open (or just THE Open as they call it - haha) and we had lunch in a beautiful little local cottage, which was a true treat. 

- for our stop in Edinburgh (South Queensferry actually), we booked Duncan McNab from Edinburgh Day Tours for a custom tour to St Andrews, since our husbands are avid golfers and St Andrews is mecca! I am sure Duncan would do any tour you want though and he has timing down to a fine science. He was actually starting to fret that we should be leaving St Andrews to make sure we got back to the ship in time and we ended up with lots of time to sit in the Hawe’s Inn at the port (where RL Stevenson apparently penned Treasure Island) for a couple of beer before catching the tender to the ship. Here’s his website http://www.edinburghdaytours.com/

 

Post-cruise:

- if you spend time in London, I highly recommend connecting with Michelle from London from Scratch.http://www.londonfromscratch.co.uk/  She does walking food tours, which we didn’t do, but we were able to go to one of her supper clubs. What an unusual experience - to sit in her home with perfect strangers and enjoy a gourmet tasting meal!!

 

Cheryl

How close is the train station from the Southhampton port? Could we buy a ticket round trip for the day to get into London and back in time.

[crafter188]

3 hours ago, mrgoalie said:

How close is the train station from the Southhampton port? Could we buy a ticket round trip for the day to get into London and back in time.

The Southampton port to the train station would be a flat thirty minute walk or ten minute cab ride. We took the train to Wolverhampton, so didn’t go straight from Southampton to London. Google maps tells me it’s a 1 1/2 hour train trip to Victoria Station, maybe with a transfer. The trains are great, but there can be service disruptions and in my opinion, if it was me, I would worry all day about getting back in time!! Keep in mind too, whatever you plan to do in London, there can be long lines to get in, so that can eat into your touring time. 

 

There are are several things in Southampton that I am sorry we didn’t have time to explore, such as the Sea City Museum, Solent Sky Museum and Tudor House & Garden, as well as the old town walls.

 

Good luck with whatever you plan to do!

Cheryl

Edited August 3, 2019 by crafter188
Content

[tartanexile81]

7 hours ago, mrgoalie said:

How close is the train station from the Southhampton port? Could we buy a ticket round trip for the day to get into London and back in time.

 

It's a short taxi ride from the port to the station then you could buy a cheap day return to London. There may be some conditions - e.g. travel after 9:30 and return before 4:30 or after 6:00 - but you will get the best deals by booking in advance. It's just over an hour each way

https://www.southwesternrailway.com