Review Emerald Princess British Isles May 9-26, 2022, plus one week in London!

[Astro Flyer]

What a wonderful travelogue of your amazing experiences!

 

Your enjoyment was obvious which made for a fun time reading about your adventures & seeing your great photos. Your writing style put a smile on my face while recalling the joys of cruising…thank you very much! 😊

 

Edited June 7, 2022 by Astro Flyer

[ROWSE]

1 hour ago, Martha1974 said:

Thank you so much for the information about your tour around Normandy - I was there in 2004 with my (ex-)partner. His grandfather was killed in Normanday after D-day and we were the first family members to visit his grave in Bayeaux in 60 years (neither his wife or 2 sons had been able to visit). You’re right that the sight of the rows and rows of perfectly tended graves are so moving and being there is an amazing experience. 

Thank you for reading along!  I agree, to be there is so different than watching on film.  So glad you got to experience in person too!

[leck57]

Thanks for not having the lobster on formal night. Probably explains why I was able to get two!!

[cruzin4us]

I enjoyed your LIVE....Pictures say a thousand words.   thanks for sharing!

 

[ROWSE]

May 21, 2022,  Southampton, England Disembarkation Day

 

Today was disembarkation and when we woke up ridiculously early, we saw proof that we were in Southampton.  The Red Funnel Ferry was out the window.  

 

 

We grabbed some breakfast buffet and ate in room then we got off at the suggested

time from our tour company.  We had a tour booked with International Friends 

that included visits to Salisbury, Stone Henge, and Windsor Castle with a drop off either at 

the airport or for us at our hotel.  (Which was booked through airbnb).  

 

We got our luggage to deck 5 and headed with the walk-off's out the door about 7:45am.  To our surprise, there was not checking of passport or stopping at customs.  They waived us through with a "we trust you".   WOW!!  

It was a little challenging to find International Friends, but we finally did!  We met our amazing guide, Andrew, who we called the walking history book!  The facts in that man's head was incredible!  We are in a Premier Bus.   There were some empty seats so it did not feel crowded at all.  

 

 

First stop was the adorable Salisbury and we walked to the Salisbury Cathedral.  Andrew 

explained things on this map.

 

 

Oh my!  This took our breath away!  Seemed to happen all the time on this trip!!!

 

 

This is a little snippet of Andrew telling us some history.  I LOVED his accent!!  

 

 

 

More angles of the sections of the Cathedral.

 

 

 

 

Then we had a little free time to wander into the main area of Salisbury.  What a lovely place!!  

 

 

 

 

Next it was off to Stone Henge.  This is the shuttle that takes you out to the site.

 

 

 

Of course pictures cannot do this place justice.  It was awesome!  

 

 

 

 

This is what is called the heel stone.  

 

This particular angle seemed to be a face on the stone, with a heavy brow and big 

nose, tiny mouth, and winking at me.  It is the stone to the right of the one that has the stone on top.  Can you see it?   

 

 

 

Our next stop was Windsor Castle.  The Queen was in residence somewhere in the Castle.

We walked through a shopping mall and picture of where we exited to go up to the Castle

so I would remember later when we returned.  Andrew took us up to the entrance and we 

went through the group area and right in to the castle after getting our audio guides.  He left us to explore on our own and meet back at the bus later. 

 

 

There was no photos inside, so only photos of the outside!

 

 

 

 

The back of the Castle

 

The expansive courtyard.  

 

Beautiful weather today! 

 

Realizing too late that I was standing in the wrong spot!!  😂

 

 

We had very little time left and went in to St. George's Chapel.  It was very crowded and hard to get through quickly so I really didn't even enjoy it.  I would definitely suggest to do it last as the Castle was much more wonderful to see.  

As we drove away we had a good view of the Long Walk which is the park like area leading to the Castle.

 

Now it was time to drop all of us off.  I had read before that sometimes at Windsor Castle they

transfer you to smaller vehicles some going to airport and some to hotels.  That did not happen and we all went together.  Airport was first.  How that driver got in to some of the tight places he did to drop us

off was commendable!!  It was over an hour, but it was finally our turn.  We were dropped off at

the Hotel Mercure Hyde Park, which was acquired through airbnb.  It was past 6:00 p.m.  

We were told they did not have a room for our entire 7 day visit and we would either have to move 

rooms a few times or move down a hallway to back of building to what is their sister hotel of Indigo.

 

I had a reservation for many many months ahead, but seems this has happened before.  We agreed to the change and were taken to the check-in at the Indigo.  WELL, seems a room cannot be ready for us till an hour or more.  It was 6:30pm. at this point so not super happy.  They did make it better by treating us to dinner and drinks in the attached restaurant so all was good.  The only little difference from reservation was instead of a queen, we got a double bed.  BUT we had top floor and very quiet room with wonderful amenities. SO, all's well!  

This was a fantastic tour day and I would recommend International Friends 100%.  Lucky you if

you get Andrew!!  Tomorrow is day one in London!!  

 

[ROWSE]

May 22, 2022,  London Adventures

 

Our hotel had a Nespresso Coffee maker, hot pot for tea, and tea makings.  Of course we had a "spot" of tea!  Then we headed out to enjoy the beautiful morning.  It was the most perfect weather!

 

Our morning goal was to take a narrow boat ride on the canal.  Our hotel was very close to Paddington Station and we loved the area!   We find the canal area. 

 

 

 

Amazing buildings all around!  

 

 

 

After seeing where it was we would catch our tour, we headed back to find some breakfast.

This area was lovely!  

 

 

 

We find a bar/restaurant open in the area. 

 

 

 

We order some coffees, DH hot and mine iced.

 

 

 

DH had what I think was the Dirty Daisy, and it was amazing!

 

 

I had the House Maple Granola and it too was delicious!

 

 

We head back up to our tour area.  Just love seeing all these narrow boats. 

 

 

 

Eventually it was time to find the tour I had read about which is on a boat that has been going for 120 year.  

 

 

And we were off..

 

 

We went through a few tunnels.

 

 

 

 

There were a lot of little rental boats out on the canal and sometimes it was hard to get by them.  This area was a larger area.  Our guide told us all about everything as we sailed.

 

 

 

After about 45 minutes we come into Camden Locks area.

 

 

Our boat turned and pull along side on the right where the people are standing.  There is a lot of graffiti in this area.  

 

 

This is Camden Market Area and it seemed crowded but the boat guide said it gets crazy crowded later in the day.  

 

These are the Camden Locks. 

 

 

 

After seeing the locks we start walking on that side of the canal that they dropped us off on.

Our goal was to walk back to Regent's park and head to the zoo.  More of that to follow.  

 

 

[wp bob]

we are on the Emerald 13 Aug and just found your review.. Using Annette henry, Overlord and also Intl Friends so glad to learn more about their product!!

[ROWSE]

May 22, 2022,  London Adventures continued....

 

We walked maybe about a half mile back on the canal till we saw the Regent's park sign and

went up and over to the zoo.  

I love to visit zoo's whenever I can and since we were in the area, we decided to go for it.

 

This was a huge zoo and the animal exhibits were extensive and animal friendly.  So much so that it was hard to ever see an actual animal as they were off somewhere out of sight in the habitat.

 

 

Big Tortoise 

 

At the Blackburn Pavilion was this amazing clock.  It went off on the hour and did quite the show!  

I read it has been here since 2008.  

 

 

 

 

 

We found a little nature trail area and no one else was on it.  It wound down to the canals and then back up.  So nice to just be alone.

 

 

Walking back up to main zoo this fellow nearly gave me a heart attack.  I am in a 

foreign country and had no idea what kind of snake this was.  My poor DH; I squeal 

and yell "snake" and he was above the snake by that time and runs wildly back down

very near the snake.  

 

The snake was not timid or shy that's for sure.  I looked it up and believe it is the Aesculapian Snake, and they are non-venomous and harmless.  At least I hope that is what it is!!

 

 

Pygmy Hippo

 

Lemur

 

Sloth

 

Entertaining otters!

 

After enough zoo we went in to Regent's park!  This is one massive park!!

 

 

Gate at Queen Mary's Garden

 

The roses were amazing here. 

 

Just lovely peaceful area.  

 

We finally find our way to the Baker Street Tube station.  Our plan was to buy and load an Oyster card.

Lovely young lady helps us do just that.  We start with 20 pounds on each card and you are charged a 5 pound fee per card.  These are plastic cards like credit cards.  She tells us how to get to Paddington Station, and we are at the gate.  I had researched enough to know you tap in on a big sensor on top of it.  Poor DH thought you insert it in the machine.  NO!!!  It was too late the machine ate it and jammed.  Luckily the young lady was near and opened it up to retrieve the card.  Didn't hurt it at all.  On we went.

 

I have to add that riding the tube was an adventure all it's own, and we got quite good at it by the time we left.   I marvel at how massive and wonderful their public transit is!  

 

 

We make it to our home station!

 

We had put in over 21,000 steps today and we were pooped.  We ordered a take out pizza from 

our restaurant attached to the hotel and had a bed picnic in our room.  

Tomorrow we plan as the museums day!  

[ROWSE]

6 minutes ago, wp bob said:

we are on the Emerald 13 Aug and just found your review.. Using Annette henry, Overlord and also Intl Friends so glad to learn more about their product!!

So glad you found it, thank you for letting me know you are reading along!  Fantastic experiences on all of these tours!!!  

[amajaa]

Did you see the little man silhouette in the clock outside Paddington Station

[BuckeyeMark]

This is just getting better and better (except for the snake part.  WOW!).

[Mark_OH]

I'm not sure if you've already addressed this, but did you have to get any local currency?  If so, how did you get it?  An ATM, maybe?

[ROWSE]

38 minutes ago, amajaa said:

Did you see the little man silhouette in the clock outside Paddington Station

I googled this and NO we did not see it.  We better go back!!!  

So cool!  

[ROWSE]

1 minute ago, Mark_OH said:

I'm not sure if you've already addressed this, but did you have to get any local currency?  If so, how did you get it?  An ATM, maybe?

Can't remember if I did, but we got (GBP)Pounds and Euro's from the bank before we left as I never like to have to search that out once on a trip.

We very seldom used cash and some places were actually "no cash" venues.  We purposely used

up our cash.  We took too much.  I would now go with about 200 pounds maybe, and 100 Euro.  Unless of course you were paying for excursions with cash.   

Euro's were the currency in Cobh, Dublin, and LeHavre and GBP in all the others.

[tartana]

LOVE< LOVE< LOVE your trip report!  You are very good at this! 

[Kenosha Cruiser]

2 hours ago, ROWSE said:

Can't remember if I did, but we got (GBP)Pounds and Euro's from the bank before we left as I never like to have to search that out once on a trip.

We very seldom used cash and some places were actually "no cash" venues.  We purposely used

up our cash.  We took too much.  I would now go with about 200 pounds maybe, and 100 Euro.  Unless of course you were paying for excursions with cash.   

Euro's were the currency in Cobh, Dublin, and LeHavre and GBP in all the others.

 

Thanks for posting who takes Euro's and pounds. We will also purchase some of these currency's at home before our cruise. We plan to mostly use our credit card, but with all the excursions we have booked, we need local currency for tips, etc. 

 

Thank you again for sharing your travel adventure to the British Isles. We really enjoyed everything you spoke of and especially the beautiful pictures. Can't wait for our British Isles cruise to start Aug. 25th!

 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

 

[Lucky TGO]

Hi Kitty,

So I love everything.

Tony

[insidecabin]

On 6/6/2022 at 6:14 PM, ROWSE said:

May 17, 2022, Invergordon (Inverness) Port continued...

 

snip.....

 

 

We did attend the comedian tonight,  Tom Binns.  He was very funny.  

This was just a fantastic day that will always be a highlight of our trip!  

 

You got a good one there, hope he is on our trip.

Which characters did he do?

 

[insidecabin]

Thanks for the tour of the UK and Ireland you packed in a lot, given us some ideas for our trip, 

 

Looking forward to your time in London we are only an hour away and don't go in very often. 

 

 

[leck57]

We also spent time in London after the cruise. We thought we did London pretty well but had not read or heard about the canal area as in your photos - we will need to go back! We were there for 9 days and never even saw this area!

Just a tip re the Oyster cards. There is no need to get these anymore as your credit or debit card just works the same way. Just present your card at the reader as you would an Oyster card and and away you go. We were tipped off about this before we left. We had no incorrect charges and all worked fine. Most Metro systems around the world are going this way so there will be no need for Oyster Cards etc.

[leck57]

12 hours ago, ROWSE said:

I googled this and NO we did not see it.  We better go back!!!  

So cool!  

 

We saw that from a HOHO bus. Very clever. I just didn't have time to get my camera out.

[lindylooellalouise]

Hi thank you for posting your review and I have enjoyed every minute you have amazingly packed in a huge amount of sightseeing we are on the emerald Princess  next week and unbelievably we are in the same cabin E702 our first cruise with Princess but have done British Isles a few times usually with Cunard looking forward to reading your next review.

[ROWSE]

8 hours ago, insidecabin said:

You got a good one there, hope he is on our trip.

Which characters did he do?

 

I just know it was funny, I can't even remember.  Sorry!

[ROWSE]

5 hours ago, leck57 said:

We also spent time in London after the cruise. We thought we did London pretty well but had not read or heard about the canal area as in your photos - we will need to go back! We were there for 9 days and never even saw this area!

Just a tip re the Oyster cards. There is no need to get these anymore as your credit or debit card just works the same way. Just present your card at the reader as you would an Oyster card and and away you go. We were tipped off about this before we left. We had no incorrect charges and all worked fine. Most Metro systems around the world are going this way so there will be no need for Oyster Cards etc.

I don't know how many days it would take to see everything there is to see.  Seven days sure weren't enough.  We were just hesitant to pull those credit cards out and do that.  Losing an Oyster card versus our card we use  to pay for everything seemed less of a risk.  

Also, if a card has the same number for husband and wife, how can that work for two people since you tap in and out?  

Glad it worked out for you two!

[ROWSE]

5 hours ago, lindylooellalouise said:

Hi thank you for posting your review and I have enjoyed every minute you have amazingly packed in a huge amount of sightseeing we are on the emerald Princess  next week and unbelievably we are in the same cabin E702 our first cruise with Princess but have done British Isles a few times usually with Cunard looking forward to reading your next review.

So glad you are reading along!  E702 was a great room with just a bit of vibration when going into and out of port.  Good luck with those automatic sensor night lights, which are in every room!  Not sure why Princess thinks these are a good idea.