Emerald British Isles

[junglejane]

8 minutes ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

If you aren't using a TA, the option is available.

That's interesting to know. It's true that I always book through a TA. Always happy to learn new info from CC posters.

[AZ Gurl]

We waited to book our LHR transfers onboard. The first 3 days guest services wouldn’t even talk with me about it. Said I could buy them later in the cruise and they would be coordinated with our luggage tags. Imagine my surprise when our luggage tags were placed in our room the very next night as an “independent” passenger with no transfer. Princess didn’t ever bother to confirm our departure plans before assigning us luggage tags. Got that straightened out and was told to pick my own time. Selected 8:50.  Got off the ship to very long line for the Terminal 5 bus. It was basically first come first served, no reservations based on your flight time. They never even checked our tickets. When the first bus filled up, it then took a full hour for another one to arrive.   By this time it was 10 am and I was really wishing we had just grabbed a taxi. Made it to LHR by about 11:50 am. 

 

 

 

[ihopfar]

38 minutes ago, AZ Gurl said:

We waited to book our LHR transfers onboard. The first 3 days guest services wouldn’t even talk with me about it. Said I could buy them later in the cruise and they would be coordinated with our luggage tags. Imagine my surprise when our luggage tags were placed in our room the very next night as an “independent” passenger with no transfer. Princess didn’t ever bother to confirm our departure plans before assigning us luggage tags. Got that straightened out and was told to pick my own time. Selected 8:50.  Got off the ship to very long line for the Terminal 5 bus. It was basically first come first served, no reservations based on your flight time. They never even checked our tickets. When the first bus filled up, it then took a full hour for another one to arrive.   By this time it was 10 am and I was really wishing we had just grabbed a taxi. Made it to LHR by about 11:50 am. 

 

 

 

 

That is a very interesting picture you paint!   Do you recall when you were asked to pick your time (not that it seems to have mattered!) what the time range was?

 

BTW, why did you go to guest services instead of the shore excursion desk to sign up for the transfer?  Although not technically a shore excursion, I would have thought they would be able to book them.  

 

Thanks!

Brad

[portiemom]

On 6/17/2022 at 3:47 PM, ihopfar said:

Now that there have been a few British Isles cruises on the Emerald this season, I have a few questions as I prepare for our cruise later this summer.  (Ok, maybe more than a few!)

 

• How was your DMW experience?  Did you have same table /staff every night if you wanted?  If so, which dining room did you eat in? We had a good DMW experience. We ate in Botticelli at the same table at the same time with the same staff most nights.
• Anybody book transfers back to LHR on board?  Hoping to use OBC for this.   Any issues being able to do this?  Are there options of times?  How late of a bus did you take? I always line up transfers to the airport in advance. I usually book them myself online or with my PVP. I don't use a TA. Very easy to handle it ahead of time. We are always given an appropriate time for the bus and I've never had an issue getting to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Too early IMHO. For this cruise we were dropped off at LHR at 9:30am for a 1:25pm flight that turned out to be delayed by over 30 minutes.
• Heard on another thread that Princess warns of delays when tendering.  Was tendering well organized in the tender ports?   Where there long waits?  If so, what time? We had Princess excursions for two of the tender ports so no issues for us. We didn't get off at Guernsey.
• Anyone stay starboard side of the Aloha deck?   I know port side is being used for quarantine cabins, but not sure if starboard side as well.  If they needed to move your cabin because it was in the quarantine zone, how far in advance did they let you know and where did you get moved to? I can verify that Aloha port side was being used for quarantine. We didn't get moved.
• Anyone have copies of the menus or dailies, by any chance? Sorry.

 

Thanks!

Brad

See my answers above in red.