A Coronation and Live From 12 Day British Isles on the Regal

[Y21]

18 hours ago, Steelers0854 said:

the app

Ah, ok. I'll make sure to have the app ready.  (Yes, I was asking about train to Glasgow.)

Thank you for the insightful information! Greatly appreciated.

Edited May 16, 2023 by Y21
additional comments

[Steelers0854]

Day 9 Invergordon, Scotland (7am-6pm): Best of the Scottish Highlands (Loch Ness, Urquhart & Cawdor Castles)

 

We had a message on our stateroom phone last night from the Shore excursion desk. They told us for the tour operator to handle DWs allergy request we needed to ask for Red 7 when we checked in. So far they have handled DWs allergies perfectly this trip which has been a great relief to her. We checked in and they checked her name off a list and all was well.

 

 

 

We arrived at 7am and they started to let people off at 7:50. We got to Princess live at 7:45 and headed out from our bus by 8:25. This coach isn’t as comfortable as the last one but does have a restroom. We also got audio devices to be able to hear the guide at each of our stops.

 

First stop Cawdor Castle. It took us about 45 minutes to get there. They have plenty of restroom facilities here along with a cafe with a wide variety of coffee tea and food. They provide you with a handheld auction device to use as you walk through the castle. The grounds are also beautiful with a stream and several gardens. We had 90 minutes onsite which I felt was more than enough time to not feel rushed. The weather held out right up until we left then a light rain started.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our guide today isn’t very good. She doesn’t really know what’s going on or when we need to be places and doesn’t communicate very well. We have to always ask her when to be back at the bus. It took us about 40 minutes to head into Inverness to the Mercure Hotel for lunch. This was the earliest lunch we have had this whole trip at around noon. Guess I shouldn’t have had that big breakfast after all!

 

Lunch today wasnt anything to write home about. It was the first time the location had DWs allergies in advance and they had it well documented. Others in our tour said in Greenock they had a tour that stopped at the same chain of hotels and they had the exact same lunch as today and were disappointed.

 

 

 

DW had an olive salad and a similar main entree. She got a bowl of fruit for dessert and I got some kind of pound cakeish dessert. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then headed on about a 30 minute drive to Urquhart Castle. We had about 110ish minutes here and it was more than enough. I would say an hour here is just fine. They have a website you can access with audio stops as you walk along which we did. We covered the entire thing in an hour no problem. The weather was again great and the sun came out and warmed up quite a bit.

 

 

 

Side note: no one here knows what side to walk on. We are in the UK so we should be walking on the left but everyone other than those from here walk on the right. What ensues is a game of frogger as you walk along dancing from side to side as you navigate the locals versus the tourists. Lol.

 

Side Note 2: we were overhearing another tour guide talking to her group. For those that are just Gluten free they said Scotland is very very widely accepting of gluten free diets and it’s very easy to eat here.

 

We headed back to port and that took us about an hour from here.

 

Final thoughts on this one. Our guide unfortunately was the worst we have had but there were 3 buses doing this tour so I think it’s just a bad draw. Lunch was very disappointing. They could have done something local like all the other stops we have had. The cast does we saw were neat. I wasn’t expecting the Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle to be combined I thought they were separate stops but that is probably bad research on my part. I don’t remember the other tours available but for the first time on this trip I think this one may be a pass.

we returned to the ship to another glorious borderline hot day. 
 

 

[Steelers0854]

Day 9 Invergordon, Scotland (7am-6pm) cont. 

 

Fun Fact: The chefs table is VERY popular this trip. They have already done 4 and have 2 more booked. It’s so popular they have had to turn people down because they don’t have enough room.

 

For some reason the menu in the app was different than the actual menu in the dining room.

 

 

 

 

DW tonight had from the vegan menu the lentil and cauliflower taco, from the regular menu you the grilled pineapple and the Spaghetti al Olio Peperoncino with GF pasta. The taco was good but despite the guacamole it was a little dry. The grilled pineapple was excellent as was the pasta with perfectly cooked chicken.

 

 

 

 

I got the grilled pineapple and the pork chop. The pineapple was excellent but the pork wasn’t good. It wasn’t a pork chop, it was way over cooked and tough and lacked any real flavor.

 

 

 

For dessert DW got the chocolate sorbet and a warm chocolate cake. And I got the warm chocolate chip cookie and the exotic sunshine. The sunshine I realized wasn’t on the app menu and I didn’t take a picture of the physical menu. It was a mango and pineapple type mouse. DW said the cake was the best desert yet. She said it was so moist she was almost concerned it had eggs in it. The sorbet was also a winner tonight. My cookie dessert wasn’t warm and was basically a chocolate cookie with ice cream on top. Don’t get me wrong, it’s delicious but wasn’t matching my high expectations based on the description. The exotic sunshine dessert was the winner. Light mouse with tons of flavor and a crispy cookie crust. It was excellent.

 

 

 

 

Here is the vegan menu for tomorrow. 
 

 

 

[Steelers36]

15 minutes ago, Steelers0854 said:

.

<deleted>.

 

Edited May 16, 2023 by Steelers36

[gah_cruise]

deleted

 

Edited May 16, 2023 by gah_cruise

[Steelers36]

5 minutes ago, gah_cruise said:

huh? Are guests going 6X ??
I read the post that the "chefs table" has been done 4 times with another 2 planned..............of course, I may just be wrong and await to be rightfully admonished 🙂 

 

Deleted my post.  Must need to clean my glasses - or something.

[Steelers0854]

A note on internet speeds. The internet onboard has been noticeably slower the last 2 days. Speed tests still show about the same as the first day but uploads especially have been painfully slow and downloads are much slower as well. 

 

 

here is the patter for tomorrow. 

 

 

[Kath Hughes]

Anyone on the June 13, 2023 British isles cruise. 

[G&Gcruisers]

3 hours ago, Kath Hughes said:

Anyone on the June 13, 2023 British isles cruise. 

Yes

[Scottygirl1]

We are on the Best of Highlands Tour out of Invergordon on our August cruise.  I was really hoping it would be great but not so sure after your review and experience.  

 

Edited May 17, 2023 by Scottygirl1

[Steelers0854]

4 hours ago, Scottygirl1 said:

We are on the Best of Highlands Tour out of Invergordon on our August cruise.  I was really hoping it would be great but not so sure after your review and experience.  

 

I was just looking at the tour options and out of all of them I think it’s still the best option. I think with a better guide it would have been more enjoyable for us. The 2 sites are pretty cool in and of themselves. 

[Steelers0854]

I can see why we can’t dock here. Look alive, low bridge. 
 

[Scottygirl1]

1 hour ago, Steelers0854 said:

I was just looking at the tour options and out of all of them I think it’s still the best option. I think with a better guide it would have been more enjoyable for us. The 2 sites are pretty cool in and of themselves. 

Thank you, yes hopefully we'll have a better experience. I'm enjoying your updates by the way!

[phabric]

The tour guide makes the difference on a tour.  Your never know which guide you are going to get.

[Steelers0854]

Day 10 Edinburgh, Scotland (7am-7pm): Best of Edinburgh (Holyrood Palace, Royal Mile & Edinburgh Castle, Princess Street)

 

Another Day another beautiful view out the window.

 

 

They started tender operations at 7:30 this morning. We got a call from shore ex last night and were told to be on tour Silver 17 today for DWs allergies. We meet at 8:30 in the Princess theater. Our tour runs all the way til the last tender at 6pm tonight.

 

They called our number at 8:35 and we were heading ashore by 8:45. It was a smooth as glass ride for 10 minutes under the beautiful bridge to the dock.

 

 

I have a good feeling about todays tour. Not only is the weather beautiful but we seem to have a great guide. We headed in to Edinburgh which took us only 25 minutes.

 

We did about a 1 hour drive around the city seeing all the sites on a narrated tour. Then we stopped at the National Museum of Scotland where we had about 90 minutes to explore on our own. We skipped the museum and instead walked around Royal Mile.

 

 

 

I have a new favorite city. Edinburgh is absolutely remarkable. Every corner you turn, every street you walk down there is so much to see and so much history here. If there was 1 city from this entire trip that I would come back to in order to spend more time it’s Edinburgh.

 

After the museum we continued our driving tour of the city before we headed to the Hotel Indigo for lunch. We had 3 hours for lunch and walking around Princes street and the area before meeting back up to head to the Castle.

 

The soup was safe for DW to eat and it was outstanding. It was some kind of parsnip and apple purée based soup and it was so good. They also had gluten free vegan bread for DW. DW got chicken with a safe brown gravy they made and roasted potatoes. She said they were excellent and the chicken was perfectly cooked and the gravy was also very good. Mine was a different sauce that was very good and the round ball was haggis. I hadn’t had it before and it was excellent. Very flavorful and had a crispy exterior with the fried coating. They did a chocolate mouse for DW which she said was the best thing she has had all trip. It was sticky toffee pudding for me and it was delicious! This was one of the better meals we have had.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the time we got through lunch we had just over an hour left to walk around.

 

 

 

 

The troops rallied and we headed towards the Castle for our last stop. We did a walking tour with our guide here at the beginning before going through the castle on our own and spent just under 2 hours here. We then headed right back to the ship as one of the last tenders. I think you could easily spend a half a day or more at the castle it’s so big. We got really lucky. The Crown Jewels returned only yesterday from the coronation and we arrived 5 minutes before they closed and we were able to see them. No photos allowed. They were amazing.

 

 

 

 

This was a great tour. Much like other cities this gives you a great overview of the city and it was fantastic with the free time we had to explore but then also got to see the castle etc. highly recommend this.

 

[Steelers0854]

For those going on their own here is the price list at the tender drop off. 

[fruitmachine]

1 hour ago, Steelers0854 said:

I have a new favorite city. Edinburgh is absolutely remarkable. Every corner you turn, every street you walk down there is so much to see and so much history here. If there was 1 city from this entire trip that I would come back to in order to spend more time it’s Edinburgh

I'm so please you enjoyed Edinburgh!  It's a fantastic city.

I've lived here all my life, and love it when visitors have a fantastic experience.  Come again!

 

 

[Steelers0854]

1 hour ago, fruitmachine said:

I'm so please you enjoyed Edinburgh!  It's a fantastic city.

I've lived here all my life, and love it when visitors have a fantastic experience.  Come again!

 

 

I’m so jealous, it’s such a wonderful city with so much rich history. We will definitely be back!

[Steelers0854]

Day 10 Edinburgh, Scotland (7am-7pm):

 

 

Side Note: at 5:30pm on our way back to the ship a large number of the local shops, but also some larger chains were closed. Seems things shut down on the early side here.

 

DW didn’t find anything on the menu tonight that she liked for her entree. So she decided to do the surf and turf add on. Here is my hot take on Princess’ specialty restaurants, overall they suck. When compared to other cruise lines (even Carnival IMO has a better steakhouse) to me Princess falls way short. Disney and Royal Caribbean I think do it best. But that’s not to say some of the individual dishes they serve aren’t good, but I think they can do better especially compared to their competitors. The surf and turf In the MDR it’s $29, if we went to Crown grill it would cost us each $29 plus an additional $10 for the lobster. For DW it isn’t worth it because there is t much else from the crown menu she can eat. So we will see how it would be having it in the MDR instead of the crown grill.  The menus were not correct in the app again tonight. 

 

 

DW got the soup from the vegan menu which she said was delicious. She even beat me finishing our starters which never happens!  She said her filet was  good, cooked perfectly but needed seasoning. The lobster was also well cooked and was great. She said for her it was worth the additional cost over the steak in the MDR.

 

 

 

I got the chicken tikka and the corned beef. The chicken tikka was just ok. It was very dry and needed to come with more sauce. The corned beef wasn’t good. It lacked any flavor. I called an audible and got the macadamia and panko crusted fish. It was excellent!

 

 

 

 

DW got the chefs special cake for dessert which she loves. 
 

 

Here is the vegan menu for tomorrow. 
 

 

Here is the lunch menu for tomorrow. 
 

 

 

 

 

[Scottygirl1]

We are in the process of figuring out Edinburgh tours.  We hadn't thought of the tour you went on because we want to spend time walking Royal Mile etc but now that you've said you can skip the museum and use that time walking, I think we might book the tour you did.  My grandmother's side of the family all lived in and around that area so I'd like to just experience walking those streets.  

[Gettingwarmer]

1 hour ago, Steelers0854 said:

The chicken tikka was just ok. It was very dry and needed to come with more sauce.

Chicken tikka does not have a sauce, are you thinking of Chicken tikka Marsala.

Loving your very thorough report. 

Edited May 17, 2023 by Gettingwarmer

[JimmyVWine]

2 hours ago, Scottygirl1 said:

We are in the process of figuring out Edinburgh tours.  We hadn't thought of the tour you went on because we want to spend time walking Royal Mile etc but now that you've said you can skip the museum and use that time walking, I think we might book the tour you did.

I'm certainly not picking on the OP's tour, but if you look at what they did, a lot of it was "on your own" touring time, including:

• Skipped the museum and instead walked around Royal Mile for 90 minutes.
• 3 hours for lunch and walking around Princes street and the area before meeting back up with the tour group
• Going through the castle on our own and spent just under 2 hours there.

 

Once you skip the museum, 90% of the day is walking and touring on your own.  Everything here can be done without paying for a pricey tour.  Just make sure to buy tickets to the Castle in advance if you will be there on a busy day.  And if you want an organized tour of the castle, those are easy to get.  A roundtrip taxi will cost 50 pounds or 25 each for two people compared to the price of the tour.  The itinerary above includes 6 1/2 hours of "on your own time."  So why not just plan your own day?
 

[nini]

3 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

I'm certainly not picking on the OP's tour, but if you look at what they did, a lot of it was "on your own" touring time, including:

• Skipped the museum and instead walked around Royal Mile for 90 minutes.
• 3 hours for lunch and walking around Princes street and the area before meeting back up with the tour group
• Going through the castle on our own and spent just under 2 hours there.

 

Once you skip the museum, 90% of the day is walking and touring on your own.  Everything here can be done without paying for a pricey tour.  Just make sure to buy tickets to the Castle in advance if you will be there on a busy day.  And if you want an organized tour of the castle, those are easy to get.  A roundtrip taxi will cost 50 pounds or 25 each for two people compared to the price of the tour.  The itinerary above includes 6 1/2 hours of "on your own time."  So why not just plan your own day?
 

 

Good advice, The HOHO bus there is fabulous and you can purchase tickets in advance for the castle. We loved Edinburgh.

[Scottygirl1]

5 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

I'm certainly not picking on the OP's tour, but if you look at what they did, a lot of it was "on your own" touring time, including:

• Skipped the museum and instead walked around Royal Mile for 90 minutes.
• 3 hours for lunch and walking around Princes street and the area before meeting back up with the tour group
• Going through the castle on our own and spent just under 2 hours there.

 

Once you skip the museum, 90% of the day is walking and touring on your own.  Everything here can be done without paying for a pricey tour.  Just make sure to buy tickets to the Castle in advance if you will be there on a busy day.  And if you want an organized tour of the castle, those are easy to get.  A roundtrip taxi will cost 50 pounds or 25 each for two people compared to the price of the tour.  The itinerary above includes 6 1/2 hours of "on your own time."  So why not just plan your own day?
 

Agreed actually.  We had planned that originally and have seen the bus you can get directly to the town centre.  Either that or the ship's tour of 'Edinburgh on your own' (just to be sure we get back to the ship on time).

[Steelers0854]

9 hours ago, Gettingwarmer said:

Chicken tikka does not have a sauce, are you thinking of Chicken tikka Marsala.

Loving your very thorough report. 

correct, I meant the sauce that came with it on the plate. Had there been more of that it would have helped with the dryness of the chicken. 

 

7 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

I'm certainly not picking on the OP's tour, but if you look at what they did, a lot of it was "on your own" touring time, including:

• Skipped the museum and instead walked around Royal Mile for 90 minutes.
• 3 hours for lunch and walking around Princes street and the area before meeting back up with the tour group
• Going through the castle on our own and spent just under 2 hours there.

 

Once you skip the museum, 90% of the day is walking and touring on your own.  Everything here can be done without paying for a pricey tour.  Just make sure to buy tickets to the Castle in advance if you will be there on a busy day.  And if you want an organized tour of the castle, those are easy to get.  A roundtrip taxi will cost 50 pounds or 25 each for two people compared to the price of the tour.  The itinerary above includes 6 1/2 hours of "on your own time."  So why not just plan your own day?
 

You’re not wrong, but also we had a couple hours of guided tour driving around the city, which you could argue you could get from the HO/HO side as well. The museum is also free for everyone so that doesn’t really factor in either. Princess tours will NEVER present a value vs booking on your own but the costs do add up. Taxi into the city and back, $70, lunch for 2, $65, Castle tickets $40, HO/HO $40. You can probably argue we got a better tour from a local guide than the HO/HO would offer. In addition all I had to do was show up and not organize anything. Also, we got back to the dock after 6pm which was the time of the last tender back to the ship but because we were on a Princess tour it wasn’t an issue and traffic was very bad getting to and from the ship.