Has anyone been on the London Cruisetour?

[Stowaway LFC]

Looking to maybe start planning one for 2025 or 2026. I know I can't book this far out but wanted to do some research on this particular trip and cruise line:

We have never been to any of these places but have always wanted to!  The pre cruise part looks cool, we get to see London and maybe get over the jetlag before the cruise.  We would be leaving out of Dallas. Would have booked sooner but we are already going to Alaska on Carnival next September. And we aren't rich by any means, so everything has to be planned and saved well in advance.

 

What really jumped out at me was the free airfare for the second person plus the unlimited drinks etc.  

Any advice?  Thinking about getting the Norwegian credit card ahead of time to start building up points?  I'm a total newbie with this type of trip and with Norwegian.

But this looks to be a pretty good deal!

 

Thank you!! 

[ziggyuk]

If it works out a good price, it looks nice.

You will fly into London anyway so potentially could do this easily as a DIY and seeing what you want by arriving a few das early but if the price is right best to let NCL handle it.
I live 20min from Southampton, Southampton is about 1.5 hour drive from London, which you would have to do anyway to get on the cruise.
Looks a nice itinerary, being "local" I have been to all but the Orkney which I really want to visit one day, you might even see the Northern lights that far North in October if you are lucky.

 

Temperatures will start to dip that time of year and sometimes get frost but with weather changes I would expect about 10°C (50°F) with a few less in the Orkneys.

[MoCruiseFan]

Has anyone been on the London Cruisetour?

I'm going with yes.

[julig22]

I'm going with no because this is the first I've ever seen it offered.

Only cruisetours I've seen were for Alaska and Hawaii.

[Stowaway LFC]

Hopefully it will be offered again in 2025 or 2026.  I just happened on it looking through British Isles cruises.  Thought maybe someone had been on one could tell me how they liked it 🙂

[julig22]

9 minutes ago, Stowaway LFC said:

Hopefully it will be offered again in 2025 or 2026.  I just happened on it looking through British Isles cruises.  Thought maybe someone had been on one could tell me how they liked it 🙂

Looks like they have several, but only listed through 2024. Wish they'd had the one in Iceland when I went last summer.

I always wondered why they didn't offer more of them, seems like a no-brainer to me.  I took one in Alaska a few years ago and loved it.

[Turtles06]

The information in the first post says "4 land tours," but if that refers to the following 4 days listed, the first seems merely a transfer to the hotel in London, and the 4th, "London Embarkation," is a transfer to the actual embarkation site, Southampton.  Is any actual touring done on either day? 

 

London is one of the world's great cities, and a very DIY city.  If it's feasible for the OP, I would consider flying in early, and/or staying post-cruise, and doing more than the one day of "London Sightseeing" listed for day 2 of the "Land tours." 

 

I also want to point out to the OP that Paris is nowhere near the actual port (Le Havre) where the ship will dock in France.  (Le Havre is, however, a great jumping off point for seeing the D-Day sites in Normandy, which is an incredible and very moving experience.) 

[KeithJenner]

Obviously an advantage of this is that the organisation is taken out of your hands, which is an attraction for some.

 

However, whilst Kent and Dover Castle are nice, if I had this amount of time on my first visit to the UK then I wouldn’t be leaving London on those middle two days. There is so much to do in London without blowing a few hours in a coach to get down to Dover.

 

Something which is popular is to arrange a transfer to Southampton that visits somewhere like Stonehenge on the way and that sounds a better plan if you want to see something outside of London. Even better, add in another day or two and split your stay between London and the Southampton area.

 

Having said all that, if you like the idea of having the itinerary set then it certainly looks like being an enjoyable (but probably busy) few days.

[Stowaway LFC]

This is some descriptions of the London days:

 

I saw that the Paris one isn't actually Paris which is ok since the hubby is a huge history fan esp about D Day.  Since London is so far from us the paid 2nd person airfare was really appealing! Wish I was rich and could just book this now but I will have to wait and plan and budget for it.  So I'm hoping they offer it in 2025 or 2026.  

[q_comm]

To the OP. 

 

I'm set to sail/tour on the other (itinerary) cruisetour on Aug 1, 2024. That's the one doing the Scandinavian and Iceland ports. 

 

I'll be sure to update this thread once I'm done the London pre-cruise tour portion though. I was a little hesitant at first, as I normally plan everything myself. But since it's all done for me, I can't really complain.

 

Probably not much touring honestly those 3 days, as it's outside of London for the entire day #3...A bit of a bummer I think. But I do get in quite early on Day 1 and so, I'll just tube myself around and visit some other parts/sights of London.

 

I'm definitely looking forward to the Stonehenge morning, as it'll be a nice break from the drive out to Southampton.

Edited June 29 by q_comm

[Firstin87]

OP -you mentioned that the 2nd person's airfare being free is a draw for you.  Be aware that the flights NCL will give you are the cheapest ones available.  You do not choose your flights.  I recommend going to Google flights, looking for the round-trip on either the dates you'd fly or similar ones (same X day of the week of similar month you'd fly) and seeing what the cheapest Economy flights are.  If those are one's you'd choose yourself, NCL will probably have the best price and you'd have the benefit of them handling it.  Not sure how it would work if you want to upgrade from Economy, but others will know and tell you about it.