How different would a cruise of the British Isles be from a typical Carnival cruise in the Caribbean?

[ninjacat123]

DH and I did a 10 day out of Rome on Pride and with regard to food, I had the same breakfast on Lido every morning.  Thinly sliced pork with chunks of melon.  That pork (was it ham?  more like pork) was so tasty with a bite of melon, was devine.  The rest of our food on board was fine.  The food in Europe is so good (fresher tasting, no preservatives I think) that thank goodness we walked a lot with our excursions or I would be 20 pounds heavier after my time in Europe.  Definitely fly to your port a few days prior so you can acclimate.  Have a wonderful anniversary and cruise!!

[jimbo5544]

On 1/24/2024 at 2:27 PM, jsglow said:

Dublin is great. Just know that the port at Dun Laoghaire is among the most challenging tender ports in the world, at least that I've been to. Set an alarm and get yourself in line at least 45 minutes before they begin handing out tender boarding position slips. And when you get there, you'll say a Thank You that your not on a 'Monstrosity of the Seas'.

BUT OH SO WORTH IT

[freewilly]

Yes.. it is a learning curve.. We went on Carnival Pride in August for our 35th anniversary.

We noticed less children on our cruise

More experienced cruisers

The trip is very port intensive 

Overall it was a nice change from the Caribbean 

• allow a day or 2 post flight to rest and recuperate 
• If you can fly a non US carrier- we were a day late leaving US because of US storms, not as much an issue for those coming and going over the pond.
• The trains and public transportation are EZ to use in UK
• We visited docked in Greenock over night so we were able to go see the Royal Military Tattoo ( I am highly recommend) also this was the same week as The Fringe Festival. These occur the same time each year. 
• The Carnival Legend will be taking the exact trip.. August 9-11th 2024. A great time to be in UK especially Edinburgh. We also visited Belfast, Cork, Holyhead, Dublin, Liverpool, overnighted in Greenock (that allows you time to go to Edinburgh. Plus this ship has the 4K cabins.. they are on deck 4, come with sofa have full length floor to ceiling windows and are priced as interior rooms. Leaving me more money to spend seeing the sights in the UK and Ireland. Plus, it leaves from Dover England so if you want to work in trip to Calais, France on the Ferry you can squeeze in France! Happy anniversary!

Edited January 30 by freewilly

[MisterOJ2]

11 hours ago, freewilly said:

Plus this ship has the 4K cabins.. they are on deck 4, come with sofa have full length floor to ceiling windows and are priced as interior rooms. Leaving me more money to spend seeing the sights in the UK and Ireland. 

 

Yeah! We're booked into a 4K cabin - one that is in between life boats and has a pretty decent view, all things considered. We're pretty happy with that, but after we booked it my wife noticed it is also over the piano bar, so now we're wondering if we might get extra noise from that at night.

[freewilly]

1 hour ago, MisterOJ2 said:

 

Yeah! We're booked into a 4K cabin - one that is in between life boats and has a pretty decent view, all things considered. We're pretty happy with that, but after we booked it my wife noticed it is also over the piano bar, so now we're wondering if we might get extra noise from that at night.

We look for cabins by the rectangular shapes between the life boats. These have a better view. Yes. I would definitely avoid being above the piano bar.  Also, avoid booking above the sliding lobby doors going outside  on deck 3. We have booked 4134 a few times. View ok but Always quiet 

 

Edited January 30 by freewilly

[CrusingNana]

On 1/24/2024 at 10:41 AM, MisterOJ2 said:

Thanks for all the responses! We wound up booking last night - but we chose a different week with a slightly different itinerary. We're now going in June instead of August and will visit Dublin instead of the Isle of Man. We're super excited about this trip!

We are looking into a b2b starting with the June cruise(20-29) then 29-July 11. Maybe the same cruise?  

[vwgolf2]

On 1/24/2024 at 5:20 PM, KKB said:

Interesting.

 

 

The lack of crisp bacon is true--they always had a separate tray of crisp I had to ask for at the buffet. If I ate in a restaurant, I had to ask for CRISP (or burnt on land!)

As a Brit, I must defend our bacon! The bacon eaten in America is what we would call streaky bacon and although available in supermarkets and butchers, is rarely served in restaurants. The most popular form of bacon is back bacon which is similar (I think) to Canadian bacon. How it is cooked varies by establishment but few places will cook it so it is crispy and brittle unless you ask. 

A typical "full English" breakfast will consist of several slices of back bacon along with pork sausages, fried eggs, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, baked beans, fried bread and perhaps even black pudding. Hash browns are a controversy; are they English or an American import??? 

[ninjacat123]

7 minutes ago, vwgolf2 said:

As a Brit, I must defend our bacon! The bacon eaten in America is what we would call streaky bacon and although available in supermarkets and butchers, is rarely served in restaurants. The most popular form of bacon is back bacon which is similar (I think) to Canadian bacon. How it is cooked varies by establishment but few places will cook it so it is crispy and brittle unless you ask. 

A typical "full English" breakfast will consist of several slices of back bacon along with pork sausages, fried eggs, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, baked beans, fried bread and perhaps even black pudding. Hash browns are a controversy; are they English or an American import??? 

Looks like American..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_browns

I love a full English breakfast!  I haven't had it with black pudding...yet!

Edited April 4 by ninjacat123

[TinkLoverSam]

36 minutes ago, vwgolf2 said:

As a Brit, I must defend our bacon! The bacon eaten in America is what we would call streaky bacon and although available in supermarkets and butchers, is rarely served in restaurants. The most popular form of bacon is back bacon which is similar (I think) to Canadian bacon. How it is cooked varies by establishment but few places will cook it so it is crispy and brittle unless you ask. 

A typical "full English" breakfast will consist of several slices of back bacon along with pork sausages, fried eggs, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, baked beans, fried bread and perhaps even black pudding. Hash browns are a controversy; are they English or an American import??? 

Canadian bacon is back bacon with a peameal coating

[RDJ]

On 1/23/2024 at 1:24 PM, MJSailors said:

@MisterOJ2

While you have taken many Carnival cruises to the Caribbean, I might suggest that you consider a Princess cruise to the

British Isles.

Princess has been doing such cruises for quite some time. They offer various itineraries to different ports. You could consider choosing a particular cruise depending on ports to be visited. For example, many Princess cruises offer the port of Liverpool. Many passengers may want to get to this port because of their interest in the Beatles or history connected to the Titanic.

Other itineraries offer the opportunity to view the Royal Tattoo in Scotland.

I am not certain how long Carnival has offered the British Isles cruises or their experience in offering ports/excursions.

Since both Carnival and Princess are under the Carnival Corp company, you may get a loyalty level match on Princess with the loyalty level you have on Carnival. 
Whichever cruise line you choose, I think you realize that the British Isles cruise will be quite different than a Caribbean cruise.

Happy travels!

MJ

 

We have loyalty with Princess and was told Carnival will not match (but RC with Celebrity will) Have you found different than that? We have British Isles booked on Princess next year for our big anniversary and looking forward to it 

[kwokpot]

On 4/4/2024 at 12:55 PM, RDJ said:

We have loyalty with Princess and was told Carnival will not match (but RC with Celebrity will) Have you found different than that? We have British Isles booked on Princess next year for our big anniversary and looking forward to it 

There's no matching loyalty status between any Carnival Corp.cruiseline.

[RDJ]

6 hours ago, kwokpot said:

There's no matching loyalty status between any Carnival Corp.cruiseline.

That’s my understanding as well

[jimbo5544]

2 hours ago, RDJ said:

That’s my understanding as well

Just past guest rates between the lines. Way to many lines and complexities to do anything different.