Rain Rain, Go Away - British Isles on the Legend Sept 13th

Greetings everyone!

Welcome to my review on our 12 day cruise of the British Isles! As the title implies, indeed - there was some (lots of!) rain but we'll come to that later.

A bit about us, I'm Jenn - 37 (today!) and my husband Jim (39), and this is our 6th/5th cruises respectively - all on Carnival except for our honeymoon on HAL to Alaska.

We were SO excited about this trip - booked the first day bookings opened on Valentine's Day 2012, so this cruise was a long time coming. At one point we weren't even sure we could get the time off from work and booked a backup cruise (the TA) but in the end it all worked out.

There was a lot of pre-planning involved due to the nature of the ports and being so far away, and we also had a GREAT roll call that was very helpful in coordinating smaller group tours and we met some wonderful people along the way.

Anyway - this is the tale of our adventure - our first time overseas ... hope you enjoy!

Jenn :)

Day 1 - Toronto to Heathrow - Sept 8th

We are from Toronto and I did a LOT of research into the best way to fly to London. There were seemingly limitless options and I investigated them all!!! I was looking for the best price with the most comfort.

While we would have LOVED to travel 1st or Business Class, our budget simply did not allow for that so I looked for the next best option. I checked into flying out of Buffalo vs TO, all the different airlines and their "Economy Comfort" add-ons, and Gatwick vs Heathrow.

In the end - we decided to go with Air Canada direct Toronto to Heathrow, and paid the extra premium to get a bulkhead seat - I think around $50/person per way or something like that. That was well worth it ... check out all the space we had! We had similar seats on the return.

Plus alcoholic drinks were included which was a nice bonus (only offered on international flights for free). AC had a good selection of free current movies to choose from for both flights (7 hrs going, 8hrs on the return).

Overall - while a long flight, we were happy with Air Canada and wouldn't hesitate to choose them in future. Unfortunately I didn't really sleep on the plane which made for a long day on Monday, but that's not AC's fault!

Oh - one tip ... www.seatguru.com was a great site for checking out plane diagrams and finding the plane configurations (we wanted a 2 row vs a 3 person row) and the best seats on any given plane. That's how I found the row we picked. The extra legroom was just fantastic.

Day 2 - London - Mon Sept 9th

We arrived at Heathrow at 0630 Monday morning after a long sleepless flight. Security was a breeze, and the only hiccup was that our shuttle was not waiting for us when we got there.

This wasn't a complete surprise, as after I had booked with Heathrow Shuttle, I learned they weren't entirely reliable with picking people up at the airport.

I bought a UK SIM card at the airport and called and they advised me they would be there at 0830 to pick us up. We found them around 0845 and around 9AM we were on our way to the hotel! So, it wasn't a terrible start to the trip, but at the same time I probably wouldn't use Heathrow Shuttle again if I went back.

Best Western Victoria Palace

I did a lot of research into the hotel as well - I wanted something that was relatively inexpensive (for London), decent reviews, and a good location where we could walk places. Yes, a lot to ask! And, we found it in the Best Western Victoria Palace.

While definitely not the fanciest hotel we've ever stayed at (and certainly the smallest room!) - it suited our needs perfectly. The price was right - 267 GBP total for 3 nights for a twin bed in their Annexe building. When we arrived around 0930-10AM - they actually allowed us to check-in right away which was a bit of a surprise since it was so early, AND they upgraded us to the main building, which included a continental breakfast. Sweet!!

This is a picture of our long, narrow room.

The location was great - we were near the Coach & Train stations (separate buildings), and also were able to walk pretty much everywhere we wanted to go while in town.

After we checked in - we headed out right away to see the Changing of the Guard (offered every other day). However, it was not to be as after waiting in the rain for about 45 min, it was cancelled due to weather. Boo!! This was the first time but definitely not the last our plans would be changed due to rain!

Since Changing of the Guard was cancelled - we decided to have a quick lunch at McD's, then headed over to catch the Original Bus HOHO.

While we had grand plans to get a great overview of the city on the bus and also take the free included river cruise - the fact that it was raining and we had to sit inside on a crowded bus, plus a boring driver - before long we found ourselves nodding off on the bus! We decided to abandon it around Westminster Abbey, and walked back to the hotel for a power nap before dinner.

Tonight we were going to the "Ceremony of the Keys" at the Tower of London and wanted to be awake for it!! And the nap did the trick - we slept for a couple hours then headed by Underground to the Tower area where we had a delicious pub dinner and then went to the Ceremony, which was quite neat, but no photos were allowed. We then walked around a bit before heading back to the hotel.

Day 3 - London Continued - Tues Sept 10th

After a GREAT sleep - we woke up to discover we had set the alarm wrong! Oh no ... this morning we had tickets for the Stateroom Tour at Buckingham Palace at 0930!

It was just after 8 at this point - so we quickly got our stuff together and headed out the door, with a quick pitstop at Starbucks for a cookie and coffee!

It took about 20ish min or so to walk from the hotel to Buckingham Palace, and we arrived just after 9 to go through security for the tour. We weren't allowed to take photos - but by far it was the highlight of our time in London. Just to walk through all these rooms that the Queen actually LIVES in! Very cool.

After the tour you can walk through the grounds on your way back out to the street.

Afterwards, we headed out to a Pub for lunch ... and what's a pub without a cold pint of beer!

From here, we walked to/by ... Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, did the London Eye, walked to Trafalgar Square and went to the National Gallery, past St James's palace, and home.

OMG - I'm sure I don't have to tell you my feet were just DONE by the end of the day. I didn't think I could walk another step!! But, the day was fantastic and I wouldn't change a thing. Plus we had beautiful weather which was nice. Here are some of the highlights:

Nice pics! That is a tiny room, but if it fulfilled your needs that is what counts. If I ever get there now I know the changing of the guards happens every other day. I love the rain.

To bad they did not allow pictures underground. That would have been interesting. Nice start to your review.:)

Nice pics! That is a tiny room, but if it fulfilled your needs that is what counts. If I ever get there now I know the changing of the guards happens every other day. I love the rain.

 

To bad they did not allow pictures underground. That would have been interesting. Nice start to your review.:)

Thank you ... it WAS a small room, but thankfully I knew that ahead of time! Not like North American hotels for sure.

And I agree, it would have been nice to take pictures inside the Palace, but understandable why they don't allow it. If you ever go during Aug/Sept - it's certainly worth booking the tour, the only month's it's offered.

Oh, and I think the Changing of the Guard is every day for July & Aug, and every other day the other months.

Thanks for reading! I will continue along with the next few days tomorrow morning. Promise I will get to the actual cruise soon!! :)

Jenn

We were on that cruise. Spent a couple of nights in Dover before the cruise and 3 nights in London after. Looking forward to seeing/reading more. :)

Can't wait to read more! We were on the Legend transatlantic this past April from Tampa to Barcelona, then we flew to London and the British Isles for 5 weeks. Yes, we sure had our share of rain and cold weather too but it was still a great trip. Looking forward to your review! :D

Thank you ... it WAS a small room, but thankfully I knew that ahead of time! Not like North American hotels for sure.

 

And I agree, it would have been nice to take pictures inside the Palace, but understandable why they don't allow it. If you ever go during Aug/Sept - it's certainly worth booking the tour, the only month's it's offered.

 

Oh, and I think the Changing of the Guard is every day for July & Aug, and every other day the other months.

 

Thanks for reading! I will continue along with the next few days tomorrow morning. Promise I will get to the actual cruise soon!! :)

 

Jenn

It will be worth the wait to read it.;)

Enjoying your review! When I read your title, I had to laugh! We were on the Sept. 1-13 Legend cruise. We got rained on, too!

Enjoying your review! We were on Legend for a Baltic cruise in July. Unfortunately, our Air Canada experience wasn't quite as good - they left our luggage sitting in Toronto, so we spent the better part of 2 days in London with no luggage.:( Looking forward to the rest of your review.

First of all ... thanks to everyone following along! I'll do my best not to take too long, and actually finish! :)

Day 4 - London - Wed Sept 10th

This is our last full day in London - the next day we will be headed to Dover, so we wanted to make the most of it.

First stop - we wanted to try again and see the Changing of the Guard since it was rained out on Monday ... and SUCCESS!! We arrived around 10:30, and it was scheduled to start around 11:15.

Lots of people were there to watch - and we had good standing spots by the statue. One thing about London - there were warnings everywhere about being vigilant about pickpockets. We noticed signs in restaurants, and police were calling out to the crowd for people to be careful about watching their belongings, especially backpacks. We had bought an over-the-shoulder Pac-Safe bag which had security features that we used throughout the trip which I would definitely recommend. Big enough to hold water/wallet, etc, without being too bulky.

All in all it was neat to see the Guard and the horses and the mini-concert and I was glad we took the time to go back!

Next up - we headed back to the Tower of London by Underground for a proper tour since we had seen it at night the first day. They have free 1hr guided tours by the Beefeaters which really made the history of the

place come alive.

Oh - one thing to note - if you bought a one day Travelcard from the Rail office (not the Metro office), there were various 2 for 1 offers on the Days Out London website you could use. Tower of London was one of them so that was a nice bonus. If you're going to London definitely check out that site - depending on time of year sometimes London Eye is offered as well, though not during our trip.

After this - we grabbed a quick bite to eat on our way to the Underground at a hotdog/ice cream truck. Let me tell you - hotdogs are NOT the same in London! This is honestly one of the worst hotdogs we've ever eaten! And not cheap either - 4 GBP each. Ouch! Haha - but we were hungry so c'est la vie. Nothing food-wise really seemed cheap in London.

We then took the Underground back to Westminster stop and went to the Churchill War Museum based on the recommendation of my sister's father in law. We had a 2 for 1 for here too - but in our opinion it was WAY overpriced for what it was. Granted I'm not a history buff, but we were not impressed and wouldn't suggest others go there.

And that about did it for our time in London! We went to a local pub close to the hotel for dinner - St Georges Tavern which was quite tasty. Next up - Dover - the cruise is getting closer!

Day 5 - London to Dover

As much as we enjoyed our time in London - we were happy to move on to Dover ... one step closer to the cruise! We were also looking forward to a more relaxing day since it seemed we walked 500 miles in London (heehee ... later we heard the song 500 Miles from one of the performers on the cruise!)

After our free breakfast at the hotel - we packed up the last of our things and checked out just after 8AM. We had pre-purchased National Express coach tickets from Victoria Station to Dover for the bargain price of 5GBP/person! Can't beat that. While all things being equal we prefer the train, it was much more expensive so we did the bus instead.

The Coach station was only a couple blocks from the hotel, and we decided to take a taxi since we had 3 large bags with us. And ... what do you think messed up our plans? You guessed it, rain!! It was raining again this morning after 2 lovely days rain-free, and despite the bellman spending 30min outside trying to hail a cab for us, he was unsuccessful. So, we decided just to walk to the station, bags and all. Ugh! It wasn't as bad as we thought - the route he directed us to take wasn't that busy and the sidewalks were wide, so we successfully wheeled our bags the few blocks to the station.

And then we waited. And waited. And waited some more. While our bus was supposed to leave at 10AM, and the bus was there waiting for us (beckoning to us through the window!) - the driver sadly was not. She was stuck in a traffic jam and didn't arrive for another 45 min or so.

Eventually we were on our way - during the trip we were delayed again due to a traffic accident and we got to Dover about an hour and a half late in the end, arriving around 2:30PM.

From the bus station we caught a taxi to the Best Western by the Dover waterfront. We had gotten an excellent group rate negotiated by one of our roll call members and had the Superior Sea View Room with balcony, where we could also see the White Cliffs!

The balcony was nice - especially after the cramped quarters in London! The hotel was good - no AC so there was a fan in the room, and quite spacious. Not the best hotel in the world, but it suited our needs and the location once again was perfect. I think the whole place was booked that night with cruise guests.

After we checked in - we then decided to get some fresh air and walk to Dover castle. While we didn't pay to go in, you could get close. There were quite a few stairs to climb up to get there if you were walking.

That night we had an early dinner at a restaurant near the hotel since we had skipped lunch and were starving by this point! I think it was called Cullins and was quite good. All in all a very relaxing day - and we were both looking forward to the cruise the next morning!

Finally ... the day we have been planning and waiting for is finally here! It's been about a year and a half since we booked at this point. We woke up and this was our view from the balcony!

We had pre-arranged to meet up with some of our roll call members to share a taxi to the port (thanks Renee!) at 9:30AM, so we got up around 8AM so we could have breakfast before that (included in our room rate). Breakfast was decent as far as hotel breakfasts go - they served you coffee and the food was buffet style with the usual toast/pastry options.

We met up with our group for the shuttle - a little bit chaotic since the taxi company had sent our shuttle vans to London and overbooked their taxis - but eventually we all got to the cruise terminal around 10:30AM. They weren't quite checking in people at that point, but we only had to wait a few minutes.

This was the first cruise we had purchased Faster to the Fun (FTTF) - $49.95 for the cabin. We had mainly purchased it for priority tendering in Edinburgh, but also were looking forward to the VIP check in too!

We got to the checkin desk - and our cards were not there and she had to retrieve them from the regular section. Looking back - I don't think they properly tagged our reservation with FTTF (despite us paying for it!) since we later learned we should have had FTTF stickers on our cards which we didn't, and we also never received any of the info on the program in our cabin. Luckily - I knew exactly what we were entitled to from reading here!!

Anyway - check-in completed, we went to the priority section to wait. They called Priority & Suite passengers first, then FTTF and we were on our way!! I think this was the earliest we had ever boarded, it was before 11AM.

First stop was to the cabin to drop off our carry-ons (stewards didn't seem to thrilled for us to be behind the closed doors), and then up to Lido for an early lunch and our first bucket of beer!

Around 12:30 - we popped by the dining room to check on our table assignment. Pre-cruise I had sent a Facebook request to John Heald for a table for 2 so we were hoping that's what we had received. And yes! We did - thank you John and Goran (Maitre'd). I know some swear by the large tables, but we're not big into chitchat over meals so prefer to dine on our own.

We then headed back to our cabin to unpack - this was the earliest all our luggage has arrived as well! Well done Dover! All 3 bags made it through (as well as about 8 cans of beer/cider that we smuggled in. Yes, we're 'those' people, haha).

We had a 4K cabin between the lifeboats (4140 mid-ship) and were thrilled with the cabin. We had a great view, and it was quite convenient to all locations on the ship. It was also quite the deal - though we originally bought at $1294/person, by the end after Early Saver price drops it was down to $759/person and we had $620 in onboard credit. Yay Early Saver!

Of course - it wasn't all 'smooth sailing' - our nemisis "The Weather" was coming back to haunt us! During lunch John Heald the Cruise Director made an announcement during lunch that due to bad weather in the North Sea that there was going to be an itinerary change.

OH NO! My heart sank. I had done so much research and had tours planned in many of the ports - what was going to happen and how would it impact us? We would find out at 3PM when John would make a presentation in the Follies lounge about the changes. I was especially concerned about the possibility of missing Norway, since we had a hike planned up Pulpit Rock that we had been preparing for for months!

At 3 we were there for the meeting (along with pretty much everyone else aboard the ship) ... where we discovered there were rough seas in the North Sea which would make it pretty much impossible and unsafe to cross to get to Norway - and even if we did make it there, conditions would make it difficult to get back again. So - they had to switch up the itinerary.

Originally - we were supposed to go to Sea Day, Norway, Sea Day, Edinburgh, Invergordon, Greenock, Sea Day, Dublin, Belfast, Sea Day Paris, Dover.

The new schedule:

Sat - Sea Day

Sun - Liverpool

Mon - Greenock

Tues - Dublin

Wed - Sea Day

Thurs - Invergordon

Fri - Edinburgh

Sat - Sea Day

Sun - Norway

Mon - Sea Day

Tues - Le Havre (Paris)

Wed - Dover

Needless to say - that would have quite the impact on our plans since no port was the same except for Paris. Sigh. But, we all know with cruising to 'expect the unexpected'! More on that to come ...

How exciting to see the changing of the guard. Love the pictures of London and Dover. I wonder what the hot dogs were made of? What is weird to us the people over there grew up with it and love it. Love the review. Your talk of food and it is time for breakfast..:D

Well, where did I leave off? Oh right - the itinerary change.

First impressions -

1. Yay! We are still going to Norway!

2. Liverpoool ... huh ... what in the world are we going to do there?

3. Please, please, please let us be able to change all our tour arrangements!

We decided to attend John's shore talk the next day to figure out Liverpool - we don't generally do Carnival excursions but figured we might not have any choice in this situation.

As for #3 - as soon as we got out of the theatre we headed back to the room to our iPad. Although the ship was giving out free phone calls to people to rearrange tours, we thought it would be quicker/easier to get an Internet package and email our tour providers.

This cost us $59 for 120 minutes (I think - could have been $89), + $3.95 setup charge. We inquired later in the cruise if we could be refunded some of this cost but were told no.

I had coordinated one tour for 8 people in Invergordon with WOW Scotland, so I sent them a message first asking if we could reschedule. I got an email reply later that night that they were working on alternate arrangements, and would let me know by Monday morning if the tour was still on, or if our money would be refunded. I later received a voicemail from Guest Services with the same info - I was impressed that WOW would contact the ship to make sure everyone knew what was going on. And - good news - we did get a message on Monday that our tour was still on. Yay!! Luckily I had the cabin numbers for all our group so I could let them know we were still on.

Next, I emailed Edinburgh Castle and Dublin Green HOHO to see if we could exchange our tickets for the correct day (eventually learned yes) - and the Greenock Inverclyde tourist association to let them know we wouldn't be there for the free tour we signed up for. I was hoping they would still offer tours the day our ship was really in port, but wasn't sure since they were a voluntary organization.

Belfast, sadly, we were no longer going to - so I emailed Paddy Campbell's Black Cab tours to let them know we were cancelling. They were very understanding about the situation, and we were to pay them on the day of anyway, so we didn't need to worry about refunds or anything like that.

All in all things worked out pretty well despite the change - but we are the type of couple that just rolls with things rather than let it ruin the vacation as some seem to let it!

So, all that left was Liverpool to deal with. Phew! By the time we had sent all these messages, it was time for the Muster Drill - everyone's favourite! (Not, haha).

Before we knew it, it was time for Sailaway and we walked around outside for a bit before getting ready for dinner.

At dinner - we had a table for 2 #181 - which was kind of funny since our previous cruise we had almost the exact same tabe (182) but on the other side of the dining room. We really liked it - it was fairly close to the hostess station, so I had a great view of people entering, and Jim had a nice view of the inside of the dining room. We like to people watch so it was perfect.

Our wait team was Teodoro (Ted), Head Waiter, Elvir - 1st Asst, Andrea - 2nd asst. Ted for some reason didn't pay much attention to our table so Elvir was our main waiter, and we loved him!! Funny and nice and always smiling - and we seemed to run across him all over the place. Even in Dublin! Andrea was also super sweet - a tiny little thing carrying those huge trays, and really seemed to try hard. It was just her 2nd contract, so she was on the new side.

Our fellow diners in our section ... well, most of them weren't quite so sweet. One couple "the diamonds" (they wore their lapel pins every night ... really?), who were on a B2B2B always seemed miserable and were complaining about something. Of course the Maitre'd and head hostess seemed to cater to them. I don't know why they cruise so much if they're going to look so unhappy about it! One night their milk was spilled (haha) and it was like it was the end of the world. Sheesh.

And then there was "Mr. Coffee" who at some random point each meal would decide he wanted coffee now and would start yelling out "COFFFFEEEE". Ridiculous. There are better ways to go about things in my opinion without being a jacka**.

Then there the "Anytimers" - who despite having signed up for Early Seating came when they wished. One night at 7PM!! They were in a booth with another couple - so you would have one side eating dessert and their side on apps. But, the wait team always handled everyone with grace.

If I sound a little snarky - haha, that's because I am! Despite my sweet friendly exterior it's one of my favourite cruise activities to watch other people! Of course - I'm not the only one who does it. The "diamonds" one night were talking to us and commented that we had a new bottle of wine every night (so?) and that one night, gasp!, I had ordered a burger at dinner to go with my wine. Which I didn't really see what was wrong with - the burger is on the menu and on a 12 night cruise I don't necessarily want something "fancy" every night. But, I guess everyone does dinner differently.

Anyway - so that was dinner - pretty much the same every night so I probably won't go into that much in the rest of the review. I'm not a foodie so didn't take any pictures of the food. Though I did have Melting Cake almost every night ... mmmmmmmmm!

After dinner we mosied around the ship - talked to some lovely people on our Roll Call, hit the casino, and went to the Welcome Aboard show where John Heald is definitely as funny as I thought he would be.

Around 11 we headed to bed - with the promise of a relaxing Sea Day ahead of us!

I am certainly enjoying your review so far--thanks!

Loving this review. I wish that I had taken the opportunity to do a sail in Europe. I also love your "snark" :D I would've been side-eyeing the he-- out of those "entitled' people! Ugh!

Loving your review! :)

So nice to see my country from another perspective! - sorry about the weather though :rolleyes:

Fabulous photos as well :D

Jenn & Jim,

I posted on CC that I really wanted your email address to keep in touch with you but then the thread was ended. Anyway, please email me at galenann4244@sbcglobal.net Your comments about "diamond level" are spot on and I have even coined a phrase to describe them. There are the diamonds you would love to own and then there are the ugly diamonds.

Sure miss our nightly Deck 3, aft 7:30PM get-togethers!

Jenn & Jim,

 

I posted on CC that I really wanted your email address to keep in touch with you but then the thread was ended. Anyway, please email me at galenann4244@sbcglobal.net Your comments about "diamond level" are spot on and I have even coined a phrase to describe them. There are the diamonds you would love to own and then there are the ugly diamonds.

 

Sure miss our nightly Deck 3, aft 7:30PM get-togethers!

Hi Ann!

Will send you an email tomorrow! We really enjoyed getting to know you as well, though I think we ran into you the most at the casino! ;)

And of course not all diamonds are the same, we definitely met some great people on this cruise too! Though the ugly ones make for funnier stories, haha.

Jenn :)

Loving this review. I wish that I had taken the opportunity to do a sail in Europe. I also love your "snark" :D I would've been side-eyeing the he-- out of those "entitled' people! Ugh!

Thanks! I was hoping the humour would come across rather than just being 'mean'. There's definitely a wide range of people you run across on a cruise.

Loving your review! :)

 

So nice to see my country from another perspective! - sorry about the weather though :rolleyes:

 

Fabulous photos as well :D

We LOVED your country, despite the rain! I definitely would like to go back in the future. Actually the worst days of rain were in Ireland and Norway, but of course I haven't gotten to those days yet. Stay tuned! :)

I'm really enjoying your review, and look forward to future posts! We were on the cruise before you, and my cousin was on the cruise with you. Yes, we had some rain, but it didn't ruin our cruise. We had a fabulous time on the Legend! Keep it coming!

Hey, Jennifer, we were your next door neighbors in Dover - the ones with the other Jwnifer in our group. Has been good to relive the cruise. And yeh, some of those diamonds are something else - you would think it was their private yacht.

Oh, I am enjoying reading this! I "recognize you both" so maybe I have read one of your other reviews. :confused: Agree about the "snarks." Cripes, it annoys me when people are like that. :mad::mad: Looking forward to the rest. Thanks for sharing with us!