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Live From - 5/12/13 British Isles Caribbean Princess


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05-12-2013 – Turn Around Day

 

This is the start of the 12 day British Isle cruise we tacked on to the end of the transatlantic. With air prices so high, I wanted to maximize our cruising time. We are in Southampton disembarking the old and embarking the new, having coffee in the IC and people watching.

 

This cruise will take us to Le Havre, Edinburough, Inverness, Orkney, Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin, Cobh and Guernsey. It will only have two sea days, so it will be a hectic itinerary, but we’ve now been to Dublin and that will give us a bit of a break. The really good news is that we lose and gain an hour for France, but that’s it, we are on the same time zone for the remaining 11 days. YES! Maybe we can get some sleep.

 

So to preview the cruise entertainment, there is Piano Man, Caribbean Caliente, Born to be Wild and Do You Want to Dance for the production shows. Lubo and Lucy, a balancing act that is highly recommended, will be doing vignettes in the Piazza along with the Singers and Dancer’s Rock This Town and Motor City. The first comedian shown is Tom Briscoe. We don’t know him. Bert Stratton is on the piano apparently this cruise. They are having a 50’s and 60’s night, a country and western night, 70’s dance party, Wii, x-box, Princess Pop Star. MUTS is about the same with the Hobbit, Trouble with the Curve, Jack Reacher, Les Miserables, Skyfall, Life of Pi, Parental Guidance, all simulcast on Channel 50, which is a good thing considering the weather up north.

 

There will be two formal nights on the cruise, one for each of the At Sea days, the day after Le Havre, and the day after Kirkwall. We have three tender ports – Edinburough, Kirkwall and Guernsey.

 

Updates to this travelog may be sparse because of the itinerary. It will be hectic. We are going to Paris tomorrow with Paul, Elizabeth and Mom, to see the Louve, Eifel Tower, city drive. We have excursions in Edinburough, Inverness, Kirkwall and Belfast. We are doing our own thing in Dublin, Cobh and Guernsey.

 

CJS is still the band in the wheelhouse. When they aren’t doing Jazz, their dance music is pretty good, but all you can really dance to Jazz is Foxtrot, and one Foxtrot after another is not fun. S-Sounds is back as the party band, and their rock and roll is pretty good. They have a good dance mix and we alternate between cha-cha’s, Nightclub 2-Step, Rhumba, Hustle, freestyle and slow.

 

Nat is still on board, as is Nine in the photo gallery, Elizabeth and Beatrice are still at the IC taking care of our coffee and pastries. Neil Roberts is CD, Chris is his deputy.

 

Tonight in the Patter: We have a sailaway party at 5PM, Music and Dancing with CJS band at 5, dancing with S-sounds at 9. The Welcome aboard show is on at 7 and 830. Not much else is going on today, so we plan on dancing tonight.

 

An interesting note. Princess has really cut back on cruise staff. They are down to 8 total, including the CD, for a Super Grand. That includes the DJ. They do a great job, but boy are they run ragged during sea days.

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I look forward to reading this! I am doing the June 29th sailing! If you can please comment of the drinking policy. Also maybe mention how things might be for a younger crowd. We have 18 people in our group and 6 of us are under 27.

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Hi There

 

Have a great cruise,

 

ps Edinburgh, not Edinburough

 

do not want to worry you weather man says snow on mountains tonight

 

well it is summer, welcome to the UK weather,

 

might visit you in Greenock,

 

yours Shogun

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Thanks for your live post! I followed your trip over and am glad to tag along for a while longer. We were on the CB last November and enjoyed the simulcast movies on channel 50. It was pretty nippy up on deck and we were able to watch the movie in the cabin in our jammies:D

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Hi and thank you for the great live post! My husband and I are on the May 24 sailing. We'll be following your posts to hear about the ports and of course, the weather. We are packing now and flying into London pre-cruise. Have a great cruise!

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Thanks for bringing back some great memories! We did the May 12 cruise last year -- had a great time, and would happily do it again. :D In fact, as a direct consequence, we are returning to Scotland this August -- but that's another story.

 

The weather is changeable -- we had wonderful hot weather in France, sunny and warm weather in Scotland [especially in Edinburgh] and "Irish mist" in Ireland [we nearly froze at the Giant's Causeway].

 

Enjoy your trip -- I look forward to reading your posts!

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;)I will be keeping up with you on this cruise, we are taking the same cruise on the 24th of May. If there are others going the same time we would like to say hello with the thought of meeting you on the ship. My wife and I have wanted to take this cruise for a long time. We have booked a tour in each port because I doubt that we will go to Europe again in the future, so we will see as much as possible.

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;)I will be keeping up with you on this cruise, we are taking the same cruise on the 24th of May. If there are others going the same time we would like to say hello with the thought of meeting you on the ship. My wife and I have wanted to take this cruise for a long time. We have booked a tour in each port because I doubt that we will go to Europe again in the future, so we will see as much as possible.

 

Here is the link to your roll call:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1587010

 

Check it out and join in the fun!

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;)I will be keeping up with you on this cruise, we are taking the same cruise on the 24th of May. If there are others going the same time we would like to say hello with the thought of meeting you on the ship. My wife and I have wanted to take this cruise for a long time. We have booked a tour in each port because I doubt that we will go to Europe again in the future, so we will see as much as possible.

 

Hello, our roll call has set up a Meet and Greet on Saturday May 25th at 3:00pm in the Skywalkers Nightclub after we depart from Guernsey, in case you would like to meet others on the same cruise.

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DH and I will be on the June 29th sailing, and will be in London five days before. Any tips, or secrets about CB will be appreciated. Also, if you could let us all know about weather, tempts, and what people are wearing on tours, in the MDR, and on Formal Nights. We hear packing for British Isles trip can be challenging, and are told to dress in layers. Thanks for any information.:eek:

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DH and I will be on the June 29th sailing, and will be in London five days before. Any tips, or secrets about CB will be appreciated. Also, if you could let us all know about weather, tempts, and what people are wearing on tours, in the MDR, and on Formal Nights. We hear packing for British Isles trip can be challenging, and are told to dress in layers. Thanks for any information.:eek:

 

Nylon or Goretex rain jackets as the outer layer - that's the most important thing. Works as a windbreaker and a jacket. Judy wears a tank, a t, a sweat shirt, then a nylon rain jacket. We carry umbrellas as well, but the wind has been so bad, you would lose them in a minute - and most of the rain is not rain, but drizzle which can be handled by a rain coat.

 

Temps are cold, chilly and windy on deck. Almost no one is in the pools, although they are heated. Because of all the late tours getting back, jeans and very casual clothes are the norm in the dining rooms. shorts are not allowed, but there is no issue with that.

 

We don't do formal nights, but a lot of people are dressing up. Fewer and fewer tuxedos and more and more suits. Women's dresses are everything from formal gowns and cocktail dresses to slacks and tops.

 

Cruises later on the year will also be hotter, especially Paris and inland tours, so keep in mind this is just what we've been experiencing.

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05-12-2013 Evening Update

 

For those interested, using the offline and just upload method, I only used ~300 minutes of internet time coming across the pond. Not bad for 15 days. Since we signed up for this to be one 27 day cruise, our internet minute allocation was 500 for the entire cruise. So I have 200 to go and Judy still has her full 500.

 

Turnaround day was a very nice walk around Southampton. It was not very far to walk from the Ocean Pier (where the CB was parked) to the downtown shopping area. The closest shopping area is the Bargate area, about 1-2 miles away and very easy to reach. There are a lot of outdoor shops along both sides of the outdoor walking mall area and there is a large indoor mall. There are two sundry stores, Poundland and the 99p store. There are several side streets that may contain liquor stores or grocery stores, but we did not come across them. There is also a large drug store.

 

We did the mall walk, checked out stores, saw the old gates and walls of the city, and then went to Slug and Lettuce for some Calamari, Ale, and fish and chips with mushy peas. We’d been there in 2011 just before our Med Cruise and really liked their fish and chips. They were just as good this time, haddock, not cod, and the Calamari came with some really good spicy sauce. We also went to Poundland, apparently the UK equivalent to the $ store in the US. There we stocked up on water and orange juice for the fridge.

 

For those of you on B2B’s from Southampton in the future, they do have termination and In Transit excursions to Stonehenge or Windsor (not both on the same excursion) and then back to the ship or on to Heathrow or Gatwick. They also have a London on your own for In Transit’s, but I can’t see how you would have much time actually in London on a turnaround day. My recommendation would be to do London a day or two before your cruise or a stay a day or two after your cruise.

 

Turnaround night, the weather turned sour so we did not go to the deck party as planned, if it even happened. We ended up in Skywalker’s at the Elite, Suite and Platinum drinks and snacks with Paul and Elizabeth. Chips and guacamole! Ole! But after, 6 miles of walking, no power nap, a couple of margarita’s, facing another loss of an hour, and a 0700 meeting for the Paris excursion, we beat feet for the room, got everything ready, charged all the batteries and spare batteries, and settled in for the night watching movies.

 

05-13-2013 – Le Havre (Paris)

 

We took the Paris city drive, Louvre and Eifel tower excursion, and it was worth it. Lunch on the Eifel tower ( 2nd floor) overlooking the Seine River was worth it alone – and the lunch wasn’t half bad either. Far better than the ‘gourmet’ French lunch (complete with French Fries) we had in Monte Carlo in 2011.

 

We did the 2-3 hour drive into Paris quite quickly because the traffic was actually very light for a Monday after a 5 day weekend. We did a drive by of the Arc de Triumph and the Champs Eleseys on the way to the Louvre. We spent about 2 hours at the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory, and did some souvenir shopping in the shopping mall. The guide was really good. Those little headsets worked great. She kept us together and got us in and around stuff a lot easier than I thought possible. The paintings are quite incredible, the statuary much more varied than in Rome and Florence, BUT having been to Rome and Florence and now Paris, we want more than ever to return to Rome and see more. Paris would be further down on our list of things to come see again.

 

The highlight of the trip for us was window seats in the Eifel Tower restaurant overlooking the Seine river and streets along the river. Because we were in the tour we jumped the 200+ person line and got up on the lift within minutes. Lunch was pressed duck (I called it high class Spam), chicken breast with a potato gratin with a garlic foam, and an ice cream pastry sandwichy, chocolate, French thing that was really good. Wine flowed, Bordeaux (although they did bring Judy some white wine upon request), our table mates were a lot of fun, and we leisurely watched Paris go by for a good 2 hours. It was great looking down on the traffic, hearing a couple of times those funny French police sirens we hear on the French based action movies such as James Bond.

 

After lunch we got some pictures from around the 2nd floor tower observation deck. We could have walked up to the top, but did not have time and the observation platforms were crowded. So we got back on the bus. We left the Eifel Tower at 3:30 in the afternoon and got back to the ship at 6:30, with one technical stop on the way, so you won’t see much on these tours with 6 hours of driving time, but its not bad for a quick and dirty look at something you never thought you’d ever see, and may never see again!

 

Again highly recommended for first time cruise traveler’s to Paris. But I must say, the Normandy trip should be a higher priority. That was a trip well worthwhile.

 

All 5 of us went to dinner again. A princess dinner in which the highlight for me was the Chicken Liver appetizer, with fried onion strings over a tarlet pastry shell. Really, really good. The Alaskan seafood stew was a bit ‘fishy’ for me. The English pot roast beef was excellent with horseradish, the real stuff, not the mixed. Judy had the tri-tip, a new anytime available, with both the BBQ and Chimichurri sauce. She really liked both sauces and the beef. Paul had the salmon from the anytime menu, which he liked and Elizabeth and Mom had the beef short ribs in a red wine sauce which they really liked. (Judy would have had the short ribs but she has a problem with red wine tannic acids and just doesn’t do red wine anymore.)

 

After dinner we danced with S Sounds in Explorers, and then CJS band in wheelhouse, and then some canned music in Club Fusion. Deck 7 was pretty much a ghost town around 1030. With everyone else in bed, we wandered off to bed later than planned, but having had a wonderful day.

 

05-14-2013 - At Sea

 

Back at Sea for some R&R. Finally a decent nights sleep with no urgent requirement to get up early. So what happens? I wake up at 0600 with an urge for COFFEE! So much for sleeping late, but at least I’m acclimated to this time zone, finally, and go out to start the day.

 

The Patter is actually pretty sparse for anything of interest to us. They are having their Holiday at Sea sale in the Island Dining Room from 10 to 1. A presentation on Alaska at 10, Edinburgh and Inverness Port talks at 1015, Orkney and Glasgow port talks at 1pm. Trivia is at 1045 and afternoon trivia at 430pm. A $60 texas holdem tournament at 1100 this morning, a non-surgical facelift seminar at 1100 as well, and the arts and crafts class at 1115 on journaling, but has a $7 fee.

 

Vegetable carving demonstration at 1130 in the Piazza, bingo at 1130 and an English Pub Lunch at 1130 in the Crown Grill. They are doing a Princess Pop Choir on this cruise, ballroom dance class (Swing) is at 130 and line dance at 1230. The ever present Champagne art auction is at 200pm, but there is a paper airplane launch at 200pm in the piazza as well. The afternoon movie is Quartet, and dicey horse racing is back at 245. (I thought they got rid of that, but apparently not…) The sommelier wine club, the more expensive one, is at 300PM, and Lubo and Lucy is back in the Piazza.

 

Zumba is at 430pm, and we will be there for that. Music and dancing starts at 615PM with Serious Sounds. CJS Band starts at 7 in the wheelhouse. The big band at 7 in Explorers. 9PM starts serious dancing with S-Sounds. Life of Pi is on at MUTS tonight and Do you Wanna Dance is the production show.

 

So that’s the update for this day at sea.

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Thanks for posting, I followed your TA thread , and now this one. Really am interested in this same trip in 2014, so all you are posting is good information to ply my husband with, the Paris trip sounds great. Thanks again for takeing us along.

Cori

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05-14-2013 At Sea Evening Update

 

We finally get an hour back to keep! Tonight was the first formal night, one of two on this cruise. We do not bring formal wear, but we certainly weren’t alone on this cruise. With so many different ports, a lot of people are on the ship to see the ports of call. There wasn’t much going on in the morning that interested us, so we went to the IC for coffee this morning. The gym was absolutely packed and I didn’t get an elliptical until later in the morning. Lunch in Caribe was an oriental buffet, theme meals or buffets are listed in the patter everyday on the back page. The oriental buffet has some sushi, spring rolls, some really good pork spare ribs, bok choi, cabbage and some really good beef and broccoli. No real spicey foods, unless you count the wasabi, but tasty nonetheless. We did make Nat’s 430pm Zumba class and then went dancing, first to the band in Explorers for two sets, they had a nice mix of ballroom music and did not repeat. Dinner was very simple. For Judy it was a cheese plate and asparagus soup in the IC and I had a cheese plate, greek salad and waldorf chicken salad. Very light meals. After dinner we went to Fusion to dance to Serious Sounds for a set, and after this day of high activity, we proceeded to get ready for tomorrow morning. Alarm is set for 0600 as our tour gathers at 0800 in the theater.

 

We will be doing the Edinburgh city drive and castle tour. A half day tour of the area that allows us to use the rest of the day to shop or see the sights. We will be tendering into South Queensferry. One of the nice things about early tours is that you can get on the tenders quickly with your tour, ashore and back in time to look around the area.

 

Tomorrow night we are going with the entire gang to Crown Grill for dinner. Been to Sabatini’s on the transatlantic, but not Crown Grill and I want some Lamb. We will make the reservation for 7PM which will pretty much shoot the night away. But for others, Tom Briscoe has a comedy show at 8, 815 and 10pm. (We might catch the late show since our Loch Ness tour departs later in the morning the next day.) Trivia is on at 715, big band dancing at 715, Michael Bacala has a variety show in Explorer’s at 815, and there is 50’s & 60’s night at 915 in fusion. Princess pop star heat 1 is starting and MUTS has Parental Guidance.

 

That’s a quick update. More later…

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