Caribbean Princess TransAtlantic (Long)

Cruise Summary: To celebrate our 60th wedding anniversary and Jerry’s 84th birthday, we selected a cruise to visit some additional out of the way places that most folks seldom see. We sprang for a suite on the Caribbean Princess (only three of their ships have a full suite category that sometimes sells for the same price as a mini-suite – we have booked this category 4 times and it works out to be super for us).

We flew off to London, went to Southampton by car service, stayed over night at a hotel near everything, and boarded the ship the next morning. The first port was Falmouth, in Cornwall, where we had taken the lead in setting up a small private tour to St. Michael’s Mont. The tour was fun and went off without a hitch.

Dublin was next on the schedule but gale force winds, gusting to hurricane force in the Irish Sea, cancelled that stop so we sailed on to Glasgow where we joined another small private tour around the Scottish countryside to Stirling Castle and on to Loch Lomand of Bonny Banks fame. It was a great all day tour.

After 2 days at sea we had a super tour of the sights of Iceland from Reykjavik. In 9 hours we saw waterfalls, geysers, glaciers, mountains, volcanoes, and everything else. Iceland is not to be missed.

Another 2 days at sea and we stopped a Qaqortoq (pronounced Qua-kaar-tuck, in Greenland. Other than the US Air Force folks that were stationed there during WW II and the Cold War, few Americans (few of anyone) ever get to visit Greenland, a country with only a little over 55,000 total population. We would not have missed this superb opportunity to see this beautiful little isolated town – an experience.

After 2 more days we stopped in St. John’s, Newfoundland, rented a car and saw key sights such as Signal Hill where Marconi received the first transatlantic radio signal and Quidi Vidi Fishing Village and then all around the nice town.

We had a final sail of 2 days and debarked in New York for our flight home. Since this was the day the tornado hit New York, the flight was delayed – but no problems.

Now if you would like to plow through the details of the cruise and a more detailed account of our activities, it is below. Note: we do NOT attend the ship’s shows or participate in any group activities so there is not mention of either.

A relatively easy and smooth flight from Washington to London in those great lay-flat aircraft beds was followed by a few glitches at Heathrow, but they were conquered. Fortunately, even with the bit of delay, our driver was waiting for us right as we exited customs. The private car service provided a smooth transition to England with a garrulous English driver, a brand new car and drop off at the front door to our hotel in Southampton (and less costly than the Princess bus).

Once we were checked into our hotel, we crashed. The long flight and time change had taken its toll on the old bodies, so it was, as they say here, “time for a lie down”.

A few hours sleep and we were off to lunch/dinner (depending on whose clock you used). It was a very short walk to the largest, and newest mall in Southampton where we stretched our legs and had a English meal of jacket potato smothered in cheese and beans. It was surprisingly good and very filling – more than either of us could eat.

We walked back to the hotel and called it a very long night and day choosing to relax rather than do more.

Day 1 – We lazed at the hotel until about 1100, got dressed, caught a cab and went to the port. Since Princess and Cunard are integral components of the Carnival Cruise Company, the Caribbean Princess was docked at the Queen Mary II/Queen Elizabeth pier, so it was a short trip.

Processing went quickly and although the boarding line was fairly long, it went at a good pace. Once aboard we got settled, ordered lunch in the room from the dining room menu, unpacked (both checked bags came early), had our meeting with the maitre’d to arrange for our regular table for two each evening and we found that one of our previous Head Waiters was on board so we will be sitting in his section. Then met with the 12 others in the group for tomorrow’s tour that we set up (we had to collect all the money that was charged by the tour company to our credit card).

In the evening we followed our usual pattern and went up to cocktails at Skywalker’s Lounge far up on the 18th deck. That was followed by dinner at Sabatini’s, one of two cover charge restaurants on board. However, Princess has just recently added, as a new full suite perk, dinner there on embarkation day. It was very nice but for us not a bit better than the service and food we receive in the regular dinning room (plus we have more flexibility to order things that are not on the menu at the regular dinning room.) The dinner service did stretch out and we were not done until after 10 in the evening.

Day 2 Today came early and luckily we ordered a room service breakfast that arrived right on time at 0630. That allowed us to get on an early tender to shore from our ship anchored out in the Falmouth Harbor. The remainder of our group was very good and all were gathered on shore at the appointed time. In fact we had to wait about 10 minutes for our mini-bus and Roger, our driver, to arrive.

We stopped for a few minutes at a large granite monument to the Killigrew family who were most responsible for the growth of this area way back in the early 1600’s. The stop enabled one in our small tour group to pay homage to his great, great, great, grand etc. relative. Then we had a photo op at Pendennis Castle which early on a Sunday morning was still closed to visitors.

Leaving Falmouth proper, we set out through the interesting, verdant country side through little villages and towns to Marazion the village on the shore side and connected by a causeway to the island of St. Michael’s Mont. During low tide the island is reachable by walking across the causeway. When we arrived the causeway was totally covered. The alternate access is by small open 12 passenger boats. Getting to and from these boats required significant effort up and down stairways and across rocky passages to one of a series of docks. Once in the little power boat the crossing only takes a few minutes. It is a lucrative local business and at 2 UKP per person each way or about $35 per 5 minute trip (on our Sunday morning the boats shuttled constantly).

We spent about 1.5 hours exploring the island and shooting pictures, but did not walk up the steep path to the castle high on the peak. After the short boat ride back to the mainland we nosed around the shops on shore and found a nice South African Merlot to bring back to the ship before having a group lunch at the Goldolphin hotel/restaurant. Jerry had a huge, really huge order of fish and chips with a nice cold Cornish lager and Peggy a vegetable risotto with a glass of merlot. We seldom eat meals off the ship, but this one was very nice and afforded a nice opportunity to talk with our little tour group.

Since we had a bit of time, Roger, our driver, treated us the backwoods route back to Falmouth through very narrow roads that really did not allow safe two-way travel. The drivers all drove slowly and pulled aside or backed up to allow passage. The area is very green and to our amazement almost every house and garden has very healthy tropical trees and plants, the first we have seen anywhere in the UK. Roger told us that this part of Cornwall seldom sees snow or very cold weather and tropical plants prosper here.

The Cornish people are descendents of the Celts as are the Irish, Scotch, and Welsh and, also like the others, have more than a bit of an independent streak. Many houses and buildings fly the black and white Cornish flag in addition to or without the Union Jack.

Roger deposited us back at the tender dock right on time and we beat the crush of returning passengers by about 5 minutes so we had no wait for a tender back to the ship.

Tonight being the first formal night, we lazed in our cabin and devoured our chocolate strawberries before getting all togged out for dinner. As soon as we arrived at our table, George Drugan, a delightful Romanian, Head Waiter we knew from a previous cruise immediately came by to assure that our dietary needs and wants would be taken care of all during the cruise and we had a chance to chat with him at length about how his life had been going. We learned that his wife and children had been aboard with him during the previous cruise (Princess has a special program for those employees with over 5 years service that allows for free travel once each year for family members to accompany the employee). George was still beaming from having his family with him.

He arranged special meals for us tonight and took our orders for tomorrow’s dinner.

Then it was back to the cabin to check the weather for our stop in Dublin tomorrow and it is not good. The forecast is for 100% rain and wind so we will not rush in the morning and see what we will do after assessing the situation.

Day 3 A funny thing happened on the way to Dublin. The Irish Sea became very angry. The rain fell and with wind blew very, very hard.

We were scheduled to dock at 7 AM. However, we looked out at about 7:30 and it was very obvious that we were no where near shore. Just then Captain Kent came on the ship’s speaker system apologizing for waking those still asleep and explaining to all that through the night and currently the winds were a full gale force with gusting to hurricane level and for safety he could not bring the ship through the small opening leading to the approaches to Dublin Harbor. As Captain Kent explained, “sailing a 34 meter wide ship through a 100 meter slot with a 50 knot 90 degree gale is not in the best interests of the safety of the passengers, crew or the ship”. Further, he said that the weather would not moderate until late afternoon; therefore he had to cancel the scheduled stop in Dublin.

While this was a disappointment, we had previously been to Dublin and had no firm plans other than to visit the Guinness Brewery, so it is not a disaster for us nor do we have to worry about any pre-paid tours.

We had a leisurely morning with a late breakfast in Sabatini’s, a short walk. then watched one of the DVDs we brought before ordering a light lunch in the cabin. Later we needed to stretch our legs so we ventured outside on one of the top decks and that was very brief because the rain and wind made it virtually impossible to walk on the upper open decks ( we did snap a few pictures of the angry sea). The seas were extremely roiled with huge swells and wind whipped white-capped tops. It was quite a sight, yet with the stabilizers deployed the ship was surprisingly stable.

Cocktail time came on schedule and we made our way up to Skywalker’s for our favorite Chairman of the Board martini before making our way to the Coral dining room for our special dinner. Peggy had a special veggie pasta made for her and Jerry some great calamari followed by too many lamb chops then a first for us, Irish Cream ice cream – quite good.

It will be early to bed because we have to meet in the Atrium by 0700 for our tour of the Scottish countryside. We fell just a tad short of our minimum 2 miles on the pedometer but we will make up for it tomorrow when we dock in Greenock for our Glasgow visit.

Day 4 This was another early wake-up morning for us so we ordered breakfast to be delivered to the cabin in order to make our meeting at 0700 in the Atrium with the group for our tour today.

Everyone was on time and we were the first group off the ship when the captain announced the all clear to disembark. We had a short walk to the car park where we met the bus and we were off for the day right at 0730. After passing through Greenock, we rode through the lush green countryside of farms and sheep and cattle raising and then through the low mountains (high hills) with photo ops at Duke’s Pass for shots of the lochs and “mountains” and then the Teita River for shots of Doune Castle (primarily known as the site used for the Monty Python movies.

Our major stop was at Stirling Castle, the most important castle in Scotland for it protected passage between the lowlands and the highlands and hence Scotland. The castle was the major fortification that kept Scotland free.

We were met by our private guide and she was excellent. With only 16 in our group we were treated to a wonderful history of Scotland, its royalty and how it became integrated into the United Kingdom. As an aside, both our driver, Craig and our guide, Carine also informed us of the coming 2014 referendum when the Scots will vote to become independent again – Craig made it obvious he can not wait for this to happen while Carine stated that she had not decided how she is going to vote on the matter. Truthfully, we don’t know if she was just being tactful about it – either way – it will be interesting to follow this.

It is important to remember that a castle is a defensive fortification and within a castle there often is a palace that serves as a residence of royalty. Within Stirling castle the royal family of Scotland lived. The various James’ and, of course, Mary, Queen of Scots made the palace their home. The lay out of virtually all of the Palaces is the same with the king and the queen each having 3 main rooms, an outer and inner reception room and a bed chamber that was more than a bedroom as we define it.

In each of the major rooms as we toured there was an actor in representative regalia portraying one of the key Scottish personages of the era. It added to the feeling of being there. There were many buildings outside of the Palace proper, including one we found particularly fascinating – the kitchens. Here the trust had recreated, with figures, lighting and displays, the actual working food preparation areas deep below one building and even the faux fish looked and felt real.

The castle tour was very interesting and we could have spent all day there. However, we also had a boat ride scheduled on Loch Lomond, of the “bonnie banks fame”. So off we went to see the largest loch in Scotland – it is beautiful and along the shore are several huge old mansions built in the rich old days that now are resort hotels and luxury apartments.

With the afternoon waning, we rode back to the ship for sail away, cocktails, and dinner.

Our previous visits to Scotland were to tour Glasgow and Edinburgh. Today we saw the countryside. It is abundantly lush and a bright shade of green. We were very lucky because it only gets that green by having lots and lots of rain. We had bright skies with no rain all day and little wind – a rare day indeed in Scotland.

Day 5 Last night’s somewhat rough seas continued through the morning but began to calm down as the day progressed. When we made our way to Sabatini’s for breakfast there were few out and about. We saw no one out on the open decks. Since our morning walk was not in the cards, we came back to the cabin and watched a historical DVD up until lunch time. This afternoon the weather was really nice with clear skies and barely bumpy seas as we keep on course for Iceland.

The rest of our sea day was pretty routine with evening cocktails, special dinner that George arranged for us and relaxing for the evening. Tomorrow we have an afternoon and evening stop in Iceland.

Day 6 The sea really calmed down over night and it is flat as a mill pond this morning as we sail toward Reykjavik. While at breakfast this morning we looked out the large window and there we saw our first floating iceberg in the North Atlantic. It was all alone and very large, an amazing sight.

Cross one off on the bucket list!

At noon we docked in Reykjavik and soon after we joined our small private tour to see as much of this natural wonderland as possible in one day. Nothing disappointed. The natural beauty of Iceland is breathtaking and the history remarkable.

We certainly did not know that the original settlers of Iceland in the 9th century included Irish monks along with Norse Vikings that held Celt slaves. Today’s Iceland is very modern, small country of only a few hundred thousand total population. Within a short drive from Reykjavik, the capitol, you are at hot springs, geysers, volcanoes, waterfalls, active seismic plates, mountains, valleys, and rivers. At one point we were actually standing on the fault line between the North American and the European/Asian tectonic plates that are moving apart at the rate 3 cm per year.

During our 9 hour tour we saw some of all of it on the Golden Circle tour: the magnificent Gullfoss waterfall, Strokkur Geyser’s eruptions of water and steam, the geothermal plants, volcano craters, views of the glaciers and the mountains, the national cathedral and the city views from the “Pearl’ high above Reykjavik.

We really lucked out on the weather. There was not a drop of rain all day. It was sunny or partly cloudy and the temperature in the high 50s. The wind did blow a bit and by late afternoon we donned our winter ski caps which we had the foresight to stick in our backpack.

This was a great day, we walked 3+ miles, saw extraordinary sights, and crossed off another of the interesting places we never made it to in our previous travels.

Day 7 – day at Sea (?) During the night we were amazed at how calm the seas were as we slept. As the sun began to peak through our drapes we peeked out and ------- surprise, surprise, we were still docked at the pier in Reykjavik. As Captain Kent explained to everyone this morning, when he attempted to leave at our 11 pm departure time, even with two tugs, the thrusters, and the main engines, the 30-50 knot winds pinned the Caribbean Princess to the pier and there was no way to leave until the wind direction changed or the wind abated. He announced that an attempt would be made at 1000 this morning. We shall see.

Captain Kent was as good as his word and a bit after 1100 we did move away from the pier and start our leg to Greenland. While we were waiting for departure as Renante was cleaning the suite, we finished our morning walk to make certain we had at least one mile done. One of the things we find a bit amusing as we walk our inside route is that every single chair, sofa, and bench in the halls, the lounges, and even up at Skywalker’s is occupied with folks reading, lazing, and even sleeping. These generally are those who book inside cabins with no view and also no sofas or chairs. On Cruise Critic they often say that they book inside cabins as they never spend any time in their cabin but on sea days there just no place for them to relax hence they fill all the public areas.

The captain still plans on making it to Qaqortoq (pronounced Qua-kaar-tuck), Greenland even though we are exactly 12 hours late.

Another day at Sea – For the North Atlantic the seas were moderate and our big cruise ship, with its stabilizers deployed, made our sailing today relatively smooth. Other than a walk this morning (inside) and a trip up to the 15th deck Pizzeria to bring pizza back to the cabin for lunch, we stayed in the cabin watching our DVDs and some of the ship’s movies on TV. Being very far north we have lost our CNN and ESPN satellite tie for now.

This is the second of our three formal nights so we will get dressed for dinner. On formal night number one, almost everyone in the dining room was dressed according to the ship’s guidelines (there always are a few exceptions).

Even though we were over 12 hours late departing Reykjavik, we are expected to arrive at Qaqortoq about noon instead of 0700 and departure has been moved 2 hours later. Since we have been told we can see everything in the small town in about 2 hours it appears we will not miss anything.

This evening we made landfall off Cape Farewell (Uummannarsuaq in the Greenlandic language) Greenland and are sailing about 17 miles offshore. From late afternoon until we arrive at port we all are on the lookout for icebergs. The ship slowed from cruising speed of about 21 knots to 6-8 knots and the high powered searchlights scan the seas since there also are “growlers” – submerged bergs of 50-100 tons – that could possibly damage the ship if we were to hit one.

Qaqortoq, Greenland – The approach sail to the fjord leading to Qaqortoq was almost ice free so the Captain was able to make up some more time. We anchored just off the town and tenders were in the water by 1000. Since we did not need to line up for tender tickets, we were on one of the very first boats ashore,

We found the town to be everything we expected and although you can see everything in about 2 hours, it is a unique, interesting 2 hours that we would gladly repeat. Very few people get the opportunity to visit this very far away and isolated land that is the size of Alaska or most of Europe yet there are less than 58,000 total inhabitants in all of Greenland. They live in a self governing country that is an integral part of Denmark. Most of the inhabitants are Inuit people, the same group that are indigenous to northern Canada, Alaska, and part of Siberia. A small portion of Greenland Inuits over the many years since the Vikings first came about 900 AD followed by other Norse and Danes are of mixed heritage.

Qaqortoq, and its surrounding area, is home to about 3,500 of the country’s population. Although it has no roads to the outside and must be totally self sufficient, there are a surprising number of cars and trucks in the town. There are only three larger settlement including Nuuk, the capitol with a population of about 15,000. All of the US/NATO military bases that were built and manned during WW II and through the Cold War including Thule AFB and the early warning radar bases in the far north are now long gone from Greenland.

To describe Qaqortoq as picturesque is an understatement. Situated on deep fjord with a natural harbor, the brightly colored houses, blue, yellow, red, green that cling to the surrounding hills grab your attention as your sail in. We were told that the colors originally defined the occupation of the inhabitant and everyone continues to paint their houses the original brilliant colors.

During our time ashore we wandered along the beautiful clear stream that runs from the large lake that edges the city and into the bay, along by the old church, school, working harbor, down the trail that holds most of the famous sculptures carved into the native rock by a group of Scandinavian sculptors, and to one of our always must stops at every town and city; the supermarket. For a town of 3,500 the supermarket was large, modern, and very well stocked European staples as well as fresh fruits and vegetables as well as just baked succulent pastries and cakes. We wondered if during the winter they still were able to import the fresh fruits and vegetables.

We could not have had better weather for our stop. Although the temperatures were in the mid 40s the skies were bright and there was no wind. It was a delightful day to walk and we did about 2 miles on our exploration. The Inuit people we met along the way, and especially the children were smiling and friendly as they went about their Sunday morning activities.

Now if anyone asks, “Raise your hand if you have been to Greenland”, our hands will be raised high!

At 1830 the last passengers were back on board, the anchor was hoisted and we sailed out of the fjord and into the Labrador Sea for our 2 day leg to St John’s, Newfoundland. While it was still light we were treated to the sight of several large icebergs and the Promenade Deck rail was crowded with those taking pictures of the giant white “mountains” at sea.

With the dining room less busy than usual we had a great opportunity to have a long chat with George Drugan, our Head Waiter. We truly enjoy our time talking with him each evening. We learned very early in our cruising experience that the Head Waiter probably is the single most important member of the ship’s staff to make a real difference in your cruise enjoyment and often the most interesting with whom to converse.

We continued sailing Southwestward over night and will for the next two days before our next port of call. The weather continued relatively mild with very moderate seas throughout the day. We did get out and walk over our 2 mile quota.

In addition to our breakfast, lunch in the cabin, and special dinner in the Coral dining room, today was pretty lazy. Our special thanks go out to those who gave us the Inspector Frost, Ellery Queen, and History Channel “10 Days That Changed America” DVDs. We never seem to have time to watch them at home, but they have been extraordinary fun and interesting to watch on our sea days. We also watched a nice quiet Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansen movie today on the Princess TV and lo and behold the day was gone.

We continued our way through calm seas toward Newfoundland having a lazy day aboard. We did our walk getting in a little over our minimum 2 miles. Other than that we watched a movie and caught the final half of our “Touch of Frost” final episode and it was great. Dinner was super as the Indian chef made a special veggie curry for Peggy and lamb curry for Jerry tonight. Oddly we set our clocks back 30 minutes tonight since Newfoundlanders are unique and they have their own time zone.

St John’s, Newfoundland – We were docked right in the middle of town in the beautiful small natural deep harbor. Unlike Canada’s more southerly ports in the Maritime Provinces, St. John’s, Newfoundland gets many fewer cruise ships – it is too bad because there are interesting things to see here.

Our plan for today worked out perfectly. We reserved a rental car from Enterprise for our stop here and were off the ship at 0800, the time their office opened. After a quick phone call, they picked us up at the pier, took us to their office and gave us a nice Chevy Impala for the day.

We had three must sites on our list for St John’s; Signal Hill, Quidi Vidi village, and a big supermarket. With navigator Peggy map in hand, we snaked through the narrow streets with brightly painted houses, up and up to the highest point in the city, Signal Hill that overlooks and guards the city and the harbor. It was the site of the last battle between the French and the English for control of the area. Cabot Tower dominates the highest point and this is where Marconi received the first transatlantic radio signal. The views were fantastic.

On the drive back down from the heights we made a short stop at the Johnson Geo Center and while we did not have time to tour the exhibits we did examine the outside area of ancient stones that are native to the Labrador – Newfoundland area, among the oldest extant, some over 1.3 billion years old.

Next on our list was the picturesque fishing village of Quidi Vidi and the local brewery there that uses pristine ice berg water in some of its micro brews. While not as picturesque as depicted in some of the brochures, it was a fun stop and we did buy a sample from the brewery.

As we do on almost every village, town or city we visit, we shopped at the best supermarket we can find. Here the largest was Dominion, and we were after a special prize made only in Canada, Map-O-Spread. It is the absolute best spread on toast made in the entire world. We bought the last 3 they had on the shelf.

After a very quick look at St John’s largest shopping mall, huge for a city of only 130,000, we topped off the gas tank, turned the car back in, were taken back to the ship, and gorged on freshly baked pizza before sail-away. Again we were remarkably lucky in the weather – cool, sunny and with a light wind – it made walking easy and we changed to our light windbreakers after the first stop. We marked the day as very full and successful, logging just under 3 miles on Peggy’s pedometer.

The departure of Caribbean Princess from the small harbor was spectacular. All the ships in port saluted with their whistles and horns as she backed down to the turning channel, did a very slow 180 degree turn and pointed her bow into the very narrow channel leading out to sea. Captain Kent told us later that she had one meter of water between the keel and the rocky bottom and a maximum of 30 feet of leeway on each side during the passage. It was a real wow.

Day at sea – the first of our last two days at sea were fairly bumpy as we passed through the fringes of a storm. It was rainy, overcast, and nasty outside. But we had no reason to venture out there.

The only activities on our schedule today were our walk (inside), attendance at the Captain’s Circle cocktail party and then dinner. We did finally get CNN and ESPN reception restored on our cabin TVs for most of the day as we moved south.

We do prefer port days over sea days because we like exploring more than lazing. It is, after all, a small world aboard ship. This voyage cemented our choice of future cruises. As we experienced on our Asian cruise earlier this year, – 2 days at sea is do-able, more, not so much.

We said our farewells to all the staff with lots of hugs then put our bags out to be collected. Finally we sailed into New York Harbor in the early morning hours. We were able to debark the ship and even with a bit of a wait for access to the luggage area, we were among the first through immigration/customs and only 5 minutes late to meet our driver for the ride to LaGuardia. The weather did not seem to be bad – however, when we taxied out there was a ground hold on all aircraft – we were only one of 46 lined up. This was the day the tornado hit New York. Once the front passed, we were off a couple of hours late.

This was a great cruise with an outstanding crew and staff on a super ship. The itinerary is not to be missed.

Thanks for the wonderful and detailed review. I really enjoyed it. I felt like I was on the sailing with you! I have always wanted to take the Northern Transatlantic crossing (done the Southern) that stops in Iceland and Greenland. It sounds fantastic. I know I will do it one day. I am even more motivated after reading your review.

Partial quote:

While we were waiting for departure as Renante was cleaning the suite, we finished our morning walk to make certain we had at least one mile done. One of the things we find a bit amusing as we walk our inside route is that every single chair, sofa, and bench in the halls, the lounges, and even up at Skywalker’s is occupied with folks reading, lazing, and even sleeping. These generally are those who book inside cabins with no view and also no sofas or chairs. On Cruise Critic they often say that they book inside cabins as they never spend any time in their cabin but on sea days there just no place for them to relax hence they fill all the public areas.

It is perfectly fine that you and your husband enjoy spending the sea days just relaxing in your suite. But why the need to look down your nose at those who prefer to spend them relaxing in a public area of the ship? Your assumption that those who do, do so because they are of a lower cabin class than you is probably mistaken and patently unfair. And the subtle implication that they are untruthful when they say "on Cruise Critic" the reason they book an inside cabin--not because of how little time they spend there, but in your mind because they are too cheap to pay for a cabin they can "relax" in--is downright hypocritical given your boasting of booking a suite for mini-suite prices.

Roses2...nice review of your experience on this cruise. It seems that you were able to depart the ship on your private tours when you wanted...is that correct? Meaning you did not have to wait for Princess Tours to depart first.

We have this similar itinerary next year and have booked almost all private tours and except for tender ports would we be able to walk off as early as we like?

Thanks

Thanks for the review of an area that is not visited that frequently. I was lucky enough to do a similar TA on the Grand Princess a number of years ago. Iceland does have some fascinating scenery but sounds like you had better wetaher than we did. Saling form Iclenad to Greenland we went thru Prins Chriistian Sund on a perfect day. This is one of the most spectacular days sailing I've had in all of my cruises, I think this is even less visited than Qaqortoq.

We also had a day in Qaqortoq and it is a very interesting little town. I'm very glad we had teh chance to stop here. On our trip the weather turned ugly after sailaway and we spent the next couple of days with the bow into the wind riding out a hurricane. 48 hours of 50 foot seas and 80 knot winds make for a very rough ride. Becasue of this we missed St Johns but overall a fantastic trip.

Dear Roses2,

Thank you for your great review.

Having knowledge given in many ways allows the many to see things well and better.

GBY!:cool:

Roses2...nice review of your experience on this cruise. It seems that you were able to depart the ship on your private tours when you wanted...is that correct? Meaning you did not have to wait for Princess Tours to depart first.

Roses2 was in a suite which meant they had priority tender boarding when going ashore. This allowed them to join the end of any line where tenders were being loaded from the ship, even a line with those on a Princess tour.

Hi There

Thank you for taking the time to post your review,

Glad you liked your day in Scotland.

As to Doune castle it stands on the junction of the River Teith and the Ardoch Burn.

As to the Stirling or other major castles they were most often held by the English to try and kep us Scots in place, like the great forts and miltary roads of Scotland built by the English to try and keep us in our quite, but it did not work.

yours Shogun

Hi There

 

Thank you for taking the time to post your review,

 

Glad you liked your day in Scotland.

 

As to Doune castle it stands on the junction of the River Teith and the Ardoch Burn.

 

As to the Stirling or other major castles they were most often held by the English to try and kep us Scots in place, like the great forts and miltary roads of Scotland built by the English to try and keep us in our quite, but it did not work.

 

yours Shogun