MickeyandLV

We did the British Isles cruise Spring 2023. Because King Charles decided to have his coronation the weekend we were supposed to go to London pre-cruise, we decided to start in Edinburgh. We flew into Edinburgh and spent 4 days there and then flew to Southampton to catch the cruise. We are so glad we had a few days in Edinburgh. There was not enough time to see everything we wanted to see in one shore excursion day. Since we watch the TV show Outlander, we wanted to see locations used in the show. We spent a whole day just taking an Outlander tour. We did the hop-on-hop-off tour also. Also a pre-cruise hint. Most of the castles have books with pictures and descriptions of the castles. I purchased them on-line (amazon or ebay) before the cruise and was able to read and enjoy them before visiting the castles. I know we went to Sterling, Edinburgh and Doune castles this time.

We have a Viking River Cruise booked for next year. We are curious about what non-alcoholic drinks are available. I need sugar-free, alcohol-free and caffeine-free things to drink. Is there anything besides water? Do they offer caffeine-free sugar-free soda? It seems a shame to pay that much for a cruise and have to bring my own sodas. What kinds of sodas are available on Viking?

This is a good question and we just asked the question to our friend who just got home. He said he wore sweats and T-shirts the whole trip. I think that is "TOO" casual. So I am glad someone is answering the question more in depth. Looking forward to our first Viking next year.

GOOD NEWS. I received an email this morning and they are going to send me my $11 back. No explanation of why yesterday they said no but today they said yes. I had sent a reply email to them last night asking for an explanation of why we were charged. No answer to that question, just a "Here is a your check is in the mail" email. Thanks everyone for your thoughts. A few things I noticed after I posted this question. Why did they only charge my husband and not myself? We wondered if there is a charge if someone books a specialty and does not show up. Maybe they just charged the wrong account. I noticed that they do not use the medallion anymore to charge things. When we went to buy something in the shops all they ask is our room number. Happy cruising everyone.

I had debated about contacting our CVP, but I hated to bother her for such a little thing. Of course, I do need an answer before our next cruise.

When we got home from our October cruise on Discovery Princess, we received the email with our onboard charges. There was a charge of $11 titled Miscellaneous Food Charge on the last night of our cruise. We had not purchased any food/drinks on the cruise, especially on the last night. We had checked our charges daily to make sure no errors. (one cruise we were charged for alcoholic beverages which we did not drink). The email said to contact them if there were any questions about the charges. I emailed and said we did not purchase any food/drinks. I received an email today. Princess says the charge is correct because we DID NOT eat at a specialty restaurant. Since when do we get charged for NOT eating at a specialty restaurant? We ate in the main dining room one night and the buffet the other nights. We did not book Princess Plus or Premier, we were Princess Standard. We enjoy casual dining, so we do not do specialty. I emailed back for more of explanation of the charge, but not planning on hearing anything. I know $11 is not that much money, but I just want to know why.

We did not have a white and gold night in October on Discovery Princess. Or at least we never saw it.

We were just on Discovery Princess in October 2023. There was a water bottle filling station in the buffet area. I was wondering if they have added a water bottle filling station on other Princess ships. If they have a water bottle filling station on Ruby Princess for our next cruise, we may order less bottled water for our cruise.

Thank you for the info. Husband emailed late last night and he received the response this morning.

We used Overlord Tours in Spring 2023. We were disappointed about the amount of time spent at the WWII sites. We would have liked to have more time at beach and cemetery. We were dropped off at 2 different cities and told to walk around on our own for a few hours. We went on this tour for the WWII sites, not to visit towns with no guide. If we would have booked a private tour, we would have had more control of times spent at sites.

We cruised in May out of Southampton. We decided to pick our medallions at the port since that was one less thing we had to remember to pack. It was very easy to pick up at the port.

We have looked at flying instead of the train. Flying may be winning. It seems a waste to spend a full day on the train, when we could fly in a few hours. If we fly we do not have to worry as much about luggage, we hope. We were worried about extra bank holidays around the coronation. One place I read, it was suggested that Friday or Monday may be a bank holiday. We ran into that the last time we were in the UK. We took the Princess transfer with stop at Windsor and ended up standing in line for hours outside. We ended up only having about 30 minutes inside Windsor. Because it was a holiday, everyone was there visiting.

We have been warned about Avanti, They messed up my sister and her husband's plans in August of this year. We have looked at Cross-Crountry and they seem to have a schedule that will match our plans. The reason we are looking at a train instead of flying is so we can see some of the countryside on the way. My brother-in-law says it starts to look the same after awhile. We just thought the train would be something we have not done before. We do not have any train service here that is close to our home. We would have to drive about 4-5 hours to catch a passenger train that goes anywhere. I know the coronation is a once in a lifetime event but crowds are not our favorite. My niece just loved Edinburgh the year she was there for school and is excited we are going to see it. If you didn't drive "on the wrong side of the road" 😀, we would just rent a car and drive around the countryside. Thank you again for all your suggestions and help.

Check Tripadvisor and Viator. Search for shore excursions. We have booked excursions to Pearl Harbor before. The company we used is no longer in business due to Covid.

We are taking the British Isles cruise from Southampton. We originally planned on visiting London before the cruise but the coronation is planned during our visit. So we decided to fly to Edinburgh instead and visit there for 3 days before the cruise. We currently are planning on taking the train from Edinburgh to Southampton. Planning on two nights in Southampton pre-cruise. 1) Any suggestions about which train company to use. We want to avoid London because we are traveling on coronation day. 2) Luggage. We are going to be gone almost 3 weeks with pre-cruise and the cruise. We will each have a large bag and a small bag. Is there room on the train for our bags? 3) Shipping bags from Edinburgh to Southampton. We have been researching companies that will ship your luggage across UK. Has anyone used this service? Thank you