cruisegal415
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Posts posted by cruisegal415
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We have excursions booked for all the ports on the Princess BI cruise next month and are spending 3 days in London pre-cruise. I know when we went to Europe we had to have euros available to use some public toilets. I assume the places we will be seeing have facilities in them, but doe we need to bring cash to use them? Trying to figure out how much extra to bring for bathrooms.
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On 7/3/2022 at 3:55 PM, ROWSE said:
Thank you for the link! The Beefeater tour was just fantastic on our visit!
Looking forward to taking the Beefeater tour. Do they accept/expect tips? How much?
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8 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:
I "live chatted" today. Agent said that they are processing June 7th today. Considering today is June 30, I guess I will have to wait 3 more weeks to see it on my account. That would make it about a month from sending in to getting the credit.
As long as we get it before the cruise!
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8 hours ago, BlerkOne said:
I don't believe Historic Palaces includes Buckingham Palace.
- Tower of London
- Hampton Court Palace
- Banqueting House
- Kensington Palace
- Kew Palace
- Hillsborough Castle
Buckingham falls under the Royal Collection Trust
You are correct. Royal Collection is also the one that has the Beatles Childhood Homes, which we are also seeing. All these places require pre-purchased tickets with a specific time which makes me nervous because it's tricky to plan on the timings if we are seeing more than one in any given day.
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On 6/22/2022 at 11:04 PM, geoherb said:
Be sure to look into taking a tour of Buckingham Palace. It's open only a few weeks each summer, from the end of July through early September. I highly recommend adding on the garden tour as well.
https://www.rct.uk/visit/buckingham-palaceDefinitely plan to! Bought a membership to the Historic Palaces which includes that, Hampton Court and Kensington as well as the Tower of London.
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Just wanted to add my thank you to you as well, the information you are giving is so helpful! I am also on the August 25th cruise, and have learned a lot from your very thorough reviews!
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On 6/13/2022 at 4:07 PM, ROWSE said:
May 24, 2022, London Adventure continued...
Our next stop after Tower of London was Tower Bridge. We went up one side in an elevator.
The walkway across has a glass floor section and it is so far down to the road below.
We were told the drawbridge below opens about 800 times a year and we were lucky enough to be up
on there when it opened at 1:00p.m. That dark cloud in my earlier picture turned in to a full blown thunder storm and the rain pelted down! In the second video you can hear a bit of the thunder at the end.
Going up....
Coming down... listen for that thunder!
A view outward from the bridge.
The rain hit so hard the area leaked and had to be mopped up.
Some relics from the bridge.
At the other tower we walked down a long stairs. You could take the elevator if needed.
We were so hungry by now, and we still had the Engine Room to see which was a separate part of our ticket and at the end of the bridge. We decided to have lunch then go see it. There was a place called The Vault right beside the Engine Room area. They had the best fish and chips that we had had all vacation so far OR we were just so hungry!! We sat outside till another round of thunder chases us in.
Our view...
The engine room was next.
We learned all about the early years of how the system worked for the bridge.
Next up we walked the waterfront to the London Bridge. It didn't seem very far but it sure felt
like it! Saw this cool building as we walked.
Once on the bridge a view back toward Tower Bridge.
Walking London Bridge. I had imagined that this bridge would be so beautiful but no it is not.
At the end of the bridge we see the Monument to the Great Fire of London
My feet said "no more" and we happen to be right next to a tube station (Monument Station)
We headed back to our hotel calling it a day. Later we got an amazing veggie pizza
take out from our hotel restaurant and had a pizza picnic in bed.
Another amazing day! Tomorrow we have a Westminster tour with a group called Free Tours by Foot!
How long would you estimate we should allow to visit the Tower, including the tour and seeing the jewels? We unfortunately only have two days in London pre-cruise and I fear that we will not have enough time to do even the minuscule amount of things we want to!
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22 hours ago, ROWSE said:
The train in to Dublin goes to the same stations, I believe, but if we did it again, we would not go to Connolly station to get off, we would get off at Dublin Pearse Station. It cuts the walk a bit. It is still about a 38 minute walk to Guinness Storehouse. Connolly is a massive size station and Dublin Pearse is on the smaller side to navigate also.
If you wanted to see the sites a walk is great but if you want to get there fast, then a taxi would be the thing to do. Really are not too bad price wise I know it was under 10 pounds. We did not look for a taxi at the train station, so no idea if they are there or not. There was one outside the door at Guinness Storehouse.
I remember when buying the ticket the end place was Connolly station so that is the ticket you want to buy but get off at Dublin Pearse which I believe was one stop before Connolly.
Great info! I think we will just take a taxi, to save our steps. After the Guinness Storehouse we are doing a Sights and Pints tour which is a walking tour of Dublin. We are also on the August 25th cruise, some of our other Roll Call pax are also following your wonderful review! I also wonder what camera did you use to get these great pics? Or did you just use your iPhone?
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On 6/12/2022 at 8:29 PM, ROWSE said:
We had a wonderful time with our Son, daughter-in-law, and grand babies, it filled up my
snuggle quota for awhile, but it is NEVER enough! Love those little people!!! Time to return to
our next few days in London!!!
May 24, 2022, London Adventure
After a lovely breakfast, it was our goal for the first of the day to reach the Tower of London. This was one of the places that opened earlier than 10 at 9:00a.m.
We got on the tube at Paddington, went one stop and changed lines, and in one of my searches it stated to get off at Algate station. This was wrong, we wanted one more which was Tower Hill Station. Our learning curve on this Tube was still a challenge. Right back on and one more station took us to the Tower of London area.
Wrong try again....
Once at the ticket entrance to Tower of London we bought our tickets and joined the line
already going in that had pre-booked tickets. We were told to head right to the Crown jewels
for a less crowded viewing time. It was raining off and on today!
The Crown Jewels were at a building a brief walk away, so took some pictures at the amazing
structures as we went.
We found the building and it was guarded on the outside by two guards. There
was no line and found the advice given was right on. There was a huge line up later.
This was the entrance of the building. How interesting is that clock!
There is no photos once past the doors so I cannot show you that CROWN!!! Oh
my! If that truly is the real thing, the diamond on the front of it is as big as a silver dollar!!!
The other precious jewels were beautiful that were on the crown as well!
We came back out and ventured back toward the front as we wanted to take a Yoeman's/Beefeater tour.
I had read this is a must and I couldn't agree more! We learned so much!!!
Some of our sites in the front as we waited for our tour.
The Tower Bridge
They were decorating in the moat area for the June celebration of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee
A view of the Shard
Finally the Yoemen/Beefeater joined our group.
This is the paragraph that describes this position from Wikipedia:
The Yeomen Warders of Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, and Members of the Sovereign's Body Guard of the Yeoman Guard Extraordinary, popularly known as the Beefeaters, are ceremonial guardians of the Tower of London. In principle they are responsible for looking after any prisoners in the Tower and safeguarding the British crown jewels. They have also conducted guided tours of the Tower since the Victorian era.
All warders are retired from the British Armed Forces and must be former warrant officers with at least 22 years of service. They must also hold the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. The garrison consists of 32 (formerly 37) Yeomen Warders and one Chief Warder.
Our tour was with Scott Kelly or Beefeater 409. We easily had the best! We listened to other tours as we continued around the sites later and clearly we lucked out! He was so funny which is hard to be when telling us about a ton of gory, murderous, but true stories of Henry the VIII and wives and going ons of the Tower of London. We learned of Jane Gray the 9 hour Queen and how she was killed, along with Anne Boleyn who is the most famous of the be-headed group!
After our tour we sat having a snack and saw some of the changing of the Crown Jewels guards.
This is some of the housing of the Yoeman. They live on site with their families. Our guide said
it was very nice when having teenage daughters as the gates closed at 10 so they were always in by then.
Some other sites we saw were a tower that housed some of the tortures of the time.
I always wished I were taller, but I doubt if you survived this you would be appreciate of that fact.
In one area where prisoners were housed, they had etched things into the wall. This was quite eerie to see.
There was a lovely chapel on the grounds called the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula.
The building dates from 1520 although the church was established several centuries earlier.
Tomorrow I will continue with more areas of the Tower of London.
Where/how did you get a Beefeater tour? That sounds fantastic!
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On 6/3/2022 at 2:32 PM, ROWSE said:
We asked the wonderful port representatives which seem to be in various spots where to catch the train and we were pointed in the right direction. It was very close to the tender drop off. We bought our tickets with the end stop being Connolly station. We had no idea which platform or direction we should be so asked and hoped for the best. This is a sign and the stations are in Gaeilge. Once on the train they are also in names we could recognize.
Was this the best stop to get off for the Guiness Storehouse? That's our first place we are going in Dublin, planning on taking the train. Was there more than one line to get on? (train line, I mean, not a queue line)
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10 hours ago, caribill said:18 hours ago, cruisegal415 said:
How late were you in docking there? We booked an excursion that leaves 30 minutes after disembarkation begins, and I worry that we won't have enough time on it.
After disembarkation begins, you need to shuttle to shore. Even being on the first shuttle will be calling it very close if the shuttles started on time.
(I assume you mean a private excursion, not a Princess one.)
Yes a private one, Butlers. It worries me because I know that the Princess excursion folks get priority on the shuttles, and I think, then, elites? I guess if we all make it on the excursion, they may just have to readjust the schedule if we run out of time.
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6 hours ago, ROWSE said:
May 11, Port of Cobh/Cork Ireland
So before I start on our port day, I must correct a couple things after reading my notes. With so many days, sometimes I forgot. We did go to the production show on Guernsey night, and it was called Sweet Soul Music. It was very good!
The other thing in my notes was that they took our passports that afternoon of Guernsey day, and did not give them back till after Ireland visits. I am sure others have had this happen on cruises but this was our first experience of this. It was very unsettling to hand our passports over. We usually guard those with our life, or at least in money belts!!! 😂
Back to Cobh, pronounced Cove. My notes say we were late getting off, and I had read this is often the case in this port so I booked our Titanic Experience tickets for 10:45.
Coming in to Cobh
We had the beverage package, which includes all specialty coffee, so we often had those. It was a cold morning!!!
We tie up very close to the town and it was an easy walk. Love how cute everything
looks from the ship!!!
We take our time strolling in and there is a lovely park!
Another look up at that beautiful church! Called St. Coleman's Cathedral.
Upon entering the Titanic Experience you are given a card with a person who sailed on the Titanic to hold and see if they were a survivor. I had a gal and she made it through the Titanic sinking April 14, 1912, only to die in 1918 of the plague. My DH's guy did not make it.
The tour was just "okay". We had a hard time hearing the young lady as she did not have a microphone. We notice some other guides do have one. Still, it was something worthwhile to do!
This is the kind of lodgings way below deck for where our two people would have lived.
Very nice replica of the ship.
It was a sad experience as well, knowing all those people had such high hopes for a wonderful new life in America.
How late were you in docking there? We booked an excursion that leaves 30 minutes after disembarkation begins, and I worry that we won't have enough time on it.
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On 6/1/2022 at 2:56 PM, ROWSE said:
Guernsey St. Peter Port continued...
We had booked with a few others off our Roll call with Annette Henry Tours. We met her at the tender drop off. Just a FYI, there is a bathroom here that we used before the tour.
We met Annette, who I can't praise enough. She brought all the history of this place to life and while she is not a fan of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society movie, as she says they did not film it here at all, I loved the movie and was fun to know a little of Guernsey's history of the German occupation before we came.
Annette's walking tour is filled with wonderful drama, and intrigue!
This is Annette pulling a lot of us in to her stories
We walked up up up
The view was lovely.
This has to be the skinniest building I have ever seen.
Telling us of the tragic history and gory details of the past!
Just too horrible to imagine!!
Later we walked through some of the shops in the area. Can you guess what this shop may have sold???
Note the scales on top, it was FISH.
These steps were not there at the 1500's but this was the hill to climb to be executed.
The donkey is one of the national animals of Guernsey.
Another narrow building.
Annette (she may be a magician also) described how they would severe the arms of soldiers for insubordination and fighting with someone with a higher rank than themselves when talking about Castle Cornet.
Despite all the tragic stories, we had so many laughs and fun along the way.
Loved her tour!
We had hoped to book with Annette when we are there in August but unfortunately she has a wedding booked that weekend so she is not available. We did book another similar tour but really was looking forward to Annette as we've heard so many good things about her tour.
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14 hours ago, nini said:
So sorry, we did not save the Patters. Usually I do, but not this time. BTW- we loved Scotland and my wool scarves, throw and hat arrived today from the Blarney Woolen Mills!!! It was FREE shipping to USA with a purchase of 250 Euros. So............ easy to spend for me and two daughters!
P.S. I was able to purchase a Campbell Clan scarf at Cawdor Castle (my family clan). It was made with local wool, "just up the road"!
Edited 14 hours ago by nini
For some reason I am so excited about shopping at the woolen mills, even though we live in sunny south Florida and would NEVER have a chance to wear them! Maybe if we get some at the beginning of the cruise we'll be able to wear them during the cruise but we're going in August, so...
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where do you get the shareholder request form from?
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I received an email today from Princess telling me to book my specialty dining. )We made full payment last week). Went on and logged in and it said you can only make dining reservations through the Medallion app. Ok. Went on the app, clicked on Dining, tried to make specialty reservations, it said it's too early. Then why did I get an email telling me to do it? I thought once you make full payment you can go on and make specialty dining reservations.
Recently sailed Celebrity, we were able to buy a package that included 3-4 specialty restaurants in advance, then make the reservations for whichever ones we wanted. I guess Princess doesn't offer that option?
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10 minutes ago, John Bull said:
And I'll hazard a guess that the tour-transfer from your hotel (or one very close) to your cruise terminal in Southampton via two hours at Windsor castle is this one ..............
https://www.internationalfriends.co.uk/london-heathrow-to-southampton-via-windsor-castle.html
Well-established tour coach operators, used by many many Cruise Critic members.
Exactly right. I found another one that is more reasonable but picks up from our hotel starting at 7 am, then goes to Heathrow to pick up passengers there, so it's basically two hours on a bus before they even start the drive to Windsor.
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23 hours ago, John Bull said:
I didn't understand "............whether to do a transfer from London to Heathrow that includes a two hour stop at Windsor Castle on the day we embark" The day you fly out from LHR, or cruise out from Southampton?,
JB 🙂
I totally wrote that wrong. I meant, we can take a transfer from our hotel to the port in Southampton (not Heathrow, don't know what I was thinking) that would include a two hour layover in Windsor to see the palace.
I am now thinking maybe we should just go to Hampton Court on one day, that way we have enough time to explore as we wish, and then just do the two hour visit on the day we head down to Southampton since it is easier to get to Hampton Court than to Windsor from our London hotel.
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We have two full days pre-cruise in London. We'd like to see both Windsor Palace and Hampton Court, and have been vacillating on whether to do a transfer from London to Heathrow that includes a two hour stop at Windsor Castle on the day we embark, or try to see both of them the day before. There are some excursions that will pick us up at our hotel Weds. morning and drive us to Windsor, allow two hours there, then drive us to Hampton Court, and allow two hours there. These are pretty expensive for two people. So now I'm wondering about trying to get to Hampton Court on our own, which I know is doable, but can we take a train to Hampton Court, tour Hampton Court for a couple of hours, and then go to Windsor or vice versa? Trying to get a driver through a company that works with Viator would cost over $700 for two of us, that is too much. Are there cabs or ubers that would take us from London to either Hampton Court or Windsor? What suggestions do you have?
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6 minutes ago, High C's said:
I could be wrong, but I do not recall Greenock to be a tender port. We were there in 2016, and I am almost positive we docked. And I just looked at our itinerary for August this year, and it is not listed as a tender port.
Oh you're right! Thanks for pointing that out!
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8 hours ago, Scottishclover said:
“Are you being punished?” 😂😂😂 There is a friendly rivalry between the two cities. IMO if you want a good day out, go to Edinburgh, but for a good NIGHT out, go to Glasgow. Luckily for me, I live equidistant to both.
We are looking forward to our day in Edinburgh as well! Doing our own thing there, looking forward to seeing it.
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8 hours ago, Scottishclover said:
Ok , at the risk of offending any Glaswegians, it would not be my priority if I had a day in Scotland. Of course, you may have a particular reason for wanting to visit. I went to university there and my daughter currently studies there and it is hands down one of the friendliest cities in the world. The city’s slogan is “ People Make Glasgow”. The area around the university is really pretty and there’s some great free museums but a lot of it is quite rough around the edges. Glasgow is more about the atmosphere, rather than the view. It’s not the most scenic of places. If it were me I would do Stirling Castle and the Trossachs. To combine Glasgow, Loch Lomond and Stirling Castle would be quite a whirlwind tour. You can spend a whole morning at Stirling Castle, then tour the Trossachs. On the way back you would likely take the route which passes by Loch Lomond. The scenery in/near the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park in the Trossachs is especially stunning. I prefer it to Loch Lomond. I also like Loch Tay, which is a wee bit further north but a visit there would depend on timing. If you do decide to visit Glasgow and have specific questions, please ask away. I hope this helps and have a great trip.
Exactly what I was looking for! I was wondering if it was worth it to tour the Trossachs, perhaps stopping in Callandar instead? Or by saying tour the Trossachs, could we mean Queen Elizabeth Forest Park? One of the excursions includes an hour ride on Loch Lomand, perhaps skip that?
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I am doing a 12 day British Isles cruise in August 2022. Many people on our ship are doing the Loch Lomand, Trossachs and Stirling Castle excursion. Unfortunately, most of these are already booked, so we are trying to find a private excursion. One of the people in our party would like to see Glasgow as well. I looked at a map and Glasgow is the opposite direction. We dock at 8, not sure how long it will take to tender off since I know they give priority to Princess excursions for the tenders, and we have to be back on the ship by 6, so need to be back at the tender place by 5 or 5:15 I would think. So I am thinking maybe a 7 hour tour.
Since it looks like we will have to arrange a private excursion, I suppose it is possible to include both Glasgow itself as well as Loch Lomand and Stirling Castle, not sure about the Trossachs then. Does anyone have any suggestions re this? Should we try for a stop in Glasgow itself? Should we skip that and just do the other places? Are there other places we should go instead?
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2 hours ago, edinburgher said:
Enjoy your time here, but the city really merits a stay of several days rather than a few hours.
I totally agree. I know many people who have done just that. One of the reasons we like to cruise to places we have never been is to get a feel for where we may want to spend more time in the future. The problem is, everywhere we have been so far, we want to come back for a longer stay!
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What constitutes a good tip in the UK?
in British Isles/Western Europe
Posted
On some of the excursions I booked, it says that tipping is expected. Not sure if that means the driver, the tour guide, or both. They suggest £5 per person. Is this not a thing?