cruisegal415

Windsor Castle is a must-see for us, but I'm trying to figure out logistics.  Our cruise leaves on May 28th.  We will be flying in to London (Heathrow) on May 24, arriving the morning of May 25th.  I see that Windsor is closer to Heathrow than to London.  I haven't gotten our air yet.  So my choices are: 

(1) Arrange for private transfer from Heathrow to Windsor Monday am, then take us to our London hotel. Yes, it's going out of our way and opposite direction but is closer to Windsor from Heathrow.  But changing of the guard may not occur on Mondays.

(2) Stay in Heathrow Monday night; drop bags off at hotel; see Windsor Castle Monday then use day to rest (stupid, right? We can sleep when we get home).  Benefit is that we are closer to Windsor, can spend as much time as we like there, and explore the town; it's easier to get to Windsor from Heathrow. Again, though, changing of the guard may not occur on Mondays.

(3) Go directly to London from Heathrow, visit Windsor one of the days between Monday and Weds. (changing of the guard appears to be on Tuesdays and Thursdays so it would probably be on Tuesday since we have to embark on the cruise on Thursday).

(4) Do one of those tours where they pick you up in London on Thursday and take you to Windsor on the way to Southampton on Thursday (day of embarkation). This seems like the best option so far, but we'd really like to see the changing of the guard, and leaving from London to Windsor on a Southampton transfer I think would be dependent on when the transport leaves and would only give us limited time in Windsor.

(5) Arrange one of those transfers from Southampton to Heathrow via Windsor when we finish our cruise on Tuesday.  There are companies that do a stop at Windsor.  Some only give you limited time, and some include other places that we could take or leave, like Stonehenge, and I'm not sure if we would get there in time for changing of the guard.  Another possibility is to arrange a private transfer from the ship to the airport, and include a visit to Windsor, which would involve paying for the transfer to wait with our bags. We are returning on a Tuesday, which I think may be a changing of the guard day. If we do this option, I would book a later return flight on Tuesday to allow us enough time, or maybe we could stay overnight at a Heathrow airport?

Your thoughts? Basically asking should we do Windsor the day we arrive at Heathrow, which may mean not seeing the changing of the guard, and then go on to London from Windsor; should we go to London and do Windsor on one of our London days, even though it's out of the way; should we do Windsor on the way to Southampton via a transfer that includes Windsor; or should we do Windsor on the way home from Southampton to Heathrow? 

Thanks!

We are looking at a British Isles cruise on the Regal Princess in May, June or August.  The itineraries are the same as far as ports but they differ in that one trip offers an overnight in Dublin, one offers an overnight in Glasgow and one adds an extra sea day instead of an extra day in Dublin or Glasgow.  Not sure how much there is to see in Glasgow, probably could fill the time in Dublin, but an extra sea day with an intensive port itinerary is appealing also.  This is a 12 day trip with the following ports:  Southampton, Guernsey, Cork, Liverpool, Dublin, Glasgow, Belfast, Invergordon, Edinburgh, at sea, Paris, Southampton.  

Having never been to this part of the world, should we do the extra day in Dublin or Glasgow, or enjoy an extra day of relaxing at sea? The extra sea day would be day 8 of a 12 day cruise. 

Have done multiple cruises on RCCL and one cruise on Norwegian to the Caribbean , and one on Oceania to the Mediterranean.  Looking to book a cruise this summer to the British Isles, definitely want to see Liverpool and the only line I can find with a Liverpool stop is Princess, specifically the Regal Princess.  Would have preferred a smaller ship like Oceania's to do the British Isles but haven't found one that has the itinerary including Liverpool.  My question is, how is Princess compared to RCCL and Norwegian? It seems rather formal in looking at their website.  We are not keen on formal nights.  

How is it to do the British Isles on a large ship vs a smaller one? We are mid 60's, traveling as a couple with no children.  Is Princess a line that we would be comfortable with? We are definitely not the young/active crowd, but we do like shows and entertainment at night.  On the other hand, when we did the Mediterranean cruise on Oceania, we were fine with the smaller ship/less to do at night because of the port intensive days.  We were advised to do a smaller ship in the Mediterranean for the ports but it seems that this Princess cruise goes to the same ports as the Oceania does.  So basically, two questions--large ship vs. smaller ship for British Isles cruise and Princess line as compared to Royal Caribbean? We much preferred Royal Caribbean ships to the Norwegian one we were on.

Just started our research on this, so bear with me.  Two years ago, I found an itinerary we liked on the Oceania line, but they don't seem to offer it this year.  We have not been anywhere in the British Isles.  We want to start in London, we will spend a few days there pre-cruise touring and then want to explore the British Isles.  Two definite ports are Liverpool (huge Beatles fans) and Dublin.  We really don't know much about the rest of the British Isles, but would love to visit as much as we can, Ireland, Scotland, Britain, and Wales if possible.  

Does anyone have a recommendation for a cruise line or which ports we should not miss? We've done the larger lines (RCCL and Norweigan) and preferred the smaller one (Oceania) but are open to either.  We would be looking at a 10-12 day cruise.  TIA.

On the Getaway last month, the lady that won the "free cruise" told everyone, after receiving the "prize" that it was actually $600 towards a cruise. That isn't exactly a free cruise, is it?

We were there last week. The price board had $40 for a half hour massage for either back and neck, arms and shoulders, and some other combos. When I hesitated, they offered me a 45 minute full body massage for $50. Sold! It was awesome.

I didn't see where an all inclusive was a make or break for you, but if you are looking for best ambiance, we were at Maya Chan last week and it was the best port of all four we went to for ambiance. The seaweed wasn't bad when we were there, they have put up barriers in the ocean to keep it away. Didn't notice a bad smell either. We had a private palapa I think it's called, with our own chairs, a bed type thing and it was glorious. No vendors bothering us. Food and drinks were included. Very relaxing day.

Haven't been to Jaime's but just went to Maya Chan last week. Seaweed was not bad at all. I think it depends on the weather, wind, tides, etc. as to when you go. Maya chan was gorgeous. Very private, very quiet, no problem getting there. They don't have a pool, don't know if Jaime's does, if that matters to you.

They had some clamshells you have to rent in advance, we didn't do that so I don't know how or where, but I thought it was through the excursions? They also have umbrellas. The beach and pool areas were both very crowded when we were there last week. There is no wi fi anywhere except in the $699 or I think the $349 cabanas which really stinks. There were zip lines but I didn't see anything else to do. Some shopping. I was not impressed with Harvest Caye. Many people including us just went for a short time. I think if you go right off the ship, you can get a good spot. We didn't go right away, then it was raining, so we didn't actually get there until 12:30 but by the time we got there, people had left so we were able to get a place on the beach with an umbrella but friends of us said they tried to get a place by the pool and it was very hard to find a place with umbrellas.

We did Infinity last week. It was not crowded at all. We have not been to Paradise so can't compare. The beach and ocean there were the most beautiful we saw.

They told us to go to Kiosk #7 and get the transportation there. We found Kiosk #7 easily, but there were some glitches. It may have been because we didn't go straight there the minute we got to port. I'm guessing if we had, there would have been more people who needed transportation and it would've been faster. We got there about an hour-an hour and a half after we docked, so it was just us. The person who was going to drive us said to wait in his air conditioned van, which we did. There was a lot of taxis and van's in the parking area, many of which were blocking our van. The driver said he'd be right back, he was waiting on a group of people. He left us in the van. Then after about 10-15 minutes he came back and moved his van, but moved it backwards and another van blocked us! DH was getting antsy by then and went out to find out what was wrong. Another man came and said he would take us in his car. We got out of the van and got into the other car. He was wearing an Infinity Bay polo shirt. He explained that the driver didn't want to take us because it was only two of us and he wouldn't make as much money. This driver, wearing the Infinity Bay polo shirt, said he was using his bosses' girlfriend's car to take us so we wouldn't have to wait any longer. That was nice. I'm thinking if we had gotten there when the others were there, and there were more people, we wouldn't have had to wait. That said, the people from Infinity Bay saw there was a problem and solved it. I suppose you could just get any old cab to take you there.

It was definitely worth it to go there, the place is gorgeous and I would definitely go back again. It is not all-inclusive, like some of the other places we went (Maya Chan, Nachi Cocum) and because we were only there a few hours (our all aboard was 3:30 so we left at 2) we did not order anything to eat or drink. (I brought a drink from the ship in my yeti-type cup that stayed frozen while we were there). They had places near the pool and beach to order food and drinks.

I was surprised to see you were able to get a small order of nachos at Margaritaville. I was looking forward to trying them but the server said they serve 8 people and it was only the two of us, and we were also ordering sandwiches so we didn't want to waste all those nachos. I specifically asked if they had a smaller size and was told "no." Grrrrr

The T&C posted here states the Seafood Extravaganza is not included even with the up charge.

What it says is"Guests who have purchased a Specialty Dining Package and wish to dine at one of the following venues will be charged an Upcharge instead of the full cover charge or a la carte price: Ocean Blue - $10 (does not include Seafood Extravaganza. If ordered, the upcharge is to be waived);"

I need this explained to me. If you have a specialty dining package, and choose Ocean Blue as one of your restaurants, and order the Seafood Extravaganza, they charge you separately for that, but waive the $10 upcharge? Here's why that makes no sense. First of all, when I booked Ocean Blue I was told they were adding on an upcharge of $35.40 for the two of us. Using either $10 which it seems to be now or $18 which some people said it used to be, I still don't get $35.40 as the upcharge amount.

The T&C also contains this provision:

ARE ANY MENU ITEMS EXCLUDED FROM SPECIALTY DINING PACKAGES?

No, all items listed on the menus are included in the package. Additional entrée charges also apply for dining at Cagney’s Steakhouse and Le Bistro.

Seems to me that this contradicts what we were told at Ocean Blue, they said the Seafood Extravaganza was not included, because we had not paid the upcharge.

The whole disagreement we had with them was because they specifically said we could order anything off the menu we wanted except the Seafood Extravaganza, because we had not paid the upcharge. Logic being, if we had paid the upcharge, we would have been able to order that.

Can you share the shore excursions sheet? And what is the ultimate gaming package that is listed in the dailies. Can’t wait to try this ship in 3 weeks.

I think the gaming package included the arcade games near O'Sheehans. They have skeet ball and a couple small bowling lanes that DH and I got excited about, then realized you had to have a special gaming package to play it. I think it was something like $10 per day but everyone in the party had to purchase one, even if only the kids wanted to play. I recall a couple of arcade type games plus the skeet ball and bowling. The sign was near the bowling alley. We felt like it should have been play as you go, but it was all or nothing.

Sorry, should have read through all the posts before I wrote that, saw it was answered two pages ago.

We were on the same cruise! I started a review and have to get back to it but enjoying reading your review and looking forward to your take on it.

Picking up where I left off, then will backtrack. Moderno's. Oh. My. Gosh. So. Much. Meat. It was really good!! I warned DH not to fill up on the salad bar, so he only had a little bit, including the salmon, which he's managed to eat every single day and night. He loves salmon! They come by with skewers and skewers of meat! They also brought pork and chicken and chorizo, but we just had the meat. I think there were four different kinds of lamb alone! The mashed potatoes were really good and the mushrooms were so good, too. Moderno's was actually an afterthought for us, it was an add-on after I already did my three specialty restaurants, and I'm so glad I did! It was probably our favorite restaurant.

After dinner, we saw another comedy show. The comedians on the ship this week were so good! I believe they are leaving so you'll have different ones next week.

Putting aside the bad experience we had with the glitches in whether we paid it or not (see other thread), it totally wasn't worth it as far as I'm concerned. The Florida Stone Crab Claws were obviously frozen, especially since they're not in season now, but they tasted like they were in the freezer too long. Totally gross. I asked if the lobster bisque was the same as they serve in the other restaurants, because I did not like it and was told, oh, no, it's different. Creamy. Not true. Not different, not creamy. It was fishy. The Seafood Extravaganza was good, I guess, if you like mussels, clams, lobster and Alaskan Snow Crab claws. I don't like mussels or clams, but DH said they were good. I've had better lobster. Snow Crab Claws are very hard to eat, not much meat on them. The best I can say is the bread was amazing.

So--update on this issue--we were so upset last night. To recap, I originally booked a balcony room. 60 days out, I booked the specialty restaurants, Le Bistro, Cagneys and Ocean Blue, as part of my UDP. I was told there was a $35.40 upcharge for Ocean Blue, so I paid that when I reserved the restaurants. A few weeks later, I decided to upgrade to the Haven. When I upgraded over the phone, the nice lady said oops, apparently when she transferred my reservation, the $35.40 upcharge did not transfer over, so I needed to pay that again. So I did. Then a few days before sailing, we receive a call saying we still owed $35.40 and if we didn't pay it our cruise was going to be cancelled. Several calls, telling them that I had paid it, and them saying look on your credit card bill, and me noticing the charge, then the charge was reversed, so I gave them my credit card to put it through again, then it was reversed again.

Ok, so last night was our last night on the cruise. We were looking forward to finishing our week at Ocean Blue. We got to Ocean Blue and checked in, and were told that we were able to order everything on the menu except the Seafood Extravaganza. What? Why? Because we never paid the upcharge. I was like, ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?? YES I PAID IT! Several times, in fact.

The lady at the restaurant check in said, sorry, but according to our records, you didn't pay it, you have it as part of your specialty dining package, but since you didn't pay the upcharge, you can have anything on the menu except that. Oh, no you did-n't! We asked to speak with the maitre'd. She came and said the same thing. At this point, I was getting so upset. I explained we did pay it, then they called and said they were going to cancel the cruise if we didn't pay it so I paid it again. I offered to go up to my room and show it on my reservation. I offered to pull up my MasterCard statement and show them. No, sorry, our records say it's not paid so we have no choice.

At this point, DH started spooling up. Get a grownup! he said. We upgraded to the Haven, spent almost 7 grand on this vacation, do you think we're trying to scam you out of $35.40? So the restaurant manager came down. I explained the whole thing to her. We originally had a balcony room. Paid the upcharge as part of the speciality dining package. Transferred to the Haven. The $35.40 didn't transfer, so we paid it again. Then got a call threatening to cancel our cruise if we didn't pay the $35.40, so we paid it again. She said she'd go to the finance manager, but we should just go eat, they'll charge us the $35.40, and then reverse it once they figure out the problem. DH didn't want to do that, but we had just wasted 20 minutes arguing with them, so I said, let's just go eat, we'll deal with it after.

Honestly, it ruined the whole night for me. I had no appetite for the meal. Frankly, I might not have even ordered the Seafood Extravaganza, but I knew DH really wanted it. As we were sitting down eating, the restaurant manager came up with a copy our bill. She showed me how they charged us $35.40 and then reversed it when we upgraded, then charged us another $35.40 then reversed it after we got the "threatening" phone call. She implied that that showed we didn't pay it. I looked closer at the bill, and pointed out the $35.40 charge that we did pay in April, when we chose our restaurants. When I pointed that out to her, she said no, that was applied to our Haven costs. I said, that makes no sense! We paid that money for the upcharge, and the money we paid for the upgrade to the Haven was exactly what the difference in cost between our balcony room and the cost of the Haven courtyard, plus the increase in the DSC, the travel insurance, the port charges and taxes that we didn't pay the first time since that was "free" when I booked it, and the service charges on the beverage and dining packages. No where on my bill does it show that $35.40 was applied to the cost of the Haven.

I sat there steaming all through the dinner. Obviously, they believed that we did not pay the $35.40 and were trying to get away with something. Then the maitre'd came over to us, apologized for the confusion and offered to give us a bottle of wine, which we refused. So they were willing to go to war over $35.40 but then turn around and offer us a bottle of wine that costs more than that?

When we got up to the Haven, the concierge tried to explain it to us, saying that the $35.40 was applied to our Haven room, so we did not in fact pay the $35.40, but he could see how it was confusing. NO. We did pay the $35.40. If they applied it to the Haven, which I do not believe, since I don't see that charge anywhere being applied to the Haven, then why did they reverse the $35.40 charge after they said we still owed it to them? They said we still owed that money as of July 6th, I gave them my credit card, but then they reversed the charges. Why would they have done that if we still owed that?

I think what happened was, there was some confusion in the reservation when we did the upgrade, as the reservation agent told me when I upgraded that the $35.40 didn't transfer over. So obviously there was a glitch, they money didn't show up in the upgraded reservation, although they showed in their system that it was paid. And even after looking at all the charges, they still couldn't admit that's what happened, and tried to make us feel like we were wrong. I have proof that it was paid. Yet I sat there all through dinner with the reservation lady at the desk in the restaurant, the maitre'd and the restaurant manager all acting like I was wrong. It left such a bad taste in my mouth, I honestly could not even enjoy my dinner. Which, frankly, was not even that good. The best part about it was the bread.

OK here's what was in Fat Cats: Day 1: Karaoke Blast, Tribute to 90's, Late Night Tunes with Let's Groove Band. Day 2: Karaoke and Disco and Funky Music and Late Night Tunes with New Generation. Day 3: Karaoke all night. Day 4: Smooth Tunes, Diva's Tribute and Late Night Romance with Let's Groove Band. Day 5: Karaoke all night. Day 6: Jazz and Lounge, Old Disco and Chart Toppers with Let's Groove Band. Day 7: Bruno Mars and Michael J. and Last Dance with Let's Groove Band.

I upgraded to the Haven. Running for Vibe passes is not my idea of a vacation. Does anyone know who the concierge is on the Getaway right now?

It was Hanno Meyer as of yesterday.

So we just got home and I thought I'd report back. The wifi calling works when you're in port with free wifi, it does not work on the ship because they have it blocked. (Concierge confirmed it). However, the day we needed to call to check on the puppy we were on Harvest Caye and I was really upset that they don't offer wi fi there unless you have rented the $300 something cabanas. Every other port we were in, we had access to free wifi. I couldn't believe they didn't offer it on Harvest Caye.

I'm just off the Getaway. Frankly, I didn't think there was that much shade, from what I could see by peeking over into it from the staircase on Deck 18. We decided not to go for the Vibe passes because we were in the Haven, but we ended up not going on the Haven sundeck, either. We did spend a lot of our time hanging out on the Waterfront outside the mojito bar. They have chairs that are comfy to sit in there. The only negative is it overlooks the lifeboats, so you're not really looking down into the water.

Just got back and having never sailed NCL or Haven before, don't have anything to compare it to, but I agree with the above posters. We got there at 10:15. There was a sign saying Haven check in right when you walk through the door, to the left, it was a very small room and very crowded, no one really said what to do when we got in, couldn't tell if there was a line or where the line was. We were given the health form to fill out then gave that to the ladies at the desk. There was a trainee who didn't really know what she was doing so it took a long time. There was a huge urn of coffee but it seemed to be empty as no one could get coffee to come out. Finally someone came in to refill the pastries and we asked him for coffee, he jiggled something and the coffee was able to come out. I didn't notice anyone who didn't seem to belong to come into the room, but it was pretty crowded.

Once we got our key cards, we were told to go across the way, to another room, but that room wasn't labeled Haven and there was no one in that room so we weren't sure we were in the right place. We went in there, there was just one NCL employee in there, and he said we just wait and someone will escort us to the waiting area. We waited a few minutes and another couple came in, then the escort came and was going to wait for more people but then just took us up. It was fun walking past all those other people who were checking in, but I wonder if it was any quicker, because we were in the check in room quite a while, it seemed.

We just got off. Fat Cats is alive and well and playing music. When I get a chance I will upload the dailies so you can see what was played.

Just got home and found this--so glad you're able to post pics! I wasn't able to the whole week I was on board. The pictures started loading and got to 95% then stalled.

Cozumel Day 6

Started out the day with our usual breakfast in the Haven. The MSC docked right next to us, I had never seen that ship, very interesting to look at. Tons of suitcases coming off. I asked the concierge if he knew why and he said half the pax disembark in Cozumel. Who knew?

We were headed to Nachi Cocum after breakfast. We had gone there a few years ago and really liked it. As we disembarked and walked through the port, nothing looked familiar and we’ve been to Cozumel twice before. We thought maybe they had built a new port building since we were here last a few years ago, but on the taxi ride out we passed another port and realized since we had been here with RCL we probably had docked at the other port.

Nachi Cocum said it would be $17-18 and ten minutes to get there. I guess that would’ve been from the other port. It was $20 and twenty minutes, so that wasn’t too bad. When you get to Nachi Cocum, you check in, they give you a wristband and set you up with a lounge on the beach if that’s where you prefer. You are assigned a waiter who brings you all the drinks you want. There is a menu to order an appetizer, salad or soup, entree and dessert, all inclusive. We had put down a deposit, i think it was $20 or $22 and paid the balance of $88 with a credit card when we got there.

The water was not as nice as in Roatan, some seaweed but you could go in. There was no smell. They rent floats, snorkel equipment, etc. They rent towels for $5.00 but we took them from the ship so we didn’t need any. They have a lovely pool with a swim up bar that I took advantage of.

We just hung out under a palapa umbrella, had drinks brought to us, ate lunch, I swam in the pool and we both dunked in the ocean. I also had a wonderful massage. The prices that they had written up were $40 for a half hour for either shoulder and neck, arms and back? Or lower body, but the guy selling them offered me a 45 full body massage for $50 which seemed like a good deal to me. More expensive than on Maya Chan, but about the same as on Harvest Caye I think.

We stayed till around 3, then taxi’d back, looked around at the shops all selling the same mass marketed trinkets at the pier, and came back to the ship. Moderno’s tonight!

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