Aug/Sep British Isles on Princess

Princess Cruise

August 17, 2017 - August 29, 2017

12 Day – Caribbean Princess

British Isle Cruise (Southampton - Round Trip)

Overall this was a terrific cruise. We live in Oregon and travel with our good friends who live in California. First getting to Southampton from OR and CA made for long flights and we both had 2 ½ hr delays taking off.

We arrived at London Heathrow and met our friends at the Alamo/Enterprise car rental lot. They decided to "upgrade" our car to a larger SUV which we thought was great until we had to drive through the narrow streets of Southampton. Also we were told that our Southampton Dock drop-off office had closed (no notification of this prior to us leaving) so we had to find the only other place in Southampton where we could drop the car. We used 3 different GPS devices and were finally able to locate the office after wandering the narrow streets for awhile (a tiny lot in the middle of town). The staff was very helpful and promised us a smaller car for our return and then drove us to our hotel, the Travelodge Southampton Central located in downtown Southampton. The hotel was fine (great British Breakfast). We wanted to start our vacation by spending a day there before catching the ship and we had a pleasant day wandering the town and trying out a few of the local pubs. The next morning we caught a cab to the ship.

Embarkation went very smoothly. The only glitch was our friend was called during our wait to let Princess Security check one of his bags. Turned out he had a Leatherman tool they wanted to inspect, interesting as he had taken the same tool on a dozen other cruises with no problem. After experiencing a nightmare embarkation with Princess, in Ft. Lauderdale Florida last year on another cruise, we were pleasantly surprised at how organized and efficiently we boarded in Southampton. Our rooms were already ready when we boarded and our bags were delivered quickly - all except our friend’s bag they had examined; it finally arrived later that evening.

Our ship, the Caribbean Princess, had more pros than cons. The ship's crew was great. Our room steward was one of the best we've ever had! He was not obtrusive but was always there when we wanted him. He had a knack for knowing when we were out and quickly had our rooms made up. Our dining waiters were also great, learning our preferences and making sure everything went smoothly. The maitre d' was friendly, and when we asked for a "special" (escargot on a night it was not on the menu) he made it happen. All of the bar staff was pleasant, as well as the deck crew. The ship itself was in very good condition. We had heard that this ship had engine problems and it did seem we were going very slowly, but there wasn't a great deal of distance between ports, so it wasn't an inconvenience. We were all selected for the Chef's Table. We had gone before, and as in those cases, it was tremendous. We ate at both specialty restaurants, the Crown Grill and Sabatini's. Both were very good and worth the extra cost, but we all thought Sabatini's was outstanding.

Now a few negatives. The menu in the dining room was very good, but did not have any local European/British flair, it was the just like what you would find on any Princess ship anywhere in the world. We had hoped that on a British Isles cruise that there would be some British/Scottish/Irish local dishes and beers. The entertainment on the ship left a lot to be desired, other than one excellent show with Irish music and dancers, the rest of the time it was regular Princess fluff, voice of the sea, trivia, etc. Even the educational talks on each country/port we visited were few and far between. I suppose they might have thought we would all be tired from our daily touring and they didn't have to keep us entertained on the ship, but we did not attend many shipboard events.

We found it unbelievable how much wasted, yes wasted, space was given to the ship’s new eating venues the Steamer’s Seafood and Planks BBQ. Almost nightly, the entire back of the ship would be nearly empty, with only a few tables occupied and staff standing around. The empty space was not available for the crowds at the World Fresh Marketplace Buffett (which is very nice) making the buffet, at times, very crowded. Princess is, once again, trying to nickel and dime their guests by charging for something a little different. In my humble opinion, at least they had the good sense to either get rid of or never put Share on this ship. Princess made another questionable move by no longer offering a daily Happy Hour in one of the bars on this ship. Even with the change from buy one/get one free to buy one/get one for a dollar, this is a great thing to do while on board. From past experience, the chosen bar is always packed with people buying drinks, having fun and getting the chance to interact with the bartenders and other passengers. The bars on this ship tended to never be full and we never got to know the bar staff or meet many other cruisers.

The cruise itself was a very, very port intensive cruise, a total of 12 days and only 2 sea days. There was very little chance to catch up on sleep and just relax. Each day had somewhere that had to be seen and experienced, we were up early and on the run every day. We knew this ahead of time, but didn't realize just how exhausting it would be. The ports were great, there were so many great experiences, but boy, we were all worn out by the end of the cruise. Two ports were tender ports, but they were handled by the ship pretty well. We had a bit of a wait to get tendered into Edinburgh, but not unreasonable.

We didn't take any of the Princess tours. We learned from other cruises, that Princess tours tend to be expensive, more crowded, and you always end up waiting on certain people that can't seem to be back to the bus on time. We do our research and arrange private tours that go where we want to go, are not crowded on a large tour bus (often going places a big bus cannot), get to know our tour guides, get a lot of local flavor and can rearrange the tour/stops if needed. We always build in a fairly early return in case of any problems and have never had an issue. The private tours also allowed us to customize the tour to suit your own tastes.

Our first port was St Peter Port Harbour and Guernsey, Shetland Islands and we loved it! This was our first tender port, but since we weren't taking a tour, we weren't in a hurry to get ashore. No tour needed here, just a walk through this picturesque little town and we found a great pub to sample a beer or two. After a nice stroll it was back on board.

Next stop the Port of Cobh and City of Cork. Ireland. We had arranged a Cork Taxi Tour for the four of us, and Liam, our guide, gave us a great tour of the countryside and city. We had a tour arranged that took us to see the Blarney Castle and Liam took us up into a residential area for some great photos. We didn't want to fight the crowds so we didn't go in and wouldn't have wanted to kiss the stone (that millions of people had laid their lips on) anyway. We did a walk through the Woolen Mill store, but while it had lots of nice clothes and knickknacks, it was expensive and pretty touristy. We then stopped for a walk around downtown Cork, a peak in the Cork City Gaol (prison), St. Peter and Paul’s Church, Elizabeth Fort, and a walk through the English Market and we were ready for a beer at a great pub. We not only saw the sites, but we also learned about Irish sports, like hurling and Gaelic football and local history from Liam. A wonderful visit, made even more special by having a great local driver/guide.

Next we docked in Dublin Ireland, for two days. The first day there was the only day of our trip where the weather didn't cooperate, it poured rain all day! We did the hop on hop off bus and even sitting inside it was wet and cold. We did find a couple of great local pubs to visit and saw the town through the rain drops. The second day in Dublin it was time for the Guinness Storehouse, after a short stop at a local pub. We had purchased tickets for the Guinness Storehouse Connoisseur Tasting Experience online before we left, they cost a bit more, but allowed us to miss all the long lines and have a private tasting. A really great experience tasting a variety of different Guinness brews inside the Guinness Academy Bar, information from a very knowledgeable Guinness Connoisseur and the chance to pull our own beers! Then a taxi ride, with a very colorful talking local diver, back to the ship.

The fourth day had us in Belfast Northern Ireland, where we again took the hop on hop off bus. What a great town with so much history. The drive through the areas where there was so much strife just a few years ago was fascinating. The murals were great and to see the wall and gate (still being closed every night) to separate the Catholics and Protestants was still troubling. We would have liked to stop at the Titanic Museum, but just not enough time and we heard the lines were terrible to get in.

Next stop was Glasgow, Scotland (we actually docked in Greenock). Here we took advantage of two amazing "free" tours put on by the locals in the Inverclyde Tourist Group (we had reserved tickets online). The guides are local seniors and are located right in the Port building and they were just wonderful. They also had a booth set up to track your Scottish heritage. They are very proud and knowledgeable of the history of their town and surrounding area. Each tour was two hours or so, on a small bus. We got to see and learn so much. The ladies that served as guides were great and we had a super bus driver. We left donations for each tour and were surprised to that see some people didn't leave anything at all, amazing! And as you might guess, we also had time after the tours to stop in a couple of Inverclyde pubs for great cask ales.

We finally had a sea day which was well needed and appreciated. We docked the next day in Invergordon, Scotland, close to Inverness. We had booked a tour with Gavin at Invergordon Tours online and had Roger as our guide/driver. We booked a larger van for just the 4 of us. Roger was friendly, knowledgeable, a great driver and a lot of fun, too! He rearranged the standard tour for what we wanted to see. He knew all the back roads to bypass traffic, so we saw some of the beautiful Scottish country side and even got a glimpse of the hills of heather which was just starting to bloom. We walked around Invernness for a bit and even had time to pop into a local pub (recommended by Roger) for a beer and then visited a Scottish Beer Store for some souvenirs to take home! We saw Urquart Castle and Loch Ness and Roger even found Nessie for us (even if it was a concrete version next to a hotel). We saw the Culloden Battlefield and Viaduct and Clava Cairns (a must see for Outlander Series fans). We then stopped at the Glenn Ord distillery to taste some scotch. We still had time for one more stop for a short tour (and tasting) at the Black Isles brewery, definitely not a stop tour buses do. The tour was just what we wanted and gave us a good glimpse of what this beautiful area has to offer.

The next morning we woke up anchored off South Queensferry, Scotland. After a tender in, we caught a bus to downtown Edinburgh. This was disappointing as we felt that if Princess was going to put us ashore 30 minutes from Edinburgh they should have provided free transportation into town. Nope we had to pay 10 pounds apiece for the bus, with the alternative of a 20 minute walk up hill to the train station and then a 20 minute train ride into town (maybe cheaper but a much bigger hassle). We had all visited Edinburgh before and we knew that the Edinburgh Fringe Festival was in full swing that weekend and the crowds would be terrible. We pretty much just visited a few pubs, walked up the hill to see the castle, stopped at another pub or two and enjoyed the views and this wonderful city, Then it was back to the bus and then the ship.

After all this touring, we badly needed a sea day. We slept in, read, and began packing up (as we would not have much time prior to disembarkation) and enjoyed the just beautiful views.

The next day we landed in La Harve France. This was our most looked forward to port, even though my wife and I had visited Normandy many times our friends had never been there. We had booked a private tour with Overlord Tours and had planned a seven hour custom tour of the Normandy area. Our guide/driver Michael was excellent; he was a true student of WWII. We stopped first at Omaha Beach where the Americans landed on D-day and then to the Omaha cemetery and museum (well worth the stop). Then it was on to Point de Hoc; where the marines scaled the cliffs to capture the German gun emplacements and then on to Sainte Mere Eglise and the wonderful Airborne museum. We also had time here for a quick lunch and a beer. Finally we had a short stop in Arromanch where a deep water port was built to support the landings. I could write paragraphs talking about these places, but if you want to know more, watch the movie "The Longest Day" or read about what happened here. Probably our best tour, although all of them were great. Our tour of Normandy with Overlord, was customized to see just the places we wanted to see, which cost about the same as the ship tour and lasted the same length of time. The four of us were in a mini van that seated 8 and we toured five sites while the ship tour saw three. We might not have spent as much time in each place as the ship tour, but certainly as much as we needed, we were never stuck in traffic or waiting for people and had an excellent tour guide all to ourselves. We were back to the ship in plenty of time to have our last dinner onboard by 5:30 pm.

Back on the ship, we finished packing our bags, as they had to go out in the hall that evening. We docked back in Southampton the next morning and had to be out of our rooms by 8 and we were off the ship at 9:30.

Disembarkation went very smoothly. A taxi ride back to Alamo/Enterprise and then off to a vacation rental in Evesham in the Northern Cotswolds for a few days of relaxing and pub hopping before a drive to Heathrow to catch our flight home. All and all we thoroughly enjoyed this cruise. However we all missed having sea days to just relax and enjoy cruising.

We also did the Sept 10-22 sailing on the CB.

I share your observation of a lack of entertainment, particularly production shows. Steamers and Planks was also almost empty evert night.

We missed Le Havre port after being cancelled due to port worker's strike.

Despite these, we too enjoyed our cruise.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

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"Our first port of call was St Peter Port Harbour,Guernsey,Shetland Islands"

The Shetland Islands are over 700 miles north of Guernsey, you were in the Channel Islands

Thanks for posting your review. We were on this cruise with you. It's great to read about the things others found to do different from us--to give me ideas about what we can do next time. There were three shows featuring local musicians. You mentioned the Irish one, which we had on our night in Dublin. There were also two Scottish groups that performed, one in Greenock and one in Invergordon. The show in Invergordon was before sailaway in late afternoon.

Disembarkation went very smoothly. A taxi ride back to Alamo/Enterprise and then off to a vacation rental in Evesham in the Northern Cotswolds for a few days of relaxing and pub hopping before a drive to Heathrow to catch our flight home.

Thanks for sharing your useful review!

I'm glad you came to the Cotswolds post-cruise and hope you had a good time. Strictly speaking, Evesham is outside the Cotswolds, but I can see it would be a good base to explore my part of the world.

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Thanks for your review. A British Isles cruise is on our bucket list. Your review has given us some ideas of what to expect as well as what to do on the cruise. Happy cruising wherever you go next!