British Isles cruise question

I was looking at a British Isles cruise out of Dublin in 2019. The itinerary looks great and I'm considering it for my honeymoon (I keep changing my mind about what countries I want to go to)

I noticed that for the 12 day itinerary it stops back at Dublin in the middle. I don't see a 6 day cruise offered, but it's weird it goes back to that port in the middle before continuing on? It ends in Amsterdam.

I'm wondering do they offer smaller cruises for people in Ireland? Or is this just to see the city again?

I've not seen a itinerary before on Celebrity that has a port stop at the embarkation port mid-cruise. Doesn't make sense to me either.

I suspect that FSU Girl is referencing a Reflection sailing in June, 2019. The itinerary, as posted on the Celebrity website, has the cruise embarkation port as Dublin and several days later it has a port call in Dublin. The disembarkation port is Amsterdam.

It's definitely an odd itinerary... there appear to be a few cruises that start in Dublin in 2019.

We also have never seen an itinerary quite like that cruise. The 4:30am arrival at Dublin sure makes it appear the port will be used for disembarkation/embarkation. But like the OP says, we cannot find any information about it being sold as two shorter cruises. But we are sure suspicious. So I will speculate. I wonder if that cruise is being used as a group cruise.....for 2 groups doing shorter cruises. Possibly its a "fam" or familiarization cruise for folks in the travel industry or some other type group. Cruise lines do not like to publicize the existence of group bookings because it is a huge disincentive for others (not part of the group) to book that cruise. Hence they go to great lengths to not tell other potential cruisers about the presence of the group.

My suggestion would be to avoid that cruise until Celebrity is willing to explain the reasoning of the itinerary. Otherwise, our best guess is that there will be two large groups of cruisers doing shorter cruises.

Hank

We also have never seen an itinerary quite like that cruise. The 4:30am arrival at Dublin sure makes it appear the port will be used for disembarkation/embarkation. But like the OP says, we cannot find any information about it being sold as two shorter cruises. But we are sure suspicious. So I will speculate. I wonder if that cruise is being used as a group cruise.....for 2 groups doing shorter cruises. Possibly its a "fam" or familiarization cruise for folks in the travel industry or some other type group. Cruise lines do not like to publicize the existence of group bookings because it is a huge disincentive for others (not part of the group) to book that cruise. Hence they go to great lengths to not tell other potential cruisers about the presence of the group.

 

My suggestion would be to avoid that cruise until Celebrity is willing to explain the reasoning of the itinerary. Otherwise, our best guess is that there will be two large groups of cruisers doing shorter cruises.

 

Hank

Do you think if I called to ask they'd say if there were groups booked?

I've never sailed on a cruise with a large group before, is it really bad? I like the itinerary it's the only one that spends two days in Paris

Might there be some sort of special event going on in Dublin coincident with the mid-cruise port call?

While the pattern is unusual, I did B2B Azamara cruises in early 2015... The first segment departed from Rio, sailed to Argentina [overnight in Buenos Aires] and Uruguay [Montevideo and Punta del Este] during the first week, returned to Rio for a mid-cruise overnight coincident with Carnival [memorable!], sailed north for a day at Buzios, and returned to Rio yet again for same day turn-around... Subsequent sailing was a repositioning cruise from Rio to Miami with three port calls in northern Brazil [including Belem for a bit of the Amazon], a visit to Devil's Island, an overnight in Barbados, and a stop at Virgin Gorda in route to Florida...

Terrific itinerary!

Do you think if I called to ask they'd say if there were groups booked?

 

I've never sailed on a cruise with a large group before, is it really bad? I like the itinerary it's the only one that spends two days in Paris

It certainly does not hurt to try. But in our experience the cruise line staff will not give you any information about groups. We noted the other poster wondering about a special event in Dublin (we could not find anything online) but we speculated this is about embarkation/debarkation because of the 4:30am scheduled docking. I do not recall ever having been on a cruise that docked that early for anything other then a turn-around day (embarkation/debarkation)

As to cruising with groups (and it has happened to us quite a few times) whether it impacts the non-group folks depends on the size of the group and what they are about. A really large group will sometimes take over certain public venues (lounges, theater, a dining sitting) for group-related activities. If and when this happens it deprives non-group passengers from using these facilities. We were once on a short HAL cruise that had a large group (I think it was physicians). They had reserved the "Crows Nest" for nearly every evening (they had a private cocktail party) which deprived us of its use. Once on a large RCI ship, the entire early dinner seating was reserved for a single large group who also had their own entertainment. So that same group took over the main theater a few times during the cruise...which left the rest of us with a single late show (the group took over the entire early show).

But this is all speculation since we have no definitive clue as to what is happening with that cruise. If you do go on that journey, please come back and post the real story :).

And finally, we did have one other thought. Perhaps Celebrity will ultimately sell this cruise as two shorter segments (6 and 5 day) but wants to first market it as a longer voyage.

Hank

The ship is also scheduled to be in port until after 11:00 PM. While that may be based on the tide I suspect there is an event in Dublin planned for that date. The oddity of the itinerary aside I would personally have no issues spending another day in Dublin for whatever reason.

I don’t think I’d like being on a cruise where a large group takes over, especially on a cruise line I’ve never been on and for a honeymoon.

If it’s for an event in Dublin that would be pretty cool, I’m hoping it’s that.

Has Celebrity ever done something like this where they intended to split it into two smaller bookings but started bigger? Or is this the least likely option for what’s happening?

There is an earlier 12 day out of Dublin that overnights in Liverpool, with no return to Dublin mid cruise. Instead of two days in Liverpool, FSUgirl's trip has one day Liverpool and one day Dublin. Maybe something required them to leave Liverpool without an overnight, and Dublin was the closest available replacement.

It certainly does not hurt to try. But in our experience the cruise line staff will not give you any information about groups. We noted the other poster wondering about a special event in Dublin (we could not find anything online) but we speculated this is about embarkation/debarkation because of the 4:30am scheduled docking. I do not recall ever having been on a cruise that docked that early for anything other then a turn-around day (embarkation/debarkation)

 

Hank

I don't know about this particular sailing but on our BI cruise this June the Eclipse docked in Dublin at 4.30am, sail away at 5.30pm. I believe it had something to do with the tides, though I never really asked to find out.

On the other hand haven't ever heard of the ship coming back to embarkation port mid-cruise!

I don't know about this particular sailing but on our BI cruise this June the Eclipse docked in Dublin at 4.30am, sail away at 5.30pm. I believe it had something to do with the tides, though I never really asked to find out.

 

On the other hand haven't ever heard of the ship coming back to embarkation port mid-cruise!

Perhaps CC should have a contest (with a CC T-Shirt as the prize) which would be "Guess the reason for the strange Itinerary?" But knowing Celebrity we will have to wait until they actually do that voyage to know the reason.

Hank

I don't know about this particular sailing but on our BI cruise this June the Eclipse docked in Dublin at 4.30am, sail away at 5.30pm. I believe it had something to do with the tides, though I never really asked to find out.

 

On the other hand haven't ever heard of the ship coming back to embarkation port mid-cruise!

It’s definitely the first time I’ve seen an itinerary like that

Perhaps CC should have a contest (with a CC T-Shirt as the prize) which would be "Guess the reason for the strange Itinerary?" But knowing Celebrity we will have to wait until they actually do that voyage to know the reason.

 

Hank

Well if I decide to do this cruise I’ll let everyone know why they did this

Starting in Dublin and finishing in Amsterdam is a bit awkward too. Classed as a British Isles cruise but not a great deal of Britain in it.

The answer is so simple, the ship keeps Dublin back on itself.

Seriously, it is stgarnge for a ship to go Liverpool, Dublin Belfast, it is much m,ore economical to go Liverpool, Belfast, Dublin. Also the times are a bit strange, leaving Dublin at 23:40 and Belfast stay id 09:15 to 19:45, from what I can see the times hhae nothing to do with high tides.

20th. June 2017 was the Dublin Pride Parade.

I googled the Dublin Pride Parade and found the 2019 Dublin Pride Festival begins June 20, 2019 which is the day the ship docks.

It's like a overnight stop, in different days

I googled the Dublin Pride Parade and found the 2019 Dublin Pride Festival begins June 20, 2019 which is the day the ship docks.

I can't believe that would be a big enough event to put it on the itinerary. I wonder if there's a large group of LGBTQ on board and that's why they're going to Dublin mid-itinerary.

I can't believe that would be a big enough event to put it on the itinerary. I wonder if there's a large group of LGBTQ on board and that's why they're going to Dublin mid-itinerary.

From news reports 60,000 attended the event this year.

From news reports 60,000 attended the event this year.

Well ok then....that's big....and I'm glad to hear it.

I like the itinerary it's the only one that spends two days in Paris

I like the idea of the overnight in LeHavre (for Paris). Since travel time is 2 to 3 hours one way to Paris, we've never even tried to get there. You could book a hotel in the city for one night, take the train there and the next day take the train back.

For the Paris (Le Havre) overnight, you could also book what I assume they will offer a On Your Own in Paris so you can use the ship’s bus to/fm Paris and not worry about connections and so on, get your own hotel. There’s another thread with someone asking about a private company that could set up transportation to/fm Paris and a hotel.

We’ve not gone to Paris on the Le Havre stops; always stayed in the area seeing towns nearby just becaue it was a long trip back and forth and seemed like you’d just have lunch in Paris and come back. My wife had been to Paris a number of times and I hadn’t, so we stayed in Paris for a week and did local tours and so on. Loved it. Got to get back, and this overnight would be fun too.

Hope Celebrity keeps adding more overnights. Did one in Dublin and that convinced us to go back and spend 4 days there before touring W Ireland. Also did overnights in Glasgow for the Retreat in Edinburgh, St Petersburg and San Francisco. Need more!

Den

I booked this cruise today and within half an hour received an e-mail that itinerary has changed.