British Isle Cruises

[east coast golfer]

Has anyone taken a British Isle Cruise? We are looking into the Ruby Princess departing Harwich, England, in August, 2014. We welcome any information you have.

[capriccio]

Has anyone taken a British Isle Cruise? We are looking into the Ruby Princess departing Harwich, England, in August, 2014. We welcome any information you have.

 

We did the British Isles cruise this past August on the Caribbean Princess. It is wonderful. Since you are on an August cruise make sure you attend the Edinburg Tattoo (my main reason for going). We did lots of independent excursions organized on our roll call for the August 16, 2013 cruise; http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1594858. If you are interested in them, check out posting number 2965 for the entire list.

[atlasali]

We did this in May 2012. Loved it. Our ports were:

 

Southampton - took a bus tour from Heathrow hotel to the ship with a stop at Stonehenge on the way.

St. Peter Port - Guernsey island. Tendering was a breeze due to good weather. It was a Sunday so town was closed except for a street fair. We rode the public bus around the lovey island for a cheap price.

Cobh - Most go to kiss the Blarney stone. We took the train to Cork walked to town. Actually like the quaint village of Cobh better.

Dublin - shuttle to center of city. Hop on/Hop off bus with an extended stop at Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. Hint: go after 1:00pm the crowds have died down. Ate a wonderful lunch at the college with the students and staff. Many stopped at the house of Guinness for a tour and loved it.

Liverpool - we went to the Lake Country for a steam train, steam boat ride and lunch at an inn. Lovely but a long day. next time we would go to Beatles museum.

Belfast - did a private tour to the Antrim coast: lunch at Bushkill's, Giant's Causeway, the bridge, then ended with a tour of "the troubles" in Belfast. What an experience!

Greenock (Glasgow) - What a wonderful port. The people offer 3 different, free tours. We did one then took the train to Glasgow. Impressive glass station. We did not do the HO/HO as intended. Ate at a pub and took the train back. Next time I would do all of the Greenock tours. Piped away at sail away.

Invergorden (Inverness) - We did ship's tour: Culloden battlefield, (their gift shop was great), Loch Ness, lunch at inn on loch, boat ride on Loch from inn to Urqardt Castle ruins, saw Highland cow (pronounced Heelind Kew). Piped away again.

Edinburgh - They kept talking about the 132 steps up hill to catch the train. Which I did not want to do. What they did not tell us was there was a pay shuttle bus to go into the city with no climb. So we last minute got a ship's tour of the city with time at the museum. A really beautiful (but steep city). I would do the tattoo if possible. HO/HO offers 3 different loops.

Hint: Stirling Castle located midway between Glasgow and Edinburgh is amazing.

Le Havre (Paris) - We took the ship's tour to Paris. Long day, but if you only have one day, it is a good taste of Paris.

Southampton - disembarked ship, got on bus, delivered to Heathrow.

 

This May we took a riverboat cruise beginning in Amsterdam. We took the train from Liverpool station to Harwich to catch the overnight ferry to Holland. Train ends at the port. It was super easy to do. Perhaps an option for you?

[ischeer]

Has anyone taken a British Isle Cruise? We are looking into the Ruby Princess departing Harwich, England, in August, 2014. We welcome any information you have.

According to my booking information, this cruise departs from Southhampton. See you on board ?

[east coast golfer]

You are correct about the departure port. I mixed up the Princess departure port with the Celebrity Infinity departure port, which we were also looking at. We will be booking in the very near future. As part of the planning process, I wanted to get some highlights and reviews from those who took the cruise already.

[east coast golfer]

We did the British Isles cruise this past August on the Caribbean Princess. It is wonderful. Since you are on an August cruise make sure you attend the Edinburg Tattoo (my main reason for going). We did lots of independent excursions organized on our roll call for the August 16, 2013 cruise; http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1594858. If you are interested in them, check out posting number 2965 for the entire list.

 

Thanks for the info. I will definitely check it out.

[east coast golfer]

We did the British Isles cruise this past August on the Caribbean Princess. It is wonderful. Since you are on an August cruise make sure you attend the Edinburg Tattoo (my main reason for going). We did lots of independent excursions organized on our roll call for the August 16, 2013 cruise; http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1594858. If you are interested in them, check out posting number 2965 for the entire list.

 

We did this in May 2012. Loved it. Our ports were:

 

Southampton - took a bus tour from Heathrow hotel to the ship with a stop at Stonehenge on the way.

St. Peter Port - Guernsey island. Tendering was a breeze due to good weather. It was a Sunday so town was closed except for a street fair. We rode the public bus around the lovey island for a cheap price.

Cobh - Most go to kiss the Blarney stone. We took the train to Cork walked to town. Actually like the quaint village of Cobh better.

Dublin - shuttle to center of city. Hop on/Hop off bus with an extended stop at Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. Hint: go after 1:00pm the crowds have died down. Ate a wonderful lunch at the college with the students and staff. Many stopped at the house of Guinness for a tour and loved it.

Liverpool - we went to the Lake Country for a steam train, steam boat ride and lunch at an inn. Lovely but a long day. next time we would go to Beatles museum.

Belfast - did a private tour to the Antrim coast: lunch at Bushkill's, Giant's Causeway, the bridge, then ended with a tour of "the troubles" in Belfast. What an experience!

Greenock (Glasgow) - What a wonderful port. The people offer 3 different, free tours. We did one then took the train to Glasgow. Impressive glass station. We did not do the HO/HO as intended. Ate at a pub and took the train back. Next time I would do all of the Greenock tours. Piped away at sail away.

Invergorden (Inverness) - We did ship's tour: Culloden battlefield, (their gift shop was great), Loch Ness, lunch at inn on loch, boat ride on Loch from inn to Urqardt Castle ruins, saw Highland cow (pronounced Heelind Kew). Piped away again.

Edinburgh - They kept talking about the 132 steps up hill to catch the train. Which I did not want to do. What they did not tell us was there was a pay shuttle bus to go into the city with no climb. So we last minute got a ship's tour of the city with time at the museum. A really beautiful (but steep city). I would do the tattoo if possible. HO/HO offers 3 different loops.

Hint: Stirling Castle located midway between Glasgow and Edinburgh is amazing.

Le Havre (Paris) - We took the ship's tour to Paris. Long day, but if you only have one day, it is a good taste of Paris.

Southampton - disembarked ship, got on bus, delivered to Heathrow.

 

This May we took a riverboat cruise beginning in Amsterdam. We took the train from Liverpool station to Harwich to catch the overnight ferry to Holland. Train ends at the port. It was super easy to do. Perhaps an option for you?

 

This sounds amazing. Can't wait. So much to see. Your review helps to make sure we don't miss anything.

[atlasali]

east coast golfer - Our Great Britain cruise was a last minute bargain. Princess upgraded the people already signed up for the cruise and opened up the inside and outside categories for a rate too good to pass up. So, we booked the cruise just 10 days before we sailed. I did not have my usual time to research and plan. This is what we did and used.

 

Belfast and Antrim coast - http://www.minicoachni.co.uk/ Cruisecritic group organized this one.

 

Dublin HO/HO - saved 15% buying online before we went http://www.dublinsightseeing.ie/citytour.aspx

 

London to Southampton with a visit to Stonehenge - http://www.londontoolkit.com/tours/private_southampton_tour.htm We stayed at Premier Inn at Heathrow. We were picked up at our hotel.

 

That londontoolkit.com website was helpful regarding hotels, transfers from airport, etc.

[Billy and Charlie's Mum]

You could always do the final BI cruise for 2014 (27 Aug 14) and then stay on for the TA back to the US. Come and join us! There are lots doing the B2B. :D

[BluenoserJo]

We went back and forth on whether to try a British Isles cruise or not. Delorean Girl's thread is worth doing a search for it. It convinced us to book.

[atlasali]

Delorean Girl was on our cruise. She is a wealth of info. Enjoy your cruises.!

[sunshine nana]

We loved our British cruise in 2012 June. If you go to Guernsey, be sure to seek out the Occupancy WWII museum if you like history.It is private, so it is open even on Sundays. We took a private tour from LeHarve to the Normandy Beaches, very impressive. We also went to the St. Andrews golf course the same day we visited Edinbourgh. We loved the local entertainers who came on the ship at almost every port for a show before departure. There is a new ancestors museum near the port in Belfast that was not open until after our trip.

[east coast golfer]

We went back and forth on whether to try a British Isles cruise or not. Delorean Girl's thread is worth doing a search for it. It convinced us to book.

 

I read the review/thesis that Emily - Delorean Girl wrote. Amazing! I will be using it as a text book to help plan our excursions. Who needs Rick Steves!!!

 

I am going to put her posting on the August 3, 2014 Roll Call for all to read.

[east coast golfer]

We loved our British cruise in 2012 June. If you go to Guernsey, be sure to seek out the Occupancy WWII museum if you like history.It is private, so it is open even on Sundays. We took a private tour from LeHarve to the Normandy Beaches, very impressive. We also went to the St. Andrews golf course the same day we visited Edinbourgh. We loved the local entertainers who came on the ship at almost every port for a show before departure. There is a new ancestors museum near the port in Belfast that was not open until after our trip.

 

Thanks for the info. I will definitely seek out the Occupancy WWII Museum.

 

We have already done the Normandy Beaches during a trip to Normandy and Burgundy a few years ago. Probably spend time in LeHarve.

 

How far was it to St. Andrews from Edinburgh? Being a golfer it is a must see.

Did you hire a car to take you there?

 

Thanks for the info.

[phabric]

Check out our Roll Call Caribbean Princess August 16, 2013, post #2965 shows the private tours we used.

 

We used http://www.greatscot-tours.com for our Edinburgh port. There was 6 of us from the Roll Call. The driver picked us dockside, and drove us to Edinburgh Castle. We had about 1 1/2 hours on our own. We had all purchased our tickets in advance to save time. Try to be there before the castle opens as it gets very crowded. We were told to go to the crown jewels at the top and work your way down. We then drove to St Andrews about 1-1/2 hours. Since there were golfers in our group and wanted souvenirs from St Andrews, we had plenty of time to shop and take pictures. When we were close to the dock, the driver pulled over and gave everyone a couple of shots of different whiskies.

 

Princess had an excursion - Edinburgh on your own for $69/pp . Dockside there was a sign for transfer to/from Edinburgh for 10GBP (I don't know if this was each way or return). I don't know where either Princess or the transfer dropped you off.

[Shogun]

Hi All

 

2014 great year to visit Scotland lots going on, Scotland came third in a list of places to visit in the world next year.

 

 

yours Shogun

[newbie53]

We took a private tour from LeHarve to the Normandy Beaches, very impressive.

 

I think DH would love this excursion, he's a big history buff, especially with WWII. He has mobility issues though, and is afraid he wouldn't be able to do it. Did anyone in your group have mobility issues? Do you know if the tour company handled assistive devices?

 

Thanks

[phabric]

I think DH would love this excursion, he's a big history buff, especially with WWII. He has mobility issues though, and is afraid he wouldn't be able to do it. Did anyone in your group have mobility issues? Do you know if the tour company handled assistive devices?

 

Thanks

 

We used http://www.overlordtour.com for Normandy. They use 8 passenger vans. They come very highly recommended on Cruise Critic. We had a great tour with them. A credit card was needed to hold the van only, cash Euro on day of the tour. Contact them about mobility issues, if they can not help, maybe they know a company that can help.

[newbie53]

Thanks so much. Not sure when we might try this, but it's fun researching until then.

[Posaune]

You can see from the signature below that we have taken this cruise three times. I believe we will do it again in a few years!