Trip Report - June 26 Royal Princess British Isles

[lchen818]

I originally posted this on the RollCall page and was told this is the better place to post so I've moved it here.

 

A warning: this can be a bit long.

 

June 25th Arriving in London.

 

We arrived in London the day before the embarkation date and stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn at Heathrow. We prebooked a MPV via Minicabit for the short trip from terminal 3 to the hotel. The MPV was quite old but, the driver was courteous. The hotel was taken over by the Hilton chain about a year ago and some updating was done. The rooms were incredibility quiet especially given it was right in the path of the landing planes. The windows were triple pane sound proofed so that unless you looked out the window you would never know that planes after planes were landing just outside our window. The rooms were very clean and the beds were firm. The same rooms in the city would have cost 3 times as much. The breakfast was also decent. There was tube station within walking distance and it's a 45 minute ride to Piccadilly Circus. I’d highly recommend to anyone who is looking just to have a overnight stay for a connection through Heathrow.

 

We took the tube into London for dinner at a chic and Michelin starred Chinese restaurant call Yauatcha (great food) and shopped at Selfridge’s before returning to the hotel at Heathrow.

 

June 26th Embarkation day

 

We pre-booked a MPV from SimplyAirport for the ride to Southampton. Again the MPV was little old without working A/C. Our driver also didn’t seem to be very familiar with how to get to the ocean terminal. I had to pull out my Google Map to help him get to our terminal. We arrived at 11:30 since our boarding time was noon. I was expecting to be one of the early birds to check in only to find lots of people already checked in and waiting to board. The boarding process was very organized as usual.

 

Our mini suite seemed a slightly smaller than the mini suites we had on the Crown Princess and the Ruby Princess; but, it could be because our kids are older and we've all put on some weight since our last cruise. The balcony was about 5 feet more shallow than the other ships. When we looked down from the balcony of our Baja deck suite we saw the life boats and the tender boats instead of straight down into the water as the other ships. So if your are on the Emerald deck or lower you may look out straight at the life boats. The gym on the Royal is located in the aft section on Sports deck (18th). There were more treadmills and ellipticals on this ship but there seems to be fewer weight machines. There are no longer mid-ship stairways that goes above the 7th floor; this made going up and down much more troublesome. The elevators are always busy at mid-ship so the wait can be really long. The alternative is to use either the forward or aft stair ways to the 7th floor and walk across to mid-ship for the dining rooms, the piazza, and the gangway. This is a huge design flaw for a ship with so many passengers. There was many movies on demand on TV in the cabins now which was nice.

 

June 27th Guernsey

 

The weather this morning turned out to be beautiful. It was in the mid-60s; but, it felt like mid 70s in the sun. We decided to get on the tender early and head to town for our private walking tour. The ship anchored at around 6:30 and we went down to the tender at around 7:10 and there were very few people there. In facet, we had to wait for some time to get more people on board before we departed for dock. The waves weren’t too bad so the tendering was a nonevent. We had a nice gentleman as our private walking guide around St Peter Port. He was very knowledgeable;but, we didn’t really find the history and information terribly exciting. We did appreciate how pretty the area around St Peter Port was. We walked around town some more afterward and stopped at an eatery for some late morning snacks before we headed for Castle Cornet. We had enough time to visit more sites like the Hautville House and Candie Garden; but, we decided to head back to the ship early because I heard the queue for tendering could get pretty bad later in the day. We got to the pier at around 12:30 and had no trouble getting on a tender right away. Other folks who came back at around 1:30 told us that the queue was frustratingly long. While we were told the last tender would be at 2:15, we saw the last tender came back around around 3:15. The water was a little more choppy on the way back.

 

Overall, we found Guernsey to be pretty quaint while not very exciting; should be a nice place to relax. However, our experience with the locals were not very pleasant. The server at the eatery were a little rude and inattentive. Some very rude local driver also gave my adult daughter a hard time for crossing a small narrow road (barely fits 2 cars) without taking the “crosswalk”. The driver was the only car within 50 yards of us in this alley way. While she was wrong in jaywalking, it didn’t warrant such rudeness.

 

The sea was fairly calm as we departed;but, for some reason we felt a lot more side to side roll than usual. Maybe it’s a taller ship. When the sea got noticeable rougher later in the evening the movement got much worse. We have been on a Baltic cruise on the Crown Princess with much rougher sea but I don’t recall ever feeling as much movement with the ship.

 

We had our first of the 2 formal nights tonight. It seems fewer and fewer people get real formal anymore, especially the men. Most women still enjoy getting dressed up; but, most men dressed in their suits at best.

 

By the way, for some reason, there seemed to be some issues with many the soda machines on board. Every glass of diet coke I ordered from various restaurants and stations all turned out to be flat. Another observation I made was since we are going clock-wise around the isle, the starboard side cabins may get to see more of the coast than the port side.

 

June 28th Cork/Cobh

 

We arrived in port right now time at the in Cobh. There is a train state right at the dock. We booked a private tour with Butlers and the driver/guide was waiting for us as we disembarked. We headed for the Blarney Castle right away to try to get there before all the other large buses. It’s a beautiful arboretum with an impressive castle. I’d strongly advise anyone who plans to visit the castle to prebook the entry tickets online and head straight for the castle itself immediately after entry. Save the picture taking and other stuff for later because the line to get up the castle will grow very quickly and move very slowly because everyone wants to get up to the top and kiss the stone (we opted not to kiss the stone). We saw line almost a 100 yards long, which means the wait could be an hour or more on our way out of castle and garden grounds.

 

Our guide then took us to the Cork Gaol, which is also referred to as the women’s prison. It’s an interested site albeit a bit creepy with the creepy looking mannequins. This is a site that the bigger bus tours won’t visit. We headed for Kinsale by the sea afterward and stopped off at Charles Fort with breath-taking views of the ocean below before getting into the town of Kinsale. Kinsale is very quaint and people are friendly and courteous. It was fish and chips at Dino’s before our guide took us back toward Cobh. We arrived back at the ship about an hour before the specified departure time.

 

The streets around Cobh and Cork are very narrow and traffic near the port area can get pretty bad. Once again our ship’s departure was delayed by 40 minutes because the buses had to line up in order to getting to the dock area to offload the passengers. Apparently the ship’s presence in the port was a big deal for the locals. A large crowd of locals turned out to send off our ship.

 

June 29th Dublin

 

We ended up docking in Dublin Bay instead of anchoring in Dun Laoghaire, which would have required tendering. The ship had to turn around and back into the bay and that created a lot of vibration in the aft section of the ship. We could feel it all the way through breakfast. Hard to imagine that the passengers in the aft section cabins would be able to sleep in through all that vibration.

 

We booked a private tour with Tour Dublin and the driver/guide was waiting for us. She whisked us straight to the Trinity College so that we could beat the crowd that would follow in the numerous tour buses. There was very little wait when we arrived and the line was pretty long when we came out. Next stops were the St. Patricks Cathedral and the Dublin Castle before she dropped us off at the oldest pub in Ireland for lunch. After lunch, our driver took us for a drive through the Dublin countryside to check out the rolling hills and farms with cattle and sheep before heading for the Powerscourt House and Garden. The garden was very pretty and could definitely compete with the gardens if many European palaces.

 

Overall, Dublin had a different feel than Cobh and Cork. It was more metropolitan and seemed more British.

 

The traffic got a little busy on the way back to the ship;but, we made it back with plenty of time. Our ship’s departure was once again delayed by some late Princess tour buses. We eventually departed more than a hour behind schedule.

 

June 30th Liverpool

 

I had originally planned to just check out the area around the Albert Dock and take the HOHO bus around the city;but, for whatever reason I decided to change the plans and booked a tour to North Wales with Busy Bus. I started doubting my decision when I got up this morning. It turned out to be a very nice tour after all.

 

We gathered out side of the terminal and waited for a few passengers who were more than 20 minutes late. There ended up being a group of 41 people on a some what dated tour coach; but, it worked fine. The only issue we had was there was microwave oven on board and right behind where we sat. There must have been something rotten inside because it smelled like a rotting fish. The tour guides Mike and Johnathan were excellent tour guides. The weather was great and it turned out to be a very warm and sunny day in the high 80s. We first went to Pontcysyllte where there was an 18th century aqueduct that stood a few hundred feet above the river below with boats still going across. We than drove through Llangollen on our way to Betws-y-coed, the capital of North Wales. It was just a small town with some shops for tourist. But the most interesting part of the tour was the drive to and the walk around Llynogwen. The scenery around there reminded me of the majestic Canadian Rockies. We got off the bus and our guides took us for a hike up the hills. Apparently, the Royal Air Force frequently use this valley for low altitude and terrain flying training. We could hear the roars of the jets echoing in the valley. Then seemingly out of nowhere and flew out behind the rocks and virtually skimmed over the top of our heads was a military C130 gunship. That got everyone really excited. The hike took us to the top of a small hill through some beautiful waterfalls and gave us some breathtaking views of the valley. Next stop was the town and Castle of Conway. We grabbed some lunch in the little town. Our guide recommended a fish and chips place, which I forgot the name. It was in the middle of the town with green awnings. The fish and chip was probably the best we’ve had on the trip so far. The steak and ale pie from the bakery across the street was also excellent. We were supposed to stop by seaside resort of Llandudno;but, we had to skip it because of the initial delays and concerns for the weekday rush hour traffic. Our bus driver got us back to the ship right on time. I’m sure there would be a lot to see in Liverpool itself; but, I’d recommend this tour for those who are interested in seeing the Welsh country.

 

July 1 Belfast

 

The ship has been going at a very slow speed the last couple of nights (probably around 10 knots) so the ship movement has been nearly imperceptible. The ocean was surrelly calm; it's calmer that the waves in a swimmimg pool. Part of the reason has been because the water has been very shallow. The captain mentioned that at the shallowest point as when entered the Belfast Bay, there was only 1.4 meter clearance between the bottom of the ship and the bay floor.

 

We booked a private tour with City and Causeway Tour. I thought we would get Alister as our guide but ended up with another, which was a little disappointing. Our driver Daniel was nice but not quite as forthcoming with background information as I would expect.

 

The weather was again glorious; partly cloudy and around low to mid 70s. The dock area was a dirty and dusty coal storage area. Traffic coming in in the morning was very bad and our driver was a little late.

 

We drove about 70 miles to the Rope Bridge and was only able to take some pictures from far away. It is about an one-mile walk down to the bridge from the ticket entrance and the wait seemed pretty long at the bridge since it could accommodate one-way traffic of 30 people at a time. It would have taken at least an hour and we had very limited time in port. The Giants Causeway was about 20 minutes away. There was a moderate hike of about ¾ of a mile each way. The rock columns were indeed impressive. The visitor center required a 9 GBP ticket just even if you just want to go into the gift shop or café. Ticket was not need to simply walk down to the stone columns. There was also a shuttle bus that was taking people down and back up to the top for 1 GBP each way. We also had lunch at a little pub called the Nook nearby. The food was average and they charged 20 pence for each glass of water. I think that was for service charge. We drove through some more seaside villages before reaching Bushmills. Our guide recommend we not take the tour since it would take an hour, which was a bit disappointing. We did go into the tasting room and tasted some 12 year-old single malt whiskey. We then headed back to Belfast, which took a little more than a hour. Our guide took us around town a bit and showed us the Peace Wall and both the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods. We got back to the ship with 15 minutes to spare.

 

July 2nd Greenock/Glasgow

 

We booked a small bus tour with Discover Scotland Tour (24 people) today to visit the highlands. The weather was a little cooler today but the weather held up for the entire day. There a little bit of sprinkling after we got back on the ship. The Scottish highlands seemed even more beautiful than Ireland. The villages, lochs, and the stone houses seemed straight out of the fairytale story books. Our driver first took us to the highlands and made stops at Loch Lomond, Loch Katrine, the Doune Castle, and the town of Callandar for a quick lunch. Most of us bought savory pies and sweet pastries from a shop recommended by our driver called Mohr Bread. The food was quite good and reasonably priced. The next stop was the Sterling Castle. The drive through the narrow winding roads in the highlands felt a little like a ride on a rollercoaster. It can potentially get some people sick. We drove about 45 minutes back toward Glasgow after spending about 90 minutes at the castle. There was not a much time left so our driver can only quickly drive us around downtown Glasgow without any stops before we had to make another 45 minute drive back to Greenock. Our driver was actually a pretty good tour guide accept he was very opinionated about a lot of subjects and had especially strong opinions about the Scottish Independent movement. He went on several rants against the English and what all the terrible things the English did to the Scottish people through out history. We had to endure a 45 minute non-stop rant on the drive back to Greenock about how Scotland should be independent, there is no need for the Queen and the Pope and how the wealth in this world is unjustly controlled by a small minority. He seemed to hold a lot of bitterness toward the English, the rich, the muslins, the French, etc. There were a few English people on our bus and they were quite offended, which was very understandable.

 

The rant from our driver not withstanding, our tour was an enjoyable one. However, in hindsight, we should have stayed in Glasgow because it seemed like there would have been much to see in town. I have a feeling we will see even more of the countryside of Scotland in the next couple of days.

 

The captain of the ship was replaced today, which seemed like a very strange thing in the middle of a cruise.

 

July 3rd At Sea Day

 

The water was super calm today and the weather was actually superb. It was sunny and in the high 60s. Everyone seemed to have the same idea regarding doing laundry today so the laundry rooms were quite busy. It seemed the least busy during lunch and dinner time. The gym on this ship has many more ellipticals and treadmills but ironically the gym has not been very busy on this cruise.

 

We had our second formal night today. However, they decided not to serve the traditional lobster dinner this evening and will serve them on the next at sea day instead.

 

The water started getting a little more choppy as we turn easterly this evening.

 

July 4th Invergorden/Inverness

 

Today, it was mother nature payback time. We’ve enjoyed great weather so far and it finally got back to the typical Scotland weather – cold, rainy and windy. We booked a private tour with Gavin at Invergordon Tours and another very nice family of four also joined us. We’ve always had pretty good luck with the private tours we’ve booked over the years. Today was not one of the better ones. We got off the ship at the agreed upon time but Gavin was nowhere to be found. He showed up about 10 minutes later and sent us off with another driver/guide George, who appeared to be his dad that comes and helps out during the busy season. We boarded a old disheveled people carrier that reeked of cigarette smell. The seat-backs were so tall that nobody in the second or third row could see out forward. The vehicle also had no A/C and the all the rear windowed were fogged over so that we couldn’t see out on the side. There were also several warning light on the dashboard that were lit. George also didn’t seem like a professional tour guide because he did not provide much historical background on any of the sites we drove by. He basically read things off of some of roadside plaques and knew little more. When we asked him about our itinerary for the day he answer was we will go whenever you want. We gave him a list of places we have heard and what I had discussed with Gavin, such as the Village of Dores, the Cowdor Castle, Inverness, St Andrew’s Cathedral, Dunrobin Castle with the falconry show, Loch Ness and the Nessie Hunter who has a lot of story to tell, etc. He said sure we can do that.

 

To make a long story short, we drove around for a long time first north then south in a stuffy van that we couldn’t see out. We drove an hour north to Dunrobin in the rain and got there with the completely wrong timing. The museum was not open and the falconry show was scheduled at 11:30 (we got there at 9:00). We basically walked around inside a small residential castle. We didn’t go down to the beautiful garden because it was windy and raining. I wouldn’t recommend Dunrobin Castle unless it is a clear day. We did visit Loch Ness but barely saw the rest. When we asked George about the Nessie hunter, he had no idea what we were talking about. We had slow lunch across the Inverness Castle and had a drive-by of the St Andrew”s Cathedral, did not see the Village of Dores, The Cawdor Castle, or any of the neat places on the Black Isle Gavin had mentioned to me. Very disappointing day.

 

July 5th Edinburgh

 

What a difference a day and a tour guide make. We woke up to a glorious sunny day in South Queensferry. The temperature was in the high 50s to low 60s. We had to tender to shore but the water was very calm in the harbor so it was a smooth ride. The ship dropped anchor at 07:00 and we went to the plaza level to begin the tendering process. We got our tendering tickets and waited only a few minutes before we boarded the tender. It was not very busy so we had to wait a little bit for more passengers to come down. The tender/life boat took on slightly over 150 people before we set for the dock.

 

Our guide/drive today was Paul from Strachan Tours. We heard a lot of good things from other passengers who had Paul as their guide in Glasgow. Paul turned out to be the best tour guide we have had on this cruise. His vehicle is nice, clean, and comfortable. Paul himself was extremely friendly and very knowledgeable about all the sites he took us around/to. He was a well of local and historical knowledge. We started with a quick drive around Edinburgh while explaining the history of Edinburgh including the Old Town, the New Town, and the Miracle Mile. It was Sunday so the traffic was very light and getting around town was a breeze. In contrast to cities like Belfast Edinburgh seemed more upper class with middle to upper income level suburban neighborhoods.

 

Paul then took us into the Edinburgh Castle. Unlike most other driver-guides, he parked his vehicle and went into the castle with us. We took a short walk down the Miracle Mile before getting back in the van and headed toward St. Andrews. We took the country roads toward St. Andrew and along the way Paul drove us through some small villages and gave us some interest history and background regarding those villages. We arrived in St. Andrews about an hour later and the town was bustling with tourists and people preparing for the British Open. We grabbed lunch at the New Course Clubhouse (the Old Course Clubhouse was not open to the public) and the food was quite good. We walked around the 17th and 18th fairway and took lots of pictures. Since the wife, our son, and I are all golfers, we were pretty excited to have been to the mecca of golf. We spent some time shopping at the “pro shop”, which there were 2; a small one in the New Course Clubhouse and one across the street from the 18th green that was 4 times bigger. Time flew by and it was time to leave and it left us determined to return someday soon to actually play the Old Course.

On the way back Paul took us through more small villages including a seaside town that in someway reminded us of Guernsey. We made in back to the dock with plenty of time to spare. The tendering process back was much smoother than Guernsey with very little wait time.

 

The weather held up beautifully today until we all boarded the ship and the sky broke loose with a heavy downpour. What perfect timing!

 

Having a good guide like Paul really made the day a super enjoyable one. I’d highly recommend Paul for Glasgow and Edinburgh.

 

We left the port right on time. The new captain seems to be much more diligent with on-time arrival and departure.

 

It's at sea day tomorrow and we have one last stop after at Le Havre. I will try to update my report as soon as I can.

 

July 7 Le Havre

 

We rolled the clock forward last night an hour and docked in Le Havre on time as schedule. We opted to go to Le Mont Saint Michel instead of the Normandy beaches or Paris like most people. We’ve been to Paris before and the wife and kids are not really interested in Monet, or seeing the WWII monuments and the historic beaches and since Le Mont Saint Michel is so far away from everything, I don’t think we will ever have a chance to visit it again.

 

Our tour guide today was Sophie from Label West Tours. It took us 2 hours and 40 minutes to get there. On the way through Caen, we stopped off at a highway rest stop where there happened to be a Paul Bakery. Paul is a bakery chain based in Paris and its pastries and breads are really good. I’ve always wanted to see MSM; it is one of the most photographed icons of France second only to the Eiffel Tower. We caught a glimpse of the abbey on the rock when we came within 20 km of it and it was an amazing sight. As we got close to the abby, it became a truly awe-inspiring view. While there were already quite a few people in the parking by 11:00AM, Sophie said it was really a pretty light day. We queued up to take the free shuttle from the parking lot to the abby and line move pretty quickly. We looked up after we got out of the bus and it really struck us as how amazing this place was. This was when it started to rain.

Sophie took us into the abbey and walked with us and explained the various history to us until we broke away to get some lunch. We made the mistake of choosing a sit down restaurant and it took a long time. We had to rush the waiters several times and they weren’t too happy about it. There was also a famous restaurant Le Poulard that serves a special soufflé-like omelette but it was very busy. We left MSM at around 2:30 and started out drive back to the ship. The traffic on the way back was busy but there was no traffic jam. Apparently it was because we made it back through Caen before 4:30; according to Sophie it could get worse after that time. Since we made good time getting back, Sophie suggested we make a quick stop at Honfluer. It turned out toe by a beautiful harbor town that reminded me a little of Copenhagen’s New Haven.

 

We’ve seen hundreds of churches, abbeys, and cathedrals and Mont Saint Michel had to be the most impressive we’ve ever seen. This was a great tour to finish our cruise and Sophie was an excellent guide.

 

Remember the soda package I purchased and tried to cancel because the diet coke for the first 2 days were always flat? I’ve been trying to get the charges reversed ever since I turned in the room key with the coke sticker. I’ve stopped by the service desk 3 times and each time I was told that the bar and beverage manager is still investigating and will let me know. This being the last night before we get off the ship I finally demanded to speak to the service manager. She in turn called the beverage manager and tried to get his approval to reverse the charge. Even she had to get a little testy with the guy for him to OK the reversal.

 

July 8 Disembarkment Day

 

Disembarkment can be a challenge sometimes. We packed our suitcases last night and left them outside of our cabin before dinner as requested. The disambarkation assignment we received was for 7:50 AM even though I requested 9:00 – 9:30 because our flight is at 3:00PM. When inquired about the assignment at the service desk I was told that it was simply a meeting time at the assigned station and the wait could be an hour. We had a leisure breakfast and cleared out of our room and headed down to our meeting at exactly 7:50 only to be told that we should proceed to the gangway immediately and disembark. We decided to hang out at the piazza for a while since out driver wouldn’t be there until 9:00. For those of you who will be cruising later, don’t disembark if you have to wait for some time for someone to pick you up because there will be no place to rest in the luggage pickup area and the waiting room outside will be packed with people. You can actually disembark anytime you like.

 

Our driver from SimplyAirport was a little lost to pick us up but it wasn’t a big deal. The traffic on the way to Heathrow was moderate to light and we left the cruise terminal at 8:45 and arrived at Heathrow at 10:25. Check in was uneventful. If you purchased items that are eligible for VAT refund there is a refund desk at the front of terminal 3; however, that place is usually pretty busy and can have a long line if you happen to run into a Chinese tour group (they always buy a ton of stuff and need to get their VAT refunded). There is another VAT refund desk right after you pass the security check (the regular line not the priority line). There is usually very few people there if any. Be sure to have the items you purchased with you so that you may show them to the agent when requested. He may not ask the items you purchased are relatively inexpensive; but you won’t get a refund if you can’t show the items when requested.

 

Overall, it had been a very nice trip. A few observation about the Royal Princess:

 

The service quality and food quality was not quite as good as our previous experience on other Princess ships. All of the cold cuts had been frozen and defrosted and the texture was not very good. Each morning when we sat down for breakfast at the Horizon Court it took an average of 10 minutes for any of the servers to approach us and to get us some water and juice. The variety for breakfast at the Horizon Court never seemed to change.

 

Our on previous cruises on other Princess ships, our steward would always stow away the drop-down bed and the sofa bed so that we would have a real sitting area during the day. Our cabin steward didn’t do it this time.

 

There was a noticeable vibration at the stern of the ship where some of the full suites are; so be aware of that when you book a room if that would bother you.

 

When possible, try to use the aft and forward stairways instead of using the elevators; they are extremely slow because they always seemed to be packed.

 

If you don’t usually drink a lot of sodas there is no need to buy the soda package. It costs $62 for the cruise ($4.50 per day plus gratuity). A can of soda costs $2.50 plus gratuity.

 

Weather permitting, it is more fun to sit outside and topside of the tender boat. They can really pack in the passengers on those tender/life boats. One of them can carry about 160 passengers.

 

The starboard side cabins have better views than the port side.

 

The Princess staff tries really hard to hard sell you products and services on board such as photos, spa and salon services event botox injections for $2000. When the wife went to one of the “free” sessions, they tried to get her to get the botox injections. In fact, they charged her account first and reversed the charge after my wife declined.

[paul929207]

Thanks for the detailed review

[sunshine nana]

Thanks for the review. We are going on the same cruise July 20. Hope we get such good weather. Just a note to anyone going to Guernsey (St.Peter Port) in the future. There is a great WWII museum on the island that was put together by a man after the Germans left suddenly at the end of the war. There is a bus from the center of town that will drop you off near the museum. Be sure to ask the driver which stop. We spent about an hour there, but will spend more time there this trip. The tender problem to get back was the same when we were there in 2011. It seems that Princess could solve it!

[Mom33]

Thanks for your review. :)

 

Just curious about your experience in the Horizon Court and your comment about the variety of food being the same every morning. We have been on both the Royal and the Regal and we never had any problem finding something different to eat in the morning. As a matter of fact, on all the ships we have sailed, we found the variety and choices for breakfast to be satisfactory.

I can't think of anything that we couldn't get, that we would eat for breakfast. What did you want that you couldn't find? :confused:

[sammybonny]

We were also on this cruise which we enjoyed very much.

Regarding the food for breakfast we mostly ate in the mdr and found the choice very good.

As well as the different specials each day other items that weren't on the regular menu were available if you asked, such as eggs benedict, tomatoes ,beans ,english bacon.

[msmoger]

Thanks for the review. We are going on the same cruise July 20. Hope we get such good weather. Just a note to anyone going to Guernsey (St.Peter Port) in the future. There is a great WWII museum on the island that was put together by a man after the Germans left suddenly at the end of the war. There is a bus from the center of town that will drop you off near the museum. Be sure to ask the driver which stop. We spent about an hour there, but will spend more time there this trip. The tender problem to get back was the same when we were there in 2011. It seems that Princess could solve it!

 

Agree, the WWII Occupation Museum was the best part of our visit, also in 2011. It's definitely worth a couple hours.

 

http://www.germanoccupationmuseum.co.uk

[bonnieg]

Thank you for your review. It brought back some nice memories from my June 2nd cruise. Guernsey happened to be one of my favorite ports. It's worth doing one of the taxi tours around the island. The coastline and scenery are absolutely beautiful! We visited some of the WWII bunkers, the german museum, little chapel, gold and silver workshops and stopped to take pictures of the Guernsey cows( they are very photogenic:)). We used Jason from 1st call taxis who was terrific.http://www.1stcalltaxisgsy.com/island-tours/. There are also other taxi companies listed on the Guernsey website http://www.visitguernsey.com/

 

We took a 3 hour tour and afterwards had a wonderful lunch in the courtyard at DaNello http://danello.gg/#_=_ in St. Peters Port. It was a great day!

[Colo Cruiser]

Excellent review! Thanks for posting. :)

[wickedwitchofthewest]

Loved the review reminded me of quite a few places.

But i think you fell for the welsh humour! Betwys-y-coed isn't the capital of North Wales.

The only capital in Wales is Cardiff way down south.

Caernarfon over on the coast is more of a capital and then its only a county town.

[islandatsea]

Great detailed review. Thanks for posting!

[caribill]

You had a number of independently booked excursions, some of which you really liked and at least one that was really bad.

 

How did you pick which independent excursions to use?

 

o From reviews on Cruise Critic?

o From Trip Advisor?

o From online searching by yourself?

o Other?

 

thanks

[High C's]

You had a number of independently booked excursions, some of which you really liked and at least one that was really bad.

 

How did you pick which independent excursions to use?

 

o From reviews on Cruise Critic?

o From Trip Advisor?

o From online searching by yourself?

o Other?

 

thanks

 

One thing I'd like to add here is how surprised I am at the poor review for Invergordon Tours. I have booked them for next May based on two separate friends who both had WONDERFUL experiences (separately), as well as stellar reviews on Tripadvisor and here on CC.

 

To the OP - did you communicate the issues with you had afterwards with Gavin? Did he try to make amends in any way?

[Shogun]

Hi

 

We watched you sail pass at Edinburgh,

 

The City of Stirling has no e in it, everyone thinks it has,

 

As to the mile in Edinburgh its the Royal Mile

 

yours Shogun

[lchen818]

You had a number of independently booked excursions, some of which you really liked and at least one that was really bad.

 

How did you pick which independent excursions to use?

 

o From reviews on Cruise Critic?

o From Trip Advisor?

o From online searching by yourself?

o Other?

 

thanks

 

Mainly by checking Tripadvisor and Cruisecritic reveiws

Edited July 10, 2015 by lchen818

[lchen818]

One thing I'd like to add here is how surprised I am at the poor review for Invergordon Tours. I have booked them for next May based on two separate friends who both had WONDERFUL experiences (separately)' date=' as well as stellar reviews on Tripadvisor and here on CC.

 

To the OP - did you communicate the issues with you had afterwards with Gavin? Did he try to make amends in any way?[/quote']

 

I think you have Gavin as your guide it might be much better. I did communicate with Gavin and he offered a SMALL partial refund, which didn't help the fact our one day in town was wasted and ruined. He listed a long list of places we supposedly visited. There were 8 of us on the tour and we either didn't realize or did not understand the driver when we passed through those places. Regardless, those site weren't the once Gavin had told me we would visit and we missed a good numbers sites that we were supposed to go. He asked why I paid the driver and gave him a tip if I was not happy. That was a good question. I suppose I was just too nice and tried to do the polite thing.

[ElinorD]

I was on the same cruise! Had a lovely time. We only did 2 ship excursions, and the rest of the time we wandered around on our own, which mostly worked out great. It was a wonderful trip!

[Working 2 Cruise]

By the way, jaywalking is a very big no no in Europe...