Review: British Isles on Caribbean Princess Aug 2017

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[trbarton]

Thanks for taking the time to write your review. You have given a lot of good information for travelers explaining what worked well & what didn't.

Was there UBER/Lift in any of the places where you used a private car or taxi?

Thanks!

Tom😀

[Blue and Green]

Thanks for taking the time to write your review. You have given a lot of good information for travelers explaining what worked well & what didn't.

Was there UBER/Lift in any of the places where you used a private car or taxi?

Thanks!

Tom😀

 

Good question. The only time I opened the Lyft app on my phone was in Dublin when we were concerned we couldn't find the ship's shuttle and Lyft was not available. I'm not sure about London or some of the other cities. I do believe Uber is available in many cities in the UK, but I deleted the Uber app from my phone some time ago. It seems like I've read others on CC have used Uber for airport to London rides. Maybe try a search on CC or Trip Advisor?

[Blue and Green]

What a great review.

 

Like you we are on a moveover offer next year---the Baltics for us. How has the refundable obc worked out---was it on your onboard account when you boarded and was there mention of when/how it will be refunded to you?.

 

Good deal! A Baltic cruise is on my wish list!

 

Yes, the OBC was available on our account when we boarded. You should be able to see it in the cruise personalizer on the Princess website within 24 hours of booking your move-over cruise. It is my understanding we will receive a check for the credit left at the end of the cruise in the mail within 8 weeks of disembarking. *fingers crossed*

[caribill]

It is my understanding we will receive a check for the credit left at the end of the cruise in the mail within 8 weeks of disembarking. *fingers crossed*

 

It will come in an envelope that may look like junk mail. It will not come from Princess itself and you may not recognize the company or bank name on the envelope.

 

So be sure to open up all mail you receive in case the check is in one of the envelopes.

[onivek]

Thank you so much for this detailed and informative post. We are in the early stages of planning this exact trip with my father, who was recently diagnosed with Parkinsonism (not quite Parkinson's, but similar). I've been worried that he would be unable to do much in the ports because of the wheelchair, but you've given me tremendous hope that we will be able to make this work. Did you have an accessible room on the ship? We've never sailed on Princess (only Disney), so we aren't quite sure what to expect in terms of accessibility on board. Thank you again!

[Blue and Green]

Thank you so much for this detailed and informative post. We are in the early stages of planning this exact trip with my father, who was recently diagnosed with Parkinsonism (not quite Parkinson's, but similar). I've been worried that he would be unable to do much in the ports because of the wheelchair, but you've given me tremendous hope that we will be able to make this work. Did you have an accessible room on the ship? We've never sailed on Princess (only Disney), so we aren't quite sure what to expect in terms of accessibility on board. Thank you again!

 

 

We did not have an accessible room. We usually book mini-suites, or suites, because Mr. B does best with a bathtub. His wheelchair does not fit through the stateroom door, but he usually stands just outside the door and walks through, then I fold the chair and bring it into the suite. We have never used the wheelchair inside our stateroom. Everything is compact enough—not much distance to travel.

 

The most difficult issue on the ship is navigating around laundry/housekeeping carts in the narrow hallways. I would often have to stop, move the cart to a stateroom doorway, then push the wheelchair past it, then stop and move it back. Rather than walk to a mid-ship elevator on our deck 9 (with an aft suite on the Caribbean Princess) we would take the aft elevator from Deck 9 to Deck 7, then walk to mid-ship and take that elevator to Deck 6 for the Club Class Dining Room (or any other location not easily reachable from the aft elevator). When we cruised on the Coral Princess in Alaska, the smaller ship size, and a mini-suite located near the mid-ship elevator, made navigating with the wheelchair much easier. Definitely consider a cabin near the elevator.

Although we only ate one meal in the buffet, as soon as we walked in a server volunteered to help Mr. Blue get his food. And the service was wonderful in the dining room.

 

As I mentioned in the review, disembarking at the ports was consistently stressful. Next time I will schedule tours with this in mind—to avoid the early rush to disembark. Listen carefully to the announcement from the Bridge about where to disembark if you require assistance.

Another tip that might be helpful—I carried disposable rain ponchos in a day-pack that I hung over the back of the chair. While my trusty LL Bean raincoat keeps me dry, a poncho is preferable for someone riding in a wheelchair. It helps to keep the person’s lap and legs dry, as well as the chair itself.

 

I hope this is helpful; I certainly encourage you to keep traveling!

[Jimbo59]

Thanks for the wonderful review. Do you recall the cost per person of the private (non-Princess) tours? How far in advance did you book them?

[Keith1010]

Outstanding review.

Keith

[onivek]

We did not have an accessible room. We usually book mini-suites, or suites, because Mr. B does best with a bathtub. His wheelchair does not fit through the stateroom door, but he usually stands just outside the door and walks through, then I fold the chair and bring it into the suite. We have never used the wheelchair inside our stateroom. Everything is compact enough—not much distance to travel.

 

The most difficult issue on the ship is navigating around laundry/housekeeping carts in the narrow hallways. I would often have to stop, move the cart to a stateroom doorway, then push the wheelchair past it, then stop and move it back. Rather than walk to a mid-ship elevator on our deck 9 (with an aft suite on the Caribbean Princess) we would take the aft elevator from Deck 9 to Deck 7, then walk to mid-ship and take that elevator to Deck 6 for the Club Class Dining Room (or any other location not easily reachable from the aft elevator). When we cruised on the Coral Princess in Alaska, the smaller ship size, and a mini-suite located near the mid-ship elevator, made navigating with the wheelchair much easier. Definitely consider a cabin near the elevator.

Although we only ate one meal in the buffet, as soon as we walked in a server volunteered to help Mr. Blue get his food. And the service was wonderful in the dining room.

 

As I mentioned in the review, disembarking at the ports was consistently stressful. Next time I will schedule tours with this in mind—to avoid the early rush to disembark. Listen carefully to the announcement from the Bridge about where to disembark if you require assistance.

Another tip that might be helpful—I carried disposable rain ponchos in a day-pack that I hung over the back of the chair. While my trusty LL Bean raincoat keeps me dry, a poncho is preferable for someone riding in a wheelchair. It helps to keep the person’s lap and legs dry, as well as the chair itself.

 

I hope this is helpful; I certainly encourage you to keep traveling!

 

Thank you again! Your tips about booking a later excursion time to avoid disembarkation chaos and the poncho (rather than a raincoat) are excellent and not something I would have thought to do. We want to keep traveling as long as possible, that's for certain!

[AF-1]

Great review; some very good tips on your review. Thank you

[Blue and Green]

Thanks for the wonderful review. Do you recall the cost per person of the private (non-Princess) tours? How far in advance did you book them?

 

 

The cost of tours varied…Fab Four Tours was £60 (total) for a 3-hour tour and Taxi Tours Edinburgh (with Kevin) was £150 total. Mark of Murphy’s Executive Tours in Belfast was £300 for a full day (8 hours). Discover Scotland, the small group tour, was £47 per person, for a full day. What a great value!

 

The large group eCoach tour was also a good value at £98 total for the 2 of us for a full day. Wow Scotland, out of Invergordon, was £75 per person for a total of £150 for a full day…but not my favorite tour.

 

I started booking about 9 months out. I know when I joined the roll call for the cruise, some people were already putting together shared private tours. But some tours (Fab Four and Taxi Tours of Edinburgh ) I booked later...maybe 3-4 months out.

 

If you are interested and have time, I suggest looking into tickets for the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. Tickets are only 1 GBP, and very limited...booking almost a year in advance.

[Blue and Green]

It will come in an envelope that may look like junk mail. It will not come from Princess itself and you may not recognize the company or bank name on the envelope.

 

So be sure to open up all mail you receive in case the check is in one of the envelopes.

 

Thank you! This is very good information to have!

[zaks pack4]

Thank you for posting this outstanding review. Reading it kept bringing a smile to my face. Hope to visit the British Isles one day, but for now we will be on CB in March 2018 to the Caribbean.

[Blue and Green]

What a great review.

 

Like you we are on a moveover offer next year---the Baltics for us. How has the refundable obc worked out---was it on your onboard account when you boarded and was there mention of when/how it will be refunded to you?.

 

An update: Our check arrived, 3 weeks post-cruise. It could easily be mistaken for junk mail, as noted by another member. The envelope was very plain and had the name of a financial company in small print in the return address corner. Watch the mail carefully!