Three Nickles take on the British Isles. And a little bit of France.

[bnickle]

I did a similar itinerary on another cruise line last August and reading your review brought back some good memories. I fell in love with Ireland and Scotland! Your review was a treat to read because of the way you described your families adventure. Thank you so much for sharing your experience!

 

Oh my gosh...it’s beautiful and wild and just tugged at me. I loved the Irish countryside and the bustle of Dublin’s weekend heart and the the jagged beauty of the Scottish cliffsides...it just mesermized us.

[bnickle]

What a lovely review thank you so very much. We will be on the Crown so no Alferdo's but was a favorite of ours on the Regal as was a Enclave.

 

Alfredo’s and the Enclave were both very wonderful discoveries. I am seriously not sure I could have done all I did without whirlpooling my knee and then icing it every day. I know they have public whirlpools, but I would have been a lot more self-conscious using them, and it would have not been as peaceful. And Alfredo’s...what an unexpected delight!

[bnickle]

So I was going to do a quick run down of our three days in London before, but that did not happen. If you want any info on what we did feel free to ask. As a post-script I decided to post our individual thoughts on some basic aspects of the cruise. Three people may look at something three different ways and my meanderings that have ruled this thread should all be taken with a big grain of salt. So here, in our own words, are our final summations:

Embarkation:

• Greg: Smooth and fast. Cruise terminal is spacious. Checkin was easy.
  
• Brenda: Very easy. Porters took our luggage right after we left the cab; checkin was fast because we did it all online; the wait was very short to get on the ship.
  
• Kate: Really smooth. We were on the ship crazy quick.
  

Room: (M414)

• Greg: Room was ok. Balcony was small for three people. Did not like the sofa sleeper kept made up as a bed all the time (after seeing the weird process of flipping the bench part around to make up the bed Kate and Brenda told the steward he didn’t have to make it back into a sofa; it was fine. It ended up being kind of a day bed for the week and Kate was fine with it.)
  
• Brenda: Room was fine. Overall very quiet, except for hearing staff set up on deck above us each morning. Bathroom is very small, but efficiently laid out. There was plenty of room for all three of us to store our toiletries. The closet is spacious.
  
• Kate: Good. It suited our purposes. It’s not built to hang out in, but we didn’t hang out a lot.
  

Food:

• Greg: The food was ok. The only reason to eat at the buffet is that it’s quick and easy. Thought deserts could have been better. My favorite was Alfredo’s.
  
• Brenda: I thought the food was really good in the Symphony, in Sabitini’s, and in Alfredo’s. I really disliked the buffet. But then, I dislike buffets. The Horizon Court was kind of randomly laid out with no clear establishment of “stations” for lack of a better word. Swirls ice cream was delightful.
  
• Kate: Food was good. Better in the full service restaurant. Buffet is not set up in a well organized fashion. Also, not a fan of buffets. Good vegetarian choices. Buffet could have been more clear on what was vegetarian. Some things were marked, some things were not that were actually vegetarian.
  

Entertainment:

• Greg: It was ok. The stuff listed in the Patters looked good, and varied; we were just too tired at the end of the day to go see anything.
  
• Brenda: I listened to live music in the Piazza when ever I could, and at the Wheelhouse bar before dinner a couple of evenings, but other than that we didn’t really go see any shows. The selection of movies was excellent. The port information videos were interesting, but a couple of the presenters didn’t have great presentational skills. Also, some of the historical facts were incorrect. Princess busted out a limited number of games on the day we had an unexpected sea day, but the offerings were meager. I think a small investment in boosting game selection would be a good thing.
  
• Kate: We provided our own entertainment, so I give it an A. Oh...but they provided Stanley Cup Finals, and World Cup live coverage, so that was good. MUTS looked cool but really overall outside it was too cool for that. The On Demand movie selection was excellent.
  

Ports:

• Greg: I do not get Geurnsey. I would have rather have hit a port in Wales.
  
• Brenda: I loved them all. I really appreciated the generous time allotments in each port.
  
• Kate: No complaints. Great choices, and nice length of visits in each.
  

Staff and Crew:

• Greg: They were ok. There was one security officer scanning cards and checking bags each day at the gangway who seemed to really want to catch Kate breaking a bunch of laws, and that got old.
  
• Brenda: Yeah, except for Rambo at the security entrance everyone was courteous and helpful. Our room steward was ok. The room was overall kept clean, but I needed ice every day for my knee and we finally gave up asking him for it and sent to room service twice a day so I could have ice. The one day we had a different steward he automatically, without us asking, filled our ice bucket and left it in the fridge so not sure why it was an issue the rest of the time. The various wait staff that we encountered were all nice and friendly. The staff at the spa was wonderful.
  
• Kate: Not sure why that security person took such a dislike to me. I’m delightful! I guess it could annoy some people that there were so many instances of staff trying to sell us stuff, even during dinner, but we said no and they immediately backed off, so it really wasn’t even a thing. Except for that woman who gave me a massage. She tried to make me feel guilty about not buying the spa products and I just said, “Do not kill my vibe” and she stopped.
  

[Southern Cruise]

I am interested in your time in London. We are trying to decide how many days we need in London prior to our B I cruise next summer. Thanks !

[bnickle]

I am interested in your time in London. We are trying to decide how many days we need in London prior to our B I cruise next summer. Thanks !

 

 

 

Hmmm...that depends on budget and what you want to do. Have you been to London before?

 

 

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[FishinChris]

Really nice review! Took us back to our BI cruise last summer. Getting ready for our Norway fjords cruise next month with 5 days in London. Thanks for posting!

[newport dave]

So I was going to do a quick run down of our three days in London before, but that did not happen. If you want any info on what we did feel free to ask. As a post-script I decided to post our individual thoughts on some basic aspects of the cruise. Three people may look at something three different ways and my meanderings that have ruled this thread should all be taken with a big grain of salt. So here, in our own words, are our final summations:

Embarkation:

• Greg: Smooth and fast. Cruise terminal is spacious. Checkin was easy.
  
• Brenda: Very easy. Porters took our luggage right after we left the cab; checkin was fast because we did it all online; the wait was very short to get on the ship.
  
• Kate: Really smooth. We were on the ship crazy quick.
  

Room: (M414)

• Greg: Room was ok. Balcony was small for three people. Did not like the sofa sleeper kept made up as a bed all the time (after seeing the weird process of flipping the bench part around to make up the bed Kate and Brenda told the steward he didn’t have to make it back into a sofa; it was fine. It ended up being kind of a day bed for the week and Kate was fine with it.)
  
• Brenda: Room was fine. Overall very quiet, except for hearing staff set up on deck above us each morning. Bathroom is very small, but efficiently laid out. There was plenty of room for all three of us to store our toiletries. The closet is spacious.
  
• Kate: Good. It suited our purposes. It’s not built to hang out in, but we didn’t hang out a lot.
  

Food:

• Greg: The food was ok. The only reason to eat at the buffet is that it’s quick and easy. Thought deserts could have been better. My favorite was Alfredo’s.
  
• Brenda: I thought the food was really good in the Symphony, in Sabitini’s, and in Alfredo’s. I really disliked the buffet. But then, I dislike buffets. The Horizon Court was kind of randomly laid out with no clear establishment of “stations” for lack of a better word. Swirls ice cream was delightful.
  
• Kate: Food was good. Better in the full service restaurant. Buffet is not set up in a well organized fashion. Also, not a fan of buffets. Good vegetarian choices. Buffet could have been more clear on what was vegetarian. Some things were marked, some things were not that were actually vegetarian.
  

Entertainment:

• Greg: It was ok. The stuff listed in the Patters looked good, and varied; we were just too tired at the end of the day to go see anything.
  
• Brenda: I listened to live music in the Piazza when ever I could, and at the Wheelhouse bar before dinner a couple of evenings, but other than that we didn’t really go see any shows. The selection of movies was excellent. The port information videos were interesting, but a couple of the presenters didn’t have great presentational skills. Also, some of the historical facts were incorrect. Princess busted out a limited number of games on the day we had an unexpected sea day, but the offerings were meager. I think a small investment in boosting game selection would be a good thing.
  
• Kate: We provided our own entertainment, so I give it an A. Oh...but they provided Stanley Cup Finals, and World Cup live coverage, so that was good. MUTS looked cool but really overall outside it was too cool for that. The On Demand movie selection was excellent.
  

Ports:

• Greg: I do not get Geurnsey. I would have rather have hit a port in Wales.
  
• Brenda: I loved them all. I really appreciated the generous time allotments in each port.
  
• Kate: No complaints. Great choices, and nice length of visits in each.
  

Staff and Crew:

• Greg: They were ok. There was one security officer scanning cards and checking bags each day at the gangway who seemed to really want to catch Kate breaking a bunch of laws, and that got old.
  
• Brenda: Yeah, except for Rambo at the security entrance everyone was courteous and helpful. Our room steward was ok. The room was overall kept clean, but I needed ice every day for my knee and we finally gave up asking him for it and sent to room service twice a day so I could have ice. The one day we had a different steward he automatically, without us asking, filled our ice bucket and left it in the fridge so not sure why it was an issue the rest of the time. The various wait staff that we encountered were all nice and friendly. The staff at the spa was wonderful.
  
• Kate: Not sure why that security person took such a dislike to me. I’m delightful! I guess it could annoy some people that there were so many instances of staff trying to sell us stuff, even during dinner, but we said no and they immediately backed off, so it really wasn’t even a thing. Except for that woman who gave me a massage. She tried to make me feel guilty about not buying the spa products and I just said, “Do not kill my vibe” and she stopped.
  

Can you remember what historical facts they got wrong? Being from the UK this really annoys me.

 

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[bnickle]

Can you remember what historical facts they got wrong? Being from the UK this really annoys me.

 

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This is from my husband: “Well, it was not Joanna...it was the other guy with the bad presentational style, talking about the D-Day landings for our La Havre stop. He got a lot of the dates wrong, in the first five minutes, so the tv got switched off. I wasn’t feeling it.”

 

So there you go. Greg blew that popsicle stand because he is a huge military history buff and apparently the info about D-Day was tore up from the floor up.

 

He liked Joanna’s presentations. She was more about what there was to see in each port, and didn’t touch on history that much, but he had the info he needed on that front.

[bnickle]

Really nice review! Took us back to our BI cruise last summer. Getting ready for our Norway fjords cruise next month with 5 days in London. Thanks for posting!

 

Not sure if you’re interested but we were able to get Hamilton tickets for London. Ticket resale gouging is not legal there so the tickets were standard theatre prices. We so love London. Best book store crawl city, along with New York. Have a wonderful time! I bet Norway will be absolutely gorgeous.

[newport dave]

This is from my husband: “Well, it was not Joanna...it was the other guy with the bad presentational style, talking about the D-Day landings for our La Havre stop. He got a lot of the dates wrong, in the first five minutes, so the tv got switched off. I wasn’t feeling it.”

 

So there you go. Greg blew that popsicle stand because he is a huge military history buff and apparently the info about D-Day was tore up from the floor up.

 

He liked Joanna’s presentations. She was more about what there was to see in each port, and didn’t touch on history that much, but he had the info he needed on that front.

If he's into WWII history, he'd probably be interested in reading stuff by Max Hastings a British journalist who's written numerous military historical books.

 

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[bnickle]

If he's into WWII history, he'd probably be interested in reading stuff by Max Hastings a British journalist who's written numerous military historical books.

 

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Oh he loves Max Hastings books. He also recently discovered the Billy Boyle books by James Benn.

 

 

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[FishinChris]

Not sure if you’re interested but we were able to get Hamilton tickets for London. Ticket resale gouging is not legal there so the tickets were standard theatre prices. We so love London. Best book store crawl city, along with New York. Have a wonderful time! I bet Norway will be absolutely gorgeous.

 

Actually we already have tickets to Hamilton as well as Hamlet at the Globe. Were going to be hamming it up apparently! Were also spending a day in Portsmouth at the Historic Dockyards. I'll be posting a photo review for this trip as well.

 

Cheers

[bnickle]

Actually we already have tickets to Hamilton as well as Hamlet at the Globe. Were going to be hamming it up apparently! Were also spending a day in Portsmouth at the Historic Dockyards. I'll be posting a photo review for this trip as well.

 

 

 

Cheers

 

 

 

We LOVED the Portsmouth Dockyards! It’s just absolutely wonderful. We took tea at the Georgian Tea Room there...it was really well done. And yea for Hamming it up on both plays! That’s a goal of mine: to see a production at the Old Globe. Have a wonderful time!

 

 

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[kathleen21]

Thank you very much for an entertaining and educational review. It made work pass quickly today;) I am now reading your other review and have noticed that you don’t seem to be loyal to a particular cruise line. We aren’t either, so far... After reading your review I want to do a cruise like this, hopefully next fall. I am curious as to how you chose this ship?

[Cindy]

I really enjoyed your review and Patters, and I appreciate all the time you put in to post both. I didn’t think it was possible to be any more excited for a trip than I was, but your posts accomplished it!

 

We leave for London tomorrow and board the Royal Saturday. My goal is to keep up with my travel blog “live” as we go, but if history is any indication I’ll finish a month or so after we get back![emoji4]

 

 

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[bnickle]

Thank you very much for an entertaining and educational review. It made work pass quickly today;) I am now reading your other review and have noticed that you don’t seem to be loyal to a particular cruise line. We aren’t either, so far... After reading your review I want to do a cruise like this, hopefully next fall. I am curious as to how you chose this ship?

 

We chose the general itinerary, then the date. The date was trickier to work with because two of our party of three work full time. We really wanted Liverpool, and I wanted it to be earlier in the season rather than later. I looked into the Royal before committing, and it suited our purposes. My only complaint about the ship itself isn’t really a complaint; more of a personal observation because they’re not doing anything wrong here, but...it’s a big ship. It’s way bigger than what we’re used to. The ship was comfortable, nicely furnished, clean, etc....just freaking big. I have currently a gimpy knee and that trip down to the laundry room seemed to take a year.

 

We do tend, overall, to be loyal customers to some things in our consumer lives, but we shop destinations and compatibility with our schedules more than anything else in our travels. One of the great things about cruising is that you can make it be whatever kind of vacation you want it to be. Night owl? They got you covered. More of an introvert (I’m looking at you, my husband)? You can totally enjoy your trip by sending out for cookies every night while you watch a movie in your cabin. We tend to view cruising as traveling on a floating hotel, so our focus tends to be on where we want to be and when and what’s available for those parameters. We also love road tripping, and have some plans for that as well.

 

Having said that, I’m eyeing a few itinerary ideas over the next few years (retirement is looming) and it’s going to be about where we want to go. Having sailed on three different lines in the last 8 years we have a good idea of what to expect from each cruiseline, and can plan accordingly.

[bnickle]

I really enjoyed your review and Patters, and I appreciate all the time you put in to post both. I didn’t think it was possible to be any more excited for a trip than I was, but your posts accomplished it!

 

We leave for London tomorrow and board the Royal Saturday. My goal is to keep up with my travel blog “live” as we go, but if history is any indication I’ll finish a month or so after we get back![emoji4]

 

 

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So. Jealous. We love London so much. Samuel Johnson put it best: “When a man is tired of London he is tired of Life.” Have a wonderful time, on land and on sea! We’ll raise a pint to you in hopes that it’s all that you want and more!

[Cindy]

So. Jealous. We love London so much. Samuel Johnson put it best: “When a man is tired of London he is tired of Life.” Have a wonderful time, on land and on sea! We’ll raise a pint to you in hopes that it’s all that you want and more!

 

 

 

Part of my excitement is going to London feels like going home. I lived there in junior high and high school, and never really got over leaving! I’m like a kid the night before Christmas every single time!

 

 

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[geoherb]

I am interested in your time in London. We are trying to decide how many days we need in London prior to our B I cruise next summer. Thanks !

You can never have enough. We spent three nights there last summer and made it to Westminster Abbey for an evensong service the day we got there plus the Trafalgar Square area; Kensington Palace, the Victoria and Albert, and Harrods the first full day; the National Gallery and Buckingham Palace (including the garden tour), tea at Fortnum and Mason, and a West End show the second day.

 

I lived in London for seven months after graduating from college 34 years ago. I had spent five weeks there the year before with a college program. I had to work during the seven months, so many days I was too tired to do much. One of the reasons I wanted to have tea at Fortnum and Mason was that was one of the things I did regularly after getting off work. It was a lot more expensive and not as good as I remembered.

 

 

We're going to spend five nights this year before our trans-Atlantic. My plans this year include seeing Hamilton, going to Hampton Court, going to St. Paul's, visiting the Tate Modern, and going to the Globe Theatre. We may make it up to where I used to live in Hornsey and work in Wood Green. We'd also like to see more shows.

[bnickle]

You can never have enough. We spent three nights there last summer and made it to Westminster Abbey for an evensong service the day we got there plus the Trafalgar Square area; Kensington Palace, the Victoria and Albert, and Harrods the first full day; the National Gallery and Buckingham Palace (including the garden tour), tea at Fortnum and Mason, and a West End show the second day.

 

I lived in London for seven months after graduating from college 34 years ago. I had spent five weeks there the year before with a college program. I had to work during the seven months, so many days I was too tired to do much. One of the reasons I wanted to have tea at Fortnum and Mason was that was one of the things I did regularly after getting off work. It was a lot more expensive and not as good as I remembered.

 

 

We're going to spend five nights this year before our trans-Atlantic. My plans this year include seeing Hamilton, going to Hampton Court, going to St. Paul's, visiting the Tate Modern, and going to the Globe Theatre. We may make it up to where I used to live in Hornsey and work in Wood Green. We'd also like to see more shows.

 

 

 

We took tea at F&M last summer, and it was disappointing to us as well. The best tea we had was at Greenwich, at the National Maritime Museum. It was just lovely. And I am so jealous of your attendance at an Evensong service at Westminster. Before our cruise, I had planned to attend a service at St Martins In The Fields, which was up the block from our hotel, but my knee was acting gimpy on me.

 

 

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[caribill]

 

Ports:

• Greg: I do not get Geurnsey. I would have rather have hit a port in Wales.
  

 

Guernsey is a port on the itinerary to avoid passengers having to pay extra VAT taxes. This is because the Channel Islands are not part of the EU and a stop at a non-EU port is required to avoid the VAT.

[bnickle]

Guernsey is a port on the itinerary to avoid passengers having to pay extra VAT taxes. This is because the Channel Islands are not part of the EU and a stop at a non-EU port is required to avoid the VAT.

 

 

 

We know this. What Greg was saying was, “I did not enjoy this port.”

 

 

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[Cindy]

Guernsey is a port on the itinerary to avoid passengers having to pay extra VAT taxes. This is because the Channel Islands are not part of the EU and a stop at a non-EU port is required to avoid the VAT.

 

 

 

We took tea at F&M last summer, and it was disappointing to us as well.

 

 

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I was last at F&M in 2013, and I agree! They seem to be relying on their historic reputation and not worrying too much about the quality of their product.🤨

 

 

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[Cindy]

Guernsey is a port on the itinerary to avoid passengers having to pay extra VAT taxes. This is because the Channel Islands are not part of the EU and a stop at a non-EU port is required to avoid the VAT.

 

 

 

I did not know that! I wonder what happens if the ship can’t make port?

 

 

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[geoherb]

I enjoyed our day at Guernsey last summer. Saint Peter Port was a walkable town for us. We enjoyed going up to the Candie Gardens and Victoria Tower. We then toured Castle Cornet.