British Isles- best cruise line for this?

[Ketchican]

Looking for recommendations regarding British Isles cruise for summer/fall of 2019. Looking at NCL Spirit and Crown Princess because I like their itineraries. NCL has the best deal, I think, but the ship is rated lower than the Princess ship- but maybe that's not a big deal. Princess stops in Paris, NCL has one less "at sea" day. Thoughts and advice much appreciated! :)

[BirdTravels]

Queen Victoria August 11-23, 2019.

 

Choose by itinerary. The ship is only someplace to sleep.

 

The Spirit is suppose to undergo a massive refit next year, so she should be new and fresh in the fall. Currently, she is the oldest ship in the NCL fleet and showing her age.

[fshagan]

Disney also British Isles cruises, and we like the one we have scheduled for this year, a 7 night visiting only the UK and Ireland. It's a round trip out of Dover on the Magic.

 

When I was looking at them last year Princess seemed to have the best variety, but all of them were 10 to 11 days. We wanted shorter so the DCL cruise was perfect for us. On DCL, book early to get the best deals. If you're a suite cruiser make sure you know there are no refunds for any deposits for the suites.

[emdia43]

Have a look at the Brilliance of the Seas British Isles cruise thread, by Hoopster95 on the Royal Caribbean board.....:)

[casofilia]

Princess stops in Paris

It stops in Le Havre which is 196Km from Paris!!! By train that is over 2.5 hours by train in both directions!!

[Markj]

Whilst not wishing to deter anyone on this forum from actually cruising. I live in the UK and everywhere here is relatively close in terms of travelling distance and time compared to the wild expanses of the USA;p. So if I was planning a trip around the UK I would take a few days at the start of the cruise and do it by land.

 

There aren't many places that are actually on the coast so most of the sights will require a 2-3 hour coach journey

 

Then get on the cruise ship!!

[fabnfortysomething]

Whilst not wishing to deter anyone on this forum from actually cruising. I live in the UK and everywhere here is relatively close in terms of travelling distance and time compared to the wild expanses of the USA;p. So if I was planning a trip around the UK I would take a few days at the start of the cruise and do it by land.

 

There aren't many places that are actually on the coast so most of the sights will require a 2-3 hour coach journey

 

Then get on the cruise ship!!

 

actually a cruise round British Isles does make sense-we live in North East England and it takes longer to drive to parts of Scotland than to drive to London

 

Visiting Ireland both northern and Republic would involve flights or ferry

 

we are booked on the spirit for this itinerary next july

[casofilia]

Markj; try getting to Kirkwall by land and sea!! A cruise lets you go to ne places and enjoy them and the cruise too. We have done a "Round UK Cruise", it is wonderful.

[Markj]

I completely agree with the above comments - but I guess it depends what you want to see - yes a cruise is ideal for those places you mentioned (and yes I drive from the Midlands to the North-East regularly so know how far it is :eek:) however for many of the main tourist locations - Stratford and Cotswolds, Stonehenge, London, York, even Cardiff, Edinburgh and Glasgow then I think land based makes sense

 

Its lovely that we all have choices to do such things

[sharonann24]

I am also considering this trip for next summer, and just starting my planning. Disney does not appeal to me although I know it has gotten great reviews, since we have done the Disney experience several times and that is not what I want for a European vacation. I do love the itineraries I have seen and would prefer London as both embarkation and disembarkation port. Still coming down from our high on our July NCL Baltic cruise which was amazing. Each trip gets better and better! I am actually meeting with my TA today to debrief our trip so I will definitely getting her input.

[EllieinNJ]

But the prices!! $2000 pp for an inside? I read on another thread that these prices will come down. I have been waiting patiently and they have not. Some have even gone up a bit.

[Tatka]

Princess stops in Paris

It stops in Le Havre which is 196Km from Paris!!! By train that is over 2.5 hours by train in both directions!!

Exactly. If we stopped in Le Havr we wouldn't go to Paris.

 

Overall I think Princess features a better product in many regards. For example in food department.

Also Princess is more "British" product than NCL, sailing on Princess in that region will provide deeper immersion, including great UK comedy

[rocklinmom]

There is also the newest option on NCL for British Isles next summer on the Pearl instead of the Spirit. It is offered June 8, 2019 roundtrip Amsterdam (vs. Southampton) and goes to Ireland, Scotland, Le Havre France, etc.

[Seminole1975]

I get a lot of information from the Ports of Call forum section in Cruise Critic. They have a British Isles thread.

[JillK]

Hi there! I cruised this itinerary this past May and would highly recommend it.

 

We booked in April a year ahead and had a look at NCL, Princess, Celebrity and Royal when deciding.

 

I had NCL cruise next vouchers I was wanting to use but found that the price for NCL was significantly higher than Royal so ended up booking the Brilliance (for the first time in many cruises I wrote a review and posted it both in the Royal thread and the reviews section if you’re interested).

 

Agree with another poster that the first consideration should be itinerary. For us, we really wanted Dublin overnight which NCL wasn’t doing. Our second consideration then was the price since our currency is bad against the USD, pound and euro.

 

Regardless of who you cruise with in the end, it is a wonderful itinerary and I’m sure you will enjoy it.

 

Happy sailing!

 

 

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[Victress2007]

I completely agree with the above comments - but I guess it depends what you want to see - yes a cruise is ideal for those places you mentioned (and yes I drive from the Midlands to the North-East regularly so know how far it is :eek:) however for many of the main tourist locations - Stratford and Cotswolds, Stonehenge, London, York, even Cardiff, Edinburgh and Glasgow then I think land based makes sense

 

Its lovely that we all have choices to do such things

 

A cruise enables you to unpack once and leave the "driving" to the cruise line. We just did the 12 day NCL cruise in May and it was great. We did spend 3 days pre - and 2 days post- cruise in London. One of our favorite excursions was debarkation day, we took the Salisbury, Stonehenge, Windsor tour and got dropped off close to our hotel. Salisbury was amazing!

 

 

as was Stonehenge

 

We had amazingly good weather too!

 

Edinburgh and Glasgow were also great, but we had spent a week in Edinburgh before.

 

Vic

[Victress2007]

Looking for recommendations regarding British Isles cruise for summer/fall of 2019. Looking at NCL Spirit and Crown Princess because I like their itineraries. NCL has the best deal, I think, but the ship is rated lower than the Princess ship- but maybe that's not a big deal. Princess stops in Paris, NCL has one less "at sea" day. Thoughts and advice much appreciated! :)

 

We were on the Spirit fall of 2017 and I really like the ship. We were in an aft balcony cabin and were able to walk out to the back bar and up to the buffet easily. We enjoyed sitting aft and watching the world go by. It was in October, so there were few children using the pool in the back.

 

 

 

 

Vic

[cruisequeen4ever]

I haven’t been on the Spirit, but I have been on the Crown. It’s a beautiful ship, and I absolutely adore Princess! We just did the British Isles on Princess last month, and it couldn’t have been better...well, maybe one more sea day would have been nice, but we were able to see sooooo much in 12 days. With Europe, the ship and cruise line aren’t as important because you spend so much time on land and are so tired when you get back on the ship. That said, when we did stray from Princess last summer in the Med, we sure missed our favorite cruise line! I’d say, if the price is shockingly different, do NCL, but if it’s not too different, go for Princess. Have fun!

 

 

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[Tatka]

A cruise enables you to unpack once and leave the "driving" to the cruise line. We just did the 12 day NCL cruise in May and it was great. We did spend 3 days pre - and 2 days post- cruise in London. One of our favorite excursions was debarkation day, we took the Salisbury, Stonehenge, Windsor tour and got dropped off close to our hotel. Salisbury was amazing!

 

 

as was Stonehenge

 

We had amazingly good weather too!

 

Edinburgh and Glasgow were also great, but we had spent a week in Edinburgh before.

 

Vic

We did this excursion too.. don't remember their company name. It was very reasonably priced in comparison with cruise lines offerings

[fabnfortysomething]

Hi there! I cruised this itinerary this past May and would highly recommend it.

 

We booked in April a year ahead and had a look at NCL, Princess, Celebrity and Royal when deciding.

 

I had NCL cruise next vouchers I was wanting to use but found that the price for NCL was significantly higher than Royal so ended up booking the Brilliance (for the first time in many cruises I wrote a review and posted it both in the Royal thread and the reviews section if you’re interested).

 

Agree with another poster that the first consideration should be itinerary. For us, we really wanted Dublin overnight which NCL wasn’t doing. Our second consideration then was the price since our currency is bad against the USD, pound and euro.

 

Regardless of who you cruise with in the end, it is a wonderful itinerary and I’m sure you will enjoy it.

 

Happy sailing!

 

 

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our NCL round British Isles next year has an overnight in Dublin

[Cruiser_1977]

I would also recommend visiting the British Isles forum:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=233

[JillK]

our NCL round British Isles next year has an overnight in Dublin

 

Oh that's great news!

 

My father-in-law is from Dublin so we were very excited to spend almost 48 hours there. It was our first time being docked in port overnight and we really enjoyed the freedom to be out and about in the city at our leisure without having to worry about what time to make it back to the ship the first day. We purchased the Dublin Pass for that day and were able to tour at our leisure and pick and choose where to spend our time.

 

I suppose that I have over-nighted in port previously, if I count our honeymoon cruise in 2000 that sailed for about an hour out of Miami, turned around and re-docked before being cancelled outright later that evening. Slept on the ship docked in Miami before they put us off in the morning to take the ship to drydock. Obviously not the same by a long shot!

[fabnfortysomething]

Oh that's great news!

 

My father-in-law is from Dublin so we were very excited to spend almost 48 hours there. It was our first time being docked in port overnight and we really enjoyed the freedom to be out and about in the city at our leisure without having to worry about what time to make it back to the ship the first day. We purchased the Dublin Pass for that day and were able to tour at our leisure and pick and choose where to spend our time.

 

I suppose that I have over-nighted in port previously, if I count our honeymoon cruise in 2000 that sailed for about an hour out of Miami, turned around and re-docked before being cancelled outright later that evening. Slept on the ship docked in Miami before they put us off in the morning to take the ship to drydock. Obviously not the same by a long shot!

 

what were you doing on your honeymoon that caused the whole ship to require a dry dock?:')

[JillK]

what were you doing on your honeymoon that caused the whole ship to require a dry dock?:')

 

Not my fault, I swear!

 

It was aboard the Carnival Paradise. It would have been my third cruise and my hubby's first.... we were unpacking in our inside stateroom so even though I couldn't see, I could feel the ship turning around about an hour after heading out. All my previous cruises at that point had been out of Miami so I knew that wasn't right. Sure enough they announced that they were experiencing a problem and needed to re-dock in Miami to have it examined/fixed.

 

We had dinner (traditional seating with two other honeymooning couples) and afterward were up on deck watching divers with lights examining the ship. The captain came on and started by saying "Ladies and gentlemen, the Paradise uses the Azipod propulsion system..." and started to get really technical. I turned to my new hubby and said "this cruise is about to be cancelled" and sure enough that was what we heard next as they had a complete failure in one of the pods.

 

We stayed on board for the night and the next morning were sent on our way. We managed to find a condo on Marco Island for the rest of the week so didn't have to go home immediately. It felt devastating at the time but in the end we had two trips since they refunded the entire cost of the cancelled cruise (and airfare since we had bought air through Carnival - first and only time I buy through the cruiseline) and gave us a free cruise for same accommodations on a future 7 day Caribbean itinerary.

 

I have to say that I thought Carnival handled it really well. They were constantly making announcements throughout the evening and the full refund and free future really softened the blow. There were lots of very angry people and kids crying that we saw throughout the rest of our time aboard. I wouldn't have wanted to have been in Guest Services on that ship!

[casofilia]

what were you doing on your honeymoon that caused the whole ship to require a dry dock?:')

 

Had to smile at this!! We got off the Star in Singapore last year and it immediately went "wonky"for a few months. We wondered what we had done!!!