Questions for people that have done the British isles cruise with Princess

[JulsLuvsTravel]

We will be sailing on May 1st 2019, I have been immersed in research of things I want to do at each port, that I forgot about Princess having activities on board that are culturally interesting. I was wondering if anyone recalls what the activities are on which days they occurred. If anyone kept dailies. This cruise is port intensive it might be good to come back early on a port day and get a bit of rest at the same time.

 

Also doing a few ports on our own. Have seen post where they say shuttle to city center was free, sometimes there is a cost.

 

Ports I'm trying to figure out is Cobh, Dublin .if anyone also has the schedule so every 30 minutes etc...In Dublin we are there overnight.

 

Last questions, shows at night, are there any of them that are worth attending or should we rest up for the next day :)

 

 

Thanks in advance for your help

[geoherb]

We did the Dublin overnight itinerary last year. They had free shuttles for us in Dublin and Belfast. I read some posts on the Princess boards that made me think they don't still offer them free, but perhaps it depends on the itinerary.

 

They had special performances by local groups when the ship was in port late (or overnight, in the case of Dublin).

[elaine5]

From princess July 2018. Dublin is a 1/2 day unless you take an out of town excursion. Shuttle is $8 each way. Taxi is cost effective for 2+ persons. 1st night in Dublin had good folk dancers singers.

In cobh, I suggest ecoach to blarney castle and just walk the grounds gardens and take photos of the castle.

We loved the cruise.

Esp loved beatlemania, encore singing, dancing with the seas was very fun. Many nights were quite good. The historical lectures were ok, but I would not plan my day around them.

Edited October 2, 2018 by elaine5

[elaine5]

we also had the Dublin overnight.

Day 1: We took a taxi and then train to Greystone and did an 8km hike with our teens. Day 2: We did a typical DIY walkabout, which I highly recommend: Archeology museum--free and excellent, then walked over to Trinity College. You are supposed to book a walking tour to tour Trinity--we just popped into the courtyard, took a quick photo and daughter bought a tee shirt at the college gift shop. Then we walked to Temple Bar area, had a snack, walked to see the famine sculpture and walked back to ship--it's a long walk--take a taxi and ask taxi to drive by famine sculpture on the way to the ship. Day 2 of Dublin was about 4 hours for us.

 

Ecoach in Cobh is only 39 euros and includes admission to Blarney. We did the Blarney + Kinsale. in hindsight, the 1/2 day would have been better. Kinsale is a cute town, but Cobh is also very attractive and I would have preferred to have some down time. You would also do fine just walking around Cobh (very compact) and there is a lovely cathedral. Blarney castle and grounds are very nice--but we didn't stand in line to go up in the castle--which is just a ruin and you can see it fine from the outside.

 

It's a long cruise--in hindsight, I would spend one Dublin day as an extra sea day. We are in our 50s with teens and we were all fairly exhausted by the end. I recall several lectures/cultural entertainment around 4pm.

[anthonyy7]

We were on the Royal this past summer with Dublin overnight. 3 ports had shuttles... Dublin & Le Havre were $8 one way and Belfast was free. You could walk into Dublin if you really wanted to as it's roughly 2 miles. The tram stop is halfway, about a mile from the ship. We walked into Le Havre to get our rental car (much cheaper than the agency at the terminal), the walk was a mile if that...

 

 

 

For S. Queensferry, there is a shuttle called X99 bus. The one way fare to St Andrews Square is £4 or £6 round trip. We were on the first tender and the first bus filled up rapidly. We left on time and with traffic, the drive was roughly 25-30 min. The same company also runs tours and for £20 you can a round trip transfer + 1 of their tours. Their tours are listed here https://edinburghtour.com/

 

 

Cobh is nice and shopping there is better than Kinsale. My regret was going to Kinsale after Blarney. I suggest e-coach tours as well to Blarney and back then explore Cobh. You can only go inside the castle ruin if your kissing the stone (LONG line) however the grounds is nice and worth going. The Woollen mills has shopping but we stopped looking around once I saw the long check out line.

 

 

Go into Guernsey early (we left at 6ish on first tender) and had most of the place to ourselves for hour or two. After touring the castle we headed back to the ship at 11:30. I heard the tender line was horrendous in the afternoon.

 

 

The was a folkloric show (A Gaels Afloat show?) the first night in Dublin. Eh I wouldn't recommend or at least sit near the aisle.

 

 

 

I have all the patters if there is anything specific you would like to know

[geoherb]

… I suggest e-coach tours as well to Blarney and back then explore Cobh. You can only go inside the castle ruin if you're kissing the stone (LONG line) however the grounds is nice and worth going.

We were lucky to run into friends from a previous cruise in line. Catching up with them made the wait seem shorter. There's one line to the top. You can choose whether you want to kiss the stone or not when you get there. Two of us did and the other two didn't. The views from the top are nice.

[lamchops]

We just got back from a NCL British Isles cruise and wanted to chime in that we found 1 day in Dublin not enough and have desires to go back for a land visit of the area.

We spent our “rainy” port day in Cobh visiting the Heritage center, Lutsitania memorial, the Titanic experience, Colman’s cathedral, and the Titanic memorial. My original plan was to go to Blarney by train on our own as the train station is next to the pier but didn’t want to stand in the rain all afternoon.

I would rather give up a day in Cobh/Cork to see Blarney Castle and spend 2 days in Dublin. My new plan is to see Blarney Castle on my future Ireland land trip.