Review and Travel Journal of Our Regal Cruise to England/Guernsey/Ireland/Scotland and Wales-A Crowning Achievement

[JimmyVWine]

2 hours ago, ldtr said:

The docks we used were the normal tender landing location.

Then this wins the award for worst tender port-worldwide.  No taxis.  No shuttle buses to town. And a mile and a half walk to the train station.  Every person within earshot of us who was striking out on their own was cursing and grumbling as they walked around the landing area wondering what they were going to do for the day.  I know that it pays to plan ahead, and I am certainly a compulsive planner.  But it never occurred to me that we would be dropped off 30 minutes from the train station with no transportation to get us there. I just re-checked the official port website to see if I had missed anything and confirmed that I did not.  At least now I know.  Though even now knowing, I'm not sure what the workaround would be other than to try to get on the first tender to make the earlier train. 

[JimmyVWine]

Day 8-Sea Day-Last Day of the Cruise (Continued)

We returned to our cabin to finish packing our biggest bags so that we could leave them outside our cabin when we headed to dinner.  I went to the safe to unlock it and retrieve our passports and whatever currency we had stored in there.  Just as I put in the last of the four digits for the code, the LED display flashed like a supernova and went blank.  Dead as a doornail.  Me, mouth wide open on the outside, and our valuables on the inside, separated by what I could only conclude was an electrical malfunction or dead battery.  My first instinct was to call Guest Services from our cabin phone.  After a couple of rings I was subjected to the familiar “hold music” interrupted every now and again by the statement that all customer service representatives were busy, but rest assured, my call was important to them.  Is it really?  After 15 minutes S offered to try to initiate a live chat via the app.  Seemed like a sound strategy.  But after initiating the chat, she too was on cyber-hold, waiting for an agent to converse with her.  Now more than a bit frustrated, I decided to walk down to the Guest Services Desk and we would have our own little race.  S would be in charge of the chat, K would guard the phone, and I would try the manual approach of speaking face to face with a CSR, though this being the last day of the cruise with people storming the castle to dispute charges that they did not make, (and perhaps even ones that they did), I didn’t favor my chances of getting to the front of the line in under a half an hour.

 

Turns out that the line at the Guest Services Desk was only one person deep at each station, and I was face-to-face with someone in under three minutes.  I explained my situation and the agent picked up the phone to call the proper department and got crickets.  She said that the person responsible for this issue must be on break, but that she was able to get a message to him.  Best I could do, I suppose.  So I headed back to the cabin.  Just as I entered the room, S informed me that she just concluded a chat and that we were “on the list.”  It troubled me a bit to know that there is “a list” for this, but I suppose with over 1,300 cabins, each with a safe, the law of big numbers commands that my situation was not unique.  As for K, she hung up the phone with that method of communication being less helpful than had we opted for a carrier pigeon.

 

About 10 minutes later a helpful gentleman showed up with a trainee, and between the two of them they had the safe open, repaired and operational 5 minutes later.  We thanked them and they left.  About 5 minutes after that, he knocked on our door a second time and when I answered it, he said: “Are you still having an issue with your safe?” and I then realized that we had probably made “the list” twice—once from Guest Services and once from the chat.  I explained the situation and off he went to attend to the next person on “the list.”  After K hung up the phone, she commented that “You can dial 911 from here” and I said that this was pretty standard.  Only with the way our call was handled (or not handled) one is left to wonder if a call to 911 might go something like this:

 

Recorded Voice:

“Your call is very important to us.

Please press 1 if you have fallen and can’t get up.

Press 2 if you are having a coronary episode.

Press 3 for uncontrolled bleeding.

Press 4 for all other issues.

And please know that here at Princess, your call is very important to us.”

Followed by hold music and then a repeat of the chorus above.

 

We actually finished our packing in less time that expected and decided to use the time that had been gifted back to us to sit in Crooners, have wine/cocktails, and enjoy one of the rare instances where a live performance was held in this venue.  At 5:45 the Prestige Quartet Band ended their set in the Piazza, and at 5:45 and 10 seconds, the Gold Strings Duo began to play in Crooners.  So there we sat, summarizing our trip and musing about the places we would like to put on our short list for future travels together.  And while staring our from Crooners and gazing over in the direction of the Ocean Terrace Seafood Bar, we joked about the underutilization of that venue.  We had taken a peek at tonight’s dinner menu on our cabin TV and saw that it was heavily loaded with seafood.  S theorized that all of the unused fish from the Ocean Terrace must make its way to the galley for the last night of the cruise.  And K joked about how incompatible it is for there to be a razor-sharp knife wielding sushi chef to be working his craft on a ship in rough seas.  Aside from the airlift evacuation, there were three other instances throughout the cruise where the medical staff was summoned to Deck 6, and one where the medical staff was summoned to a specific cabin, (which I won’t reveal).  K wondered how many times the medical staff is summoned to the Ocean Terrace after the sushi chef misplays his knife and has to call 911 and “Press 3 for assistance.”

 

Off to Vines for one last time to load our glasses with a nice glass of wine, and then to our 7:30 table for the last time.  S started with the “Ocean Terrace Leftover Soup”, or as it appeared on the menu: “Scandinavian Fish Soup”.  K and I each had the French Onion Soup which reappeared as a Princess Favorite.  Incidentally, this was the only night that the Fettuccini Alfredo was not on the menu.  I’m guessing that they could have prepared it if asked, but you may not want to risk it and save this dish for the last night.  I might get bumped from the rotation owing to the influx of leftover fish coming in from the Ocean Terrace!

 

For Mains, I had the lamb Shank which was very good.  K had the Sole Palermitana (which I suppose is some sort of riff on “Palermo”) and S had the Prime Rib.  We were all happy with our dishes and all things considered, this was a pretty good “Farewell Dinner”.  I remember from our years past that the Farewell Dinners were often best described as “Soup Kitchen Thanksgiving” but maybe that happens more on U.S.-based itineraries, with Roast Turkey, Meatloaf, Pot Roast, and other items that could have been plucked out of a Swanson’s Frozen Dinner from 1974. 

 

For dessert S had the Baked Alaska as I explained for her the “old” tradition of how that dish was made and presented.  She made a note to search for a video of that on YouTube.  K did what I had done the night before, which is even more rate for her than it is for me which was to “make her own Sundae”, and I had Apple Pie a la mode.  S didn’t seem to “get” the supposed extravagance of the Baked Alaska and concluded that something must get lost in the transition from “Flaming Dessert Ball” to “Baskin Robbins Ice Cream Cake.”  K and I both enjoyed or desserts.

 

For the entertainment portion of the evening we opted to see AJ Clarke one last time, only this evening he would be tickling the ivories over in the Wheelhouse.  Over the course of the cruise his audience and loyal following had grown big enough to make the Wheelhouse a tough ticket to score.  Getting all of his fans into the seats there was like stuffing 2 pounds of sausage into a one-pound casing.  But we hung out at the rail long enough to score a sofa around a coffee table which we shared with another couple. (The coffee table, not the sofa.  This wasn’t one of those “alternative lifestyle” cruises.)  We listened, drank, submitted requests, rinsed and repeated until the last chord was struck.  Then off to bed to get ready for departure day, the details of which will be covered in the next post. Seeing how this was our “hit all of the remaining bars on our BINGO Card” day as well as a day when we hung out at Crooners pre-dinner, our bar tab for the day was not shy (for us).  6 glasses of wine and 14 cocktails which would have cost us $273.76 out-of-pocket.  With Plus our bill was $2.36 and with Premier it would have been $0.00.  Our final tally and thoughts on Plus will also be posted in an upcoming post.   

[Guest ldtr]

1 hour ago, JimmyVWine said:

Then this wins the award for worst tender port-worldwide.  No taxis.  No shuttle buses to town. And a mile and a half walk to the train station.  Every person within earshot of us who was striking out on their own was cursing and grumbling as they walked around the landing area wondering what they were going to do for the day.  I know that it pays to plan ahead, and I am certainly a compulsive planner.  But it never occurred to me that we would be dropped off 30 minutes from the train station with no transportation to get us there. I just re-checked the official port website to see if I had missed anything and confirmed that I did not.  At least now I know.  Though even now knowing, I'm not sure what the workaround would be other than to try to get on the first tender to make the earlier train. 

Considering the relatively low number of ships that call at Holyhead and that most of them are small enough to dock, the lack of infrastructure for tendering is not that surprising.  I expect that with the relatively low number of ship offered excursions and the limited number of alternatives (out Busy Bus tour was excellent), I expect most of the passengers did not even get off of the ship.

[Lady Arwen]

So sad “our” journey has come to an end.  I feel as if I was with your family and now we’re saying goodbye.  Thank you so much for your awesome review.  It is the bestest of the best! 

[JimmyVWine]

12 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

So sad “our” journey has come to an end.  I feel as if I was with your family and now we’re saying goodbye.  Thank you so much for your awesome review.  It is the bestest of the best! 

Thanks.  One more installment coming to wrap it all up with some final thoughts.

[JimmyVWine]

Departure Day

 

Our original plan for departure day was one that would have been filled with fun and excitement, but it was not to be.  K and I had a flight from Heathrow to Boston scheduled for just after 5:00 p.m. and S paired that up with a flight from Heathrow to Edinburgh also just after 5:00.  As a result, we all “qualified” for the Princess Transfer Excursion to Heathrow that went by way of a side trip to Windsor Castle.  This would have been especially special since the Castle had hosted the Coronation Concert and festivities just the night before.  I was certain that the excitement would still be in the air.  But alas, two days before we departed British Airways cancelled our flight and we were rebooked on a flight that departed just after 2:00.  I checked for some other options, but it wouldn’t work out.  At that time I contacted Princess to cancel the excursion and was told by the agent on the phone that I was all set with my cancellation and that a refund would be forthcoming.  However, when we got to our cabin on Day One, the excursion tickets for our departure day transfer were there waiting there for us.  I took the tickets down to the excursion desk to see if I had indeed been cancelled with a refund provided and they checked and confirmed that no cancellation had been initiated and no refund had been issued.  So they took the tickets right then and there and added a refundable OBC refund to our accounts.  The issuance of that refund was instantaneous as confirmed on our Journey Account.  The lesson here is not to trust the people who you talk to on the phone.

 

Once our flight change was made before we left home, we had no transfer back to the airport.  I texted S and asked her, with her home court advantage, if she could secure us a private car service from Southampton to LHR.  She booked us with the same company that took us to the ship from the Leonardo Hotel to begin the trip.  Then, as if to add insult to injury, on the last day of our cruise, S received word that her British Airways flight to Edinburgh had also been cancelled, only they provided her with no alternative booking.  She was on her own.  Thankfully she was able to speak to a BA agent from her cell phone on our Sea Day and get herself on another flight, and as luck would have it, her flight was also just after 2:00 so we would all be together.  How in the world did we ever travel before cell phones and wi-fi?  Had all of these changes happened to us in 1990, I don’t know what we would have done.  With all of this taken care of, when the sheet of paper landed in our cabin asking for our departure preference, we were able to indicate that we would be not taking a Princess transfer or tour, and could walk off the ship as late as they would reasonably allow.  I suppose this tiny bit of extra time on the ship was the small silver lining to all of this.

 

When morning came we were out of our cabin around 8:00 and bided our time in the Piazza near the IC having a final quick breakfast.  At around 9:00 our departure group was called and by 9:15 we were off the ship, had located our luggage in the very organized terminal (with luggage bundled according to departure group) and were headed to the area where taxis and arranged rides could be met.  Our driver arrived on time and in the largest vehicle possible, per our instructions given our luggage, and away we went to Heathrow.  Another family vacation completed with happy memories and a tinge of sadness that it was over.  That concludes the travel portion of the Journal.  One final post to come with final thoughts and a financial tally.     

[Thrak]

On 5/22/2023 at 8:46 AM, JimmyVWine said:

The event was fun, though slightly dampened by the fact that our emcee for the event did not know any of the songs, barely knew some of the artists, and refused to take his role seriously, (or as seriously as one should for a lighthearted quiz).  His utter contempt for some of music history’s greatest songs and bands did nothing to enhance the show.

 

We had a clod who went by "Scottish Ken" on a cruise. He hosted a Country Music Trivia event and had zero knowledge of Country Music. Even the Brits - who are not really known for Country Music - kept calling him out for bad info. Pretty much everybody in the room told him that Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison is not Country Music. He was surly and unpleasant for the entire cruise and was especially so at this event. He was definitely in the wrong job.

[Guest ldtr]

5 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

Then this wins the award for worst tender port-worldwide.  No taxis.  No shuttle buses to town. And a mile and a half walk to the train station.  Every person within earshot of us who was striking out on their own was cursing and grumbling as they walked around the landing area wondering what they were going to do for the day.  I know that it pays to plan ahead, and I am certainly a compulsive planner.  But it never occurred to me that we would be dropped off 30 minutes from the train station with no transportation to get us there. I just re-checked the official port website to see if I had missed anything and confirmed that I did not.  At least now I know.  Though even now knowing, I'm not sure what the workaround would be other than to try to get on the first tender to make the earlier train. 

in 2023 there are only 4 cruise ships scheduled to anchor and 2 of them are the Regal Princess.

 

The use of the Marina as a tender location has been in place since 2016.  While it is not explicit on the port web site, I did find it before the cruise by doing a search using Holyhead tender location as well as getting the info from Busy Bus.  I was surprised by the lack of a shuttle, because there is usually a shuttle from the dock to downtown.  Though that might be more due to the port being an industrial port and one cannot walk from the ship to the downtown when docked.  While a long distance one can walk from the tender port.

[JimmyVWine]

Final Thoughts 

I included the phrase “A Crowning Achievement” in the title of this thread to capture both the fortuity that had us sailing around the UK at the time of the Coronation, as well as to capture the notion that Princess had delivered an excellent product at a fair price.  This was our second post-pause cruise, the other being in October from Athens to Barcelona.  We were very pleased with that earlier cruise, but perhaps that small sample size did not do justice to all of the complaints we had read, complaining about the downturn of the Princess product and the not infrequent threads here started by people who have vowed to never set foot on a Princess ship ever again.  As I stated in response to someone else’s thread just after we returned, there was nothing about this cruise that would have me (or the rest of my family) want to put Princess in our rearview mirrors.  The ship, its condition, the crew, the food and the itinerary were all what we expected from Princess and there was honestly no slippage that we could discern from our very first Princess cruise over a decade ago.  Life as a whole is not perfect, and it is irrational to think that any of its component parts is perfect either.  This cruise more than measured up and given that S was free--owing to the “Kids Sail Free” promotion--it would be impossible to suggest that we did not get our money’s worth, even if only looking at her share of the costs!

 

It is worth noting that I am easy to please.  K and I raised an only child and we are very used to doing things as a family.  We were never the type to go off on our own, and we faced the world together.  We were blessed to have an adventurous kid and an adventurous eater who began dining at some of the world’s finest restaurants by the age of three, even if that meant us dining all by ourselves at 5:30 p.m.  So what I mean to say is that our family time has always been precious and one of the things I enjoy most about the cruise experience is that it compresses family time.  We eat together, three meals a day.  Seven if you count all the trips to the International Café!  We tour together.  We laugh together. We stick together.  And now that S has moved, at least for now, to another country, those times together are much fewer and much further in between.  So the opportunity for the three of us to compress our time together into an 8 Day Cruise is special and it would take a whole host of disasters for me to ever conclude that the cruise was anything other than “great.”  If I am being honest, I would say that the main reason for selecting this particular cruise was that it was the right length of time, departed from and returned to a port that S could get to easily, and qualified for the Third Person Free promotion.  The itinerary itself was a tertiary consideration at best.  Now that the cruise is over, I can say that this itinerary was fantastic and took us to places we had never been to, and honestly never thought too long and hard about.  I am so glad that fate brought us to these places as every port was worth visiting even if some advance planning might be necessary in some spots.   We thoroughly enjoyed this cruise, and I would say that even if I were not so easy to please. 

 

As for food, I am easy to please, but hard to impress.  I’ll explain.  I am the principal chef in the house (though S has developed into quite the chef herself), and I cook dinner most nights and share in the cleaning.  As a result, any meal that involves a tableclothed table that I did not set, with my order selected from a printed menu and taken by a human waiter that results in the delivery of food that I did not cook, served on dishes that I do not have to clean, starts out as a “6” out of 10 before I take my first bite.  That said, the assigned score isn’t likely to rise to a “9” or “10” unless Thomas Keller or Daniel Boulud is in the kitchen.  So in my reviews, if I say that “we all enjoyed our meals” or that a dish was “very good”, bear in mind that the very act of me not preparing it gets it most of the way home.  But I know a Michelin Three-Star meal when I have one, and I’ll never claim that any meal on a Princess ship approaches that level.  I have said before and will say again:  If the food you enjoy on a cruise ship is the best you have ever had, then you need to get out more.  If the meal that you have on a cruise ship is the worst you have ever had, you likewise you need to get out more.  We were overall very happy with our culinary experience on board (and off ship as well.) We did notice that portion sizes had shrunk a bit, but if you cannot figure out a workaround for “not enough food” on a cruise ship, you aren’t playing the game right.

 

As for service, we saw some differences but not enough to cause us to head for the exits.  Much gets posted here about how “great” or “awful” their cabin steward was.  Again, I am easy to please but hard to impress.  We got the sense that our steward was relatively new.  He did above the bare minimum required to fulfill his role, but we never witnessed “above and beyond” service, nor were we expecting it.  That is something that you take joy in when you receive it, but you do not knock off points if you don’t.  (At least in my scoring system.)  Our towels were folded and rehung.  Changed out on the few occasions when we left them in the tub.  Bed made.  Garbage emptied.  Our sofa bed was converted into a bed on Day One and left in that state for the duration of the cruise, but I am certain that if I had pressed and requested (demanded?) that it be converted to a sofa for daytime use and to a bed at turndown, he would have done that.  But I asked S what she preferred (since it was her bed) and she said that she was fine with it remaining a bed and we let the issue die.  Given the length along the hallway where we would see our steward from time to time, it was clear that he was servicing more cabins than stewards had to in the past.  In my mind, that entitles them to a whole lot of leeway (nautical term!).

 

In the MDR, our Lead Server was on his first week of a new contract, having ended his prior contract as a waiter in the Crown Grill.  He joked that either there was no room for him back at the CG, or that he was being demoted back to the MDR!  I am certain that it was the former.  Suffice it to say that he was a top-level server who had earned his way into the Specialty Dining ranks and we were lucky to have him.  His Assistant, we could tell, was brand new but eager to please.  I am sure that he will do just fine.  With what we detected was a new-ish steward and a new-ish Assistant Server, there was every opportunity for things to run aground (nautical term!) but in our eyes they did not. 

 

The entertainment was as expected.  Adele did not perform in the theater. Bruce Hornsby was not our ship’s pianist/singer for the week.  The stage show was not Les Miserable .  That’s not what we expect.  AJ Clarke was as good a pianist/singer as we have had on a cruise, and we have had “Bert With An E” twice.  The comedian made us laugh and groan equally, which is about par for the course.  The trivia games and game shows were right in line with where Princess left off before it hit the pause.  The house bands were above the level we have experienced in the past and they generated more dancing and boogying from this crowd of 45-85 year-olds than we have seen on other cruises.  No complaints there.

 

The wine service is what we have come to expect.  On U.S. based cruises we are likely to always bring our own wine and supplement that with cocktails here and there.  But on cruises where we cannot transport wine from our cellar, we will continue to purchase the Plus Plan.  There is better-than-decent wine if you are willing to spend above the $15 limit.  Even then, $15-$18 will get you perfectly fine wine.  (Though for the life if me I cannot get over the $24 price tag for a glass of Veuve.)   You may have to kiss some frogs and be persistent, but you should come out on top.  I still think that the use of generic wine listings on the Plus side of the menu is unforgiveable.  People may claim that this is because of changing inventory, but I say phooey to that.  I can promise you that they have on board more cases of whatever generic Cabernet they are pouring than they have of the $18 Cabernet.  If they can list the latter by name, they can do the same for generic stuff.  And if the ship is going to use the QR Code system for the most accurate wine list, then they needn’t worry about having to print up paper lists each time the generic wine gets swapped out for something else.  A good wine director should spend 30 minutes each day in front of their computer updating inventories. 

 

As for Dine My Way, I think I have said enough about that.  Prior to the cruise we booked the Concerto MDR for every night at the same time (7:20) and made it clear on Day One upon arrival that our goal was to achieve a nice table that we could have for the balance of the cruise.  Before our first course arrived that evening, the Maître’d offered us a perfect table, (not the one we were actually seated at that night) as long as we were willing to shift our reservation to 7:30.  We did, and received exactly what we wanted, and apparently everyone in this area of the dining room had as well as every single table in this area was similarly occupied by the same people each night, thought at staggered times.  By Day Three any casual observer would have sworn that we were either in Traditional Dining or in Club/Reserve Class Dining.

 

A final note on the Plus Package.  We had had “Plus” on our October cruise, but it was added in as a free promotion so we weren’t really paying for it in a transparent sense.  I did monitor the price of that cruise to see what the pricing looked like once the promotion ended, and it never did change to the point where the cruise was ever sold at a price where that price plus the addition of Plus equaled what we were paying.  We really did get a very good deal on that one.  But for this cruise, we paid a la carte for Plus and added S into that Package at the rack rate.  We were on Old Plus at a cost of $400 per person for the cruise ($50 per day x 8 days).  $1,200.00 in all for the three of us.  Here is how it broke down:

 

--Had we paid out-of-pocket for Gratuities, Wi-Fi, Sabatini’s and Drinks = $2,532**

--The cost of Old Plus + Sabatini’s + extra for wines over $15 = $1,392

--The cost of New Plus + Sabatini’s ($35) + extra for wines over $15 = $1,644

--The cost of Premier with no extra costs whatsoever = $1,920

 

** I was not so obsessed as to keep track of our coffee purchases, but this number does not include coffee which would have to be added in if we were sailing without a Package.  Easily another $100.

 

I had done the math ahead of time and was confident that Old Plus was the way to go, and I was right. I also did some guestimating as to what our overage costs would be for alcohol so that I could post enough OBC to cover that and walk off the ship with a zero balance.  Want to know how I did?  I cashed in some credit card points for a $25 Gift Card so that was “free.”  I bought a $100 Gift Card from AARP at a cost of $90.  So we banked $125 in OBC for a total cost of $90.  At the end of the cruise, our daily overages with the Plus Package came to $117.  The extra $8 and some of the OBC that we were refunded from the unused excursion were used up in the cosmetic shop, with about $230 left over.  Still waiting for my check.

 

So that does it.  At the outset I promised that this would be long, irreverent, and hopefully informative.  I delivered on the first two promises, and I leave it up to you to assess the third.  It has taken me longer to recount the trip than it did for me to take it, but in some ways that was intentional.  It allowed me to relive the trip a second time as you were living it the first.  I trust that if you have gotten this far you did not find it to be overbearing or overly self-indulgent.  If you aren’t reading this, you probably did, and gave up long ago.  You all have given me so much in my time on these Boards and I hope that I have given a sliver of it back.  Not sure where our next adventure will be, but I promise that the next time we book a Princess cruise, you will be the second to know.  Trying hard to make a Norway/Sweden trip work out in 2024, but we shall see.  Either way, whatever and whenever the next trip comes to pass, I will do my best to pay forward what you have all given me.  Until then, cheers to all, and I look forward to reading what you all have to say about your adventures.    

Edited May 23, 2023 by JimmyVWine

[JimmyVWine]

41 minutes ago, Thrak said:

Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison is not Country Music.

Well of course it is.  If the "Country" is IRELAND!!! 

[JimmyVWine]

13 minutes ago, ldtr said:

I was surprised by the lack of a shuttle, because there is usually a shuttle from the dock to downtown.

Coronation Day maybe?  Whatever the reason, there were many disappointed people who tendered back to the ship shortly after arrival, and a number of people on that train platform who were thankful that they were healthy enough and had the proper footwear for the roundtrip walk to the train station. 

[catgirl411]

Fantastic job!  One of the best “lives” I’ve followed. Having been on two Princess cruises post Covid I think you have accurately summarized our experience. I do agree that there is no excuse for the genetic wine list (that was the only thing that drove me nuts on both cruises) and there were food experiences that were less than perfect (short rib) but all in all two very good experiences ( Alaska and a Christmas/New Year’s Panama Canal).  Our next three cruises are on Celebrity so we will see if we still like X as well.  Look forward to your next adventure. 

[SSAtlantic]

Thank you for a great trip report. We are also a family of 3 with DD half way into her Masters. We also cherish our family trips. We have cruised Celebrity exclusively for the past several years but have a family Princess cruise on Royal in August. It was not my first choice but fit into her schedule. Your reports of when you went over on Plus were very informative. I feel we will be similar.  
Best wishes on your future travels with your family. 

[Gracie115]

Thanks for the review of your trip.  Most enjoyable to read and makes me feel even more confident that our switch from Celebrity to Princess for our next cruise will work out well.  

[Guest ldtr]

2 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

Coronation Day maybe?  Whatever the reason, there were many disappointed people who tendered back to the ship shortly after arrival, and a number of people on that train platform who were thankful that they were healthy enough and had the proper footwear for the roundtrip walk to the train station. 

I suspect more that they have to shuttle from the dock, no walking out allowed, but do not have to from the tender port since you can walk out from there.

[nini]

Good grief! Is that the end? One of my favorite bits is paragraph two in post #109. I became teary eyed. We have two daughters and the oldest ate most of the salsa at a Mexican restaurant at Lake Tahoe when she was 2 and a half years old. My father loved that. She was 3 when we had a get together at a French restaurant in San Francisco and she behaved like a little lady. I love cooking and am the proud owner of a beautiful cookbook that is autographed by Vincent Price. Who knew, right? BTW- we all love artichokes.

 

The only negative of your thread is that we have to wait for your next cruise!!!

 

Also, your mathematical breakdowns regarding Plus, Premium and No Plus will hopefully be very informative for all Princess cruisers who have these questions and are bewildered.

Edited May 24, 2023 by nini
Additional words

[A Pisces]

I enjoyed reading your review, and I appreciate you taking the time to post it!

[JimmyVWine]

In going through and putting away my notes I realized that I never did post the Patter (Events Listing) from Day 8, our second Sea Day and last day of the cruise.  To complete the set, here it is.

Patter Day 8.pdf

[Fortunate 2 travel]

I absolutely loved reading this entire account of your recent trip.  Love that you have such a close knit family.  My husband and I are now excited about the Portland stop.  
 

If you wouldn’t mind, can you share about USB plugs in your stateroom?  We decided to splurge on this trip and for the Reserve Collection mini suite as our travels came to an abrupt halt (as it did for everyone else).  

[tobyt]

Thank you so very much for this review! I enjoyed your wit and insight! It makes me think a UK trip is in our future!

[JimmyVWine]

3 hours ago, Fortunate 2 travel said:

I absolutely loved reading this entire account of your recent trip.  Love that you have such a close knit family.  My husband and I are now excited about the Portland stop.  
 

If you wouldn’t mind, can you share about USB plugs in your stateroom?  We decided to splurge on this trip and for the Reserve Collection mini suite as our travels came to an abrupt halt (as it did for everyone else).  

USB plugs are found to the right of the mirror at the makeup area.  But honestly, we don't give it much of a thought.  Typically we travel with a small adapter that plugs into the regular outlet that has 2 USB inputs on it.  (Not a surge protector, just a little plug.)  When we leave the cabin, we charge our charging block to full capacity, so by the time we get back to the room we have the two USB outlets that are part of the little plug at the ready, plus two more charging ports that are part of the charging block.  So with 4 usable ports, (two stationary by the mirror and two on the charging block that can go anywhere--usually on a night stand) we have all that we need.  

[Fortunate 2 travel]

Thank you kindly for the information.  It was most helpful.

[suzyed]

On 5/10/2023 at 5:13 PM, JimmyVWine said:

Embarkation Day -1

S boarded a very, very early flight from Edinburgh to Southampton and arrived before around 8:00 a.m.  I had provided her with directions to our hotel for the evening, the Leonardo Royal Southampton Grand Harbour.  It is about as close to the port as one can get, right across the street from the Holiday Inn.  If you have seen the building by the port that has the big glass pyramid, then you have seen the hotel.

 

 

S took a taxi from the airport to the hotel, knowing that she was too early to check in, but was permitted to check her bags and roam around Southampton pending our arrival.

 

As noted, we arrived at LHR a few hours late, but that was of little concern to us.  I pre-booked tickets on the National Express bus which takes you from LHR to the bus terminal (called the Coach Station) just a few blocks from our hotel (and hence the port as well).  Our coach was to leave at 11:00 and arrive around 1:00, but the lateness of our arrival called that into serious question.  Thankfully I had researched what to do in the event that we needed to change our reservation and learned that that must be done on-line via the website and not via the app.  I had bookmarked the website just in case. 

 

Against all odds our deplaning, customs check and luggage collection went off without a hitch, but that still left us only 12 minutes to catch our bus.  If need be, I could re-book us on the next coach, but that involved a 2-hour layover in the Central Bus Station which I did not favor/favour.  As part of my OCD trip planning, I watched a YouTube video on how to get from Terminal 3 to the Central Bus Station and that proved to be worth its weight in gold, though I don’t think that YouTube videos weigh anything.  In case anyone is interested, here is the video, and there are others like it that will take you through the process of getting from any of the Terminals to the Bus Station.  I find it immensely helpful to have had a visual tour of something before striking out on my own, whether that be repairing a toilet, making a soufflé, or walking to a bus station.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBPJHS_oAfo

 

Armed with knowledge and rolling suitcases, we hoofed it from customs to the station and arrived with two minutes to spare.  A bit sweaty, but no worse for wear and way better off than having to endure a 2-hour layover.  At approximately 1:00 we arrived in Southampton with S at the station waiting for us, ready to help us take our luggage to the hotel.  It really isn’t far enough to warrant a taxi, though K swears that if we ever have to do that again, she is going to hire one, even if she has to pay 20 £ to travel 5 blocks as the sidewalks and her rolling suitcases were not getting along very well.

 

We arrived at the hotel by 1:30 and our room was still not ready for check-in, so K and I checked our bags with the attendant and we headed off for a late lunch.  My research led me to a charmingly old structure with a modern, hip interior that would provide us with sustenance and locally brewed beer.  Pretty much what we all wanted and deserved.  Right along the waterfront you will find “Dancing Man Brewery.”  The menu is limited, but what they serve is quite good.  Lots of outdoor seating, but being a sunny April day, all tables were occupied when we arrived, but there was plenty of space inside.  Dark, old wood, exposed beams, leaded window, and lots of English atmosphere.  While this is not my photo, it does capture the interior from the exact spot we sat.

 

 

From there we walked to a wonderful little bakery/coffee shop (Edison’s) to refuel with espresso.  Edison’s was a brilliant idea.  (See what I did there?) 

 

 Sated with food, brew and espresso, we made the 5-minute walk back to the hotel to check in.  Our room was a “triple” which is hard to come by in many places, and we chose the hotel as much for that feature as for the location.  The beds were comfy and the room spacious with nice toiletries and a bath/shower which is another hard to find feature these days.  All in all, I was quite pleased with the hotel and the rate that we paid using an online travel site ($135). 

 

We find that the best way to adjust to the time difference is to press on and not give in to fatigue, so between check-in and dinner we enjoyed a self-guided walk through the old, Tudor style area of Southampton around the old city walls.  I must admit that I was quite surprised at how much I enjoyed that area of Southampton.  Perhaps not a place that I will put on my long-stay itinerary, but if I ever sail out of Southampton again, I will be sure to build in some extra time before the cruise to see some more of that city.  Lots of wonderful architecture and history.  The Cunard influence is apparent, and that brough back memories, as my first experience with large ships was a roundtrip trans-Atlantic crossing in the summer of 1976 on the QE2.  Our family took the ship over to Europe (Cherbourg) from NY, followed by a month-long tour of many countries concluding with a westbound trans-Atlantic back to NY to end the journey.  As a result Cunard is always a positive memory for me.  Speaking of Cunard, when we arrived, we were surprised to see the Queen Mary 2 in port.  Thinking that it might be departing that afternoon, I did a quick search to check on timing, hoping that we might experience a sailaway of that fine vessel.  Unfortunately, her stay in Southampton was not a happy one, as it was held up there for repairs that were scheduled to take at least a week, causing the cancelation of at least one trans-Atlantic journey.

Having put some time and miles on our legs, it was time for dinner, and we had a booking at the Duke of Wellington, an out-of-central-casting British pub close to our hotel. 

 

The menu was simple but had what we wanted and needed.  Part of my BINGO card for this trip was to try several versions of fish and chips to get my fill of the real thing, as that is surprisingly hard to come by in our area.  I ordered their version and S and K had other types of traditional pub food, and we all had beers and ales.  The fish and chips were good, and the better on the fish gave forth an audible crackle when the fork tried to make its way through.  A good sign. 

By now, fatigue was setting in for K and I, so we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep in preparation for EMBARKATION DAY.  We view Day 1 of any cruise as a full day of vacation and try to maximize our time on board by getting on early and relaxing.  To do that, we needed to get an early start on the day.  

We ate at the Dancing Man Brewery one of the first times we sailed from Southampton....we sat upstairs and had a lovely waitress and a yummy dinner and some tasty brews!  We missed Edisons but will look for it next time,,thanks for the tip!
In 2019 we ate at the bar in Duke of Wellington Pub...have missed the "group dinner" due to friends from Devon meeting up with us for dinner.  The bartender was very surly and sarcastic at first but softened up the longer we sat there!  We ended up talking with many of patrons after they heard our American accents and we had a fun time there.  Both were walking distance from our hotel.
Our group is meeting there for dinner before our sailing this coming October!
 

Edited May 30, 2023 by suzyed

[suzyed]

On 5/11/2023 at 9:04 AM, JimmyVWine said:

Day 1 (Continued)

No announcement had yet been made regarding cabin readiness, so we opted for lunch in Alfredo’s, a tradition of ours since the introduction of that venue.  We were shown to a table one level back from the windows as most of the window tables were set for two people.  No worries, as there wasn’t much of a view to begin with.  When the server came to take our drink order, we figured that this would be a great time to stress test the Old Plus Package. S ordered a generic Sauvignon Blanc from the “Plus” side of the menu and we knew that this would be included.  It was decidedly New World, with notes of tropical fruit and cut grass.  We never did see the bottle from which it was poured, but I would guess that it was Kim Crawford or something similar.  We all tasted it and declared it perfectly fine if your tastes lean toward New World Sauvignon Blanc.  If you are more of a true Sancerre lover, this might trend a bit sweet for your tastes.  K ordered a glass of Frescobaldi Nipozzano Chianti, a typically trustworthy Sangiovese that is often served in the Wine Tastings that Princess holds.  The price was above $12, but below $15, so we would see if that showed up on her account.  One whiff from her glass and she knew that something was off.  She tasted it and furrowed her brow.  She asked me to give it a taste to see what I thought.  She didn’t think that it was corked, but still found something off-putting about it.  I put it through the swirl/sniff/sip test and concluded that the wine had been exposed to heat.  It could have just been a stale bottle, sitting in untouched for a week, but on a cruise ship with constant turnover I find that hard to imagine.  It wasn’t corked, (I don’t know for sure but I would guess that this wine is bottled under a synthetic or composite cork), but it wasn’t right either.  Poor storage condition is my guess.  Perhaps kept too close to the volcanic pizza ovens.  Drinkable, but not enjoyable.  I urged her to trade it in, but she didn’t want to start off the cruise by being “that person.”  I get it.  I ordered a Whispering Angel rose at the price of $16.  So here I would get the full measure of how Old Plus would be treated on the ship.  Would I see a charge of $1.18 on my account, or $4.72?  Time would tell.  Cut to the chase, after a few minutes, our accounts showed no charges for either S or K and a charge of $1.18 for me.

 

It made me very happy to know that my dear Whispering Angel would cost me but $1.18 for each glass I ordered.  Very long story short, I was privileged to be part of a tasting panel for marketing purposes after Sacha Lichine acquired Chateau d’Esclans in 2006 and strove to introduce high end, high quality Rose’ to the United States.  It would be a tough sell to convince White Zin haters that Rose’ is a wine worthy of their attention, but that is exactly what the Chateau set out to do.  At that time, they were testing to see if they could market “luxury” Rose’ from Provence to select markets and get it to take hold in a way that would make the masses long for the product.  Kind of an obnoxious concept if I am being honest, but I was honored to be included in the tasting and evaluation of their new products that would hopefully (for the Chateau) be marketed in Newport, RI, The Hamptons, (as in Southampton NY, not Southampton UK), Palm Beach, Aspen and Beverly Hills.  That was pretty much it.  At the time they were producing three wines: Whispering Angel which would hit the market at around $18; Chateau d’Esclans with a price point of around $45 and the top-of-the-line “Garrus” at $75.  Skipping ahead because none of you probably care about any of this, I thought all three wines were wonderful, but seriously doubted if America was ready for a $75 Rose’, especially when the quality was (IMHO) only marginally better than the $18 version.  My scorecard showed that I thought that the Whispering Angel was better than the d’Esclans, but that the Garrus bested them all.  But when voting with my wallet, I would only buy the Whispering Angel, and would do so with gusto.  Of course, I don’t live in any of the test market areas, so I don’t run with a crowd that downs $75 Rose’.  Anyway…..Whispering Angel has been a personal favorite of mine since that day, long before it became ubiquitous and product-placed into Bravo reality shows.  But truthfully, at its current price point of around $24-$26 per bottle, I find many other Rose’ from Provence that enjoy almost as much at half the price.  So even though Whispering Angel is the “entry level” wine from this producer, (actually, that isn’t right—they have since introduced some lower end quaffers called “The Beach” and one other that I am forgetting that are just OK), it is still a “luxury” Rose’ for me, and at $1.18 per glass, we would be drinking a lot of it I suspect.  And so should you.

 

So the takeaway here is that Old Plus works as advertised. Wines up to and including $15 will cost you nothing.  That was a long way of getting here, but there it is.  Now on to the food.  We ordered a starter of “Antipasto Mari e Monti”. Literally translated as a first course from the sea and the mountains.  Well, they can pretty much toss this one into the sea or bury it beneath the tallest mountain.  The “mountain” was three sad little half-slices of salami, mortadella and Parma-style ham. Not sure if it really came from Parma, and it certainly wasn’t Proscuitto di Parma. S decried that it looked like an unpackaged “Lunchables.”  Alongside the meats was a few pieces off lettuce dressed with a balsamic dressing.  About one bite at best.  But the shocking part of all of this is that this was the best thing on the plate.  The meats took second place.  As for item cast as the “Mari” part of the performance, that was a horrid looking salad of mostly mayonnaise with a few micro-shrimp tossed in that looked like they have been extracted from a dissected eggroll from your nearby take-out stand.  It honestly looked like the disemboweled innards from an alien autopsy.  S said that she would take one for the team and give it a try.  She tried a small forkful and sweated out the process of swallowing it.  She said: “You know me.  I can eat pretty much anything.  But that is the closest that I have come to spitting food back onto the plate in a very, very long time.”  No further convincing was necessary.  The rest remained untouched.  Not sure if this was a new recipe, a bad batch, or the same thing that many others love.  Either way, it was not for us.

 

Next came the stars of the show and the reason we were here in the first place—the pizzas.  Terrific as always, we polished off a “Capricciosa” topped with artichoke hearts, ham, mushrooms and olives, and one of the pizzas that is usually sold under the name of the ship that comes with cherry tomatoes, ham and shaved Parmesan.  The crust on these was not quite as crisp as we have had in the past, and I probably should have told our server that we prefer our pizzas cooked a bit more than perhaps the masses do, especially in the UK.  Where I hale from, the food is known as “apizza” (pronounced “ah-beetz”) and the crust should be charred to the point where a typical Midwesterner might say that it is burnt.  Trust me.  It’s not.  Either way, the pies were tasty and devoured.  As we made our way down to the coffee station at the IC for our after-lunch espressos, the announcement was made that the cabins were ready so soon we would be enjoying our home away from homes.  Coming next: Luggage delivery and cabin review.

When I first tried Whispering Angel in Vines a few cruises back, we were at the max $12 price point, so I paid $4+ for the glass...but boy! was it worth it...I was hooked! It's lovely!  After that, as we approached Vines each evening my Whispering Angel was being poured and placed on the bar just as the bartender finished "swirling" DH's glass of red!  

[suzyed]

On 5/12/2023 at 2:53 AM, nini said:

@JimmyVWine I am loving your posts, especially #18 on many points!

I know at least 2 wines that I will be trying. And I laughed out loud regarding the "Shipwreck Nightmare". DH and I are in total agreement! Truly, what we're they thinking? Oh, clearly they were not thinking.

Please share how you pack your wine glasses, as well as how you convince staff that they are yours.

I, too, LOL'd at the mention of Shipwreck Nightmare!
Curious as to wha kind of glasses you bring with you onboard?