Live from Regal Princess May 15 British Isles cruise

[Loritd]

What is it with the Le Harve port?  We have had that stop on three cruises, only made it once. They must strike all the time. 

[Pirateskigirl]

4 hours ago, carajoemom said:

Sorry to hear that you have lost 2 excursion days.  I guess I better prepare myself, it has never happened to me on a cruise. 
 

Could you be so kind as to photo some more of the dinner menus? It would be greatly appreciated to look at.

 

i love reading your live report!

Here is tonight’s dinner menu. 

[Pirateskigirl]

Here is the updated Patter for our surprise sea day.

We’ve had a bag piper in the Piazza every evening at 6pm while we’ve been in the water off Scotland. 
Did have sushi at Ocean Terrace Seafood bar.  Enjoyed a cheese burger at Trident Grill.  There were folks enjoying MUTS, swimming in the pool and the hot tubs. 

Edited May 23 by Pirateskigirl

[carajoemom]

Thank you for the dinner menus, much appreciated.

 

Is there a second show in the Princess Theatre after the 7:15-8:30 showtime, for the people who have a later dinner seating?

[Martinman]

On 5/22/2024 at 10:02 AM, catgirl411 said:

Wow, now I really feel lucky that we were on the previous sailing. The excursion to the Canadian WW2 sites was one of our highlights.

I sure hope that doesn't happen on our June 20th sailing. The Canadian landing sights is the excursion we are looking forward to the most.

[catgirl411]

1 minute ago, Martinman said:

I sure hope that doesn't happen on our June 20th sailing. The Canadian landing sights is the excursion we are looking forward to the most.

I couldn’t go but my husband did and thought it was wonderful. Be warned that it is a long day. With the travel to/from it was almost 10 hours, including lunch.

 

 

19 minutes ago, carajoemom said:Thank you for the dinner menus, much appreciated

 

 

[catgirl411]

21 minutes ago, carajoemom said:

Thank you for the dinner menus, much appreciated.

 

Is there a second show in the Princess Theatre after the 7:15-8:30 showtime, for the people who have a later dinner seating?

Yes there is a nightly second show at 9:30

[vickykay]

We had booked the same tour with Discover Scotland  tours in 2020.  The cruise of course was cancelled due to Covid so hoping to book with them again. Thanks for review.

[sha1955]

Thank you for this amazing report. We are on 14 July and this is such a help. 

[Lady Arwen]

What a great report!  Brings back lots of memories when we sailed on this itinerary.  I love Regal Princess, one of our top fav cruise ships.  Thank you for taking us along with you!

[Pirateskigirl]

Hello from South Queensferry, 

Another water taxi port.  The tenders started at roughly 0730, 20 minutes to pier. They had local folks helping people with transportation if you were independent. We booked a ticker on the X99 shuttle to the Hard Rock at St. Andrew’s Square, roughly 30 minutes. We opted to add the local HOHO which included the tram. This worked because, we had tickets to Edinburgh Castle at 1030 and tickets to Royal Britannia.  Needless to say, Edinburgh was crowded.  The later in the day the more crowded it got. Fortunately, we hit both the Castle and Britannia early, so missed the crowds.  We had a nice lunch and tea on Britannia. We managed to either be inside or on the bus during the rain showers.   A long but lovely day. We were just happy to have a scheduled port stop after losing 2 on this trip.  
Apparently, the labor strike in France that cause Le Harve stop to be canceled is a nationwide transportation strike.  It could really mess up folks in route to DDay ceremonies. 
Looking forward to a light dinner. Tomorrow is a sea day before our Portland, England stop.

[Pirateskigirl]

21 hours ago, carajoemom said:

Thank you for the dinner menus, much appreciated.

 

Is there a second show in the Princess Theatre after the 7:15-8:30 showtime, for the people who have a later dinner seating?

Daily shows are 7:30pm & 9:30pm.  Both comedians had shows 6:30pm, 8:30pm & 10:30pm. 

[nini]

On 5/19/2024 at 12:53 PM, ECUnited said:

We are doing the 12 day in June. What are everyone’s opinions on how many Euros would be advisable to have? I figure most places take CC but for smaller incidentals I would expect them to prefer cash. 
 

Thanks in advance!

 It is Euros for the Republic of Ireland and British Pounds for the Scotland, England, and Northern Ireland.

[nini]

Thank you to @Pirateskigirl for this lovely report. We loved our British Isles cruise in May 2022. We enjoyed mostly great weather.

I am so glad that we were able to see the Book of Kells and the Long Room before their renovation.

 

I encourage all of you thinking about this itinerary to go for it. We may repeat it in August 2025 so we can see The Military Tattoo/ Highland Games in Edinburgh (it is only in August).

[nini]

On 5/23/2024 at 11:06 AM, Loritd said:

What is it with the Le Harve port?  We have had that stop on three cruises, only made it once. They must strike all the time. 

 

Speaking of strikes......

I just found out that here may be a strike of governments employees at Seatac (TSA, flight controllers, etc.)

Also, Border Patrol staff at Heathrow may begin striking about May 30.

[Martinman]

36 minutes ago, nini said:

 It is Euros for the Republic of Ireland and British Pounds for the Scotland, England, and Northern Ireland.

We are trying to figure that out as well. Will need Euros and British Pounds

[nini]

4 minutes ago, Martinman said:

We are trying to figure that out as well. Will need Euros and British Pounds

 

Actually, I do not think we really needed or used any cash on our British Isles cruise. People tipped in American. We used our credit card and the tours were already paid for.

[Bestbubba]

45 minutes ago, nini said:

Thank you to @Pirateskigirl for this lovely report. We loved our British Isles cruise in May 2022. We enjoyed mostly great weather.

I am so glad that we were able to see the Book of Kells and the Long Room before their renovation.

 

I encourage all of you thinking about this itinerary to go for it. We may repeat it in August 2025 so we can see The Military Tattoo/ Highland Games in Edinburgh (it is only in August).

If you can cruise at a time that allows you to see the Military Tattoo please do so. We saw it whilst sailing on a Princess cruise and honestly it was an absolute highlight. We booked the Princess excursion although you can book  tickets yourself online, we did it for ease. The cruise line must have sent at least 15 coaches. Before the Tattoo started they lit up the castle with a welcome to all the Princess cruisers! It was an unforgettable evening. 

[nini]

1 hour ago, Bestbubba said:

If you can cruise at a time that allows you to see the Military Tattoo please do so. We saw it whilst sailing on a Princess cruise and honestly it was an absolute highlight. We booked the Princess excursion although you can book  tickets yourself online, we did it for ease. The cruise line must have sent at least 15 coaches. Before the Tattoo started they lit up the castle with a welcome to all the Princess cruisers! It was an unforgettable evening. 

 

Thank you so much for sharing this! I have quite a bit of Scottish heritage and my grandfather played the bagpipe.

Did you do the Princess excursion from Greenock? It looks like we leave that port at 2:00 am; indicating that would be where we go to Edinburgh for the Tattoo. I know it is a bit more expensive through Princess, but I really don't mind. You still booked your own Tattoo tickets, correct?

Where did you sit; do you have any suggestions?

 

Thanks!

[TinyG]

Thanks for the review, we are going on Regal next year! Looks wonderful 🙂

[TM]

59 minutes ago, nini said:

 

Thank you so much for sharing this! I have quite a bit of Scottish heritage and my grandfather played the bagpipe.

Did you do the Princess excursion from Greenock? It looks like we leave that port at 2:00 am; indicating that would be where we go to Edinburgh for the Tattoo. I know it is a bit more expensive through Princess, but I really don't mind. You still booked your own Tattoo tickets, correct?

Where did you sit; do you have any suggestions?

 

Thanks!

Not the OP, but tickets purchased through Princess include transportation and admission to the Tattoo.

[Bestbubba]

6 hours ago, nini said:

 

Thank you so much for sharing this! I have quite a bit of Scottish heritage and my grandfather played the bagpipe.

Did you do the Princess excursion from Greenock? It looks like we leave that port at 2:00 am; indicating that would be where we go to Edinburgh for the Tattoo. I know it is a bit more expensive through Princess, but I really don't mind. You still booked your own Tattoo tickets, correct?

Where did you sit; do you have any suggestions?

 

Thanks!

Hi there, yes we booked the Princess excursion, tickets and transfer. It was from Greenock and we wanted the security of knowing we'd not have to worry about getting back to the ship. I'd really recommend doing it this way, for peace of mind. 

 

 

[nini]

1 hour ago, Bestbubba said:

Hi there, yes we booked the Princess excursion, tickets and transfer. It was from Greenock and we wanted the security of knowing we'd not have to worry about getting back to the ship. I'd really recommend doing it this way, for peace of mind. 

 

 

 

How do you know if you will get good seats if Princess handles it? we are all for booking through Princess, but we also want great seats.

[Bestbubba]

2 minutes ago, nini said:

 

How do you know if you will get good seats if Princess handles it? we are all for booking through Princess, but we also want great seats.

I totally get what you're saying. I'm a planner and like to be in control and this really worried me too! In the event our seats were perfect, quite high up and very central. Be prepared to become great friends with whoever is seated next to you, the seats are quite small! 

[MyriamS]

Lovely report, we are doing a very similar itinerary in September! The multiple port changes really highlight the need to book excursions that are refundable if the ship doesn't dock or self-explore and be flexible. It's nice that Princess found a substitute port for Le Havre instead of just adding another sea day.