Live from the Royal: June 26th, 2015--British Isles-- Move-over Offer Part 2

Hi Friends-

The time has come... to cash in on the second part of our mack-daddy move-over offer! Twelve divine days around the British Isles!

Just a moment of background- My mom and I have taken a number of cruises over the past few years. She has mobility issues, so cruising is a wonderful way for us to see the world!

In January, we had a balcony booked on the Sapphire to Indonesia via Singapore. The night before we were to leave, we received a call from our TA that Princess needed our cabin-- and should we accept they would give us a 10 day cruise in a full suite in the US, Caribbean, or Mexico. They would also give us a 15 day cruise anywhere in the world in a full suite. Oh. And they refunded our original cruise in full (via refundable OBC). Just to sweeten the deal- They threw in another big chunk of money into the OBC. And, they paid the change air fees. This is where you insert the soundtrack from the Godfather and in your best Marlon Brando voice you state, "They made me an offer...". Of course, we took the deal.

In February, we went to the Caribbean on the Royal, where I caught a man cold. We loved the Royal and the Penthouse suite with the amenities.

We are now onto cruise number 2: The Royal around the British Isles. We will be in one of the (dreaded) aft owner's suites. My mom really wanted an aft cabin, and based on the weather, I am pretty sure that we will not be spending much time on the balcony.

My brother and his wife are also joining us, and will have the adjoining premium deluxe balcony. We are meeting them in London on Friday morning when we join the ship.

I know that it is risky to fly in the day of the cruise. Stuff happens, (re: our NCL cruise around the Med in November is a classic example. Five hours before our flight my mom fell and broke her hip. No cruise for us. Boo.) I have a pretty heavy duty job, and I cannot always take tons of time off of work. If for some forsaken reason we do not make the cruise, it will be fairly easy to catch up to the ship. We also booked with Princess eZAir, so there would be some assistance. We leave tomorrow night at 6:45 pm.

We are packed. This includes my lucky cruising pajamas. For a while, the vacation gremlins seemed to be winning the war, but a purchase of new lucky PJs have changed the game. Hoping the luck holds out!

I will keep you posted, and will do my best to answer questions and track down information for you!

Thanks for traveling along!

Tracie-Lynn:):)

Hi Friends-

The time has come... to cash in on the second part of our mack-daddy move-over offer! Twelve divine days around the British Isles!

 

Just a moment of background- My mom and I have taken a number of cruises over the past few years. She has mobility issues, so cruising is a wonderful way for us to see the world!

 

In January, we had a balcony booked on the Sapphire to Indonesia via Singapore. The night before we were to leave, we received a call from our TA that Princess needed our cabin-- and should we accept they would give us a 10 day cruise in a full suite in the US, Caribbean, or Mexico. They would also give us a 15 day cruise anywhere in the world in a full suite. Oh. And they refunded our original cruise in full (via refundable OBC). Just to sweeten the deal- They threw in another big chunk of money into the OBC. And, they paid the change air fees. This is where you insert the soundtrack from the Godfather and in your best Marlon Brando voice you state, "They made me an offer...". Of course, we took the deal.

In February, we went to the Caribbean on the Royal, where I caught a man cold. We loved the Royal and the Penthouse suite with the amenities.

 

We are now onto cruise number 2: The Royal around the British Isles. We will be in one of the (dreaded) aft owner's suites. My mom really wanted an aft cabin, and based on the weather, I am pretty sure that we will not be spending much time on the balcony.

 

My brother and his wife are also joining us, and will have the adjoining premium deluxe balcony. We are meeting them in London on Friday morning when we join the ship.

 

I know that it is risky to fly in the day of the cruise. Stuff happens, (re: our NCL cruise around the Med in November is a classic example. Five hours before our flight my mom fell and broke her hip. No cruise for us. Boo.) I have a pretty heavy duty job, and I cannot always take tons of time off of work. If for some forsaken reason we do not make the cruise, it will be fairly easy to catch up to the ship. We also booked with Princess eZAir, so there would be some assistance. We leave tomorrow night at 6:45 pm.

 

We are packed. This includes my lucky cruising pajamas. For a while, the vacation gremlins seemed to be winning the war, but a purchase of new lucky PJs have changed the game. Hoping the luck holds out!

 

I will keep you posted, and will do my best to answer questions and track down information for you!

 

Thanks for traveling along!

Tracie-Lynn:):)

Yay, another Live From from Tracie-Lynn. Especially looking forward to your reports since we'll be on the Royal for the British Isles cruise right after you, so take good care of her. Also hoping the weather gods will be kind to both of us. Safe travels!

I will be on the British Isles cruise on the Royal later in the summer so I'm really looking forward to your trip report. Thank you for taking the time to do this.

Have a great cruise!

Thank you for taking the time to do this! I'll be happily following along, even from Alaska!

Looking forward to all your posts. We sail Royal on the 1st August around the British Isles and can't wait!!

I'm looking forward to your impressions of the ship and the ports. Could you let us know what films are showing too?

Bon Voyage! We'll be on this cruise on Aug. 25th so we'll be paying extra attention to your posts.

I love "live from" postings.

I too look forward to TracieLynn's posting. We will be embarking on that journey July 8. Look forward to hearing about the entertainment the cruise director and the itinerary. Thank you for doing this for us. Best regards, Loretta from Florida

Have a wonderful cruise. I enjoyed your last live and I'm looking forward to this report.:)

Bon voyage, Tracie-Lynn!

I followed Part 1 and love your style of writing. I will enjoy this thread more since we will be sailing the British Isles on August 1 on the Royal.

Have a wonderful cruise:D:D.

Will be looking forward to your review. I did this cruise in 2013 and loved it.

Enjoy your cruise.

Yay!!! I so enjoyed following along on your last cruise on the Royal & I am excited that you are sharing this one as well.

We will be on the Royal In Jan and I love reading all I can about her.

Bon voyage!!!

Have a wonderful cruise!

I look forward to following along on your BI cruise. We were supposed to do the same cruise in May, but 3 days before we were to leave we had to cancel due to illness. Have a wonderful time!

cnd crsr

Thanks, friends. We are on the plane to London!!!

Have a wonderful cruise. I'm looking forward to reading about your adventure.

Have a great cruise. Looking forward to following along. I will be on the Royal in Oct. my first cruise on her.

BTW: that was a fantastic move over offer. I had a nice one in 2012-but not as sweet as yours!!

I look forward to following along on your BI cruise. We were supposed to do the same cruise in May, but 3 days before we were to leave we had to cancel due to illness. Have a wonderful time!

 

cnd crsr

Gail

Hope all is well with you. Sorry you missed your BI cruise.

Kathleen

Have a great cruise.

Have a great cruise and I'm looking forward to your future reports.....:):):)

Bob

Hi friends- Today is the big day! So far, we have negotiated one hiccup. Ok, try to follow along (heck, even I am confused)... We booked flight through Princess eZAir. It was cheaper, and we have to fly in on the day of cruise, so this afforded us some guarantees should the flights go wonky.

Here is what happened. We booked with eZAir for a British Airways flight that is actually USAirways flight. I went to check in and found that I was listed as both passengers, and my mother did not appear in the check in queue. So I called. And I talked to at least 20 ga-jillion people. What USAir could see is that I was in fact listed twice on the website, but my mom was listed on the manifest. The USAir reps had never seen anything like it. When I tried to log in and check in the BA website, I was re-routed to USAir. Ugh....So I entered a bunch of data a viola! We each received a boarding pass. We will need to get to the airport early to straighten out some of the information, but it looks like we may both be flying (verses transporting, I guess). I was pretty aggravated, and I am not sure if I would use eZAir again. I pretty certain that is two hours of my life that I will never get back. The upshot is that I made a friend with the USAir rep, whose name is Lacie. We have decided that we will cruise together in the future. Lacie and Tracie. How stinkin' cute is that?!?! We sound like muppets.

*************************************************************************************************************

So I guess this will be a twofer, as I am in London! We are drinking yummy coffee and waiting for my brother to arrive. Big props to Nero Coffee in Terminal 3. Fast and delicious. The flight was fine. Direct. All of the 9 pieces of luggage arrived. Good things. However, airport transport has become a regular boondoggle. We keep getting shuttled to "holding areas" and we wait... It just seems so darn inefficient. I wish they would return to the day where one person met you at the gate and got you to the car. Big tip!

*** For those of you who are new to me and my goofy live-froms, I will take a moment to get you up to speed. If you are already in the know, move on.

I have two travel partners who operate at two very different speeds. I travel with my mom, who has major mobility impairments. As she ages, we need more and more equipment. This trip, for example, we have a cane, a rolling walker, a stable walker, a portable wheelchair. My luggage trolly looks like a rolling assistive living center. I love my mom, and cruising is our best mode of travel these days, but the getting there can be a bit unwieldy. Lots and lots of infrastructure to negotiate.

My other travel partner is my husband. Talk about a shift in gears. That man is a descendent of mountain goats. When we travel, we get to port several days early and we walk. And walk. And walk. And if there are hills-- even better! Our last land trip to LV, NV, we walked over 21 miles in one day. Sadly, we also eat. And eat. And eat. So all of that activity is never a slimming as I hope for.

Our car is to arrive in an hour, and then we are off to port. I am not sure if we are going out of Mayflower or Ocean (I think I have those correct, but feel free to set the record straight, if needed). I promise to time the entire check in process as there has been quite a bit of discussion regarding boarding at Southampton.

More later- Tracie-Lynn :) :)

Glad you made it safely!! :)

I promise not to ask too many questions. :rolleyes: Not.

Anyhoo Bon Voyage!!!

9 pieces of luggage? Wow. How many do your Mom and DH have? :D

Tracie- Your mom is my mom. Your husband is my husband. Makes life interesting. doesn't it?

Have fun and thanks for posting!

Glad that you safely arrived and awaiting your next post about check in

in and boarding process. Hopefully, it was easy. Can't believe the program

with easy-air. Safe travels.

Bon voyage! And how strange that your air was messed up like that. The tickets should have mirrored your boarding passes. Weirdness. Glad that it was straightened out.