cherylakers

Same is happening to me today and the previous 4 or 5 days.  Every time I try to login I get this and it won't let me go back.  

I it changing my birthday by 1 day back each time I try and login.  Very frustrating since we are leaving soon.  I am waiting on my Vacation Planner to call me back.

Ugh.

We have only done 1 TA, but loved it.  We did a riverboat cruise first, then 15 days touring Europe and took the cruise back home from Barcelona.  A fabulous trip. 

We were booked on something similar for 2020, but covid made us cancel. 

We are now booked on the Sky for 10/30/2022 (I think that is the correct date) out of London.  We are doing the Bucharest to Budapest riverboat first, then 14 days touring and finally London to Ft. Lauderdale. We are really looking forward to it.  There are 6 of us going that have traveled together extensively.

What a way to see the world.

Cheryl

I just finished reading your season 10 wrap-up and I feel like I have lost friend.  I have read along for all 10 years and have enjoyed your blog immensely.  

I do understand how you might want to stay home next year and not cruise.  With this crazy virus and ships being quarantined, I wouldn't want to be sailing right now.  Maybe you will do the tour that is still on your bucket list whatever that may be.

I just want to say thank you for doing this blog as I for one have gathered a ton of information from you.  You have answered my emails and given me tips, etc.

I hope to see you and G one day on a cruise.

Happy Sailing whenever it may be

Cheryl

I am looking for a private bus to take about 15-25 of us that are staying at Hotel Continental in November to the port.

Has anyone hired a private bus to do this.  I have one company but they have not responded.  Transfers Soberti.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks

Cheryl

We had brought our 2 bottles on board and they checked them, etc.

Then when in port we bought 2 more bottles and went over to 2 crew members and tried to declare them and they said don't bother we allow you to bring whatever you want back on board for wine.

We did consume in our cabin, but continued to bring wine on board with no charges.

We were on a 28 day South Pacific voyage.

Going to try this approaching London when we arrive tomorrow.  Bring 2 bottles when first boarding and buy a few along the way.  If we pay corkage then so be it.  Still cheaper than buying a bottle on board.

23 hours ago, deladane said:

I forgot to include this in my planning posts so I'll just add it in now... Once all of my planning was complete, I created this calendar to hang on the wall in our hotels to keep track of our daily agenda.  Of course, things did get moved around a bit, but we mostly stuck with the original plan:

 

 

This calendar is so cool.  What app did you use to make this?  We leave for London on 8/12, then do 12 day British Isles Cruise and then take Eurostar to Paris for 3 days.  I have made a day by day itinerary using Word, but this calendar is so much easier to use.

18 minutes ago, TM said:

 

Hi Cheryl.

 

We're also doing the 10:00 tour at the castle.  So maybe we can hook up with your group and share 2 taxis.

 

Tom

That sounds great.  I thought it would be easier to taxi over than to wait for the shuttle bus.  Are you doing the walking tour after the castle?  We are doing it at noon.  Then will probably have lunch and go back to ship.  

Maybe meet at Vines as soon as ship docks so we can get off right when they clear us.

Great review.  Looks like at lot of other people going in August.  We leave August 17th on Crown Princess.

Very excited.  

Cheryl

I researched a ton of restaurants and most of them were not taking reservations.  They are doing the combination tattoo ticket with dinner.  

I finally found an Italian restaurant along the royal mile that took a reservation for 6 of us at 5:30.  They were the only ones I could find.  It is called Vittoria on the Bridge.  

Good Luck in your search.

Cheryl

On 7/10/2019 at 3:21 PM, markeb said:

 

The ATMs in the arrivals hall at Heathrow if memory serves (and also Paddington) are Travelex, not a bank. There may be bank ATMs at Heathrow, but I've never found one, and I've looked. When I've needed to, I've pulled a few pounds there, but normally wait until I'm in the city where there are abundant banks and ATMs. And on my most recent trips, I've been able to get by on plastic and Apple Pay.

We just might have to wait then.  I know we can use a credit card to pay our car service.  We might have to get a few before we leave from our bank here so we have tip money.

Thanks for the hint!

21 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

Be very wary of ATM's at Heathrow or indeed any airport.  You would be better to wait until you can use an official bank ATM (hole in the wall or an ATM lobby) rather than the airport ATM which is probably connected to a third party and may make a charge for the withdrawal.  Also ensure that you do not accept their offer to charge you USD for your Sterling withdrawal as the exchange rate is abyssmal. 

21 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

Be very wary of ATM's at Heathrow or indeed any airport.  You would be better to wait until you can use an official bank ATM (hole in the wall or an ATM lobby) rather than the airport ATM which is probably connected to a third party and may make a charge for the withdrawal.  Also ensure that you do not accept their offer to charge you USD for your Sterling withdrawal as the exchange rate is abyssmal. 

Yes, but there are usually bank ATM's in airports.  We have always found one and have never had any trouble.  In Berlin Deutsche Bank and several ATM's, etc.  I have heard to always withdraw in their currency and let our bank do the exchange rate.  That makes sense.  We have a no fee checking account so we are not worried about fees either.  They reimburse for their fees and any ATM fees or foreign bank fees.  Thanks for the tips.

On 7/7/2019 at 10:10 PM, aqua said:

We had an excellent private tour from Cork with http://www.butlerstours.com/. 

 

We also went to North Wales from Liverpool on a group tour from http://www.busybus.co.uk/wales-from-liverpool-cruise-terminal.  My husband generally dislikes group tours but he had a great time on Busy Bus.  Beautiful scenery!

 

We used this guide in Edinburgh and St Andrews: but the website says he can travel to other areas: http://www.edinburghcabtours.com/about/. Andy was the best guide we have ever had. He is very personable and knowledgeable.  

 

 

 

 

We are booked for August in Cobh/Cork with Butlers.  They have an extra leg room bus that holds 16.  There are only 12 of us going to it worked out perfectly.  You could book this and see if you can get a few extra people in your roll call to split the cost of the tour.  

There are lots of private tour guides in all ports.  We are going for 12 days with 9 ports and have private tours booked in every port.  All but one tour is for just the 6 of us, but most larger companies had different size vehicles available.  You shouldn't have a problem finding some one.  The only thing is you are only a month away and a lot of tours are booked up already so I wouldn't wait to contact some.  There are always the Sandeman's free walking tours of the bigger cities.  I have them booked for Edinburg and Dublin. 

In Edinburg I booked our Tattoo tickets when they went on sale in December or January and booked our tour guide to take us from the port in Glasgow to the Tattoo almost a year ago.

Good Luck in your research and happy sailing!!

We are going in August too on Princess.  We will get our first round of cash at an ATM at Heathrow.  We have some private tours that want cash after the tour so we will need quite a bit of currency for those tours.  We have some private transportation set up too.  They will take credit cards, but there are 3 couples traveling so it will be difficult to use 3 different cards so will need cash for that.  Otherwise, all hotels, meals and purchases will be on our credit cards.  

Notify your credit card companies of when and where you will be traveling so they don't put a hold on any of them.  We each carry 2 different cards just in case one of us would loose a card to heaven forbid get one stolen.  At least we will have something to use.

Our plan is to use up all our GBP prior to going to Paris after our cruise.  Once in Paris it is Euros and we will keep any leftover as we will be going again in 2020.

Hope this helps a little

Cheryl

41 minutes ago, Diver2014 said:

June 5 Le Havre, France - being that this day was the day before the 75th anniversary of the D Day landings in Normandy, most guests on the ship had excursions to the beaches or to Paris.  We chose the Princess tour to Mont Saint Michel, a place I had wanted to visit since my French classes in high school.  It was a long excursion - about 10.5 hours but oh my gosh, so well worth it.  The skies were overcast when we left Le Havre (again, a working port) but that added to the ambiance of the French coastline. Princess did provide a shuttle to the Le Havre city center for $20 round trip - chargable to your ship board account.

For whatever reason, the ships clocks were set one hour back at 1am between June 5th and June 6th.  All aboard was at 7:30 pm which was just as well as our excursion didn't return until 7pm due to heavy traffic in the area.  Fortunately, our bus driver knew the back roads and we were the 2nd to the last bus to get back to the ship.  But Mont Saint Michel was absolutely mind blowing.  From a far distance, it was amazing and it grew even more amazing as we got closer.  I love the French countryside.  I must have taken a photo of every French farm between Le Havre and Mont Saint Michel.  As it was, I took over 2000 photos on this cruise.  Just call me shutterbug.  Churches and houses intrigue me.  Our guide took us to the very top of Mont Saint Michel and I huffed and puffed and made it to the top with my new bionic hip struggling all the way.  But I did it - along with DH nearly pulling my arm out of the socket getting me up there step by step.  The view was amazing.  The tide was out and groups of French school kids were out on the sand in their bare feet looking at the stranded marine life.  We had a complete guided tour before taking the tram back to the parking lot and buses.  This was one day I'll never forget.  When we returned, tired as we were, we still had to pack our luggage for tomorrow's disembarkation in Southampton.  That done, with suitcases out in the hallway, we ate at the Horizon Court since dinner was way past our time by the time we got back to the ship.  The buzz on the ship that evening was what a wonderful day everyone had, in Paris, at Normandy, at Mont Saint Michel - definitely the highlight of the entire cruise.  Too bad they save it for the last day.  Dress code for dinner was smart casual with the usual reminder to be sure to put clothes out to wear off the ship tomorrow.  No really, some people pack everything and out it goes into the hallway. The Princess Theater once again hosted vocalist Johan Andersson but we got back so late that we just packed our bags and hit the sack.  We had to be up at the crack of dawn to catch our transfer to Heathrow since we had an early flight.

June 6 Southampton - we were given luggage tags a few days ago according to our flight plans and we were in the second group to disembark the ship.  We waiting in the Michelangelo Dining room for maybe 15 minutes and then we were off the ship.  We claimed our luggage (easy to spot as they were grouped under signs with numbers and colors) and out to the bus we went.

We were on the road by 7am.  Good thing too because the traffic from Southampton to Heathrow was bumper to bumper.  But, we arrived in plenty of time.  We found that even though we had printed our boarding passes in the Internet café the night before, that was a complete waste of time.  Heathrow has kiosks where you lay your passport on the reader and all your flight info comes up, prints out your boarding passes and your baggage tags and off you go to the automated luggage check in which took maybe 5 minutes.  The scale weighs your luggage and then whoosh, off it goes.  If it weighed more than 21 kg,  you swiped your credit card to pay the penalty.  Fortunately, we were under since I put all our 'heavy' items in carry on.  Security at Heathrow is always a nightmare.  They confiscated my toothpaste (too big of a tube), my unopened Pepto Bismal, my unopened Gaviscon, and any thing else that was liquid or gel that was more than 3 oz.  They're a lot more picky than the last time we went through.

But it was the end of the cruise and I just told them to take whatever they wanted and toss them, I just want to go home at this point.  The flight was way too long 9.5 hours back to Charlotte, NC then another hour flight to SC but finally we were home and happy.  Our dogs were confused when we walked into the house - like 'who are you????'  The dog sitter had kept them entertained and happy.  Like I said in the beginning, this was an absolute amazing cruise.  Yes, we had issues with our cabin on the Crown Princess (toilet didn't flush, shower drain smelled of sewage, temp control didn't work and after 3 attempts to fix everything, Guest Services wanted to give us a bottle of wine or a coffee card but we declined since we don't drink wine or coffee.  At least they offered even though things were never really fixed in our cabin.  Our fabulous room steward did provide air freshener in the shower but by the last day, the smell was back and the toilet still refused to flush in a timely basis.  But I really don't care much about those issues.  The cruise itself was so much more than cabin issues or dress code or any issue we could have been bothered with.  On the way home, I told DH I could easily do this cruise again since there was just so much to see and do everyday.  And what a gorgeous sunset we had on our way back to Southampton!

Thank you so much for your review.  We leave August 17th.  We were on the Crown last year and like you said yes it does need some work, but we are going for the ports, not the ship.  We are not picky eaters so I am sure we can always find something that will satisfy us.  As far as things to do on the ship, it sounds like we will be too busy during the day that we will just want to go to bed early.  

Again, great review and thanks a bunch.

Cheryl

Just wondered if anyone just off the Crown will be doing a review.

We are going in August and wondering about shuttles at the different ports, etc.

Thanks

Cheryl

What do you think a taxi would cost for 6 of us to go to Edinburg castle in lieu of taking the bus?

We have a 10 a.m. time entrance to the castle and it sounds like we might not make it in time.  2 of us are elite so we can all probably get off on one of the first tenders.

Thanks

Cheryl

When in August are you going?

We are on the 17th of August out of South Hampton.  

Read our roll call and you can find lots of ideas for tour companies.  We will be in London 4 nights prior and then 3 nights after in Paris.  

We are staying near Waterloo at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge.

We are using Blackberry cars to take us from Heathrow to Hotel, then hotel to ship and again from Ship to Eurostar train station.  They were the most reasonable for 6 persons.

Book your shore excursions early with Princess as they do sell out.  Also, anything you want to see sells tickets on line and you can book most of them now.  We have purchased Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Kensington Palace already.  Still need to purchase Westminster Abbey tickets as they are not on sale yet.  You can even purchase the HOHO on line.  Usually tickets are cheaper on line than in person the day of tour.  Plus you don't have to wait in line.  See if there is a museum pass if the is what you want to see.

I have been researching for almost a year now and am still not done.  

Since there are 6 of us going you need to have a daily plan all mapped out.  If it was just the 2 of us, we would wing it more.

If you have any questions on tour operators, let me know and I can give you who we booked.

Good Luck

Cheryl

When all Ocean Medallion be installed on the Crown?  We are sailing 8/17 and I remember seeing it is supposed to be installed this year some time.

Thanks

Cheryl

I just booked yesterday for August 29th.  It was $59 usd one way.  There are 6 of us going after we get off in South Hampton.  Blackberry cars is tking us from the port to st. Pancras and we should arrive around 10:30 am.  Our train doesn’t leve until 2:20 so we will have lunch.  I am hoping we can find some luggage storage lockers so we can walk around the area for a couple of hours.

1 hour ago, wheezedr said:

Not sure how Guernsey is a problem as the £ is the official currency.  There is a Guernsey £ but it is par to the English £.  If you purchase anything there make sure you get English £ change not Guernsey £ notes.  While they are technically of the same value you will find it difficult if not impossible to use the Guernsey notes elsewhere.

Oops I made a mistake it is Cork that is our first Euro currency stop.  If I can't get Euro's in London at an ATM, then we will see if our guide will stop for us to get some.

At least I know we can get some in London.

Thanks everyone

Cheryl

We will be in London for 4 days prior to a cruise.  We plan on getting British pounds on arrival at the airport.

Our first stop though in on the Euro.  Can we get Euros at ATM's in London by chance?  I know we can probably

get to a bank and exchange, but that isn't always the best rate.  Our first stop is Guernsey and it is a Sunday so no 

bank open.  We need cash to pay our tour guide.  If necessary we will get Euro's prior to leaving US, but it would

be easier with an ATM over there if possible.

Thanks

Cheryl

Yep still getting this message.  Glad it isn't just me.

Same thing for me.  British isles next August. We have a few cruisers, but Not much activity. Just started page 2 on the roll call

we will be in Edinburgh next August and want to do a private tour to the tattoo. There are 6 of us.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Cheryl

O.k. thank you.What I dont understand, is that this cruise also starts the day before ours in Le Havre,so passengers will be getting off then.We would have taken that one but went to London last year and loved it, so thought we would do London pre-cruise and Paris post-cruise.

We are also going in August and flying on ezair to London early and returning from Paris. We decided to go all the way back to South Hampton, take a prearranged car back to the train station where the euro star departs from and take it back to Paris. The eurostar is on my bucket list to that checks it off. Then we will taxi from Paris train station to our hotel.

Since the ship has missed Le Havre a few times, I am a little concerned about trying to get off there. Plus, we want to see Honfleur and will take a taxi over to visit it for the day. That way we won't be rushed in Le Havre.

This is an option for you.

Cheryl