sinned19

I suggest you post this on the "roll call" for your sailing, were other cruisers can see it.

We are packing thin water resistant rain jackets with hood. They have little warmth. So we are packing a fleece type jacket as well. We can wear the fleece jackets alone or put it under the rain jacket which is more like a windbreaker. It can be chilly at sea and up in Orkney. We will also pack small umbrellas.

Toria,

Yes it was windy at Orkney..we did the giants causeway in Northern Ireland along the coast... very windy, have fun!

We did this cruise last July, wear layers.. a shirt with sweater is a must..also a rain jacket with a hood. The weather changes all the time. I`d say it was in the 60`s most of the time.we had collapsible umbrella in our backpack.

Thank you everyone for your input, we are looking at getting a deluxe balcony around mid ship. We will try for the right side.

The 2018 British Isles sailings are now available. You lucky ducks! The Royal Princess will be sailing them next year. I am sailing in 2017 and am stuck with the Caribbean.

We went on the Caribbean Princess this past July to the BI, the ship was fine,just think of it as a floating hotel.... vs. taking a land tour..just unpack once. The ports are what is important.

Hi,

We are looking at an early October cruise to New England and Canada on the Regal, just wondering which deck has the best balconies, are any of them completely covered? Thanks for your help.

We did the BI cruise last July, initially got an aft Caribe balcony room C726, with half the balcony covered. We then updated to a mini suite , more living space. We used the balcony to sit and read after returning from the days adventure, good luck!

Good points! We noticed there are 2 sea days on the Royal versus 3 days on the Silhouette. Another important point is that the Royal embarks at Southampton, which allows us to spend a few days exploring London beforehand, while the Silhouette departs from Amsterdam. While Amsterdam is a wonderful city, there is definitely more cool things to see in and around London from my memory when stationed in Germany in the 80's.

 

Our GD will be 14 and that's a great suggestion to have her participate in the excursion selection process!

We took a 12 day cruise on the Caribbean Princess this summer over the Celebrity since it left from Southampton and we wanted more BI ports, it was a great cruise we will do it again in a few years. Yes it was port intensive with 2 sea days, we welcomed the first one after 5 days.

We did not see London and were disappointed we did not arrive a few days earlier.

We chose some afternoon tours instead of morning tours so we could relax on several days.

Did you ask Princess? I am looking at an October NE cruise and the Princess website states Manhattan/ Brooklyn. Any of our previous NYC cruises always left from Manhattan.

We took her tour several weeks ago, it was very informative and entertaining.

one note- we paid with British pounds and she gave us "Guernsey currency" as change, not pounds, we did not spend it in port so we have a souvenir!

We finished a CB 12 days cruise early this week and bought a coffee card. We typically got 2 brewed coffees for both of us using 1 card throughout the cruise, no problem.

They did write the departure date on the card, some staff looked at the date, others did not.

International cafe staff were very nice.

Nope. Only to full suites. It's an unfortunate misnomer that the mini-suites have "suite" in their name.. Perks for mini-suites include glass of bubbly, more room. If you book into the new Mini-Suite category of Club Class (debuting late this year, schedule at Princess site), there are a few more perks, but not the Suite ones..

Thanks...I didn`t think so...just figured I`d ask....:(

Hello Everyone,

do the suite perks apply to folks who have a mini suite?

We just had an upsell to a mini suite, our first time and was wondering....thanks.

Dennis

We received an upsell offer from a balcony room to a mini suite for a cruise leaving in 40 days, the price was $329 each. This is a 12 day British Isles cruise , we are celebrating our 30th Wedding anniversary so we went for it.

The revise price per person is actually less that what we initially booked, so all in all a good deal.:)

Thanks everyone, we would fly economy.

Dennis

Hello,

We are taking a British Isles Cruise and are looking at fights from JFK to Heathrow both through eZair and on our own, which airline is better?

I am 6`2 and DW is about 5`9.

I appreciate your input.

Dennis

We flew on Delta.

The flight was on time, the food was good but getting thru customs at Heathrow was a bit of a hassle.

 

Howard

Thanks Howard

It's super easy to get around, there's a free bus service that goes around the town. The bus drivers are very good. We tried to get onto the regular bus that you have to pay a fare for and he told us about the free bus. We stayed at the Novotel near the train station which made it easy to access the bus and we were in a decent walking distance (for us) to good shopping and Above Bar area where there were a lot of good pubs. There are two great museums there, Sea City which covers a lot of the history of the area, not just maritime history. If you like planes and WW2 history, see the Solent Sky museum. You'll likely need the bus to get there, it's on the opposite end of town, but it was worth the trip.

As to getting to the pier, we just had the hotel front desk call a cab for us. It was about 20 pounds, if I recall correctly.

Have a great trip!

FawnRiver thanks for the information, we will look into arriving a day earlier and head down to Southampton, the museums sound interesting.

We didn't have any trouble with Gatwick a few years ago. We didn't do EZair or any private transfers. We flew in a couple of days early and hopped the train straight down to Southampton, it's a really nice place to spend a couple of days. We got our bags and got through the terminal to the train station without any real issues, a fair bit of walking, but nothing unexpected. Having done Princess transfers at other ports, I expect they'll have someone waiting for you to steer you through once you clear customs and immigration.

Have a great cruise!

Fawn River,

We are taking a British Isles cruise and thinking about flying in a day early and going into Southampton, hard to determine how easy it is to get around once there ? how did you get to the pier?Thanks

We arrived at Heathrow at 6:45 AM on an overnight flight from Newark (EWR). It took us over two hours to get thru customs as the airport was mobbed. Took about another hour to get on the bus to Southampton. We had EZ Air and Princess Transfers. We reached the Caribbean Princess in time to make the MDR for lunch. Overall not so bad but very tiring.

 

Howard

Howard,

what was the airline you used? We are looking to fly from JFK to Heathrow . We did a Viking cruise last year and bought airfare through them, got stuck on an older American Airlines plane, very little available as far as entertainment.

Thanks to everyone for their input, we booked an aft balcony and are psyched!

Hello,

We are looking to book a balcony cabin on the Caribbean princess deck 10 Caribe deck and are looking at Forward or AFT cabins, which location is better?

Are the engines located in the front or back of the ship?

Thanks for your help.

I called Princess last night they stated she was just in dry-dock in May, different from a refurbishment.

I have heard that the ship is scheduled for dry dock and she desperately needs it.I would not cruise on this ship again until she has been to dry dock and refurbished and repaired.

 

Where did you hear this? I would like to understand more info on this before I book for summer 2016.

 

We are thinking about a British Isles cruise next July, I was wondering the same thing. Just spoke to Princess, they stated she was just in dry-dock in May, person did not know what was done.