bnickle

Thank you! I don’t like to spoil the surprise of what’s in the Patters, but I did have to sneak a peek of a few things. [emoji5]

 

 

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In my planning beforehand I could only find patters from two years ago so I’m hoping posting ours helps others. It didn’t make or break the planning experience for me but it would have been nice to know of new and recent offerings, like the Escape Room. And sneak all the peeks you want!

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If you booked any ship excursions, did you have to prepay, or could you book and then pay on the ship?

I have a lot of OBC for our next April cruise I’d like to use to offset some of the shire ex cost.

The private tours you did look good, but I don’t want to wind up shopping onboard to use the money.

 

 

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Well, it all depends. You can take a chance and attempt to book onboard for your excursions, but there’s no guarantee that they won’t sell out before the cruise. We only booked with off-ship companies. Three of the tours we went on were arranged by other people and we joined in; one of our tours was private and one was on a bus. I get wanting to use up your OBC for it. If you book a Princess tour before you sail I believe you have to pay for it upfront.

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LaHavre and Disembarkation

In my obsessive planning for this trip, I read through many trip reports and threads about various port experiences and reviews to get ideas and suggestions. When it came to LaHavre, I felt a lot less sure about the planning process and kind of flew blind on it, but it paid off well and LaHavre ended up being a wonderful day.

I had arranged for a private tour through Tours By Locals. This is the first time I had used TBL, and had no idea what to expect, but it’s kind of like using AirBNB in making travel plans. Except you’re renting a person’s guide service instead of a place to stay.

A travel highlight of my husband’s life is a trip he took 15 years ago with his dad, touring WWII battlefield sights in France and Germany. They had seen the American sights at Normandy; now he wanted to view the Canadian and British sights. Kate and I wanted to see The Bayeux Tapestry, and I found a tour offered, full day, that included all that we wanted to see, with Igor. Communications with Igor went smoothly, and he was interested to tailor the experience to what we wanted, in a reasonable time to make sure it wasn’t all hit and run. I cannot speak highly enough of Igor and his professionalism, organizational skills, and friendly and engaging demeanor.

Igor and his red beret picked us up at the port at 8:15. We had gotten up early and were at the Allegro when it opened at 7:00 to have a nice breakfast and were ready to go. It was about an hour and a half to Bayeux, and he spent a portion of the time talking about how William, Duke of Normandy became William the Conqueror, and gave us some interesting background on the Norman invasion of what is now England. I need to point out that our LaHavre day fell on a Sunday, and traffic from the port to Bayeux was almost non-existent.

I am being a little wordy on this because, hands down, the presentation of the tapestry was the most amazing thing we saw on this trip. The arrangement of display plus audio tour was a perfect blend to move the audience along, panel to panel. The museum is truly original and one of a kind. We always feel that a good museum, or presentation, makes you want to know more, and we left Bayeux with 5 books and 3 guidebooks and a feeling that we had experienced a once in a lifetime kind of of offering.

The rest of the day was spent touring the German radar station in Douvres la Delivrandes; Arromanches, where we saw a film in a 360 degree theater that offered footage from events leading up to; and the actual military landings of D-Day in Normandy. It’s about a 15 minute film, and the harsh, sometimes harrowing film drives home forcefully the point that peace is fragile, and that world differences have massive consequences.

Down the hill from the theatre is the local village of Arromanches, and Igor took us to a really lovely bistro along the beach with incredible views of the sea. We had a wonderful lunch and shared a bottle of cider before heading back out.

We then went on to Juno Beach, looking at the German Bunkers, then Sword Beach to see the German Battery still standing. Then on to Pegasus Bridge and a nice stop in the village to walk across the bridge and hear about how easily allied forces took back the bridge and the town in their march to push Germany back.

We arrived back at the ship about 5:30, exhausted, and frankly, a little emotionally drained. It’s beyond sobering to see the remnants of conflict that altered the course of each major power that existed at that time, and that had the potential to so radically alter the safety and security of the world. On a personal note, as we move further and further away in time from the global conflicts that shaped the 20th century, we’re losing sight of the importance of retaining the lessons learned. Spending that day being reminded was thought provoking for all of us, and Igor could not have been a better guide. He has personal ties to what we saw in that both of his grandparents were involved in the French Resistance, and ingrained in him the importance of standing firm in the face of overwhelming odds to retain freedom. Greg and Kate and I have spoken of that tour a lot; it left a firm impression on our minds.

So, somber but pleased, we reboarded and decided to go for one last dinner at the Symphony. Again, it was delicious, and while our dinner conversation never lacked for inspiration, Sunday evening it was a thoughtful and spirited discussion of what we had seen that day, put into context.

For all intents and purposes, that ended the cruise. I want to explain disembarkation a bit before telling how ours went to give you a better picture of how Princess has it organized.

On the day at sea the day before, we had received a sheet explaining the process, and an assignment for our disembarkation from the ship. We had purchased a transfer from the ship to Gatwick, and, in looking at the sheet, there are two shuttles during the day that go to Gatwick airport. We were assigned “Green 1” group, designated to meet in the Symphony dining room by 6:35. We were given four green strips marked “Green 1” to put on the handles of our luggage, that we were to have set outside our cabin door by dinnertime the night before disembarkation. We needed two more tags, and they were easily given at the services desk. We kept one carryon that we planned to check, and put all of our clothing for the next two days and our toiletries and last minute items in it, and carried it off with us on Monday morning.

So...a 6:35 time slot. That would not have been our first choice. But it’s what it is, and we had a nice 6 hour flight to sleep through, so it’s fine. We got up at 5, and were showered and dressed and pretty much good to go by 5:45. The only place open for breakfast is the Horizon Court. If you will notice, in the disembarkation info it says that the Horizon Court offers a Continental Breakfast from 5 to 6, and a full breakfast from 7 on. We were up at the buffet by 5:45 and the full breakfast was out and in full swing, and obviously had been for sometime, so you can get a full breakfast before you leave. Room service is not available disembark morning.

We went back to our room, took a last look around, and headed to the Symphony to wait for our group to be called. Pretty much on time, we were told to exit the gangway, and we had our cards scanned for the last time...womp womp womp....

Actually the luggage retrieval is very similar to retrieving your luggage after a flight at an airport baggage claim, except the baggage claim for Princess is a huge warehouse straight out of Raiders of the Lost Ark. But it’s pretty well organized, and we had our bags in no time and were headed out to our bus. Bags loaded, seats claimed, and within 15 minutes we were on the road.

Two points about the shuttle:

1. Hands down, that is the most uncomfortable bus I have ever been on. It’s not owned by Princess; merely contracted with. There is very little seat room, and next to no leg room, and I’m small. I barely hit 5’1” so leg room is never an issue. Also, the seats were curved odd, so that our backs didn’t fit against them like they normally do in other chairs. I think it’s the kind of coach typically used for tours and such, but the thought of spending an entire day in that bus makes my back ache without even getting on the bus.
   
2. Gatwick is about 94 miles from Southampton, and it took 2 and a half hours, due to rush hour traffic. We heard rumbles aboard the bus from people who thought, getting on the bus, that they had plenty of time to get their plane. That’s really not something that’s anyone’s fault, just be aware that in leaving at certain times on disembark day you may hit rush hour, no matter what mode of transport you’re using to get to either airport. Our return flight didn’t leave until 4 in the afternoon so we didn’t care but some people became concerned about time being shaved off of their wait time for their flight.
   

Checkin at Gatwick was easy. We flew Norwegian Air, round trip, and would highly recommend them to anyone. For what we would have paid for a coach seat on Delta or BA, we got premium seats on Norwegian, which we would compare to Business Class. The seats reclined, had footrests, and were spacious. Premium also got us the day in the lounge there, and Kate and Greg watched the World Cup game on in the afternoon while we waited.

We boarded and took off on time, and got to Boston about 6:30 that night. We had already made plans to spend the night, because by the time we went through customs and got our bags we would have missed any opportunities to fly home that night, so we stayed at a Homewood Suites by the airport, and got up early to catch a flight out first thing in the morning. Kate took a cab to the train station to get a ride home to New York, and our once in a lifetime trip came to an end.

I have one more wrap up post being composed; but this is the summation of a trip that we’ve planned for over a year. Remember that feeling from being a kid...something like a birthday, or Christmas, eagerly anticipated, excitedly nearing, awaiting it with the frenzy of a toddler downing three double shot espressos followed by a Mountain Dew chaser, only to be somewhat disappointed because the reality could never live up to the frenzy you built up in your mind?

That was not the case here. I had hopes and plans, and our time spent in M414, and roaming the halls of the Royal, and the hills of Ireland, and the lochs of Scotland, and the grassy knolls dotting the beaches of a lush countryside still resonating with distant tremors or war more than surpassed what we hoped for. It was a lovely, special odyssey and that we had the privilege of spending it with our daughter made it perfect. Happy sailing to you all, may the seas be calm and the oceans serene.

Day at Sea

Ah, a lovely day at sea. I would imagine for a lot of people it was the same as it was for us: a nice, languid day spent packing and preparing to depart, as the next day would be long and spent mostly off the ship. We slept in till almost 7 in the morning! What lazy slugs we were! As was our habit when we were in no hurry, we ate at the full service breakfast at the Allegro. Kate commented she’s going to be so sad when she has to be back in the Real World and no one will prepare her breakfast and serve it in courses, and her bed will not get magically made while she’s elsewhere eating. How she suffers so.

I decided to do laundry, which would get us over the finish line to get home. Apparently I did not get the memo that that last sea day was Do Your Laundry All At The Same Time day. I needed two more tokens, and the machine would not give them. Nor would the machine in the other laundry room on the floor, or any laundry room above a floor or below. In speaking with two other ladies, we all realized we had the same problems and called for an attendant. He came, visibly annoyed at...I don’t know...doing his job? He made us demonstrate that we could not get tokens and then offered to give us the tokens we needed if we would sign for them so we could be charged, and he was all about how he was on to our game. Because apparently we had, without realizing it, formed a Free Laundry On The Sly posse and he was having none of it. So we signed. And our Ocean’s Three dream laundry crime team was thwarted.

But it was lovely chatting with the ladies, and the gentleman from Australia who came in a little bit later. Laundry done, and on to pack. I mentioned that we had a few bookstore crawls? This is not new for us; we always pack a suitcase in a suitcase so we can haul our biblogoods back. We divided up the books by weightiest, and spread out the weighty wealth before moving on to wrapping breakables in clothes, and loading the rest of our clothing and goods. Overall, we were about 95% done by dinner, and could relax the rest of the night and know that at the end of La Havre, we wouldn’t be in a frantic rush. We decided to eat at the Symphony, and dinner was delightful and delicious. There was another World Cup game on, then we crashed early. Tomorrow would be a long, and hopefully fun day.

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Let me add my appreciation as well! We are sailing this same cruise at the end of August and can only hope we have the same great weather you did. Regardless, it is time AWAY FROM WORK so how bad could it be? :-)

 

 

 

GREAT job scanning the patters...and thanks for helping me spend my day more productively. ;-)

 

 

 

Dyrek

LOL...our 26 year old daughter, Kate, went with us, and yesterday I asked her how her first day back at work was and her text response was, “So. Many. Emails.”

But seriously...there’s a lot I can overlook, or not even really notice on a trip because I’m so happy to be on vaycay. For example, a common complaint on these threads is that, whatever the cruise company, the coffee sucks. All I could think when I was drinking my coffee each morning was, “I’m on a cruise with my husband and daughter, sailing around beautiful and enchanting lands...this is the best coffee I’ve ever had.”

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Thank you for posting these! :-)

You are welcome! Hope it helps plan or even just inspires!

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9-12 pickleball. Outstanding:cool:

There seemed to be a pretty hearty pickle ball following on board. Plus, we had unbelievably great weather so apparently that was the party to be at.

Thanks for posting these! We are sailing the Royal at the end of August. Can't wait!

I hope you LOVE it!

Thank you for taking the time to scan and post these. Very helpful.

You’re welcome! I received a tonnage of planning help from CC for our just finished journey; I hope this helps someone else!

Thanks for all the hard work.

We will be on the same Cruise July 12.

I am torn between extreme jealousy and extreme exhaustion! It was the best of times, it was...the best of times. Have a wonderful trip; let me know if you have any questions.

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We just got off the ship yesterday! I just scanned and posted links to the Patters:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2647587

Fresh off the boat...literally. I actually have a trip report on our fabulous sailing of the British Isles itinerary here (and about to finish it up) but thought people would enjoy reading the Patters and miscellaneous other bits of info that were rained down upon our cabin. Heads up: Princess will drown you in paper.

Anyhoo, for the few, the faithful, the curious, and anyone remotely interested, here are links to the Patters, arranged chronologically. Please note that our stop in Invergordon was canceled; I have included the revised Patters for that day and evening.

Princess Patters for the Royal Princess sailing of the British Isles, Embarking Wednesday, June 6, 2018.

Embarkation:

https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/QL5M8cUGAhzqujj4OFvAjwChQJhmFFBDZphN7YFzrGe

St. Peter Port:

https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/ljwNIhcX9iaU3473cBl3Lt27OwuWNKXmuhkcgwjqAFA

Cobh/Cork:

https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/kTZtCFLa4zrJARz64mgZehLRKcqHmfcAgn0oPSI7Zth

Dublin:

https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/IVmG9PnUGNmhZZRezWI0rkH9qOVvS8WQZQ7Xx5yyK8r

Liverpool:

https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/PQ8KH7EHVyjAnus5sHFNUMvwOgYno4DNruRLaeVDc0p

Belfast:

https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/TcV9b7cRaWUqfN6LHSA31tGR989VnjeYADYVovbmvyn

Greenock/Glasgow:

https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/haXC0nT6bn2UYTt5CRCFqITkeXroVKX3JYpndijiaoJ

Sea Day 1:

https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/lURGANcfjf8aFgX45v1ukqtcQn9Ccu0G3W2H5T34kS8

Invergorden:

https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/UoVM3dRqEqIpQwOU1hN7UgvBrxvTMhq8Jgr2xUZEZH0

Edinburgh:

https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/tD3458Ki3vwoyQQ7O453RCRcqMZmBLIDWQ4ljUSFcQH

Sea Day 2:

https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/8ZrJxiJtC80C84Ftj03lpQ0VAXVWVqMotqwYdGBkAN8

La Havre:

https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/uVao8TQCmqWIb3qIl6CzYmdpqlMPx6W94kXW8LUankk

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Testing. https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/1GIQyrTwFePuVv8L3gzaGCylF0ZTRWDGCXTluvpMSzJ

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Your review is sooooo good! I’ve loved every report![emoji7]

 

On Facebook, “Visit Queensferry” explained what happened with your return tenders:

 

“An exceptionally high tide this afternoon meant the Royal Princess passengers had a very crammed experience at Hawes Pier to load on to the tenders since the normal east side of the pier could not be used for queuing.

 

Sorry folks, happens very rarely, unfortunate timing. [emoji20]

Hope you still had a great time through the day.”

 

 

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That explains a lot! The 45 minute wait wasn’t that bad, and shorter than what others experienced. The ride back...holy cow. It was fun in the “I live life on the edge” kind of way. We actually had more “danger” in that ride than we did from Hector!

Do you make a reservation in the evening for Alfredo's or just walk up? Did you have a wait?

Also who is the captain? We join this cruise the 30th.

thanks

The great thing about Alfredos is that you can just walk up. At least you could any portion of our sailing. I am truly astonished that it’s not better utilized, since there’s no additional charge and it really is a nice sit down, full service alternative. Also, a tip: they offer two different sangrias. You can get one 250 ml glass or a 500 ml glass, which is really a carafe. The carafe is 10$ and you can easily get four glasses out of it, and it’s a better deal than two people ordering one 250 ml glass each. Also, the white sangria is amazing.

The Captain is Nick Nash.

Did they have the sea shak seafood pop up dinner? And what night? What was pm entertainment in Dublin? What movies were shown? Did you have some movies as pm entertainment or only as muts?

Of course I would love to answer your plethora of succinctly put questions! The Crab Shack pop up was offered once, at Cobh. PM entertainment offerings in Dublin consisted of Folkloric Showtime: Gaels Afloat, the Celtic Festival, a Celtic Speaker Series offering on Liverpool, Classical String Melodies with the Romantica String Trio, Ladies Night at the Art Gallery, Guitarist and Vocalist James Guilmartin, Feature Film: Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Ballroom Dance, Feature Film: The 15:17 to Paris, Elegant Harmonies with the Romantica String Trio, Kory Simon Entertains, Motown Music Trivia, I’ll Take Trivia for 100 Game Show, Late Night Sounds with the Prestige Quartet, 50’s and 60’s Music Hour with DJ Fever, Piano and Cocktails with Ryszard, Karaoke Madness, Texas Hold’Em Players Meet, Music and Dancing with Evolution, All Request Express Dance Music with DJ Fever.

Any Films shown at MUTS will be available in the cabins On Demand the day they are first shown till the end of the cruise. there are several concerts shown at MUTS that are not shown in the cabins, which actually would be nice if they could be viewed in the cabins. By the end of the cruise the following recent releases had been featured as MUTS releases, and were available in cabins On Demand: Game Night, Star Wars, Black Panther, Dr. Strange, Murder on the Orient Express, The Post, Molly’s GAme, Eddie the Eagle, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Greatest Showman, Victoria and Abdul, Darkest Hours, Red Sparrow, Justice League, and Battle of the Sexes. There are several other movies, available from embarkation On Demand, but those are the recent releases.

Glad you are safe. Enjoy another day in the Spa!!! I have a couple of questions for you. Are there 2 formal nights? What nights are they? Also, I am so looking forward to seeing the new show "Secret Silk" by Stephen Schwartz. Do they show it more than one evening? I have heard horror stories about the lack of seating at shows and I would be so upset if I missed it. Thanks, Karen

I am so sorry about my half reply! Formal nights were Guernsey and first sea night. Also, we were slugs at night and hung out either playing games in a quiet corner of a bar or in our room, watching tv. (I was trapped with two “sports people” as my daughter puts it so I got to watch 2 World Cup games and part of the Stanley Cup final). I cannot speak to the size of the theatres because I never went to them. I apologize for lack of info on that. I believe Secret Silk was only shown one evening, for two showings. I could be wrong on that

Edinburgh

So back on track...we sailed into Edinburgh at roughly 7 in the morning, into a slightly overcast, but calm day. We were in line for the tender by 7:15, and by 7:30 we were on the tender, headed to shore. To all the people who push their way to the front of the line for the tender: KNOCK THAT CRAP OFF. They give out a certain number of tender tickets to load each boat and count off how many people actually board. If you’re in the middle of the group you will get to the dock at the exact same time as someone up front or at the end of the line for that boat. Chill, have a lovely time, and be patient.

I feel a need to offer up a side bar here: everyday there is a lecture given on the upcoming port for the next day. The lectures are presented live and shown on demand on the TVs in your cabin. I am not sure what went down where or what feedback Princess has gotten from friends at the ports, but in the lecture about Belfast, it was emphasized to say “please” and “thank you” when making purchases, asking directions, paying a bill, ordering food, and asking for any kind of assistance. Somehow, it felt that it was needed to remind people to be nice. We thought, holy cow. Then we saw several examples of why Princess felt that was needed. Please be polite. Thank you for listening.

Back to Edinburgh. What a wonderful, fun, lively city! The tender docks at South Queensferry, about 20 minutes out of town (as the crow flies) and a short 15 minute or so tender ride from the ship. The sail out from the ship was smooth and quick; later in the day the return would be a totally different story.

In any case, as soon as you get off the tender, you are directed up a short hill and there are shuttle busses that take you right into downtown Edinburgh. The shuttle is 6$ per way per person, and drops you off along Saint Andrew’s Green downtown. About .7 mile in one direction takes you to Holyrood Palace, and a distance of about a mile in the other direction takes you to Edinburgh Castle. Both are very walkable. That area of downtown is under heavy road construction, so our trek to Holyrood Palace was hampered by faulty GPS directions as several pedestrian pathways were closed off.

We were at Holyrood Palace by 9:30, which is when it opens. I had repurchased tickets online and printed them out, and they come printed out ready to scan so you don’t have to exchange them at the ticket window. Audio guides are provided, and I cannot emphasize enough, no matter where you are really, take advantage of the audio guides. Otherwise you will be that guy we saw at Windsor complaining to his wife that “Great...there were more pictures of old people I don’t know.” The tour takes about 45 minutes or so, and be sure to wander through the Abbey Ruins and look at some of the almost indecipherable, weather worn grave markings. It’s fascinating.

We left Holyrood, and popped into the Queens’ Gallery to hit the shop. A note about the Queens’ Gallery. It’s an annex, separately priced, from Holyrood (Buckingham Palace also has one) that features major art exhibitions presented with Royal approval. In 2012 we saw, in London at the Queen’s Gallery, a large collection of rarely exhibited DiVinci anatomical drawings and it was magnificent. The exhibition at Edinburgh currently is Canaletto and the Art of Venice. It’s just sublime.

Across the street is the building of Scotland’s Parliament. We only hit the gift shop looking for Scottish souvenirs, but public tours are offered every day, for free.

Wandering down the Royal Mile about three blocks we hit Clarinda’s Tearoom. It’s a small, kitschy, old fashioned tea room, with about 7 or 8 tables and a sideboard that just groans with an array of freshly baked goods. We decided to split a pot of tea (Scottish Breakfast, which I’m now obsessed with finding) and each had a scone with clotted cream and jam. If you would like a pick me up, it is perfect. They also offer a selection of sandwiches and soups, but we decided to go easy on lunch that day.

Onward down the mile, in and out of shops, till we were about halfway down the way and turned to go three blocks over on Bridge Street till we got to the first stop on our Edinburgh Bookstore Crawl, Blackwell’s. Blackwell’s is a wonderful bookstore, 4 stories high, which features an impressively knowledgeable staff, well stocked new release shelves, and a huge department devoted to Scotland fiction and non-fiction, and Scottish history. Also, there was a ton of sales going on.

Again with the sidebar: Edinburgh is the hometown of JK Rowling, and there are Harry Potter stores everywhere. Three stores down from Blackwell’s is a huge store that at first glance is kind of like Forbidden Planet, called Galaxy. It has a ginormous Harry Potter section of the store, but in much smaller quantity also features prominent gamer accoutrements, collectibles, and clothing.

After Blackwell’s and Galaxy we headed down towards the Waterstones by Edinburgh Castle, and along the way hopped in and out of more stores, tasted whiskey, visited another Harry Potter store so Kate could get her Hogwarts on, and finally made it to the Waterstones.

An interesting note about this portion of the journey: for the entire trip, the weather two days out from all of our ports promised “70 % chance of rain” and “60 % chance of rain.” But until we got about .3 miles from the Waterstones we had not seen a drop of rain THE ENTIRE TRIP. All of a sudden, the skies opened up and sprinkled heavily, and by the time we stopped to tug out our raincoats and put them on, it stopped. That was it for any rain.

After Waterstones we decided to take a cab back to the port, because my knee was swelling and I didn’t think I could walk back to the shuttle stop. The cabbie was nice and the ride was about £25, but we were expecting that. Greg figured that since our Invergorden excursion we had arranged had been canceled we could splurge.

The line to get back on board was pretty long, but manageable. We ended up being in line for 45 minutes before we were able to board a tender, and...holy cow. The waters had gotten noticeably rougher during the day and the tender bobbed up and down with great splashes, making boarding an interesting adventure. The ride back was pretty choppy and a couple of times we hit a wave just right to give it a carnival ride kind of feel, but we made it back fine. I have no idea if the line was the issue but we were over an hour late setting sail from Edinburgh, and after dinner at the Symphony we were ready to read a bit and then head to bed.

1st Sea day

So, as you’ve noticed, this is a really port intensive itinerary for the time allotted. And the days in port are full, time-generous stops, so that if you are like us, you want to make the most of your time and go, go, go, go, till you are just done. That first sea day pops up and is greeted with a huge collective sigh of relief. In fact, that sigh of relief is felt somewhat as the ship sets sail from Greenock the night before. Everyone is clearly happy and having a wonderful time; everyone just needs to stop and breathe a bit.

We breathed a bit on our sail away, and kicked back in exhaustion. On our sea day morning, we began with a leisurely breakfast at the Allegro, and leisurely spent the day being leisurely. We really kind of flew through the day under the radar, just hanging out, chilling ever so slightly and catching up on some z’s. I’ve had a question from a nice lady here on the thread about evening shows. I am sorry to report we did not hit a single one. Evenings we typically hung out in our room, on the deck, or in a quiet space in an empty bar, playing a game. By evening on most nights we were in wind down mode.

We did attend the Maitre D’Hotel Wine Club, which is the premium wine tasting held the first sea day. There is a $25 per person fee. I am not attempting to dog on Princess here, but I think they rely on people thinking this is the only wine tasting and signing up for it, not realizing there is a $10 wine tasting on the second sea day. The difference is that in the premium wine tasting, you are allowed to sample some truly expensive and robust wines. Just be aware that there are two wine tastings, and the second sea day is the cheaper offering. In any case, the tasting was handled well, not too talky, and each wine taster had a small plate of canapés to pair with their tastes. It was very nice and we enjoyed it.

Towards evening, the Captain came on and announced that there was some storm activity up north, and that while things looked ok at the moment, there might be an issue docking in Invergorden. So be prepared. He said there would be pretty choppy seas through the night so everyone should make sure that all their belongings were stowed safely away. To be honest, I never checked to see if the ship was rocking or not. I slept all night long.

Which leads to the fabulous day in Invergorden...

We awoke about 6:00 and turned on the tv to catch our location, and there it was. On the pathway of the ship it showed the ship gaining on Invergorden, then suddenly doing a 180 and zipping out of the channel the way we had sailed in. Around 7:00 the Captain came on the speakers to announce that they had watched a storm system all night and that it was upgraded to enough magnitude that it had a name (“Hector”) and as a result we’d be missing Invergorden. I don’t know if this is accurate but I heard that it was the first time in over 5 years that a Princess BI itinerary had missed Invergorden. We are pretty much make the best of the situation people, and while we had really looked forward to this port in particular, we totally understood and kicked back for a little more restive day at sea.

In our opinion, Princess rose to the occasion nicely. They had revised Patters out within an hour, and all day long there seemed to be pop up activities all over. The Wheelhouse Bar area was a designated game area, and a bunch of different board games and a huge box of unopened decks of cards were left out for people to play as they wished. NOTE: I wish I had packed a couple of small, easily stowed travel games, like Farkle, Bananagram, or Phase Ten. We never may have touched them, but then again, it would have been fun to have them on an unexpected sea day. As it was I was able to take two decks of regular cards and make them into a Phase Ten game, so we made do.

We heard that the storm winds were pretty fierce, but except for a little extra sassy sway we were fine. All in all, it was a pretty nice day.

I’m enjoying your travelogue very much, especially since we’ll be following in your footsteps on Monday. This’ll be our third time, so I should know, but could you confirm that the formal nights are on the 2 sea days? If so, I guess you’re having one tonight? Or last night maybe? Were they very formal or not so much? Yes, I’m at the packing stage and torn between the long....or maybe the short....dress!

We opted to not do formal and ate at the Horizon and at Alfredos both nights, but there were a lot of people dressed up. We saw a little of the whole scale of "dressed up", but very few formal gowns and tuxes. Mostly suits and cocktail dresses or nice pantsuits. Have a wonderful time!

I was planning on visiting this supermarket as it is so close to the port. Did they take the wine away from you when you boarded (I am guessing not from the remainder of your post)?

Tracey

So, here’s the deal. They have you send your bags through x-ray when you reboard, and we are not sure anyone bothers to look at the screen as the bags go through. Everyone seems to bring wine back onboard, and no one catches it, or cares, when it goes through the screening process, at least no one did on this cruise. Which, on one hand, is great, but on the other hand...yikes. So no one took the wine from us, we were never charged, and no one is apparently caring if you bring wine on board or not.

Hope Storm Hector hasn't affected you too much and the ship makes Invergordon today !

The storm can definitely be felt in the swaying of the ship, but overall it’s pretty calm. We had to miss Invergorden but it’s all good.

Thanks for the great play by play of your cruise! We will be doing the British Isles, with Dublin Overnight, on the Royal Princess in late August. Do you know the cost per person for the Dublin City shuttle? We are a family of 3 as well and perhaps a taxi might be the better choice. Hope the weather calms down for you!

Hello! The shuttle is 8$ (USD) each way per person. The service begins at 11:30, and takes about 30 minutes. We chose the taxi because it was quicker to just grab a cab, and the cab ride only took about 15 minutes. I think overall it’s close to a wash cost wise comparatively, but if you have more than three people it’s definitely cheaper to do the cab. If you do choose the cab, get down to the disembarkation point on the ship as early as you can, try to be quick off the ship and get to the taxi stand fast. There are a lot lined up but they get snatched up quickly and the taxi stand line can form into a really long wait.

What a fantastic and informative review! Best in a long time, thanks for taking the time to share your trip with us. Can't wait for more!

Thank you! It’s ALMOST as fun writing it, as living it! Almost.

Really appreciate this informative review! I was wondering if the outdoor pools on the ship were warm enough to use? Thanks!

You know, we really haven’t seen anyone using the pools. We’ve seen a lot of people in the whirlpools, and I’m not really sure of the pools are warm or not, but we have had unusually warm weather. I know that’s a non-answer, and I’m sorry.