losumi

I agree with gardengirl2011, why not travel on a luxury cruise line for the amount of money that you pay for the Haven.

I booked a cruise on NCLGetaway 3 weeks before the cruise date and yes the price dropped considerably.  I needed to book an international flight so managed to get that.  If you wait until 2 weeks before cruise date you will get a really good price if the ship has lots of empty rooms.

conandrob240,

There were no very rough seas, on this voyage.  I remember one day of rocking and rolling, which didn't upset anyone that I know of.  Beautiful to see Norway and Iceland on one trip, so glad I saw them both.

Dear Cm84,

Yes, you were not a passenger on board, so you did not have to wait for over an hour to get on a tender to get back on the ship or wait to get off the ship to go on an excursion.   I do realize it's Scotland and it rains all the time, I have a couple of friends there so I'm always checking the weather and it's always raining, part of the charm.   It was the waiting time and the fact that NCL planned poorly, not the weather, that I was commenting on.  

As I said in my review, a lot of people are happy with NCL service, but I'm not.  You spoke to a couple who were very happy, glad for them.  BTW, at the port, I had some delicious lemon sole, for lunch, nice restaurants, there. 

I hope you have a great cruise on NCL, and you get to all the ports that you were promised.

I had a similar experience on the Norway, Iceland, Scotland Cruise.  They did upgrade my cabin to a family size ocean view, which I was very happy with and my  cabin steward was wonderful.  The restaurant service was awful, the food mediocre.  I had been on 13 previous cruises with my late husband and by far this was the worst, Celebrity being our favorite. This was my second cruise on NCL, the first one too was not good.  My husband died 5 years ago and this was my first cruise alone, and probably my last.  There were lots of people on the cruise who were frequent travelers on NCL and they love the line, I do not. At the port in Edinburgh we waited over an hour in the rain to board the tenders, all the tours ended at the same time, poor planning.

I did receive my money back for the shore excursions that we missed,  I did receive the port taxes credited to my acct. for those missed ports and an additional $50 credit for the first missed port.  The Million Dollar Quartet was terrific and Burn the Floor was Great. I enjoyed Syd Normans too.

They gave out little prizes at the end of the cruise for trivia, very tacky, winners should have received their prizes after every win. Large ships like this one might be great for some people just not for me.   NCL should get their act together. 2 missed ports in 14 days, really bad, dining rooms, really bad!

Our favorite cruise line is Celebrity, which we have cruised on many times. We cruised on R.C. only once this past September, for a family cruise with 4 generations. I chose R.C. because it had ice skating, rock climbing, in line skating, basketball etc. for the younger generations, to keep them happy. The food was terrible on R.C., the buffet was meager and a big disappointment.

It was hard to get on elevators because of the amount of passengers on board the ship. We are Diamond level on R.C. because of our Elite status on Celebrity and we were treated like first time cruisers. We had to ask for shampoo and lotions, we had to ask for bathrobes. The captains parties were a let down, the shows were not very good, customer service was very bad. We were billed hundreds of dollars for free bags of laundry that we were supposed to get and had to argue to get it removed. We had 2 sleepless nights on board due to banging inside the wall, finally after many visits and calls for customer service, they sent engineers who opened the wall and fixed the problem, they should have been sent the first night. The offered us a small discount for our next cruise. I don't think so. We were 8 people in 4 staterooms, that I booked, we were all disappointed in the cruise.

What a big difference in every way, we prefer the elegance, the food and everything that Celebrity offers, and there is plenty to do on board. If you are going to use the rock climbing, ice skating, etc. then go for R.C.

We will not book again with R.C. or Norwegian, even Carnival is superior. Celebrity is much finer in every way.

My suggestion is to go to Captains Club on the celebrity site and ask the question. You will then get a definitive answer.

It is much easier to get to Southampton Port than it is to Harwich. On the way from our London hotel to Southampton we booked a bus, which turned out to be a van, with about 10 other people that took us to Stonehenge before we were dropped at the port. We were picked up at our hotel and it was very easy. We found and booked this on line and it worked our perfectly. Leaving from the port, we took a taxi to the National express terminal where we caught a bus that left us at Heathrow.

Leaving from Harwich is very difficult, we hired a private taxi and it cost lots, and lots for the 2 hour + trip from Heathrow to our hotel in Ipswich and then more $ to get to Harwich port. There is a rail station that stops directly at the port in Harwich. You can taxi to the London station that departs to Harwich and take the rail. I hope that this helpful.

It is very easy to get a taxi at the Southampton port, we took one the short distance to the National Express terminal where we caught a bus to Heathrow. The terminal is very small and we did purchase the tickets online, which worked out very well for us, since we are Americans and did not have to deal with pounds to dollars etc. I know there are direct trains from York to Southampton and I think National Express buses too. I don't know the distance that you would have to travel from Yorkshire to York, but see if this is possible. You can book on line and see schedules etc. I hope this is helpful.

My family just got back from a R.C. cruise to Bermuda. I booked a tour company called Unique Vacations for 2 mornings, 4 hour tours each morning. There were 8 of us ranging in age from 2 years to 94 years old, so I found this company on line that could accommodate more than 6 people. The tour was great, and flexible to our needs, splitting us up at times when we requested that some of us go to the Caves and some of us go to the Aquarium. They took us to a couple of beaches (our choices), where we spent an extended period of time. They had a lovely mini bus, that has wheel chair access, and they provided a car seat for my granddaughter. Probably can accommodate 15 people.

We were very, very pleased with their tour and their service. We paid for 4 hours but wound up getting much more. The price included entrance fees to all places and as much water as we wanted. It cost $75 per person for 3 hours, but we booked for 4 hours and it cost $85 per person. I highly recommend them. The email address and contact info is below.

uniquevacations@logic.bm

Judith Simmons was terrific