Detailed, Multi-part review of Royal Princess June 18th British Isles Cruise

Glasgow

Originally, our plan for Glasgow was the Princess “Falkirk Wheel and Stirling on your Own” excursion. However, after receiving interesting ideas in Glasgow itself from close friends, and reading a less-than-stellar review of the Princess excursion, we “called an audible” on this one, cancelled and refunded the Princess excursion, and toured Glasgow on our own. It was one of the better decisions we made on the cruise.

Having changed plans, we had no plans for how to actually get into Glasgow and this caused us some concern after our long taxi wait in Dublin. There is a train about 20 min walk away (we think 6-7 pound per person each way), but we were concerned about DF and DM walking that much before we even got into town. There is also a bus (the Clyde Flyer 901 or 906) that will take you in and is about a 15 min walk and 8 pound round trip we think. The lady in the visitors’ center recommended the train over the bus, but we ran into a fellow passenger in Glasgow who raved about the bus, which took you to George square. We wanted easy given our time constraints and our crew, so we planned/hoped for a van taxi.

The taxi situation at the Greenock cruise terminal was everything the Dublin taxis were NOT. There were more than a dozen taxis lined up, and a dedicated dispatcher to assist. He called up a van for us from the back of the line immediately. The rate was 50GBP each way; this was higher than the 45 pound for a regular taxi. NOTE; if you don’t have cash, they take cards but there is a 10% or so surcharge. This ended up being more expensive than the bus and train, but much less than the Princess “Glasgow on your Own” bus, which was $89 a person! And it was very easy on all of us.

On the way in, DW called for 1:30 lunch/tea reservations at the famous Willow Tea Rooms. We got dropped at Glasgow Cathedral, which is free and lovely. In fact, we jokingly referred to Glasgow as the “free” city. It seemed almost all of the wonderful attractions were free there! Next we went across the square to the museum of St. Mungo (also free), where there is a fantastic view of the Cathedral and Necropolis.

Then we walked up to the Necropolis and got an amazing view of the city. After that we walked down to George Square and then walked up Buchanan Street to Sauchiehall. This area is very touristy and has a lot to do. It was really nice to have such a fun and easy walk.

Then we headed to lunch. IMPORTANT NOTE; the original Willow Tea rooms are under renovation following receivership. So they are currently operated out of a room on the third floor of the Watts discount department store. The Watts store was not promising – had the look of a very deep discount store. However, the tea room was great. Tea was a bit pricy – 13 pounds per person but generous. The sandwiches and bangers and mash were much more reasonably-priced. For 6 of us (with two of us having tea) it was 61 pounds. This included milkshakes for DDs. Service was good.

After that we stopped by the Vodaphone store, as we needed to top off DF’s phone minutes for calls home to the USA; cell signal as we had been leaving port each night had been so good that they had been able to call home more easily than expected!

Then we headed to the Museum of Modern art (free!) for a few minutes. Glasgow is full of free stuff to do. It is really amazing. And everyone is very nice. Our only regret is that we didn’t have more time here. Finally, we headed out to meet our cabbie, who had agreed to come back and meet us at a set time and place. We had left him a deposit of 20 pounds in the morning to meet us in the afternoon, and he was right on time. The fare was 50 pounds again, with a 10 pound tip. Very easy transportation and we didn’t need to worry a bit about it. We liked Glasgow better than Dublin. There are signs everywhere in Glasgow that say, “People make Glasgow.” And they do.

Next… Day(s) at Sea.

In Dublin, was a shuttle offered? Or do you know how taxis were pre booked?

Thanks for the great review. We will be on this cruise in August.

Yes, princess offered a shuttle, for $8 per person, each way. Since we had 6 people, we decided that wasn't worth it. I am assuming taxis were pre-booked by phone; they could have been ubers, but some were liveried. Oh, and it appeared that others simply started walking into town, and flagged down taxis on their way, intercepting them before they got to the dock.

In Dublin, was a shuttle offered? Or do you know how taxis were pre booked?

Thanks for the great review. We will be on this cruise in August.

Thanks for the review.

We also used Odyssey Coach Tours in Belfast, and would highly recommend. Loved the small comfortable bus, the extra time at each port versus ships tour and the lovely lunch stop in small town. The drivers seem to do everything they can to avoid the large tour buses or get to a site earlier which he did a great job at the rope bridge (enough time to walk down and cross the bridge if you wish, some of our group did this. Giants Causeway had a lot of people and like you I think they could do a much better job with restrooms.

Thanks for the review. I enjoyed all the details. It will help me make plans for our excursions next year.

Which days were "formal nights?"

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The first formal night was Guernsey (the first full day of the cruise) and the second format night was the first sea day (between Glasgow and Kirkwall)

Thanks for the review. I enjoyed all the details. It will help me make plans for our excursions next year.

 

Which days were "formal nights?"

 

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Days at Sea

We’ll cover both days at sea together, although the first fell between Glasgow and Kirkwall, and the second between Edinburgh and Paris.

Actually, our account of the first sea day starts the evening before, after we returned from Glasgow; it serves to give some useful info. When we returned to the ship from Glasgow late afternoon, DM decided she wanted to do laundry, as we had told her the sea days were hopeless for laundry. Once she pulled together the laundry from all of us, she was able to immediately start a load. Not long after she started, however, a woman came in intending to do the laundry for her family group of 19! So time was clearly of the essence and we were lucky we had returned slightly early. As a thank you for doing the laundry, DH picked up coffee and sweets at the Horizon Court and delivered them to DM in the laundry room.

On to the first sea day. We won’t recount everything, but will provide notes on the more interesting and useful bits. First, note that despite being “at sea”, the coasts were close enough between Edinburgh and Kirkwall that for most of the morning, we had some cell signal on the ship from Vodafone IE from our port-side balcony! At 1pm it got good enough that DH put his cell phone on the balcony, enabled its mobile hotspot and downloaded some photo editing software to his laptop that he had forgotten to install before the trip! Cell faded again, but at 6:30pm, the cell signal on the starboard side (Vodaphone UK) was solid, and DM and DF were able to go to the covered part of the Lido deck and call back to the US. So even on sea day 1, we found data and voice access was often possible.

Lunch for all was Alfredos, with no wait to be seated. DDs then headed to the kids clubs, which were a mixed bag. The teen club was running an “assassin” game, where each teen got a marker-stamp and were given the name and a photo of another participating team to “knock off” by marking with the stamp. DD1 liked the idea of this, and played it a bit for the rest of the cruise. However, the game was more of a chess game than anything else, since most people were on shore (and out of bounds) most days. DD2 was not as thrilled, owing to the fact that on this cruise, many of the younger kids came in large family or multi-family groups, and thus had pre-existing relationships. You just never know what will work.

DM, DW and DD1 tried the (complimentary) afternoon Tea on the first sea day, and ended up returning on the second sea day as well. The food was nice and the company good, and there was no wait to be seated either day.

As a note, the jewelry store on board was giving away free pendants. You could get the flyer with the offer from any of the other stores, and my kids really liked them. You could get a necklace and pendant for free, or you could upgrade for $10 to a larger one and also get earrings. The first sea day they had free pendants with a blue stone, and the second sea day, they had free pendants with a red stone. They were great little souvenirs. We aren’t big shoppers but it is worth stopping by the shops just to see if a similar giveaway is happening.

The second formal night was the first sea day. This was also the balloon drop and the ONLY night of the show “The Secret Silk”

On the second sea day, the core activity was packing. Since the sequence was: second sea day, Paris/Normandy, disembarkation, there would be little time to pack the night before disembarking. DH borrowed the luggage scale from our Steward several times and weighed the crew’s larger cases. All stewards have luggage scales, so definitely take advantage.

The most interesting activity on the second sea day was an Ultimate Ship’s Tour for DF and DH. DW had booked this for them during the first sea day (tours fill up early and you aren’t told a time when you book). We received a note that the tour would early morning (8:15am) on the second sea day. This would not have been much of an issue except for the fact that the second sea day was ALSO the morning the ship’s clocks moved ahead an hour. So on the exact day they might have preferred a lie-in, they had to be fed and in Vines by what felt like 7:15am! We believe that one couple on this tour was caught out by the time change, as they showed up a few stops into the tour.

Having said that, the Ultimate Ship’s Tour is pretty incredible. The areas covered included the medical center (they call down first, as they cannot visit if any patients are there), the galley, the laundry, backstage at the Princess Theater, the engineering control room, the fore mooring/anchor area, and, of course, the bridge. The tour took over 3hrs, and included a brief stop for smoothies, Prosecco (“Champagne”) and canapes at the end, and 4 group photo moments (theater, engineering, anchorage, captain). We were definitely spoiled with time from some great officers and staff. There was an assistant CD, a ship’s photographer, and a member of security with us at all times. While most areas were very interesting, as an engineer and a physicist, DH and DF found the engineering control room and the bridge the most fascinating. A junior officer spent quite a bit of time with us discussing the bridge and the controls on the starboard flybridge station. And of course, a nice chat with the captain and a group photo. To our shock (we hadn’t seen the description), we came back from Paris/Normandy to each find 4 photos and a frame, a personalized notepad, a Princess apron and a Princess bathrobe. This was great… And a challenge, since we had already packed and weighed our luggage. My recommendation is that if you have the option, do the tour on the FIRST sea day (and sign up right when you board at guest services). It is likely on this itinerary that by the time the second sea day comes around, you’d prefer to sleep in if you could.

Like the first sea day, where we picked up alternating cell service occasionally (Vodafone IE in the morning, Vodaphone UK at dinnertime), on the second sea day, we found that we had decent cell service for parts of the day. In fact, by the afternoon, if you went to the Lido deck, you could choose your provider by walking back and forth across the ship: Orange F on Port, Vodafone UK on Starboard!

Speaking of cell phones, be careful with the time change. So many of us use our phones as our clocks and alarms today. And cell phones will pull their time from their cell provider normally. Since that provider can change between the UK and Europe even from side to side of the ship, be careful using a cell phone as your alarm on time change days. In the end, we put our phones in airplane mode that night and set our alarms by manually correcting the time of the alarm to compensate for whatever timezone the phone had locked onto.

With such a port-heavy itinerary and only 2 sea days in a 12-day cruise, we cannot say we covered much of the ship’s activities. But that was fine with all of us. We were just happy to recharge a little.

Next... Kirkwall.

My recommendation is that if you have the option, do the tour on the FIRST sea day

My experience is that Princess only schedules the UST on the last sea day of a cruise.

Ooh - thanks for that info! We assumed there was one on the first sea day that filled up, as DW did not sign up until a day or two into the cruise. I heard these always filled up quickly. Thanks!

My experience is that Princess only schedules the UST on the last sea day of a cruise.

The first formal night was Guernsey (the first full day of the cruise) and the second format night was the first sea day (between Glasgow and Kirkwall)

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I'm looking forward to reading about your day in Kirkwall.

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Kirkwall

We’ll get this out of the way; some of you will be disappointed with what we did for Kirkwall, as we did not leave town. We had several reasons for this; First, none of our crew are big prehistory fans. Second, the Scapa Flow visitor center is closed for refurb until spring 2020. Third, we know that outside of Kirwall, the Orkney Islands can be cooler and windy, and that’s not the best option for DM. So, we had always planned on staying in town. And we’ll highlight a VERY interesting little gem that many seem to miss.

Owing to some running about owing to a misplaced disembarkation form, we did not get off of the ship until 9:30am. The free municipal shuttle from ship to downtown was, by then, easy to grab, and very convenient. We headed straight to the Bishop and Earl’s Palaces, for which we had purchased tickets online. Both were very interesting and a good set of ruins, but if you do what most do and visit the Earl’s Palace first, you will likely find the Bishop’s Palace a bit of a let-down. The former is far more picturesque with many places to climb and some great photo ops if one member of your party is at one balcony and another is at a different balcony.

We visited St. Magnus Cathedral; we were doubly lucky to go there early, as it was closing at 12:30 that day for a 1pm concert. We say doubly because there was an on-stage rehearsal while we were touring, so we not only got to see the Cathedral, but also got to hear international-class musicians in a relatively final rehearsal. It was lovely, and DW and DD2 made a game out of trying to find the more famous relics in the church. As a note, St Magnus is buried here, and his remains were found in a column in 1919. It is worth reading about his story online, and then asking a volunteer to point out where his remains were found.

We then visited the nearby Orkney Museum; we had low expectations for it, but we pleasantly surprised. It was larger and more elaborate than expected. Also, for kids, they had a Puffin Hunt and a Dragon hunt, where the kids looked for Puffin or Dragon stickers on the exhibits. This is becoming common in these museums, and it is a great way to get the younger kids to study the exhibits more intently. Their successful search/count garnered them free postcards, which was lovely. This museum is larger than you think, spanning many rooms. It is worth taking time here.

Our final stop for the day was at the wonderful Orkney Wireless Museum. http://www.orkneywirelessmuseum.org.uk/ The museum is not free, and is only a single room, but do not let either of these deter you. This is one of those gems that can come only as the product of someone’s lifelong love and generations of wonderful volunteers. The museum is stacked floor to ceiling with rare and amazing radios and radio paraphernalia. It includes an early, working, playable PONG game for the kids, and a treasure trove of photos from all aspects of WW2 Orkney. Think of it as a mini-Scapa Flow exhibit, too. And the volunteers really make it. The volunteer on our day asked if DDs had ever seen a record player. They said they hard. He asked if they had ever seen one that was crank-operated and needed no power. Of course they had not. So he pulled one out, cranked it and played some records for them. DF loved seeing the earlier radios, remember his own crystal radio experience from the 1940s. It was an easy walk and well worth it.

At this point, the crew split up, with most heading back on the bus to the ship. Lines were longer for the shuttles, but it didn’t take more than a few minutes to clear the line. Meanwhile, DW and DD1 stayed back to take advantage of the free internet at the town Library (it was so so – you couldn’t really upload videos or photos) They all met back up at Alfredos and had some rather late lunch. Most of the crew then took it easy that afternoon, with several watching movies from the pretty decent selection of recent ones on the in-room on-demand system.

Next… Invergordon.

Invergordon

We hemmed and hawed on our plans for Invergordon, but realized in the end that we’d be best served with some form of tour. We looked into Nigel and Elaine’s company Invergordon Shore Excursions (http://www.shorexcursions.co.uk/) and liked what we saw. Also, Nigel had great reviews on TripAdvisor and here on CC. We intended to do their “tour for 8 people”, but have just the 6 in our crew to make it comfier. It was not cheap (400GBP for the van tour and 240GBP for the attraction entrances), but it was still well under what it would have cost from Princess. We contacted them, and heard back immediately that while all of their usual guides were booked, there was a new guide who came recommended by their own best guides, and they were giving him a try. We were nervous about this, but decided that Nigel had a good reputation and a new guide would likely want to make a good impression. How right we were. We could not have been happier with how the day went! We did their Loch Ness (south) tour, adding the Jacobite boat to Urquhart Castle.

We had received detailed info on what was required of us ahead of time. Nigel and Elaine do not require any payment prior to the day, but they require cash on the day. We put together three envelopes of GBP cash ahead of time; two they required (one with the cost of the tour, one with the cost of the entrance fees to the attractions at their negotiated rates) and a third we added with a tip for the guide at the end of the day if all went well. We got off the ship as directed at 8am and were easily able to find the independent tours unofficial “pen” across the street from the cruise port exit. (As a note, when you get off the boat, go to the right and you walk quite a long way before you can exit the gated area.) And there in the center, with agreed upon signage and in full kilt was our guide, Regan Pullkottil Francis. We made introductions and he led us to his van. It was a spotless, like-new Mercedes Vento with the number plate Nessie. The wonderful Nessie Van would be our home for the day. It was extremely comfortable and leather-appointed. If there was ANY down-side to the van, it was specific to our motion-sick-prone crew. The van is laid out in conference layout, so the second row is rearward-facing. We simply put one person up front and only two people had to face the rear.

Once we headed off, we went off through Inverness, and then on to a Jacobite boat trip on Loch Ness, which docked at Urquhart Castle. If we had our choice again and it were to be possible, we think we’d reverse that and take the boat BACK from the castle in the hopes of getting there earlier. Urquhart castle is a lot less fun once the crowds hit and the spiral tower staircases get slow. Get there early if you have a choice, in our opinions.

Next, by request from DM, we stopped at the James Pringle Tartan center which had a tiny weaving exhibit, and, according to DW and DD2, nice bathrooms with stalls that had flowers on the doors. When we saw that Regan was grabbing a quick lunch there, DH decided that perhaps we’d save time by avoiding a special stop for lunch. We grabbed lunch at the café there as well, which turned out to be pretty good. Of the entire crew, DH and DF had little interest (since it was mainly a big outlet shop), DDs were interested in the wide range of things for sale, DW found it “okay”, and DM seemed to like the chance to gift shop.

Next it was off to Cawdor Castle. DDs really enjoyed seeing a “real living castle” (A.K.A. “Stately Home”) instead of ruins. We toured the house pretty quickly as we had come in just ahead of a Princess bus, and then went into the gardens. The gardens were amazing! Our recommendation: when you arrive, take a quick look in the gardens; if they are in bloom, then we recommend increasing your speed through the interior of the castle to add time to the gardens. They are truly magical, with lots of hidden gems and hidden entrances to secluded spaces. Oh, and if you are allergic to bee stings, keep your Epi-Pen at the ready; they were everywhere, although we didn't find them to be nasty.

We were trying to stay ahead of some large Princess excursions, so we headed out to the Culloden Moor. Now, we will say that we don’t know much (anything) about Scottish History. However, we got to learn about what an important place this was. It was really MUCH more engaging than expected, and the exhibit is wonderfully created and curated. All of us found the story told very well and were happy not to have missed it (DH was considering cutting it before we got there).

After that, because DW had asked where to find good “Nessie” figures, Regan took us to a souvenir shop in Invergordon that was much more reasonable than other places we had been to. We got back to the ship in plenty of time, took more photos with Regan and said our goodbyes. Regan was simply wonderful, and we hope Elaine and Nigel continue to work with him. With tip, admissions, and lunch, DW calculate the day at about $180-185 for each of us. Note, the closest Princess tour doesn’t do Cawdor, and is $220 per adult. So, even though this day was an extravagance, it was still cheaper than with Princess. If Regan is any indication of the fun and quality of Nigel and Elaine’s guides (and after meeting another one of their guides, Nigel’s son, we’re inclined to believe they are indeed all quite good), they’re a great company to use. DW’s only other feedback is to ask if Nigel and his group can get family rates – for admission Nigel’s team gets discounts off of regular admission, and passes that on to you. However, we noticed there were family and senior rates, and sometimes those were cheaper. A minor difference, but worth asking about.

Next… Edinburgh

Edinburgh

We had one universal desire for Edinburgh: See the Royal Yacht Britannia. All of the 6 of us had watched The Crown, and all love ships. And we intended to do this on our own. Of course, Edinburgh is one of those multi-hop ports, since it is tendered for Royal Princess and once you’ve tendered, you’re still far from the stated city. Thanks to CC, we had decided to use the x99 bus to get into town, and had early reports on it.

We met outside of our staterooms at 8:30 to head down to Symphony for our tender tickets. We were numbers 535 or so. We were on a tender within 10 minutes. We got off the tender and got into line for the X99 bus. A note on this – we wanted the transit day-pass which was 9 pound per adult and 4.50 per child. We did not want the HOHO bus ticket. This is not something that all of the Lothian agents’ credit card reader handhelds can process so we had to get our tickets from the driver. The first bus we got to couldn’t process tickets (its machine was broken). So we missed that bus. The second bus was right behind it and so we got on that one. The HOHO buses are a much more popular option. A note on the HOHOs – if you want a ride up to the castle, this is your best bet as city buses don’t go on the Royal mile.

We got on the bus at 9:30 and it did take 40 minutes to make it to St. Andrew’s square. After we got there, we took a short walk to another stop for the #11 bus to the Royal Yacht Britannia. We got to the stop for the Royal Yacht about 11am (it feels a little odd, as you enter a shopping mall to get to the exhibit) and toured it until about 1pm. The ship is very impressive and you get to see pretty much everything, or so it felt. It is FAR more than some little 4-room tour, and included also seeing two additional boats, one a racing sailboat and one a royal launch, both used by the royal family. The exhibit was crowded by the time we got there, and people can be pushy throughout. Tickets come with a free audio guide, and the guide is available in a multitude of languages. The audio guide had ~28 stops and was well done. In addition, there was a “Corgi Hunt”, and they placed stuffed Corgi dogs throughout the exhibit, which totally delighted DD2.

We had a yummy lunch at the Britannia View restaurant, which is just down the way in the upper floor of the shopping mall, within view of the exhibit entrance. After that, we grabbed a bus back to St. Andrew’s square. After some discussion, DM and DF were ready to head back to the ship, so they took the next x99 from St. Andrew’s square about 2pm. The rest of the crew then walked up to the Royal Mile and the Castle. On one of the side streets we used to get to the Royal Mile, we happened upon a Harry Potter merchandise store (I think it was Diagon House). It was packed with goodies, and DW and DDs loved looking through everything.

As a note, the Royal mile is described by DW as “Tourism hell – packed with street performers of dubious quality and tons of people”. Also, be careful of the 3 steps down from the sidewalk to the street. It is an excellent place to wipe out an ankle (we came close). It was getting later, and we had a long way back, so we made it up to the Castle where we used the (free, public) bathrooms just inside the outer gate and saw what you could see from the outside. We didn’t have the time to make the entrance fee worthwhile, a decision we had made before leaving the US. We walked by the Scottish Gallery and back to St. Andrew’s square.

It was about 3:25 at this point and there was a decent line for the x99. There was a bus loading and we knew we would never make it on that one. However, there was another right behind it and we made it on that one with no problem at all. Once again, it was 40 min or so with traffic back to the tenders. The line for the tenders wasn’t bad at all, and we waited maybe 5-10 minutes. Interestingly, the fog rolled in while we were coming back, and by the time we got to our rooms, you couldn’t see the Forth bridge! We were back in our rooms just before 5pm. We had snacks at the lido and were completely surrounded by fog. We couldn’t believe it; the tenders were barely visible, even alongside the ship. We heard they even stopped the tenders for a while because of the fog.

Next… Paris/Le Havre

Paris / Normandy Landing Beaches

Paris was (wait for it…) A tale of two cities (sorry – I had to, and it was true). We knew from before we left home that the younger crew’s Princess “Paris on your Own” excursion was insane. 6+ hours on a bus for 4 hours in the middle of a summer Friday in central Paris. With that description, success sounded like a pretty photo at the Eiffel Tower and no stolen wallets, purses or cell phones. By lunchtime, we thought we’d fail even that description. By the time we got back on the bus, our moods had improved a ton. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. To be clear, the reader will note something glaring; for a crew that had meticulously planned this trip, our Paris planning was… Lacking.

Le Havre was the only port where we ended up using Princess excursions, and we would have done that again for a very simple reason; these excursions both involved driving LONG distances from the ship, and they were the day before disembarkation. So we paid for the peace of mind w.r.t. Princess getting us back where we needed to be.

The younger part of the crew were originally signed up for the “Paris Driving Tour and Lunch on Your Own”, but decided to change that to “Paris on Your Own”, as we are not big “photo stop” and bus tour fans. Despite what you’re about to read about the first half of our time in Paris, we’d still have picked this out of the two.

We arrived early for our tour call time, but DW had an emergency while waiting in the Vista Lounge: as she took off her glasses, they fell apart in a manner that was not fixable on-site! She RAN back up to the Baja deck to grab her spares, and was back before they even called our bus group, but it set an uneasy tone for the morning. In addition, we had all been reading up on travel in Paris, and since only DH had been to Paris, and that was 20 years ago, we looked up a lot of things. What we found was, of course, the hilarious number of stories (including one VERY famous travel writer) who told the same basic story; “In 20-plus years of travel, I’ve only been pickpocketed once. In Paris.” Add to this the Princess tour info requiring us to carry all of our passports, and we were concerned. Of course, we used money belts (we actually HADN’T found a need in most of our cities, but we carry VERY little on shore). This put us on-edge.

The bus left a few minutes late, but it was not an issue. The bus was not full; there were easily 10-15 empty seats, so people who wanted to sit up straight did not have to sit directly behind people who wanted to recline. The bus DID have a toilet, although people who only looked to the rear of the bus often missed it. It is becoming common in European tour buses to place a TINY toilet on the lower level (baggage level) of the bus, to the side of the mid-ship exit door. These toilets are so small that you cannot physically stand in them. Lady or Guy, you’re sitting down. But on a 3hr drive each way, it was nice to have.

Of course, we did not arrive in central Paris until 11am, so it was already warm and crowded there. Initially, we headed along the Seine, walking in the shade of the trees and taking it all in. As we headed towards the Pont d’Alma to cross for the Eiffel Tower, DH caught sight of a gold-leaf torch sculpture. This rang a bell in his head, but it wasn’t until he looked again that he was certain; the home-made tributes made it clear. This was above the “Diana Tunnel”. We stopped and talked to the girls about that night in 1997. It was an interesting location to have happened upon by luck.

As we neared the Eiffel Tower, we began to see the signs of construction. And as we arrived, we found the tower encased in gray and green steel fencing, with only a couple of entries. DW had read ahead of time that there was a shorter, walk-up line for people who are willing to take the stairs instead of the elevator. No matter who she spoke to, the answer was the same: there were supposedly only two lines: tickets and no tickets. That was okay, as we hadn’t 100% planned on climbing the tower. We would happy lounging in the gardens.

No such luck – between construction and what we assume were the beginnings of prep for Bastille Day (to protect the flowers from trampling?), the gardens were completely fenced off with 8ft chain link EXCEPT at the end furthest from the tower. And once you made your way there, all of the flowerbeds and garden niceties were similarly fenced off. It was hideous. We decided to get away from the Tower and head to the Trocadero.

Easier said than done, owing to the same construction fencing allowing for only a couple of outlets. Needless to say, there were plenty of folks who took advantage of this choke point… Specifically, the trinket sellers, “magic shows”, and scam and/or pickpocket-diversion “survey” women. These women were aggressive, at one point grabbing DH when he did not engage them. DW, (over?-)prepared for this, yelled at them. They yelled back, but then backed off. Similarly, the walkways were crowded with blankets of the men selling the Eiffel Tower trinkets, in 3 sizes. Every one of these men sold the same ones. Others walked around with the same ones on identical, huge metal hoops.

At the Trocadero, one of these roving sellers interrupted a planning discussion of our entire crew. When DH, tired of all of this, simply said, “NO”, the vendor became aggressive, accusatory and insulting. We walked off. At this point, DH and DD1, the half of the crew who hate crowds, were ready for the bus to return early. We all decided to head away from these tourist areas and take a less direct path in the general direction of the Arc de Triomphe.

This was the turning point. The moment we left the tourist areas, Paris changed. We began to notice the unfathomably fashionable business people heading out for lunch. We noticed the immaculately dressed pensioners. Even meters from the mess, Parisian life went on. We stopped at a business district Pret a Manger for a little snack, the toilets, and a re-plan. The new plan was to go to the Arc de Triomphe, down the Champs Elise, and back to meet the bus just in time. We expected this to be very touristy, but we’d give it a shot.

L’Arc de Triomphe was devoid of any hucksters, etc, and it felt a little less like the obvious pickpocket location, as the only ways out were a couple of tunnels under the traffic circle (a show in an of itself!). Also, the police presence was strong. As we were crossing under, DW noticed the tickets to climb into the tower. They were not expensive (12 euro for each adult and DDs were free), and there was no line. The stairs are taxing, and there are a few galleries inside to rest and read up. But the majesty is the last staircase. Above, at the top, sky! And at the top, a commanding view of Paris. Unlike the Eiffel Tower, at L’Arc, Paris LITERALLY unfurls out from you, as the streets splay outward from it as a hub. The view is simply unparalleled, and was probably worth the trip. Our whole crew simply walked/jogged from point to point, not having to fight for a spot at the rail, and looking out over the beauty of Paris. The excursion changed right there. And thus comes our first “Paris in not enough time” recommendation; forget the Eiffel Tower – climb L’Arc!

After this, we headed down the Champs Elise, which really didn’t feel too bad, since it has the widest sidewalks on Earth. And we had a mission! A family member told us that despite what you’d expect, the McDonalds McCafe in Paris sells a good macaron. We stopped in for the toilets, une grande Coke diet and a half-dozen macarons. We ordered from the fun kiosks, paying with our cell phone bien sur, and picked up our treats. We had to admit they were shockingly good, especially for the price!

The rest of the walk involved seeing some of the major statues on the walk back; De Gaulle, Churchill, etc, and then on to the bus at 3pm, and we pulled off by 3:10. Somewhat to our annoyance, the bus made a stop at a services area on the way back. We had taken to half-jokingly referring to these as the “driver’s free coffee for delivering business” stops, and this one was little different. But all went well and we returned to the ship at 6:45.

Or so we thought… Getting back through the Le Havre port security was the worst experience of any port on the trip by a large margin. We waited for ages for the buses to be checked by security. There was confusion from the signs as to whether we needed to pull out our passports (we didn’t), and security was pickier than usual, and done in the port, not on the ship by Princess crew. Luckily, having been through that, there was no additional security at the ship other than sign-in.

Looking back on things, DH definitely feels that given our relatively young age, we’d have assumed we would do Paris again, on a longer trip and picked a different excursion to a place we were less likely to visit again. His feeling was likely Mont Saint Michel. DW seems to agree, but also realized that DDs wanted a taste of Paris. They got two different ones in halves, and it did, thankfully, leave them wanting more of Pairs, if not of the biggest tourist sites.

Moving on to a second-hand review of the Princess Normandy Landing Beaches excursion, which DF and DM took, and enjoyed greatly. Their comments were that as they expected, the number of people on the bus and the older demographic meant that the tour was far from nimble. While this was rarely a major issue, DF noted two situations in which it had a material effect on their experience. First, insufficient time was allotted to the lunch that was served. That sounds an odd statement, but it is meant as such. There was enough time for a lunch, but the elaborate lunch that was served moved too slowly for the time allotted, and in the end, by the time DF and DM were served their gorgeous dessert, they were told it was time to leave. I am guessing DF and DM could have pushed the issue and eaten, delaying the planned tour, but that was not their nature. Also, DF found the time at Omaha beach to be too brief. This lead to people wildly taking photos without paying any attention as to whether they were stepping into others’ photos to take their snapshots. But these were minor issues, and DF and DM greatly enjoyed the experience and the few people on the tour they had the chance to meet.

Next… Disembarkation and Warp-up!

Next… Disembarkation and Warp-up!

Several days beforehand, you are given a form to fill out with your disembarkation information, your flight number and time, etc. During our second day at sea, we got luggage tags with our information. We had a 1:30pm flight out of LHR, and our disembarkation group was to meet at 7:40am. DF and DM only got 2 luggage tags and so had to go down to get more during a specified 3 hour window that the disembarkation team was available. They asked a princess staff member about how to get more tags and were able to get them very quickly (we believe most people in line are trying to change groups, so this was easier). DW and DH ended up with 9 luggage tags initially, so it was somewhat random how many tags one received. We were told to have most of our luggage out before dinner, and then the rest after dinner. DF got clarification that luggage had to be out no later than 11pm. Given our late arrival back from Paris, we only got one bag out before dinner. After dinner, we got the rest of our bags out, and found that they disappeared quite quickly. We were left only our backpacks, into which we needed to shove our PJs and toiletries. A nice note – you gain that hour back this night, so you end up getting a bit more sleep.

The next morning we had a quick breakfast in Horizon Court at 7am (it was similar to other mornings – certainly busy but you could get a seat without an issue.). We were down at our meeting spot at 7:37, and they called our group right when we walked up. DW was shocked they called us a bit early (especially because the disembarkation materials warned not to show up early). For shore excursions, we found they called us about 15 minutes AFTER the stated meeting time.

We walked off, and went through the terminal building into a large open space that had all the luggage grouped by disembarkation group. To our shock, we then had to go find all your bags amongst all of the others in the group and take them to the buses. We had mistakenly assumed that disembarkation groups mapped one-to-one to buses (we should have done the math), and assumed they would just be handed to us at LHR. At this point, DH and DW determined that they wouldn’t bother to put out all luggage on future cruises. It would have been nice to have kept one or two rolling bags in which we could have put our PJ, etc. There is really limited value to the cruise staff taking your bags 50 feet off the ship and leaving them for everyone to have to find again.

After that, we headed to our bus and the driver loaded our luggage underneath. Note that at this point, we were then asked for our tickets. All of our tickets had been waiting in the stateroom on the first day with any shore excursions we had purchased, and DW just hadn’t processed that we needed the tickets on the bus again. DW had them handy, but that was really just luck. DW figured that since we got bag tags, etc, that it was clear we had tickets. One couple didn’t have them, and so they had to call back to the ship and make sure their stateroom had purchased the transfers. We were on the road about 8:10 and at LHR at 9:30. DH and DW would use the Princess transfers to the airport as they worked pretty well. The bus wasn’t full because it is gated on how many people’s luggage can fit underneath. Once again, there was a toilet on the bus.

And with this, the cruise component of the trip ended. And we flew home without anything worth mentioning.

Next… Wrap up…

Wrap-up

We’re a little sad to be completing this review. It almost feels like saying “goodbye” to what was a 3-generation trip of a lifetime. And the review was specifically written as a “thank you” to Cruise Critic’s forums; we simply cannot over-state the importance of these forums. As a result, our #1 recommendation out of all of this is simple:

Get involved on Cruise Critic. Engage on the roll call, and if you cannot provide input on the cruise line forums because you are a new cruiser, provide input on any destinations you’ve travelled to independent of cruises. For us, that meant posting to the Great Britain forum, as we’ve travelled to London multiple times. On board, DW met up with another CC member and they chatted for two hours about various items.

While most of these sections were created by DH from a detailed diary written by DW, we wanted to have input from all of the younger generations of the crew for the wrap-up. Each of us provided our biggest recommendations NOT already mentioned in the review.

DD2 (11yrs):

1) Pack layers because you have no idea what the weather will be even day to day. Short sleeves and long sleeves!

2) Get used to how you can tell which side of the ship you’re on, so you know how to get around.

DD1 (14yrs):

1) Bring a multi-port USB charger; there are SO FEW outlets in the room

2) For a midnight “sneak out of the room” snack, remember the International Café is open 24hrs, and they always have the Chocolate Ganache cups!

DW:

1) Research ports beforehand and come up with a plan. DH created a 30 page document called a “Cannonball run of the British Isles” that our entire crew enjoyed. We had a plan for every port, based off of the great advice on CC. We were able to relax and enjoy our trip, given our plan.

2) Be flexible to change. Our plan called for skipping Glasgow and going to Falkirk. We weren’t excited by that option, and we are so happy we made the change to stay in Glasgow. It was our favorite big city (out of Dublin, Edinburgh, and Paris), and we would have missed it without flexibility.

DH:

1) Sail aways are a delight on this itinerary; consider adjusting dinner for this, as there’s so much to see, often for an hour or more after sail away. Many ports (Cobh, Dublin, Belfast, Greenock) have fun sail away performances of bagpipes, bands, and dancers. After sail away, go to where you can see both sides of the ship (e.g. decks 17-19) and see fun things leaving port. As an example, we saw fantastic fortifications leaving Invergordon (the north and south Sutors). We often had google maps up on our phonea (Vodaphone SIMs!) so we could identify the cool things we were passing. We found 7:45pm dining allowed us to see most sail aways.

2) Consider taxis in city ports if you are 4 or more in your party. Public transport is fun, but time in these ports is very limited. If the port is not traffic-limited (E.g. Dublin was traffic-limited), taxis could let you get to more attractions in a day.

Next… Summary/Direct Links

Thanks for a great report!

Thank you so much for your detailed review - it's the best I've ever read! Now can't wait, we're doing the same trip soon. :D

Fantastic review!

Thanks for the wonderfully detailed review. We haven't done the British Isle itinerary (yet) but are doing a west bound transatlantic this Sep. Your reports have confirmed our choices of sailing from Southampton vs. Le Havre, spending time pre-cruise in France and selecting a tour in Belfast.

Tim & Mary Lou

Wow, I really appreciate all of your detail about the Paris on your Own excursion! I am looking at that for my family next summer when we are there. I didn't realize you have to take your passports with you (not thrilled with that given the pickpocket situation). It sounds a bit daunting. I may have to rethink that or do the more expensive excursion with a guide the whole time. And I didn't know you could climb L'Arc, and definitely didn't know about the macarons at McDonald's! Good to know :-)

Loved reading about Invergordon , sadly our sailing in June had to miss this port. And coincidentally we had a private tour lined up with Elaine and Nigel’s company. My husband really wanted to see Culloden. Oh well we will just have to come back again!

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This was fantastic to read. I always enjoy hearing/reading other people takes on the cruises from start to finish.. what they loved and didn’t love. what they were most impressed with etc... You should have added pictures as you went along! Thank you for taking the time to do this. [emoji846]

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