BRILLIANCE (British Isles) June 19-July 2,2018 REVIEW w/lots of photos

Thank you for the great trip report! I love your attention to detail. We will be sailing the Brilliance out of Tampa next April. I have also added the British Isles to my travel list.

Awesome review, as usual, Hoopster! I just found it about a week ago, and have been playing "catch up" ever since! I've bookmarked numerous references for a trip somewhere in my future. Thank you very much for taking the time to share your trip with us!

Thank you for such a fantastic review. I will now be looking into this cruise and it's on my wish list

Thank you so much. Thoroughly enjoyed your very organized and fun review.

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Thanks for a wonderful review & your beautiful pictures. Do hope that some day you will make it back to the Emerald Isle & up to beautiful Donegal! :D

Checking my map, I was just around the corner from Dane John Gardens which I wanted to check out, so I made my way towards the old wall which led me to the gardens. By the way, for those taking the train from Dover, this is also where the Canterbury East train station is located... a short walk from everything, the station is right across that foot bridge

 

 

 

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Claudio: Your review is fantastic. So glad we were able to do some tours with you that you planned for us.

We went on our own in Dover.

We decided to walk from the Dover cruise terminal to the train station. On the CC board, someone had said it was a 20 minutes walk. Well, we walked and walked. After an hour we were finally at the train station. Train station in Dover is good. There are real people in the ticket office. We bought our round trip tickets for two of us ($25 in US$ charged) and were on our way to the Canterbury East Station. Maybe a 20 minute train ride. Walk over the bridge as shown in your picture. We took the train back to Dover. They leave 20 and 40 minutes after the hour. We got on an express to Dover and were there in no time. We decided to take a taxi from the Dover train station that dropped us off a few steps from the ship. Cost for taxi was 8 Euros. In hindsight, we should of taken a 8 Euro taxi from the cruise port to the train station.

Carol

Oops! I meant Pounds and not Euros in my CC post above.

We decided to walk from the Dover cruise terminal to the train station. On the CC board, someone had said it was a 20 minutes walk. Well, we walked and walked. After an hour we were finally at the train station.

Hey Carol! I was hoping you'd mention something about the train.... yes, the 20 minutes estimate was more like from the center of town up to the train station, not from the pier itself. Great advice for anyone here reading to compare my bus travels to your train... the direct train is faster than the bus, however getting to the station is more difficult and a little more expensive... 6 of one/half dozen of the other!

Really nice to have met you and Roy. Many happy sailings to you... maybe we'll cross paths again someday :D

Just caught up today on your review. Loved everything. I've been to almost all of the places you wrote about and now I want to go back. What a great review/cruise!!!

I really enjoyed your review! Now this itinerary is on my bucket list for sure. I see in your signature that you are doing Ovation in Alaska next May. We are doing it in September so I hope you plan to review your trip so I can get some tips for mine!

What a wonderful review. I took lots of notes and have the review bookmarked so that I can refer to it. My hubby and I are doing this cruise next June for our 30th Anniversary and I can not wait. :) I just reserved our flights last week, now to make our Hotel reservations.

Ha ha! You know me well! But thank you for your kind words...! ;)

 

Your tie was amazing - it was getting quite a few compliments from everyone - even Mike was a bit envious!

 

I’m loving the review! Bringing back memories, but I’m also seeing things that I didn’t get to see myself, since some of my tours were very different...funny how we can both visit the same ports, yet get totally different experiences!!!

Great review Claudio, I will look out for other trips that you take, and your reviews.

Sherri, could you let us know when you post (if you haven't already) your review of this trip, I would be interested in reading it too, and seeing the comparisons, and your views on Scotland and the places you visited.

Margaret

Wonderful review, Claudio, this cruise itinerary has been added to my bucket list! Thank you for sharing your trip memories with us :)

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Thank you for the very very kind words everyone :)

Hope this helps out those booked (booking) this cruise for next year.

Margaret, if you wish to look at other trips I wrote about, my favorite sailing ever is the "Serenade" review below in my signature (I still get the odd email on this one of CC'ers looking for advice!) and Jewel b2b last year in the Med. I'm seeing that most all of the info shared today on CC is still valid on those reviews regarding the ports for the most part.

I'll be on Ovation in May on her first ever Alaska sailing leaving my hometown. Finishing this British Isles review was a big challenge as business/work hours were not conducive to blogging travel (let alone travelling period!) so I may do a "live" review on Ovation instead.... we'll see.

Thank you for the very very kind words everyone :)

Hope this helps out those booked (booking) this cruise for next year.

 

Margaret, if you wish to look at other trips I wrote about, my favorite sailing ever is the "Serenade" review below in my signature (I still get the odd email on this one of CC'ers looking for advice!) and Jewel b2b last year in the Med. I'm seeing that most all of the info shared today on CC is still valid on those reviews regarding the ports for the most part.

 

I'll be on Ovation in May on her first ever Alaska sailing leaving my hometown. Finishing this British Isles review was a big challenge as business/work hours were not conducive to blogging travel (let alone travelling period!) so I may do a "live" review on Ovation instead.... we'll see.

Hi Claudio,

Thanks for the information for your other reviews, I'll check them out when I can, and look forward to your review next May on Ovation.

Margaret

So allow me to summarize so far... I walked off brilliance about 7am. I walked across street (1 block) and tram came in 4 minutes. The tram ride is maybe 2 minutes. Walking from tram stop into Centraal Station maybe1 minute. Buying ticket, taking photo and finding the tracks perhaps 5 minutes'ish. Waiting for train and loading another 5 minutes.... not rushed, just very easy to figure out so far. IIRC my train was the 7:37am "Breda" on the sign I posted in the above picture.

 

At exactly to the second at 7:37am (the Amsterdam people mean business, not a second late), off we went...

 

 

I was told the train ride was about 25-30 min by others I've spoken to. That must be the non-direct train with stops. This train was a very short ride to the airport. I couldn't resist taking a photo of my watch as I got off the train at the airport... it was only 15 minutes!

 

 

So from the Brilliance gangway to the airport in about 1 hour... unreal!

 

The train station is directly below the main terminal of the airport... no walking up and down pathways of a terminal, go up the escalator just outside the train stop and you're right there (the escalators there on the left). So extremely easy I couldn't believe it.

 

 

I had quite a while to wait, including the waiting for the ticket window to open 3 hours before flight time (my flight wasn't until 12:55pm). However lots to do at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, shopping, etc... big big place! Soon enough it seemed, they were calling us at the gate. I settled in for the long flight home....

 

 

Goodbye for now Amsterdam.... I'm sure I'll see you again someday.

 

 

THE END :D

Thank you for sharing the details of getting from ship to airport. Because we had a morning flight we had booked the ship’s transfer and it was a disaster. Massive delays while queueing in the theatre waiting for our group to be called, long lines through customs, fair drive to airport but then being held on the bus at the airport waiting for the one designated debarking area to open up for well over half an hour made our commute very stressful and lengthy. Were we to do it again, I would go the train route.

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FYI, We got off Brilliance today at Amsterdam. Walk over to Movenpick hotel And hop on a Taxi to Amsterdam Central railway station. Taxi fare for 2 people and luggages, 7 euros including tips.

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Thank you for sharing the details of getting from ship to airport. Because we had a morning flight we had booked the ship’s transfer and it was a disaster. Massive delays while queueing in the theatre waiting for our group to be called, long lines through customs, fair drive to airport but then being held on the bus at the airport waiting for the one designated debarking area to open up for well over half an hour made our commute very stressful and lengthy. Were we to do it again, I would go the train route.

 

 

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Jen & Dave!!!! How the heck are you guys?! I really hope you're doing well.... we need to cross paths again someday.

Thx for saying hi on this review my friend. Say, I'm on Ovation next year so I'll be going back to your review to poke around and look at all your great ship pics again my sailing draws nearer. Have fun on Jewel!

 

Say... ever thought of doing Alaska? Plenty of non-stop flights from Gatwick or Heathrow to Vancouver next May 13 ;)

(I'll show you two around Vancouver for a day :D)

We're doing really well thanks :)

Yes, it would be great to cross paths again (and thanks for your kind offer to show us around Vancouver - Alaska is certainly a "bucket list" cruise, so we may hold you to that offer one day! :cool: )

i, too, have this cruise on my bucket list when i retire next year. it is already booked for July 18, 2019. I was thrilled to see all your photos and read all your commentary. i have one question. at what point did you know the lecturer would be getting together these "small groups" for tours - ahead of time, not until you were on the cruise, etc.

i have been to Amsterdam a couple of times. My husband lived there for a couple of years before we were married so have seen many of the sites. i didn't know about the false facades masking a church which was very interesting. my husband lived on the Prisengracht while he was there for his company so a great location.

look forward to hearing back from you and many thanks again.

Cathy

Dallas, TX

Only Emerald - which sounds like many Diamond members choose this cruise

I asked our waiter on Serenade in April why we couldn’t get them any more. For the last 7 or 8 nights there was a small plateful of them waiting for me when I came to dinner.

I think it depends on whether your waiter is willing to ask for them.

 

 

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What are savory bites?

What are savory bites?

Very small, crusty, tasty bread rools.

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Sorry for double photo. Don’t know what happened.

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Yummm. I love those! And they don’t serve them anymore usually? What do they serve instead?

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i have one question. at what point did you know the lecturer would be getting together these "small groups" for tours - ahead of time, not until you were on the cruise, etc.

Hi Kathy,

I got lucky.... this particular lecturer was active on our roll call before the cruise. This is the best place to make arrangements with other fellow cruisers, and best of all you already have a friendship the second you walk onto the ship and meet them.