British Isles Cruise Review 6/5-6/17

[Cruiser Bruiser]

Enjoying your review thus far. Someday I will do this sailing on Princess. Hopefully you will make some mention of the weather? I find it curious that Princess uses a ship for the British Isles that doesn't have an enclosed pool. :confused: I would think that would be essential. Cheers!

[Darcy15]

Thank you for your review :)

 

Enjoying seeing my country through your eyes :D

[RRFPresident]

Enjoying your review thus far. Someday I will do this sailing on Princess. Hopefully you will make some mention of the weather? I find it curious that Princess uses a ship for the British Isles that doesn't have an enclosed pool. :confused: I would think that would be essential. Cheers!

 

Pool - that would have been an excellent idea to have an enclosed pool on such an itinerary. Despite feeling cool on open decks from the wind, the hot tubs got lots of use. Saw one lady run from stripping down to her bathing suit over to the hot tub to get out of the chill. Saw a few kids in the pool late afternoons, even during drizzle sessions. Once or twice I'd see an adult enjoying having the pool to themselves. MUTS was sparsely attended at night. So glad they simulcasted the movies in cabins.

 

Weather - We kept joking throughout the itinerary that we brought the nice weather with us. It ranged anywhere from low to mid 60s to low 80s in Paris. Our Paris guide said that we lucked out with the weather there too but that it had been good all that week before we came as well. One of the other guides referred to UK weather as "we don't get rain, we get showers as in they come and they leave quickly." While most of the time it was tshirt/sweatshirt or tshirt/light jacket temps and overcast, the only port we weren't on our way back on board or in a bus/landmark during those brief showers was Dublin. That's the port we walked around on our own after taking the ship provided shuttle into town and back. One of those "oh it's raining, put the jacket hood up, walk a block, rain was done, walk out of a shop a few blocks later, rain was back" kind of thing.

 

As far as ship temperatures - most of the time you could feel comfortable in jeans/slacks and a tshirt as long as you didn't mind the 5 min chill as you cut across the open lido deck. If we had plans to be on the lido deck for any length of time, we stopped at the cabin first for our jackets/sweatshirts.

[RRFPresident]

Oh my gosh!!! Love love love your Harry Potter photos!!!

 

Thank you! I snapped the one of Dobby moments before a young school girl came over, screamed Dobby's name and wrapped her arms around the display case.

 

I have loads more pics from the studio tour but I was limited by CC's 6 pic per post rule. Right now I have my pics stored at shutterfly but it's not letting me share the link to the whole album unless people log in. Will look into making one of their 'share sites' when I finish the review.

[RRFPresident]

You eventually walk into a multi level great room that is darkly lit. In the center is a room size sculpture of Hogwarts that looks like a cross between sandcastle art and plaster of paris. The last areas of the tour feature the architect style drawings and scale models that went into creating the sets and the characters as well as drawings and paintings from various scenes in the movie.

[RRFPresident]

The tour empties into the gift shop and we walked around joking about how tough it would be to get some of these wands, broomsticks, and various other trinkets through TSA on the flight home. One of my friends who is engaged to a British man advised that we had to try cheese and onion chips/crisps, a pasty, a galaxy bar, and wine gummies while in London. In the gift shop, I ended up purchasing the wine gummies, a T-shirt, and the infamous Bertie Bott’s every flavor jelly beans. I remember seeing these in stores here in the USA back when the books/movies first came out but I figured it was a must get when you’re at the place it was all filmed. I’ve now had a chance to eat some and while I couldn’t say whether some flavors truly taste like earwax and vomit as the card describes, some of them do taste like they claim (black pepper and soap) and therefore are gross as jelly beans.

 

There is a full cafeteria off to the opposite side of the lobby so with about 40 minutes to kill, we stopped in for a quick lunch. After a quick photo grab outside the entry sign, we joined the crowds gathering at the bus shelters.

There were different buses going to different stops and if it wasn’t for noticing that the first bus’ tickets were different than ours, we might have hopped the wrong bus. Once we went to join the correct group, we noticed that the bus shelters are labeled for which stop you are headed to.

[RRFPresident]

One of the benefits of a swanky hotel doorman is to have him hail a cab for you. Adorable young man in suit, coat tails, and top hat standing in the street to wave and whistle a cab your way. Thanks to a tip on here and on various trip sites, we knew that the past 4:30PM crowd at the London Eye was the best time for avoiding crowds. Between scheduling it for after we got back from Harry Potter and purchasing fast track tickets for the exact day we wanted, we were able to check in at the main desk and then be behind only one other family in a line next to everyone else in the regular line. They stop the wheel every so often and swap out the people in the pod that is in line with the platform. In between each swap out, two staff members come in with pole mirrors to scan under the bench seat in the middle of the pod to ensure nothing dangerous was left behind. We, the family in front of us, and about 2 other families from the regular line got loaded into the next pod so it wasn’t as crowded as I expected.

 

There is air conditioning inside and in addition to the display screen in each pod, they give you a map to explain what you’re seeing. We took several pictures of the sights at various levels as we moved around the wheel structure including pictures of our view of the other pods and of how our pod looked. Thankfully our fellow riders were more accommodating than the kids and we all moved about the pod freely respecting each other’s picture taking efforts.

[RRFPresident]

[RRFPresident]

Just like on an amusement park ride, they offer you the opportunity to pose for a photo while in the pod. Footprints are painted on the floor in a couple corners and they announce over the intercom inside your pod to step onto the painted footprints if you wish to pose for a photo. Ours was taken shortly before we arrived at the bottom. They must have separate cameras mounted for the respective footprint areas because I stayed in the same area since the first photo offer was announced and saw no evidence of my picture being taken until we actually passed the giant obvious camera and a second announcement was made.

 

To anyone who is claustrophobic or afraid of heights, it’s not as bad as you might think. The pods are about the size of a oval shaped walk in closet and to look back at pictures I took of the Eye from the ground, I’m shocked at how high up I had been. When you’re in the pod itself, you don’t feel that high up.

 

Once off the ride, we went and checked out our photos in the little gift shop. Dad ended up buying a package offer and we got our photo inside a spiral bound book about the Eye, and a magnet, key chain, and wallet size trading card version of our photo. The rest of the gift shop stuff was either toys and trinkets like pens and paperweights or photos and postcards of the view so we didn’t buy anything else. On the way out, we stopped at the 4-D experience theater. There was a chance to have your picture taken against a green screen right before entering the screening room that would produce pictures made to look like you were balancing on the outside of a pod or sitting dangling your feet on a high railing. The woman manning the screening room door warned that a new show was just about to start so we skipped the green screen photos. Once we grabbed our special glasses, we stood in the back and watched this movie about a young girl being taken to see the London Eye for the first time and all these others worldly experiences are covered. When birds fly across the screen, they appear to come at you and each image of fire, fireworks, waterfalls, or storms had water sprinkle on us.

 

To enjoy the wonderful weather and relaxed evening, we walked around the surrounding area to see what else was around. Deciding that the little playground, merry go round, and carnival were not for us, we ended up walking across the Jubilee bridge (aka the Hungerford Footbridge) to get some great scenic photos. The bridge featured several musicians playing for tips as you walked along. There are elevators at each end to go down, mostly for the disabled and those who chose to bike along the bridge. Martin told us during our first tour that biking was encouraged by the government as a way to help ease crowding and traffic so there were lots of places around town to rent a bike.

[RRFPresident]

Once we got back on the ground level, we checked the street map I had thought to grab from the airport and Dad wanted to see if he could find the platform 9 ¾ from Harry Potter when we saw how close map wise we were to the station. Martin’s taxi tour company also offers a version of the Harry Potter filming sites around London tour including a stop at the train platform but we thought the studio would be more interesting. Unfortunately, we got really lost and confused in the train station and I was feeling exhausted by then. One of the sites I had wanted to see more closely than the drive by our taxi tour gave us was Trafalgar Square. We used the street map to find our way there and got to see one of the many protests Martin spoke of.

 

We got a bit turned around in our efforts to walk back to the hotel despite noticing the sites we passed during our taxi tour. Stopped to ask a couple cops walking by and they directed us through the gate that takes you along the mall (aka the road passing by Buckingham Palace that was now full of cars). We walked for a long while along the mall trying to orient ourselves by the landmarks we passed. After a while, we decided to give in and flag down a taxi to take us back to our hotel.

 

By then it was around 8:30PM and we decided to try the hotel restaurant for dinner. Despite there being very few people left dining, we still had pretty bad service. The waitress who seated us and took our drink order never came back. We happened to have the table near the shelf they kept the cash register on so we flagged down another waitress who’d come by to deposit another diner’s payment and inquired about our drinks. At one point we had to flag the hostess/manager down just to get a water refill. My reuben sandwich wasn't very good so I just ate the fries on the side.

 

By the end of our time in the UK, I was beginning to wonder if lemon was the national fruit. Every drink from soda to water had either a lemon slice or lemon wedge. It took until the plane ride home for someone to ask if I wanted lemon or not in my drink to which I enthusiastically replied oh please no more lemon! One thing I did find cute during our dinner this night was that when I asked for ketchup for my fries, what was brought was a little china plate with a doily on top and two tiny, no taller than 2 sugar cubes stacked on top of each other, jam style jars of Heinz ketchup. I didn’t get the chance to actually use them as they were delivered as quickly as our water was refilled. Also found it interesting how no matter where we went on the trip land or ship, the ketchup was either dished out as its own side dish or poured onto your plate by the waiter both in small amounts before the bottles were whisked away. At our house, we use ketchup like it’s going out of style so I found it intriguing how much it seemed to be rationed.

[RRFPresident]

After 3 full activity packed days in London, we woke up early for our transfer to Southampton and the cruise port. We booked a hotel pickup transfer from The London Toolkit website so we had to be ready to go between 7AM and 8:15AM. Bus came promptly and we bid our goodbyes to the Grosvenor. Our bus driver was a humorous delight, joking from the start about how a young woman being his girlfriend as he had to wait for her to pass by before loading our luggage. The bus was air conditioned and mostly comfortable. We ended up making stops at the train station and other hotels and even had to pull over for a moment to pick up people from another of the company’s shuttles that had broken down. Despite all of that, the bus only had about 10-15 people and Dad and I were able to each have 2 seats to ourselves. Our driver was from Brazil originally and he told many funny stories about past passengers and tourists he’d encountered over the years as we drove along. We stopped during the drive for a bathroom break at a Costa shop and the driver told us a story about going into a Costa shop one day and pretending to be a relative of the owner since his last name was also Costa. When the employee wasn’t buying the story, our driver pulled out his ID showing his name and freaked the employee out.

 

The particular transfer plan we booked included a one hour stop at Stonehenge. During the bus ride, the driver put on a video showing a documentary about Stonehenge. And yes, moving bus on the way to something fun + putting on a sleepy documentary = me getting in another nap. Woke up to stretches of empty countryside and our first sights of Stonehenge over the hill. The driver went and picked up our tickets bringing back brochures as our proof of already purchased tickets. The brochures included the names and placements of the individual stones. Our driver shared the story of how the stones were believed to be dragged from nearby farms and fields and how modern day researchers tried to recreate moving the rocks like they would have back then but couldn’t do it. We all left the bus to move through the ticket line and were given the option of headsets for tour commentary. I opted out of using the headsets. A small chain fence surrounds the stones in the center but the fence is set back far enough to nearly reach the outlying stones. I know some tours offer the chance to actually go inside the inner circle but for this stop, it was all about walking around the paved path that encircles the chain fence. I found it interesting though given how far back the crowd was kept, there was nothing prohibiting access to the outlying stones. There wasn’t so many people that you couldn’t find some spot to walk up to the fence and get pictures. We were given a time to be back at the bus but otherwise we were free to walk the circle or shop as freely as we pleased. There was a shop as you come out of the ramped pathway leading to the circular pathway and one near the ticket entrance. Near the ramp shop was a couple food stands where you could buy chips, ice cream, drinks, or prepared snacks/sandwiches. This was where I bought the cheese and onion crisps my friend suggested. Not the greatest breakfast and I discovered that while sour cream and onion chips are good, and cheddar chips are good, cheese and onion..not so much. There was a pasty shop in Victoria Station and we almost considered eating there one evening, even got a chuckle out of their advertised “American Philly Cheese Steak” pasty. So unfortunately I never got to try the pasty recommendation but we did enjoy another taste of home when we brought a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts from the station back to the hotel one afternoon.

 

[RRFPresident]

Arrived in Southampton around 1PM-1:30PM. We had already put Princess baggage labels on our luggage so the handlers whisked them away before we even got off the bus. One of many firsts on this trip was experiencing Southampton as a cruise embarkation port. So much larger and chaotic than I was used to. We ended up in a line that extended so far past the check in area that it was down the escalator, across the room and out the door. We watched several people being escorted just inside who seemed to either have luggage or cabin issues. A staff member stood by the escalators working crowd control and we eventually moved up the escalator. The main area could be described as organized chaos as there was crowds of people bunched together in a waiting to check in line, then a bunch of crowds in a waiting to go through security line. It took a lot of darting through crowds and lines to get directions on where to go for priority check in. While not as impressive on our last cruise out of New York since we got there mid afternoon on a Princess bus transfer and the main crowds were gone, this perk for suites etc was a major plus for Southampton! After showing our papers verifying priority check in, we were escorted ahead of the line to the next available check in person. We had already entered all our information online in the personalizer so it was more the formality of checking that we had all our documents and correct paperwork. We then received our cruise cards for the voyage.

 

With this new level change up, Dad ended up being Medallion on this voyage. We had already purchased Princess trip insurance’s best package so our travel agent refunded us the difference as one of the medallion perks is automatic upgrade to the better insurance package. Also another advocate for price and sale checking leading up to your cruise. We ended up with a good chunk of OBC by trip date. I was gold level on this voyage but since each cruise in a suite gives you two credits, Dad moved up to Platinum and I to Medallion at the end of the cruise. Got my new level envelope on the second to last day but it didn’t contain the new level pin that the paperwork said should be in there. Dad never got an envelope during the cruise but received an email once we got home about his level change.

 

We were directed to cut through the bulk of the security line to where they were taking embarkation photos just off of where the long regular line snaked through the room. Got several glares especially from people who tried to follow us and got turned back to the regular line. There was a parallel line for priority embarkation passengers leading up to the xray machines and metal detectors. A staff member was doing crowd control letting a few of us from each area in at a time. This was our first time using the new portable card scanners. Was nice to have our cards scanned out by the ramp so that it didn’t create such a holdup inside the ship entryway.

 

We were within about 30 minutes of being too late for dining room lunch service so instead we popped in to drop off our carry on bag in the cabin and take a breather. Our cabin was suite C748. Last Princess cruise we had C749 on the opposite side and loved it. Tried to book it again but someone else snagged it while we sat on the phone with our travel agent to make the booking arrangements. This cabin was basically the mirror image of the other cabin with the exception of the main cabin door being tough to close for me. It was either pull it real hard from being wide open or do the dreaded forceful slam shut. Also, the rubber strip along the shower door would slip down resulting in water leaking onto the bathroom floor. We fixed it ourselves a couple times and about mid cruise noticed that it had been re-glued in an attempt to keep it in place.

 

While in our cabin, we took the time to call the Dine Line and made a reservation for the Crown Grill as our free dinner in a specialty restaurant embarkation night suite perk. Of the suite perks, here’s a rundown of what we took advantage of:

 

1) Priority boarding and the exclusive use of club fusion with coffee/juice/pastries service while waiting for disembarkation.

2) Extra room in the cabin with two chairs, coffee table, and sofa bed/couch. The couch itself was pretty beaten down though. We also had a few little wear and tear spots like drawers that weren’t on track. Never did need all the storage space and often times I found the 2nd chair annoying to keep moving out of the way of the balcony doors.

3) Spacious closet – we had unpacked everything and hung up our clothes in the closet the first day. I crawled on the floor to move some rolled up bedding around under Dad’s bed so he could fit both his and the carry on suitcase underneath. Under my bed we found a huge roll of long bedding that I couldn’t shove aside so we were going to leave my big suitcase sitting up against the wall. Wasn’t until mid week that I realized it was no longer there and we discovered that our steward Rico had maneuvered it into the closet.

4) Two flat panel televisions – the bedroom one is up higher and smaller in size. By the end of the cruise with all our changes and announcements, it came handy to keep one of the remotes near the bed so we could easily turn on the bridge cam channel to hear the announcements. Only thing is that sometimes since the remotes are the same, the signal would bounce around to the other TV. Quite interesting to be alone in your cabin and suddenly hear extra voices around the corner only to find that it’s the bedroom TV that turned on or off at the same time.

5) Tub and shower stall/separate bathroom area for sink and toilet – great for when we’d swap who was showering and who was brushing teeth etc cutting our getting ready time down. Each cruise though I keep planning to take a bath and never do.

6) Hair dryer – I cut my hair to shoulder length shortly before the cruise but you’d have thought I had Rapunzel hair the way it took forever to dry with that hair dryer. Later in the cruise, I either budgeted extra time to blow dry or I let my hair air dry. Usually while not powerful, the hair dryers are acceptable but this one seemed to be on its last leg.

7) Upgraded balcony furniture – we had two loungers, two small tables by the loungers, one dining table, and four dining chairs. For the first couple days we had blankets rolled up on the loungers but after Edinburgh, they disappeared. We later found them near the end of the cruise tucked away above the living area’s TV.

8) Complimentary mini bar – we exchanged out the mini bottles of liquor and water bottles for soda and Dos Equis beer by leaving a note for Rico. We also tried to exchange out the two small bottles of Brut champagne but that request was refused. We had our share of sodas while out around the ship and either bought on the way off the ship or refilled water bottles we’d picked up in port. Always refill water bottles or drinking glasses with water from the bathroom sink. That wet bar sink gave out yellow water and gurgled if you dumped anything down it. Had the same trouble in C749 last time until we ran water down the drain. Got down to where I was drinking the last soda on disembarkation morning just to use it up.

9) DVD library – this is the first time we took advantage of this perk as we were bored. There’s a brochure in your suite perks binder in the cabin that you fill out with your information and check off up to two DVDs at a time. Rico would pick up the card and deliver our DVD choices by dinnertime. Was great for each of us to watch a movie only they had wanted to see.

10) Pillow menu – Dad did ask for a neck pillow and we both got one of those log roll type pillows. I tossed mine off the bed each night.

11) Fresh flower arrangement/corsage/fruit bowl – Our flower arrangement did get replaced during the cruise and by formal night, the small vase in the bathroom got a single flower. The corsage that was delivered on our first formal night – both of them had pins and we had the hardest time trying to figure out how to get them on right. Finally gave up and went without. The fruit bowl was nice at first until it started going moldy. Left a note to have it replaced and it was that same day. We kept having to move the fruit bowl off the table when we’d do room service or bring snacks back to the cabin so Dad finally put it on the shelf underneath the wet bar. Next time Rico came in to service the room, he took the fruit bowl and we never saw it again.

12) Complimentary laundry – Having spent 3 days in London first, we had our share of laundry from the start of the cruise. I had stained my shirt on the plane ride or else I would have been reluctant to include anything in the laundry. Last time, the stains didn’t come out, I had new spots on the clothes, and I lost one sock somewhere. This time my stained shirt came back still stained and my second shirt had spots. Thankfully the jeans had come back clean as I needed them each day in port. For the rest of the time I only submitted underclothes and ended up tossing the first two shirts. Dad continued to submit everything he’d worn every few days. Near the end of the cruise, we ended up with a black ladies tshirt that wasn’t mine and Dad was missing a long sleeve dress shirt. We left the tshirt hanging by a note of explanation and by the next day, Rico had found Dad’s missing shirt. At one point as we passed Rico in the hallway, he told us that expecting same day laundry service wasn’t complimentary, only next day service. We thanked him for the note of caution and double checked with the front desk once back in our cabin that it indeed was complimentary. We routinely got printouts of our bill to confirm that everything was being credited correctly.

13) Anytime dining reservations – best tip ever! By the end of the cruise, we opted for an early dinner time of 5:30PM when called the dine line for a reservation and as soon as we identified ourselves (which btw you can call from any phone throughout the ship so we did it a couple times on hallway phones while rushing between events), the woman on the line said ‘oh 7PM as usual?’

 

Looking into the room from the doorway:

Living area TV and mini fridge:

Bedroom area (there was a curtain in between that we used when one wanted to go to bed sooner than the other):

Shower/tub side of bathroom off of bedroom:

Doorway between bathroom halves:

Balcony while standing in front of dining table:

[RRFPresident]

Vanity area:

 

Safe in the cabinet that had drawers for clothing storage lining the bottom:

 

Closet had room for long clothes, shorter clothes, and shelves where we stowed our shoes. The room facing side of the door had a full length mirror on it:

 

Balcony was completely covered and while the vent was there, the wake was just as loud:

 

Table side of the balcony:

 

Upon boarding, we were handed treasure hunt cards where you get stamps for visiting about 7 spots on the ship. To kill time before muster, Dad and I went around the ship getting all of our cards stamped. We inadvertently had been given three cards because one crew member handed me two for both of us and another crew member handed Dad one as he was a step or two behind me. I put my name on all three cards, unsure whether Dad would want to attend the drawing. We also stopped off at the spa and asked specifically for the stickers for our cruise cards so we could have the suite perk of access to the thermal suite. Unfortunately, despite the wind and chill, we never actually used the perk.

 

Muster was in Club Fusion for us and we had to bring our life jackets. I don’t recall if we were scanned in via our cards or not but I remember watching several people complain that the staff was directing them to fill up the back seats first and not hang by the door just to wait for the rest of your group. We had come down early so as to avoid the elevator rush and got to sit in a booth. We hung back for a bit afterwards and still encountered a crowd at the elevator. Once we made it back to our room and returned our life jackets, we retrieved the treasure hunt cards and made our way to Neptune’s Pool. A representative from each department offering a prize was introduced and got to announce what they were giving away. You had to be present to win. I ended up winning dinner for two at Sabatinni’s and the certificate said that it could only be used on a formal night. We chose to save it for the 2nd formal night. At one point, the cruise staff member pulled another card and commented on how he’d already called that name so Dad and I guessed that another of mine had been picked as the box wasn’t all that full. The prize would have been free flowers so we didn’t feel too heartbroken over not putting Dad’s name on the card.

 

Dinner at the Crown Grill was delightful. The maitre’d that works the Crown Grill in the evenings works Sabatinni’s for the suite breakfast service. Was nice to be recognized and remembered from the night before at dinner. Our waiter was new to the ship but very efficient to the point of cutting up my lobster tails like you would cut up a child’s meat. Dad took his suggestion of cooking his steak and it came out wonderful. The sides you pick are served family style and I wish I could have taken those garlic fries home with me. For dessert Dad had the Molten Dutch Chocolate Fudge Obsession and I had the Seven Layer Smores Stack.

 

We went to the later Welcome Aboard show and were only semi impressed with the comedian Tom Briscoe. Comedians are usually our favorite of the entertainers. This was the first hint at how lacking the evening entertainment was going to be on this cruise. Outside of one evening trivia session, a Texas Hold ‘Em tournament in the casino, and Lubo & Lucy’s Balancing Act (which seemed to be performed multiple times a day), the rest of the evening was either dancing, singing, or watching a music related program throughout the ship. We’re not dancers, we aren’t into sitting around listening to a piano player or string quartet, and we had no interest in the type of concert movies and videos shown. At one point, we even broke out Trivial Pursuit from the library and asked each other the questions off the cards just to pass the time. Those questions came in handy later though when similarly worded questions were asked during another trivia session. We’ve played many games of trivia on cruises, one of our favorite activities on and off ships. We’ve seen our share of people filling in the answers as they are being corrected and people looking up the answers on ipads and phones. I recall one person on a previous cruise who got upset because the trivia was already started when he finally chose to attend. We often end up playing by ourselves but a few times were able to welcome others to join us as a team. One team, who routinely chose to sit in the back of the lounge, seemed to outshine us all with near perfect scores.

[alan9945]

Thanks for this review as we are sailing on July 11th. Cannot wait for the rest of your thoughts and pictures

[kayelbee]

Great, well written review. I look forward to hearing more about my country from a foreign perspective, always interesting and entertaining.

[Billy and Charlie's Mum]

Thanks for taking the time to write a review and the photos are great, always adds to the review I think. Looking forward to hearing about the rest of the trip..... we will be doing the BI next year on the Ruby. :D

[RRFPresident]

Let me just preface this entry by saying that I don’t mean to offend anyone who loves Paris or lives/lived in Paris. The wonderment of the sites we saw and visited is a treasured memory, how the circumstances of the ship excursion, dinner that evening, and how the shore excursion staff chose to handle those circumstances, not so much.

 

The ship docks in Le Havre so almost every excursion taken has to factor in around a three hour drive back and forth. At least to get to the city of Paris, can’t speak to the time for Normandy visits. Paris/Le Havre is one hour ahead of the UK so they left a note in the patter and on little cards left on our beds at turndown to change our clocks overnight. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong as I know there are quite a few other reviewers of this sailing, but from what I recall we stayed on Paris time throughout the next day at sea. Our planned stop in Le Havre happened to coincide with the anniversary of D-Day so the most popular excursion choices were some version of Paris city drive plus different landmarks depending on your tour choice or a visit to Normandy. With me, once again first time visitor (I sound like a radio show caller, long time listener, first time caller), we chose the Paris City Drive & Louvre Museum ship excursion. This first port was one of our longest stretches of time in a port and we used every second of it attending this excursion.

Up early for our full day excursion:

 

Had to forgo our first chance at Sabatinni’s for suite breakfast as we had an excursion meeting time shortly after the ship docked. When we initially planned our excursion choices pre-cruise, we purposefully chose a schedule that alternated early and later in the day excursions to keep us from having too many early mornings in a row. Between later circumstances outside of our control plus blowing off one of our planned excursions once we saw what it would be like on the port talk reruns on TV, we were able to have leisurely mornings including Sabatinni’s breakfast almost every day after this. There was a commercial they’d show on the cabin TVs joking about how returning home and finding that you now can’t seem to pour your own juice and clean up after yourself was a syndrome only cured by booking your next cruise right away. Sabatinni’s morning crew is amazing! Once they heard we don’t drink coffee and like orange juice in the mornings, we had coffee mugs whisked away and orange juice glasses appear before we could even sit down. By the end of the cruise I was running out of ideas on what to order. The Maitre’d for the morning shift, Gabriel, is a delight! He walks around to each table and checks in with everyone to make sure things are going well not just with breakfast but the cruise itself. He’s very candid about ship life and a joy to talk to.

 

Back to the excursion – our bus was pretty full given the popularity of the excursion but was otherwise comfortable. Each bus had their own guide and they put two groups on each bus. Once we got to the Louvre, they met up with another guide (we were initially group 2, on a bus with group 1, other guide we met up with was guide for group 1) and we broke off into smaller groups to tour. While still on the bus though, our guide provided lovely commentary about the things we passed and what life was like in Paris. We took time to drive in a circle around the Arc de Triumphe and saw several other historical and architectural points of interest.

Inside the Arc:

One of the world's most unique and craziest traffic circles:

Paris' own Statue of Liberty facing New York:

[RRFPresident]

Once at the Louvre, the bus descends into a tunnel underground to a big parking lot. We all made our way into this dark room while our guides met up and retrieved enough working headsets for every participant. The headsets, basically ipods with no screen and only one song choice, each had about 4 channels. The guides each set their mike packs to a certain channel and told their group to tune their headsets to that channel. This feature for use inside the Louvre is normally very helpful given the large tour groups and massive crowds encountered on any given day at the museum. Each guide also held up a sign with their group number on it as they moved around. When you arrive at any Princess excursion meeting place, before they hand you off to the tour company they’ve contracted with, they check your ticket and place a colored numbered sticker on your shirt. The color is usually based on the tour itself while the number can be dependent on when you arrived at the meeting place. This color/number coincided with your bus assignment and in this case, with what tour guide you were to follow. We ended up with Green 2 and had the guide who was also our bus commentator. The tour started off well as we followed our guide, earbuds in place and tuned in to her channel, out of the underground room and up into the main area. While we were more toward the back of the group, we still could hear through the headsets and could see the number card she held up to be able to follow the pack. We stopped at the main lobby area where the inverted pyramid comes to a point inside and our guide pointed out that this would be the meeting place for everyone once they were done with the tour and any shopping. The shops and some eateries lined the long stretch leading out of the exhibits and to the lobby. There was a currency exchange booth inside the Louvre where we traded in some pounds for Euros.

Remnants of underground wall underneath the Louvre:

Looking up through the inverted pyramid from inside:

Saw a lot of people putting their fingers in btwn the pyramid point and the stand to make it look like they were holding up the pyramid in pictures:

 

As we left the lobby area to head toward the first exhibit area, our guide started to lead us up this area that was a wide set of stairs surrounded by escalators. The guide and 2/3 of our group went up the escalators but by the time the rest of us got past the crowds to get to the escalator, a man who was insisting his tour group use the stairs, stepped up and blocked anyone from using the escalator. Just off this set of stairs is two separate sets of stairs leading off in different directions. By the time we fought through this other tour group on the stairs (btw they tell you all throughout your time in Paris to watch out for pick pockets so that combined with massive crowds and people from all walks of life/nationalities ignoring common courtesy was very unnerving) and reached the landing, our tour guide was no longer in sight. Our new group of 5 or 6 chose a staircase at random hoping to find our guide again only to have picked the wrong one. We rushed back up the other one but by then our guide was so far gone, she was also out of range making our headsets useless. We went back to the first staircase we tried and caught up with group #1, informing that guide of how we ended up left behind. We didn’t find out till later that the #1 guide had sent a text to our original guide letting her know that we’d joined up with group #1. Guide #1 only had one other headset and it wouldn’t work. We did our best to stay as close to her as possible both for loss of us prevention and for being able to hear her explanations of the exhibits.

Venus de Milo:

Pegasus:

[DeloreanGirl]

Great review! Looks like you had SPECTACULAR weather in London -- wow!! :D

[silverbird]

I feel very bad in having to correct you but the statue you have labeled as "Pegasus" is, in reality, the "Winged Victory of Samaranth". This is submitted with all humility.

[silverbird]

I now need to correct myself. It is "Samothrace". The statue is also known as "Nike".

[RRFPresident]

Great review! Looks like you had SPECTACULAR weather in London -- wow!! :D

 

Thank you Emily! Your review was such a great guide as we worked to plan our trip!

[RRFPresident]

I now need to correct myself. It is "Samothrace". The statue is also known as "Nike".

 

Thank you! In the frenzy of that day, I didn't get the chance to take notes or pictures of the signs so I was simply taking a guess on the name.

 

Now that you say Nike I flash back to guide #1 pointing out a child's Nike brand shoes and making the reference of where the name originated.

[RRFPresident]

Was enjoying guide #1’s tour until we reached the room housing the Mona Lisa painting. The painting is on its own wall in the center of this massive room facing toward the opposite door that we came in from. The rest of the room features large (as in would cover the entire wall of a room at home) paintings. The Mona Lisa wall was surrounded by a curved wooden platform so you couldn’t get too close.

The rest of the room was packed with a high school group who were working to fill out details on a worksheet assignment in addition to the regular crowd. The other paintings weren’t as protected from people walking right up but the crowds made it nearly impossible to get close. Once inside the room, before reaching the other side of the wall where the Mona Lisa was housed, we ran into our original group and guide. The guide was apologetic and admitted that she had noticed the guy blocking the escalators but didn’t realize any of her group had been stopped. We were all set to start following her again until we realized that her next stop was to an exhibit we’d already seen. Our guide had already taken off down the corridor so we were left to ask the tail end of her group if they’d already seen the Mona Lisa. They said they had and we realized that the groups had been running in opposite order. We quickly rushed to rejoin group #1 but they’d long since moved on. I’m not sure whether the remaining 3 or 4 of our lost friends chose to re-see what they’d already been to and rejoin group #2 or if they stayed with group #1 because Dad and I found ourselves all alone. Dad hung back a bit while I forced my way into the crowd as close as possible to get a picture of the Mona Lisa. Then we worked our way through the school kids and other crowds before leaving this expansive room. Without a guide or a clue as to what there was to see in the first half of the tour we missed not having been with group #2 the entire time, we were left to wander around in an attempt to find our way out. By this time, I was so over seeing exhibits and wanted away from the crowds. We eventually found a museum employee and had her direct us on the way back to the lobby. We stopped in a couple stores on the way and settled on two well known children’s books, Where the Wild Things Are and The Hungry Caterpillar, written in French. I can’t wait to show the kids at work how different the books they know and love are when written in French. We ran into two other people from group #2 in the store and chatted about what we were buying since they were picking out gifts for their young granddaughter.

 

Once we reached the lobby, we were stuck waiting for a while until meeting time. Stepped off for a bathroom break and poor Dad had to contend with a bunch of high school girls who were sneaking into the men’s room to avoid the long line at the ladies’ room. As many other groups from our sailing started to gather in the lobby, we finally noticed our original guide and went over to share our disappointment. She was apologetic and took back our headsets to return at the desk.

[RRFPresident]

Glad to be out of the crowd craziness and back on the bus, I started to relax a little as we drove over to the Eiffel Tower for lunch. The streets were very busy and our bus driver had to squeeze into a spot barely between two other buses on a narrow road. To get everyone off the bus quickly so he could move the bus out of the way of traffic, he opened the side door and was helping people step off the bus. The only trouble with this plan – the side door was facing out into traffic. Dad and I were the last to depart the bus having been sitting in the back and Dad accidentally reached for the bus’ bathroom door as part of the step railing which pulled open the door. I quickly jerked right to avoid getting a head full of bathroom door as I was descending the stairs behind him and ended up smacking my head against the side door frame. On top of that, as we stepped off the bus, another bus was coming up the street and came not only right on us but was disregarding our driver’s yells for him to stop and wait until the other bus was literally right next to us. We rushed around the front of the bus and got on the sidewalk hurrying to catch up to our guide and the rest of the group who had already gone around the corner and into the main tower area. Thankfully our guide was still within view and we were able to rejoin them in line waiting to get in to use the tower elevator. To her credit, the guide did make her way to the back of her group (and thus us), to ensure that everyone made it onto the same elevator. She did so to such a point that she got into an argument with a family who had stepped ahead of the lines in an effort to get in first. The family did not accept our guide’s explanations of needing to keep her tour group together and argued their demand to get past our guide before everyone else.

 

The elevators in the tower itself are run by real people as they are more like cargo size cages than the usual elevators you might see in a building. The upper floors were being worked on so we were limited to visiting the restaurant on the first floor or taking the stairs around the lower levels to see the views. Once all of our group was packed in like sardines in the elevator, our guide instructed the operator to send us to the restaurant.

Inside the restaurant, they had set up three long tables for our group and one small table for all the guides to sit together. Only problem with that is that our group ended up needing about 10 tables even when we all just took the next available seat until all chairs were filled. We ended up sitting with a husband and wife from Kansas (or Kansas City, MO) and enjoyed lovely conversation and great views. It was a set menu and there was plenty red wine and chilled Evian water made available to share at your table. I took one sip of the wine and didn’t like it but then I don’t really like wine in the first place. Our appetizer looked like a layer cake that someone cut a rectangular sliver out of. Dad tried a bit and assumed it was corned beef. Found out afterward that it was goose pate. I tried it but didn’t care for it. The chicken and potatoes dish that came as the main entrée was quite good. Just as the day seemed to be turning around we noticed that service had stalled for a long while to where the bulk of the waiters seemed to disappear.

Our view during lunch:

Then I noticed that the waiters came back with tray after tray of this decadent looking pastry for dessert. Despite bringing up several trays, only the guides and those first few tables got served. So we waited and waited and started noticing how the waiters were just standing around with nothing to do. Groups around us who had also settled at extra tables began to leave either opting out of waiting or not realizing there even was a dessert planned. Our table decided to leave as well since the meet up time we were given also included our only chance at post lunch sightseeing, picture taking, and shopping time. Dad went over to ask our guide about whether dessert was going to be served and after a brief chat with the waiters she came rushing over to assure the rest of the group that they shouldn’t leave. Magically, one or two more trays started arriving with the desserts. We tried to return to our table to await the desserts but a waiter had already swooped in to clear our dishes. We tried to explain that we were coming back now that dessert had finally shown but he didn’t understand. The guide tried to help by suggesting we sit at a nearby table that had been vacated by people who didn’t want to wait but we would have now been without glasses and silverware to enjoy the dessert. At this point, I was so desperate to leave the hassle behind that we walked out without dessert. Later with everyone back on the bus, the guide made a blanket statement claiming that in Paris the kitchen does what it pleases and the wait staff are left to the mercy of whatever and whenever the kitchen decides to dish up.

 

Took a while waiting on an elevator on our own but it was comical to watch another cruise passenger trying to convince a French couple also waiting for the elevator that she merely wanted to get in front of the line to get a picture of the guy who rides on the outside of the elevator cage. Once back on the ground, I took some time to get pictures of the tower looking up and then we popped in a couple of the shops on the grounds. Each tower is named after a compass direction and Dad and I disagreed on which tower the guide said to head toward in order to find our bus. We did finally find our bus and were essentially the last group of people to return before the ship departed. Another plus for booking ship excursions!