Caribbean Princess British Isles Review

[TouringTom]

Hi all –

My family and I went on the British Isles 12 night cruise on the wonderful Caribbean Princess from 11 to 23 July 2013. In an effort to help those planning this trip in the future. I am going to try and recount all of the planning and pre-cruise activities and some lessons learned. I will then describe what we did in London and at each port on our cruise. I don’t plan to spend much time describing the ship or sea days since they are already covered in excellent reviews by Delorean Girl and ohhbother. We did overlap a few of the sights described in Delorean Girl’s blog but mostly we went a different direction.

 

Delorean Girl http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=34145061#post34145061

 

And ohhbother http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1851903

 

Both of those reviews are well worth reading. I’m going to focus on the planning, excursions and adventure of traveling with four people in an inside cabin for 12 days. If you are planning to do this I can assure you that it can be done! We also spent 6 nights in London pre-cruise and will include some details on what we liked from that week.

Part of the fun of these trips is the little surprises that happen on the way. I will try my best to not spoil any of those unless you need to take extra effort to discover them. In other words, if there is something a particular guide said or did that we loved I may leave it out. I will rate all of our excursions and provide websites if you are interested in booking any of them.

Our party started as five with me (Dennis), my wife Kathy, Sarah (grad student age), Emily (undergrad student age) and AJ (freshman in high school). Sarah was only with us for the London portion of the trip and then flew home for work. Dennis, Kathy, Emily and AJ went on both the London portion and the cruise itself.

The reader’s digest version of our travels would go something like this. We loved this trip! As reasonably experienced travelers and cruisers we would hands down say this was a trip of a lifetime. We were worn out when we returned. This is a port and tour rich itinerary where you need to either do less touring or be prepared to get up early to meet your tours or go out in the city. You only have a few hours in each place so we wanted to get out there and see these beautiful places. It was expensive! Everything costs more in the UK and Ireland. Food in Ireland is VERY expensive and noticeably more than in the UK or France.

Joining our roll call was the best thing we did pre-cruise. We met many of the people on the roll call and received invaluable tips and ideas. We ended up seeing the same people on many of the excursions which made them even more fun. We met most people at the Meet and Greet on our first full day of the cruise. I highly recommend the roll calls and a M&G for your cruise!

The weather was awesome. We saw very little rain and none when we were out on an excursion. It was very hot and dry for the UK. It was sunny with blue skies in the low 80s and just beautiful. Everywhere we went the locals were raving about the weather and asking if we brought it with us. Of course we bought rain gear specifically for this trip (we live in Denver where it rarely rains) and didn’t use it much but we’ll take that trade off any day.

The next post will talk about Planning for the trip. We had a complex plan that took a lot of time and effort. Looking back we could have done this with less effort and expense if we had just thought through all the possibilities in advance.

[CruisinMinnie]

Looking forward to your future posts on this cruise. :)

[phabric]

We are on the August 16 British Isles cruise.

 

Looking forward to your reviews.

[seacrystal]

Dennis, cannot wait to hear more! We are planning this trip for August 2015 and want all the information we can gather.:D

[melody hounddog]

So excited for your review! We hope to do this trip next year with our two teens.

[Luckynana]

Dennis, looking forward to hearing about your trip!

 

maryann

[DrivesLikeMario]

So glad you all had such a good time! I did too and I totally agree - it was the trip of a lifetime!

[Luckynana]

Dennis, I was wondering if the sea was choppy or smooth for your trip? We will be sailing in August of 2014 and our room is on Lido deck, 15th floor, room L101, which is in the front of the ship. I like to stay mid-ship, around the 7th or 8th floor, but our TA suggested this room. :confused: Thanks!

 

 

maryann

[TouringTom]

Dennis, I was wondering if the sea was choppy or smooth for your trip? We will be sailing in August of 2014 and our room is on Lido deck, 15th floor, room L101, which is in the front of the ship. I like to stay mid-ship, around the 7th or 8th floor, but our TA suggested this room. :confused: Thanks!

 

 

maryann

Maryann: I was worried about this too since I've been on the North Sea when it's rough in the distant past (but on much smaller ferry boats versus a large cruise ship). For the first time we actually bought medication for this but we didn't even open the box. We did have very unusual weather (hot and dry) and the seas were calm. We only knew we were moving by looking out a window or going on deck!

We did notice the vibration of the thrusters coming into port. We were aft on deck 10 and it shook our cabin. Since the boat docks early (especially on the last day) it woke us up pretty consistently. Not a big deal and I'm not sure if forward helped with that or not.

 

Hope that helps.

Dennis

[Mrs Booboo]

Dennis, I was wondering if the sea was choppy or smooth for your trip? We will be sailing in August of 2014 and our room is on Lido deck, 15th floor, room L101, which is in the front of the ship. I like to stay mid-ship, around the 7th or 8th floor, but our TA suggested this room. :confused: Thanks!

 

 

maryann

 

Maryann,

 

We had L104 on our June cruise. We loved this room. As for motion, we only really noticed it the night that I think we were hauling ass to get to Cork since we were late leaving Dublin.

 

This is one of the cabins right next to the “secret” doors that lead out to the deck that is directly below the bridge. Some reviews I had read said this was a horrible cabin to have because it is directly below the fitness center, and the thumping of the treadmills was a real problem. We didn’t really think so, probably because we were up almost every day before the fitness center opened. We only heard it a couple of times in the late afternoon after getting back on the boat, but if you didn’t know you were below the fitness center, you might just think it was the boat making noise – it was fairly muffled. I wouldn’t hesitate to book it again – it was very quiet back in our little corner (no people standing in the halls talking or kids running past) and we could pop out onto the deck just about any time. There were a couple of times when they locked the doors to the deck because it was just too windy to be out there.

[arrice2]

Looking forward to your experiences. We, also from Denver (actually Westminster), and sailing late August, although on the Ocean Princess. We think we've got everything in place, but we'll find out how we did after we get there. DW dreads the flight time DIA (one stop) to and from LHR.

 

Thanks for all the time you're giving all of us lurkers.

[Luckynana]

Maryann,

 

We had L104 on our June cruise. We loved this room. As for motion, we only really noticed it the night that I think we were hauling ass to get to Cork since we were late leaving Dublin.

 

This is one of the cabins right next to the “secret” doors that lead out to the deck that is directly below the bridge. Some reviews I had read said this was a horrible cabin to have because it is directly below the fitness center, and the thumping of the treadmills was a real problem. We didn’t really think so, probably because we were up almost every day before the fitness center opened. We only heard it a couple of times in the late afternoon after getting back on the boat, but if you didn’t know you were below the fitness center, you might just think it was the boat making noise – it was fairly muffled. I wouldn’t hesitate to book it again – it was very quiet back in our little corner (no people standing in the halls talking or kids running past) and we could pop out onto the deck just about any time. There were a couple of times when they locked the doors to the deck because it was just too windy to be out there.

 

 

Thank you Touring Tom and Mrs. Booboo! I feel so much better now that we booked this room and hearing from you both that the Sea should be calm for us in the month of August. This looks like an incredible itinerary and I'm getting very excited about touring the British Isles!:D

 

maryann

[lovevacadays]

I am looking forward to your thoughts.:D:D:D I love reading reviews.

[TouringTom]

Planning

Planning for our trip was an adventure. Originally we started out leaving on 9 July (arriving in London early on 10 July) for our 11 July cruise. The idea was we would land at 6:30 AM and then tour like crazy as long as we could stay awake and then check-in to the hotel and sleep all night. Sounds logical right? I’m so glad we didn’t end up doing this. Those that did and those that flew in and went straight to the ship were very tired the first two days of the cruise. Having said that, this seemed like a good idea at the time. So we booked four round-trip air tickets, bought four one day London Passes http://www.londonpass.com and booked two rooms at the Sheraton Park Lane hotel with the remainder of our Sheraton Points. We also booked one-day tube passes called travelcards for zones 1 and 2 only. We bought those on http://www.visitbritainshop.com . The reason we only bought zones 1 and 2 even though Heathrow is in zone six is we were only going to go from Heathrow once. The difference in price between the zone 1 and 2 travel card and the zone 1 through 6 travel card was greater than the one way peak fair from Heathrow to central London. If you are doing something similar I would say don’t bother with the Heathrow Express unless you are in a big hurry. There were plenty of people on the Piccadilly Line (regular tube) with luggage and it was no problem at all. In fact, as you’ll hear when we talk about London in the next segment we even brought luggage on the double decker buses!

 

When planning travel in London you may be faced with the decision Oyster Card (a pre-paid card that gives you discounted fare) and the Travelcard. There is an excellent article on the differences at http://www.londontoolkit.com/briefing/travelcard_oyster.htm . In a nutshell I believe if you are staying in zones one or two (central London) and only plan to use the tubes or buses in the beginning or end of the day use the oyster. If you, like us, stay outside central London (we were in zone 4) and plan to use the system extensively opt for the travel card. You will also have to decide whether to buy peak or off-peak. This comes down to when you want to leave in the morning. Before 9:30 on a weekday – peak. After 9:30 or on weekends, off-peak.

 

We then booked the National Express Coach http://www.nationalexpress.com from Victoria Coach Station to Southampton on the 9:30 AM trip, scheduled to arrive around 11:30AM. Googling for discounts we found a 10% discount so the one-way journey for three adults and one child (our son was considered a child because he was 15 or under. This was true throughout the UK and Ireland) was 32 GBP. Way less than the $216 Princess wanted to charge us to take the bus. This bus takes you to the Southampton Coach Station. Even though we changed to a different National Express bus when our plans changed we still ended up at Southampton Coach. From there it was an easy taxi ride to the ship. I don’t remember the fare but for four of us and our luggage but ten pounds covered the fare and the tip.

 

The one thing I did right in all of that was buying the “insurance” on the London Passes.

Several weeks later I was looking at the calendar and had the epiphany “If we only took two more days off work we could go to London for 6 Nights instead of 1 by taking advantage of the Independence Day holiday and the weekend.” Duh. After discussing with Kathy for about 2 minutes we decided to go for it. We then called United Airlines and found it would be over $600 to change our tickets from 9 July to 4 July. We gulped and decided it was worth it but felt pretty ripped off. We were now four of us booked on 4 July From Denver to Dulles and then on to Heathrow.

 

Yes, four. A few weeks later our oldest daughter was home visiting after graduation. We were talking about the trip and she said, “I want to go”. We discussed it and figured she could go on the London portion but couldn’t afford to miss work for the entire thing. So now we were five. At least for the first week!

 

This change meant we needed to change our hotel (we didn’t have any more Sheraton Points but we did have Marriott Points) and our London Passes. I was able to return our one day London passes since I had bought the insurance and replaced them with 5 six day London Passes that included unlimited travel. The great thing about this was with the six day these passes were for zones 1 through 6 and were for both peak and non-peak travel on the tube, buses, trains and Overground. It was also good for the Docklands Light Rail (DLR), which we ended up using once. In fact we used all of these modes of transportation during our stay. If you do decide to buy London passes keep in mind that fewer than six days comes with off-peak. Those are good after 9:30AM and all day on weekends. We sold our unused one day travel cards on cruise critic.

 

We also changed our National Express ticket from Victoria Coach to Heathrow Coach. This costs more even though the journey time listed is about the same. If you are staying in Central London I would recommend booking the one from Victoria Coach. If you are flying in and then going straight to the pier the Heathrow location is great. It is right between terminals 1 and 3, directly above the tube station.

 

Planning took several weeks. I used cruise critic, Trip Advisor and general Google searches to discover and plan everything. Once we decided on something we emailed the tour provider. On several occasions we needed more people than we had in our party so we talked about the trip on cruise critic and had no problem filling the tours. We also used Rick Steve’s UK, France and Ireland books but to a lesser extent.

 

For excursions I started in each place with the Princess Cruise website just to get ideas and see what the prices were. The only excursion we booked through Princess was the transfer from Southampton to Heathrow (that went very well). I then searched the name of the port with the word “excursions”. This resulted in a pretty exhaustive list of tours/trips for most ports. Finally, I looked at the website for each city (visitlondon.com for example) and that gave me DIY type highlights.

 

For London we relied on the book that came with our London Passes and Rick Steves. We had no problem filling six days.

 

As you can imagine 12 cruise days and 6 London days generated a lot of information. I created an excel spreadsheet with an overview sheet and individual worksheets for each day. This allowed me to track confirmation numbers, opening hours and prices for the places we intended to see. The detail helped me but may not be necessary for everyone. We prepaid almost everything, which saved a little money but more importantly saved us the time waiting in line for tickets. This really paid off at Blarney, Edinburgh Castle and the Tower of London. I wish I had transferred a high level overview of the trip into a word document that I could just carry around. I saw others with that and wished I had thought of it.

 

Most of the places we booked required either an email or printed ticket. I bought a cheap 1” binder with dividers and made a divider for each port. This idea was in the Delorean girl blog and it worked very well. One thing we learned is a standard notebook does not fit in the cabin safe in an inside cabin. We had to take out all the valuables (we had our Normandy tour Euros for example) and put them in the safe separately. If you find an organizer about the size of an IPAD Mini it would probably fit. I then carried one of those paper folders you can buy at office depot during back to school sales for a penny in my backpack. Every night we would empty out the day’s information and then fill it up with tomorrow’s excursion and ticket pages. Worked great.

 

I heard several people on the cruise say they only booked excursions via Princess because they were afraid of missing the boat and “Princess will wait for you”. I think this fear is unfounded on this itinerary for several reasons. 1) The tour / excursion industry is heavily regulated in the UK and Ireland and every provider made it a point to get us back with time to spare 2) Tripadvisor and other review websites give you plenty of information on whether or not a particular tour company is reputable 3) The boat waited in at least 3 ports for a few passengers who were presumably not on Princess excursions (since the Princess excursions all had full bus loads their would have been more missing and 4) If the worst happens and you miss it, it’s a short train ride to the next port in most cases. The cost difference was huge and in my opinion worth the gamble.

 

Some of the ports had cheaper ways to get into town. For instance in Belfast there was a free bus provided by the city. In Dublin and Edinburgh Princess had buses available for less than $20 round trip. If I remember right Edinburgh was 10 pounds and Dublin was $18. They told us about some in advance and others we discovered on the docks. In both cases we found it even cheaper on our own. One family used the tram to get to and from Dublin cheaper than our taxi. It was about a 10 minute walk from the pier. A word of caution, we were evidently moored in an unusual spot in Dublin and the tram may not be viable from the normal spot. Maybe somebody else has information on this? In Edinburgh we used Delorean Girls hand drawn map and took the train (4.60 GBP off-peak return). If you were there on a weekday it would be peak and cost a little more. BillBey posted a nice summary on our roll call (post number 939) http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1625670&page=47

 

 

We moved our hotel to the Marriott Twickenham. For Rugby fans you’ll recognize this as the home of English Rugby. In fact the Marriott is built into the side of the Twickenham Rugby stadium and a few room have a view of the inside (ours didn’t). That would be fun on match days! We chose Twickenham because it was close to a rail station so we didn’t need a car and we had enough points for 5 days in two rooms because Marriott throws in the fifth day free with a four day reservation (we paid for the 6th in each room). The hotel was what you’d expect from a Marriott. Nice interior, spacious rooms etc. The location required a ½ mile journey to the station (either walk or take the 281 bus with the travelcard) and then a train journey into either Richmond (tube / district line) or Waterloo station. This added 20 to 40 minutes to our daily commute. We felt it was worth it to get two rooms and be in an area where food and supplies cost significantly less than central London. If you want to get up and see the London Eye as you exit the hotel this is definitely not the place. It is good for Kew Gardens, Wimbledon and other west side attractions.

 

After buying new items for our wardrobe, new luggage, passports, rain gear, money belts (which we never used) and other items we were packed and on our way. Months of planning complete and now the fun begins.

 

Next installment – London, the trip to the cruise dock and embarkation

[phabric]

We are on the August 16 cruise.

 

Can you tell me when are the formal nights?

[TouringTom]

We are on the August 16 cruise.

 

Can you tell me when are the formal nights?

 

For us our first formal night was on Guernsey day (that was our first port after leaving Southampton) and the second formal night was the first sea day (5 days later). Hope that helps

Dennis

[phabric]

For us our first formal night was on Guernsey day (that was our first port after leaving Southampton) and the second formal night was the first sea day (5 days later). Hope that helps

Dennis

 

Thanks, that helps.

[phabric]

On port days, did you disembark on deck 5?

 

On tender days, did you disembark on deck 3?

[TouringTom]

On port days, did you disembark on deck 5?

 

On tender days, did you disembark on deck 3?

 

On port days it varied between five and six. Once in Belfast they had the forward ramp on six and the aft ramp on five.

 

Tenders left from four but you had to gather in the Islands dining room to get a ticket and we were then taken to the tender as a group.

 

Dennis

[outgate08]

 

Tenders left from four but you had to gather in the Islands dining room to get a ticket and we were then taken to the tender as a group.

 

Dennis

 

Was this the case for Elite passengers or could Elite go directly to the tender as indicated in the Captain Circle's perks?

[TouringTom]

Was this the case for Elite passengers or could Elite go directly to the tender as indicated in the Captain Circle's perks?

 

I don't know. The only different arrangement i saw for elite was on disembarkation day. We don't have elite status so I can't help. I do know that we never waited more than 5 minutes for the tender (outbound) so elite would not help more than simply being ready early. Leaving later may be a different story!

 

Dennis

[scopewest]

Enjoying your review, thanks for posting!

[DeloreanGirl]

Woohoo! *pops popcorn*

 

Can't wait to read the rest! And thanks for the shout-out! :D

[TouringTom]

London

 

As mentioned earlier we stayed at the Twickenham Marriott. This worked well for us as the Twickenham train station was a short ½ mile walk down the road. It may be too far out of the action for you.:)

 

Our flight arrived at Heathrow Terminal 1 around 10:30AM. We went through immigration and customs and then followed signs to the underground. We grabbed our travel cards and went through the turnstiles to the Piccadilly line. This was fun with four suitcases, some backpacks and camera bags. If you aren’t familiar with the tube you simply insert the travel card and the gates open. Your card goes through the machine and you grab it as you go through the gates. If you opt for the oyster there is a pad that you press it against (and you must do it again at the other end or they will charge you max fare). Once through we headed for the trains. We felt silly getting on with our luggage but it turned out to be ok. We saw people on all the tubes and trains with luggage so even though you do take up extra space nobody minds. We got off the train at Hounslow East (just a few stops) and then walked about 1/3 mile to the Hounslow coach station. There we got on our first red double decker bus, the 281, and travelled about 20 minutes to our hotel. Our travel cards worked on the bus. We simply showed our cards to the driver as we boarded. Our hotel was easy to spot since it’s attached to a massive rugby stadium. We pushed the stop button and he let us off right outside.

 

It was about 12:30 pm when we checked in. Even though we were tired from our overnight flight, we did not want to waste a touring day and decided to head out to the British Music Experience (BME)(3 stars). Emily is majoring in music at college so she was very interested in this attraction. This is included in The London Pass so admission is “free”. It also gave us a chance to find the train station and figure out how to transfer from train to tube at Waterloo Station. Leaving the Marriott, we actually walked to the wrong station, St. Mary’s, which is about ¾ mile from the hotel, but ended up on the right train. Twickenham is better because you can catch the faster trains to Richmond and Waterloo. St. Mary’s is one of the stops the fast train skips.

 

We headed to the BME, which is in the North Greenwich area. The BME is located inside the O2 Arena complex. It is quite interesting and showcases British music artists from the 40s to modern day. Depending on your age, you will recognize a variety of the artists and songs. Kathy and I reminisced over the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s music, while our kids hustled through the “Oldies” in search of more contemporary music. There are lots of hands on activities and a whole room where you can try out various musical instruments. At the end you come out into the obligatory gift shop full of books, posters and t-shirts.

 

We got back to Twickenham around 7PM and I pulled out my Trip Advisor list of places to eat. We hadn’t had much since the airplane so we were starving. We walked around town but couldn’t find any of the TA places. Fortunately we happened upon the William Webb Ellis pub. We stopped because they had a sign outside that said “Fish and Chips special 5.99”. When we went in we found that for 6.99 you also got a pint of beer or a soft drink – SOLD! We all ordered the fish & chips special and the food was very good. Feeding 5 people for a little over 35 GBP was great. The food was delicious and the beer and cider exactly as you’d expect. We liked it so much that we ate there every evening but one. Its location near the train station, reasonable prices, decent food and good service was the main reason we used the WWE as our local. One night we had burgers and fries (including a turkey and veggie burger for two of our party), 3 beers and 2 sodas for 30 pounds.

We did go out for Tandoori food one night in Twickenham at Moidul’s Rawalpindi. We were the only customers in the place. Our servers took great care of us, explained the unfamiliar menu and recommended exactly the right dishes. Delicious. Emily had never had Indian Cuisine before because she thought it was always spicy. She found Chicken Tikka Masala to be tasty and full of flavor. The prices here were more typical and we dropped over 90 pounds but the meal was excellent.

 

Rather than go day-to-day in London I am just going to tell you our impressions and tips on what we did. I will rate each place 1 to 5 stars with 5 being “Do not miss” and 1 being “skip” unless you have a special interest”. I would say 3 stars means most people will enjoy it. I recommend just walking around some of the time to get a feel for the city and all the sites. I thought the hardest part of planning London was figuring out what order to do things to make the most of our limited time. The London Journey Planner really helped with this. It will take into account the time of day and your preferred method of transport (including walking) and give you series of routes to choose from. We found this to be invaluable in figuring out how to get to the places that weren’t right in central London. journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/user/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=en (this hyperlink doesn’t seem to work but if you cut/paste into your browser it does.

[TouringTom]

Tower of London (5 stars) (skip the line with London Pass).

The Tower of London has been many things over the centuries to include the first London menagerie or zoo. Most people think of it as a fortress prison and place for executions. I highly recommend going to ToL first thing in the morning. Try to be there when they open. One of the highlights is the crown jewels exhibit. Upon entry head straight and then left and go to see the crown jewels first. Do not pass go, do not do anything else. The line for the jewels is very long later in the day. After the jewels (which are spectacular) go back to the entrance and join a beefeater tour. The beefeaters are the guards of the tower and are all retired NCOs from the military. The stories were fun and educational. Well worth the time. We spent about 3.5 hours here including lunch in the cafeteria. We enjoyed the cafeteria and found it to be a reasonable value with the London Pass discount.

Jewel Tower (2 star) – This attraction is essentially one piece of the old Palace of Westminster. It’s a few steps to fairly empty rooms with basic displays. It does contain the 9th century Palace of Westminster sword that may be of interest to some. Not worth the price of admission in my opinion but it’s included with the London Pass. If you are in the area it only takes a few minutes to see. Don’t make a special trip.

St. Paul’s Cathedral (5 stars) (Skip the line with London Pass) – Exceptional architecture by Sir Christopher Wren. Half is very ornate and half relatively plain. Interesting story why. We took the guided tour. The guide issues you headphones so she can speak quietly and you can hear. We thoroughly enjoyed St. Paul’s and would highly recommend it. It’s easy to get to from the ToL. If we had to choose between St. Paul’s and Westminster Abbey, we would choose Westminster Abbey, but it is close.

Tower Bridge Exhibition (2 Star) – You essentially climb up the Tower Bridge and walk along suspended paths over the River Thames. The views are impressive but in my opinion, not worth the over 8 pounds admission. You can also see the motors that raise and lower the span. If you are into bridges or have the London Pass (included) I would go up for the views. Otherwise, head to St. Paul’s, The Globe or HMS Belfast (all close by).

Westminster Abbey (5 Stars) (head of the line privileges with London Pass)– WA was our favorite historical place we visited in London. Spectacular architecture. The included audio guide takes you through the entire interior and explains the details of what you are seeing. The graves and monuments are a who’s who of western history and culture. The Abbey gets crowded and while the London Pass gets you in it doesn’t give you head of line privileges so plan on this being your first stop in the morning. When you show up you are asked to queue in either the Cash or Credit line. We were confused which but chose Cash because it was shorter. We found out that either line works if you have the London Pass, so choose whichever is shorter. We did not go on the verger led tour but I would think this is worth your time. I believe that has to be arranged in advance. http://www.westminster-abbey.org/visit-us

Hampton Court Palace (3 Stars) – This former home of King Henry VIII has spectacular gardens and the royal apartments are worth a visit. It also has a maze, which might entertain younger visitors. We found HCP to be somewhat of a letdown compared to our expectations. The audio guide would go on and on (5 to 10 minutes) while you were supposed to look at plastic meat or a bowl with grain. I think our mistake was viewing the kitchens first. While interesting, I would recommend fast forwarding through parts of the kitchen audio guide, especially if you have younger people in your group. Online reviews show others really enjoyed it but it wasn’t my favorite. There were some spectacular tapestries in the “secrets of the bedchamber” exhibit (special exhibit) and tons of Henry VIII information. The bus (we took the 281 to the R68) takes you right there and the cafeteria was good (shrimp, salmon and veggie sandwiches).

Windsor Castle (5 Stars) (head of the line with London Pass) – If you have a London Pass with Travel you can get to Windsor even though the last leg of the journey leaves zone 6. The London Pass book tells you how to make the connections. You can make a day of Windsor by either visiting the charming town and/or touring Eton College. We planned to make this a semi-rest day and just tour Windsor, and then head back to Twickenham. On the way home we decided to go to Harrods. So much for a semi-rest day! Most of the castle is not open to the public but the royal apartments are worth the price of admission. Spectacular. The audio guides were very good and helped you understand how each room was used. You can also visit St. George’s chapel (stunningly beautiful and the burial place of King Henry VIII). Queen Mary’s dollhouse is extraordinarily detailed and worth a look. Walking the grounds is also fun. We then had lunch at a cozy pub called The Horse and Groom. It was a little overpriced but it is just outside the castle park. We had no problems getting in and enjoyed our Shepherd’s pies.

Harrods Department Store (2 stars) – If you are into shopping this is your place. Full of unique, expensive and interesting items, Harrods is something to behold. There are multiple specialty cafés (Sushi, Disney, Godiva), departments for anything you could possibly want (huge pet luggage dept!) and an entire wing dedicated to buying souvenirs with the word Harrods on them. Very touristy and probably worth a visit for those who really want to shop! Otherwise, I would skip it.

Churchill War Rooms (4 Stars) – I lived just north of London for several years in the ‘80s and this attraction wasn’t open yet so this was new to me. If you have any interest in either Winston Churchill or WWII this is well worth a visit. We went first thing in the morning and we were glad we did. Parts of the tour are small and crowded but it does open up into larger galleries to help disperse the crowd. The included audio guide was excellent. It took us through the history of the place where Churchill and his staff planned and executed the war. The underground location was especially important during the battle of Britain. There is also a large area dedicated to Churchill himself so you learn a lot about his early life and his life after WWII. This is located right outside of Parliament so very easy to combine with other sites.

Buckingham Palace (3 stars) – we wandered through St. James Park towards the palace. We encountered massive crowds from the just concluding changing of the guards. With the size of the crowd and several TV trucks we assumed Prince George had just been born (He hadn’t. He waited until our one day in France). Well worth seeing but with the exception of a few weeks in August it’s not open to the public. You peer in through the gates and can see the guards. There are several other spots (horse guards for example) where you can get better photographs of the guards. We intended to combine this with a visit to the Royal Mews (stables and coaches used in state ceremonies) but road construction blocked our only path so we missed it. Buckingham Palace is iconic and you should probably see it but if you want to see the Changing of the Guards (11AM) get there early. If you don’t care about that avoid the 11AM to noon timeframe.

Piccadilly Circus (2 stars) – Have you ever been to Times Square and said “this is it?” Yep, that’s Piccadilly Circus. For candy buffs the M&M store is there and you can find interesting London and M&M Beatles merchandise. If you see it from your tour bus, that’s probably enough.

Leicester Square (2 stars) – The Shakespeare statue was under renovation (during tourist season??). Other than that this is the place to catch a movie or buy half price theatre tickets. Not doing those things? You can skip the square.