Finally Posting - 2013 Ocean Princess British Isles Recap and Photos

[Steph27]

In preparation for our cruise last August, the CC postings and reviews of the Princess British Isles cruises were very helpful to me in the planning process. Most of the posting were about the Caribbean Princess so I thought a report on the Ocean Princess and the port visits might be appreciated. Although it is almost a year later, below is a recap with photos (and links to my blog) of our cruise around the British Isles on the Ocean Princess in August 2013. Because I have full descriptions of what we did on my blog, I have just written a short summary for each day here. The URL for the blog is http://www.27thousandwaves.com

 

We flew from Boston to Heathrow on British Airways on the day flight. I highly recommend doing this as we arrived in the evening and had no jetlag after a good night’s sleep. Following a pre-cruise visit to Glasgow and one night in Tunbridge Wells (Kent) we boarded the Ocean Princess in Dover.

 

Precruise Glasgow – Day 1

We toured Glasgow and visited several sites in the city including the University of Glasgow and the Glasgow School of Art. We also went to Pollok Park to see Pollok House and the Burrell Collection.

http://www.27thousandwaves.com/2013/08/two-days-in-glasgow-scotland.html

 

Precruise Glasgow – Day 2: Rabbies Tour

On our second day in Glasgow we did the Rabbies tour to Stirling Castle, Loch Lomond and the Glengoyne Distillery. It was a great tour and our guide George was fantastic.

 

http://www.27thousandwaves.com/2013/08/loch-lomond-stirling-castle-and.html

 

Next post will be our last pre-cruise day before boarding the Ocean Princess in Dover. This is my first time posting photos to Cruise Critic so hopefully they will appear correctly.

 

Glasgow, Scotland

 

Pollok House in Glasgow

 

University of Glasgow Cloisters

 

Loch Lomond

 

Fish and Chips in Alberfoyle

 

Glengoyne Distillery

[TorontoTL]

Gorgeous photos, I can't wait to hear about your cruise and see all the photos. Thanks for posting.

[melody hounddog]

Great photos! Thanks for taking the time.

[BuzzBuzzen]

Seafood and beers, Yummo :) Thanks for the photos they are great.

[BuzzBuzzen]

:p I know its a cider but I only see beers.

[Colo Cruiser]

Great photos, thanks for posting.

 

Just need to reduce the size a tad.

[lovevacadays]

Beautiful pics. I'm looking forward to more.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Working 2 Cruise]

Thank you for taking the time to do this. Great photos!

[Steph27]

Thanks everyone! Happy to do it! The photos appear very large. Not sure how to make them smaller.

 

As I mentioned, we spent 2 nights in Glasgow pre-cruise and then flew to Gatwick. We then spent one night in Tunbridge Wells in Kent. before boarding the ship the next day. Following our arrival at Gatwick and checking into the Hotel du Vin in Tunbridge Wells, we spent the afternoon visiting Winston Churchill’s home, Chartwell House. I advise getting there early as we were lucky to get the last 2 tickets for our allotted time at 3:15 – 3:30 pm. The next slot was at 4:00 pm and the house closes at 5:00 pm. The grounds and the house were terrific and I loved learning more about Winston Churchill. We took the train from Sevenoaks back to Tunbridge Wells and had dinner at the hotel.

 

http://www.27thousandwaves.com/2013/08/royal-tunbridge-wells-chartwell-house.html

 

The next morning I took a walk to the Pantiles section of Tunbridge Wells before heading to Dover. We took the train there which was very easy requiring just one change of trains in Tonbridge. The weather was rainy but not cold. We had no trouble boarding the ship at noon time and headed straight to our room (7100) on deck 7. I had planned to take a walk on the White Cliffs to the lighthouse but nixed that plan due to the inclement weather. We still had nice views from the balcony. We unpacked, explored the ship a little and then got ready for dinner.

 

Now to the Cruise!

 

Ocean Princess British Isles Cruise

 

Our cruise was 8 days long with 2 sea days. I love sea days so that was a requirement to have at least one on the cruise, two was a bonus. Our first stop after a sea day was Edinburgh for an overnight stay. This was followed by Dublin, Ireland, Milford Haven, Wales and St. Peter Port Guernsey. We also had 2 nights post cruise in Paris. It was a great itinerary and I was very pleased as a first timer on the Ocean Princess. We have experienced the R class ships on Oceania. In addition to two previous cruises on Princess (Ruby and Diamond) we have also cruised on other lines including Celebrity, Norwegian and Crystal. I will cover the ports first and then end with our overall assessment of the Ocean Princess.

 

The next post will cover our first sea day and our marathon of a day in Edinburgh!

 

Hotel du Vin Tunbridge Wells

 

Pantiles, Tunbridge Wells

 

Walled Garden Chartwell House

 

Chartwell House

 

White Cliffs Dover

 

Sailaway from Dover

[Caroldoll]

or did this stop after two pages?

[rocknroll]

or did this stop after two pages?

 

Hi Caroldoll . . we are on the same cruise on the 11th so I was anxious to read this report also. Quite surprised when there was nothing after page two. I went back up to the first post and clicked on the URL regarding 27thousandwaves and that brought me to the full report. Enjoy! . . and will see you at the Meet and Greet. Diane aka rocknroll

[Steph27]

I am posting each day of the cruise separately so I can add the photos. I think there is a limit to 6 photos per post.

 

After a very relaxing sea day where had great weather and sat out at the pool, we arrived in Rosyth, Scotland in the early morning on Saturday, August 24th.

 

Edinburgh (Rosyth):

We had almost 2 full days in Edinburgh. I was glad the ship docked in Rosyth as there is easy access to the train station in Inverkeithing. You are required to take a shuttle bus from the ship to the cruise terminal. From here we took a taxi to Inverkeithing. On our first day in Edinburgh we arrived at Waverly station and walked up to Charlotte Square for a 9:00 am discussion and reading by Edna O'Brien at the Book Festival. I purchased the tickets online but had to have them printed at the ticket booth. This was followed by lunch at the Witchery Secret Garden and a brief visit to Edinburgh Castle. Our next stops included some shopping and then the Mary Queen of Scots of Exhibit at the National Museum of Scotland and then a tour of the Palace of Holyroodhouse. We ended the day with reading by American essayist and humorist David Sedaris which was part of the Fringe Festival. We had a quick dinner and finally ended up at the Military Tattoo for the 10:30 pm performance which was the last of the season. Our seats were in Section 2 Row F seats 7 & 8 which were excellent and were not very expensive. It was a very full day and we walked over 10+ miles! We spent the night in Edinburgh at Snoozebox which is a temporary hotel comprised of shipping containers. It was only 82 pounds for the night and cost just a bit more than if we had to take the train back to Rosyth and then out again the next morning on our other Edinburgh excursion. Below is a link to my blog post on our full day and photos of our visit in Edinburgh.

 

http://www.27thousandwaves.com/2013/08/edinburgh-scotland-day-3.html

 

Below are some photos of our day in Edinburgh.

 

Arriving at Forth Bridge near Rosyth

 

 

Witchery Secret Garden where we had lunch

 

 

Our Room at Snoozebox (capsule hotel)

 

 

Military Tattoo Starting

 

Military Tattoo

 

 

Highland Dancers at the Tattoo

 

 

The next post will be of our day in Perth and then having tea at Gleneagles.

[ontheweb]

Keep this wonderful stuff coming!

 

I'm also on the same sailing as Caroldoll and Rocknroll. I hope you do not mind that I posted a heads up in our roll call to check out this thread.

 

There is one change to the itinerary. Instead of St. Peters Port Guernsey, our will go to the Isle of Jersey.

[Nymue]

Beautiful pictures, what type of camera do you use?

[lovevacadays]

Thank you for the additional pictures. Love them.:):):)

[jaynak]

Amazing photos. Thank you so much.

[Caroldoll]

And thanks for the review to the OP.

[Steph27]

After a short delay to enjoy the long weekend, I am now posting the continuation of our journey in the British Isles.

 

Ontheweb - Thanks for posting this thread to your roll call. I loved Guernsey but Jersey should be fun too.

 

Nymue - I appreciate the compliment. It is actually just a regular point and shoot but a little bit fancier. It is a Fuji F750 EXR. It is a few years old and I love it in red.

 

MichelleinOC & Jaynak- Glad you like the photos. I sometimes obsess and take way too many shots and have to delete a ton.

 

Caroldoll - Glad you are enjoying the review.

 

Now back to the review!

 

Perthshire and Gleneagels (second day Edinburgh):

 

We had a great night at Snoozebox in Edinburgh and woke up around 8:00 am. Our train from Waverly station to Perth would depart at 9:10 am so we walked the 10 minutes to the station. It was about an hour to Perth and then we took a five minute taxi ride to Scone Palace. After a short delay, we enjoyed touring the Palace and the grounds. There were several gorgeous peacocks walking around. After a look in the gift shop we met the taxi driver to take us to the Gleneagles Hotel. Because it is Sunday, we couldn’t take the train there which would have been very convenient and less expensive. The train schedule on Sunday is very limited. Gleneagles was busy with the Johnnie Walker Golf tournament but we had no trouble accessing the hotel. Most people were on one of the golf courses. I had pre-arranged afternoon tea at 1:30 pm. We were right on time and shown to a lovely table in the large bar area. The weather was great and they had the windows open to the outside. The Tea was amazing with both sweet and savory trays followed by warm scones with all the fixings. It was delicious. We walked around the outside of the hotel to take in the views before a different car service picked us up for the drive back to Rosyth. We arrived back at the Ocean Princess about 45 minutes prior to the ship’s departure.

 

http://www.27thousandwaves.com/2013/08/perthshire-and-gleneagles-scotland-day-4.html

 

Here are some of the photos from our time at Scone Palace and Gleneagles Hotel.

 

Scone Palace

 

 

Chapel Scone Palace

 

 

Gleneagles Hotel

 

 

Afternoon Tea at Gleneagles Hotel

 

 

Grounds at Gleneagles

 

 

View of the countryside from Gleneagles

 

 

Coming up: The next day was a sea day and I will post some photos of our room and the Ocean Princess public rooms.

[Steph27]

After departing from Rosyth our next day was a full Sea Day. I love sea days but as they don't offer any enrichment on the Ocean Princess it was a challenge to stay occupied. We went to the port discussion on Dublin and then spent the rest of day eating and reading. The weather was pretty good at the beginning of the day but it became more cloudy and windy as we traveled further north.

 

We very much enjoyed our time on the Ocean Princess during the Sea Day as it is very relaxing. Checked email in the Internet Lounge and it was completely empty!

 

We have really enjoyed the breakfasts and lunches on the Ocean Princess and the dinners are adequate but not great. Below are some photos around the Ocean Princess including our stateroom 7100.

 

View of Northern Scotland

 

 

Sushi at Lunch in the Lido (Yum!):

 

 

Ocean Princess Pool Area

 

 

Ocean Princess Running Track

 

 

Ocean Princess Decks 4 & 5

 

 

Our Stateroom 7100

 

 

The next post will be about our gorgeous and fun filled day in Dublin, Ireland and the surrounding countryside.

[ontheweb]

We're really looking forward to your post about Dublin.

 

One question that my DW has---is the spa pool free or extra charge? I think she is thinking that if the weather is chilly or rainy, that area is at least covered unlike the regular pool.

[PathfinderEss]

Nice photo's, thanks for posting.

[Steph27]

PathfindersEs - Thank for the compliment on the photos. Just wish I knew how to make them smaller!

 

Ontheweb - Sorry but I didn't use the spa pool. The first sea day was very warm and the second was much cooler. We also had great weather in Wales and lots of people were using the pool when we returned to the ship

 

Our next day was our visit to Dublin, Ireland. This was our first time to the Emerald Isle. We had a wonderful Princess tour and a great guide. We did the Powercourt Garden and Dublin on Your Own. Our guide was very funny and very informative but not a broken record. We learned a lot about Dublin during our drive to Wicklow.

 

The Powerscourt Garden was wonderful to walk around and we loved the views of the countryside and Sugarloaf mountain, which technically is not high enough to be a mountain. The house was destroyed but a fire but was recently past 20 years) restored. They have great shopping on 2 floors with some unique items made in Ireland.

 

Following our visit to Powerscourt we drove back to Dublin and had a short tour by bus. Tried to visit St. Patrick's Cathedral but we didn't have enough time. The bus dropped us on Kildare Street and we walked back up to Dame Street to get a little lunch. We went to Queen of Tarts which was delicious! I had a chicken sandwich and a delectable chocolate pecan tart. We then only had less than 2 hours until we had to be back at the bus. We spent the time on Grafton Street window shopping and then walked back to the area near the bus. We visited a great store selling brass door knockers at very reasonable prices. Also took a spin through the Kilkenny shop which is very touristy but still interesting. We will definitely need to come back to Dublin to see more of it. It was very clean and the population is quite young.

 

You can click on the link below for a full rundown of our day in Dublin.

 

http://www.27thousandwaves.com/2013/08/dublin-ireland-day-6.html

 

 

Below are some photos of our day in Dublin and at Powerscourt:

 

Powerscourt Garden

 

 

Triton Lake and the Estate

 

 

View of Sugarloaf Mountain from Powerscourt

 

 

Dublin near O'Connell Street

 

 

Brass Door Knockers

 

 

Queen of Tarts Amazing Chocolate Pecan Tart

 

 

We had a great time in Dublin I just wish we had more time to see a bit more. The next post will cover our day in Milford Haven, Wales which turned out much better than I originally expected!

[Steph27]

For those that have not already read my blog posting for Milford Haven, Wales, I have written a short summary below.

 

Milford Haven, Wales

It was just a short distance from Dublin to Milford Haven, Wales. The weather during our visit was fantastic and the best of the entire cruise. With sun, bright blue skies and high temps in the high 70's, we enjoyed our time exploring the port area until it was time for our Princess tour. The marina area in Milford Haven is very pretty and feel like New England. The local "Governor" was present to welcome us. We chose the St. Davids Peninsula and Cathedral. It was about 45 minutes by bus to St. Davids. The drive along the Pembroke coast was beautiful with great views of the water and countryside. St. Davids Cathedral was wonderful and our guide Helen did a superb job. I just wish the tour left earlier than 10:30 am. We didn’t have much time in the adorable town of St. Davids and only grabbed an ice cream (yummy gelato) before heading back to the ship. We had a snack at the grill at 3:15 pm to hold us over until dinner.

 

http://www.27thousandwaves.com/2013/08/milford-haven-wales-day-7.html

 

Below are some photos from Milford Haven and St. Davids.

 

Milford Haven Marina

 

 

On the ride to St. Davids

 

 

Nave St. Davids Cathedral

 

 

St. Davids Cathedral

 

 

Milford Haven on our return to the ship

 

 

Our next stop of the cruise was Guernsey in the Channel Islands. Will post on that next.

[ontheweb]

Thanks again for the photos and blog.

 

We met someone from Wales earlier this year at a wedding. He said Milford Haven was boring.

 

We have booked a Princess excursion for this port. It goes to a place where they make love spoons and then to Tenby. (I forgot to ask the person I met about Tenby.)

[Steph27]

Ontheweb - I am posting the remainder of the cruise here but many may have already read it on the blog instead. We almost did the tour to Tenby instead of St. Davids. I decided that we didn't need to see more shopping but Tenby is supposed to be a cute town. You heard correctly about Milford Haven. There is really nothing to do there. The town is very small and unless you want to spend your time in Tesco you are better off booking a ship tour or making other plans.

 

Our next and last stop on our British Isles cruise was St. Peter Port, Guernsey.

 

St. Peter Port:

This stop was so short! We only had from 8:30 am until 2:30 pm in Guernsey. After tendering ashore we walked around the Old Town toward Hauteville House. At 10:00 am we did the tour of Victor Hugo’s Hauteville House which I arranged in advance. It is an amazing house and we loved the tour. We then made our way back to the quay where we had lunch at Le Nautique overlooking the harbor. I had lobster and the lunch was delicious! I wish we had more time to explore others areas including the Castle Cornet museums and Candie Gardens. I would have also liked to learn more about the German occupation on the island. We still had a great time and I am looking forward to coming back.

 

http://www.27thousandwaves.com/2013/08/guernsey-channel-islands-day-8.html

 

Below are a few photos of our visit to St. Peter Port.

 

Old Town

 

 

Hauteville House interior

 

 

View from Le Nautique where we had lunch.

 

 

Lobster lunch

 

 

Quay St. Peter Port

 

 

St. Peter Port from the Pier

 

 

The next post will cover our disembarkation in Dover and the Eurostar to Paris.