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On board British Isles cruise Royal Princess

Nancy48

By Nancy48,
in Princess Cruises

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Nancy48

Nancy48

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Hi folks, well for all of you who are worrying about Dublin I have information. I decided to write to the Captain on your behalf and ask him what was happening. This evening he very kindly invited us up to his office to discuss Dublin. So here it is, from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

 

The bottom line is that they want to dock in Dublin, it is their preferred option, and as such they are doing everything they can to achieve that. As I said before it is tidal, due to the size of the ship, and this will affect arrival and departure times for each visit. But whatever time you arrive, you will have approximately 12 hours in port. There is one questionable visit to Dublin on the 16th August, at the moment when there are other ships in port. However he assured me that they were working on it, as Dublin also wants the ship to dock inport. But that particular sailing is not at all certain yet.

 

He tells me that as well as tides the wind strength is a significant factor, and of course, this is out of their control. He says with accurate weather forecasting when you board the ship in Southampton they will be able to tell you with confidence what the position will be for that voyage.

 

The reason we sailed at 4 pm this voyage was due to other shipping, apparently we are so large that we block the channel whilst manouevring and there were other ships wishing to use it, so we were given a time by which we had to sail. And that is why six passengers were left, because we had to adhere to that timetable

 

So folks, I guess you will not be sure of what is happening until you arrive on board, but the omens are good that you will probably berth in Dublin itself. I know you all wanted a concrete answer, but that is the best you are going to get. Captain Nash was very helpful and an extremely nice chap, who does understand your concerns. I can assure you all he will do his best to get you into Dublin if at all possible.

 

Other news, weather still glorious and we are now under way for our sea day before Le Havre on Saturdday. Clocks go forward one hour tonight ready for France. Looks like a very smooth voyage down.

 

Edinburgh seems to have been a popular port, but as I said I did not go ashore. Information from the local Tourismpeople was available in the piazza this morning. They set up a table full of leaflets and were ready to answer all questions. My husband did go into Queensferryand tells me it is a lovely spot, with cobbled streets, and nice gift/souvenir shops. They had four tenders working, plus a port ferry and it all seemed to be operating very smoothly.

 

He also tells me that as you get off the tenders there were taxis, private tours etc., and even a free shuttle to one of the big stately homes round here. Unfortunately I haven't trained him sufficiently well because he didn't note the name of the house, but he tells me it was "a big one"!!

 

Hope this all helps and will report in tomorrow

Sue

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SteveH2508

SteveH2508

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What movies are being shown on board, we are sailing on her on Sunday. Thanks

 

We are sailing on 8 July and would also be interested to get a flavour of the movies currently on offer.

 

Nancy48 - your blog has been very helpful - thank you for taking the time to write and post it.

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FoxKitchen

FoxKitchen

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Sue,

 

Thank you for providing us with these live updates. Most enjoyable and helpful!

 

I have a couple of questions.

 

1) Gluten Free Dining - I think I read on your original roll call that you're gluten free? If so, any comments, suggestions or things to watch out for? I'm a GF diner who will be on the August 1st BI sailing. We have traditional dining for the late seating. And I like GF pizza!

 

2) Do you use the ship's WiFi from your cabin? If so, how reliable and strong is the connection on the Royal? You update often, so I'm assuming it might be decent? We're not sure about buying an Internet package after getting really poor signals (read super slow, especially during daylight hours) on the Coral a couple of years ago. Wondering if they've improved the wireless service on newer ships.

 

Thanks a bunch!

--Laureen

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Putterdude

Putterdude

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Sue, many thanks for getting and posting the information re Dublin from Capt. Nash. Pam has provided a link to your post on our Aug. 25th roll call and I am certain it will be great information for all on our roll call.

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Shogun

Shogun

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Hi All

 

Nice to see Captain Nash read my post of the other day,:D

 

PS, Captain Nash does read CC, he also knows who we are,

 

when I visited him on the Emerald we chatted about posts I had made a year before.

 

Hi All

Dublin has a number of issues, it's busy, tidal and can be windy, it took me three cruises to get a day there first one was windy so missed tide had to wait hours to get in second time rough seas so had to wait to get in, third time great day no issues most cruise ships get in

 

Yours Shogun

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Shogun

Shogun

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Hi pescadoamarillo

I thought you had done British Isles, it is a great cruise , would recommend doing in August so that you can visit tattoo and pick a cruise that goes to Orkney no place like it, if you do get the chance and need anything just ask.

 

Yours Shogun

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Nancy48

Nancy48

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Morning all, glad I could help re Dublin, just wish it could have been more concrete, but Princess themselves know no more than us now, so that's the best we will get.

 

A lot of you are asking questions re food, movies, tips etc., and I will answer them all when we get home, probably on Monday, as they all take up valuable minutes from my allowance. I promise I will go through this thread and answer all of you. Have got my patters all packed for movies and shows etc.

 

Sailing down UK at the moment, been a bit of a foggy night, first time I have ever heard the ship's whistle thing go for fog. Having been born and be out up in a seaside resort I'm used to hearing a booming foghorn going at night, but the ship's whistle is most peculiar. Something new for me.

 

Nothing else to report, will get back to you all later. Don't think we'll be sunbathing today!

Sue

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Jo and Rob

Jo and Rob

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Morning all, glad I could help re Dublin, just wish it could have been more concrete, but Princess themselves know no more than us now, so that's the best we will get.

 

A lot of you are asking questions re food, movies, tips etc., and I will answer them all when we get home, probably on Monday, as they all take up valuable minutes from my allowance. I promise I will go through this thread and answer all of you. Have got my patters all packed for movies and shows etc.

 

Sailing down UK at the moment, been a bit of a foggy night, first time I have ever heard the ship's whistle thing go for fog. Having been born and be out up in a seaside resort I'm used to hearing a booming foghorn going at night, but the ship's whistle is most peculiar. Something new for me.

 

Nothing else to report, will get back to you all later. Don't think we'll be sunbathing today!

Sue

 

It's a lovely sunny day here on the coast in Suffolk with no sound of any fog horns so hopefully you will enjoy some of our sunshine as you sail past. A huge thank you for all your efforts a posting the live from it has certainly been appreciated by many of us, I'm really looking forward to embarking on Royal Princess on 1st August with my friendly roll call members. :)

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dickinson "Live from...." Rare

dickinson

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Sue,

 

 

2) Do you use the ship's WiFi from your cabin? If so, how reliable and strong is the connection on the Royal? You update often, so I'm assuming it might be decent? We're not sure about buying an Internet package after getting really poor signals (read super slow, especially during daylight hours) on the Coral a couple of years ago. Wondering if they've improved the wireless service on newer ships.

 

Thanks a bunch!

--Laureen

 

We were on the Royal in May for the TA and then the BI. We changed cabins too (A616 to C209 which is aft starboard to forward port). Internet is slow but not as slow as we experienced on the Grand to Hawaii in February. On my previous Princess cruises I would find the fastest internet late at night however on this ship it was actually slower then! Maybe because more crew were off duty and online? don't know but did figure out I could use it any time of day in my cabin (only place I did use it). Just be aware it is slow so if you want to do something that takes several clicks it may be a 5 minute process. If you are platinum and get 250 free minutes when signing in you will receive a choice of that or 500 minutes total for about $79 (those extra 250 min are a $20 savings from those that are not platinum).

 

Hope this helps.

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