Help choosing UK cruise

[smm0218]

After our Alaskan (first) cruise we've discovered we like cruising and I'm trying to plan a cruise for next year for British Isles. We would like to spend at least a couple days in London prior to cruise, I think it might help with jet lag and at our ages we may never get there again.we could enjoy cruise more.

 

Our Alaskan cruise was with NCL, we had a couple problems on board that they had no interest in resolving (guest services was actually pretty rude) and DH was not impressed with food, so while we will still consider NCL, it isn't an automatic choice.

 

Cost is important, would like to be able to get a balcony but suites aren't in the budget.

 

Itinerary is primary, Dublin, Glasgow and Edinburgh are main stops wanted, Wales would be nice.

 

I'm thinking probably May 2018. While summer would be nicer weather, probably, I'm hoping May would be less kids. We had to dodge a lot of packs of kids on Alaskan cruise.

 

We did like the freestyle option on NCL, neither of us are interested in formal nights or fixed seating.

 

So far I've found 4 cruises with an itinerary I like.

 

Royal Princess

NCL Jade

Cunard Victoria (believe they only have fixed dining and more strict dress codes so probably not an options for us)

RCI Brilliance of the Sea which sails out of Amsterdam appears to be the least expensive, and it looks like it would be a fairly reasonable flight from London. But we are not world travelers or even experienced international travelers and the thought of dealing with airport transfers and immigration and customs would probably keep me awake for a month.

 

If any of you "way more experienced" travelers would/could voice an opinion, suggestion or option I may not have thought of, it would be great and very much appreciated.

[John Bull]

A few thoughts from a local, but who's never cruised around the UK ..................

 

If you liked NCL's free-style then no, Queen Vic wouldn't suit you - it's at the other end of the scale. Dress code (jacket & tie, etc) in the MDR every evening.

 

A few cruises visit south Wales - ports like Milford Haven.

North Wales IMHO is much more attractive and more "Welsh". The cruise port there is Holyhead, but it's a little unreliable due to its relatively unsheltered berth. It's also easy to take a day tour to North Wales (castles, Snowdonia Nat Park, slate mines, etc) from Liverpool if that city is on an itinerary.

 

Yes, London is worth at least two days, really you should aim for 3+.

And yes, make that pre-cruise - if your outbound flight is fouled-up you'll mebbe miss a day in London, but that's better than missing your sailing.

 

Glasgow & Edinburgh are only an hour apart by road or by rail.

Yes, I rate Edinburgh highly.

Don't want to upset any Glaswegians, but - well - errr - perhaps not so highly-rated. On the other hand it's a gateway for a great day-trip to Loch Lomond and the Trossacks, and mebbe even beyond to Glencoe. That might depend on whether your ship ports elsewhere such as Invergordon (for Loch Ness and the Cairngorm attractions like Speyside & Braemar).

 

The Orkneys and Shetlands are a little wild, both in weather and surroundings.

You may want to include one, perhaps not both.

 

Yes, Dublin for sure, and most ships visit there.

 

In May, a balcony might be worthwhile or it might not - British weather, especially the further north you go, can be quite fickle. Theoretically they're not in as great demand as say the Caribbean or Mediterranean so the price gap between ocean-view and balcony should be smaller.

Bear in mind that although you're circumnavigating the British Isles, during your time at sea the land will at best be a smudge on the horizon.

 

Flights between Amsterdam and London (or Amsterdam and Southampton) are frequent and relatively inexpensive. But I don't entirely see the logic of time in London tied in with a cruise out of (and presumably back to) Amsterdam. :confused:

 

JB :)

[smm0218]

Thank you so much, You've definitely clarified a few things for me.

 

"But I don't entirely see the logic of time in London tied in with a cruise out of (and presumably back to) Amsterdam."

 

 

Because I REALLY want to visit London but the Amsterdam cruise might be the better option. If we did that I'd add a day at the end to spend there.

[Twickenham]

You don't have to fly from London to Amsterdam - you can travel by train. Pretty simple immigration process upon embarkation in London, fairly easy transfer in Brussels. Gets you to the heart of Amsterdam.

[tring]

With respect to John, I think is is rather used to answering questions from US citizens who like to spend a long time on the road, so I suggest you think about whether that is how you wish to spend your holiday. It may be what you want to do, but I suggest you take that choice knowingly.

 

A journey to Snowdonia form Liverpool would take more than two hours each way an very busy, featureless roads and any places visited will be the very touristy places like Betws Y Coed etc. - not what I would recommend personally. If you do dock in Liverpool, you should take account the fact that Liverpool is the most popular cruise port in the UK as the ships dock right at the waterfront in the centre of town and there is loads to do in the city, whether you want a peaceful stroll on a nice day or to explore the loads of museums etc, many of which are within a short stroll of the docking location. You could even spend an hour on the famous Mersey Ferry if it is a nice day. Glasgow is a very good base to take a tour to Loch Lomond etc. as it is nearby and that would be a much more scenic base than the touristy parts of North Wales IMO. I do agree with John that Dublin and Edinburgh are worth visiting and the Eastern side of Scotland is also very appealing form a scenic point of view.

 

Amsterdam is a lovely place and would be great as somewhere to spend time instead of London, which is just a busy, polluted city in our view. Yes you will see famous sites in London, but surrounded by very busy, noisy, polluting traffic, so may not be quite what you expected to see - funny how places can seem so much different when you actually get there. It is also an easy place to fly into from many parts of the world as well as it is a major flight hub.

 

Overall, I think you should explore the itineraries rather than the ships, though as John says Cunard does not sound your sort of thing at all. We always go to Google Earth to research holidays, where you can see things on Street view and can take a 'turn around' to see the wider area. You also need to consider the ease of getting from ports to the location that the cruise company would like to take you - some US lines list London (from Southampton) as a cruise destination, which is not a realistic trip for a day if you want to see something when you get there. Regular cruisers are used to those sort of things, but as less experienced cruisers, I suggest you read a bit more before booking.

 

Whatever you decide, I hope you have a really good holiday.

[smm0218]

Thanks for advice. London may very well be a disappointment, something you have anticipated for as long as I have (30+ years) visiting London, almost always is.

 

From cruises I've looked at is appears the average time is port is 9-10 hours, so spending 4 hours on road, unless it is really special, or a long held wish isn't something we probably want to do.

 

Edinburgh, DH would love to visit St. Andrews, not necessarily to play golf, just to see it. I'm interested in castle and just walking around looking.

 

Liverpool (can't remember which of cruises I'm looking at stop there) but an hour on the Mersey Ferry would be cool. I'm more "Ferry across the Mersey" (one of my all time favorites) than "Hey, Jude." :)

 

Another thing that would be a special trip for both of us (and I realize it's probably silly,) would would love to visit a British Horse Racing venue (Dick Francis fans from way back.) Doesn't have to actually be racing if would could look around, although racing would be a huge bonus. That might be something we would end up doing from London, since I'm having a hard time figuring what tracks are by what ports.

 

I'm not sure anywhere is easy to fly to from here (Nebraska) we are looking at 10-15 hours and a couple thousand bucks,depending on airline and what kind of deals I can find.

[Cotswold Eagle]

There's horse racing just about every day of the year somewhere in the UK, and several of the more famous courses are easy to reach from London. Aintree, home of the Grand National, is near Liverpool, but they don't seem to run tours other than on race days. I believe Cheltenham does run tours, but that's a long trek out of London, unless you want to combine with a day in the beautiful Cotswolds [emoji846]

 

London is NOT a disappointment for millions of people every year, so please don't come with that expectation. We can help you make best use of your time if that's the way you go.

 

 

EDIT: a quick bit of internet searching suggests racecourse tours are not very common, to my surprise, so you may be best looking to go to a race meeting.

 

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Edited August 29, 2017 by Cotswold Eagle

[Darcy15]

Despite living in the U.K., I have done 3 Princess British Isles cruises - and really enjoyed each one :)

 

It was fun to see my own country from a different perspective :D

 

I have cruised with Princess many times and never had an issue - nice ships and good crew

 

.........though I am a recent convert to MSC after just one cruise! Stunning ships, and fantastic service. Also, amazing value for money!

 

MSC are sailing from Southampton next year......not sure of itineraries, but it might be worth a look :cool:

 

Whatever you decide to do, welcome to this side of the pond :)

[threetowner16]

theres is a post on this board dated 6th aug 2017 titled "possible to do st Andrews" which should give you the information your looking for.

 

A couple of comments re some of the replies you have had, yes Glasgow is about an hour from Edinburgh, but cruises berth in Greenock which is to the west of Glasgow again about a hour by road or rail so that's 2 hours travel time each way. Yes Kirkwall and Lerwick can be cold and windy but when the sunshine they can be lovely.I don't know if you knew that these ports are farther north than Ketchikan,Juneau and in Lerwick case Skagway,

You should look at the Cruisescotland.com website for information on Scottish ports

[smm0218]

Thank you all of you. I did tell my husband parts of the UK are more NO than Alaska, not sure he believes me.

Lots to research to do. I'd love to do "combine with a day in the beautiful Cotswolds" Cotswolds are somewhere I'd like to go, I'm not sure 3 days in London are enough. Anywhere we go it has to be fairly easy navigation (bus train whatever) and someone else driving. One of the reasons it has taken us so long is thinking about trying to navigate DH on wrong side of road with him randomly turning or not turning as the spirit moves him. Not relaxing and not a vacation for me. And we both want to see, he can't if he's driving.

 

 

You have no idea how much I appreciate all the help.

[Got2Cruise]

We loved London! It was not a disappointment at all. There are several tour companies that make daily trips by coach bus from Victoria Coach Station to places. Very comfortable, and cost is reasonable. Just sit back and relax.

 

 

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[tangerine9]

May I suggest a new option, whereby you could see both North Wales and Liverpool, even if your cruise does not visit them.

 

Manchester Airport has many daily flights from the States, the nearest airport to you with such flights probably being Chicago although there will be other options such as Atlanta , Orlando, New York and Houston.

 

The Airport is much less busy than Heathrow and transport links from it are excellent.

It is only a few minutes walk from arrivals to the airport station where there are direct trains and trams in to the city centre as well as many parts of northern England and Wales.

 

I have also found a day tour which takes in Chester , the North Wales coast and Snowdonia. This is with Busybus which other Cruise Critic members have used in the past. The tour picks up at Chester railway station which is an hour away by train, these running around every 30 minutes. This would be a long day but the scenery and places you see would be worth it, and it would be definitely different from Nebraska !

 

The city of Liverpool is less than an hour away with numerous trains throughout the day.

 

If you have the time many other areas are easily accessible by train including the Lake District, Peak District and the city of York (Roman walls and a racecourse !). Most of these are less than 2 hours by train, with the Peak District only being 30 minutes away.

 

Manchester itself has many places of interest , especially if you want a couple of easy days to get over the jetlag.

 

From Manchester it is just a 2 hour train ride to London, with these running every 20 minutes.

 

If you wanted to concentrate on this area of the country and skip London, there are both direct trains and flights to Southampton if your cruise leaves from there. Alternatively there are flights to Amsterdam to pick up that cruise , the flight time being only around 80 minutes.

[fastsneakers]

22 cruises here...We made a big mistake this July and chose Princess to take us through the British Isles. We'll never sail Princess again, really bad overall experience and the company doesn't seem to care.

 

We sailed NCL Jade "Back to Back" in the Med and had a very nice experience. It's a smaller ship but we were very comfortable sailing on her for 21 days,

 

RCCL, never a problem.

[smm0218]

I'm getting so excited thinking about seeing all the places I've read about for years, I may a hard time deciding.

[smm0218]

What was wrong with Princess?

[Cotswold Eagle]

Thank you all of you. I did tell my husband parts of the UK are more NO than Alaska, not sure he believes me.

Lots to research to do. I'd love to do "combine with a day in the beautiful Cotswolds" Cotswolds are somewhere I'd like to go, I'm not sure 3 days in London are enough. Anywhere we go it has to be fairly easy navigation (bus train whatever) and someone else driving. One of the reasons it has taken us so long is thinking about trying to navigate DH on wrong side of road with him randomly turning or not turning as the spirit moves him. Not relaxing and not a vacation for me. And we both want to see, he can't if he's driving.

 

 

You have no idea how much I appreciate all the help.

 

 

 

Having looked in more detail, Cheltenham only offers non-race day tours to groups, unfortunately.

 

Cotswolds can be 'done' from London - there are coach tours, if that's your thing, but to me a better option is to take the train from London to somewhere like Moreton-in-Marsh and arrange a private tour from there. There are several local operators who will pick you up and take you on a tour, delivering you back for a train back to London in the evening. A long day and more expensive, but they will tailor itineraries and get into places the large coaches won't go.

 

 

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[4774Papa]

We did our British Isles cruise in 2013 on Celebrity Infinity and loved it.

 

Here is my detailed review:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=221137

[geoherb]

We just finished a 12-day cruise on the Caribbean Princess. It was great. One of my regrets was not having enough time in London before our cruise. We spent three nights there and one night in Southampton. The first day is for getting over jetlag. We managed to keep awake for the afternoon, going to Trafalgar Square area and Westminster Abbey for a service. The second day we went to Kensington Palace, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Harrods. The third day was Buckingham Palace, tea at Fortnum and Mason (overpriced and not worth it any more), and a West End show ("Half a Six Pence").

 

We took the train from Paddington to Southampton. Waterloo had a train accident the day before, which we heard was still causing delays, and construction that was causing additional delays. In retrospect, we should have gone to Victoria. In Southampton, we had time to visit the Tudor House and Garden and the SeaCity Museum. Both were worth going a day early.

[John Bull]

With respect to John, I think is is rather used to answering questions from US citizens who like to spend a long time on the road, so I suggest you think about whether that is how you wish to spend your holiday. It may be what you want to do, but I suggest you take that choice knowingly.

 

A journey to Snowdonia form Liverpool would take more than two hours each way an very busy, featureless roads ....................

 

Yes, tring, I was thinking of the OP's desire to visit Wales, and threw in the option of doing so from Liverpool.

Yes the first part of the drive across the Wirral, with the greatest of respect to the folk who live there ;p, is indeed quite featureless - but an hour from Liverpool you're on the north Wales coast, ten minutes later you're in Conwy (castle etc) and 20 mins up the beautiful Conwy valley you're in Betsy. Then a scenic 30 minutes over Snowdonia to somewhere like Blaenau Ffestiniog or Llanberis.

 

http://www.busybus.co.uk/wales-from-liverpool-cruise-terminal offer shared cruisers' van tours from Liverpool or Holyhead.

 

-------------------------------------------------------

 

London is definitely bucket-list.

Like tring, I'm not a great fan and I certainly wouldn't want to live there.

I also wouldn't like to live in places like NYC or Chicago.

But great to experience as a visitor, and just so many iconic places to see in London.

 

Not sure what you'll get from a visit to a racecourse on a day when there's no racing. There are various race-courses around the country, but perhaps combine a racecourse with some other sight.

I'm thinking Liverpool (but not Wales) plus Aintree - with its mighty Grand National fences - just a 20 minutes taxi ride away.

Or, when you're in London, Henry V111's Hampton Court Palace with Kempton Park race course within just a ten minute taxi ride.

But Cheltenham race course combined with a van tour of the Cotswolds wouldn't work - there's the time to get to the Cotswolds from, say, London (90 mins+ e/w) and you'll not find a shared tour that includes the race course.

 

Between us we've provided you with a selection of places to visit during time in the UK - you did say you're here for 6 weeks? :D

Do any of those things grab your fancy?

 

JB :)

[smm0218]

We did our British Isles cruise in 2013 on Celebrity Infinity and loved it.

 

Here is my detailed review:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=221137

 

Lovely review. And you confirmed my thought that I'm not going to rent a car and drive with DH. :)

[hiccups]

If you can adjust your time frame, Oceania, Azamara and Celebrity also offer British Isles cruises. Oceania and Azamara have smaller ships and aren't really designed for families, so the number of children onboard would be fewer. We did the Azamara British Open cruise in July and there was one toddler, and a few teens. We went to the ports you mentioned, including Wales.

 

And FWIW, I much prefer London to Amsterdam. Also, we took a day flight to LHR, arriving about 9 PM at night. Even though it was still "afternoon" to us, we were tired from travelling, and so by the time we got to our hotel about 11 PM, we were ready for bed, and it was a very easy time adjustment that way.

Edited August 30, 2017 by hiccups

[flamomo]

22 cruises here...We made a big mistake this July and chose Princess to take us through the British Isles. We'll never sail Princess again, really bad overall experience and the company doesn't seem to care.

 

We sailed NCL Jade "Back to Back" in the Med and had a very nice experience. It's a smaller ship but we were very comfortable sailing on her for 21 days,

 

RCCL, never a problem.

 

 

HMMM. I have done 30+ cruises with Princess, including the British Isles on the Caribbean Princess last year, and had a wonderful time. Great ship, nice accommodations, great service, great itinerary. Would do it again in a heartbeat.

 

Would you please specify what made your Princess cruise so "bad overall". I would like to understand what you found to be so awful that you would choose to make a blanket condemnation of an entire cruise line.

[smm0218]

My add-on days are definitely adding up.

 

It's a shame racecourse tours are hard to come by, we were able to drive up and tour Churchill Downs and I foolishly assumed it would be that easy other places. Kempton seems to have racing in May so that might be a good option while in London.

[smm0218]

day flight to LHR, arriving about 9 PM at night. Even though it was still "afternoon" to us, we were tired from travelling, and so by the time we got to our hotel about 11 PM, we were ready for bed, and it was a very easy time adjustment that way.

 

I was thinking of taking night flight and sleeping on plane but it sounds like the opposite works well and we could start "fresh" in the morning. Really dreading long plane flight but DH says we can't drive. :(

[hiccups]

I was thinking of taking night flight and sleeping on plane but it sounds like the opposite works well and we could start "fresh" in the morning. Really dreading long plane flight but DH says we can't drive. :(

 

It can also depend on how well you sleep on a plane. And for me, my age :) I was much better able to handle the redeye flights in my 20s!

 

My DH's first international flight was when we took a river cruise out of Amsterdam two years ago, and we took a redeye flight from Toronto with regular coach seats. We were squished like sardines, and he couldn't sleep at all; it took him several days to adjust to the time change. For the London flight this year, we took the day flight and paid for bulkhead seats to get more legroom. We didn't sleep, of course, but overall it just worked much better.

 

Next year we'll be taking a redeye from Toronto to Lisbon, but we've paid for upgraded seats again because my DH felt it made the flight much more tolerable. I'm hoping we'll be able to get some sleep this time!