British Isles Cruise Report--Royal Princess--May 13, 12 Nights

[voljeep]

Kory is a karaoke lounge act...:(

 

Perry is a piano bar entertainer...:)

[LynnDom]

Thanks for the review Fishdancer! We are planning to board in Southampton and disembark in Le Havre too. You noted you disembarked around 2pm. Did Princess provide you a window of time to disembark? Was the process with Princess/immigration relatively straightforward?

 

Thanks in advance for any tips!

[fishdancer]

Thanks for the review Fishdancer! We are planning to board in Southampton and disembark in Le Havre too. You noted you disembarked around 2pm. Did Princess provide you a window of time to disembark? Was the process with Princess/immigration relatively straightforward?

 

Thanks in advance for any tips!

 

The short answer is no, Princess had basically told us to be off ASAP, or by 9, just like if it was the official last day of our cruise, but because we were able to handle all of our luggage rather than having it picked up and taken off the boat for us, we were able to stay on and leave when we chose.

 

We had received permission from Princess corporate (had to have the travel agency we booked with make the request) to disembark at Le Havre - I think it was called a vector route change or deviation. They sent a letter/form stating we were permitted to disembark at Le Havre. When we got on the boat, they didn't seem to know, as they provided us with the disembarkation questionnaire about Southampton (the sheet asking if you want to buy a transfer, what time you want to get off etc). We took the letter and the disembarkation questionnaire to guest services and it took a while but they finally understood we were getting off in Le Havre even though we had booked Southampton-Southampton. Guest services said we needed to vacate the room and the boat by 9 or so. However we had booked/paid for the cruise through Southampton and I was hoping to stay on the boat for some of the day. I spoke with someone on the cruise director staff who said that if we had all of our luggage with us (i.e. chose the "walk off ourselves" option) that we could stay on until 10 or 11, and they'd make an announcement about "everyone disembarking in Le Havre needs to get off the boat now". That never happened, and we just stayed on the boat in public areas (with all our bags) until we wanted to leave. It was really nice being on the boat when it was quiet and empty, but there was still a full compliment of activities because it wasn't really the disembarkation day of the cruise.

 

Everyone who is disembarking in France needs to personally be seen by French immigration, who came on board a little later than expected, maybe 7:20am (it was supposed to start at 7am, I think). They were in Club 6, next to the casino, and once the room filled with people sitting on couches waiting for immigration, they made us stand in line outside the room. You're given a time to go to see French authorities based on the way/time you are disembarking, some time between 7 and 8, but since it's all dependent on French authorities getting onboard to get the process started, it was delayed. There was a little bit of chaos surrounding this wait/requirement between: Europeans disembarking who were insistent that surely the French government didn't need to see them, given their EU membership; people starting to panic that they'd miss the disembarkation excursion they had booked that was supposed to meet at 7:30; and people from certain countries who weren't disembarking but who had an excursion and were told they needed their passport with them, but the ship had been holding on to their passport. They too needed to see French immigration (because of their nationality - this wasn't for everyone staying on the boat to Southampton and taking an excursion). The actual "meeting" with French immigration consisted of a "bonjour" and them looking through the passport and giving it a stamp. Then someone from the ship hands you a card that says "I cleared French immigration" or something like that. When you get your passport back early in the trip (they held onto it at checkin) there'll be a sticker on the back with a bar code that you are not supposed to take off and someone from the ship scanned it right before we saw French customs (I took mine off and was scolded, and it meant the ship didn't have an electronic record of me going to see immigration - we went back to our cabin and had a call around 9 am that they needed to see me, and I explained that I had been through immigration but my bar code hadn't been scanned). At that point guest services said we could stay in the room until 10 or so. We ended up vacating around 9:30 anyway, and then went to various places on this ship, had lunch etc (again, lugging all of our bags). When we walked off at 2, we had our card scanned, and we had or showed them the "I cleared French immigration" cards, and we were off.

 

If you can't handle all of your bags yourself and instead need to put the luggage tags on and have them picked up outside your cabin door, etc, I'm not sure you can really stay on later than the time they tell you to be off, because your bags would just end up sitting for hours in the area of the terminal where everyone claims their bags.

[cruisequeen4ever]

Thank you for getting me even more excited for our BI cruise! Do you happen to remember what time be Shuttle started running on Dublin Day 1?

 

 

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[js10]

After the long tender ticket lines to get into Guernsey many people arrived early to the Symphony dining room to get their shuttle tickets. We arrived around 15 minutes early and made it onto the 4th shuttle bus. The exact time will depend on your arrival to Dublin.

[LynnDom]

The short answer is no, Princess had basically told us to be off ASAP, or by 9, just like if it was the official last day of our cruise, but because we were able to handle all of our luggage rather than having it picked up and taken off the boat for us, we were able to stay on and leave when we chose.

 

We had received permission from Princess corporate (had to have the travel agency we booked with make the request) to disembark at Le Havre - I think it was called a vector route change or deviation. They sent a letter/form stating we were permitted to disembark at Le Havre. When we got on the boat, they didn't seem to know, as they provided us with the disembarkation questionnaire about Southampton (the sheet asking if you want to buy a transfer, what time you want to get off etc). We took the letter and the disembarkation questionnaire to guest services and it took a while but they finally understood we were getting off in Le Havre even though we had booked Southampton-Southampton. Guest services said we needed to vacate the room and the boat by 9 or so. However we had booked/paid for the cruise through Southampton and I was hoping to stay on the boat for some of the day. I spoke with someone on the cruise director staff who said that if we had all of our luggage with us (i.e. chose the "walk off ourselves" option) that we could stay on until 10 or 11, and they'd make an announcement about "everyone disembarking in Le Havre needs to get off the boat now". That never happened, and we just stayed on the boat in public areas (with all our bags) until we wanted to leave. It was really nice being on the boat when it was quiet and empty, but there was still a full compliment of activities because it wasn't really the disembarkation day of the cruise.

 

 

 

THANK YOU Fishdancer!! This was an amazing reply and so helpful, particularly the part about bar code! We really appreciate the great info

[Swansforever]

Thank you for taking the time to write this very informative report. It is very helpful. We are doing this cruise on August 29 this year.

[Clownfish Cruiser]

Thank you for your thoughts on the Royal. We were on the Regal last year and booked the Royal for this upcoming January!

[KCSungirl]

Thanks to everyone chiming in on tips and tours. Please come back and post if you are cruising this summer

 

😁👍Sungirl

[TW6cruiser]

Thank you for all of your comments. Regarding your Princess excursion to St. Andrew's, did you feel that you had enough time there or were you rushed? I am interesting in going and am wondering if the cruise excursion is too short. Otherwise, we may be arranging for a cab service. Some of the private tours I've found so far are quite long as they include other stops.

[sunsetbeachgal]

Thank you for all of your comments. Regarding your Princess excursion to St. Andrew's, did you feel that you had enough time there or were you rushed? I am interesting in going and am wondering if the cruise excursion is too short. Otherwise, we may be arranging for a cab service. Some of the private tours I've found so far are quite long as they include other stops.

 

 

 

We did a St Andrews tour in June through Victor. It was excellent. In addition to a walking tour on the Old Course we had several hours of free time in which to have lunch, shop, walk around, etc. our tour guide was outstanding, and we were in a small very comfortable bus. it was an excellent day!

 

 

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[TW6cruiser]

We did a St Andrews tour in June through Victor. It was excellent. In addition to a walking tour on the Old Course we had several hours of free time in which to have lunch, shop, walk around, etc. our tour guide was outstanding, and we were in a small very comfortable bus. it was an excellent day!

 

 

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Thanks...did you mean to type "Viator" instead of "Victor"? I'll check there again. I think the one I saw was too long of a day given the time we are in port, but I may have missed something.