British Isles Brilliance of the Seas Review May 15 - 28/18

[JillK]

In Guernsey, were the seas rough? I read the Royal Princess didn’t go that day due to rough seas.

 

 

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We were told by the locals that the Royal Princess elected not to stay due to weather. The seas were choppy but not uncomfortable on the tender both ways and it didn't prevent us from enjoying our day on the island as we had booked a coach tour.

 

I did overhear that there were some issues with other tours that had an on-water component but I can't say whether that was due to sea conditions or accidental cancellations because of the Royal Princess skipping. My husband also overheard that there was a large delay in the tendering process in the morning but again I have no direct knowledge of what the situation was that brought that about and we weren't affected by it.

 

Perhaps if someone who knows more is reading this thread they can chime in!

[cruisequeen4ever]

We were told by the locals that the Royal Princess elected not to stay due to weather. The seas were choppy but not uncomfortable on the tender both ways and it didn't prevent us from enjoying our day on the island as we had booked a coach tour.

 

 

 

I did overhear that there were some issues with other tours that had an on-water component but I can't say whether that was due to sea conditions or accidental cancellations because of the Royal Princess skipping. My husband also overheard that there was a large delay in the tendering process in the morning but again I have no direct knowledge of what the situation was that brought that about and we weren't affected by it.

 

 

 

Perhaps if someone who knows more is reading this thread they can chime in!

 

 

 

Ok, thank you.

 

 

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[Lovetotraveltami]

Thank you for the great review! I have been looking at a British Isles itinerary and it looks wonderful. We may do an Ireland land tour next vs. cruise.

[SteveinPhilly]

Hi All: I've been posting Youtube videos of the ports we hit on both the Baltic leg and the BI leg and thought I'd cross post in case anyof you have the time and interest.

 

Actually I'm still finishing up my port videos from the Baltic leg of the cruise but I jumped ahead to do Holyhead Wales with Busybus tours. Which ranked up as one of the TOP private tours on the cruise. It runs about 22 minutes and will be of special interest to those who used Busybus. You'll enjoy the music.

 

I'm not as professional a videographer as Sondra (and I include more sound video) but I do it for me and just share with others. Stay tuned for the other ports.

 

 

Steve

[SteveinPhilly]

For those who are still subscribed and may want to relive some memories

 

Steve After (literally) days of work I now have ALL the videos Icreated(from still photos) and video clip of our 24- night Back To Back Cruiseto the Baltic and British Isles (plus an extra day up front in Amsterdam) fromJune 9th to July 3rd. Most average 20 minutes in lengthbut a few are longer because of music sequences. Only two have backgroundmusic. I’ve put them in a Youtube “Playlist”. There are 19 of the inchronological order You

 

I’m sharing them with those who always ask “ Well tell meabout your trip” though I did it mostly so my memories will remain in “thecloud”. If you have a Smart TV or a Roku or Fire Stick you can watch on yourlarge TV. (If you have problems, let me know). Anyway I hope you enjoy (someof) them. It was a cruise of a lifetime – not because of the ship – but theamazing ports (and PERFECT weather). And that I planned the shore excursions onmy own. We had a great time.

Here is the Playlist link:

 

Steve

[SteveinPhilly]

I think most of you missed Guernsey but I wanted to share this: Just a heads up. I thought the feature film The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Society" was not going to hit Netflix until September. We'll tonight I found it on Netflix. I'm off to watch now. I loved the book!

 

Steve

[cinnbon]

I've enjoyed reading your review of the British Isles (I had read it a while ago and had to spend a lot of time finding it again!).  We're on the cruise this July 2019 and trying to figure out each port 🤪.  My husband would like to visit Kilkenney out of Dublin, but RC doesn't have any excursions set up for that port yet and I only found one other one on a private tour.... what tour group did you use for your "Smithwick's Small Group Experience"?

 

[JillK]

On 3/4/2019 at 8:21 PM, cinnbon said:

I've enjoyed reading your review of the British Isles (I had read it a while ago and had to spend a lot of time finding it again!).  We're on the cruise this July 2019 and trying to figure out each port 🤪.  My husband would like to visit Kilkenney out of Dublin, but RC doesn't have any excursions set up for that port yet and I only found one other one on a private tour.... what tour group did you use for your "Smithwick's Small Group Experience"?

 

This was a Royal Caribbean tour that I booked online when they had a sale. We really enjoyed the experience and still talk about it often as a highlight of the trip (although to be fair, there were MANY highlights). 

 

I would recommend trying tripadvisor to see if you can find something similar being offered locally if RCI is no longer offering this tour. 

 

That being said, I'm sure you can find lots of great alternatives as there is so much to see if Kilkenny doesn't pan out. 

 

Enjoy your cruise! 

[cinnbon]

Thank you so much for answering my question!  I had written RC Shore Excursions, asking why there were NO excursions on their website for the 2 day stay in Dublin - they wrote back that they didn't deal in "technical issues" and to call an 800 #.... which I did, and the 800 # told me to email RC Shore Excursions, saying that they're the ones who set up the tours!  Anyway... the 800 # guy offered to recheck for me, and behold!.... there were now 14 Shore Excursions on the website!

So I immediately booked the Smithwick's Small Group Experience and thank you for writing about that in your post review 🙂

Do you remember the pub in Dublin that you ate at the 1st day?

Also, it seems that you only booked RC excursions - we've always done that in our past cruises (to Alaska, Italy, Caribbean) but are looking at independent tour companies for this cruise, both for saving money and reviews).  Have you had comparisons from other cruisers that seem to bode better for one way or the other?

Thank you!

[SteveinPhilly]

Cinnbon - you might want to start with Trip Advisor (Cruise Critic's parent company) to look for local tours. Also www.toursbylocals.com.  I'm one of those who is not anxious to have RCI take a large cut and have groups of 30 trying to tour together. I will tell you that the HOHO bus really filled one of our days.  But that's just MY opinion. I like tourism money to stay "local"