BACKGROUND. This was our eighth cruise -- all on Princess. This was our fourth transatlantic crossing -- the second on the Crown Princess.

PRECRUISE. We flew to Heathrow a day early because we always plan for travel delays and because we wanted to be rested for a long shore excursion on the first day of our cruise! We stayed at the Novotel at Heathrow and used to local bus (the Hotel Hoppa) for transport. The next morning we returned to Heathrow for our Princess transfer to Southampton. It took us 45 minutes to find the Princess representative and only because I finally found someone with Princess luggage tags. Once on the bus it was a pleasant ride to the pier and we never had to handle our luggage again.

CHECKIN. The ship was docked at the Ocean Terminal which was a very nice facility. Check in was a breeze, but we received the unbelievable news that the ship was not sailing that day! As it turned out, we didn’t sail the next day either. Because of an anticipated storm -- the St. Jude’s Day Storm -- the captain had decided to wait it out in Southampton and we were moved to the Mayflower Terminal. So with a free shuttle to the West Quay Mall, passengers and crew spent 2 days shopping. and shopping and shopping. When we finally departed Southampton, we headed straight to Lisbon and skipped our first two planned ports. Read more