We sailed the British Isles and France for 12 nights on the Crown Princess beginning August 10, 2010. We booked air and bus transfers through Princess, flying out of San Francisco on British Air into Heathrow and returning on Virgin Atlantic. We got good flight times. I preferred the return on Virgin Atlantic because there was slightly more room in the "cheap seats." Both airlines provided free wine and beer, pillows and blankets.

The bus pickup went fairly smoothly—I was so jetlagged I fell asleep on the bus en route to the port of Southampton. The procedure in the departure terminal went fairly smoothly after waiting in groups before being allowed to board.

We had been upgraded from a guaranteed obstructed-view cabin to an ocean-view cabin and were pleased to be on Deck 5 near the art gallery, stairs, elevators and atrium. The only drawback to our room was that it had bunks for a 3rd and 4th person and we had had our bed made into a queen, so even though folded up the bunks were a head hazard on each side of the bed. Our friends told us the same thing happened to them so they had their bed changed to 2 twins so that they would not hit their heads when they got out of bed. After hitting my head 5 times I trained myself not to stand up straight getting out of bed rather than have our bed changed to twins! Read more