This is our second Caribbean Princess British Isles cruise (last was May 2012). In 2012 just the two of us, this year we were a family group of seven in two adjacent mini-suites. The motivation was a gift for my oldest grandson (delayed a year) and the date was determined by his enrollment in a 1 August soccer camp that started in London.

My view of cruises is that the ports are 85% of the experience, and that the cruise provides a moving hotel room and a guaranteed level of meal service, etc. The Princess British Isles itinerary (especially with Liverpool) is really excellent (all I would change was to remove Guernsey and replace with another port or an overnight at a major city such as Dublin or better yet Liverpool). Considering the attachments between the UK and Ireland and the US and Canada (and Australia) and the high level of tourism options available at many of these ports, the experiences available are quite wonderful. Secondly, many cruisers see such a cruise as an opportunity to include a land-based vacation as well. Folks who have not visited England will benefit from days there before or after the cruise. Those with considerable London experience may wish to substitute a coach tour that begins and ends in London but does not overlap these cruise ports (for example, Globus "The Best of Southern England"). Let me discuss the ship specifically and then our ports:

The Caribbean Princess is a workhorse (dependable for us, but a return of mechanical problems in a following cruise: same situation happened in May 2012 with three ports missed), yet it is not developed for this summer climate (example, no covered swimming pool). Recent reviews of this ship are something like the blind men and the elephant? The ship has some irritating individual characteristics, but our cabins and public areas were not as worn as could be. We did discover that the 4 elevators that should have taken us to our dinning room were really only 2 elevators as the others stopped before (what a deal if you are movement impaired!). We also found the two levels of theater very confusing and really disliked the walking upstairs to walk downstairs troubling. Unlike others who criticized the attitude of serving staff, I found a very high level of service and good attitude. Considering a central kitchen is preparing hundreds of meals simultaneously, we were very pleased with quality, variety, and service. My concern about small vessels is that they handle problematic seas as a greater challenge. Apparently many of our ports are influenced by substantial tide changes, and little is done to inform passengers. A general observation about youth services: our 9 year-old loved this option and our 15 year-old met others in the 14-17 range and they discovered the way to text each others while onboard and their evenings essentially became their own! At least they were limited to the ship! (Beware.) Read more