Day 2: Guernsey

St. Peter Port, Guernsey: DIY tour amidst pouring rain.

Our original plan was to walk to Candie Gardens, stop by Ben Le Provost Chocolatier (world-famous chocolate shop, then walk to Hauteville House (Victor Hugo's house) and then a final stop at Castle Cornet.

We boarded the tender at 8:25am. The good news: there were no lines and no tickets needed to board the tender. The bad news: it was pouring rain outside. Because of the rain, we decided to skip Candie Gardens and head straight to Victor Hugo's house. We arrived there around 9:15am and found that it doesn't open until 10am. Since there was no point in walking around town in the rain, we decided to just wait outside the front of the house until it opened.

Once Hauteville House opened, we paid £7/adult (children free) for the guided tour. You cannot visit this attraction on your own, you have to sign up for the guided tour. Our tour guide was French and was hard to understand at times but the house was very impressive even by today's standards. The tour runs about an hour.

After Hauteville House, we walked about 20 minutes down to Castle Cornet. There is a cannon firing at exactly 12noon.

After Castle Cornet, we lined up for the tender around 12:20pm. Since it was raining hard, Princess provided umbrellas to the passengers waiting in line. At 1:30pm, we arrived back at the ship.

I'm pretty sure this would have been a nice little town to walk around if it hadn't been for the rain. As it was, the weather made it a difficult situation and we had to make the best out of it.

Day 1: Embarkation in Southampton

Embarkation in Southampton

We took a National Express Bus, departed Victoria Coach Station 9:30am and arrived Southampton Coach Station 11:45am (£33.50 total for 2 adults/1 teen).

We then took a taxi from Southampton Coach Station to Ocean Cruise Terminal. The fare was around £6 so I gave the driver £10.

We arrived at the terminal around 11:55am and dropped off our luggage at some sort of station outside the terminal. The stations are assigned by deck and there were no porters involved so we didn't have to tip anyone. We finished the check-in process around 12:25pm and were given a yellow card with the number 17 on it. At this time, they were calling group #4.

The two sailings prior to our cruise had a code red (Norovirus outbreak) so it took the crew some time to sanitize the ship after debarkation. I believe that was the reason for the slow embarkation process. Around 2pm (about an hour and a half wait), our group was finally called to board.

Southampton Cruise Terminal viewed from ship

After getting on board, we headed to the buffet for lunch. The good news: code red has been lifted. However, the crew still made everyone wash their hands before entering the buffet. At 4:15pm, we headed to the muster drill.

Cabin

Our cabin: inside stateroom M718 (Marina Deck)

Pros of this stateroom:

• Most convenient to Horizon Court. The cabin is right next to the stairway and walk up one flight of stairs and you're at the entrance to the buffet.
• Very close to the Kids/Teen Center for children and the fitness center. Only two flight of stairs up.
• Easy access to the Concerto dining room using aft elevators.

Cons:

• As in every inside stateroom, there is no outside light. Since this was a port-intensive cruise, we figured we won't be staying much inside the cabin. On the sea days, we spent most of our time at the piazza and at the buffet. The problem with no outside light is that the inside lights turn off when there is no room card inserted on the light switch by the door. So if your cabin mates leave the room and take their key card with them, the lights will turn off after a few minutes and you have to grope in the dark for your own key card and then insert it in the light switch.
• It's a long walk to the anytime dining rooms. You have to use the aft elevators down to deck 7, walk to the piazza, and then take the stairs down to deck 6 or 5. After a long day in port, it makes the buffet a more inviting option for dinner.

Pre-paid Internet

We purchased the pre-paid internet package prior to cruise. The package consists of 100 minutes plus a bonus of 20 minutes for pre-purchasing it. Please be aware that the 20 bonus minutes IS NOT AUTOMATIC. When you create your account, you get the 100 minutes. You need to see the internet manager, show him your pre-paid receipt and then he can add the bonus minutes to your account. This is such a hassle because a) the times we used the internet, the manager was rarely there, and b) when he was there, there was a long line of people waiting for his services. My advice, buy the pre-paid package but be prepared for the hassle of getting the bonus minutes.

Pre-Cruise Day 2: Oxford & Highclere Castle

For this day, we took the Oxford and Highclere Castle: The Real Downton Abbey tour from London, 8am - 7pm

http://www.premiumtours.co.uk/tours/tour/oxford-and-highclere-castle-downton-abbey-tour.id296.html

My wife is a huge Downton Abbey fan so she's been looking forward to this trip for a long time.

As in the previous day, this tour departs from Victoria Coach Station. Since we've been there the day before on the Stonehenge and Bath tour, we weren't alarmed by the chaotic atmosphere and eventually made it to our tour bus.

Oxford

Our first stop was the college town of Oxford and we arrived there around 10:50am. Our guide gave us about a 30 minute walking tour of the town and then let us explore on our own.

We planned on having lunch at this Pub but it was still closed at 11:30am so we just ate at some restaurant along the main street.

Bampton

After departing Oxford at 12:20pm, our next stop was the town of Bampton where the village scenes of Downton Abbey were filmed. We arrived in Bampton at 1pm and spent an hour there.

Front yard of Isobel Crawley's house

Highclere Castle

Our next stop was Highclere castle and we arrived there around 3pm. We spent about 2 hours there which includes a walking tour inside the castle plus the gardens in the backyard. There is a small cafeteria outside in the back but be warned that there are a lot of wasps. I wasn't sure if it was because of the time of the year but there were swarms of wasps everywhere. It was nice to see the inside of the castle in person however there is no photography allowed inside so I couldn't show any pictures. My wife spent a good hour inside while my son and I waited in the back fending off the swarm of wasps.

At 5pm, we departed Highclere Castle and arrived back in London around 6:45pm. We had dinner again at Nando's since it was the closest to the hotel.

Arrival in London

Our ETA was 12:20pm but we actually landed at 11:50am and out of the gate at 12:10pm. The United gate must have been the farthest as it took us a good 20 minutes to reach the queue at passport control. We finally cleared passport control at 1pm and proceeded to pick up our luggage. After picking up our luggage, we bought the following SIM card from a vending machine. Using an unlocked smart phone, this allowed us to use the internet and check e-mail even if there is no wi-fi available. It gave us unlimited data for 1 month and cost £15. The SIM card works anywhere in the UK but not in Ireland.

I booked a National Express bus to Victoria Coach Station for £5/person plus a £1 booking fee at 2:30pm. Since our flight ETA was 12:20, I thought we should have plenty of time to make the 2:30 bus. As it happened, we arrived at the bus station at 1:20pm. So I went to the National Express counter to see if we can take an earlier bus. The person at the counter said it's no problem, there's a bus arriving in 10 minutes and just show our reservation ticket to the bus. Here's our bus with the luggage compartment in the bottom of the bus.

Our hotel was the Premier Inn London Victoria which was about 4 blocks from the bus station and about a 7 minute walk. In hindsight, it probably would have been a better idea to use a taxi or car service upon arrival. Although it cost around £50-60 for a taxi, it was definitely more convenient after a long flight and pulling our luggage. The hotel cost £393 for three nights. It was a decent hotel and met our needs. It was close to the bus station with lots of places to eat nearby.

We finally arrived at our hotel room around 2:30pm. After taking a nap, we stopped at a bank ATM to get some cash. We didn't get cash at the airport after I read this article about the best way to get cash in the UK:
http://www.smartertravel.com/blogs/today-in-travel/cash-on-arrival-new-game-plan-for-airport-atms.html?id=21194088

For dinner, we stopped by Nando's which was just around the corner from the hotel to try their Peri-Peri chicken. It was pretty good - probably better than the El Pollo Loco we have back in Los Angeles. After dinner, we stopped by Sainsbury's down the street to get some groceries and breakfast food for the following morning.

Pre-Cruise Day 1: Stonehenge & Bath

For this day, we booked this tour:

http://www.londontoolkit.com/tours/premium_stonehenge_bath.htm

The tour departs from Victoria Coach Station at 8am. We walked to the station from our hotel and arrived there around 7:50am. When we got there, it was pure chaos. If you are taking any of the tours from London Toolkit that depart from Victoria Station, do not be alarmed. The tour buses depart from the same station as the commuter buses so there is a thick crowd of people waiting in the morning. The commuter buses depart first and then the tour buses take their place. Eventually, everyone gets on the right tour buses.

Stonehenge

We arrived at Stonehenge around 10:50am and took the short shuttle ride to the stones. Took a few pictures and headed back to the visitor center for lunch.

Visitor Center 

Bath

Around 12:20pm, we departed for Bath and arrived there around 1:30pm. We stopped by Sally Lunn's to sample her "world famous bun". It was nothing special - just a big hamburger bun. We then headed to the Roman Baths around 2:30pm.

Roman Baths

After the Roman Baths, our tour guide walked us around the city for about half an hour and finally departed Bath around 5pm. Made it back to London around 7pm.

Dinner at Wagamama at Cardinal Place Shopping Centre

Day 6: Belfast, Northern Ireland

For this port, we used McCombs coaches for a tour of the Giant's Causeway and Belfast.

http://www.mccombscoaches.com/tours/cruise-ship-shore-excursions

If you follow the link, you will see that they offer 3 tours: one that includes a visit to the Titanic museum at 8am, another that starts at the city hall at 10:45am, and a third that picks you up at the cruise ship at 10:30am. These three tours actually use the same bus. It drops off people at the Titanic Museum, goes to the port and then to city hall to pick up more passengers, and then picks up the people at the Titanic museum on the way to Giant's Causeway. As we have been waking up early the past few days and we're not really Titanic fans, we opted for the tour that picks up at the port at 10:30am for a price of £25/person. By the way, Princess offers the same tour for more money. We got off the ship at 10:15am and the bus was waiting promptly outside the ship. We were then greeted by our coach driver Patrick who was an absolutely terrific driver and tour guide.

We then stopped at city hall to pick up additional passengers and was really convenient as it allowed us to get some cash at an ATM near where the buses stop.

Here's city hall and the Titanic museum:

We finally departed the Titanic museum around 12pm on our way to Giant's Causeway. During the drive, Patrick gave an excellent commentary on the recent history of Northern Ireland and the Troubles. It was a moving narrative and at the end he gave a funny anecdote about how you can tell if a Northern Irishman is a Unionist or a Nationalist. You'd have to take the tour with Patrick to hear this anecdote.

The tour description says it stops at Carrick-a-Rede Ropebridge. It doesn't actually stop where you can walk on the bridge. Because of time constraints, we only stopped at some vantage point where we can take photos of the bridge. The line for the bridge was really long and it would not be possible to stop there because we have to be back on the ship by 6pm.

Our Tour Bus

We finally arrived at Giant's Causeway around 1:30pm. When we got there, our driver warned us that it looks really busy based on the number of cars and buses on the parking lot. And it was really busy. We took the shuttle down to the stones which cost £1/person one way. We spent maybe about 20 minutes taking pictures there and decided to take the shuttle back up. The line for the return shuttle was really long. We waited at least 30 minutes to finally board a shuttle. What was funny was some people on the arriving shuttle must have realized this and tried not to get off. The driver however forced them to get off the shuttle so that didn't work. We finally made it back to the visitor's center around 3pm and bought some snacks and sandwiches because at this point we haven't had lunch yet.

We finally arrived back at Belfast around 4pm for a short tour of the city including the neighborhoods where the Troubles occurred. As we had a little bit of extra time left, Patrick decided to stop at the Peace walls for some photographs and allowed us to write some messages on the wall.

Around 5pm, Patrick decided to head back to the ship. It was probably a good idea since there was a car accident on the way back and traffic was real bad. As we got closer to the ship, Patrick announced "Let me tell you what's happening in Belfast tonight...". He was joking of course and we made it back to the ship with about 20 minutes to spare.

All in all, this port was probably the most bang we got for our buck. For £25/person with a great driver and tour guide, we got to see several interesting places in a limited amount of time.

Departure from Los Angeles

If you're not interested in flying out of LAX or not flying United, you can skip this section.

We booked a United direct flight from LAX to London Heathrow departing at 5:45pm.

Parked at the LAX Hilton. Made reservation at www.cheapairportparking.org. Total cost is $151.60 from 8/9 - 8/25 so it came out to less than $10/day. The way it works is 1) you make a reservation using a credit card, 2) when you enter the parking lot, you slip the same credit card on the card reader, 3) when you return, you slip the same card at the exit reader and the total is charged to the credit card. For a party of three, it comes out to about the same cost as riding a shuttle. I wasn't sure if Uber or Lyft was available at this time but these ride-sharing options would probably be cheaper.

Although we're not flying business class, my United MileagePlus Explorer card gives me two United Club passes per year and we used these to visit the United Club lounge at terminal 7.

I must say, this lounge is underwhelming compared to the United lounge at London Heathrow. The food selection is very limited, although the wi-fi is free and decent speed.

Hot Soup

Some Salads

Drink Bar