We are back from our Ireland/England/Scotland trip and I wanted to give a huge thanks to all that have made recommendations before.
@calypso726,
@CaliforniaGirl09 @Calfan @*WDW*Groupie* come to mind, but there were many others. I did lots of searching in these threads and in my Churn document.
Ireland - we only stayed one night in Dublin due to flights being cancelled. We stayed at the The Morrison with our Delta Vacations credit. It is in a great location and the breakfast was good. They did push back about the Diamond benefits since we booked through Delta, but they did end up honoring them.
England - We rented a car from National/Enterprise (see notes below) and went to Jane Austen's house in Chawton and Oxford. It was the best use of a free rental day that I have ever had, but still cost a fortune! We just stayed in a small inn with no a/c near Chawton and paid cash. In Oxford, we stayed in Malmaison which is in a renovated prison. Paid using Chase points. We enjoyed our night and the breakfast was good.
London - Stayed at the London Conrad! Best lodging of the trip and would definitely stay there again. The service was outstanding and I loved the doorbell/make up the room buttons. Paid with Chase points. Toured Buckingham Palace, ate at Harrods (definitely stressful finding the restaurant with a hungry crew), Harry Potter Studio Tour, Tower of London, British Museum, National Gallery, Liberty, Westminster Abbey, saw Moulin Rouge (mixed reviews from the 4 of us). So many things we wanted to do, but didn’t have time.
Took the train to Edinburgh. All the trains from Kings Cross had been cancelled due to power lines on the tracks, so we had to head to Euston Station (with our luggage) and catch a Avanti West train. Our LNER train was only to take 4 hours 20 mins, but I think the Avanti West train took almost 6 hours. There were so many people packed on that train. Besides Harrods, definitely one of the most stressful times of the trip!
Edinburgh – Stayed at the Wilde Aparthotel Grassmarket. We had 3 different rooms – 1 was great, 1 was good but was on the top floor and had sloped ceilings, and 1 was in another building and needed lots of renovations. The location was good and it had laundry available which was why I picked it, but I would probably pick somewhere else next time. On a side note, there was a Rick Steves group staying there so maybe they had all the better rooms. Paid with Chase Points. We toured Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood, Mary Kings Close and did lots of shopping.
Scotland – We rented a car and did a big loop through Scotland. We visited the town with our surname and took pictures with the signs. Our splurge of the trip was to stay at Glengarry Castle Hotel in Invergarry. We had dinner there as well and enjoyed our stay.
A few notes:
If we ever book another Delta vacation package, I will just book the cheapest hotel for the required nights and then manage my own lodging. We originally had planned 3 nights in Dublin, so I booked 3 nights at the Morrison. When the BA flights were cancelled, I probably tried 3 or 4 times to change the hotel but every scenario resulted in about $3K additional. In the end, we left the reservation as originally booked with 3 nights at the Morrison and we only stayed 1 night.
Even though we have primary coverage through credit cards, we decided to get the insurance from the rental company. Best decision ever when driving on the wrong side of the road in more rural areas! We ended up with a flat tire and spent about 4 hours getting it fixed, but the rental company said nothing to us when we turned the car in with a new tire. On the other hand, the guy in front of us was arguing with the rental folks about a small scrape on his car.
We got great use of the Priority Pass this trip with stops in the Dublin, London and JFK airports. It is worth it just to get away from all the noise in the terminals!
We had a fabulous trip and definitely want to go back someday. Our girls said this was the best trip ever! In the end we paid for about half our expenses with points. We used 460K Chase points (hotels), 78K Delta points, 21K MR (BA flights), and lots of Delta Vacations credit. I would like to do a trip like this every year, but DH thinks every other year is good. I could see the 2 of us traveling every year and then taking the girls every other year for as long as they will travel with us.
Again, thanks to this group for helping make our trip awesome!!