Disney Sheep

By 3:30 pm we had managed to find our way to the car park at Holyrood Park, having already done a whole lot of walking for the day.

<I should point out that if we had been on a 'normal' cruise port day visit we would have had to head back to the ship by this point. AND if we had chosen to take the Princess excursion to the Royal Military Tattoo, then we also would have had to head back to the ship at this point as well>

This is a photo of Arthur's Seat taken from Calton Hill that clearly shows the 3 levels of 'up' that make up this really big hill. Now back to our climb already in progress...

DH and I checked out a sign with a map on it, while DS watched other people climb straight up a cliff. When we informed DS that there appeared to be more than one way to reach Arthur’s Seat and that we intended to take the slightly longer and less steep path known as the Volunteer’s Walk, it was clear that DS had other ideas! After discussion we agreed to let him climb up the cliff if he wanted to, however we arranged on a place to meet (the very busy and very obvious ice cream truck in the parking lot) and a time, in case we missed each other at the top for some reason. As DH and I headed off along Volunteer’s Walk, it became very obvious that this path simply lead you around the back way up Salisbury Crag, or the first of the three hills you have to climb. And at this point, seeing the next hill that we had to climb, I started to worry about whether DH’s ankle issues would let him climb the hill. I was also a little unsure of where DS would be at this point. In the end, when we reached the base of the second hill, I convinced DH to rest his ankle and I headed off towards the Salisbury Crag looking for DS.

Fortunately, almost immediately DS popped up on the path headed towards me. It seems that he had climbed the cliff fairly quickly, and then being a teenager he had wandered around checking out all of the steep drops he could find before deciding he should try to come find us. We had a quick discussion and headed back to find DH and give him a chance to opt out of this climb. DH’s response? What do you mean stop? We are here, the hill is there, let’s climb! And with that, he headed for the path up the hill. DS and I pretty much did a silent happy dance and followed DH. Granted I am not sure if DH’s response would have been the same if he had seen hill number three that awaited us when we finally reached the top of hill number two.

The path up over hill number two was definitely steeper and narrower than the first path we had taken and there were indeed lots of places where we had to stand aside to let someone coming down pass by, however there were lots of beautiful views and foliage to examine closely and to enjoy along the way, especially while pausing to catch your breath!

After our nice lunch break at the Elephant House, we headed off towards Princes Street. DH first led us to the Tattoo office in order to pick up our tickets that we had purchased online for the night’s performance. Of course while DH stood in the small line up, I took the opportunity to check out the souvenirs being sold. I did notice that they sold a navy blue rain poncho with the official logo on it for 5 GBP, which could be a nice, relatively inexpensive souvenir if needed, however the forecast for our evening’s performance was dry.

As we crossed the bridge by Waverley Station, we noticed the Scott Monument immediately, but given that DH had already agreed to climb Arthur’s Seat with me, he was not willing to climb the Walter Scott monument at this point as well.

We next wandered along Princes Street and spotted a Marks and Spencer store and headed inside to pick up some treats to bring along for a picnic, either during or after our climb. At first I was disappointed since all we spotted was a very small food counter with a couple of shelves/food coolers near the front door, however once I asked a clerk, he directed us to go downstairs to the back right corner of the basement where we found ‘grocery nirvana’ from our perspective. Although called a food court, it was similar to a grocery store and delicatessen rolled in to one and was so large that we had to ask for directions again to find the gluten-free aisle. At first DS and I tried to figure out how we could fit a whole cake (icing and all) into my already full backpack, but we decided that we did not want to try DH’s patience. We ended up purchasing GF shortbread cookies and GF ginger cookies as well as some pop. DS was amused to find bottles of Coke with ‘Mate’ on them since the ‘You-tubers’ in an online gamer forum that DS frequents use that word all the time.

But the picture that I took was of the Mum and Dad cans that he found for us :).

Hi There

 

Did you see Greyfriers Bobby,

 

Yours Shogun

 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Forums mobile app

Greyfriars Bobby coming up, but that would be Day 2 :). We really did pack a lot in to this trip.

Loving your review! The Ocean Princes seems like a beautiful ship! It has class!

 

So good to see some of the Fringe Festival events too. Our local high school also was picked to attend a year ago. The kids loved it so much that the drama teacher is taking a group back next summer as well. I understand what you meant about fund raising. I had thought of going as a chaperone but bowed out when I saw the cost. The kids have so much money to raise in order to attend. I think the first time around we had about 12 students who went. It looks like your school had many more!

 

Glad you could work out the visit with your daughter. Yes, you can tell that they just don't like each other at all! (Was that sarcasm?)

 

Looking forward to the rest of your trip!

Glad to have you reading along. The Ocean Princess may be small, but she is definitely a beautiful lady. Although we considered other options, in the end cruising on her and meeting up with DD in Edinburgh was wonderful. DD got to be 'independent' and go on her trip without her parents tagging along as chaperones. And the three of us got to have a great trip instead of just one of us being a chaperone!

DD had such a great experience, and a major part of that was meeting kids from other schools over in Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival. Her school actually has a great drama program, and there were 23 kids, 2 teachers and 3 parent chaperones on this trip.

And yes, we are very lucky that our kids get along so well.

If you are a Harry Potter fan I highly recommend eating at The Elephant House and using the ladies washroom - ok, clearly that last bit would be specifically for ladies, however I have it on good authority that the men's washroom is also 'interesting'.

We arrived at the Elephant House around 1 pm or lunch time and found a line up. Although I was a little put off by the line I figured that most other places would also have a line at this point.

It turned out that the line up as you enter was to order and pay for your food, in that sense it is kind of like a cafeteria concept - however, once you order and pay, you proceed to the back of the establishment where you are shown to a table by the wait staff and then they bring you your meal when it is ready. It moved faster than I expected it to move - and even better, we did not have to struggle to find a seat. (Note: this photo is deceiving as this was the restaurant for a moment just as we were leaving, it was not actually really this empty at any time).

The tables and chairs are pretty much a mish mash of old fashioned wooden style and substance. There are comfy chairs grouped together and one wall is almost completely windows.

(Picture borrowed from the internet)

Apparently the Greyfriars graveyard is close by with names on grave stones that include Tom Riddell, McGonagal and Moodie and, you can see the Edinburgh Castle from the window, and speculation is that JK Rowling may have been influenced by the view when she wrote Harry Potter.

DS and I both chose baked potatoes (mine with chilli, his with cheese and bacon) while DH had a beef pie, all of which were enjoyable, but bacon in Edinburgh was not typical North American bacon. After our meal I teased my boys that I was going somewhere they couldn't and that who knew, I might even sit where JK had once sat - after all, the odds narrow in the confines of a women's washroom. Little did I know what I was about to experience! Almost every single inch of the women's washroom is covered in graffiti!

Essentially it is a shrine to JK Rowling, from the silly to the touching. If you were so inclined, you could probably spend a good deal of time trying to read all of the well wishes and general commentary, from the 'I love Dobby' to 'this way to the Ministry of Magic' to the 'Thank you JK for helping my sister become the person she is today, because of your books she learned to read' type comments. I must have had a strange expression on my face as I returned to our table since DH immediately asked me what was up. Since I could not figure out how to describe it, I simply grabbed my camera, opened the door to the empty ladies room and took a picture! It truly is worth a thousand words.

The camera battery---that turned out to be another problem.

 

Luckily, the camera itself was not damaged, only the lens. DW ended up with a better lens than she had had. It just took getting used to. Crew member Goran from photography was very helpful. (We also discovered after getting home that the price she paid for her new lens was competitive.)

 

Also, the previous pictures in her camera were not damaged in any way. No pictures, however not only for the rest of that day, but also for the next day since the shops were not open until the sea day after Edinburgh. The next day we went to Dunfermline (that may be spelled wrong), the ancient capital using a free shuttle we had learned about on the British Isles boards on cruisecritic. The highlights were the Carnegie Museum and an underwater aquarium on the way back.

 

After many more pictures both testing out her new lens and in Dublin, Milford Haven (we went on a ship's tour to a Welsh spoon making factory and Tenby) , and Milford Haven, her battery finally died on our last excursion. That excursion was from the ship to Dover to Heathrow airport by way of Canterbury.

 

She at least got some pictures taken in the Cathedral in Canterbury before the battery gave out. I wonder what would have happened had she not dropped the camera. Would the battery have given out earlier figuring another day plus worth of photos? Would she have got any pictures in Canterbury? Would it have died even earlier in one of the previous ports? She does take a lot of photos.

Wow, it really does seem like your wife's camera was 'determined' to malfunction! I am happy for her that it lasted as long as it did and that she managed to capture as many memories as she did - that's the way I look at photographs.

Your DD really does make a perfect Merida! Seemed like she was having a great time, too. Hope she is able to work out the details of going to school in Scotland.

I have to agree with you that the role of Merida does seem to fit DD well. When I first saw the movie I had a definite emotional reaction to the mother and daughter fighting! Fortunately I have managed to get over it, and enjoy the movie now.

DD really did have a fantastic time in Scotland, but when it comes to picking a University only time will tell at this point.

Hi There

Have come across Canadian's at Stirling Uni, fee and access structure for Uni differs between Scotland and England, if l can assist please get in touch. You might want to look at Stirling Uni web site for info on international students.

 

Off to Canada this weekend,

 

Yours Shogun

 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Forums mobile app

I will pass on your suggestion about Stirling University for DD to add to her list to investigate - she does like to dream big - when she checked out Oxford she definitely got 'sticker shock' :).

Enjoy Canada - we are having a hot spell right now in central Canada, but it is scheduled to cool down to about 10 Celsius by the weekend.

And again, thank you for your advice.

I'm absolutely loving your pictures from Edinburgh. And your daughter is beautiful! I can only imagine how wonderful it must have been for you to see her "in action."

 

I had the good fortune to visit Edinburgh in 2012 with my family and we quickly fell in love. Your pictures have brought back good memories for me. And made me anxious to return.

 

More! More!

 

Kristen

Thank you very much for your kind words, it really was wonderful to see our daughter and her friends in action on the Royal Mile, even if we did not get to see her group actually performing the play in Edinburgh.

I am happy that my pictures are bringing back good memories for you.

Hi There

 

Nice pics, we were on the Ruby and could see the Ocean docked in Roysth.

 

Nice to here you enjoyed Scotland, there is just so much to see and do in such a small area, it makes visiting for a few hours very hard work.

 

Yours Shogun

 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Forums mobile app

Thank you so much for your kind comments Shogun, and I am glad to have you reading along. Not only did we love Scotland, but DD would love to go to university over there since she loved it so much and is trying to figure out if she could get citizenship in the UK (like her cousin did since DH's older brother was born in Northern England), but since DH was born in Canada, I am pretty sure that it would be a little more complicated for her! Oh well, we will just have to visit again and again :).

For those wondering, the arrows and quiver are made from cloth, so no danger to anyone. The bow is actually a plastic pipe that was heated and shaped and flattened. Again, no danger to anyone.

I was also amazed at how many cameras were pointed at DD as Merida. At one point DD must have had about five professional quality lenses pointed at her and she handled it with aplomb.

Truly though from the way some of the little girls' faces beamed as they walked (often bounced) away, dancing with 'Scottish Princess Merida' for some of them had made a dream come true :).

DS commented later that the Royal Mile during the Fringe Festival is like the Arts hallway at school on steroids!

Eventually DDs group was finished on the Mile and they headed back to the dormitories at the Edinburgh University where they were staying to get changed and move on to their next scheduled activity. And at this juncture DH, DS and I decided to find something to eat.

Getting hugs on the Edinburgh Royal Mile from the DD was probably one of the best moments of our trip, and watching our kids hug each other made it all worthwhile.

Granted, this 'hug' is probably exactly what it looks like - our two wiener children tormenting each other in the form of a hug. DD was getting nervous about performing, and DS was quickly distracted by his friends who were also in the drama group with his sister and therefore on the Royal Mile too. It was indeed a little surreal to see them all just hanging out together in another country all the way across the Atlantic Ocean.

And as I have already mentioned, DH's family hails directly from Scotland, and DD with her red curly hair and typical red headed complexion, truly looked as if she fit right in. Since DD had chosen to make and wear a 'Merida' costume (a Scottish Princess from Disney's movie Brave) for this year's Comicon, when the drama group discussed how to attract attention while busking on the Royal Mile, it was an easy next step to get DD to be Merida and for one of her best buddies to be her 'bear'.

The flowers that DD is holding were actually the flyers for their play Pygmalion that DD's group had folded up to hand out.

It was wild watching the reaction of 'kids' of all ages as they approached DD (or she approached them to say hello and tell them ( or rather their parents) about her favourite play, Pygmalion, and how they could go see it if they wanted to do so).

And since her group's musicians were playing music, DD and other members of the cast were dancing together and they were inviting anyone who was interested to dance with them.

Although everyone was having fun, I really enjoyed the reaction of all of the little kids to 'Merida' dancing with them on the Royal Mile in Scotland!

Although the Royal Mile is jam packed with interesting and usually historically significant buildings, there are so many people during Fringe Festival, that if you read in a travel book or on a travel blog to, for example, look on the ground for the design of the Midlothian heart or the marker at the site of the old Mercat Cross or the lines on the ground marking 'the end of the world', you may not actually be able to see anything due to all of the people in the way! What we did see on the Royal Mile just on the way to find our daughter included the Tolbooth Kirk,

Deacon Brodie's Pub, St Giles Cathedral

and the Mercat Cross.

It was funny when we ran into one of the parent chaperones for our daughter's group by St Giles Cathedral since although she recognized us, it was clear that we threw her off her game as she wasn't expecting to see us on the streets of Edinburgh. When we met up with DD, she declared to her teacher in charge: There are my parents. And of course the teacher was more than a little confused to find us wandering up to them - in Scotland! Clearly the teacher had been focused on other things when we had originally discussed our summer travel plans and she had not put two and two together to realize that we were going to be in Scotland at the same time as they were!

Heading out of the castle and making our way along the Royal Mile in order to meet up with DD and her group it was obvious that the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh is extremely popular.

Essentially we felt like we were at 'sea' with wave after wave of people. The energy level of the performers is high and with all of the performance art that goes on mixed in against the backdrop of the historical buildings, it is a feast for the eyes!

The section of the Royal Mile nearest to the castle was blocked off to cars and turned into a pedestrian street. Various groups were performing almost every where you looked and most groups were trying to hand out flyers to get you to come to their show. And not only are there groups acting, singing, dancing and in general performing, there are also lots of 'performance artists' such as the Invisible Man,

or Predator,

or Braveheart

or a Stormtrooper in a Kilt- and no, I did not ask him what he wore under his kilt!

All out on the Royal Mile and all hoping you will throw something into their hat/bucket when you take their picture! Just walking along this famous medieval street during the Fringe is an experience and a spectacle all rolled up into one!

And although the Royal Mile is jam packed with interesting and usually historically significant buildings, there are so many people during Fringe Festival, that if you read in a travel book or on a travel blog to, for example, look on the ground for the design of the Midlothian heart or the marker at the site of the old Mercat Cross or the lines on the ground marking 'the end of the world', you may not actually be able to see anything due to all of the people in the way!

Really nice pictures. I called over my DW to look at them, and afterwards she immediately went looking through her picture albums for her Edinburgh photos. We were there 9 years ago, staying in Glasgow, but going to Edinburgh every day. (She had actually been in Scotland several times prior to our marriage. Her late father was both Scottish and an airline executive, so the family flew for free and Scotland was where relatives were.)

 

We did the Royal Mile that time 9 years ago, so we skipped it this time. We found the Scottish National Museum. I would have gone to their exhibits, but she wanted to go to their extension which was exhibiting American Expressionists. You needed to ride a bus from one to the other. It ran each way only once an hour, except for the middle of the day when it skipped an hour (presumably so the driver could have lunch.) The only one I had heard of was Mary Cassatt. I asked her, and despite being the world's finest elementary art teacher, she had not heard of them either except for one other one. I thought the whole thing took too much of our precious time. DW commented that she did not realize that the extension was so far away from the main museum. We got the last bus back. They actually seat only 16 and no standees Two people could not get on the last bus.

 

We mostly checked out the fringe festival after that before going to dinner at a restaurant we had eaten in back in 2005. And that's where our "disasters" happened. DW went to the ladies room before leaving, hanging up her coat and camera. The camera fell, and no longer worked. (She later bought a new lens on board.) And I discovered that I had somehow lost our Tattoo tickets. I had taken them out and read to her what it said about photography. Later outside I discovered they were gone! We went back and looked for them, but they were nowhere to be found. Luckily, we were able to go the box office and explain what had happened. Since we had bought them online and had the credit card on which we purchased them and had proof of our identities, they were able to provide us with reissued tickets.

 

Later, I remarked to my wife that she was probably able to enjoy the Tattoo more because she did not have to constantly look to get a picture.

Many thanks for your kind comments about my photos. I would have been more than a little upset if anything happened to my camera - I definitely can empathize with your wife as I am sure that dropping her camera was stressful for her (and you), just as losing the Tattoo tickets must have been for both of you.

Glad to hear that you still managed to get in to see the Tattoo. My camera battery almost ran out by the end of our first Edinburgh day, so I did not take as many pictures as I normally would have. I am glad that your wife was able to get a new lens for her camera for the rest of your trip.

Overall, the 'problem' with Edinburgh is that there are so many wonderful things to see and so little time on a cruise to see it all! It is definitely on my list to visit Edinburgh again and hopefully for longer next time. We visited the Scottish National Museum as well on this trip, as I wanted to see Dolly the genetically engineered sheep and the older Scottish history centred exhibits.

Our table mates told us all about their time visiting the Scottish National Gallery as they were interested in the art work, and they loved it. Edinburgh seems to have something for everyone.

Great TR! I am really enjoying hearing about your experiences in the ports you visited.

 

What cabin category were you in? It looked much bigger than the balcony cabin we has last year on Ruby Princess, and bigger than the one we will be in next week on Caribbean Princess. I have to say we're a bit spoiled by the size of the cabins we have had on Disney Dream and Fantasy. We also really like the room divider curtains on Disney because DH is a morning person and I am not. Keeps our marriage happy. :D

 

I am very much looking forward to the rest of your report.

Hi there, we were in 6080 and 6082, officially a category BE Balcony, at 216 sq ft, including a 32 sq ft balcony, which I think equates to 184 sq ft of actual cabin and bathroom combined. I am not sure how it equates to other Princess cabins since it has been about 18 years since we sailed on the Crown Princess, and that was in an interior.

More Edinburgh coming up soon.

No wonder I did not see that you were in Edinburgh; you had not got there yet.

 

Our average temperature was 14-16 degrees Celsius.

 

Here is my dictionary's definition of a nautical mile:

 

A unit of length used in air and sea navigation, based on the length of one minute of arc of a great circle, especially an international and U.S. unit equal to 1852 meters (about 6076 feet).

 

So, you can see it is longer than a mile (5280 feet).

As you can see from my posting this evening, we have well and truly arrived at Edinburgh, but it will take several days to cover since we packed so much into our (almost) 2 days there. Actually it was our night time attendance at the Royal Military Tattoo when we felt it to be the coolest - but that was probably exacerbated by just sitting in one spot for so long. Luckily we had planned very well and packed layers that we pulled out of our backpack and slipped on as the night wore on. In no way did the cooling temperatures dampen our enjoyment of the Tattoo though.

I have also realized why I found the walking track to be so 'small', and I believe that it is all a relative thing, since both the Allure of the Seas and the big Disney ships only require approx 2.4 laps to be 1 mile, vice 13 on the Ocean Princess. I do appreciate knowing that it was 13 laps to a nautical mile - especially it being on a ship at sea, it somehow seems very appropriate :).

I have been on the Ocean Princess, sometimes we were the only people sitting on deck.

 

I did the 12 day British Isles cruise on the Caribbean Princess August 2013.

 

I have been thinking of doing the cruise again on the Ocean.

 

Enjoyed reading your review, looking for more.

Glad to have you reading along. I would love to do the 12 night British Isles cruise since there is so much that I would still love to see over there. We definitely want to head back for a land based tour of Scotland, both to visit DH's relatives, and to visit sites from both Outlander and Brave, but the 12 night BI cruise would let me check out some of the highlights of Ireland - and possibly even the Orkney islands (depending on itinerary).

The real benefit of our Ocean Princess itinerary was the overnight in Edinburgh as well as docking in both Rosyth and Dublin. The Ocean Princess herself was a very nice ship, and as you indicated sometimes we were the only people on deck, but for us the itinerary was the big draw.

I hope you get a chance to enjoy another BI cruise.

At this point we got a text from DD letting us know that she and her group were headed to the Royal Mile for their scheduled 'busking' , so we took one last look around as we headed out of the castle.

Foog's Gate.

The Lang Stairway

And one last photo op as we headed off for the Royal Mile. Notice that the crowds behind us have already gotten fairly heavy, and it is still morning at this point.

Moving along with our tour we checked out St Margaret's Chapel (the oldest building in Edinburgh - and yes, it is tiny as buildings go, let alone churches or chapels).

Next up, the ginormous Mons Meg (huge cannon).

A visit to National War Museum (with the gloomy prison), was very illuminating.

And we truly enjoyed the National War Memorial (no photos allowed, but very touching).

Total walking distance to arrive at and tour the castle was roughly 3 km (based on my Fitbit steps covered). Overall we were at the castle just under 2 hours, although it did not seem that long, but it was mostly on cobblestones and it all seemed to be uphill - both ways! All three of us got grumpy and cross (just a little) from tiredness due to travel and the 'foghorn' in our darn cabin ventilation system on the ship. And then we got over it. Because really, this isn't our first trip and we have learned how to bounce back in these situations and, we actually enjoy being together, so we decided to suck back and re-load and take a short break on a bench on the castle grounds while we considered our next course of action.

And somewhere around this point I purchased my usual Christmas decoration as a souvenir of our trip.

Leaving the Crown Jewels, we wandered through the private rooms of the Royal Palace, (the Laich Hall or fireplace room as I referred to it)

Next up was the Great Hall with its knights armour.

When the monarchy was overthrown, Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland, ordered almost all of the English regalia to be broken up or melted down. However, the Honours of Scotland were hidden and then smuggled out and hidden again, only to be recovered after The Restoration in 1660.

Since no pictures are allowed of the actual Crown Jewels, models are provided outside the final room.

We managed to see the Crown Jewels/Honours of Scotland exhibits (without a crowd or a wait in line since we were so early and headed straight there).

As you wind your way towards the actual room that holds the Crown Jewels, there are displays everywhere that tell the long history of the jewels. I enjoyed reading the posted history and taking pictures, however no photos were allowed of the actual Crown Jewels themselves.

After being used at the coronations of Mary, Queen of Scots, James VI, and Charles I, the regalia were last used at a coronation in 1651 for that of Charles II.

Edinburgh - Day 1. Arriving in Rosyth we were way too excited to visit Edinburgh AND just as importantly, this was the day we got to meet up with DD! Getting off the ship early (we were docked), we took the mandatory shuttle to the cruise terminal where we asked a purple garbed volunteer about options for getting to Edinburgh. After listening for a couple of minutes, and since it was still around 8:30 am or earlier (and therefore too early for off peak hours on the train) we took a command decision to take a taxi in to the city and were dropped off just down the hill from Edinburgh Castle (£36).

Since we were early, we took the opportunity to pop in to the Tartan Weaving Mill, essentially (from our perspective at that point) a really large souvenir store near the castle. The store has several floors and it was neat to check out all of the tartan options for DHs side of the family.

We still arrived at the castle before 9:30 am and with our internet purchased tickets that we had printed out at home we got in the much shorter left hand line and simply walked straight in to Edinburgh Castle as soon as it opened, only slowing down to have our tickets scanned.

Edinburgh Castle. The problem with not taking a guided tour or ship excursion was that initially we weren't completely clear about what we were seeing or which direction we should go until I asked one of the staff inside for a map. I had read the info about the castle on the official website and (more importantly) I had purchased Rick Steves' Great Britain travel book, so I knew that checking out the 'Honours of Scotland' first thing before the hordes of tourists arrived was probably our best move.

From the Esplanade with the Lion Rampant shield (Scotland's coat of arms and 'don't mess with us' motto) as well as statues of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce to the Crown Square to Foog's Gate, we covered a lot of ground and a lot of sights!

We were on the Ocean Princess for the shorter 8 day British Isles cruise in August.

 

13 laps around the deck was actually a nautical mile, slightly longer.

 

Our port in Scotland was Rosyth for Edinburgh, and was an overnight. Were you able to get to the Military Tattoo in Edinburgh from your port?

 

I think your 18 Celsius average would have been our warmest day by a few degrees. One problem this ship definitely did not have was people saving all the lounges by the pool! My DW was one of the very few swimmers. On embarkation day, she was the only one. She said it was ok because the pool was heated. But then she had to find her clothes because she said they blew away!

Glad to have you reading along and commenting since I enjoy different perspectives on the same (or similar) experiences. One of the things we really enjoyed on this cruise was the conversations with fellow passengers about what they had seen and done each day.

I am surprised that 13 laps would be even longer than a mile, simply because I wear a Fitbit to count my steps and it felt like it took a long time to get my daily steps in (which is why I suggested maybe it was staying to the outside of the track) - then again with the wind up on deck 10, I don't think I managed more than a half dozen laps at any one time before heading back to the library to join my boys. On port days I had no problems getting my steps in since we did most of the ports on our own and essentially walked them.

We were on the 11 - 19 Aug 14 cruise and my 18 degrees is based on the Patters daily temperature forecast which had 18 C for every day except Rosyth Day 2, Milford Haven and St Helier which they listed at 17 C - the funny thing is, those three days were the days I found to be the warmer days. My guess is that there was wind chill on the 2 sea days, while Dublin started out fairly overcast (but warmed up) which made it seem less than 18 C.

We loved using the pool once we figured out that it was heated and you are correct that it got very little use. We usually had it to ourselves between 5 - 6 pm most days, except for Milford Haven and St Helier days. And yes, our clothes did blow away as well - we ended up having to put our shoes on top to hold them down!

We did the Tattoo as well and enjoyed it thoroughly. Since we wanted to maximize our time in Edinburgh we chose to do it on our own vice the Princess excursion, but the late night buffet on the ship afterwards was great.