Live - Emerald Princess - July 8-20 British Isles

[Adventures ahead]

2 hours ago, Tiki_Koro said:

That’s the same letter we got. I posted a photo of it on my Cruise Day One report. I did not hear any word from passengers or crew about anyone during our trip testing positive or being quarantined. There probably were some, but it was contained enough that news of it happening did not spread across the ship. 

Thanks for this wonderful 'live blog'!  Heartwarming to see your family travelling together. Memories made! Priceless!

 

Lol, I'm a planner like you. If I have three chunks of time in a day (morning, afternoon and night: ) , I'll fill all three... even if one is 'rest'! OTOH, can be spontaneous and switch gears when needed. I joke that I can rest at home for free.

 

We're sailing from Southampton on the Enchanted in a couple of weeks.  Interesting how the conflicting information provided to passengers regarding mask wearing (second letter further down post #109) panned out.  If Princess is serious about 'an abundance of caution', it may be a good idea not to provide mixed messaging.  Regardless, I don't expect crew to enforce it and it sounds like the virus wasn't an overwhelming issue on your sailing.  Yay!  It's just good to hear that some passengers decided to go with the 'mandatory' request (first letter) or might have done so anyway. We'll be wearing ours. We haven't had covid 'yet' and would prefer not to get it on our cruise.  After all, none of us knows what the future holds and if we'll get to cruise again. Meanwhile, we accept the risk, hope for kindness and a bit of luck!

 

Your photos are outstanding!  What phone or app might you be using? Following... : )

[Tiki_Koro]

49 minutes ago, Billish said:

The good old British sense of humour !

You do know that your leg was being gently pulled ?

No, I didn’t get that at all. She seemed quite sincere, but then, I am just an American tourist who isn’t actually seeing things. Thanks for helping me understand my vacation better. 

[Billish]

1 minute ago, Tiki_Koro said:

No, I didn’t get that at all. She seemed quite sincere, but then, I am just an American tourist who isn’t actually seeing things. Thanks for helping me understand my vacation better. 

All cod/haddock used in the UK fish and chip shops will come from the Atlantic,  Baring Sea, North Sea etc. 

 

[redtop101]

21 minutes ago, Tiki_Koro said:

No, I didn’t get that at all. She seemed quite sincere, but then, I am just an American tourist who isn’t actually seeing things. Thanks for helping me understand my vacation better. 

On the other hand the server might not know the Pacific from the Atlantic - just a thought. 🤷‍♂️

[Billish]

10 minutes ago, redtop101 said:

On the other hand the server might not know the Pacific from the Atlantic - just a thought. 🤷‍♂️

That is entirely possible, especially in Dorset! 

[Tiki_Koro]

Cruise Day Three – Guernsey

 

Guernsey is a location that fascinated me based on my limited understanding of its history. I watched the Netflix movie, “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society,” in preparation for this trip, and I was looking forward to experiencing the island. Unfortunately, largely due to it being a Sunday, my experience in Guernsey was a bit of a letdown.

 

 

 

This was our first tender port, and we received a letter and ample warning the day before from crew members that taking a tender at the peak time – 9:30am-11:30am – could result in a long wait. I posted this letter in my previous report, but here it is again:

 

 

As this was my first cruise with a tender port, I did not know anything about the process. Princess made it very easy. We were directed to the seventh deck to the piano lounge, Crooners, where we were given a card with an animal identity (such as octopus or lobster). We could sit anywhere in a public area and wait for our animal to be called. Then, we would go down to the fourth deck to board our tender boat.

 

Wanting to minimize our wait, we got an early start to our morning with room service breakfast. There are two ways to order breakfast room service. The first is to order through the app or on the television like any room service order, which is how we ordered breakfast the day before, but the breakfast items are limited to a breakfast sandwich, fruit, juice, coffee, and tea, items that are on the 24-hour menu. The second is to use the breakfast card left in the room each night during turndown service. The card has more breakfast items, such as cereal and oatmeal, and it was easy to fill out and leave on our door before going to bed. Our wait times for room service varied, sometimes over an hour (more on that in a future post), but when we ordered using the card, our breakfast arrived within the 30-minute window selected on our card. For early mornings like our day in Guernsey, we used the card.

 

We were in Crooners by 7:40am, and our wait to board a tender was less than 10 minutes. The ride to shore was about 15 minutes. Masks were “required” on the tender boats, but those who did not wear masks were not asked by the crew to put them on. 

 

 

After arriving, we met Guernsey resident ambassadors waiting to greet us with maps. Being Sunday, I wanted to attend a local Mass, and the guide directed me to the nearest Catholic Church, St. Joseph’s. The service was not until 10:30am, so we had a couple of hours to walk around.

 

 

 

There was a festival along the street that ran parallel to the coast, but the vendors and exhibitors were still setting up.

 

 

We walked up the streets through the Old Quarter, and we noticed that most of the shops and restaurants were closed on Sundays, except for a few cafes.

 

 

 

The town is on a hill, and the streets are at various levels of incline. My parents and brother decided not to join me for Mass, so we parted ways before climbing too high towards St. Joseph’s. They continued exploring the town and the street festival once it opened while I found the church. I love going to Mass in foreign countries and have experienced some amazing music in places like the Bromtpon Oratory in London and Saint-Sulpice in Paris (Widor’s organ!). Unfortunately, the music minister at St. Joseph’s was on vacation, so it was a spoken Mass with no music except for a cappella sung responses. Still, it was a nice service, and the priest and attendees were very welcoming.

 

 

 

 

My family and I arranged to meet at the Victor Hugo statute in front of the Town Church, and to get there I walked through the street festival. It was the Guernsey Motor Festival, with various cars on display among the tents of vendors.

 

 

 

There were some street food stands, but all of the bistros and restaurants I passed were closed. We had planned to have lunch in Guernsey, but we did not see anything that interested us. Knowing Guernsey has British and French influences, our objective was either a Sunday Roast or a French bistro lunch. We decided to return to the ship early and have lunch on the ship instead. 

 

Before we returned, we wanted to see the World War II Museum, which is open on Sundays. Getting to the museum was an easy walk along a costal promenade that took us by some Victorian swimming pools, an area called La Vallette. To our surprise, people were sunbathing and swimming in the pools, even though they looked like ruins!

 

 

 

 

The La Valette Underground Military Museum is a series of tunnels where the *** stored Luftwaffe fuel. This museum was heavy on artifacts found around the island after the German occupation. It was fascinating, and I recommend it for anyone interested in WWII history.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was another cruise ship at port with us, and when we returned to the shore to catch our tender around 1:15pm, there were two long lines of people, one for Princess and one for the other cruise line. We thought it would be a long wait, but we were on our tender in about 15-20 minutes. A larger, local tender boat was servicing our ship that could hold many more passengers. This helped move the line faster. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ordered a light lunch through room service and had dinner in the Da Vinci Dining Room. It was our first formal night, so we were looking forward to a nice dinner!

 

 

 

 

I had the duck liver pate, goat cheese and greens salad, lamb, and bananas foster flambé. I thought it was all very good, but, like the previous two dinners, service lasted about 2 hours, which is something to consider if planning to attend any of the evening entertainment. I finished the night with an after-dinner cigar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Princess Patter for the day:

 

 

 

This time, I stayed awake for the moonrise! 

 

 

[Tiki_Koro]

Cruise Day Four – Cobh

 

I forgot to include in my Portland report that we received a letter in our stateroom that evening informing us that Irish authorities were requiring all non-EU passports to be presented when we entered Cobh. Our passports would be collected by our stateroom steward, and they would be returned on our first sea day unless the French authorities required them at Le Havre. Our steward came by our room before we left for dinner on our Guernsey day and collected our passports. He gave us a ticket we were to hold on to and then exchange for our passports when they were returned to us. We received our passports back on our first sea day, for the French did not require them. It was a very smooth process. 

 

 

Now, you may have the same question we did - why did Ireland require our passports but not France? The answer may be related to something our Belfast cabbie tour guide told us. Not to jump ahead, but one of the questions I asked him was how Brexit affected the tension between Irish Catholics and British Protestants. There is such division within the UK over Brexit, but it is even more intense between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. He said that, prior to Brexit, the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland was open, and free passage was allowed. After Brexit, the border has been enforced and security heightened, not necessarily over perceived threats, but rather as a means of establishing identity. Ireland is telling Britain that, if Britain is going to leave the EU, then Ireland is going to maintain a clear boundary.

 

When we arrived in Cobh, the morning fog was so dense that we could not pull into port right away. We were delayed by over an hour, which I later found out affected many who had shore excursions, especially those going to Blarney Castle. 

 

 

When we finally pulled into Cobh, the scenery was so beautiful! I only wish I knew how much better the view was on the starboard side and had been on one of the outdoor decks. My advice to anyone doing this cruise is to plan on being outside when arriving in Cobh. It was the prettiest port on our itinerary! Here are a couple of shots from my balcony, but I did not get any of Cobh as we arrived (I took some when we left from the World Fresh Marketplace as we had dinner). 

 

 

 

Our plans for Cobh were to spend the morning exploring Cobh and then the afternoon in nearby Midleton at the Jameson Distillery. For breakfast, we went down to Da Vinci and had a nice, leisurely breakfast. I had the pancakes, with bacon and ham, and they were delicious!

 

 

 

The Captain announced that the train service to Cork was down for maintenance (we found out it had been down for a couple of weeks), but Princess was offering the bus excursion to and from Cork for free. This was not a continuous shuttle, and for those who wanted to use it, they needed to board at the set time for the excursion. There was a continuous bus service to Cork through the public transit system, but that required purchasing tickets. This did not apply to us, but I mention it in case the train is still down for future cruises. 

 

The ship docks right at the town in front of the train station, making it very convenient to get off and walk around. We did not see any resident ambassadors when we got off the ship offering information and advice, so we just explored on our own.

 

 

 

 

Next to the ship was a public park overlooking the water, and it was full of people. We assumed they were watching the ship come in because of the timing, but we learned there was supposed to be an air show or flyby by the military. It was canceled, but nobody told the public!

 

 

 

We were interested in two sites at Cobh, the cathedral and the Titanic Museum. When we walked by the Titanic Museum, we decided to skip it because it was small and did not seem worth the price of admission, considering we had already booked tickets for the much larger museum in Belfast.

 

My father, brother, and I hiked up to St. Colman’s Cathedral. It was a steep climb, so my mother decided to sit on a bench near the water and wait for us. The Cathedral is relatively new, completed in 1919. It is beautiful and definitely worth the steps!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, we had a great vantage point overlooking Cobh and the "Deck of Cards" houses. 

 

 

 

After looking around the Cathedral, none of us were hungry for lunch, so we decided to head to Midelton and find lunch there before going to the Jameson Distillery. There was just one problem – we did not see any taxis in the area! We ran into a lady walking around the port in a green vest that said Tourist Information Center. She told us that, because the train is down, the taxis were busy taking people to Cork. She gave us her honest assessment that it would be impossible to get to Midleton!

 

We had already pre-booked our tickets for Jameson, including the Tasting Academy experience, and we had a couple of hours to try to catch a taxi. I waited by the port for a taxi, and one pulled up to drop some folks off. I flagged him down and asked if he could take four people. He said he could, and then I told him we wanted to go to Midleton. He said he was sorry but he was already booked for a ride and drove off. I got the impression he did not want to drive to Midleton. We waited a little longer and almost threw in the towel when another taxi drove up. I told him Midleton, and he enthusiastically agreed! The driver’s name is Tommy, and he saved the day! As he drove us the 20 minutes to Midleton, I asked him how difficult it would be to get a taxi back to the port. He gave me his card and said to give him a call 30 minutes before we needed him to pick us up! We got to Midleton with an hour to spare, so we had lunch at a restaurant near the distillery called The Pantry. Like Tommy, the folks at The Pantry were very friendly. We went from having a stressful, potentially bad day to having a great one.

 

 

The Jameson Distillery tour was fantastic! We toured the historic distillery that is no longer in operation (the modern distillery is just behind the historic one and is not part of the tour).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As part of the tour, we tasted three whiskies – an American whiskey, a Scottish whisky, and Jameson. The tour guide asked us if we could tell which American whiskey we were tasting. It was mild and sweet, and the only thing my brother and I could guess was Jim Beam. Turns out, it was Jack Daniels. Now, I know Jack, and that was not on my mind at all. The tour guide admitted to us that “a little water” was added to open up the whiskies for us. I am sure a little more was added to the Scottish and American whiskies because she ended the tasting by asking which was our favorite, to which everyone agreed Jameson!

 

 

After the comparative tasting, the tour ended, and as part of the regular tour we got a ticket for a free drink at the bar. I had the house cocktail – Jameson, ginger ale, and a squeeze of lime (Irish Buck), and we looked around the gift shop as we waited for the Tasting Academy experience.

 

 

 

We were taken to a private tasting room. Our guide walked us through tasting notes as we tried Jameson Black, Power, Redbreast 12 yr., and Jameson Bow Street 18 yr. I expected a little more instruction on how to taste whiskey because Jameson (Irish Distillers) is a part of the Pernod Ricard portfolio, and Pernod Ricard is an industry leader in spirits education. Still, it was a great experience, and our guide told us a story about Will Ferrell visiting the distillery the day before us. She said he was in a green tracksuit and sat outside on a bench drinking all day while the star-struck employees spied on him!

 

 

The Tasting Academy lasted about 20 minutes, so before we began we had an employee in the gift shop call our cabbie to let him know we would be ready to be picked up at 4:30pm. Tommy was waiting for us when we finished, and we were picked up in front of the distillery and dropped off at the ship. There were others at the distillery from our cruise who managed to find taxi service, too.

 

For dinner, we opted for the buffet this time because we did not feel like another 2-hour dinner, and we were not that hungry. As we ate dinner, we pulled out of Cobh. I managed to get a few photos through the window, but I wish I had been outside.

 

 

 

Princess Patter for Cobh:

 

 

[Tiki_Koro]

5 hours ago, High C's said:

@Tiki_Koro Chad - forgive me if this has already been asked and answered.  But were you able to order drinks on your drink package via the medallion for delivery to your stateroom?

 

Yes! We could order drinks from the app and have them delivered anywhere on ship. We had the Plus Package, not the Premier, so if we ordered a drink above $12, the difference would be charged to the room. Drinks under $12 all zeroed out when placed in the shopping basket on the app. I also ordered lots of bottles of water each day (maximum 4 bottles per order, but you can make multiple orders throughout the day) and made sure I always had a couple of bottles with me onshore. 

 

3 hours ago, Adventures ahead said:

Thanks for this wonderful 'live blog'!  Heartwarming to see your family travelling together. Memories made! Priceless!

 

Lol, I'm a planner like you. If I have three chunks of time in a day (morning, afternoon and night: ) , I'll fill all three... even if one is 'rest'! OTOH, can be spontaneous and switch gears when needed. I joke that I can rest at home for free.

 

We're sailing from Southampton on the Enchanted in a couple of weeks.  Interesting how the conflicting information provided to passengers regarding mask wearing (second letter further down post #109) panned out.  If Princess is serious about 'an abundance of caution', it may be a good idea not to provide mixed messaging.  Regardless, I don't expect crew to enforce it and it sounds like the virus wasn't an overwhelming issue on your sailing.  Yay!  It's just good to hear that some passengers decided to go with the 'mandatory' request (first letter) or might have done so anyway. We'll be wearing ours. We haven't had covid 'yet' and would prefer not to get it on our cruise.  After all, none of us knows what the future holds and if we'll get to cruise again. Meanwhile, we accept the risk, hope for kindness and a bit of luck!

 

Your photos are outstanding!  What phone or app might you be using? Following... : )

 

Thanks! I prefer flexibility to spontaneity on trips like this. Things come up that we may prefer to do over our planned itinerary, or things do not work out according to plan and require improvisation. But, to not have a plan could mean missing out and regretting. 

 

As far as masking goes, I am trying hard not to share my opinions and rather focus on my experience. My experience was Princess "required" it with a letter that seemed to be a form letter handed out on every cruise, but the only place where the "requirement" was enforced was at the buffet where the crew did enforce it. If it was a true requirement, I do expect the crew to enforce it, much like the Disney cast enforced their mask policies. One couple told me in the smoking lounge that they would have canceled if they had received that letter prior to boarding. They were upset Princess did not provide that information ahead of time, but they were glad that Princess was not enforcing it. They said they would refuse to cruise if they had to wear a mask. I expect things to change quickly now that the CDC is lifting its cruising recommendations. 

 

For my photos, I am using an iPhone 13 Pro Max. The photos that seemed touched up were done for Instagram using the Instagram editing functions. I plan to edit other photos later with Photoshop, but I would rather get my trip reports up first. 

 

Hope you have a great cruise!

[High C's]

@Tiki_Koro - I hope you will be back to continue your report!!!  It was a wonderful review - don't leave us hanging! lol

[jimbri]

Great pictures!

[Tiki_Koro]

Cruise Day Five - Dublin

 

Our ship anchored off Dun Laoghaire, and we had to ride a tender into port. We did room service for breakfast again and checked in at Crooners at 8:10am. Our boat was called in 10 minutes, and the ride took 22 minutes to get to shore. There were no ambassadors to greet us once we were onshore, but the train station was next to where we landed. There were amusement rides next to the train station, including a familiar ride that just might be a copyright infringement!

 

 

The train into Dublin was very convenient. It was a commuter train, with continuous trains leaving the station for Dublin. We were not sure at which station to get off, but we knew our first stop was going to be St. Stephen's Green. I asked a passenger, and he thought for a moment before saying we should get off at Pearce Street. Unfortunately, this was right as we were leaving Pearce Street! We exited at the next station, Tara Street, which was still on the south bank of the River Liffey.

 

Our plan for the morning was to do the Rick Steves audio walking tour of the south bank, which began at St. Stephen's Green. Not all of us were able to download the tour onto our phones with the ship's WiFi, so we needed to find WiFi first - a good excuse to find a Starbucks! This worked out well because we collect the Starbucks "You Are Here" mugs, and Ireland is the only location on our itinerary from which we did not already have a mug. I was happy to get my caramel macchiato in a mug rather than a to-go cup, for our local Starbucks has not reintroduced "for here" mugs since the pandemic. 

 

 

 

Once everyone had downloaded their audio tours and we were fully caffeinated, we walked across Dublin to find St. Stephen's Green, about a 20-minute walk. Before we began the tour, we stopped at the nearby O'Donoghue's Pub, famous for its musical acts, most notably The Dubliners. As it was 10:30am, nobody felt like a pint, but it was neat to take a peek inside.

 

 

We passed the Shelbourne Hotel next to St. Stephen's Green, which was a station for British troops during the 1916 Easter Uprising and where Ireland's Constitution was drafted in 1922. 

 

 

Finally, we made it to St. Stephen's Green and began our tour. St. Stephen's Green is a lovely park. The entrance arch still has bullet holes from the Easter Uprising. We took a stroll around a small lake, enjoyed the flowery landscape, and admired (?) a modern statue of W.B. Yeats.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, our tour took us past Mansion House, home of Dublin's Lord Mayor and where the alternative Irish Parliament, the "Assembly of Ireland," met in 1919 in the aftermath of the Easter Uprising (I recommend the film Michael Collins for getting an idea of the events that followed the Easter Uprising that led to Ireland's independence). 

 

 

Just down the street from Mansion House is the Church of St. Anne's, where Oscar Wilde was baptized and where Bram Stoker got married. 

 

 

We then took a stroll down Grafton Street, a pedestrian-only retail corridor. 

 

 

 

This plaque on Grafton Street is where James Joyce fans meet every June 16 for "Bloomsday." They spend the day quoting passages from Ulysses and following the route of Leopold Bloom from the book while dressed in period costumes. Sounds like fun!

 

 

Our next stop was Trinity College. We only stepped into the courtyard and did not go inside the Old Library to see the Book of Kells. Next time! 

 

 

 

 

Next, we walked along the main boulevard towards Dublin Castle, but first we turned down Church Lane to the Church of St. Andrew's, where we found Molly Malone. They sure like to keep her polished!

 

 

 

We made it to Dublin Castle, and nearby next to City Hall is Lady Justice. She is not blind, indicating her partiality towards Britain, and Rick Steves explained on the tour that Dubliners have a saying, "There she stands, above her station - her face to the castle, her arse to the nation." 

 

 

 

 

We then walked down to Christ Church Cathedral, founded in 1030 by the Viking king Sitric Silkenbeard. Around this area was the first Viking settlement. Most of the settlement sits intact under the Dublin City Council building. 

 

 

 

 

Then came the most bizarre part of the walking tour - Handel's Hotel. This hotel sits where the old Musick Hall on Fishamble Street was located, which is where Handel's Messiah was first performed on April 13, 1742. Every April 13, an orchestra and choir fill the street and perform Handel's Messiah. In the hotel's courtyard is the weirdest artistic decision imaginable, a modern nude of George Frideric Handel standing on an organ pipe! Who approved such a thing?!

 

 

 

 

Our morning tour concluded with a visit to the Temple Bar neighborhood, which was very crowded with tourists. I spoke with some folks back on the ship who complained about Dublin and how they did not enjoy themselves. I have a feeling they spent most of their day in Temple Bar.

 

 

We planned on having lunch at The Brazen Head, Ireland's oldest pub. It was a good walk along the Liffey to get there, so we thought maybe it was far enough out of the way to not be too crowded. We were wrong! The place was full of people with Princess medallions! There were no tables inside that could accomodate us, so we sat on the patio. We did not mind because it was a beautiful day. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch, we spent the rest of our day at the Guinness Storehouse. We pre-booked tickets for 3:15pm to give us plenty of time to get to the brewery. It was an easy 15-20 minute walk from The Brazen Head, and we arrived early, around 2:30pm. We were directed to wait in line with people who did not have tickets until our time, but the line moved fast enough that we got through it before 3:15pm and were allowed in early. 

 

 

 

 

The experience does not include an actual tour of the brewery. Instead, it consists of multiple levels within the same building, and each level tells a different part of the Guinness story and the brewing process. On the bottom level where we entered was the gift shop, and the experience culminated at the top level with the Gravity Bar. We started by seeing how it all began - with the 9,000 year lease signed by Arthur Guinness in 1759!

 

 

 

As we wound our way up each level, we experienced a tasting room where each element of the beer recipe was isolated as an aroma. 

 

 

 

My favorite level was devoted to various advertising campaigns over the years.

 

 

 

 

My brother and I had tickets for the Guinness Academy, where we learned how to pull the perfect Guinness draft. It was a great excuse to drink another Guinness! It also came with a photo opportunity where we discovered our Guinnesstache. 

 

 

 

 

 

We were running short on time, so my parents and brother returned to the ground floor to do some shopping while I ran up to the Gravity Bar to get some great pictures of Dublin. I also managed to squeeze in one more Guinness! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you see our ship? Let me zoom in!

 

 

The Guinness Storehouse was too far of a walk to get back to the train station in time, so we took a taxi. There were plenty of taxis waiting in the taxi line at the entrance to the Guinness Storehouse, so this was very convenient. We were dropped off back at Tara Station, and we waited less than five minutes for the next train. We arrived at the port at 5:50pm and waited 8 minutes for our tender boat. Our tender was escorted by a boater and his canine companion! 

 

 

Dinner was at Da Vinci's. I had the sea scallop and shrimp cocktail, French onion soup, and the pork chop. The pork chop was one of my favorite dishes on the cruise. It was really good!

 

 

 

 

In the Piazza after dinner, a gentleman entertained us with his bagpipes, the first of many times we heard bagpipes on this trip!

 

 

The Patter for the day:

 

 

[Tiki_Koro]

9 hours ago, High C's said:

@Tiki_Koro - I hope you will be back to continue your report!!!  It was a wonderful review - don't leave us hanging! lol

 

I won't! I've had some work and life obligations come up. I hope to have time this weekend to finish the rest of it.

 

8 hours ago, jimbri said:

Great pictures!

 

Thanks!

[alibabacruisers]

Thank you so much for taking us along!  Love your trip report and all the fascinating things you did!

[andimark]

Loved your Guiness moustache!

[MSPCUBS]

Thank you so Much for the reports and pictures. I will be on the August 13 sailing. 
Dublin was canceled for our cruise. (Restrictions on the number of cruise ships allowed) Instead we will be in Cobh until 2 pm the next day. Luckily, I have been to Dublin before.

Quick question - Did the staterooms have USB ports?

 

[BlerkOne]

42 minutes ago, MSPCUBS said:

Thank you so Much for the reports and pictures. I will be on the August 13 sailing. 
Dublin was canceled for our cruise. (Restrictions on the number of cruise ships allowed) Instead we will be in Cobh until 2 pm the next day. Luckily, I have been to Dublin before.

Quick question - Did the staterooms have USB ports?

 

Hmmm. When did Princess notify you of that?

[geoherb]

Wow! You certainly fit a lot in during your day in Dublin. We did a cruise that spent overnight in Dublin so we could get two days there. We saved Guinness for the second day, when we took the hop-on/hop-off bus around the city. We ate lunch at Guinness. I remember the chocolate cake made with Guinness. It was great. I found a recipe for brownies that reminded me of it.

 

[AF-1]

Tiki_Koro;  what a great day in Dublin.  I just returned from a land tour of Ireland last week.  We spent three nights in Dublin;  there is a lot to see and do in that city.  All the best

[MSPCUBS]

We were notified early on about the Dublin cancellation.  it seems that the port is having repairs done and it can only accommodate a certain number of ships.  Each cruise line had to reduce the number of ships this season that use the Dublin port.  Guess we were the selected one.

[nini]

@Tiki_Koro

We were in B749 and unfortunately did experience cigarette smoke virtually each time we went out on our balcony.

I LOVE the pic of your Mom with Victor Hugo! DH took one of me as well; he is one of my very favorite authors and yes, I did read ALL 1500 pages of Les Miserables in high school (required reading).

 

Thanks for your lovely review!

[ROWSE]

@Tiki_Koro Thank you for wonderful review!  Very fun to see the different, and same, things you did versus our trip in May!  We loved Dublin!  Sorry to hear some on your cruise did not.  I figured Temple Bar would be packed area so we did not even attempt it but so much to do there, our day was full

just like yours!

We also realized Pearse station was the one we should have gotten off on also, and we didn't get off till Connolly so that put us on the North bank, but fun things to see on our way to South Bank anyway.  If anyone else has an upcoming trip and want the best station to get off at I would say Pearse is the one!

Edited July 29, 2022 by ROWSE

[nini]

We met a lovely local lady on the train and she coached us on where to get off of the train. We were headed to Trinity College. She was on her way to work as a paralegal and was raising a cute little girl.

[Steelers0854]

On 7/23/2022 at 9:55 PM, Tiki_Koro said:

The next morning, we checked out of our hotel and caught an Uber ride to the Victoria Coach Station. We booked a transport shuttle through Princess to Southampton.

 

Can you tell me how you did this?  Our TA says the only transfer available are to and from Heathrow. This would be much better for us as its right next to our hotel.  Thanks!

[kiwimum]

48 minutes ago, Steelers0854 said:

 

Can you tell me how you did this?  Our TA says the only transfer available are to and from Heathrow. This would be much better for us as its right next to our hotel.  Thanks!

Are you able to get into the Travel Section of your booking when using a TA.   Transfers are there in a drop down menu.    I know for our 2023 disembark from Southampton we can select Victoria Coach Station as one of the options, $59 pp.  The buses in the past has dropped off passengers from Southampton and then loaded those going to Southampton.

[nini]

1 hour ago, Steelers0854 said:

 

Can you tell me how you did this?  Our TA says the only transfer available are to and from Heathrow. This would be much better for us as its right next to our hotel.  Thanks!

 

We reserved the transfer through our TA who called Princess. We took a cab from our London hotel to the Victoria Coach Station (NOT Victoria Station). This was on a Monday morning and all went well and very affordable from the East side. As has been said, a Princess rep met us at the main entrance and instructed us where to go, etc. It was $59.00 per person and took about one and a half to 2 hours.

 

This was a much more affordable transfer versus Blackberry Cabs or a few others. It is also closer than Heathrow from a London hotel.