Not quite Live, but a Regal trip report (7/7 to 7/19)

[captain_hug99]

My husband and I decided to celebrate our 20th anniversary by traveling on this UK itinerary. I had never been to any of these places. Reed had been to London and Normandy from his service in the Army, he performed in both places. This past year, we have both worked like crazy and NEEDED this time to get away. This was definitely long enough to feel like we had been gone. 

 

Here we go!

 

Day 1. Lots of travel

 

We woke up at 3 to get to the airport. While we could have flown from Denver to London, to keep within our budget, our package included $800 towards flights. The least expensive flight from the US at the time was from the Washington DC area. We had a ton of Southwest Airline points, so we could get to the DC area for free. Therefore, we flew from Colorado Springs to Baltimore. Once in Baltimore we had a long time before our flight to London, that meant we couldn’t check our bags either (can only check 4 hours ahead of time!). We went to the USO to relax and found there were some Space A flights going to Germany and also to London. There are people just waiting to see if they were going to be able to get onto the flight and we’re willing to go to either place.  I didn’t realize space A was back available again, and even if it was, I wouldn’t have trusted it to get us on our trip because we had to make it to London.

 

A highlight was the Green Turtle restaurant. I had a crabcake sandwich that was just out of this world. Our flight to London was delayed a little bit, but nothing very significant. I was actually able to sleep on the plane which was a first for me. 

 

It was interesting flying British Airways because they offered a glass of wine with a snack, and another glass of wine with dinner. I didn’t realize they would hand out spirits for free.

 

Edited July 22, 2023 by captain_hug99
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[captain_hug99]

Day 2: finally in London

We got in around 10 AM and going through customs and immigration was an absolute breeze. We had to scan our passport, get a picture taken and that was it. I was shocked. (Dulles you should learn something from this!) We then took the tube to our hotel. We were able to drop our bags off, and we were off to sightsee.

 

We had gotten tickets to the Tower of London a while ago, and it was a good thing we did because they had sold out for the rest of the day. At the tower of London we walked around quite a bit, saw the different gates, the prison, of course the Crown Jewels. Unfortunately, you’re not allowed to take pictures in the crown jewels room, interesting fact they used to let visitors touch the crown jewels until someone bent a part of it and they decided that was probably not a good idea. We skipped the torture museum because I just can’t handle that stuff. 

 

There are two fish and chips places right outside of the Tower of London. The one to the left had much better looking fish and I’m glad we went there.

 

After that, we decided to go to Big Ben and Parliament. We also saw the London eye, but didn’t go in any of them. It started raining pretty well.

 

And since it was raining and we were just tired, we decided to go back to the hotel. Check in and relax.  We were asleep by 6.

[Mabel67]

Loving you report. Can’t wait for more!

[MWcruiser]

Thanks for doing this trip report.  I love reading these and we’ll be on the Regal in September.

[phabric]

Looking for more of your reviews.

[KKB]

20 hours ago, captain_hug99 said:

My husband and I decided to celebrate our 20th anniversary by traveling on this UK itinerary. I had never been to any of these places. Reed had been to London and Normandy from his service in the Army, he performed in both places. This past year, we have both worked like crazy and NEEDED this time to get away. This was definitely long enough to feel like we had been gone. 

 

Here we go!

 

It was interesting flying British Airways because they offered a glass of wine with a snack, and another glass of wine with dinner. I didn’t realize they would hand out spirits for free.

 

 

Looking forward to your report!

DH & I will be doing BI on Regal in April.

 

Yeah...I got a glass of "pinot grigio" on my BA flight in May.

It was dark yellow...like a chardonnay.

Just tasted BAD. (and she poured me a FULL cup). 

Was sure disappointed!!

[captain_hug99]

1 hour ago, KKB said:

 

It was dark yellow...like a chardonnay.

Just tasted BAD. (and she poured me a FULL cup). 

Was sure disappointed!!

Yikes, luckily the merlot was better!

[captain_hug99]

Day 3. The stones!

 

Since we went to bed early, we were also up quite early, 4:30 in the morning. We took our time getting ready. We decided to take a walk around town not using the tube at all. There was side street I wanted to explore, when we got to the end of it, we looked one way, not much, then the other and saw just how close we were to Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey just a few blocks away. We didn’t even need to take the tube back the night before.

 

Our walk took us to Saint James’s park, Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar square and back to our hotel: all we walked 3 miles.

 

We went back to our hotel just to relax for a minute, and then we were off on our Stonehenge tour. This was the highlight of the day! We booked a tour where we could actually go within the stones. First, we stopped in the city of Bath. We didn’t get tickets to see the Roman baths because we’ve seen stuff like that before we walked around the city, had a Cornish pasty and just enjoyed the sites. Bath is a beautiful town. Our next stop was Lacock where several scenes from the Harry Potter movies were filmed. This was just a dinner stop for us. I tried a true British beer, not my cup of tea.  

 

Finally, it was time to see the Stonehenge and boy oh boy was that ever amazing. Our tour allowed us to walk with the stone circle. In order to do that, you need special tickets. They are for before opening or after closing. While we normally don’t take bus tours, this one was quite worthwhile. 

 

Our guides were Clive and Leban. They made the day interesting and fun. 22,000+ steps

 

[Nolafan]

Happy Anniversary @captain_hug99! What beautiful pics!

 

I am enjoying following along. We are doing this cruise next summer and plan on staying in London a few days pre cruise. 

[captain_hug99]

Day 4: we slept until when?

As you can imagine we were wiped out from our day, when we woke up I asked Reed what time it was, he said, “I think I changed countries in my watch.” I looked at my clock and it was 8:15!  We NEVER sleep this late! 

 

Today was Harry Potter day. We decided to take a walk to Kensington gardens and palace, then we took the overground train to Watford Junction. On our way, I wanted to find a police box, I'm a Dr. Who fan, so this was a pilgrimage. (not sure why the picture is uploading upsidedown) 

 

The Harry Potter studio tour was amazing!  I recommend it for any Harry Potter fan, especially if you are interested in how the magic happens. However, I had the worst hamburger in my life, it tasted like hot dogs.  How does that even happen?

 

The butter beer was good and the souvenir tankard was a nice touch. 

 

Before we took the national rail back to London (oyster cards work here too!) we stopped at O’Neills pub, they had a great happy hour! 3 pound drinks from 5-8? Really?  I got a cider and it was goood!

 

We took the train, then the tube and walked towards our hotel.

 

Once we got near Trafalgar Square, we got a real treat.  We walked by St James's garden, saw many people going to an event.  I asked someone what it was and it was a military band concert. I asked, which band? The military band.  Uhhhhhhh which military band?

 

I mentioned to the guard that Reed was in the Army band, pointing to him, or so I thought. He had gone off to the side for a smoke and the guard couldn’t see him. I said, I swear, I’m not crazy, he was right here and I’ve lost him,  lol

 

We continued on our way and saw a Scottish regiment. There were pipers and drums. 

 

Next was dinner, we wanted to try Feathers due to their different pies, but their line outside was insane. We ended up at the Blue Boar which was good. They had a creamy onion soup that was quite good.

[edspec]

Great report, we're doing BI next July so taking notes 🙂

[kplady]

Loving your report, we're doing this in April 2024!!

Laura

[mskaufman]

Next week, also taking notes

[beshears]

Several of us are planning on doing the Regal in February, next year. I'm enjoying some of your pictures, and looking forward to your report on the Regal ship itself.

[captain_hug99]

Day 5: trip to the cruise

 

We liked our hotel in London quite a bit. Premier hub at St James place. 

 

The excellent:  the staff!  They were amazing! I wanted to fill my water bottle one day and the next day the staff member remembered and asked if I needed another refill. 

 

The quiet! The room gets completely black and we didn’t hear anything from other rooms. 

 

The location! We were steps from the underground. We walked to Big Ben and parliament. 

 

The bed! It was so comfortable. The room is also very smart. There were controls for the lights on the headboard and sensors for the lights. If someone steps out of the room, the sensor looks to see if there is someone else in the room, if no one is detected the lights go out.  This was evident when Reed left the room and I was in the shower, the lights went out until I opened the shower door.  

 

The good: breakfast. Reed liked the porridge, there were croissants and bread, I was hoping for some protein though. 

 

The bad: coffee. It was weak and no creamer 

 

The ugly: the rooms are SMALL   We don’t typically spend a lot of time in the room because we go out and see stuff, but there isn’t much room. You cannot be afraid of bathroom noises being heard. The glass doors do not contain any noise, plus I wish they would put a rubber bumper on the glass door so it doesn’t crash when you close it. 

 

We had a 9:30 train to Southampton. I wanted to make sure we got to the station early as we had an issue in Germany a few years ago where the train time changed and we were not told. 

 

The train was FULL of cruise passengers. We got on quickly and found a space where we could keep our bags around us. It had a little table where we put our carry ons. The train filled quick! We had ordered tickets several weeks before our trip, they were 15 pounds a piece.

 

We exited en masse and the two of us decided to walk to the ship. This wasn’t bad but it was a workout with a carryon, suitcase, and a backpack each. I was sweating when we got to the port. It is a flat walk, about a mile. Much more doable if you only have a carryon and personal item, having a bag with wheels on both hands made more difficult.

 

FYi, when you get to the cruise port, there are several porters taking large bags for the ship, you don't need to stop at the first one. Boarding was easy, we were there around 11:30ish, so the big rush was over. We got our cards (the medallions shipped late) got on the boat without a lot of trouble. We went to guest services to get the medallions and that was easy too. 

 

We decided to get some lunch (Concerto) and while there, got the word that the staterooms were ready. When we got to our room, three of our bags were there. One was missing which was worrisome since that one had the charging cables and some medicines. After unpacking we took a walk around the ship to familiarize ourselves. Our room has a balcony which is nice to sit at and read. The bed is nice, there are memory foam and I constantly feel like I’m going to fall off. It does get warm at night. 

 

The bags fit nicely between the wall closet and the open closet, they were well out out of the way!

 

We had an even numbered room, 80% of the time, we were docked on our side and enjoyed seeing the dock from our room, especially when there was a special group performing for the ship!

 

15,250 steps

 

Edited July 24, 2023 by captain_hug99
pii

[captain_hug99]

Day 6: riots/protests cancel Portland

Today, we were supposed to stop in Portland but it was canceled due to scheduled protests. It was to do with an immigration issue. There were two groups protesting. One that wanted the immigrants to be allowed to dock, the other didn’t want more refugees. The news the next day reported there were 80 protesters total.

 

So we had a nice sea day. Reed ended up sleeping most of the day, I read in a nice spot in the back of the ship that was covered. The staff changed formal night to tonight. I had the duck a l'orange and it was GOOD. 

 

Day 7: Falmouth 

We had a tender port in Falmouth. We didn’t realize that the city would wake up so slowly, we were out and about at 8:15. We walked through a closed up town, up Jacobs ladder, up to the old lighthouse, and around. It rained off and on so we were glad we brought raincoats with us. 

 

We wandered through the maritime museum which was interesting. The mind blowing thing was about a family that intended to sail around the world but ended up surviving on an incredibly small dinghy. I can’t even imagine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dougal_Robertson

 

After the museum we went to find a good Cornish pasty and ended up at the Cornish bakery. Omg I had a steak and Stilton pasty, it was fabulous. We then wanted cider so we stopped at the Stable. They had a cider flight which was five ⅓ pint samples. Four out of the five were great the other one was like cough syrup. One of the odd things was, you can’t choose your ciders on the flight, it is a standardized item.

 

I’m sure the people seating next to us were taking bets as to if I’d be able to stand and walk after drinking that much. Lol

 

We finished the day finding some bottles of rattler cider to bring home. 

 

22,286 Steps

[captain_hug99]

Day 8: Cobh 

So I turned out to be a very lucky person, we were supposed to take the tour that I had scheduled from Cork, not Cobh. When we came down the dock in Cobh, I saw the PaddyWagon bus and didn’t realize until we made a stop in Cork, that THAT was where we were supposed to meet the bus! SO SO very lucky! 

 

We took a tour by PaddyWagon that we found on GetYourGuide. During our trip, our guide told us stories of his family, history of Ireland, battles with England and made fun of American Football! Said, “American football players hardly play! And when they do play, they only know how to go one way. You’ve gone one group of people going one way, then when they are done, a whole different group of guys come out. In Ireland, you play the whole time for football!”

 

We visited Blarney castle, I did not kiss the stone. I saw how one has to contort themselves and it was not worth it to me. We had a beautiful stroll around the grounds. The gardens are just gorgeous. There are many different types of areas to see odd and interesting plants. The Poison Garden, the Carnivore garden, then the Rock Close. 

 

One tip, though it is interesting, don't take the walk to the lake, spend your time in the gardens and the rock close. Those are amazing areas to explore. 

 

We stopped at the woolen mill for some shopping then back on the bus. We had a quick tour of Cork on the bus. Then Kinsale. What a beautiful town. We had the best lunch here. Is it just me or do Irish waitstaff judge you when you order? We had the tasting platter that comes with a ½ pint and an optional add-on of whisky, so we ordered it (why not?). Well the waitress said, “well I guess you are on your holidays.” in a very snarky tone. WHAT?

 

When we got off the bus, there was a band on the dock performing for us. Is this something princess does?

 

15,792

[captain_hug99]

Day 8: Dublin 

 

Dublin was another tender port day, and the seas were rough out by the ship. It was rocking and rolling. We got into town and took the Irish rail from Dun Laoghaire to Dublin city. We had gotten the TFI passes which allowed us access all day long for today. This is a visitor's Leap card and it came in handy when our feet got really tired and we just decided to take a bus back to the train station rather than walk.

 

We got to the city center at least one I assumed was the old town city center and just wandered around from place to place. We had gotten tickets to Trinity College to see the book of Kells. We also saw the long room. We wandered around Trinity College, but did not take a specific tour.

 

Next we walked around a little bit more, then made our way to the whiskey tour. The whiskey tour was quite interesting. We got to learn about the difference between Scottish whiskey and Irish Whiskey, and which one is better. Of course Irish Whiskey prevails here. At the end, we tried three different whiskeys, but didn’t purchase any.

 

It was lunchtime, so we found a restaurant not far from the whiskey museum called Bailey’s. I don’t believe it has any affiliation with liquor. We enjoyed a wonderful charcuterie board and then we should have just shared a plate of fish and chips or Irish stew. Again, we received some snark from an Irish waitress.

 

After that, we wandered around, trying to find souvenir shops, because we wanted something to remind us of Dublin when we got home. We then went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which was absolutely gorgeous.

 

We were completely spent at this point, our feet were just hurting. So we found a bus, took the bus to the train, took the train back to Dun Laoghaire and got on the ship, went to the hot tub and relaxed.

 

Looking back, I wish we had gotten Hop On Hop Off bus tickets. 

 

19,400+steps

[captain_hug99]

Day 9: Glasgow:  pee saving the theater VS smokers. 

 

Today, because this was not a tender port and we were docked right in Greenrock, we decided we would sleep in a little bit. Our first item was a walking tour at 10:30. We were off the ship about 830, walked to the train station and caught a train into Glasgow. We wandered around a little bit and met our walking tour, Gander walking tour, at 10:30. He took us on a three hour walk, explaining some of the highlights of the inner part of the city, the different features of the buildings, some things that people may not even know or realize. For example, there was a possible Banksy rat on the backside of a trashcan for people with needles to throw out. There was also a Banksy exhibit in town.

 

In front of the museum of modern art at the Banksy exhibit is a statue, that for some reason the people from Glasgow enjoy putting a traffic cone on its head. There’s times when it’s just one cone on the head of the person on the horse. Other times there are many traffic cones on the rider and sometimes there’s even cones on the horse. Our tour guide explained that those from Glasgow find this to be a way to protest British rule.

 

The highlights of our tour were some of the out-of-the-way places that one might not even consider to visit. There was an auditorium that was very well known up until the 1940s and for some reason it was made over where you couldn’t even tell it was an auditorium anymore. Someone researched the building and convinced the owner to allow her to open up the ceiling so that they could see if the old auditorium was still there and it was. In fact, it was not even cleaned before it was closed up. Charlie Chaplin canes, cigarette butts, and drinks were still found at the seating areas of the auditorium.

 

Our tour guy told us that the people would be so packed that if one had to go to the bathroom, it wasn’t possible to actually move to a restroom that men would just unbutton their fly and go. He also did mention that this actually saved the theater from possibly burning down because many people when they smoke, they just left their cigarette butts on the ground in the ashes that went in between the floorboards, and eventually it would cause a fire within the theater. But with all of the urine, there was no chance for a fire to catch.

 

Our tour ended at Glasgow cathedral where Saint Mungo, the patron saint of Glasgow is buried. We learned quite a bit about Saint Mungo, and saw several of the murals that are dedicated to him. We also noted that this was the name of the hospital in the Harry Potter books.

 

We tried IronBru (not great), deep fried haggis (I really enjoyed it!), and a Scotch pie. I wish we had more time in Glasgow, we didn’t have time to make it to the West End which is the “cool place.”

 

Now I’m sitting on the balcony and enjoying the sound of a piper as people are boarding the ship, and we are going to go to Belfast.

 

Our ports of call number rearranged we were supposed to Belfast today, but today is the day of the Orange order parades and the bonfires of the Irish protestants in northern Ireland. If you’ve ever watched Derry girls, there’s an episode where the families are trying to get out of Northern Ireland away from the orange order parades so they don’t need to deal with it.

[captain_hug99]

Day 10: Belfast: do not walk from the cruise ship port to titanic. It is three miles of not pretty or interesting land. It is a place with gas and oil tanksl. Plus, it is three miles which isn’t how I wanted to start my day. However, the Titanic museum is fabulous. It details how Belfast became such a place for linens, ship building, woodworking, etc… Then the history of building Titanic, the launch, and the aftermath. Note, there wasn’t anything regarding Ocean’s Gate.

 

Of course, the sinking was a different section followed by the rescue and recovery. Finally, the changes made due to the tragedy and finding the wreckage. The information was excellent and the only way I would suggest for it to improve is to add items that the titanic exhibit had in Branson, Missouri. There they had a place where one could feel the difference in angle of the ship at different times as it was sinking. Plus, a place where one could feel how cold the water was that night (28+). Reed suggested that they add heat to the “ride” that shows the riveting and blast furnaces. 

 

I would suggest this place to anyone. 

 

Next we walked to St Anne's church. It was a beautiful place with nice mosaics. Then we went to the Walls.  One just needs to see them to get an idea of the horrible treatment the Irish Catholics have endured in Northern Ireland. The protesters were literally walled into their neighborhoods. I felt as if we were walking through east Berlin before the wall came down. 

 

We got a taxi back to the ship and learned more from our driver about the issues.  One thing I’ve noticed is that many people are highly knowledgeable about politics in the USA. We spoke with an Aussie that was asking about social security. Our taxi driver was asking us about Donald Trump and Biden. 

 

The stained glass items we found around Belfast, they seem to relate to Game of Thrones (I haven't watched it). They are gorgeous!

 

We were pretty spent so we got back to the ship early, did laundry, and relaxed. 22,000+ steps. 

 

 

 

Day 11: a sea day at last. We didn’t do much, I read, sat at the aft, relaxed.

[captain_hug99]

More Belfast pictures.

 

 

[captain_hug99]

Day 12: Invergordon for Inverness. We took a bus tour, I think we’ve done a pretty good combination between on our own vs a go here, here, here tour. Today, we saw: Urquhart castle on Loch Ness. We cruised Loch Ness. Went to Culloden battlefield, and finished at Cawdor castle. Honestly, it would have been better if we had fewer stops and just had urqUrquhartuat, the cruise, then Culloden. 

 

Seeing the highlands was GORGEOUS! Just beautiful scenery. Our guide was great, she told us about the history of Scotland, had lyric sheets so that we could sing along to the Skye Boat Song, and brought some Scotch Whisky for us to taste. 

 

Hearing the history of Culloden was sobering. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Culloden  If you are an Outlander fan, this is a must see.

 

Cawdor castle was neat, but the gardens were the best part. I guess it worked in our favor because the rain started coming down just as we left Culloden   

 

Seeing the highland cows was cool!  13,258 steps

[Nolafan]

Beautiful pictures!

[captain_hug99]

Day 13: almost a disaster 

This was South Queensferry and Edinburgh. We took a bus to the city center but neglected to get the times when the bus would bring us back to the port. This was a big mistake. 

 

We walked the Royal Mile, went down many of the closes (alley ways but really cool), went to the grass market as that was an inspiration for JK Rowling for Diagon alley, the closes were definitely an inspiration for knockturn alley. Of course I did some shopping. 

 

Just before our time for the castle, we sat at an outside cafe. It was fantastic to just watch people while drinking a pint. It was quite windy so trash was blowing everywhere. 

 

We went to Edinburgh castle and spent about three hours exploring. It was fantastic! The wind really kicked up while we were here. We had to stand with our backs to it a few times before moving on. 

 

While at the castle, we heard bands playing in the square below. I asked someone about it and they said, “it is Queen Camilla’s birthday tomorrow, and we have to celebrate it, so they are practicing.”

 

I told him that it was also my daughter’s birthday and if he’d rather he could pretend they were celebrating that!

 

Next we had a tour at Mary Kings close, this was a bunch of closes that were built upon with a government building. It has made for a very interesting tour discussing the plagues that went through Edinburgh, what life was like in the 1600-1800s. 

 

This was when the fun starts.  We got to the bus stop where we were left from the bus in the morning. Thankfully there was a bus across the road that was from the same company, so I asked the driver about the bus going to the cruise ship dock. He said, “is that still running?” Well it had stopped 10 minutes prior. 

 

He found a city bus to Queensferry that was due right then, the next would be in. 20 minutes. We went to the bus stop, saw that the bus was still there!  We RAN to the bus, made it!  I called Katie to ask her to find the phone number for the ship. I was trying to look but the cell signal is iffy in Edinburgh. Katie found it, I called the ship telling them we were trying to make it and that our eta was 6:45. The last tender was to leave at 6:30. 

 

That bus ride, omg, I haven’t felt that kind of stress in the pit of my stomach in a while! As we got to queensferry, a man on the bus told us which stop would be best. Scots are really nice people!  We jumped off and RAN a good portion to the dock. We made it with three minutes to spare.  But, weather was on our side, there were two more tenders after we got to the port as they were having weather problems. 

 

It took a WHILE for my stress level to go down. I guess 13 lives up to its reputation. 

 

Day 14: last sea day. We did laundry. Lol. Tonight is dress up night.

[captain_hug99]

Day 15: France!  

We wanted to visit Omaha beach at Normandy and the cemetery. It was impressive and sobering. We saw the statue on the beach and tried to imagine what it would have looked like during the invasion. We walked along the beach and enjoyed a beautiful sunny day. 

 

We then went to the cemetery. This is something I’ve only seen in the movies. There is a very well done museum depicting the events that lead to the invasion and what happened during and after. After going through the museum you are led to the cemetery. It would be beautiful if it wasn’t so tragic. 

 

Afterwards, we drove back to Omaha beach and had a beautiful lunch, the. We drove home. 

 

We then went to the most ridiculous gas station ever.  You have to guess how much you should prepay for gas, have it approved on the card, go put gas in, if it wasn’t enough, do the process over again.  We only used ⅓ of a tank and it was $31 to fill!  Holy crap. I thought sure $10 should do it. Nope. I just want to give my card, let me fill and go. 

 

We walked back, got hot, got drinks. Omg the dirt banana was my favorite!

IMG_9152.HEIC