Post # 12 Surprise On Day 1 At Sea September 18, 2015

    After a late sailing yesterday we had a nice surprise when we got to our cabin. We gained an hour of sleep by turning back the clock. A great way to end the pace of so many ports.

 

Feeling Better

We were up early enough for a nice light breakfast before the zumba class. The Atrium is full of people doing the 45 minute work out. We had a different instructor today and I didn't think it was as hard as the other day. Now if I could just get my arms to follow the legs! Judy is still under the weather but feeling a lot better. I think that the zumba helped out a bit. After a short rest, it was time for line dancing. She did 4 songs and moved it right along. 2 were things we had seen before but it is good to see that they are finally moving along to some new things. Still very easy but at least different.

   We did go to a talk in the Princess Live venue, a new feature on this ship. It is a cozy(?) theatre with good seating. They usually hold trivia, small seminars, etc. there.

Martyn Moss the cruise director was holding a Q and A session. He was on the |Ruby last summer when we did the |British Isles. He talked about where and what he had done on cruise ships and how he got the job. He then took questions which led to stories on all sorts of topics like rough weather, spring break cruises, entertainers, pirates, etc. He is a good story teller so it was an interesting session.

Medivac Assistant

    The captain did make a SURPRISE announcement. Because of a weather system that is along the track that he was taking, he decided to divert to the south until it passed. He expected the weather to be active tomorrow night. The new path is about 300 miles further than the original one.

   During lunch in the International Cafe, he made another

announcement. REAL SURPRISE! The ship had turned 180 degrees and we are headed

Irish Coast Guard

back to Land's End in England. No not the engine trouble of 3 days ago but rather a very ill passenger that had to be medivaced from the ship. He is currently steaming about 5 hours east to get withing the range of the copter. So that will be at least 10-12 hours added to the 300 extra miles already planned. Unless this ship can fly, we suspect that we will probably miss Newfoundland. Pure speculation at this time.

    This afternoon we had a wine tasting that we receive because we are Elite. They rattle on about the wines and then give you a taste. They even cut out the free wine glasses that we always gave away at these things. Anyway we did have the 5 sips.

     At about 4:30 this afternoon the captain announced that the helicopter pick up was about to start and closed the upper decks. A big copter approach the stern , connected a tether and a jumper slid down to the deck. At that point the copter disappeared for about 15 minutes and then pulled away and took off down the port (our) side of the ship on the way back to Ireland. All this time another plane circled the ship. Could have been a tanker or a controller. In any case at about 5 pm the captain made an announcement that we were back on our way to Newfoundland. He also mentioned that he needed to make close to 20 knots the next 3 days to get there . Seems he had some doubts especially with the heavier seas that he expects. We should see by tomorrow.

Dessert

 

At Wine tasting

   Tonight is the second of 3 formal nights. We do have the elite reception but it is tomorrow night which is rather unusual. It was lobster night for dinner which is always nice. The special 50^th anniversary dessert was very good as well. After we did take in the main show. Another turn back the clock night. Yea!

Post # 11 Cove (Queenston) Ireland September 17, 2015

     Cove in southern Ireland is our last port of call in Europe. We left for the 4 day

Cove

crossing to St John's Newfoundland tonight. We were in this port for almost 12 hours so that the ship could take as many people to the Blarney Castle as possible. We were there last summer so elected to stay in Cove. It was a beautiful day which made for some good photo opportunities. 

In The Memorial Gardens

Hop House 13 Lager

       Since Cove was a stop for the Titanic to pick up passengers it is Titanic overload. Everything seems to be somehow connected to that ship. The millions (?) of immigrants to North America is important as well. We walked to the Titanic Memorial Gardens on the far side of town, then up the hilly roads looking for a way to get back. Never did find it but a nice man from the area gave us a lift back to the church which helped considerably as Judy is fighting off her cold and has little energy. We heard

Outside Doyles

that half the ship has this cold. We really did appreciated it. A quick visit to the church and then up the small hill where we managed to find Jack Doyles Pub where I had a Hop House 13 Lager. A bit too “ hoppy” for me.

Deck of Cards

    Probably the best part of the day was getting some good photos of the “deck of cards” houses. 19^Th (?) century houses built together all up a hill and very colourful as shown by the photo. Judy wanted to go back for pizza at Alfredo's Pizzeria which we did. By then it was mid afternoon and we had our first dip in the hot tub. It helped. Judy took another contact and slept all afternoon.

    In late afternoon Rhythmic Feet – local school children – performed Irish dancing in the Atrium. Then later an older group presented the folkloric show Gaels Afloat in the

Laving Cove

Princess theatre but we could not get in. Later there was the “Watercolor Fantasy Mediterranean” in the pool but we did not get back from dinner in time. Maybe next time. I did go to the ventriloquist show. Some parts were funny but it is a bit too much of the same thing.

     We did not leave until nearly 9:30 but now we are off on the 4 day crossing and the sea days routine begins.

Post # 10 The Troubles In Belfast September 16, 2015

    No we did not have any trouble in Belfast but rather the title refers to the area that we chose to visit. We had a number of things that we would have liked to do including the botanical gardens and the new Titanic museum. This cruise replicates the Titanic voyage with the Belfast Cove and New York itinerary but we decided to visit the area that the locals call the “troubles”.

     This ship needs to dock in areas that large ships such as container ships use. As a result there are free shuttles available to get us to the centre of the city. That was very convenient because it gave us a change to eat in the dining room rather than going to the Horizon Court Buffet. At breakfast we had 4 countries represented. A real United Nations.

Ashore we chose to visit the area where the Catholics and Protestants were in such turmoil only a few years ago. Locally they call it the troubles. It took us about 3 hours to walk the whole circuit but that was at a very relaxed pace.

Catholic Sector

From City Hall Square where the shuttle dropped us off, we made our way towards Falls Road. We did have a local Belfast resident stop and help us get on the right track. What a friendly person. Away we went. We did stop a group of college girls a bit later and 3 out of 4 did not know anything. Fortunately one did and kept us on the right path.

     We walked up Falls Road which is the Catholic

Through A Gate

neighborhood, stopping at St Peter's Cathedral along the way. It was obviously the centre of life for this side of the wall. It was also the start of some of the barbed wire walls that we encountered. There were a few murals on the wall.

 

The Peace Wall

 A little farther up turned on Cuper Way which is the street to see the real “Peace Wall”. Through an iron gate separating the two sides brought us to the Wall. It was 3 to 4 blocks(?) long and filled with “drawings” and other such items. All the

murals were covered by “graffiti” left by people who had visited the place. However it was not graffiti in the normal

sense of the word; more like thought people had visiting the area and leaving their thoughts. No tagging here.

At The Murals

The wall itself looked like it was built on top of a 1 story building. Corrugated steel panels was topped by a high wire fence with barbed wire on it. I can't estimate the height. This side of the conflict (Protestant) was much more downtrodden. The Catholic sections that we saw looked relatively new. This side did not! 

       We walked all the way to Lanark Way and turned into the heart of the Protestant

A Protestant Mural

district and followed Shankill Road back to the centre of Belfast.

This section was in sharp contrast to the Catholic sector. There were murals on every open building wall depicting scenes and memorials from World War 1,II as well as from the “troubles”. There were poppy reefs on the wall with plaques stating when a bombing had taken place and the number of people killed along with their names. Many of the “terrorist” bombing took place in and around pubs. It was not just one or two, but it seemed like 1 every block. It was quite an eye opener. The Union Jack was everywhere. I think it was one of more amazing places that we have visited, certainly in a modern city like Belfast.

  We made our way back downtown, stopping at the Titanic memorial in city hall square and then back to the ship. For lunch we discovered Alfredo's Pizzeria. It is in the Atrium area and is

Titanic Memorial

a sit down restaurant. We had a wonderful antipasto and pizza lunch. Full waiter service. It is a much cozier venue than a dinning room and so much better than the buffet. It is a specialty restaurant but no charge as you might expect. We enjoyed some wine on our wine package that we purchased earlier in the cruise.

     The only downer to the entire day is that Judy is coming down with a sore throat and spend the afternoon in bed. I was up watching the sail away as she had an extended nap. We did attend a show called production show called Bravo that received a standing ovation. Mostly show hits, some opera, etc. No a lot of 'wild' singing and dancing that is the norm for Princess. Others that we talked to thought it was the best show they had ever seen on Princess and we agree.

    Cove tomorrow. It should be a leisurely day as we stopped there last year. 

Post #9 Glasgow September 15, 2015

   After loosing both engines last night, they ship got them both back on line and we were in Greenock, the port for Glasgow by 7:00 am this morning. We were steaming along pretty good in the middle of the night. Up early and ready to go in the Princess theatre by about 8:30.

In The Cathedral

|    Although we have been here twice before, we did opt for a tour to Glasgow. It was an

Glasgow Cathedral

all day tour that included the cathedral and Kelvingrove Art gallery. Our first stop was the church. The area was one where we had spent plenty of time on our first visit but it was very nice to have a very good guide this time around. The church goes back to St Mungo's day (6^th century?). Before the reformation the pope had designated it as a pilgrimage site. If people came here it was the same as visiting Rome. Needless to say it was an elaborate structure. The inside was changed drastically after the reformation. For example all the side altars which are typical of these

No Selfie Stick!

old churches were removed. However you could still see the places where they were situated. St. |Mongo's tomb is beneath the altar. Today the church is a national heritage building but it was interesting to note that there is no charge to get in. Apparently the government wanted to change that but there was a great outcry against it.

On the grounds of the church and behind it is a very old cemetery which stretches up the hill. We only had a brief time to actually explore some of the headstones in it. The ages have taken its toll on most of the stones.

Fenceline!

          Next came a tour of the city before we were dropped off for lunch in St Georges Square

Conehead!

which is just a few blocks from the main shopping streets. On one of the statues of a “hero” on a horse, the rider has a traffic cone on his head. The city government removes it and it is simply replaced. Rather funny but at lease the pigeons can't use it as a “resting” place. Many of the other statues must be getting up in age because they all had “white” hair. At least that is what it looked like.

The Heads!

       We had a good long break for lunch and shopping before heading out again for another tour along the river where the shipbuilding companies once were found. Today they are all gone replaced by parkland and residential areas. This tour led us to the Kelvington Art Gallery and Museum. As the name suggests, it is a bit of both. Actually I think it was a better art gallery. The pieces came from a private collection donated to the city. It had a famous but strange collection of art pieces. They had Salvador |Dali's Christ of St John of the Cross. It was a typically strange piece. Other pieces include a couple of suspected Rembrandts, (or his school), Monet, other Impressionists as well as many Scottish pieces. In other parts of the museum we found Sir Roger the elephant, stuffed birds and animals, gems, Chinese pieces, hanging heads, etc. A little bit of everything. They even had a later model Spitfire that flew in World War II. A strange mix of a museum/art gallery. After a bit more of a guided tour we returned to the ship.

    A late cup of tea, a rest and we were ready for the evening. We went to see an illusionist after we had our nibbles in the lounge. Our friends were on a late arriving tour and we did not expect to see them. We simply stayed in our place since the show was in the same lounge. Dinner was good as usual. We decided to skip the big show. It was another performer doing 60's material and we certainly get enough of that. They seem to be stuck in that era on this ship. Nothing modern is seldom heard although they had an Adele song playing during dinner.

     We are on our way to Belfast at a very slow speed. We will simply wander around tomorrow. 

Post #8: At Sea September 14, 2015

  Today was our first sea day after the stopping the first 2 days of the cruise. We also saw something that we had not seen since we left Canada – that is a big bright thing in the sky. It was absolutely sunny all day with very few clouds. We have been sailing from Bergen to Glasgow. We arrive tomorrow morning.

   

Regal Princess

I did manage to get up “early” this morning which means that we actually made it to zumba at 9 am. I did have to get Judy up as she had read late into the night last night. Zumba was not as hard as some of the other times we have tried it on ship but it was a good workout. Our friends told us later that they had a good laugh watching me try to keep up. Of course they were watching and not “playing the games”!

Following breakfast we needed to report to immigration for our entry into Britain. It involved standing in line, having the passport stamped and then handing it in to the ship. It was nothing like we have

Stern

experienced in the past where we have photographed , scanned for temperature and fingerprinted!

The lazy morning also gave us a chance to actually walk around the upper deck to get a feel for the outside of the ship. There are many different things on this ship which are an improvement over the older ones in the fleet. You could see the design improvements all along the upper deck. The walking track is very much improved and the whole ship is very neat and clean looking which is expected on a new ship.

   

Sea Walk

The inside of the Regal has a completely different feel. There are more open spaces for the greatly expanded shopping that you can't escape. The design is totally for selling and from the number of people in the shops that has probably proven a good thing for Princess. It has taken some time to get a handle of where everything is located. The atrium is definitely improved. Activities like zumba, dance, evening entertainment used to be held in the lounges. Only one large venue still exists. The atrium is now used for these activities and it is more roomy than the other ships. The rest of the spaces are now bars, shops, etc. We are glad that they kept the International Cafe and Coffee Bar in the same spot because it is probably the one public area that we use the most. It is very much the same as the other ships.

     I did speak with the Captain's club host today. I am still trying to find the photos that I submitted. We did find the one that Buck ad Marg found on an earlier cruise but since I sent in 3, I wanted to know if the others were here as well. There are hundreds framed on every deck so it is not easy to find 1 in thousand? The host said he had a list when he was on the Royal but not on the Regal. He will “get back to me” on that one.

   It was pub lunch day today. We passed up the champagne art auction. On our way into the pub, we happen to meet our friends so we sat with them. The rest of the afternoon was quiet with the exception of the line dance session. We skipped the Waltz session earlier in the afternoon. However I went to line dancing. Judy was sound asleep when I left. It was way better than in the past. We started with Ah Si and followed that with Country As A Boy Can Be. After that is a variation of their old favourites.

 

All Dressed Up

  Tonight was formal night so we dressed in our finest, met our friends had a drink, then went to the champagne waterfall event. With 3500 passengers you would think it would be crowded. It was not. They kept coming around with more. Dinner was wonderful. The beef was wonderful, probably the best we have ever had on |Princess. The dessert was out of this world. Again a special 50^th Anniversary of Princess cruise lines.

During dinner we suddenly stopped moving and the

Special Dessert

thrusters came on. We thought that they were adjusting them. We have seen this happen before. However the Captain made an announcement that both engines (electric) had been tripped and we were sitting dead in the water. After about 90 minutes we started to slowly move along on one engine. As of now we seem to be steaming along at a good clip trying to make up the time lost in order to be along side by tomorrow morning.

     A production show and the second George Casey comedy act ended the evening. The bonus is that we get an extra hour of sleep tonight. I think we better get a wake up call for tomorrow since we do have our tour booked.

Post #7 Bergen Norway September 13, 2015

    Today we were in Bergen Norway, the second largest city in Norway. We were not alongside until 10 am so that gave us plenty of time to be ready. We have been here before so we knew what we wanted to do and could do that at an easy pace. They scheduled zumba in the Atrium at 9 so that was a perfect way to start the day. The only problem with that is we were not up in time. I had to wake |Judy at 9:30 to get her up. It can't be the jet lag, it must be the pure air!

     

 

Fish Seller

   We continued along the harbour and came to a place

Byrggen

called Bryggen. It is the “old town” of the city that is now full of shops. All constructed of wood painted in a reddish wash, the area was full of tourists. There was another smaller cruise ship in the at the same time and there were tours going everywhere. The buildings are 3-4 stories high and all attached. Every block or so there was a narrow “alley” to behind thestructures where more shops were opened. It was a good place to visit.

Looking Good

       

At the Top

The second things that we did was take the Funicular to the top of Mt. Floien. The funicular starts right in town and has you at the top in about 5 minutes to the top of the hill at about 1000 feet. When we purchased our ticket, Judy asked me if there was a pensioners rate. The ticket seller overheard us and gave us the new rate; half the old one. I'm glad that Judy had her birthday. The views from the top are great but the cloudy day with brief showers lessened the attraction. We did stroll around a bit. There seemed to be another political thing going on so we did get a Danish and a drink from the group.

Overview

                    As we went to board the funicular down, we were the first in line. The best views on the way down are from the front where we were waiting. Someone tried to push past us to get to the front seat. I guess in one country with lots of people that is what you

The Hard Fought Seat!

do. However there was Judy. I could have told the women not to try it. As she went to squeeze by Judy, she grabbed the rail. The woman grabbed her arm and tried to get by. I could have told her what the result was going to be! The woman met her match in stubbornness and lost. We wandered back to the shuttle and went for tea and a snack when we got back on the ship.

This ship has still has afternoon tea but they don't announce it as in the past. We actually found out about it at dinner tonight. They do have one announced where there is a charge. However at the International Cafe the small food area in the Atrium they did have scones, jam, whipped cream, etc. No white glove service and little sandwiches today. It was self serve.

The evening went as usual on a port day. We met our friends for cocktails and had another pleasant dinner. We did catch the late show with a vocalist from Montreal. I am not crazy for that type of show but managed to stay awake tonight. Must be the sleep in! We have seen hime before on other cruises. Tomorrow is our first sea day and then formal night. I will save my comments about people and selfies for another time.