TenneSea

Thank you Nolan ! I do appreciate that.

I will get back to the cruise soon.

Skipping ahead to the post-cruise itinerary. We have spent the last 2 days on the Isle of Wight in the village of Yarmouth. It's so beautiful here. Pictures follow. Random order. If you ever get a chance to visit, I'd say do it. It's a 1/2 hr ferry ride from Southampton - perfect for a pre or post cruise ! The needles Chair lift down to the Needles - yep, we did it !

Here are images from the production show, "Broadway Ballroom". Very production show-ish, but eye candy, for sure. I loved it.

Next stop is Cobh, Ireland (Cork). They told us, due to the weather, we were not able to be in port at the scheduled time. Apparently, there was a lot of behind the scenes scrambling to adjust tours to the shortened time in port. Our original tour was cancelled, but we nabbed a newly designed tour, waited in the dining room to head out, only to have that one cancelled too. Very disappointed. We ducked into a lovely waterfrong restaurant for dinner. Just enjoyed the activities outside our window. That was it for our Ireland adventure.

Yes, they have worked with the shore excursion companies who are contracted to do the Princess tours to design about 5 that will work with the new port schedule.

Sorry for some spelling errors. I just read over the posts and auto-correct has changed many words. I'll have to do better proofing before posting. Mostly names have been changed.

Shane Hampsheir performed another night. He's just great with the audience. He asked a cute young couple to come up on stage while he "serenaded" them. They were fun to watch. Then Crystal sang with him.

Loved these wood lockers on the Promenade Deck.

Kate performed again in a show that was just her singing. Her speaking voice is soft, kind little girlish. It's amazing the sound that comes out when she's singing.

We have been blessed with really great and interesting talent on this cruise. The theatre is filled to capacity every night. Awesome band, as usual ! Crystal Canaglia (Sean's wife) performed again. She is the woman who did the Celine Dion Tribute Show. Another lovely evening.

Thank Goodness, life is pretty much back to normal on the ship this morning. What a night. The motion sickness bags are still in the stairways but they should be gone soon. Due to the rough seas, our arrival into Cobh, Ireland has been delayed to 2:00 p.m. and we will leave port later than planned at 9:30 p.m. We did book one of the few tours available "Kindle Village & Charles Fort". I'm just not into cities and this tour at least offered some countryside views. By the way, it is plastic. And it is tacky. Gaudy.

Well, it was quite an experience ! ATS and I got into some storms before, miles off the coast in Florida doing deep sea fishing, But this was a whole new level. There was no rain, only high winds and higher waves.

I don't think anyone blames Princess for the weather. We're in one of the few aft facing cabins on deck 9 and our deck this morning was soaking wet (no rain) from the waves and the ship slapping back down on the water. Thankfully, I have never experienced sea sickness but I can't imagine anyone who has a problem with it suffering through the last 3 days. Yes, it is better this morning. Thankfully.

This is our third day and night of horrible rocking and rolling and shaking. Tonight is total terror. I will never again go on another cruise, at least another transatlantic and probably not another cruise. This is extremely disturbing.

HE PLAYED "GEORGIA" ON THE SAX. There are no words... it was heavenly.

Mikey Votano performed two evenings. He does an awesome show. He clearly is a musical genius, music is just so natural to him, you can tell he is gifted. He does a mix of genres and the 50's is his 1st love (judging from his clothing). His voice is nice. But if you come for the singing, please stay for the saxophone. OMG he does some great sax playing - one of the best I've ever heard. Don't know if I'd buy concert tickets to hear him sing but I would for the saxophone. There was a big, beautiful grand piano center stage that no one was playing. I said to my husband "I so hope he is going to play that piano". My music lanes are piano and voice, so I had my fingers crossed. He did. He did not disappoint. He played Jerry Lee Lewis "Great Balls of Fire". He was as good, if not better than JLL. It was the highlight so far of the entertainment. Here are some pics of the 1st performance.

The remainder of the trip looks like this: Next Port: Cobb (Cork) Ireland May 15th Taking a Princess Tour "Scenic Killarny". It's an 8 hour tour (a lot of bus riding) with an Irish lunch. Falmouth, Cornwall, UK MAY 16 Planning on a private taxi drive to Port Isaac (45 min) where Doc Martin was filmed, a quaint fishing village on the other coast. Just found out that we are anchored and there is a 45 min water shuttle to land, which may complicate this particular activity. Portland, UK MAY 17 -No planned tour, might take shuttle to town and just enjoy it there. LeHavre, France -MAY 18 Taking a very long, quite expensive Princess tour to see Normandy Beaches and some surrounding sites linked to that WWII event. OFF SHIP IN SOUTHAMPTON ON May 19 -Yarmouth May 19 & May 20 Taking Red Funnel Ferry to Isle of Wight. Staying 2 nights in Yarmouth. Some family history on Isle of Wight New Forest, UK. May 21 Taking WightLink ferry to Lymington (in New Forest) where we will be picked up for an all day tour of New Forest. Staying in Beaulieu overnight. Southampton -May 22 Most of the morning we will still be in New Forest at the Beaulieu Motor Museum and then Hythe ferry over to Southampton where we will revisit our favorite restaurant and stay the night. Moreton-In-Marsh -May 23 & May 24 Taxi to Moreton-In-Marsh in the Cotswolds. Just exploring the village for the remainder of the day. Next day, will have a full day tour of the Cotswolds in a tuk-tuk. Should be a fun adventure ! Lichfield, UK. May 25 Taxi to Lichfield. Family historical site to visit in Lichfield, which I think everyone will find interesting. Burbage/Hinkley. May 26 Uber to Burbage for services in a church which also has family history in it. Scrooby, UK. May 27 Uber to Scrooby (Retford) If you know anything about the brave souls who came over on the Mayflower, Scrooby will perhaps be familiar. It is the home of William Brewster (a Mayflower passenger) and the area is filled with lots of history of Brewster and other passengers. Again, much family history here. Private, all day tour. Windsor, UK Taxi to Windsor. Hoped to visit Windsor Castle but just realized they are closed on Tuesday. Who closes on Tuesday ???? London Heathrow for a 4 pm flight back to Tennessee !

We have had a very, very ROCKY RIDE last night, today and tomorrow. I hope to have time this afternoon to post more pictures. Yesterday the shore expert commented about how smooth this Atlantic crossing had been. Today he said he was sorry for jinxing our lovely trip ! (Should we throw him over ??? or just call him Jonah)