Live from the Golden

[cnmiranda]

Thanks so much for your comments Beth! I love the seafood turnover:D Have a great vacation Golden travelers:):D:)

[English Rose]

Thank you so much for your kind comments Beth! You are all very welcome, it's been an absolute pleasure helping your all. I managed to get to see Sue at her hotel before I took her and Jack to the pier. What nice people they all are... I hope she passed on my best wishes to you all. Sorry I didn't get to meet you in person - never mind, next time..!! Today has been extremely windy here in the south of the UK. I think the weather is to improve over the next week, so if you are bouncing around now, hopefully it should get better soon. I will check in regularly and see how you are all doing. Have a drink on me...!!!

[calikak]

Hi all! Sorry for not posting for a while, we've been having too much fun. :D Cheryl, yes, Sue passed along your good wishes, and we were all jealous that she got to meet you in person! Hopefully we'll bump into you on a cruise sometime in the future. :)

 

Spongerob, we sailed about 3 minutes after 5, so right on time, and we cleared the harbor area in Southampton by about 6-ish. The QM2 was in port with us so we sailed right past her on our way out of the harbor, which was pretty cool. She's a lovely ship and we all waved at her, and her passengers waved back at us.

 

About the luggage: no, there's no weight restriction for luggage on the ship, at least, not as far as I can tell. I do know that flights within Europe have a weight restriction that's tougher than the restriction on transatlantic flights, so if your friend has a precruise trip that involves a flight within Europe (i.e., Ireland to Southampton), that could be the issue.

 

Weather Monday was a bit rough in the Channel, but when we got next to Ireland, it calmed down quite a bit. Today in Dublin was spotty rain and spotty showers, but mostly just cloudy, highs in the 60's at most. We're expecting more of the same tomorrow in Holyhead.

 

Today in Dublin, we visited the Book of Kells, the Guinness Brewery (my DH simply adores Guinness) and Kilmainham Gaol. All were interesting and well worth visiting. We used the hop-on-hop-off bus to get around and that was pretty handy, although the Dublin Tour Bus doesn't run that late (5PM), so you might try the City Tour bus (those are the two competing lines), because they seemed to run later.

 

Oh, important info about visiting Dublin: we're docked in the container shipping area, in a secured berth, so you're not allowed to walk out of the dock area and there are no cabs here at all. So, you either do a tour, or you pay $4 each way for the Princess shuttle, which drops you off on Kilgare street, next to Trinity College. The shuttle was handy but with traffic it took a very long time (an hour this morning, 45 minutes this evening) to get to/from the ship. So, plan your sightseeing accordingly. We had planned to go to mass this morning but the shuttle didn't start running until 8 and mass was at 8:30, and we didn't end up getting into town until after 9. Also, we ended up not doing a pub crawl like we'd planned, because the shuttle stops running at 9:45 so we wouldn't have been able to finish the literary pub crawl we were talking about doing. Still, we did have time to see a lot of great sights, so all in all it was a good day.

 

We came back to the ship this evening and had some more laundry to do, so we skipped dinner in the dining room tonight and just ordered room service. Last night's dinner was formal night (the first two sea days are formal night) and both my dad's and my friend's tuxedos came through. Turns out that the container with the preordered tuxes didn't get loaded on the ship, so they had to quickly dryclean the tuxes from the last sailing and try to make it work, so our friend's shirt was too big and his jacket was a bit tight, and my dad's shoes were too small, but they both looked great just the same. DH wore his kilt and we saw a handful of other folks in kilts (including someone from our roll call who's from Aberdeen), and a woman from Scotland came up to my DH and said, "Oh, how wonderful to see someone from my country" thinking that he was Scottish. She was completely broken-hearted to learn he's American, poor woman!

 

Our meet-up yesterday in Skywalkers was really fun, our group is huge and we'd been so chatty on our roll call so I felt like I knew everyone already! Tomorrow is our first roll-call-organized tour, so hopefully it'll go well! I'll keep you all posted as we progress around the isles, and probably Lynne will pop on and say hi too like she did before, if she's not too busy having fun! We ran into her family a couple of times today while touring around Dublin, so I know she was out having fun tonight like we were!

[Host CJSKIDS]

Love reading all the posts live from The Golden! It's getting us all really excited for our July 11 cruise aboard here. Hopefully we'll get to find out when our formal nights are prior to I can make my alternate dining reservations accordingly.

Hi Cheryl!

Carolyn

[Bob & Barb]

On the June 1st sailing, we're having our sailaway party right after the muster on the pool deck, so we can meet and mingle and watch the ship sail out of the harbor. Could someone please tell me the name of the Cruise Director on the Golden?

 

Bob

[lkmamom]

Hi Sue and Beth

 

Thanks for the updates, sounds like Dublin was great. I second Bob's question. We were also wondering who the CD is or will be this summer. Also, do they offer the very helpful shopping talks on the sea days. I always found those to be so helpful on our other cruises. How were the formal nights? Were cruisers dressed to the nines? Thanks for all of the help. Have fun:)

Linda

[calikak]

Hi all-bad news today, our call in Holyhead has been cancelled due to rough seas and high winds. The weather isn't very pretty today, lots of rain and plenty of movement on the ship, so I'm not surprised they're cancelling us. The ugly part is that 42 of us CCers had planned an independent tour today which I'm in charge of, so I'm running around trying to sort things out with the tour company. They announced we were skipping Holyhead about 10 minutes before we were scheduled to anchor.

 

I can't remember the name of the cruise director, but will post later (since we won't be in port today!). They did do talks about the ports on the first sea day for Belfast, Dublin, Holyhead, and Greenock/Glasgow, which have been replaying on the stateroom TV. I haven't watched, but one of our friends went and said it was informative.

 

Formal night was very fun. I think it was more formal than Alaska (more tuxes, less suits) although there were still plenty of people in suits or more casual dresses (like a sundress instead of a formal gown). There were lots of women in gorgeous gowns, though, and I adore the guys in kilts (especially DH! :D).

 

OK, off to find coffee and deal with cancellation issues! I'll post more later! :)

[K D cruiser]

Hi, I checked the bridge cam this morning and saw that you were headed to Belfast and wondered what happened. Thanks for posting live. All of us who are going on future cruises are grateful. One question I've been wondering about is does it matter which side of the ship you're on? We're booked on the port side, but I was wondering if we should switch. Can you see any land from starboard, or are you too far out to sea? I hope you have a great cruise and thanks again for all of your helpful informaton.

[lkmamom]

Sorry to hear about the weather Beth.....I know that all of you planned that excursion for a long time. That has to be very disappointing, darned ol weather. I hope that there is a rainbow at all of that rain!

 

Linda

[spongerob]

Thanks for keeping us updated, Beth. This thread is really helpful.

[Lindypc]

Michelle from Milton & Michelle (our Disney friends) wanted me to tell everyone that she won the $500 slot contest the first night. How lucky is that?

Yes, we are disappointed about not seeing the land of King Arthur but have heard that this port is frequently aborted. Someone's pleasure craft sunk 6 miles from here and we were going to rescue them but someone else beat us to it so we are back on course.

The food has been good and different menus from my Jan. & Oct. sailings.

So far we have been having a fun time!

Cheryl, hope your car got fixed. Poor Freddie was so upset about the woman opening the door right when we were going by at the port. It was not his fault. He was waiting for us early (and we were ready for him!). Sorry I couldn't meet you! You have a wonderful service though! They might let us off the ship early so maybe we'll see you before 8:00.

[lkmamom]

Hi Lynne! Congrats to Michelle, that is awesome, nice time for some extra spending money:)

So the menus have changed some, that is good to hear. Though all of the food items have always been good it is nice to hear that there are some changes.

Have fun in Belfast!

[britsbest]

King Arthur and Holyhead?

 

King Arthur was I believe English and Holyhead is Welsh!?

 

Thats like calling a New Zealander Aussie or a Canadian a Yank?

[Bob & Barb]

Still hoping someone will tell me the name of the Cruise Director........

[NukeTim]

Beth; thanks for the report on Dublin for us June 11 Golden cruisers. The questions I have for you are about the currency. Do I need dollars for the Princess shuttle in Dublin you mentioned? Then I need euros for Dublin and Belfast- right? Is the pursers desk dealing in dollers, euros, and pounds? Any suggestions for what currency to take and how to get it would be appreciated? Thanks.

[blackegg]

I want to add my THANKS also to Beth and others reporting "Live from the Golden!"

 

The Dublin port info was invaluable to change the time we are meeting our friends there.

 

When someone gives Bob the name of the Cruise Director, does someone know how to e-mail and/or contact him/her?

 

Keep those reports coming. We are looking forward to our 6/1 and 6/11 B2B cruises,

 

 

Jim

Blackegg

[June Bug]

I have the same question about the money and shuttle, however I seem to recall that somewhere I read that they ask for your sail/sign card and charge your cabin....but I may have been dreaming about that.

June

[cnmiranda]

Sorry about the missed port Gloden travelers!

 

I'm so happy to hear about menu changes for this cruise! Can anyone tell I'm food obsessed:D

 

Have a great trip all Golden travelers!

[makeup face]

Thank you Beth....I am enjoying your updates :) I'm so sorry to hear about the weather today :eek:

[britsbest]

Who is Cruise Director?

[sibylcoe]

They charge the cost of the shuttle to your onboard account. You can get the tickets in advance or sign for them as you board the shuttle. The ship has a counter to exchange foreign currency. You need euros for Dublin and pounds everywhere else.

Ann

[hildam]

We just had 3 weeks on the Golden. Paul was the cruise director during our sailing from San Juan-New York-Southampton. He can usually be found in the Sports Bar for a little while in the evening. If you see him, tell him hi from the Duke and Duchess of Seattle.Dan Smith

[calikak]

Hi all, back again! We had dinner in Sabatini's tonight, it was lovely as ever but slightly different menu than I remembered from the Diamond/Sapphire last year. I didn't remember a pizza course on the Gem class ships but there was here. But no tiramisu on the dessert menu, surprising to me.

 

The cruise director is Paul. He filled in a lot of activities today on the unplanned sea day. The art auction was moved up a couple of hours and there was plenty of bridge (which made my dad happy).

 

One very cool thing happened today, we lined up to go to lunch in the dining room with half the rest of the ship (it was pretty rough, so we figured staying low instead of going up to the buffet was a good idea) and the Maitre'D led us through the galley to the Cannelletto (sp?) dining room because the Donatello dining room was full. So, I got an ad hoc galley tour today while it was actually in operation, very cool!

 

We tried to watch the sinking yacht today too, but couldn't see it. I started to wonder if the captain was making it up to justify us missing the port, but that's just because I'm cynical and suspicious by natures. :D

 

Still working out the cancellation issues for our private tour (called and left messages, then didn't check in again, figuring we'll either work it out or we won't). Had a lovely drink with Lynne's son and daughter-in-law tonight, so that was fun too.

 

I've been disappointed with the piano players in the atrium so far this cruise, but the band in the Wheelhouse bar is good for big-band-style dancing. Have yet to partake of any other entertainment, although we've walked past the guy in the piano bar on the Promenade deck atrium area. He seems to have quite a following, although I think he's not all that great. Perhaps I'm a music snob. Last night, they had a group of Irish dancers come aboard from Dublin, I heard they were good but we were too busy doing laundry.

 

OK, it's getting late and I have an early tour in Belfast, weather willing. Acutally, I'm not so worried about Belfast, it's not a tender port. :) If I missed any questions, I'll try to get to them tomorrow night after our tour. Bye for now!

[Elcruzer]

Thanks for giving us your day by day experiences. Sorry about the extra sea day, hope Princess made it as enjoyable as possible. Looking forward to your report on Belfast tour and all the others. Aug. 10 can't come soon enough :)

Eleanor

[Host CJSKIDS]

Hi all, back again! We had dinner in Sabatini's tonight, it was lovely as ever but slightly different menu than I remembered from the Diamond/Sapphire last year. I didn't remember a pizza course on the Gem class ships but there was here. But no tiramisu on the dessert menu, surprising to me.

 

The cruise director is Paul. He filled in a lot of activities today on the unplanned sea day. The art auction was moved up a couple of hours and there was plenty of bridge (which made my dad happy).

 

One very cool thing happened today, we lined up to go to lunch in the dining room with half the rest of the ship (it was pretty rough, so we figured staying low instead of going up to the buffet was a good idea) and the Maitre'D led us through the galley to the Cannelletto (sp?) dining room because the Donatello dining room was full. So, I got an ad hoc galley tour today while it was actually in operation, very cool!

 

We tried to watch the sinking yacht today too, but couldn't see it. I started to wonder if the captain was making it up to justify us missing the port, but that's just because I'm cynical and suspicious by natures. :D

 

Still working out the cancellation issues for our private tour (called and left messages, then didn't check in again, figuring we'll either work it out or we won't). Had a lovely drink with Lynne's son and daughter-in-law tonight, so that was fun too.

 

I've been disappointed with the piano players in the atrium so far this cruise, but the band in the Wheelhouse bar is good for big-band-style dancing. Have yet to partake of any other entertainment, although we've walked past the guy in the piano bar on the Promenade deck atrium area. He seems to have quite a following, although I think he's not all that great. Perhaps I'm a music snob. Last night, they had a group of Irish dancers come aboard from Dublin, I heard they were good but we were too busy doing laundry.

 

OK, it's getting late and I have an early tour in Belfast, weather willing. Acutally, I'm not so worried about Belfast, it's not a tender port. :) If I missed any questions, I'll try to get to them tomorrow night after our tour. Bye for now!

 

Thanks so much for the update. It's funny to hear about the music in The Wheelhouse bar, it was Spanish music when we were on the Southern Caribbean out of San Juan of course.