Live from the Golden

[kaleighsgram]

Thanks Beth and Lynn. Your info makes planning ever so much easier. I have read your posts before your cruise and was so disappointed when I read that your stop was cancelled. When reading your posts now, I hate to see when I start coming to the end of your messages. To others going on the Golden in June, know that the July cruisers are looking forward to hearing from you also. Every tidbit of information helps. Thanks bunches and bunches. :)

 

Pat

[cinnamon]

Thank you SO much for the posts from the Golden. We will be on the same route, starting on 1st July. It certainly gets the excitemnent going to read about others currently onboard.

 

We sailed on the Sapphire in January and the Cruise Director and assistant were wonderful. They really helped to make the trip memorable. I hope Paul can match up!

 

Ann is right. The onbaord currency is US$. but you can sign for everything except the casino and the laundry. We were frustrated in not having $ quarters and having to change money twice to get them. This time we have saved some from our US trip earlier this month.

Pounds sterling are needed in all ports apart from Dublin which uses the Euro. There are change machines on board which will convert US bills into Euros, but I don't think the exchange rate is particularly good.

 

Keep posting, and I hope you have a wonderful time here in Britain.

 

Cinnamon

[Chester]

For those of us doing the British Isles cruises after you ... your Live from the Golden reports are invaluable in helping us plan our port visits. Looking forward to your next report.

[CruiserGreg]

calikak,

 

We will be on the Golden on June 11th, so please please please keep the updates coming. Your info so far has been fantastic.

 

Greg

[Logie]

Thanks for the updates- I too am going when Greg is and barely have time to pack much less do research on the ports. I did find the Guiness tour though.... :)

 

I exchanged money on this ship in the Med 2 years ago and thought it was quite fair. Can you please check into this for me please?

[elptn]

Thanks to everyone for posting while on board - it is great getting your reports. Although I'm sure it's bittersweet for you - each day you post is one day closer to the end (and I always hate to have a cruise come to an end).

 

How rough have the seas been - my daughter and son-in law are coming with us - they are first time cruisers and I'm hoping they will love it and want to go again.

 

Again - thanks for the updates - keep them coming!!!!

[West Coast]

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?

 

Lynne,

 

Glad to hear someone you know won the slot tournament. Did you and Mitchell go in it this time? We had no luck on the Dawn but I did wn a $400 jackpot on the second night! Good to hear you're all having a fabulous time.

 

Todd & Jeff

[Northender]

Thanks to everyone for posting while on board - it is great getting your reports. Although I'm sure it's bittersweet for you - each day you post is one day closer to the end (and I always hate to have a cruise come to an end).

 

How rough have the seas been - my daughter and son-in law are coming with us - they are first time cruisers and I'm hoping they will love it and want to go again.

 

Again - thanks for the updates - keep them coming!!!!

 

We have a friend that tends to get sea-sick. This past cruise, he started taking bonine non-drowsy formula 2 days before cruise and everyday that we did cruise. Absolutely non problems and we had some fairly high seas (missed Princess Cay:( ) They will love it, of that you can be sure :)

[calikak]

Hi all! Just back from our tour in Belfast and it was absolutely fantastic. This was another CC-organized tour (huge thanks to Lynne for organizing this one!) through Minicoach.co.uk. They had two medium-sized buses for us, and took us up to the Antrim coast. We saw Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge (but didn't walk across it, too many of us are scared of heights!), the Giant's Causeway (plenty of time to explore there, it's an incredible place), had lunch in a lovely spot in Ballintoy, had a photo stop at Dunluce Castle, then headed back into Belfast for a driving tour around the city followed by a stop in a very old, very cool pub called the Crown. Our driver was fantastic and gave us all sorts of wonderful info, and pulled over several times to let us take photos from the bus of the lovely scenery. It's exactly how I imagined Ireland would look, just like out of the photos they sell to tourists. It was also amazing to see that the areas of the Troubles in Belfast are all immaculate now. We got off the bus and took a photo of the Sinn Fein headquarters on Falls Road and it was like being in a nice neighborhood in any major city. If it weren't for the political murals and the Peace Line wall, you wouldn't even know there had ever been any violence there at all.

 

Tomorrow is Greenock/Glasgow. I'm not going into town, but I am planning to go up the way to the next town (probably by train) to see a castle, since we missed so many in Wales. We'll probably also have another stop in a pub. :D

 

About the rough seas, I'd say it was pretty rough. We had force 9 winds yesterday, and even that channel on the stateroom TV said the seas were in the 7-12 foot range, and I think they usually underestimate the seas. That roughness didn't last all day, but it did last for quite a while, and it was fairly rough in the channel too. I don't tend to seasickness, but my DH does (he was horribly seasick on our first Alaska cruise) and he's been taking Bonine and has been just fine even through the rough seas yesterday. It makes him a heck of a lot less drowsy than Dramamine too. So, for those who are worried about seasickness, the Bonine might be a good thing to try.

 

Speaking of weather, today's was very nice, partly cloudy and we only saw a very few raindrops, and only when we were on the bus, never when we were outside. :D

 

Gotta run, need to sort out the cancelled tour info and then head off to dinner! I think I answered everyone's questions but if I didn't, ask them again! :)

[Wenneke]

Calikak,

 

Thank you so much for giving us all this info.

 

Can you pls tell me where you were docked in Belfast, was Princess offering a shuttle?

 

I was also wondering on what day they start promoting the SPA arrangements, when is the facial for 20 $? (I'm already dreaming about it).

 

PS: there is a nice heatwave in Belgium, France and Spain at this moment, hopefully your weather will become better

 

Wendy.

[calikak]

Hi all (back working out issues with cancelled tour). Yes, there was a shuttle, but I didn't check how much it was, since we had a tour. We're docked not too far from the city center, in a shipping terminal again. We can see the big cranes from the shipyard that built the Titanic from the starboard side of the ship! Very cool.

 

I've seen a couple of fliers for the spa in our box, but they haven't caught my eye yet. I think they ran a special yesterday because of the cancelled port, but I was busy in the casino. My dad sat at a nickel slot machine next to me and won like $40 or something, while I won zippo. My mom also won $50. :)

 

Someone also asked about exchange rates: we've only exchanged dollars to euros onboard, it was $1=.73 euro. You can also just go to an ATM ashore and pick up some euros with your ATM card and probably get the best rate around, provided your bank doesn't charge too much in fees (that's what we've done to get pounds). Belfast is NOT on euros, they're part of the UK so they use pounds, so Dublin is our only Euro port. Also, FYI, we haven't had to clear customs at all this trip, which is very nice!

 

OK, off to dinner!

[shecky465]

QUOTE:Just back from our tour in Belfast and it was absolutely fantastic. This was another CC-organized tour (huge thanks to Lynne for organizing this one!) through Minicoach.co.uk.

 

 

 

I went to the webpage (minicoach.co.uk) And it comes up as a webpage for a train station in Britain called Chester-Le-Track. Is this the place to be to investigate booking a tour to Giant's Causeway?

 

At the moment, I am booked on the cruise offered tour on the 7/1 sailing but your description of the tour that you were on makes me want to cancel and sign up with minicoach.

 

Any help would be appreciated and keep up the postings on your cruise. They are incredibly helpful in planning my cruise in about 35 days.

[kaleighsgram]

Shecky 465: Have you found the postings for the July 1 sailing of the Golden? I thought perhaps you would be interested (since I haven't seen your name on it).

[WFF]

Shecky,

The web site for the Mini Coach is:

 

http://www.minicoachni.co.uk

[blackegg]

Beth:

 

Is Princess letting all the passengers keep thier passports to take along into the ports or are they holding them for the entire cruise? Princess did the latter last year on their Greek islands cruise.

 

Thanks,

 

 

Jim

Blackegg

[Jules1]

What did you work out for your cancelled tour in Holyhead??? We're with the same tour guide (June 11 cruise) and am wondering what they did in regards to the cancellation for your group (just in case we also miss Holyhead).

[shecky465]

Shecky 465: Have you found the postings for the July 1 sailing of the Golden? I thought perhaps you would be interested (since I haven't seen your name on it).

 

 

Hi

 

I have been keeping up with the postings for the 7/1 roll call but must admit that I have not posted over there yet.

 

We will be a group of six on the cruise.

 

I promise to add my name over at the roll call.

 

Best

 

Rick

[Logie]

Someone also asked about exchange rates: we've only exchanged dollars to euros onboard, it was $1=.73 euro. You can also just go to an ATM ashore and pick up some euros with your ATM card and probably get the best rate around, provided your bank doesn't charge too much in fees (that's what we've done to get pounds). Belfast is NOT on euros, they're part of the UK so they use pounds, so Dublin is our only Euro port. Also, FYI, we haven't had to clear customs at all this trip, which is very nice!

 

Thank you for this information, very helpful.. I signed up for the same tour in Belfast already so glad to hear the great review....

 

The rough seas is worrysome though. Maybe it's just a Golden thing as I was on a few weeks ago and ran into the storm that got us back a day later...

[harry3rd]

I have a question regarding Dublin. Can you take a taxi from the city back to the port at night. We want to do a pub crawl, but the last ship transfer is too early.

[insidecabin]

Thanks guys for all the info, we are on the july 1st and parents on 10aug, lets hope the weather is the same as today(just back from lunch) it warmed up a fair bit.

 

Belfast tour sounds good. shame about hollyhead.

 

Is it right that you need cash for the casino(I am a bit low on $). Other ships have allowed me to sign to the room and put on the CC so I don't pay for at least a month.

[cinnamon]

Is it right that you need cash for the casino(I am a bit low on $). Other ships have allowed me to sign to the room and put on the CC so I don't pay for at least a month.

 

When I said you need cash, I meant as in dollar bills or quarters. I don't know the best way to get those as we are not gamblers. I just meant that I don't think you can sign for chips inside the casino, but maybe you can at the purser's desk. However it would be a cash advance on a credit card.

 

Cinnamon

[Bob & Barb]

You can sign on your room for casino coins or bills BUT they charge you interest. Not so on other things billed to your account.

[calikak]

Hi all! Just returned from a gloriously rainy day in Greenock. I decided a while back that I would rather see small town Scotland than Glasgow, so we spent the day in Greenock itself and in Port Glasgow, which is the next town up the train line. First off, I have to say that a visit to Newark Castle in Port Glasgow is probably going to be the highlight of this entire trip. It's a 15th/16th century castle that is almost entirely intact, and the woman who was working there (Deborah) was incredibly knowledgable and friendly. There were 2 other tourists there, so we pretty much had the run of the place and could poke around every nook and cranny of the entire castle. Deborah even took us out to the dovecote and let us look in there. In fact, Deborah took out her sword collection and let us have a sword fight in the banquet hall so we could take fun pictures. We all took great ones of the wives stabbing the husbands, and of the guys battling it out. I was really worried that it would turn out to be a total dud of a place to visit, because it's not a big place and not well advertised, but it was seriously fantastic. It was also easily reached by train. It's about a 5 minute train ride from Greenock to Port Glasgow, and about a 5-10 minute walk from the train down to the castle. Just visit the Inverclyde Council website before you go and download their maps of the two towns. It's also only about a 10 minute walk to the train station in Greenock from the ship, so we took no cabs at all today. I almost hate to recommend this place because it's such a gem that I would hate to see it overrun, but it really was incredibly cool.

 

We had lunch in a lovely place called The Yard, a bar/restaurant a block and a half west and a half-block north of the James Watt Pub. The food was great and cheap, and the cider the waitress recommended was delicious. They also sell inflatable sheep in the men's room. I have no idea why, but seriously, they do, they're 5 pounds each!

 

We also visted the McLean Museum, which is up the hill a bit in Greenock. It's a small museum with a weird assortment of stuff, much of which I think some old dead rich guy must have donated to them, including several stuffed animals (a tiger, two lions, a passenger pigeon, etc.) and a bunch of samurai swords. The downstairs portion is the best part, with a history of the towns along the Clyde. It's free.

 

OK, your questions: for our tour, the company is going with their stated cancellation policy that they gave us before (7.50 per person). I thought that was fair, given that they ended up having to drive all the way to Holyhead (2.5 hours) because the captain decided so late to turn the ship around. Will keep you posted if there are any problems, but they've been very honest about the whole thing and I feel comfortable with the situation.

 

We were told that in Dublin you can't take a cab back to the ship, just the shuttle, so we didn't do a pub crawl. I was pretty annoyed about that.

 

Princess has not collected our passports. We haven't had to clear customs at all this trip. Love sailing around the EU, no border controls at all.

 

I think Bob&Barb is right about the casino thing. I only play small slots so it's never an issue for me.

 

WWF is right about the website, sorry about that. Ask if you can have Jim as your driver. We had pretty much the same tour as the ship-organized tour for less than half the price.

 

OK, off to dinner! I have a massage tomorrow morning, will post how that goes. :D

[britsbest]

Just to let you guys know that its been the hotest day in May for 50 years down in the South of UK !!!

[Host CJSKIDS]

Just to let you guys know that its been the hotest day in May for 50 years down in the South of UK !!!

 

That I like to hear. Maybe we'll get some warm weather for our July visit.