Live From - The Caribbean Princess TransAtlantic

[Julia’s Journey’s]

You just really made me want to go to Ireland :)

 

Have an awesome time and looking forward to the next installment :)

[JustinPlusLauren]

Thank you so much for your daily reviews! I've really enjoyed reading it so far (from all of the posters!). I really want to go to the Azores now.... :)

[ccrain]

05-09-2013 – In Port @ Dublin

 

I think the entire crew got off last night. All of them are tired, but have smiles on their faces. They apparently went out and painted the town. Plan for the day – go into Dublin on the shuttle and walk around the town. Shuttle R/T was $16 each. Cabs were available as well, but we did not use one. You can also walk to town. It’s through an industrial working port, but there seemed to be no issues getting in or out.

 

Gripe, gripe, gripe. Some people I really want to slap. On the shuttle some people were complaining about the fact that Princess was actually charging for the shuttle after ‘making them stay in port overnight and cancelling their tour in Cobh’. Give me a break! It cost Princess a pretty penny to overnight in Dublin and they refunded all the revenue from the Cobh excursions. As one of the comedians said, ‘here’s your free muffin, now shutup!.

 

So the weather caught up with us. Foggy, drizzly, chilly, windy – typical Irish weather. Of course we are layering, but raincoats make great windbreakers and we carry umbrellas as well for the downpours. Judy, my cold blooded lizard, usually wears a T and a sweatshirt. Jeans and a short sleeve shirt are fine for me. No shorts, that’s for sure.

 

The shuttle dropped us off around the corner from one of the entrances to Trinity college, south side of the Liffey just a couple of streets from the Grafton Street shopping area. Lots of shops. Lots of souvenir shops, lots of green stuff. We wandered around the town going into various shops, talking to various people. Judy’s sister married into an Irish family so her nephew is getting his coat of arms, a family history and some other stuff for Christmas. We had to go by “Knobs and Knockers” a store of doorknobs and door knockers. (Yep, they do have a sense of humor.) But they wanted $13 EU for a T-shirt. We settled for a photo of the T-shirt.

 

The shuttle ran from 8am to 12noon, 4 busses were running in sequence with about a 10 minute wait between shuttles. The shuttle company people and drivers were really nice and fun. Thanking each and every one of us for contributing to the Irish economy as we got onto the bus with our packages.

 

We had lunch on the ship, but Judy has had a sore throat for a few days, plus we headed out into high winds and very choppy seas. We had a pronounced list all afternoon due to the wind hitting the sides of the ship. Zumba was interesting for sure, but the swells were short and choppy, not enough time in the Irish Sea to build the larger rollers that really make it uncomfortable – until later that night.

 

Because of the sea state and Judy’s sore throat we went to bed really early. (Dinner was at the IC in the Piazza.) Opening drawers and some substantial shimmying during the night woke us up a few times. Those double and triple ship shivers, like we hit a wall, got us up after midnight closing the nightstand drawers. Of course being on Aloha, you get a little more side to side motion than on Emerald.

 

05-10-2013 @ Portsmouth

 

Blue skies, mixing with fog, mist, we are now at anchor and the tenders are running ahead of schedule. We’re having coffee in the IC with Paul and Elizabeth. No tours today. We are heading ashore on our own. We plan to walk the town, go see the castle, do some shopping, and have a pub lunch before returning. The last tender leaves the shore at 415 this afternoon.

 

Tonight is a rerun of Piano Man. We probably won’t make that one. We’ve seen it a lot. There is a balancing act Lubo and Lucy, in the Piazza in one of the little vignettes. We need to catch that once, hopefully tonight. Dancing in explorer’s with S-Sounds starts at 715.

 

A dance party in Explorer's at 915, but we lose another hour tonight in prep for landing in Le Havre. Judy will be going to Versailles, I will be going to Normandy. So it will be very early in the morning for sure.

 

Might not be posting for a few days and I will start a new Live From thread for those British Isle cruisers on upcoming cruises.

 

So we'll talk later...

[phabric]

Please tell us on this thread when you have started the British Isle's thread. Will you be posting on the Princess and the Port of Call - Britain threads?

 

When you disembarked for excursions, did you use deck 5 and tender ports deck 4?

For tender ports, where did you have to go to get the tickets?

[spyro1952]

If you would be so kind to report how much the Princess shuttle costs?

 

Shuttle for both Dublin & LaHarve is $16 R/T on this cruise. I don't know if they would charge more during the summer cruises since gas is usually higher then. :)

[phabric]

Shuttle for both Dublin & LaHarve is $16 R/T on this cruise. I don't know if they would charge more during the summer cruises since gas is usually higher then. :)

 

Can you get 1 way tickets?

[tvlbum]

Were there only two of you? How did you manage to get on with 8 bottles of wine, beer, etc?

 

 

DH and I are on this cruise in one of the last minis on E deck. We love our cabin and extended balcony. Seas so far have been fairly calm, not too much rock and roll at the back of the ship. Internet service also has been very good. We are first time platinum and are pleased with the free internet. It was very easy to log in.

 

We want to thank Kathy for organizing the meet and greet, the up coming slot pull, etc., and for setting up a terrific webpage. Also, props to Dee for helping Kathy out at the M&G.

 

We have early traditional seating which is in the Palm dining room. Although we had requested a table for two, we are at a table for six. Our tablemates so far are a entertaining couple from Berlin Germany. The other couple hasn't shown up yet. Food has been very good. Tonight we had the lamb shank which was recommended by the Chef who happened to be in the Atrium earlier today. Peter, our server is very attentive.

 

We echo CCRAIN, embarkation was very smooth. We were on the ship by 12:15 and went straight to our cabin where we dropped off our eight bottles of wine, 12-pack of beer, and other carry on. Other unmentionables in our checked luggage also arrived intact.

[IECalCruiser]

Were there only two of you? How did you manage to get on with 8 bottles of wine, beer, etc?

Princess changed the wording of the Passage contract last September but, except for a test on one cruise out if San Pedro, they have not enforced the new policy in the US. Previously Princess didn't care about how much wine you brought on board. A change is probably coming soon so if you are interested in bringing wine on board, follow the Princess board. There are several threads about the issue if you do a search.

[ccrain]

Please tell us on this thread when you have started the British Isle's thread. Will you be posting on the Princess and the Port of Call - Britain threads?

 

When you disembarked for excursions, did you use deck 5 and tender ports deck 4?

For tender ports, where did you have to go to get the tickets?

 

I will post the new thread on the Princess boards. Excursion disembarkation varied between the theater and explorer's lounge. For Le Havre they are using almost all the lounges as most of the busses have to leave early.

 

Tender tickets were in Fusion, but being Elite, we just walked down to the pontoons on deck 4. They were using 4 forward and 4 miships at the same time.

[ccrain]

Can you get 1 way tickets?

 

$8 each way per person...

[ccrain]

05-10-2013 Evening Update

 

Today was another great day. Falmouth is a tender port and tendering started at a little past 0700. Since we did not have a tour scheduled we decided to sleep a little later, wait a little longer since the shops in town did not open until around 1000. We went onto the tender around 0930 and then off to shore in about 20 minutes. The tenders are met by the Falmouth Cruise Ship Ambassadors. You get a little ditty bag with coupons, maps, and other information. The plan for us was to find our way to the Pendennis Castle.

 

Falmouth turned out to be a great walking port, similar to Victoria. We landed, talked to the Ambassadors for a while, followed the signs out of the port turned to the left, up the hill and there was the castle. But we walked the path down to the headlands to see the secondary fort positions and to get some shots of the ship anchored just offshore. The weather was windy, a bit chilly, but no rain or mist. Great walking weather. After wandering around the headlands a bit, we went back around the hill to the fort entrance and then walked around the fort/castle for a while. Great views, and a well preserved Henry the VIII fortification. It was even upgraded for WWI and WWII with more modern coastal defense guns and anti-aircraft guns, which are on display as well. Old cannons are in place as well. They’ve done a great job of preservation and they have installed limited upgrades for displays and ease of access. It is run by the English Heritage foundation. Same group as Stonehenge. We walked, hiked and photographed for a good 6 miles to work up an appetite for fish and chips.

 

The Cruise Ship Ambassadors recommended Rick Stein’s Fish in Falmouth. It was packed, but service was good and prompt. We had, of course, fish and chips. I had the haddock, Judy had cod, and we had two pints of the local brew. Much colder and carbonated than the brews I’ve had in the northern part of the country, but after walking for several hours we were hungry and thirsty and the beers tasted wonderful. The fish was hot, crunchy and very tasty, as were the chips. Judy swears the mushy peas had just a hint of jalapeno in them. I didn’t taste any jalapeno, but the mushy peas were fresh and very different from those we’ve had before. And the fish batter was well seasoned with salt – something that the northern part of the country doesn’t do quite as much of.

 

Rick Steins is about ¾ mile from the cruise ship. Its in the first major shopping center on the right as you enter town. There are several other restaurants, including KFC and a pizzeria, and a Cornish pasty shop with all kinds of meat and vegetable pies. There is also a small grocery store and a wine store as well. Plenty to see, do and shop. This is also where the free shuttle drops off and picks up. The shuttles are large busses, about 3 of them, that do a circuit every 10-15 minutes. They really appreciate your business in the town and try to make your visit, and your expenditures of funds, as convenient as possible.

 

After wandering about a bit, we caught the 2:30 tender and was back on board by 3 with no problems. Dinner was a chef’s dinner in the dining room as both of us were ready for a sit down meal. Judy had the wild mushroom soup, and after a bit pepper, it was really good. She had the salad and fried chicken. The chicken was good with a bit of spice in the breading, crispy, not bad. I had the twice cooked goat cheese soufflé. The flavor was great, the texture a bit pudding like. I also had the gnocchi in tomato sauce, which were good and the three meat main course which had chicken on a stick, veal in a roulade style roll and a lamb chop with a potato croquet, spinach and grilled tomato. It was good. For dessert we both had ice cream as we have been craving ice cream all day.

 

After dinner it was gift time as we had bought some sweets in Dublin to hand out to some of the crew. So we wandered around finding various crew members passing out sweets. We also managed to catch the Lubo and Lucy balancing act in the Piazza. He balanced, on the blade of a knife – with the handle in his mouth, two wine glasses, four water glasses and four shot glasses. Geez, that was pretty impressive. He balanced a lot of other stuff, like a sword on this fore head as well. Nice show.

 

We lose another hour today in preparation for Le Havre and Paris/Normandy. Judy is headed to Versailles with Mom and Elizabeth, I am headed to Normandy with Paul. We have to meet for our tour at 0730 which means up at 0530 for shower, coffee and breakfast. So after dancing to S-Sounds for a while we have decided to turn in early. I will update this Live From tomorrow night after we get back from France and then relate turn around day in a new Live From thread that I will start on Sunday.

 

Night all…

[strummer]

05-10-2013 Evening Update

 

Today was another great day. Falmouth is a tender port and tendering started at a little past 0700. Since we did not have a tour scheduled we decided to sleep a little later, wait a little longer since the shops in town did not open until around 1000. We went onto the tender around 0930 and then off to shore in about 20 minutes. The tenders are met by the Falmouth Cruise Ship Ambassadors. You get a little ditty bag with coupons, maps, and other information. The plan for us was to find our way to the Pendennis Castle.

 

Falmouth turned out to be a great walking port, similar to Victoria. We landed, talked to the Ambassadors for a while, followed the signs out of the port turned to the left, up the hill and there was the castle. But we walked the path down to the headlands to see the secondary fort positions and to get some shots of the ship anchored just offshore. The weather was windy, a bit chilly, but no rain or mist. Great walking weather. After wandering around the headlands a bit, we went back around the hill to the fort entrance and then walked around the fort/castle for a while. Great views, and a well preserved Henry the VIII fortification. It was even upgraded for WWI and WWII with more modern coastal defense guns and anti-aircraft guns, which are on display as well. Old cannons are in place as well. They’ve done a great job of preservation and they have installed limited upgrades for displays and ease of access. It is run by the English Heritage foundation. Same group as Stonehenge. We walked, hiked and photographed for a good 6 miles to work up an appetite for fish and chips.

 

The Cruise Ship Ambassadors recommended Rick Stein’s Fish in Falmouth. It was packed, but service was good and prompt. We had, of course, fish and chips. I had the haddock, Judy had cod, and we had two pints of the local brew. Much colder and carbonated than the brews I’ve had in the northern part of the country, but after walking for several hours we were hungry and thirsty and the beers tasted wonderful. The fish was hot, crunchy and very tasty, as were the chips. Judy swears the mushy peas had just a hint of jalapeno in them. I didn’t taste any jalapeno, but the mushy peas were fresh and very different from those we’ve had before. And the fish batter was well seasoned with salt – something that the northern part of the country doesn’t do quite as much of.

 

Rick Steins is about ¾ mile from the cruise ship. Its in the first major shopping center on the right as you enter town. There are several other restaurants, including KFC and a pizzeria, and a Cornish pasty shop with all kinds of meat and vegetable pies. There is also a small grocery store and a wine store as well. Plenty to see, do and shop. This is also where the free shuttle drops off and picks up. The shuttles are large busses, about 3 of them, that do a circuit every 10-15 minutes. They really appreciate your business in the town and try to make your visit, and your expenditures of funds, as convenient as possible.

 

After wandering about a bit, we caught the 2:30 tender and was back on board by 3 with no problems. Dinner was a chef’s dinner in the dining room as both of us were ready for a sit down meal. Judy had the wild mushroom soup, and after a bit pepper, it was really good. She had the salad and fried chicken. The chicken was good with a bit of spice in the breading, crispy, not bad. I had the twice cooked goat cheese soufflé. The flavor was great, the texture a bit pudding like. I also had the gnocchi in tomato sauce, which were good and the three meat main course which had chicken on a stick, veal in a roulade style roll and a lamb chop with a potato croquet, spinach and grilled tomato. It was good. For dessert we both had ice cream as we have been craving ice cream all day.

 

After dinner it was gift time as we had bought some sweets in Dublin to hand out to some of the crew. So we wandered around finding various crew members passing out sweets. We also managed to catch the Lubo and Lucy balancing act in the Piazza. He balanced, on the blade of a knife – with the handle in his mouth, two wine glasses, four water glasses and four shot glasses. Geez, that was pretty impressive. He balanced a lot of other stuff, like a sword on this fore head as well. Nice show.

 

We lose another hour today in preparation for Le Havre and Paris/Normandy. Judy is headed to Versailles with Mom and Elizabeth, I am headed to Normandy with Paul. We have to meet for our tour at 0730 which means up at 0530 for shower, coffee and breakfast. So after dancing to S-Sounds for a while we have decided to turn in early. I will update this Live From tomorrow night after we get back from France and then relate turn around day in a new Live From thread that I will start on Sunday.

 

Night all…

 

So glad you enjoyed Falmouth. I have very good memories of Falmouth as my Sister got married in Pendennis Castle and we had the wedding breakfast in St Mawes over the estuary.

[Woobstr112G]

05-10-2013 Evening Update

 

Today was another great day. Falmouth is a tender port and tendering started at a little past 0700. Since we did not have a tour scheduled we decided to sleep a little later, wait a little longer since the shops in town did not open until around 1000. We went onto the tender around 0930 and then off to shore in about 20 minutes. The tenders are met by the Falmouth Cruise Ship Ambassadors. You get a little ditty bag with coupons, maps, and other information. The plan for us was to find our way to the Pendennis Castle.

 

Falmouth turned out to be a great walking port, similar to Victoria. We landed, talked to the Ambassadors for a while, followed the signs out of the port turned to the left, up the hill and there was the castle. But we walked the path down to the headlands to see the secondary fort positions and to get some shots of the ship anchored just offshore. The weather was windy, a bit chilly, but no rain or mist. Great walking weather. After wandering around the headlands a bit, we went back around the hill to the fort entrance and then walked around the fort/castle for a while. Great views, and a well preserved Henry the VIII fortification. It was even upgraded for WWI and WWII with more modern coastal defense guns and anti-aircraft guns, which are on display as well. Old cannons are in place as well. They’ve done a great job of preservation and they have installed limited upgrades for displays and ease of access. It is run by the English Heritage foundation. Same group as Stonehenge. We walked, hiked and photographed for a good 6 miles to work up an appetite for fish and chips.

 

The Cruise Ship Ambassadors recommended Rick Stein’s Fish in Falmouth. It was packed, but service was good and prompt. We had, of course, fish and chips. I had the haddock, Judy had cod, and we had two pints of the local brew. Much colder and carbonated than the brews I’ve had in the northern part of the country, but after walking for several hours we were hungry and thirsty and the beers tasted wonderful. The fish was hot, crunchy and very tasty, as were the chips. Judy swears the mushy peas had just a hint of jalapeno in them. I didn’t taste any jalapeno, but the mushy peas were fresh and very different from those we’ve had before. And the fish batter was well seasoned with salt – something that the northern part of the country doesn’t do quite as much of.

 

Rick Steins is about ¾ mile from the cruise ship. Its in the first major shopping center on the right as you enter town. There are several other restaurants, including KFC and a pizzeria, and a Cornish pasty shop with all kinds of meat and vegetable pies. There is also a small grocery store and a wine store as well. Plenty to see, do and shop. This is also where the free shuttle drops off and picks up. The shuttles are large busses, about 3 of them, that do a circuit every 10-15 minutes. They really appreciate your business in the town and try to make your visit, and your expenditures of funds, as convenient as possible.

 

After wandering about a bit, we caught the 2:30 tender and was back on board by 3 with no problems. Dinner was a chef’s dinner in the dining room as both of us were ready for a sit down meal. Judy had the wild mushroom soup, and after a bit pepper, it was really good. She had the salad and fried chicken. The chicken was good with a bit of spice in the breading, crispy, not bad. I had the twice cooked goat cheese soufflé. The flavor was great, the texture a bit pudding like. I also had the gnocchi in tomato sauce, which were good and the three meat main course which had chicken on a stick, veal in a roulade style roll and a lamb chop with a potato croquet, spinach and grilled tomato. It was good. For dessert we both had ice cream as we have been craving ice cream all day.

 

After dinner it was gift time as we had bought some sweets in Dublin to hand out to some of the crew. So we wandered around finding various crew members passing out sweets. We also managed to catch the Lubo and Lucy balancing act in the Piazza. He balanced, on the blade of a knife – with the handle in his mouth, two wine glasses, four water glasses and four shot glasses. Geez, that was pretty impressive. He balanced a lot of other stuff, like a sword on this fore head as well. Nice show.

 

We lose another hour today in preparation for Le Havre and Paris/Normandy. Judy is headed to Versailles with Mom and Elizabeth, I am headed to Normandy with Paul. We have to meet for our tour at 0730 which means up at 0530 for shower, coffee and breakfast. So after dancing to S-Sounds for a while we have decided to turn in early. I will update this Live From tomorrow night after we get back from France and then relate turn around day in a new Live From thread that I will start on Sunday.

 

Night all…

 

Enjoy your trip to Normandy.....:):):)

Bob

[ccrain]

05-11-2013 – Le Havre (Versailles and Normandy)

 

Another hour lost, another early day, another full day of excursioning. We docked at 0700, and got on the bus and out the gate at 0800. Paul and I did the full day of Normandy tours and wouldn’t get back to the ship until 630PM. Judy left on a full day tour of Versailles with Elizabeth and Mom and wouldn’t get back until 645PM, after scaring the living bejesus out of me…but more about that later.

 

It was about a 2 hour drive to Point du Hoc, the southernmost point of our trip. We took the motorway most of the way, but we did do a little detour for the guide, Jeffery – an Australian ExPat who know lives in France and works as a full time tour guide, to show us a full sized real hedgerow. (Most hedgerows are now gone.) Hedgerows were an important topographic and military feature of the Normandy and subsequent Operation Cobra battles.

 

It was windy and cold at Point du Hoc and it looked a lot like the scenes in the Longest Day. Bomb craters, shell craters, disintegrating concrete of the fortifications, some directly hit by the bombardment. The cliffs, oh the cliffs. The movie is most accurate showing the trenches at the top of the cliffs, the barbed wire, the pebble beaches at the bottom, you could easily see the German troops throwing potato masher grenades down the cliff while the rangers climbed the cliffs under fire. Over 200 started, less than 80 were combat effective 48 hours later. And yes, the installed “guns” were nothing more than telephone poles, but the real guns were back about 300 yards in an orchard.

 

We then went up the coast along Omaha beach. Up along the beach where the men crawled 300-400 yards fully exposed on the sand beach at low tide. We arrived at high tide, so while we couldn’t see the beaches, we could look up onto the hills and see the bunkers, the machine gun posts, the mortar pits. The German troops had the high ground. The movie is again accurate in portraying the situation as grave and desperate. The US troops were fighting for 5 draws, valleys if you will, that form pathways up past the cliffs and hills. These pathways were necessary to ensure truck and tank transport up into the interior and had to be taken, and defended, at all cost. We did a photostop on Omaha just up the coast from Point du Hoc at St,-Laurent/Mer.

 

From there we went to the most poignant visit of the tour, the American Cemetery on Omaha Beach at Colleville-Sur-Mer. Words simply cannot describe the feelings that run through you when you walk past grave after grave, reading the names, the dates, the units. And after a dozen or so the tears start to blur your vision and you look up, blinking them away, only to see row after row after row of perfectly aligned white headstones, crosses, stars of david, each representing a life given – and there are 9,387 of them in the cemetery. The chapel, the inscriptions, the memorial and of course the wall of the missing – those 1,557 that were never recovered, forever lost on foreign shores. The whole site overlooks Omaha beach and is adjacent to one of those hotly contested valleys. Magnificent pine tree are scattered through the site as are perfectly pruned oak trees along the exit walkway. It is simply one of the most touching and moving war memorials I’ve ever seen.

 

After the cemetery we went to the Omaha beach country club for a late lunch. Salad, chicken and a tart of some kind with wine. It was actually pretty good. From lunch we went to the Musee Du DeBarquement in Arromanches to see the remains of the British Mulberry harbor. Even though I consider myself well versed in WWII, I never quite understood the scale of the Mulberry Harbor until you actually see the ring of Phoenix cassions in the water. All of the floating docks and roadways are gone, but about ½ of the ring of Phoenix blocks are still there. The dioramas inside the museum provide a more complete picture of what they looked like when they were in place. The scale of the effort and the audacity of the design is quite incredible.

 

It was in Arromanches that I get a call, on my cell phone, from Elizabeth, who is calling me on Judy’s cell phone and her first words are – ‘we have a problem…’. So let me get this straight, a friend of ours is calling me on my wife’s cell phone saying we have a problem. Does anyone have any idea how many scenarios of bad things one can have go through your head in just the time it takes between a period and the start of a new sentence? Elizabeth then relays to me that they have ‘missed the bus’, ‘can’t find the bus’, and that ‘the bus is gone and we are still in Versailles’, and ‘oh, by the way, the cell phone battery is almost dead’. Unfortunately both my paperwork on phone number and Judy’s paperwork on phone numbers is still on both of our respective busses. So Paul and I begin a frantic search for our guide, somewhere in Arromanches, to get phone numbers from him. 10 minutes later we can’t find him, so I try to call Judy back and tell her to grab a cab and go back to the ship. (That is one expensive option…). But I can’t reach her, the phone isn’t connecting, the signal is getting lost, I’m getting her voice mail, etc., etc., etc.

 

Finally after 15 minutes of ***Oing around Arromanches she calls me back and simply says ‘found the tour guide, everything’s fine, cell’s about dead, love you, bye’…Paul starts laughing, I don’t know if I want to laugh, cry or just hit something. Needless to say, we won’t be going on separate excursions again for a real long time. All’s well that ends well? Only after 3 whiskey sours…

 

So after the little ‘incident’ in Arromanches, we continued up the coast past Sword, Juno and Gold beach, only slowing down for a few photos here and there at Douvres-la-Delivrande, the German radar site, the Canadian cemetery at Cintheux and a whole host of various memorials, both public and private, alongside the road to various units or persons. It seems like each and every little town along the beaches had their own memorial to a specific unit, such as the 1st Infantry Division. It was quite moving to read some of the various plaques, signs and memorials thanking the soldiers for their sacrifice to French Liberte.

 

Once we reached Caen, we hit the Motorway to head back to Le Havre arriving around 630PM. Judy walked into the cabin 15 minutes later having thoroughly enjoyed her day in Versailles, in spite of the little incident, and was, of course, hungry.

 

Since this is landfall night, we all went to anytime dining. Elizabeth got her Elite pin as tomorrow starts her 16th cruise. Dinner was a Princess dinner menu reminiscent of the old Landfall menu. Judy had the meatloaf, Paul the mussels, Elizabeth and Mom the turkey. I, after 3 whiskey sours, had the mussels, which I think were pretty good, but then after 3 drinks, who cares?

 

Nothing is going on tonight until after 10 and we are all beat. So its off the bed, looking at, and somewhat gloating, over the fact that we don’t have to pack tonight! Such is one of the biggest perks for a B2B.

 

So that concludes part 1 of our cruise. To be continued on the next thread!

[loma linda ca a & j]

05-11-2013 – Le Havre (Versailles and Normandy)

 

Another hour lost, another early day, another full day of excursioning. We docked at 0700, and got on the bus and out the gate at 0800. Paul and I did the full day of Normandy tours and wouldn’t get back to the ship until 630PM. Judy left on a full day tour of Versailles with Elizabeth and Mom and wouldn’t get back until 645PM, after scaring the living bejesus out of me…but more about that later.

 

It was about a 2 hour drive to Point du Hoc, the southernmost point of our trip. We took the motorway most of the way, but we did do a little detour for the guide, Jeffery – an Australian ExPat who know lives in France and works as a full time tour guide, to show us a full sized real hedgerow. (Most hedgerows are now gone.) Hedgerows were an important topographic and military feature of the Normandy and subsequent Operation Cobra battles.

 

It was windy and cold at Point du Hoc and it looked a lot like the scenes in the Longest Day. Bomb craters, shell craters, disintegrating concrete of the fortifications, some directly hit by the bombardment. The cliffs, oh the cliffs. The movie is most accurate showing the trenches at the top of the cliffs, the barbed wire, the pebble beaches at the bottom, you could easily see the German troops throwing potato masher grenades down the cliff while the rangers climbed the cliffs under fire. Over 200 started, less than 80 were combat effective 48 hours later. And yes, the installed “guns” were nothing more than telephone poles, but the real guns were back about 300 yards in an orchard.

 

We then went up the coast along Omaha beach. Up along the beach where the men crawled 300-400 yards fully exposed on the sand beach at low tide. We arrived at high tide, so while we couldn’t see the beaches, we could look up onto the hills and see the bunkers, the machine gun posts, the mortar pits. The German troops had the high ground. The movie is again accurate in portraying the situation as grave and desperate. The US troops were fighting for 5 draws, valleys if you will, that form pathways up past the cliffs and hills. These pathways were necessary to ensure truck and tank transport up into the interior and had to be taken, and defended, at all cost. We did a photostop on Omaha just up the coast from Point du Hoc at St,-Laurent/Mer.

 

From there we went to the most poignant visit of the tour, the American Cemetery on Omaha Beach at Colleville-Sur-Mer. Words simply cannot describe the feelings that run through you when you walk past grave after grave, reading the names, the dates, the units. And after a dozen or so the tears start to blur your vision and you look up, blinking them away, only to see row after row after row of perfectly aligned white headstones, crosses, stars of david, each representing a life given – and there are 9,387 of them in the cemetery. The chapel, the inscriptions, the memorial and of course the wall of the missing – those 1,557 that were never recovered, forever lost on foreign shores. The whole site overlooks Omaha beach and is adjacent to one of those hotly contested valleys. Magnificent pine tree are scattered through the site as are perfectly pruned oak trees along the exit walkway. It is simply one of the most touching and moving war memorials I’ve ever seen.

 

After the cemetery we went to the Omaha beach country club for a late lunch. Salad, chicken and a tart of some kind with wine. It was actually pretty good. From lunch we went to the Musee Du DeBarquement in Arromanches to see the remains of the British Mulberry harbor. Even though I consider myself well versed in WWII, I never quite understood the scale of the Mulberry Harbor until you actually see the ring of Phoenix cassions in the water. All of the floating docks and roadways are gone, but about ½ of the ring of Phoenix blocks are still there. The dioramas inside the museum provide a more complete picture of what they looked like when they were in place. The scale of the effort and the audacity of the design is quite incredible.

 

It was in Arromanches that I get a call, on my cell phone, from Elizabeth, who is calling me on Judy’s cell phone and her first words are – ‘we have a problem…’. So let me get this straight, a friend of ours is calling me on my wife’s cell phone saying we have a problem. Does anyone have any idea how many scenarios of bad things one can have go through your head in just the time it takes between a period and the start of a new sentence? Elizabeth then relays to me that they have ‘missed the bus’, ‘can’t find the bus’, and that ‘the bus is gone and we are still in Versailles’, and ‘oh, by the way, the cell phone battery is almost dead’. Unfortunately both my paperwork on phone number and Judy’s paperwork on phone numbers is still on both of our respective busses. So Paul and I begin a frantic search for our guide, somewhere in Arromanches, to get phone numbers from him. 10 minutes later we can’t find him, so I try to call Judy back and tell her to grab a cab and go back to the ship. (That is one expensive option…). But I can’t reach her, the phone isn’t connecting, the signal is getting lost, I’m getting her voice mail, etc., etc., etc.

 

Finally after 15 minutes of ***Oing around Arromanches she calls me back and simply says ‘found the tour guide, everything’s fine, cell’s about dead, love you, bye’…Paul starts laughing, I don’t know if I want to laugh, cry or just hit something. Needless to say, we won’t be going on separate excursions again for a real long time. All’s well that ends well? Only after 3 whiskey sours…

 

So after the little ‘incident’ in Arromanches, we continued up the coast past Sword, Juno and Gold beach, only slowing down for a few photos here and there at Douvres-la-Delivrande, the German radar site, the Canadian cemetery at Cintheux and a whole host of various memorials, both public and private, alongside the road to various units or persons. It seems like each and every little town along the beaches had their own memorial to a specific unit, such as the 1st Infantry Division. It was quite moving to read some of the various plaques, signs and memorials thanking the soldiers for their sacrifice to French Liberte.

 

Once we reached Caen, we hit the Motorway to head back to Le Havre arriving around 630PM. Judy walked into the cabin 15 minutes later having thoroughly enjoyed her day in Versailles, in spite of the little incident, and was, of course, hungry.

 

Since this is landfall night, we all went to anytime dining. Elizabeth got her Elite pin as tomorrow starts her 16th cruise. Dinner was a Princess dinner menu reminiscent of the old Landfall menu. Judy had the meatloaf, Paul the mussels, Elizabeth and Mom the turkey. I, after 3 whiskey sours, had the mussels, which I think were pretty good, but then after 3 drinks, who cares?

 

Nothing is going on tonight until after 10 and we are all beat. So its off the bed, looking at, and somewhat gloating, over the fact that we don’t have to pack tonight! Such is one of the biggest perks for a B2B.

 

So that concludes part 1 of our cruise. To be continued on the next thread!

your emotional telling of the graves, the "almost missing the bus ordeal",

& then "the mussels" is awesome !! such a great writer !!

glad it all turned out ok !!:)

[HRPro]

One of the most touching aspects of the American cemetery is that the names on the crosses all face west--looking towards home. We happened to be there at the top of the hour when the chimes play patriotic hymns. I definitely lost it when hearing America the Beautiful played in that setting of sacrifice and loss. glad you enjoyed your day.

[ccrain]

I have started a new thread on the BI cruise at:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1843068

[ccrain]

One of the most touching aspects of the American cemetery is that the names on the crosses all face west--looking towards home. We happened to be there at the top of the hour when the chimes play patriotic hymns. I definitely lost it when hearing America the Beautiful played in that setting of sacrifice and loss. glad you enjoyed your day.

 

the wind was blowing so hard, we probably missed the chimes.

 

yes, I really enjoyed that visit...

[Pirateskigirl]

Thank you for your review of this cruise.

 

I will never forget my visit to the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach. I have never seen whiter crosses, greener grass and bluer skies than the day of my visit. It was very moving and your description was excellent. Fun fact about the American cemeteries in Franc, The French gave the land to the USA to thank us for freeing their country, so when you are standing in the Cemetert at Omaha Beach, you are actually on American soil. :)

 

PS-Hi Fred & Nancy, Can't wait to here about your trip!