Rain Rain, Go Away - British Isles on the Legend Sept 13th

[jenng1976]

We could have walked up the Arc, but there was a line-up and it cost money, so we decided not to.

Instead, we walked down the Champs D'Elysee, and then took the Metro back to Gare St Lazare where we started. We had a quick lunch, then hopped on the train back to Le Havre, tired but happy!

 

 

We got back on the ship about 6:10PM - and dinner tonite had been pushed back to 6:30 for Early Seating and 8:30 for late due to people getting back from tours.

Our next stop before dinner was the Library/Computer room where we could print our boarding passes for the flight home - our trip was quickly drawing to a close.

After one last dinner - we headed back to the room to pack. We had to get our suitcases out by 10PM - we were zone 2 and would be up bright and early the next morning!

After packing - we went to the casino one last time to close our account, and to the show and comedy club. I felt bad for the comedians here tonite - the lounge wasn't very full and everyone was tired so they had a tough crowd. But, they did their best and we thought they were both pretty funny.

Oh, I forgot to mention - there was a little bit of drama! After dinner it was close to 8PM, when we were supposed to sail away and we went outside to watch. They had hooked up the gang plank to the crane and were all ready to go - but everyone was in standby mode. Of course we were hoping for pier runners! About 8:05 suddenly someone on one of the balconies called out "there's the BUS!" ... and down the pier through a special gate comes a coach bus filled with passengers. We heard later it was the Carnival On Your Own bus tour, where they provide the bus ride and you do your own sightseeing. I have no idea if that's true or why they were late getting back, but some of the people didn't seem thrilled with all the catcalls they were getting from us observers, haha. While others loved the attention!!

In particular, the "Carnival" guy on the bus didn't look very happy - hopefully he didn't get in trouble his bus was late. Anyway - once they were all unloaded it didn't take long to clear the gangplank and away we went - back to Dover.

I'll finish up with disembarking at Dover and final thoughts tomorrow!

[threetrips]

We prefer to eat alone, also. We were on the cruise before you and there was one evening that there was open seating because of the late day in Amsterdam. We got soaked that day and the last thing we wanted to do was sit and make happy talk with other people! It turned out nice. The other people seemed to feel the same way. The service was pretty fast, so we were out pretty quick.

 

We still say "no" to sharing!;)

 

Very nice review and beautiful pictures!

 

I've enjoyed your photos and review (know some folks that were on your cruise). We like sharing a big table to hear about everyone's day. We made some wonderful friends on the Magic TA in 2011. Diane

[jenng1976]

Last Day

On our last morning we are up super early ... 4:30AM. Yikes!! I had a quick shower and we headed upstairs to Lido for breakfast when it opened at 5AM. Unfortunately we couldn't do the MDR since it wasn't open at this time. We weren't the only ones up and eating at this early hour!

After breakfast we headed back to the cabin to finish getting ready and packing the last of our things into our carry-ons (since our suitcases had been picked up last night). We then went to the lounge on Deck 2 in front of the MDR to meet the people we were sharing a van with.

I had coordinated a van by Folkestone Taxi to take us to Heathrow Airport from Dover, it was 158 GBP for the van and 2 other couples from cc were travelling with us to split the cost. They were scheduled to pick us up at 6:30AM - we all had flights that left noon-ish so we wanted to make sure we had enough time to get through security and all that.

Originally we thought we would have to do Self-Assist to get off so early, but we got Zone 2 tags, so thankfully Carnival took our bags off for us! They called our zone around 6:10AM and away we went. There weren't many zone 2'ers so it was very easy to find out bags and head out.

The group stayed put in one place while I found our driver, he was early thank goodness! We loaded our bags and away we went - 6:29AM.

I was hoping it would be a quick drive since we got away in good time - but eventually we hit traffic and it took a good 2 1/2 hrs to get to Heathrow. We dropped off our Terminal 5 couple around 9AM, and got to T3 around 9:30.

We had checked in online the night before, so only needed to print our bag tags and drop them off, then headed to security. While I had heard nightmare stories about LHR security - we breezed through it in about 15 minutes. It would have been even sooner except there was that one guy before Jim who didn't take off his shoes, had change in his pocket and was still wearing his watch. Really? Sheesh. It's not rocket science to see that EVERYONE is taking off their shoes and putting them in the bins.

Anyway, by 10AM we were through security and had a couple hours to wait for our flight - which went faster using the Heathrow Wifi! After an uneventful but long 8 hr flight we were finally home to Toronto - to a beautiful sunny day! It was 3PM there, though our internal clocks still felt like it was 8PM London time. It ended up taking a couple of days before we fully felt back on Eastern time. And that was that - our dream vacation was over.

Next up: Final Thoughts

[jenng1976]

Before I move to final thoughts - I forgot to mention that we were REALLY lucky to get an early start to the day the last morning. We later heard from other people that the Luggage Carousel system at Heathrow broke later that morning - causing huge backups of people trying to checkin in for their flights, and some people even missed theirs!! That would have been a stressful end to the holiday and I feel bad for anyone that happened to (though I don't know anyone personally who missed their flight).

FINAL THOUGHTS

After the vacation was all said and done - it felt bittersweet to be over. I had done so much planning for this trip - over a year and a half - and it seemed strange that it was just over.

I also learned more about our vacation preferences - this was the longest cruise we had been on to date - and I don't think we will do one much longer, at least in the immediate future! I think 14 days would be my max - but only if it involved several sea days to decompress. It just felt like we were go go go for much of the vacation - and while it was great to see all these fantastic places, it was still tiring!

Especially at the end, we kind of became 'castle-d out' - we had seen several throughout the trip and had lost a bit of our enthusiasm for them. Luckily I had thought this might happen and I did make an attempt prior to the trip to schedule a variety of activities for each port so that it wasn't a full day tour every place we went and we mixed it up a bit. Still, by the end we were tired!

I would really like to do a Med cruise - but I will have to try hard to find one with some sea days! We will probably save that cruise for a bit down the line.

Overall on the ship we enjoyed our time on it - there was always something to do if you were looking to keep busy - or lots of places to kick back and read or relax if that was your thing.

The staff were fantastic - everyone we encountered seemed friendly and helpful, always smiling! And the bar staff always amaze me when they learn your S&S number by heart! How in the world do they do that???

I don't think I would change much about what we did - I wish the weather had been better for Dublin and Norway - but otherwise I feel so lucky that we were able to see some beautiful places in a part of the world we had never been to before.

We also met some WONDERFUL people - from all the Roll call chatting pre-cruise, to meeting some of them in person at the M&G party, and popping in to some of the Informal M&G's during the cruise at the aft bar after dinner. All our tour companions were all great as well - loved that everyone was always on time!! It seemed that as time went on with the cruise, we would always run into people that we knew on the cruise! And some of them I know I will keep in touch with afterwards and hopefully cruise with again.

As for us - our next cruise is not very far away! We are doing the Imagination in December to Key West & Cozumel with my parents (they live in Florida for the winter) and that cruise should be quite different from this one!! Going from 12 days to 4! Looking forward to it though! :)

And next year is to be determined ... maybe a road trip, maybe a cruise ... I'm hoping to do Hawaii in 2015 so we'll try and keep it on the inexpensive side!

With that I'll leave you ... but here is one more photo - this is my beautiful 6 month old niece Addy - with her Dragon from Wales and her "Nessie" bib - we also got her a

cute pink tshirt from Dublin! Love her to pieces!

Take care - and thanks for following along as we relived our trip! If anyone has any questions I would be happy to answer.

Jenn :)

 

[jerseyralph]

As a Diamond, I am underwhelmed by the behavior and attitude of some of the other Diamonds. Carnival owes us nothing.

 

For the record, we had a bottle of wine almost every night and one night this Diamond ordered a bacon cheeseburger as my entree. Another Diamond at the table ordered the meatloaf one night and enjoyed it. Shocking, I know. :D

 

You are the people we like to dine with!

[abitaturbodog]

I loved following your review! thanks for taking the time to post it.

[LEtue]

I really enjoyed your review! I was booked on this sailing at one time but it just didn't work out - so, it was great to see the cruise in review :D

 

I have sailed the Med on a 12 night cruise and with only 3 sea days we were exhausted too. I just sleep when I get home :)

 

Did either of you stop smiling at all? Really great pictures!!!!

[jenng1976]

I loved following your review! thanks for taking the time to post it.

 

Thanks! That's kind of you to say.

 

I really enjoyed your review! I was booked on this sailing at one time but it just didn't work out - so, it was great to see the cruise in review :D

 

I have sailed the Med on a 12 night cruise and with only 3 sea days we were exhausted too. I just sleep when I get home :)

 

Did either of you stop smiling at all? Really great pictures!!!!

 

Haha ... Life is pretty good, why not smile! :). I never understand why some people look so miserable on vacation!

 

What line did you do the Med with? We are thinking about trying Celebrity for Hawaii if they offer a one way in 2015, or a future European cruise.

[seatdriver]

Sunday - Liverpool

 

Today we woke up bright and early - we were going to Wales!! And had this beautiful sunrise to greet us.

 

 

We met up with the rest of our group in the lobby to get off the ship together - our van driver was waiting for us and away we went!

 

First stop was a little tourist town - probably an hour/hour and a half drive from Liverpool - I don't recall the name but it's apparently quite popular for local tourism.

 

We had about 45min to walk around and the town and luckily it wasn't raining!

 

 

 

Alas - this would not stay - by the time we got to our next destination, Conwy - it was. Boo!

 

 

Loving your review! The town you stopped at would probably have been Chester. Just inside the Welsh border! Sorry if somebody else has advised you as such, but your review is great!

[seatdriver]

Im so glad you enjoyed your cruise, shame about the weather but that's Northern Europe for you!!! Really glad you didn't miss out on Norway, it's such a beautiful country but you didn't see it at it's best. It is also the most expensive place in Europe as are all the Scandinavian countries, but they are all well worth a visit.

With regards to you contemplating a Med cruise, you can almost gaurantee good weather right up until the end of October. Many of the Med cruises are very port intensive, but it's well worth visiting the different countries. There are such vast differences in language, culture, food etc for an area that is much smaller than North America. I think you'd have say to yourselves "OK a port per day? Bring it on!" NCL do a decent Med Cruise but if you want to experience some French, Italian, German, Spanish culture aboard, you could always try Costa or MSC. We did a Costa cruise on the Med and loved it, despite the fact English speakers were few and far between! :D

[karinad]

Coming home does suck! All the preparation involved is always fun and when you're actually on the trip and at the actual places you researched, it's hard to comprehend!

 

I found the only way to combat post-cruise depression is to plan another! We would also like to do the Med again. It is a port intensive cruise, maybe more so then Northern Europe. I'm hoping to get some more miles on my credit card for the airfare for next yr. Until then, it's so nice to be able to re-live the cruise with our pictures!

 

We just loved the Legend and thought Carnival did such a great job! We mostly cruised Princess, RCC, Celebrity and even Disney in the past. Carnival was right up there with them!

 

Thanks for taking the time to do your review! I'm glad you had a great time!

[ETHS1965]

Jenn:

 

I am so glad that you posted your review! Since they closed the roll call down, I was suffering from cruise critic withdrawal! We were with you on the great tour that you planned with Zane in Scotland. You told us how you were going to walk to Pulpit Rock in Stavanger. So, on that very rainy day in Norway, as we passed Pulpit Rock on the fjord cruise ship and could not even see Pulpit Rock, I wondered if you two had made it up there. Now, I know! You would not have been able to see a thing. The clouds, mist and rain were so heavy at that point, that we were right under it and could not see it. I was jealous of your pictures of Wales. I wanted to go but did not want to pay the Carnival price. From looking at your pictures, I am going to have to put Wales on my list of places I need to visit. Say Hi to Jim for us.

 

Great review

Meg and Brad

[hancogran]

Absolutely fantastic review, Jenn! Loved "cruising" along with you. I can definitely understand the let-down feeling when it's all over. I think I mentioned before that we did the Legend transatlantic this past April from Tampa to Barcelona and then a five week land vacation in Great Britain. It all involved extensive planning, but that's all part of the fun .. and like you, I was totally lost when we got home and there was no more planning to do!! :p lol

 

The Med is fantastic but usually very port intensive. We did ours with Costa and really enjoyed it but I've talked to a few people who have used NCL and said they had a great time. We're "go with the flow" type people and I don't sweat the small stuff so we're not hard to please.

 

Thanks again for this wonderful review. Your pictures were great! :)

[lovingretirement]

Thanks for the GREAT review. I really enjoyed following along! We were on the cruise before yours, and also had a fantastic time on the Legend. Wish Carnival was doing Europe again next year. Hope they return in 2015.

[Goldwolf]

Loving your review! The town you stopped at would probably have been Chester. Just inside the Welsh border! Sorry if somebody else has advised you as such, but your review is great!

 

Since when was Chester in Wales? ;)

 

It is pretty close to the border though, in fact due a historical relic law in Chester, its legal to shoot a Welsh person with a bow and arrow inside city walls after midnight. I don't think I'd risk it personally though.

[Lovefuninthesun]

Thoroughly enjoyed your review -- thank you so much for all of the great details and perspectives!

 

(FYI -- we are weirdos who don't mind eating with others we don't know!:D)

[seatdriver]

Since when was Chester in Wales? ;)

 

It is pretty close to the border though, in fact due a historical relic law in Chester, its legal to shoot a Welsh person with a bow and arrow inside city walls after midnight. I don't think I'd risk it personally though.

 

Ooops! Geography fail!! I meant Wrexham! :o

[jenng1976]

Since when was Chester in Wales? ;)

 

It is pretty close to the border though, in fact due a historical relic law in Chester, its legal to shoot a Welsh person with a bow and arrow inside city walls after midnight. I don't think I'd risk it personally though.

 

Ooops! Geography fail!! I meant Wrexham! :o

 

We did drive through Chester ... But the town we were in was Llandudno! (Thanks google, haha). It's near Conwy and had a long pier you could go down. Also seemed to be near a Wind Farm out in the water.

 

Jenn :)

[jenng1976]

Jenn:

 

I am so glad that you posted your review! Since they closed the roll call down, I was suffering from cruise critic withdrawal! We were with you on the great tour that you planned with Zane in Scotland. You told us how you were going to walk to Pulpit Rock in Stavanger. So, on that very rainy day in Norway, as we passed Pulpit Rock on the fjord cruise ship and could not even see Pulpit Rock, I wondered if you two had made it up there. Now, I know! You would not have been able to see a thing. The clouds, mist and rain were so heavy at that point, that we were right under it and could not see it. I was jealous of your pictures of Wales. I wanted to go but did not want to pay the Carnival price. From looking at your pictures, I am going to have to put Wales on my list of places I need to visit. Say Hi to Jim for us.

 

Great review

Meg and Brad

 

Hi Meg and Brad! Nice to hear from you. It's too bad we didn't get to spend the day together in Belfast since that would have been fun.

 

Thoroughly enjoyed your review -- thank you so much for all of the great details and perspectives!

 

(FYI -- we are weirdos who don't mind eating with others we don't know!:D)

 

Thanks! And I think we are probably the weird ones ... We fully recognize our antisocial tendencies, lol! ;).