Ocean Princess British Isles Cruise Review -Disney Sheep Go Rogue

[Disney Sheep]

According to guidebooks, the design of the houses on Merrion Square was typical of the Georgian houses of Dublin. The external visual uniformity of the micro-Georgian city masked a wealth of variety and decoration that adorned the interiors of the buildings. But at one time, all of the exterior doors were the same colour, most likely a neutral shade.

 

 

One of the 'urban legends' is that the famous writer George Moore lived next to another famous writer, Oliver St John Gogarty, in Ely Place. Both were a bit eccentric and it’s said that Moore painted his door green so that the drunken Gogarty would not come knocking on it, thinking it to be his own door. Gogarty then painted his door red so that the drunken Moore would not come knocking on his door! And that’ supposedly is what started the fashion. The truth is a lot less colourful.

 

 

These houses that we would today call row houses, were built in the Georgian style and the exteriors had to adhere to strict architectural guidelines. In order to set themselves apart, the former residents of Georgian Dublin painted their front doors whatever color they fancied, red was more durable apparently, added ornate knockers, elegant fanlights above the door, and wrought iron boot scrapers, near the the entrance.

 

 

 

We had one last objective at this point, and that was souvenir shopping. And yes, I felt the need to tease DS again and take photos of some of the more inappropriate Irish souvenirs.

 

 

At one point as we wandered, DS saw a huge building with flags, and the one he spotted was an American flag, so he casually asks if that is the US Embassy. DH and I glanced in the direction of the building and broke out laughing. I guess he couldn't see the huge Heineken sign from his initial viewpoint!

 

 

 

 

After easily finding a few minor souvenirs, DH led us once again to a street near Trinity College where there was a line up of taxis waiting. We easily caught a taxi back to the ship where we were more than willing to call it a day from a sight seeing perspective, although along the way we spotted the Sam Beckett 'Harp' bridge as well as the Famine Memorial statue and the replica of the ship that the Irish people had sailed on when they left Ireland during the famine, but we only saw them briefly as we drove by in the taxi.

[Disney Sheep]

Back on board the ship we stuck with our routine. First stop was the Panorama Buffet for lunch, followed by a visit to the library and then rest and relaxation. It should be noted that DS had bought an Ireland hoodie as a souvenir that has become his go to hoodie since our trip.

 

 

After afternoon tea we headed for mock tails and goofing around in the pool and the hot tub before dinner.

 

 

Note that the next pictures are taken from the hot tub and are included to put the size of the pool in perspective. When I initially saw the pool, I thought it would be too small to be useful, but you can see that it was deep enough and long enough to swim and play in - as long as the number of people using it at any one time was limited.

 

 

 

[Disney Sheep]

Dublin, Ireland, Proposed Touring Plan OR

The Hindsight Report as in If I Knew Then What I Know Now - (IIKTWIKN):

 

Dublin is truly a walkable city and the majority of the sites and sights that we were interested in were within a reasonable walking radius. Prior to our trip, I had found Tom's Tour Guide on line to be very useful in figuring out the sites in Dublin that I was interested in seeing. However by visiting sites based on our priorities without having planned sufficiently in advance with a map (because I was so focused on our time in Edinburgh), our route was not as efficient as it could have been. Essentially we kept Trinity College as a point of reference and without intentionally planning to do it, tended to go back towards the College before visiting another site. Yeah, not the most efficient.

 

What I would recommend if you travel to Dublin as part of a cruise and take a taxi from the port, unless you really wanted to see the Book of Kells, start touring near the O'Connell Bridge, walking to the Spire, checking out the statue of James Joyce with his walking stick (referred to by locals as the 'Prick with a Stick'), and the General Post Office (where the 1916 Easter Rising began - consider watching the TV episode of Young Indiana Jones on this subject).

 

From the GPO head for the Ha'Penny Bridge and see the statue locally known as the 'Hags with the Bags', before proceeding across the River Liffey again, towards Christ Church Cathedral, and then to St Patricks Cathedral. Note, the Viking Splash Tours start near Christ Church Cathedral and might be an interesting opportunity to learn some of the history of Dublin, especially since we have now visited the inside of the Cathedral. After (or before) visiting St Patrick's Cathedral, you could visit Dublin Castle (and if it is around the end of July, roughly, it's sand castles in the courtyard) - this leaves you just a few streets away from Grafton St and close to St Stephen's Green.

 

Continuing on in a counter clockwise circle, St Stephen's Green provides a great spot to simply check out the statues including the Wolf Tone monument, locally known as 'Tonehenge'. Since Grafton St ends (or begins depending on your perspective) at St Stephen's Green, there are numerous places to pick up a snack to enjoy in the park, such as Marks & Spencer or gelato shops, yes there is even a McDonalds. Grafton St and St Ann's St (where St Ann's church is located), have been converted to pedestrian shopping streets and are 'do not miss' from my perspective, however I would probably visit them at the end of my sight seeing (after finishing up at Trinity College). A statue of Phil Lynott, the front man for a famous Irish band, Thin Lizzy - locally the statue is known as the Ace with the Bass - can be viewed from Grafton St.

 

Continuing in a counter clockwise pattern, you could visit the National Museum of Ireland and/or the National Gallery of Ireland and then continue on to Merrion Square, a park which has a colourful statue of Oscar Wilde in it as well as a children's park apparently. Leaving Merrion Square, we would head west on Clare St/Lenister St South which provides views of the Georgian 'row' houses with their famous colourful doors. Although apparently there are examples of Georgian buildings and doors all around the outside perimeter of Merrion Square.

 

Following this route you would wind up at Trinity College. At that point you can easily view the grounds and then decide if you want to try to see the Book of Kells when the lines are hopefully 'winding' down. The famous Molly Malone statue, locally known as the 'Tart with the Cart' near Trinity College is another 'do not miss' sight for me. Depending on whether you need to do more shopping, at this point you could visit Grafton St (again even :) or just grab a taxi and head back to the ship.

 

As a side note, we found a few Tourist Information Centres open at different spots along this route where we were able to ask directions. The Temple Bar area is also located near Trinity College as an alternate option to souvenir shopping at that point.

 

If we wanted to visited Trinity College at the start of the day, we could simply reverse the order of this touring route.

 

An alternate transportation option would be to walk from the port along the River Liffey getting to see the Sam Beckett (harp) bridge to the city bike station near the Sean O'Casey Foot Bridge and ride bikes the rest of the way to downtown (heard about this option from another passenger during hot tub time) - which could take you past the Famine Memorial. You could park the bike at another stand downtown, or simply ride it to sites you want to see and then drop it off near a site you want to visit. Given our issues with the taxi driver, I really wish that I had known about this option at the time.

 

You will notice that my list did not include visiting the Guinness Storehouse (Celiac issues) or the Kilmainham Gaol. Interestingly enough, our table mates had chosen to take the ship's shuttle into town and then use the HOHO bus. Since they did not know about the Gaol, they were quite surprised when their bus driver announced that if you did not already have tickets to get into the Gaol that day, then you were out of luck as they were all sold out, so if seeing this site is important to you, you might want to book tickets ahead of time.

[phabric]

Do you have website for Tom's Tour Guide?

[Gettingwarmer]

Do you have website for Tom's Tour Guide?

 

Here is Tom's web site. Look for Dublin under Ireland.

 

http://www.tomsportguides.com/portguides.html

[ontheweb]

I really think that if you want to see the Book of Kells, you have to go early before they even open like we did. Our wait was short. We did see later when doubling back to Trinity College a long, long line. I would be afraid if someone used your proposed strategy of going near closing time, that you would not get back to the ship before disembarkation. And if you did get in, you might have to rush through and not be able to really appreciate this amazing work.

 

When you leave the Book of Kells, you end up in the library. (Neither DW or I an sure whether you can get into the library in any other way.) In addition to looking like something out of the Harry Potter movies with books stacked to the ceiling, there are busts of famous Irishmen all along the walls.

[ontheweb]

Back on board the ship we stuck with our routine. First stop was the Panorama Buffet for lunch, followed by a visit to the library and then rest and relaxation. It should be noted that DS had bought an Ireland hoodie as a souvenir that has become his go to hoodie since our trip.

 

 

After afternoon tea we headed for mock tails and goofing around in the pool and the hot tub before dinner.

 

 

Note that the next pictures are taken from the hot tub and are included to put the size of the pool in perspective. When I initially saw the pool, I thought it would be too small to be useful, but you can see that it was deep enough and long enough to swim and play in - as long as the number of people using it at any one time was limited.

 

 

 

 

Looks like you guys were the only ones in the pool. It was often the same for my wife. I don't think there were ever more than three people in the pool at the same time.

 

DW said the heated pool was fine, but then after getting out, she would either have to get into the hot tub or get back to the cabin to take a warm shower. If she went back to the cabin, I had to provide room service---decaf coffee + cream on the side. And on embarkation day while everyone else was eating, she had her clothes blow away while she was in the pool.

 

And as can be seen in your pictures of the pool area, there was no problem of people saving the lounges. lol

[Disney Sheep]

Here is Tom's web site. Look for Dublin under Ireland.

 

http://www.tomsportguides.com/portguides.html

 

Many thanks Gettingwarmer for getting Phabric a timely answer. Tis the season you know - as in the cold, flu, and virus season!

[Disney Sheep]

I really think that if you want to see the Book of Kells, you have to go early before they even open like we did. Our wait was short. We did see later when doubling back to Trinity College a long, long line. I would be afraid if someone used your proposed strategy of going near closing time, that you would not get back to the ship before disembarkation. And if you did get in, you might have to rush through and not be able to really appreciate this amazing work.

 

When you leave the Book of Kells, you end up in the library. (Neither DW or I an sure whether you can get into the library in any other way.) In addition to looking like something out of the Harry Potter movies with books stacked to the ceiling, there are busts of famous Irishmen all along the walls.

 

I completely agree with you Ontheweb that if the Book of Kells/Trinity College is a priority for you, then you need to start there. I have read that heading to see the Book of Kells at the end of the day has been successful for some, but it probably also depends on your All Aboard time.

[Disney Sheep]

Looks like you guys were the only ones in the pool. It was often the same for my wife. I don't think there were ever more than three people in the pool at the same time.

 

DW said the heated pool was fine, but then after getting out, she would either have to get into the hot tub or get back to the cabin to take a warm shower. If she went back to the cabin, I had to provide room service---decaf coffee + cream on the side. And on embarkation day while everyone else was eating, she had her clothes blow away while she was in the pool.

 

And as can be seen in your pictures of the pool area, there was no problem of people saving the lounges. lol

 

Like your DW we were almost always the only ones in the pool, especially on the days when the ship was cutting through rough water and the pool was like our own mini wave pool :). And yes we had our clothes blow away a couple of times, but DH would rescue them, usually as he was heading for the shower before supper. One of the things we truly enjoyed was the conversations with other passengers in the hot tub at the end of port days.

 

And it is nice to hear that you were attentive to your DW and brought her coffee :).

[toberman]

And yes we had our clothes blow away a couple of times.

 

You had your clothes blow away?? Would have loved to have seen that happen!! :D

[Disney Sheep]

While researching the ports on this itinerary prior to our cruise, it became obvious very quickly that Milford Haven's claim to fame was being a port that provided you with access to the rest of Wales. In fact one particularly unflattering review was written by a person who had grown up in Milford Haven - they described it as having sweet 'fluff' all with a great beach attached. Hmmm.

 

Even after reviewing all of the excursions on the Princess site, I did not see anything that interested us, and since we planned to be fairly busy in the three other ports, we decided we would simply walk around the town itself to see what was available, and call it good. We used the morning of our arrival in Milford Haven to get a slower start to our day. Heading up to the Panorama Buffet for breakfast, there were a fair number of people still in the restaurant, but it was definitely not as busy as we were used to on other port day.

 

 

Heading down to get a tender to shore, there was no longer any need to get a numbered tender ticket at the Casino Lounge, and instead we headed straight for the tender embarkation area. The ship was using their own tenders to ferry us ashore, and although they seemed to have the process well in hand, they were loading people in wheelchairs on this tender which resulted in extra time to load and unload being required.

 

 

The trip to shore was relatively short and on the dock the town had set up a tent with local volunteers handing out brochures and providing information. We did receive a map (think paper placemat style), which made it very clear that Milford Haven has about two or three main streets that head straight up over the hillside, and then there are about two or three streets that run perpendicularly across the hill, making a wobbly grid pattern of sorts.

 

 

We chose to start our visit by walking along the marina waterfront, where there were maybe a half dozen shops/restaurants. However since it was Sunday, only a few of them were open. I think both of the stores that we checked out (probably two of the three or so open) sold household knickknacks - not really what you typically think of as souvenirs per se. As an example there was a sign in one store, a wooden plaque style with the words- Retirement that's when you get less money and more husband.

 

 

Actually as we walked along and I saw that not much was open, I kept remembering the movie Laws of Attraction when Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore head to Ireland only to discover when Julianne tries to hire a car, that businesses aren't open on a Tuesday and it gets to the point that she keeps repeating (in a sing song voice) but we're not open on a Tuesday - only in our case replace Tuesday with Sunday :).

[Disney Sheep]

Since it was a beautiful sunny (if windy), Sunday morning, we decided to explore a little farther afield and got a great hill work out in as we walked up and down the towns streets.

 

 

Most of the housing on the hill side anyway, appears to be row housing. Ok, it definitely wasn't exciting, but it was a beautiful sunny day.

 

 

Almost immediately I noticed that instead of gardens, lawns etc, the houses have about 8 to 10 feet between the house itself and the sidewalk. And instead of grass, that space is covered by asphalt or concrete block tiles that runs the frontage of the house in lieu of grass. Usually there is a low concrete wall surrounding the asphalt, and that is topped by a fence. Checking into it later I was informed that this 'yard' is called a 'forecourt', but realistically it reminded me of a prison yard for gnomes!

 

 

But the reason that these 'yards' caught my attention was due to their fences. Dublin might have their doors, but in Milford Haven they use their fences to set their houses apart from each other, some were concrete block design, lots were ornamental iron, and most of them were painted different colours. It was neat.

 

 

 

[ontheweb]

While researching the ports on this itinerary prior to our cruise, it became obvious very quickly that Milford Haven's claim to fame was being a port that provided you with access to the rest of Wales. In fact one particularly unflattering review was written by a person who had grown up in Milford Haven - they described it as having sweet 'fluff' all with a great beach attached. Hmmm.

 

Even after reviewing all of the excursions on the Princess site, I did not see anything that interested us, and since we planned to be fairly busy in the three other ports, we decided we would simply walk around the town itself to see what was available, and call it good. We used the morning of our arrival in Milford Haven to get a slower start to our day. Heading up to the Panorama Buffet for breakfast, there were a fair number of people still in the restaurant, but it was definitely not as busy as we were used to on other port day.

 

 

Heading down to get a tender to shore, there was no longer any need to get a numbered tender ticket at the Casino Lounge, and instead we headed straight for the tender embarkation area. The ship was using their own tenders to ferry us ashore, and although they seemed to have the process well in hand, they were loading people in wheelchairs on this tender which resulted in extra time to load and unload being required.

 

 

The trip to shore was relatively short and on the dock the town had set up a tent with local volunteers handing out brochures and providing information. We did receive a map (think paper placemat style), which made it very clear that Milford Haven has about two or three main streets that head straight up over the hillside, and then there are about two or three streets that run perpendicularly across the hill, making a wobbly grid pattern of sorts.

 

 

We chose to start our visit by walking along the marina waterfront, where there were maybe a half dozen shops/restaurants. However since it was Sunday, only a few of them were open. I think both of the stores that we checked out (probably two of the three or so open) sold household knickknacks - not really what you typically think of as souvenirs per se. As an example there was a sign in one store, a wooden plaque style with the words- Retirement that's when you get less money and more husband.

 

 

Actually as we walked along and I saw that not much was open, I kept remembering the movie Laws of Attraction when Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore head to Ireland only to discover when Julianne tries to hire a car, that businesses aren't open on a Tuesday and it gets to the point that she keeps repeating (in a sing song voice) but we're not open on a Tuesday - only in our case replace Tuesday with Sunday :).

 

I totally forgot the local dancers and the old car show until I saw that sign. IIRC, the local dancers were young children. The car show was not all that impressive, not that many cars. I think there was one that impressed me, but I can no longer remember what it was.

 

I think I mentioned earlier that we met someone from Wales at a wedding earlier in the year, and he had responded to a question about Milford Haven by saying there really was nothing to do there.

 

I already posted what we did in this port. We stopped at a museum that gave a history of Milford Haven. We found it fascinating, and never made it all the way into town before taking our tour, Welsh Love Spoon making and the village of Tenby.

 

We were also there on a Sunday, and were warned in a post in the British Isles section that shops would be closed. We did see both open stores and closed stores before we tried that museum. Everything in Tenby seemed to be open, though we actually spent almost all of our time at a beach so did not see much there. Even it is not the norm, you would think the shops would open when a cruise ship docked.

 

We have actually in our 4 previous cruises in Europe had more trouble with Mondays. On Mondays in Europe, it seems many museums are closed. We stayed a day in Copenhagen after a Baltic cruise for our 30th anniversary, and were disappointed to see much of what we wanted to see being closed. (Though there was still much to see including Tivoli Gardens.) Although we knew in advance it would be the case, it was very disappointing in Athens that the New Acropolis Museum was closed because it was a Monday.

[Disney Sheep]

Oh look, this would be one of the gnomes in prison! Really, he was too cute to resist taking a picture of, and he seems to find Milford Haven to be a little sleepy on this Sunday morning.

 

 

 

And seeing that it was Sunday, we did find a church at the top of the hill, and since the service was already in session, we took pictures quietly and continued on our way.

 

 

 

We did see the theatre and the bowling alley that had been advertised on the town's website under 'things to do', but we chose not to visit them, especially given even if we had been so inclined, that it being Sunday they probably weren't even open :).

 

We eventually wandered over to what you could call the 'retail park', in other words the Tesco (grocery store), the Boots (pharmacy), and the gas station. There might also have been the equivalent of a Dollar Store, but we did not check that out.

 

 

Wandering through the Tesco, I can tell you that if you are looking for chocolate or alcohol in this port, check out the Tesco. Just about every second aisle had some kind of chocolate displayed, while both sides of a complete grocery store aisle were dedicated space for alcohol (we think it was mainly wine, but we did not check all that closely).

[ontheweb]

Like your DW we were almost always the only ones in the pool, especially on the days when the ship was cutting through rough water and the pool was like our own mini wave pool :). And yes we had our clothes blow away a couple of times, but DH would rescue them, usually as he was heading for the shower before supper. One of the things we truly enjoyed was the conversations with other passengers in the hot tub at the end of port days.

 

And it is nice to hear that you were attentive to your DW and brought her coffee :).

 

Yes, I thought my room service skills were excellent, but she did not leave me a tip, so maybe not. LOL

 

I don't think I have mentioned that two of our tablemates were from your country, though we in NY state are probably closer geographically to you than you are to Vancouver. They were very experienced cruisers. I learned from them that on a world cruise, they repeat the menu every week.

 

Our other tablemates were a couple from Washington, D.C. on their first cruise and a mother and daughter from Germany.

 

I would have preferred anytime but understand why it was not available on this small ship. (This is not a criticism of our tablemates.) Before trivia one day, I was eating with my teammates at the buffet when one of them commented on eating late in the afternoon after getting back from the port, and then dinner was at 6:15. On a port heavy cruise, anytime is a real plus. In addition, I do like meeting different people at dinner. Though I have to admit, I met a lot of fellow cruisers because the ship was small, and I also met and talked to a few of the entertainers.

[Kewz1]

Yvonne,

 

Having read about your time in Wales I have to admit I'm not sad that our BI cruise skips it entirely. We have been before, and while we did not enjoy Cardiff, we did enjoy the rest of our day there.

 

I especially enjoyed your gnome picture. We picked up one on our recent trip to Germany. "Garmisch" now resides in our backyard and is a lovely reminder from my son's graduation trip.

 

 

Ontheweb - you mentioned living in NY. Both my husband and I attended school there. NY - the city & state - will always be one (two) of my favorite places to visit.

 

 

Kristen

[ontheweb]

Yvonne,

 

Having read about your time in Wales I have to admit I'm not sad that our BI cruise skips it entirely. We have been before, and while we did not enjoy Cardiff, we did enjoy the rest of our day there.

 

I especially enjoyed your gnome picture. We picked up one on our recent trip to Germany. "Garmisch" now resides in our backyard and is a lovely reminder from my son's graduation trip.

 

 

Ontheweb - you mentioned living in NY. Both my husband and I attended school there. NY - the city & state - will always be one (two) of my favorite places to visit.

 

 

Kristen

 

Kristen, in which parts of NY state did you and your husband attend school?

 

We live in the Catskills. If any of you have heard of the original Woodstock festival in 1969 (which I attended), we live about a dozen miles from there.

 

We also attended school in NY state. I graduated from Cornell, in Ithaca, part of the finger lakes region. DW graduated and got her masters in art education at SUNY New Paltz. Our son graduated from SUNY Binghamton, and got a masters at John Jay College which is in NY City.

 

Are any of those an alma mater for you or your husband?

[Kewz1]

Kristen, in which parts of NY state did you and your husband attend school?

 

We live in the Catskills. If any of you have heard of the original Woodstock festival in 1969 (which I attended), we live about a dozen miles from there.

 

We also attended school in NY state. I graduated from Cornell, in Ithaca, part of the finger lakes region. DW graduated and got her masters in art education at SUNY New Paltz. Our son graduated from SUNY Binghamton, and got a masters at John Jay College which is in NY City.

 

Are any of those an alma mater for you or your husband?

 

My husband graduated from West Point. His last year there I attended Mount St Mary College in Newburgh. It was a wonderful time in our lives. Very pretty part of the country! We're hoping to go back next fall for his 20th reunion.

 

Kristen

[ontheweb]

My husband graduated from West Point. His last year there I attended Mount St Mary College in Newburgh. It was a wonderful time in our lives. Very pretty part of the country! We're hoping to go back next fall for his 20th reunion.

 

Kristen

 

We're one county northwest of Orange county (West Point and Newburgh). We have been to Mount Saint Mary College once. We attended a wedding. The bride (she was our school superintendent and I was on the school board) had not only graduated from Mount Saint Mary, but was also a member of their Board of Trustees.) I also drive DW to Newburgh (actually just outside of Newburgh) where she ice skates. We have also been to West Point.

[Disney Sheep]

You had your clothes blow away?? Would have loved to have seen that happen!! :D

 

That would be clothes, not bathing suits :p:eek::rolleyes:

[Disney Sheep]

Yes, I thought my room service skills were excellent, but she did not leave me a tip, so maybe not. LOL

 

I don't think I have mentioned that two of our tablemates were from your country, though we in NY state are probably closer geographically to you than you are to Vancouver. They were very experienced cruisers. I learned from them that on a world cruise, they repeat the menu every week.

 

Our other tablemates were a couple from Washington, D.C. on their first cruise and a mother and daughter from Germany.

 

I would have preferred anytime but understand why it was not available on this small ship. (This is not a criticism of our tablemates.) Before trivia one day, I was eating with my teammates at the buffet when one of them commented on eating late in the afternoon after getting back from the port, and then dinner was at 6:15. On a port heavy cruise, anytime is a real plus. In addition, I do like meeting different people at dinner. Though I have to admit, I met a lot of fellow cruisers because the ship was small, and I also met and talked to a few of the entertainers.

 

I am sure your wife probably did tip you - but don't tell her that you didn't notice or you may get in trouble ;)

 

When we cruise we normally have had a family table on DCL, and with Anytime dining on RCI it was also just a table for us four. The one time we did share a table on DCL it did not go the smoothest as the teens got kind of awkward and the parents were sitting too far away from each other - rectangular tables for 8 can be a challenge.

 

On this cruise we had great table mates - and we really appreciated that they engaged DS in conservation as a person. It really made a difference.

[Disney Sheep]

Yvonne,

 

Having read about your time in Wales I have to admit I'm not sad that our BI cruise skips it entirely. We have been before, and while we did not enjoy Cardiff, we did enjoy the rest of our day there.

 

I especially enjoyed your gnome picture. We picked up one on our recent trip to Germany. "Garmisch" now resides in our backyard and is a lovely reminder from my son's graduation trip.

 

 

Ontheweb - you mentioned living in NY. Both my husband and I attended school there. NY - the city & state - will always be one (two) of my favorite places to visit.

 

 

Kristen

 

Hi Kristen,

 

I have to admit that Milford Haven was not my favourite port, however our table mates took a taxi to Tenby (sharing the cost with another couple) and they absolutely loved their visit there. As well, for Harry Potter fans, there is Freshwater West Beach 'nearby' I believe (not walkable I am thinking) which is where they filmed the scenes from The Deathly Hallows that took place at Shell Cottage with Dobby.

 

It was just not intuitively obvious to us how to get out of Milford Haven without pre planning.

 

And showing my geek side, we would have loved the opportunity to visit Cardiff, since I believe they have the Doctor Who Experience! :)

[Disney Sheep]

Heading back to the harbour, we stopped in at a small hole in the wall coffee/tea shop that advertised free WiFi since my phone still had no service (since we had headed north after Edinburgh) and we really needed to get online and check in with DD.

 

 

Fortunately DD was in the dormitory at the time and therefore we were able to iMessage with her. We shared a pot of tea and spent a pleasant half hour of tea and texting before we finally headed back towards the tender.

 

 

 

[Disney Sheep]

We snagged some pictures of the waterfront before catching the tender back to the ship.

 

Note - back on the Ocean Princess while enjoying lunch in the Panorama Buffet, we spotted a beach right next to the town itself, it is not visible from here, but it was off in this direction.

 

 

 

We also noticed that they had several birds (owls etc) right by the tender that people could go have a photo taken with, I think it was a Birds of Prey encounter, however I have no idea if there was a cost associated with this activity.

 

 

You can see beach in the distance from this angle - at the time I was focused on getting a few shots before the tender arrived.

 

 

And to keep himself amused, DS decided to continue his efforts to photobomb my pictures. He was actually getting quite good at sneaking body parts into my shots.