HAL regular sails the Caribbean Princess British Isles cruise June 25, 2016

[StartrainDD]

I tried sending CC a log/review of our cruise but after a lot of work I received an error message. Therefore I thought I would post my review here which I will do over the next couple of days, trying to keep each post of manageable size.

 

This was my wife and my 25th cruise. We sailed with my 82 year old dear dad and we had adjacent cabins. So here is installment number one:

 

Caribbean Princess British Isles Cruise 6-25-16

 

Travel & Embarkation, June 24-25 2016: It is a ‘perfect’ day for flying in and around Philadelphia. Even so, our plane left Philadelphia 70 minutes behind schedule, landing in Heathrow an hour behind schedule. We waited an additional hour for the luggage to be delivered, so our original expectations to meet the Princess rep for our arranged Heathrow-Southampton transfer at about 10:00 ended up being 11:40. The Princess team immediately took our marked luggage and we did not see it again until late afternoon at our stateroom onboard.

 

We boarded a coach at about noon. By the time the last guest came from ‘the loo,’ it was 12:15 and we began our ride to Southampton. Having never traveled this route before, I wanted to stay awake to watch but like the majority of the guests on board the quiet and movement of the bus soon lulled me to sleep.

 

Upon arrival in Southampton the bus stopping at the first traffic signal woke me. It likely took 15 – 20 minutes to thread our way through the streets of Southampton until arriving at the modern cruise terminal. We proceeded very quickly through the terminal until going through security. I don’t know why, but this was more trouble than at the Philadelphia airport. My wife’s artificial knee set off the metal detector, as did my father’s two replacement hips. He seemed to nearly need to disrobe before he was cleared. Really? He is 82 years old. Even the TSA sees folks of that age to be little threat not needing to remove shoes, etc.

 

Finally at 2:40 we were onboard. We left for the airport at 3:00 the prior day, so subtracting the 5 hour time difference results in travel time of 18 hours and 40 minutes. We dropped our hand bags in our cabins, both inside on deck 15, the Lido deck, L241 & L237. The cabins are what we expected. They are a bit smaller than we are used to on HAL, but the thing that really seems ‘tiny’ is the shower. There is more than ample storage. After all the travel I was very thirsty and somewhat hungry so off to the Lido buffet we were!

 

We booked cabins on the Lido deck on purpose so that for the hot tubs, burgers, pizza, etc. we would not need to take a lift. We went through the Horizon Court and picked up a few things but ended up back outside at the Trident Grill, Prego Pizzeria, and the Ice Cream Bar. The Burger was good, the Chicken Sandwich something to be avoided (it sure is not Chick-Fil-A!), and the Pizza was good. The soft-serve ice cream was fine, and I asked for my dad if they had a sugar-free selection. They did, and said they have one flavor of sugar free daily, so I brought him a scoop of sugar free chocolate ice cream.

 

We returned to our cabins to unload the hand luggage and it was time for the emergency drill. Our muster station is in the main showroom. It was packed to capacity. Leaving the showroom after the drill I wondered around and explored a bit while DW got ready for dinner.

 

We have early 5:30 fixed dining in the Coral dining room. Our main waiters are Luciano and assistant DR manager Roberto. They are superb, taking care of DW’s special request of no added salt and gluten-free. Our first meal was mostly very good, except DW’s fish seemed to be undercooked. A replacement also seemed soft but this may have been the type of fish, which we were not familiar with. My Prime Rib was very good and the ice cream in the dining room is quite rich and much better than the soft serve in the lido ice cream bar.

 

We finished dinner at 6:55 and took a chance to make the 7:00 show in the Princess Theater. We arrived just as the lights went down but did see available seats and enjoyed the show, a comedian (and singer) from the UK named Jo Little. Not a great show, but not bad either. After the show we crashed after our long travel day.

 

I hope this effort helps future cruisers!

 

Arie

[StartrainDD]

With our alarm set for 6:33 we woke shortly before after a very good night’s rest. We saw in the Princess Patter that the Coral Dining Room was open for breakfast so we enjoyed a nice breakfast finishing at 7:55. We had arranged to meet cruise critic friends at 8:00 to get tender tickets. We only needed to wait for one tender and we were off to shore!

 

As I read beforehand, this is a tough tender transfer. We had a beautiful almost cloudless morning, yet the waves in the harbor were still formidable. It takes about 15 minutes for the tender ride from the time you leave the ship until reaching the pier. We enjoyed Guernsey. We took the “One Pound” round the island bus tour. It is scheduled to take 1:45 minutes. That is likely accurate, except for both bicycle and running races which were mostly not passable on the narrow roads. After an hour and a half on the mini-bus, the seats get uncomfortable and one’s legs are squished. My mistake for not asking when we boarded, but we ended up sitting on the ‘wrong’ side of the bus as the bus went clockwise rather than counter-clockwise, so I was not able to get many photos of the pretty beaches or on-shore fortresses.

 

Upon getting back to St. Peter Port there was a “Taste of Guernsey” event taking place on the main closed street. We walked the length admiring some of the local handicrafts and enjoying the day. We ended up buying a few items and making sure we spent all the “Guernsey pounds” we received in change from the bus ride and the first vendor.

 

Despite getting to the pier at Noon there was a long queue to return to the ship. It was 12:45 by the time we were back on board. We spoke with a cruise critic couple who reached the pier at 1:00 and it was after 2:30 by the time they returned. The ship did not leave port until after 4:00 despite a published 2:30 departure. I don’t know that it made a difference, but the P&O Britannia was in port with us. They had a separate area shore side so that did not seem to make an impact.

 

Back on board we enjoyed lunch in the Coral Dining Room. DW’s pre-order had some confusion but in the end we all had more than enough to eat and everything was quite enjoyable. We attended an informative port talk in the theater. The cruise critic meet and greet was held at 3:30 in the Wheelhouse bar. We met everyone touring with us on the tours I arranged. About half our 130 roll call members attended, which I thought was quite good as we conflicted with the Captains Club party at 4:00.

 

This was our first of two “Formal nights.” Everyone seemed to dress pretty well. Dinner was very good and the beef tenderloins were quite tender. DW had a shrimp dish that she said was also very good. After dinner we passed through the piazza where a crowd had gathered for the Captain’s welcome aboard party. With no seating, we kept walking and enjoyed a bit of live music in the Wheelhouse bar until giving in to the lack of sleep and headed back to the cabin for the evening. Tomorrow starts early to enjoy the ‘sail-in’ and our first glimpse of Ireland.

 

Arie

[StartrainDD]

We set the alarm a bit too early today for a 5:30 wake up. At 6:30 we were out on deck but Ireland was still at a distance that there was not much to photograph. By 7:00 however we were passing into the port of Cork, what our tour guide later told us is the second largest natural port in the world, after Sydney, Australia. We had breakfast in the lido and scored a window table on the port side, so we had good location for the sail-in photos.

 

I took a few more photos as we approached the dock from deck 16 to avoid glass. We had arranged with our 13 person cruise critic group to meet at 8:10 and everyone was on time. The ship, however, was not quite on time and people were not allowed off until 8:20. The line to get off looked like a Disney world line in peak season. It snaked through the Piazza, the art gallery, and all the way past the forward elevators. Now I remember one reason I don’t like larger ships. It was 8:40 by the time we were off the ship.

 

We quickly met our guide, Joe, from “About Cork Taxi Tours.” Once we were in the van Joe went over the plan for the day and indicated they intended to add in an extra stop to our plan. We headed out by excellent highway to the Rock of Cashel, arriving at 10:10. After buying our tickets we waited until 10:30 for the next guided tour to begin.

 

The Rock of Cashel is quite an impressive site and we really enjoyed our guide for a while. When we went in to see the inside of the cathedral a visiting choir was performing. Even without a roof, the acoustics in the cathedral are phenomenal. After two songs he moved us along to tour Cormac’s chapel. The guide gave a very through explanation of the restoration work taking place. By the time he was done with the chapel talk at least part of the group was ready to move on to our next location as it was already past 11:30. However, now the guide took us back to the cathedral where he went on for another 15 minutes.

 

Finally we headed back down the hill to the parking area and on to Cahir to see Cahir castle. Joe suggested that we forgo touring inside Cahir castle as we were behind schedule. We enjoyed seeing the outside of this castle situated in the middle of a river in the center of Cahir. Next we went looking for lunch and all agreed we did not want to spend the time for a sit down lunch. We did not see a “Grab and go” option nearby but right across the street from the castle was The River House Café, a cafeteria style place which ended up having excellent food. Still, it became a 45 minute stop.

 

Next we were back in the van and headed to see the Swiss Cottage,” an 18th century thatched-roof second home for the owners of Cahir castle. This was an interesting 15 minute stop. We continued in the van over back roads (some VERY back-roads!) to Lismore. Lismore is a very pretty quiet town. Incredible floral displays abound and the visitor’s center included a handicraft market where at least one of our group made a purchase.

 

Leaving Lismore we headed (on better roads) to Youghal. We were about out of time so it was a quick stop to take photos of the “Drive through clock tower” that is the only one of its type in Ireland. We also noticed that there are very wide tides in this area as the Youghal harbor had much of the harbor being just mud with ‘beached boats.’ Our guide told us this is a normal daily event. Next we headed back towards the ship, arriving at 4:30 (with a 5:30 all aboard). Our guide was paid and we thanked him for the enjoyable day.

 

If I had to do this day again I would have chosen differently. While we certainly saw a lot, we spent too much time in the van. We have no other tours planned on this trip with so much travel time and that is a good thing.

 

Back on board we got ready for dinner. I took a look outside at 5:00 and there was a long line to get back onto the ship. You would think Princess would have this situation better handled and I suspect this may be a concern with the majority of the ports. At least tomorrow (Dublin) we are supposed to arrive at 7:00 and we do not need to depart until 8:10 so hopefully that will be smoother.

 

Dinner tonight was very good. All three of us had the Prime Rib and I also wanted to try the Orange Roughy. All was very good. The other three at our table did not make it to the dining room so service was fast and we forgo dessert to make the early 7:00 show of Ireland’s Alan Kavanaugh. His show was much enjoyed and we are glad we were able to attend. As a note, the seating in the Princess Theater is very comfortable and the design of the seats allows people to stretch their legs under the seats in the next row. This is a better design that we have seen on most other ships.

 

After dinner we went to the Lido for dessert and to our surprise one of the stewards came around with an ice cream cart offering ice cream to all. We checked out the “Two for $20” t-shirt sale but did not find any we could not do without. I was unable to find a decaf black tea in either the Lido or the International Café. We called it a night and headed back to bring my log up to date. Tomorrow we are in Dublin and again have a full day planned. This is an exhausting trip!

 

Arie

[OCruisers]

Thanks for doing this! Enjoying reading. :)

[JF - retired RRT]

You're including a lot of interesting information. Thanks!

[e050377]

Great review. Love the details. We are doing this cruise next year. Do you remember the cost of transfer from Heathrow to Southampton? They aren't available yet on my booking, but I'm trying to do a rough budget.

[SOLIVITA LADY]

Thanks for your review. Enjoying traveling through your eyes.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for taking the time to write your review.

It has been a long time since we sailed on Princess (we are Elite members) and I love all the information you are giving us.

Now I have to remember to keep coming back to follow the report.

[kftw]

Enjoying your review. Thank you for sharing your cruise.

[rocklinmom]

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

[srpilo]

Good stuff, can't wait for more :)

[arctickitty]

thanks for posting!

[Clarea]

Looking forward to more.:)

[ansoninc]

Great fun reading your review! Thanks.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Ellipooh]

Really enjoying your detailed review, especially your excursion experiences.

 

We are looking forward to this itinerary next year. I think we might stay aboard for both Guernsey and La Havre, since DH has mobility issues and those ports are either less interesting (Guernsey) or more difficult/time demanding (La Havre). It's a very port-intensive cruise, and I just don't think we're going to be able to do everything offered.

[sunsetbeachgal]

Wow, great review, can't wait to read the rest!

[erewhon]

Enjoying your review.

[Cobbins]

Great review. Look forward to more.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[phabric]

Enjoyed your review.

[Tak8]

I'm enjoying your review. I'll be doing this cruise next May.

[StartrainDD]

Great review. Love the details. We are doing this cruise next year. Do you remember the cost of transfer from Heathrow to Southampton? They aren't available yet on my booking, but I'm trying to do a rough budget.

 

I believe they were $54/pp. If you have three or more traveling together it would be more efficient and faster to arrange for a private service. For two, the Princess transfer is the most efficient in terms of cost.

 

Really enjoying your detailed review, especially your excursion experiences.

 

We are looking forward to this itinerary next year. I think we might stay aboard for both Guernsey and La Havre, since DH has mobility issues and those ports are either less interesting (Guernsey) or more difficult/time demanding (La Havre). It's a very port-intensive cruise, and I just don't think we're going to be able to do everything offered.

 

Of course you need to be within your comfort zone. However, my DW also has some mobility restrictions (but is able to walk and do some steps) and did fine in both these ports. For Guernsey if you want to go shoreside just go early and come back early. They did have seats at the tender area for people who could not stand. So DW sat while I waited in the queue and then when I reached that point she joined me to get on the tender. In LaHavre, you can arrange a private tour and get other CC members to join you. That way a van takes you from place to place to minimize the walking.

 

Will be posting more now!

 

Arie

[StartrainDD]

A 6:00 wake up got us ready for a 7:00 dining room breakfast. At 6:00 the bridge cam already showed the port of Dublin. The ship was cleared by 7:10. Breakfast was very enjoyable with today’s feature being a “Lumberjack breakfast” consisting of a minute steak, eggs, and other sides. It was terrific!

 

We met cruise critic friends at 8:20 at the international café to exit the ship. Just off the gangway local performers were doing Irish dancing and music performances. In addition there was a nice information center. We had a group of five and someone called for a larger taxi for us which arrived in minutes. With rush hour traffic it took over 20 minutes to reach Trinity College and not quite 20 Euros on the meter.

 

We had 9:00 pre-bought tickets for the Book of Kells. We were ushered right in with no delay or formalities. It was really nice being there early as we had a relaxed visit through the exhibit and got to take a good look at the open pages of the book. Looking at the book from an angle we could even see the three-dimensional aspect due to the thickness of the pigments. Truly remarkable that this is over 1200 years old!

 

After the book we greatly enjoyed the long room in the library. Exiting the exhibit we found the WC’s at the college and proceeded to the green hop-on, hop-off bus. It arrived exactly as we did at the stop. The only negative was that early this morning on a cruise ship day the bus was standing room only. After one or two stops DW found a fold out seat. Construction had changed the route so we missed our expected stop and got off at Christ Church cathedral. We took a number of photos outdoors and began to walk back towards Grafton Street, the pedestrian shopping area.

 

Along the way we viewed the outside of Dublin Castle. Along Grafton Street a few of the Irish shops caught our interest and a small purchase was made. Just after it began to rain a bit we passed a Burger King with a big sign “Coffee 1 Euro until noon.” It was 11:00 so a good time to stop for coffee.

 

Next we walked along the edge of St. Stephens Green until reaching the Ho-Ho stop. Within two minutes the green bus pulled up and this one had plenty of seats available. We stayed on the bus from stop 5 until stop 15, Kilmainham Gaol. We had pre-purchased tickets for 12:45 and arrived at about 12:30. Others who hopped off the bus tried to acquire tickets but all spots for the day were sold out.

 

This was an excellent tour of the prison and it gave us a lot of insight into Irish history. The tour ran a bit over an hour. Upon departing the jail, we reached the Ho-Ho stop exactly as the green bus did. We rode the bus to the end of the line and left to find the Pink route bus. The Pink “Docklands” route does not run as often but it goes to the convention center (stop 6) which is much closer to the port. Exhaustion prevented our doing the Rick Steve’s O’Connell Street stroll/tour so we headed towards the ship.

 

Upon getting off the Ho-Ho a taxi was just dropping off a passenger and we got in. The very nice cabbie took us back to the ship. He had never taken passengers back to the port before and was surprised at the immensity of the Caribbean Princess. The return cab fare was a bit under 10 Euros and took less than 10 minutes.

 

We had just enough time to get a coffee and tea at the international café and get cleaned up for the evening. The “Evening” began early with a 4:30 performance in the Theater by “Gaels afloat.” The show included singing, dancing, and “Crack” (what the Irish call fun) and was incredible and greatly enjoyed. We went straight from the show to our dinner seating. Again it was just the three of us at our table.

 

Service by Lucian had been great and tonight was the same. As we entered the dining room a general announcement was made that there was an addition to the entertainment schedule, a 7:00 talk on Liverpool and the Beatles. Even with dessert, we made it to the theater with time to spare. The talk was very informative. As the talk went until 7:50 we stayed in our seats for the 8:15 show by Paul Baker, a vocalist from London’s West End. Paul was excellent and greatly enjoyed, doing songs from the Lion King, Les Miseralbes, and other shows. Tomorrow we “Meet the Beatles” in Liverpool, England!

 

Arie

[StartrainDD]

We began our day in Liverpool with a 6:30 alarm for a 7:30 dining room breakfast. Our meeting time was 9:00 on shore for our 3 hr. Beatles tour with Jackie Spencer. A cruise critic roll call member arranged this tour. The morning weather did not cooperate as it rained with varying degrees of severity all morning.

 

I really enjoyed this tour. We learned more than anyone needs to know about the young lives of those who went on to become the Beatles. The most interesting thing is that three of them grew up in “Working class” areas, typically small row homes. Paul McCartney grew up in a “Middle class” neighborhood. Jackie told us that various classes rarely interacted in 1950’s England and it was strictly the music that bridged the divide to bring John, Paul, & George together.

 

We drove and walked on Penny Lane and saw the restored gates to Strawberry Fields (which was an orphanage back then). We visited the Cavern Club and ended our tour at the Beatles Museum. We had pre-purchased tickets to the museum and it is a good thing we did, as if we had not we would not have waited in the queue to buy tickets.

 

The Beatles Story museum is very well done. We are not museum people. That said, we truly enjoyed this presentation and spent about 90 minutes there. After the museum we began to walk back to the ship but with the wind and cold, ending up getting our first ride in a true British Cab back to the ship for a grand total of four pounds.

 

Back on the ship it was now 2:15 and I thought an opportunity to do laundry while most passengers were still on shore. This plan did work, but it also showed me how much I miss being on Holland America. On HAL, we always buy the ‘unlimited laundry’ package and the ship does our wash every day. Princess offers no deals – NONE. I asked our room steward and the front desk and both said they have not offered “Laundry by the bag” in months. Doing it myself took nearly 90 minutes and cost $18.00 to do two loads. We should have enough now to get by for the rest of the trip, of course heading home with all dirty clothing!

 

In between the wash I had a light lunch in the buffet and ran into my dad. He walked to the Liverpool Museum and enjoyed nearly three hours there, returning to the ship just before we did. He was quite impressed with the museum as it gave a good history of Liverpool and included many historic items including a steam engine and other railroad gear.

 

DW went to begin to get ready for the evening while I visited our friends at the international café for two good hot drinks. Bringing them back DW tells me that the toilet will not flush. I got ready and also called the front desk, who immediately told me that there was an issue in our “Zone” and it was being worked on. Sure enough, when we returned to the cabin late in the evening it was working fine.

 

We watched the parade of last minute people returning to the ship from the Promenade. For some reason, they were all directed around a ‘longer way’ and it made quite a spectacle. We were a little early for dinner and enjoyed a chance to talk with Lucian for a while. We learned he was leaving the ship the same day we do, in eight days. He is anxious to get home to see his wife and nearly 7 year old son. Service was excellent as always, my and dad’s English roast beef was very good while DW’s special order spare ribs were okay.

 

There were three shows tonight of the “Beatles Celebration” at 7, 8:30, and 10:00. We made it to the theater at about 6:50 and managed to get decent seats near the deck 6 side entry. By 7 the theater was standing room only. The show was very good, and I thought it got better as it went on. The Beatles tribute band we saw back in 2009 was more talented yet this was still a very enjoyable evening.

 

At 8:00 a historian was giving an enrichment talk on Belfast harbor and the Titanic in Club Fusion. He was a little dry yet I did learn a few things, the major one being that the people of Belfast took the sinking of Titanic very personally for nearly 90 years. So much so they wouldn’t talk about it. After the hit movie, it became acceptable to talk about it as a realization that “It wasn’t my fault” came home. Then the harbor had a rebirth with Titanic memorials and the Titanic museum.

 

Heading back to the cabin I got our passport receipts and found Rodolfo. Then he tells me that the “Pick up time” was 5 – 8 and they are now at the front desk. Well, we would have been there after five if our toilet had been working!!! I will need to get them in the morning. Tomorrow we have a tour planned out of Belfast Port with a local tour company, Odyssey Coach Tours and they want us off the ship as early as possible.

[StartrainDD]

The morning began as the last few have with a 6:00 alarm followed by a 7:00 dining room breakfast. We were back in our rooms gathering things together when we heard the ‘clear to go ashore’ notice. We were down on deck five before the line was gone and quickly aboard our Odyssey tour bus #1. We were reminded of the danger of a large bus type of tour as one couple was less than prompt and 10 minutes was wasted until they arrived.

 

We rode out past the rest of the port and on expressway a good part of the drive to the Atrium Coast. We took a quick a photo stop at Dunluce Castle. Dunluce is famous as while it withstood several attacks and raids in the 1500 and early 1600’s, it could not survive a natural onslaught as part of the castle suddenly fell into the sea in 1639, taking a good number of servants with it. The castle was never lived in again.

 

Our next stop was the Giant’s Causeway. This is the most visited tourist site in Northern Ireland and for good reason. The geometric shaped stones are unique and the legend that goes along with them quite entertaining! I walked down the 20-25 minute trail from the visitor’s center to the stones, while we all rode back in the mini-bus. We had time for a quick coffee/tea break before reboarding the bus. Guess who was back last? No, it was not us!

 

We rode a few miles along a pretty coastal road to the next stop, the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge. It is a +25 minute ‘walk’ each way to the bridge, including over 160 steps. The main part of the walk is pleasant enough, with ample photo opportunities. It goes up and down and up some more. Then you reach the steps. It is likely +40 steps down (but remember you need to come back up!) then a short walk and then just stairs. Plus there is a queue to cross the bridge (both ways). I made it thru the first stairway and called it a gallant effort. DW and D Dad were not up for this and enjoyed the view from the visitor’s center area.

 

Next we rode the bus along the coastal route to the southeast back towards Belfast. This is rated as one of the top ten scenic roads in the world, and I would have to agree. We stopped once in a very pretty town named Carnlough. While there we had the option to get a snack or some delicious local ice cream. The harbor was very pretty and we would have liked to have more time to explore.

 

Back on the bus we reached Belfast and our tour ended with a quick overview of the City. Our guide told us about the prior struggles, some reminders of which (walls and gates) remain to this day. We also saw many campaign signs for the recent UK referendum “BREXIT” both “Stay” and “Leave.”

 

Our guide was really good but regretfully we do not recall his name. Overall this was a good tour and a very good value. We would have preferred a bit less time on the bus but I guess that is the distance involved to see these places in a day trip from Belfast. We were back on the ship at 5:10 for a 5:30 all aboard. Since dinner is also at 5:30 this gave us very little time to get ready, but we did!

 

I had invited Tony McClintock, the guest speaker from the Inverclyde tourist group to join us for dinner. Tony stopped by our table to thank us for the invitation and did speak with us a while. He was traveling with his significant other and they had later dinner plans.

 

The dinner menu was not very exciting this evening but with the help of Lucian we found options that were okay. After dinner we made it to the 7:00 show, a cast show “Born to be Wild.” The show was more entertaining than I expected with a broad mix of music set around an auto adventure in a pink Cadillac. Next we attended Tony’s presentation in Club Fusion. This was well done and gave us some previews on our visit to Greenock, Scotland.

 

Arie

[StartrainDD]

In Ireland and Scotland they say you can have four seasons in one day. Today we certainly had at least three. We were up for our standard 7:00 dining room breakfast. With a 7:00 arrival the ship was cleared at 7:10. We were off the ship at about 8:00 and visited the Inverclyde tourist group in the terminal. We picked up our tickets for the 9:15 ‘free tour’ to Newark Castle. In the meantime we visited the shops in the terminal. One had very nice polo shirts in the correct sizes at what seemed like reasonable prices; we even obtained a “Cash discount” of nearly 10%.

 

I returned our purchases back to the cabin as we had plenty of time. I still had 30 minutes until our tour so I headed into town to visit an ATM. During my walk it began to rain. The rain became a downpour. This area of the world is not so green because it is a desert! Just after I returned to the cruise terminal the rain stopped.

 

We had a terrific tour! The two guides from the Inverclyde group told us a lot about the area. Inverclyde is so named as Inver means “Mouth” and the area is the mouth of the river Clyde. It consists of three towns and a number of villages. We stopped at the reconstructed “First steam powered paddle wheel boat” called the Comet. Our main stop was to tour “Newark Castle” in Port Glasgow. Newark Castle was built in the 1500’s and largely survived the industrial revolution and the building of shipyards literally all around it as it became ‘invisible’ from land due to other buildings. It managed to avoid attracting vandals or any attention at all.

 

When the shipyards began to close local authorities rediscovered the largely intact castle. Heritage Scotland acquired it and it now is a very nice smaller castle to tour. We enjoyed seeing the main floor, the storage rooms, the upstairs bedchambers, and the basement kitchen and servant’s area. Situated right on the River Clyde, the grounds give quite a view as well in the pretty sunshine.

 

On the return to the cruise terminal the group was offered the option to leave the tour at the Port Glasgow rail station for those who wanted to visit Glasgow. Perhaps a third of the tour did so. We remained on the bus back to the terminal, intending to visit the “Old Church” nearby. Those were the intentions but literally one minute after reaching the cruise terminal the skies opened again. We tried to pass some time by using the free Wi-Fi but with so many using it that was frustrating. With no signs of a quick let up in the rain, my dad and I walked over to the next door “Aldi” store.

 

Aldi is his favorite grocery store back in New Jersey and we thought it would be interesting to see the differences as well as perhaps acquire some Scottish treats to bring home. Sure enough, I was able to buy an assortment of treats for the price of one tin of shortbread in the cruise terminal. We did, however, get soaked walking the short distance to and from Aldi.

 

Returning to the ship to change into dry clothes and footwear we had lunch in the buffet. It was okay. By the time we finished lunch the sun was again shining, but now it is 2:00, do we really want to go out again, knowing we want to be back for the 4:30 “Music Scotland Show” in the theater? We decide not to go out. Rather we walked to the rear of the ship where we had a nice view of the old church and the lovely seaside promenade that runs from the western edge of the cruise dock into the next town of Gourock.

 

We visited the international café from a frozen coffee and hot tea and then went to the show. One big Kudo goes to Princess for bringing onboard these local groups! We loved the Irish show-time and this one was just as enjoyable. Who would have thought bagpipes could sound so great? The show was followed by dinner with the usual great service from Lucian. After dinner we sought out a good spot for scenic cruising as it is a lovely ride down the river Clyde back to the Atlantic.

 

A note here – the Caribbean Princess is not a great ship for scenic cruising. There is no “Crow’s nest” or anything similar. We went up to “Skywalker’s” which is aft on deck 18/19. There are only two lifts that go there and we had a long wait. The windows were less than clean and as Skywalker’s is a nightclub the windows all reflect the many colored lights inside. After a few minutes we left to go to the promenade deck, with me stopping at the cabin to get our jackets. It was lovely (but cool) out on the promenade. We had front row views of the pilot boat coming to pick up the harbor pilot, and passed the lighthouse marking the end of the river.

 

We left the promenade at 8:00 to attend the 8:15 show. We were still able to get seats but it wasn’t too much longer before the theater was filled. The entertainer tonight was Alison Ward who is originally from Liverpool but currently has a show at the New York, New York Casino in Las Vegas. She did medleys of the Carpenters, Abba, Adele, and the Beatles. Alison also paid tribute to Frank Sinatra and overall gave a very enjoyable performance.

Tomorrow, one week after we boarded, we actually have a sea day!

 

Arie