TenneSea

The remainder of the trip looks like this: Next Port: Cobb (Cork) Ireland May 15th Taking a Princess Tour "Scenic Killarny". It's an 8 hour tour (a lot of bus riding) with an Irish lunch. Falmouth, Cornwall, UK MAY 16 Planning on a private taxi drive to Port Isaac (45 min) where Doc Martin was filmed, a quaint fishing village on the other coast. Just found out that we are anchored and there is a 45 min water shuttle to land, which may complicate this particular activity. Portland, UK MAY 17 -No planned tour, might take shuttle to town and just enjoy it there. LeHavre, France -MAY 18 Taking a very long, quite expensive Princess tour to see Normandy Beaches and some surrounding sites linked to that WWII event. OFF SHIP IN SOUTHAMPTON ON May 19 -Yarmouth May 19 & May 20 Taking Red Funnel Ferry to Isle of Wight. Staying 2 nights in Yarmouth. Some family history on Isle of Wight New Forest, UK. May 21 Taking WightLink ferry to Lymington (in New Forest) where we will be picked up for an all day tour of New Forest. Staying in Beaulieu overnight. Southampton -May 22 Most of the morning we will still be in New Forest at the Beaulieu Motor Museum and then Hythe ferry over to Southampton where we will revisit our favorite restaurant and stay the night. Moreton-In-Marsh -May 23 & May 24 Taxi to Moreton-In-Marsh in the Cotswolds. Just exploring the village for the remainder of the day. Next day, will have a full day tour of the Cotswolds in a tuk-tuk. Should be a fun adventure ! Lichfield, UK. May 25 Taxi to Lichfield. Family historical site to visit in Lichfield, which I think everyone will find interesting. Burbage/Hinkley. May 26 Uber to Burbage for services in a church which also has family history in it. Scrooby, UK. May 27 Uber to Scrooby (Retford) If you know anything about the brave souls who came over on the Mayflower, Scrooby will perhaps be familiar. It is the home of William Brewster (a Mayflower passenger) and the area is filled with lots of history of Brewster and other passengers. Again, much family history here. Private, all day tour. Windsor, UK Taxi to Windsor. Hoped to visit Windsor Castle but just realized they are closed on Tuesday. Who closes on Tuesday ???? London Heathrow for a 4 pm flight back to Tennessee !

We have had a very, very ROCKY RIDE last night, today and tomorrow. I hope to have time this afternoon to post more pictures. Yesterday the shore expert commented about how smooth this Atlantic crossing had been. Today he said he was sorry for jinxing our lovely trip ! (Should we throw him over ??? or just call him Jonah)

Natural Spring Water

THE AZORES, PORTUGAL I knew very little about these islands. What a beautiful surprise ! We took a Green Visions tour (7 people) and it was amazing !

LAND !!! We have docked in the Azores. Busy day today, I hope to post pictures of our tour this evening. Soon, you'll see images of things other that food and entertainment ! Thanks for following.

Honestly, we were at Guest Services and he just happened to pass us in the area. I grabbed him (not literally !)

I'll try.

Kate Gordon singing. This one's a little out of focus, but I love it anyway.

Monday night in the Princess Theater, Bravo was the performance. Excellent job overall. Some moments were awesome, others were enjoyable, none fell below that mark. The coloratura soprano, Kate Gordon, was mind-blowing. The dancing was beautiful. So many great moments that you should not miss if you're into watching wonderful musicians and artists perform. Even if some of the opera songs aren't your cup of tea (not really mine either), you have to appreciate the talent !

The awesome view from the aft balcony.

I know. And when we get back home, it will be June ! YIKES. Feels like June is right after February this year.

Is it butter ??? The quiche was a little iffy for us. Lamb was good.

It's always fun to see some of the ship's officers in contest with the guests. We ran across them playing Cornhole. I believe it ended in a tie. Sure sounded like everyone had a great time.

The entertainment to date has been quite good. I am a musician so am very picky about performances. We skipped the first night (Shane Hampsheir). Second night was a Celine Dion tribute (Crystal Cimaglia - married to Shane Hampsheir. I think). She was good, seemed like her voice was pretty tired towards the end. It's a pretty high bar to duplicate some of Celine's vocal skills and Crystal gave it a good effort. All in all, she gave us a nice evening. I'm a little over some of Celine's music but it was fun to see a Tribute show.

The room is S-M-A-L-L. SSSSSooo small. Tiny. Seems like they could do with a little less closet space to give a little more room space. On the first day of the cruise, the toilet would not flush. It was so very, extremely annoying. We weren't the only ones, seems quite a few rooms around us had the same issue. I will say, they did fix that problem and the no hot water problem within about 4 hours. I have to give them credit for a pretty prompt response. We are in our 4th sea day and it was a pretty smooth ride until last night and today. Getting pretty rocky. It is a little eerie looking around you - no boats, no ships, no land just water, water, water. Our 1st stop is the Azores on May 11th. Here is the itinerary as I forgot to finish it above: 7 sea days 5/11/24 Azores 3 sea days 5/15/24 Cork, Ireland 5/16/24 Cornwall, England 5/17/24 Portland, England 5/18/24 LeHavre, France 5/19/24 Southampton, England - Disembark We will continue our trip in England for 10 days after the cruise ends and I will post that portion of the itinerary later. For now, heading out of the cabin for a while and will continue tomorrow. Thanks for following.

Just a side note on "us". This is our 5th Princess cruise. Have cruised Celebrity and Windstar previously. We did not purchase the Plus or Premier packages. We don't drink very much alcohol so it just didn't make sense for us. We do like to get a good cup of coffee in the a.m., so that is pretty much our beverage expense. Also, we purchased the wifi, one device at a time, for each of us and we bought it before the price went through the roof a few months ago. Our room is in the very aft of the ship and we do love the aft balconies. We went to Norway last year and lived in our first aft balcony. We're hooked !

This was the worst meal we have had so far. We've found the dining room food to be quite good. Not impressed, at all, with the Fresh Marketplace (buffet). After 2 really unsatisfying lunches there, we won't go again, at least for lunches or dinners. However, the breakfasts have been appetizing in the buffet.

Food and Menu pictures from Days 1 - 3

This is the piazza of the Caribbean Princess. It is very small, I'd guess about 1/2 the size of the Sky Princess, for instance. The dome at the top gives it a very dated feel. You tell me, is it plastic, or is it stained glass ??? I aim to find out on this trip. This is a panel that covers the panoramic elevators in the Piazza. I like them. Very ocean-y.

This is our first TransAtlantic cruise. We sailed from Ft. Lauderdale and will (hopefully) disembark on May 19, 2024 in Southampton, UK. Itinerary: May 4 - May 10 are SEA DAYS. I won't post lengthy, painful details of what I (we) did every hour of every day. These are sea days. If there is any activity worth noting, I will certainly post. Otherwise, I'll put up images I take throughout the ship with notations on them, If you have any questions about the ship or the cruise, if I can, I will answer them. I'm always pretty free with my opinions about everything and this report will be dotted with plenty of them. If you disagree, just be respectful in your disagreement and we'll get along just fine ! Here we go !

Wow, thanks for that list of Uber areas. We have an Uber reserved from Hinkley to Retford and a local short ride in Hinkley. I think I could have reserved others but I just didn't know where they operate and where they didn't. Most of our reservations are taxis.

My husband is a car guy/collector. He has several classic, old Porsches and and old Land Rover truck. He doesn't know it yet but, we are spending most of the next day at the Motor Museum in Beaulieu - just bought the tickets last week. This whole trip is made possible by taxis (and 2 Uber rides). Our trip over the Atlantic is on Caribbean Princess, then 10 days in England, then fly home. This is our first transatlantic cruise and we're just a little apprehensive but love cruising so, we'll be fine. Yep, the taxis are pricey but we don't want to haul luggage on trains and busses. Our last UK car rental ended in a collision with a bus so it's a big no this trip. We have some really, really awesome private tours lined up. This trip will be epic ! Thanks for your helpful tips !

Such great information. This is the company doing our private tour: https://www.southamptoncruisetours.co.uk/ They (he) seemed to be very knowledgeable about New Forest and is great to respond quickly to any question or suggestion I have. If you have heard anything negative about them, I'd appreciate knowing that. I had a hard time finding a tour guide that was available. We are staying at Montagu Arms in Beaulieu and doing Beaulieu the next day on our own. The tours that we have planned and all of the taxi reservations are pricey, but if they just all show up, I'll be a happy camper ! Thank you for your reassurance on the taxis and for all of the helpful tips.