ROWSE

16 minutes ago, Bimmer09 said:

Kitty, Guinness has been savored since 1759 and is sold in 120 countries so I am not the only one who loves it. I didn't like my first pint all those years ago. The people I was with told me it was an "acquired taste" and by pint number 3 Guinness had acquired a new customer. I was also told I looked good with a "Guinness mustache".

Here is the pint they poured for me in the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin....I heard angels sing...

 

Norris, enjoying your review!

Norris, I am so glad you chimed in.  I was beginning to worry about you as I saw you were liking my posts but had not heard from you.  PHEW!!!  Glad you are still here to drink another Guinness!  Cheers!!   

May 14, 2022, Port of Liverpool

We were up bright and early and up to the buffet.  Today we were doing a tour with Busy Bus called Day Trip Tour of North Wales.  

It was also an 8 hour tour.

In the buffet we are asked to wash at stations like this.  I really appreciate these places!  

After breakfast we head down to International Cafe to get some coffee.  We just had a hard time finding the perfect drink but by the end we decided we liked a large latte, almond milk, with Chai flavoring.  Some pictures of the atrium in early hours....

A view as we come in to Liverpool

Our port time was 8:00a.m. and we were to meet Busy Bus at 8:30.  The ship was again late and we were panicked.  

We could see everything getting ready and note the ramp in this picture.  It was fairly parallel.  Didn't even register to me we went up. At end of day the tide was out and it was a huge down hill on that ramp!!!  

On most of the facebook pictures on Busy Bus it is a van and I was looking for that but it was a big bus for our trip today.  The picture of the bus is at one of the sites but wanted to show what it looked like.  

We were in the bus by 8:45.  We had to wait for a couple people so our tour started a bit late.  That happened a lot on this tour.  We had to wait past meeting time for the same people every time!!!  

Finally we were off with a wonderful guide named Stewart and he and the driver did an amazing job today.  Our first stop was this amazing site called the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct built by Sir Thomas Telford ( Thomas Telford built so many things that it was a joke for us later to just say oh that was built by Thomas Telford).  

It was built  in 1795 for 47,0000 pounds and still in everyday use taking canal barges across the valley.  

Pictures from this site...

Loved these long boats!  What a way to travel!!!  

We were able to walk it and it was very high!

I made it out there! 

@nini has made it too!  

The view down!!! 

The best part was that we got to see boats using it!  

Note the leaning direction of the driver.  I would not lean the other way either!!  There is no guard rail on that side!!😳

We had the most beautiful weather today!! 

This was a pull in to area and then you had to turn and go back out over the aqueduct as it was a dead end here.  

Next we were off to a cute little town for a comfort stop and snacks if we chose.

Name of town was Betws-y-coed.  Just lovely area.  

We found a little ice cream!  

10 hours ago, Lucky TGO said:

Thanks  Kitty & Jim,

I felt like I was on the trip right next to you. I love all the great photos!! 

Your Friends forever!! 

Tony & Margie

 

So glad you are along for the virtual ride!  Isn't it funny how you meet certain people on cruises and they are life long friends!!!  

12 hours ago, Mark_OH said:

Thank you for posting this!  My wife and I and another couple are taking the BI cruise that starts June 26 and this is helpful information.

Lucky you, wish we could do it again.  Thank you for reading along!  

13 hours ago, anierai said:

We are going on this cruise on 26 June. Thank you for posting such an informative review. I will continue to follow until the last day!

So glad you are reading along!  My best information came from all of you on Cruise Critic!  

May 13, 2022, Belfast Northern Ireland Continued...

Our next stop on the tour was Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge.  This is a rope bridge that links the mainland to the windy island of Carrickarede.  It spans 20 meters (66 ft) and is 30 meters (98 ft) above the rocks below. 

Lovely church a long the way.  

And river 

Our lunch stop was in a lovely little town called Cushendall.  We joined the others at a place called Harry's.  I think they were surprised at the size of our group too, but they were amazing getting us all fed in a timely manner.  

We had their fish and chips!   DH tried the beer on tap. 

Walking back to the bus, I saw this unique way they did laundry here at outside a little store.  I have never seen that kind of set up!

We had some long hours driving today but the scenery was so beautiful.

Our last stop before Belfast was at ‎⁨Carrickfergus⁩ Castle.  We just viewed the outside and it was a nice comfort stop as well. 

We came back in to Belfast at about 5:20 p.m. and saw some of the results of the 1969 to 1998 unrest and bombings in Belfast.  It was both political and religious and such a shame to damage their lovely city.

This is part of the peace wall.  

This mural was on a side of a building.  Rather unsettling!

Other sites

I am so glad we chose to go outside of Belfast for our tour as this city gave me an

uneasy feeling and I was glad I was in the bus.  I am sure there is so much more to 

see and learn here than just seeing the surface like we did.  

Once back on board we rushed to our 6:00 dinner being just a little late.  Our fish meal was pretty filling so we just had some rolls, salad, and pasta.  

BUT of course there was room for dessert!  This chocolate cookie dessert was one of the best things I had had so far!

DH had the key lime pie.

We were too tired AGAIN to go to the show but I recorded the show the birds put on for us as we left port.  What on earth is the ship spewing out that attracts them like that!  Another amazing day, and tomorrow we will be in Liverpool.  

1 hour ago, BuckeyeMark said:

This is the info we're here for! How warm is "very warm?" T-shirts and shorts?  And how much rain did you see and what'd you wear (or wish you had worn!) to be able to carry on through it?

I can only report on what UK in May was like for us.  It was usually high of 50's.

In London the high temperature one day was low 60's and we did see people in T-shirt and shorts.  We did not ever feel we would wear shorts.  It was usually high 50's.  We were so lucky and only had a couple really rainy times.  Some sprinkles but not much.  I had a rain coat, a vest, and one fleece pullover top with mainly long sleeve tops underneath.  Of course it depended on the forecast that day to what I would put on.

 Did have a short sleeve underneath those sometimes, but really only went down to that a couple times.  Layers!  If I were to go later than May, my raincoat would have been way lighter than what I took for May.  

You will see every kind of weather hit in the exact same day.  

Weather is just too hard to predict to really advise anyone, though!  

May 13, 2022, Belfast Northern Ireland Continued...

We drove a short distance to the Giant's Causeway which is a UNESCO World Heritage site first documented in 1693.   It is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption, or so Wikipedia says.  The Irish have a different story involving one Finn McCool.  I suggest you google it!  No matter how it came to be, it is amazing to see!!  

We were told we could either take one path which is to go down here.

Or if we felt more able to take stairs and walk farther, to go up on a different trail.

We chose the different trail and we climbed up stairs to an overlook path.  It was so windy and cold.  Sometimes those Covid masks really come in handy when your face is freezing!  

Overlooking the main path.  

We noticed a bus coming up and down that possibly people paid to get out of there without walking?  I am not sure.  

A video of from the top and showing how windy it was.

To get down it was a lot of stairs.  

We then walked out to a point 

This column was on the walk. 

The ground was a lovely reddish color. 

The walk back to the tour bus with the wind at our face was quite the challenge.  There is a visitor center here that was not included in the price, and we would not have had time to do it, but it the walk is too much for someone that would be a great option.  

4 minutes ago, junglejane said:

We're on the July 20 sailing and enjoying your review. In addition to everything else, I'm paying attention to the apparent weather and how you're dressing in port. Obviously layers are important but it also looks like maybe it's cooler than I imagined.

Thank you for coming along now with us!!  This was May, so I imagine it will be way way warmer in July.  In London, at end of trip there were days it was very warm.  Layers is definitely the way to go!

May 13, 2022, Belfast Port 8:00am-8:30pm.

Today was our longest scheduled port day of the cruise.  We had a buffet breakfast and out to meet our tour by 8:30am. for our 8 hour tour.   It was through the Irish Tour Tickets and the tour was called Giant's Causeway & Belfast City Tour.  

We enjoyed getting our food and eating outside by the back swimming pool.  

That door on the level up leads to Adagio Lounge which is a lovely place! 

We did see one person in the pool one day, but even though we brought a swim suit, it was never really warm enough for us to get in.  

Back to room and ready to go!  My daughter knitted the most wonderful things for me to wear on this cruise!

A big welcome at the port!   Then  we find our tour.  It was somewhat of a surprise

to our wonderful guide, Gavin, that we had 44 people.  Seems the ones that signed up through Viator were not on his list but there was plenty of room.  

He was a retired school teacher from Northern Ireland and was hysterical!  He had us laughing all day! 

These were some of the taxi's in line and a Cunard ship in the distance on probably somewhat of a dry dock.  

After loading, we were off and saw a little of the city as we headed out to the country side.

This is just a little snippet of Gavin's commentary!  I just loved his accent!!  Our driver, who Gavin said was nicknamed Smickers, at least I think that was it, was just fantastic; just as much tour guide as Gavin.  

Beautiful views out our window.

We did a very short stop for a photo of Dunluce Castle.  It was so windy here!  

Our next stop was Bushmill Whiskey Distillery.  They had recently opened back up from the pandemic so it was rather a surprise to Gavin that we were able to do a whiskey tasting if we wanted to.  Enough did, so we stayed for that.  We had never really tried whiskey other than what is in Bailly's and I learned Bushmill is the one in Bailly's.  Well no wonder I loved all their whiskeys!!  We shared a tasting.  

This was in the tasting room.

They were preparing the tastings at the bar.  The rule was that they could not serve till 11:00.  BUT they started a bit early as our tour needed to get moving!

Our tasting!  We both agreed we liked the one on the left and one on the right the most. 

Comparing the colors!

The lovely young lady who told us all about the different kinds of whiskey. 

As we left Bushmill Distillery there were a lot more happy/chatty people on our bus!  

Since this was rather unplanned, I think a few people were not as happy at this stop as those of us who joined in and did the tasting!  

2 minutes ago, ambelina said:

Thank you so much for your great review. We are going on the Emerald in July and wondered if Princess had a shuttle going to Dublin after the tender. Thanks

Thank you for reading along on our journey!

There is no shuttle from Princess.  I assume they think people can enjoy the port which looked very nice.  There are buses and the train in to Dublin and I think Princess has a shore excursion to take you.  That is quite expensive compared to on your own.  

May 12, 2022, Port of Dun Laoghaire (Dublin) continued...

At the end of our tour of Guinness Storehouse, we see some the old advertising of years gone by.

Then we were ushered in to a little tasting room and got to taste a small glass of Guinness beer.  Maybe this was to be sure we would like it before we ordered our included drink at the end.

Did we like it??  Even though my bartender son assured us it was fantastic here, it was a bit too strong for us.  To tell the truth I don't like any beer, so no big surprise for me.  I am sure @Bimmeris rolling his eyes at me if he is still reading along as I know from his reviews that he loves it.    

Here is a picture of one being poured that we DIDN'T have! 

This is the one my hubby chose and I had an apple/blackberry drink that I loved.  The view up here though is amazing.  

It was really a fun tour and we learned a lot!  My feet were in protest to a great deal more walking so we found a taxi at the front door to take us back to one more place we wanted to see which was Stephen's Green.  It was a lovely park!

We headed back to catch a train and this time at Pearse Station to go back to port.

It is really nice to have these markers to help us find our way. 

We see the statue of Oscar Wilde as we walk by Merrion Park.

We get to the Pearse Station and find this easier to read map, but I still asked what platform as

it is very confusing.  We needed to go toward Bray.

We find the train nearly empty on the way back, and worse for the wear!

This is the tender area.

We were famished so caught the last of tea time on the ship.  Of course I know the pinky up etiquette!

Later that night we returned back to Botticelli's and were once again given our table 51.

DH mushroom appetizer

DH scallops 

DH Calamari

I had the Polenta Bean Dish 

We both had this bad boy!!!  YUM!!!

Another wonderful day in the books.  Next up is Belfast...

May 12, 2022, Port of Dun Laoghaire (Dublin) continued...

Note:  Sorry on last post there was a picture glitch and the last picture was the entrance to the National Gallery and it came on randomly at the end.

Back to Dublin...

Next up along our walk was the Christ Church Cathedral.  WOW!! WOW!! WOW!!!  We did not pay the fee to see the inside, but the outside was enough for us.  

We continued on toward the Guinness Storehouse and saw another beautiful church.

It was a little confusing a long here not knowing if we were headed in the right direction or not but thankfully saw this sign. 

Way back along some more streets we finally find the entrance..

We stood in line for a bit and bought our tickets.  Then the adventure began of learning how

Guinness is made.  Audio guide was available and very helpful!  

Massive amounts of Barley

The next picture is the 1900's starter yeast still used in all production.  This is a safe it is kept in apparently.  

The facility is huge and this was the old system to transport items around the facility

using this little train with cars.  

1 minute ago, Arizona cruisers said:

Thank you so much for this information!  I am following your post here and it is wonderful!  We were thinking about hiring Blackberry for the trip from our London hotel to Southampton, but after reading your post we will most likely do the National Express that you mention here.  We will save quite a bit of $$!  Quick question - is it an easy walk from the station in Southampton to the Premier Inn West Quay?  We are staying at the same hotel.  Of course, we will have quite a bit of luggage - we never travel light.  I would worry if cobblestone streets or big crowds.  Perhaps take a cab?  I look forward to your information/opinion on this and thank you in advance!

Thank you for reading along!  The hotel is very close, but it is cobblestone walkways.  We walked slowly.  I used Instantstreet view on google to look around the area and familiarize myself with walking there.  My husband is always amazed I seem to know where to go.😂

There were a lot of taxi's waiting when we got off the bus, so I bet that would be a great option as well.  

12 minutes ago, BuckeyeMark said:

These posts are making my day!  Soooo good.  We plan to do the Dublin train too - glad that worked so well for you.  Book of the Kells and Dublin castle for us, but I'd sure like to stop and get that donut.  Do you recall where that was?

I wish I would have taken a picture of those donuts, but upon looking on our credit card statement, it was called Offbeat Donuts.   

27 minutes ago, Astro Flyer said:

ROWSE…I’m late to discover your excellent review which is a great way to reminisce about our BI cruise in 2012 when weather prevented tendering into Guernsey.
 

We enjoyed the Orkney Islands (Kirkwall) more than Glasgow so for us that would be a win. There’s so much history there such as Skara Brae (3100 BC) and Ring of Brodgar (2500 BC) and more recently the Norse connection…their pronunciation of cow as coo still sticks in my mind. Wonder if Norway will ever pay the dowry to get the islands back? 😉

 

I am so glad you did discover this and are reading along.  I have SO many things to post!!!  Our Orkney Island visit was quite the adventure but that will be coming later!  

May 12, 2022, Port of Dun Laoghaire (Dublin)

This port is pronounced "Done Leary"

This port was a tender or water shuttle port.  We went to the Elite waiting area in Michelangelo's.  

Our plan today was to take the train in to Dublin and just do our own walking tour and see what we find to do.  One goal was to go to Guinness Storehouse, but other than that, it was a "see where our feet" take us day! 

We were first on the tender today!!  

It was a very long tender ride!  I would guess at least 30 minute ride.

We asked the wonderful port representatives which seem to be in various spots where to catch the train and we were pointed in the right direction.  It was very close to the tender drop off.  We bought our tickets with the end stop being Connolly station.  We had no idea which platform or direction we should be so asked and hoped for the best.  This is a sign and the stations are in Gaeilge.  Once on the train they are also in names we could recognize.  

The train was packed with school kids at this hour and my husband ended up quite a ways from the seat I sat in.  He took a picture back at me.  You can see my red mask.

As hind sight is always better, we think we should have chosen Dublin Pearse Station instead of Connolly as we had quite a walk back to be by the Liffy River, which is where we wanted.  Connolly Station was huge and while walking this big city one lady told me to be careful.  Careful of what I am not sure, but think she meant pick pockets.  We had no issues at all.  

Once at the River Liffey we saw the Famine memorial.  

There was an old sailing ship there but opened way later than we hit here.  

Looking away from the ship we saw the beautiful Samuel Becket Bridge in the distance.  

It always seems to be hard to find a bathroom and we spy one in this mall across the street that is also home to the EPIC- The Irish  Emigration Museum.  We had felt rather Titanic overload from the day before se we did not do the museum here.  We were happy it had a bathroom but I believe we had to pay for it.  

We walked near Trinity College next and had a donut that was the most amazing thing, but I must have been too busy eating it to take a photo.  It looked frequented by the college youth!  Next we came upon the National Gallery.  The entrance is free unless you choose to go in to a special exhibit there.  I loved this painting by Paul Signac done in 1898. 

Done with a new form of art at the time called Pointillism, which was done by applying dots of of pure color directly onto the canvas.  THEN  I realized I was not suppose to take pictures.  Sorry!!!  

We did not pre -buy tickets to Trinity College Book of Kells and, so we did not even attempt

to go do this.  It is a highlight I am told.  

After more walking we came upon the lovely statue of Molly Malone.  

Obviously people have been touching a certain area on her to make it shine late that.😂

There were maps like this one all over to keep us on track thankfully.

Next up we came upon the Dublin Castle.  This is big and beautiful!!

29 minutes ago, BuckeyeMark said:

Did you have any kind of kettle or coffee maker in your stateroom?  If not, did you happen to see/hear of anyone talking about that they do (or don't) have one?  Making coffee is pretty important to some of us!

Yes, there was a kettle and tea and supplies.  We had a beverage package for coffee so I can't remember if there was instant coffee.  Can't even remember what kind of tea, but you could always grab tea packets off the buffet for later in the room.   

16 minutes ago, Spudd said:

Is it a tender in Cobh or do they dock? I can't entirely tell if this conversation is about Cobh or Guernsey. We also booked a private tour in Cobh so I'll want to adjust the time if it's a tender.

Thank you for reading along.  I was confused a bit too.  Guernsey was a tender and Cobh was docked in the town.  

45 minutes ago, cruisegal415 said:

Yes a private one, Butlers.  It worries me because I know that the Princess excursion folks get priority on the shuttles, and I think, then, elites? I guess if we all make it on the excursion, they may just have to readjust the schedule if we run out of time.

I think I may be confused on what port you were talking about.  If it is Guernsey, then it is a water shuttle, if it is Cobh we were docked in town.  

7 hours ago, leck57 said:

 

I was also on this cruise. The passport collection and return worked well. Receipts were given and the return arrangements were done well.

Many Asian cruises, your passports are handed over on boarding due to the number of countries visited.

Glad to see you are reading along!  I agree, they were very careful making sure in the end you had the receipt they gave you, and you signed for them when they gave them back.  

10 hours ago, caribill said:

 

After disembarkation begins, you need to shuttle to shore. Even being on the first shuttle will be calling it very close if the shuttles started on time.

 

(I assume you mean a private excursion, not a Princess one.)

Cobh was not a tender it was docked right in town.  

13 hours ago, Blondilu said:

All stops on this itinerary are in the United Kingdom except for Cobh and Dublin which are in the Republic of Ireland.  So, they take your passports so the custom people for Ireland can scan and stamp them.  This happened both times I took this cruise.  They will give them back after Cobh.

 

The same thing happened when we went from the United States up into Canada.
 

Thank you for replying I didn't see it till after I answered.  We did not get it back till after Belfast though.  

19 hours ago, BuckeyeMark said:

Why did they take your passports?!  That kinda would make me nervous...

The paperwork said it was needed for Dublin immigration, but since they took it before Cobh and did not return till after Dublin I think it was for Ireland immigration.  

18 hours ago, cruisegal415 said:

We had hoped to book with Annette when we are there in August but unfortunately she has a wedding booked that weekend so she is not available.  We did book another similar tour but really was looking forward to Annette as we've heard so many good things about her tour.

That is too bad, she was fantastic!  

18 hours ago, cruisegal415 said:

How late were you in docking there? We booked an excursion that leaves 30 minutes after disembarkation begins, and I worry that we won't have enough time on it.

My first picture off has the time stamp of 10:06 so I am thinking it was possibly 10:00 to

be able to get off and it was suppose to be 9:00.   Maybe they will be on time for your cruise!