JimmyVWine

Day 7-Holyhead, Wales (Coronation Day) With a title that includes “A Crowning Achievement” you knew we’d have to get to the Coronation at some point. There was something very poetic about us being in Wales on the day that the former Prince of Wales would be formally crowned as King Charles III. On board the ship, the Coronation activities would be broadcast live at every possible venue including MUTS, and bunting and decorations were everywhere. But we had other plans, which included setting feet on the Welsh terra firma that was the ancestral home of some of K’s forebearers which meant some of S’s forebearers as well. We had a plan, and I thought it was a good one. Turns out that I was wrong. Burned by either my own bad research or by bad luck. And since we had just left Scotland and are talking about getting “burned”, perhaps a stanza from an old Scottish poem is in order: But, Mousie, thou art no thy-lane, In proving foresight may be vain; The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft agley, An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promis'd joy! Robert Burns, 1785 (Which translated means…) But Mouse, you are not alone, In proving foresight may be vain: The best-laid schemes of mice and men Go oft awry, And leave us nothing but grief and pain, For promised joy! Our plan for the day was to tour on our own, (as no Princess tour grabbed our fancy at the price offered, and most were sold out in any event), by taking the train from Holyhead to Conwy, tour the massive castle there, stroll around the wonderful town and castle walls, try our another local fish and chips shop, and then take the train back to Holyhead in plenty of time to catch the last tender. A very executable plan, and certainly not one that required all the skill and cunning of an Amazing Race Team. S had her UK Rail App on her phone so we could purchase tickets for the train on-line. I did my homework and bought entry tickets to the castle in advance (at a discount) so that we could skip whatever lines were forming in Conwy. I scouted out the best chippies in Conwy so that lunch would present no uncertainty, and I “walked” (virtually) the waterfront of Conwy on Google Maps to locate a nice place to eat said takeaway fish and chips. I even researched the train situation, learning that not all trains that head to Conwy stop there, but learned the trick that you can flag down a train that does not intend to stop by waving at the conductor while standing on the platform. I even confirmed this by watching a Rick Steves video on the town of Conwy. Seems like my obsessive/compulsive planning was in order. So what happened? As I said, either bad research or bad luck, coupled with the fact that it was Coronation Day which people in the UK were treating like a “time stands still” holiday. To execute this plan we first had to catch one of the few trains that go from Holyhead to Conwy. The schedule showed two morning trains that would fit that bill—one at 8:19 and one at 9:28. The former was too early, and frankly unnecessary, but the second would be perfect. The Holyhead train station is right at the port, just like the one in Cohb. Getting to the train station would be a breeze. While Holyhead is a tender port, we were profoundly confident that we could hop on a tender, get off by 9:10-9:15 and have plenty of time to make the 9:28 train. This would get us to Conwy at 10:26 and our timed castle admission ticket was good for entry at any time between 10:30-11:30. Piece of cake. But here is where it all fell apart. Not sure if it was my fault or not, but I can tell you in jumping ahead that when we were on the platform to catch a train back from Conwy to Holyhead, we encountered a number of Princess passengers who, like us, were completely off the mark when it came to getting from the tender dock to the train station. Either we all missed something in our research, or we were all misled into thinking that something that wasn’t true actually was. Something in my research had me convinced that our tender would dock somewhere in the vicinity of the Holyhead Ferry Terminal. It did not. To gain the full appreciation, you may need to open up Google Maps to see if you can follow this, and some of my reference points will be based on that resource and others from a picture below. For starters, the port at Holyhead is much like others we had been to on this trip such as Portland and Greenock, which is to say that you do not get off the ship (or tender) and walk through some glitzy DUFRY mall filled with cigarettes, liquor and Tanzanite. You know the ones. Instead, you arrive at a working, industrial port with nary a single tourist accommodation from which you must then exit to see anything of interest. In Portland one's escape is accomplished by taking the free Blue Bus which whisks passengers off to the nearby tour meeting areas or town of Weymouth. In Greenock there were tour buses and taxis waiting in the nearby car park. My research suggested that we would find neither in Holyhead, (I was right), but that this would not matter as the train station would facilitate our easy exit with just a short walk. In looking at the picture above, you will note the sleek looking white ferry in the middle of the photo. It is backed up to a modern looking silver/white “L-shaped” elevated walkway, which in turn leads to a sleek building with a rounded roof. THAT is the train station. If our tender landed anywhere in this general area, getting to that train station in time to make the 9:28 train would be child's play. We boarded a tender that morning (again, without the need to get an aquatically named animal boarding ticket) after heading straight down to the Gala Deck (and from what I can tell, there has never been a Gala on the Gala Deck), and soon we were on our way to shore. But wait. Something is amiss. We are not heading for the port that you can see in the photo above. Not even close. Instead we headed far from that area and eventually landed at a point that is so far from the train station that you cannot even see it in the photo above. If you look at Google Maps and find the Holyhead Sailing Club and Langdons Restaurant and Bar far to the west of the ferry terminal, that is where we landed. It was actually the tip of that little triangle to the north of Langdons. If you zoom in, you can see the gangway that we used. Confused upon landing, I asked a local greeter (who was dressed in costume) how we could get to the train station, and he said that the best way was to walk, and that it would take about half an hour. 20 minutes if we hoofed it. So then I asked about any sort of shuttle or taxi and was told that there was no shuttle, and that it would be impossible to get a taxi on Coronation Day if we had not already booked one. Dang! There was no way that we could make our train. An even mix of anger and frustration came over me. Frustrated that I must have missed something in my planning, and anger that Princess would use this useless area of a useless port to drop us off. Of course there were people who had already booked organized tours, so they were fine. But those of us who opted to “see Wales on our own” were downright screwed. At least we had a plan, foiled as it may have been. Others who we chatted with on the tender had no plan whatsoever and were just going to roam around and explore the area. Trust me. There is nothing to explore here. Truly nothing. Not allowing bad luck or bad design to get us down, we regrouped and replanned. The next train out of Holyhead to Conwy was scheduled to leave at 11:28. It was now around 9:20. Assuming that our costumed friend was on the mark, we would be at the train station by 9:50 with nothing to do until 11:28. So we whipped out our smartphone map and plotted a “scenic” (meaning longer than necessary) route to the train station and began a slow, leisurely walk which led us to nothing of interest, but at least felt safe and took us through an area that we had never been before. We arrived at the station in plenty, and I do mean plenty of time to catch the 11:28 train and off we went to Conwy, resigned to the fact that we would probably be able to do everything on our daily agenda except the one major reason for going there in the first place--touring the castle and the castle wall that encircles the town. We would see the castle from the outside, but still enjoy the rest of the town as planned. And we adjusted our return time that allowed for a later train back to Holyhead, one that arrived at 4:20, giving us 40 minutes to walk from the train station back to the tender line. Having done the walk one way, we were confident that we could match the guide’s assessment and complete the walk in 20 minutes. Not sure at this point if we were mice o’ men, but we were not going to let our awry plan leave us nothing but grief and pain. Off we went to Conwy to salvage the day. Photos and town tour coming in the next installment.

100%. I doubt that the happy hours are long for this world. "Come get an $8 drink that you can get at the Good Spirits Bar for free with Plus!!" The "perk" seems to have lost its zing. Priority tendering and free laundry? Sure. I get that. But discounting drinks while at the same time pushing All Inclusive Packages is silly. I can see the future. Fewer and fewer people will go to these gatherings until you can count the attendees with the fingers on one hand. And then Princess will discontinue them. And then hundreds of people here will come here to yell and scream that Princess is taking away all the good perks!

Ditto. Doesn’t matter the itinerary, I am a Tommy Bahama (or equivalent) shirt guy on Smart Casual nights and have never been uncomfortable.

I’m calling BS on this. Princess is having enough trouble finding crew members. They aren’t going to sack someone for SELLING a drink and generating revenue. And Princess never intended to separate spouses when one is Elite and the other is not. Princess wants people to experience the perks of status to incentivize people to strive to obtain that status. The same way that time share companies shower people with freebies if they agree to tour the property. The Elite lounge may be a luxury for you, but it is most assuredly a marketing tool for Princess. It all comes down to capacity. If the lounge fills up with people who qualify, then others don’t get in. But more and more that isn’t happening so the vacant space can be put to its best and highest use by allowing in others who are going to spend money. Your optimal outcome might be for YOU to have the lounge all to yourself without another soul in it, because no one else qualifies. But rest assured that Princess does not consider that to be THEIR optimal outcome.

The only deck that might experience a chill is the Promenade if people are opening the doors constantly to get outside. I don’t recall Decks 5 or 6 (where all the MDRs are) being any different than any other itinerary.

I suppose. But I don’t use the two interchangeably. Off a ship, texting can serve as a virtual conversation so a notification is helpful. On a ship, over a week’s time, I might need to send 4 or 5 messages because I am with my travel companion(s) most of the time. Indeed, that is one of my main reasons for taking a cruise as opposed to some other vacation. Compressed family time. So I might say to my wife, “send me a message when you decide which bar you decide to go to” and I know to check for a message in 5 or 10 minutes. A notification would be nice, but not critical. In the end it’s all moot because we all have WiFi and can also send iPhone messages.

But every photograph that you see in a magazine was taken by a person who carried their maps, flashlight, notepad, alarm clock etc. on their phone…but took their photos with a camera. Some things a phone just can’t replicate. If Canon or Nikon thought that they could marry their lens quality with a smartphone, they would have done so already.

Some of us still use real cameras. 😁

What would the advantage of using WhatsApp be if the ship’s messaging system can be used to communicate with others on board? Assuming that WhatsApp does in fact work to communicate with others on the ship using the intranet only, it sounds as if the functionality is simply replicating the Medallion App communication feature.

The casino. 😎

I think that as long as one person in the group has the app, links their Shipmates to that account, gets everyone registered for check-in and knows how to use the features while on board, others can enjoy their cruise just fine without ever carrying around a device. My daughter and I both used the app to its full advantage while on board. My wife carried her phone with her to address work related emergencies but hardly ever accessed the ship app. She had us do that for her. Once over the course of 8 days she used the “Find Shipmates” feature to locate where we had found lounge chairs to chill for the afternoon and the app led her right to us. But other than that she didn’t use it and survived just fine. But in all honesty, I do think that the cruise experience is heightened if at least one person in the group knows how and is willing to leverage the advantages of the app.

This. Offering me a $12 cocktail for $8 is useless when all of my drinks under $15.01 are already paid for. They could run a “special” where the $12 drink is offered at the price of $15 and they’d be in the same place. And the food offered is typical of that served in the buffet. Just presented better. The only remaining function of the gathering is to allow people who feel special to mingle with other people who feel special. Not my jam.

Well played.

Absolutely. Anything more than 14 is unconscionable!

But if half the men are wearing slacks and long sleeves and the other half are wearing coat and tie, or full tux, is formal dress a "goner", or only half gone?

This is sure to be an issue in both directions, and the only way to stay on top of it is to check your account regularly. Daily? Child's Play! Most charges show up almost instantly and certainly within an hour. So I check mine obsessively. On our most recent cruise there were three instances where we ordered drinks from a bar and the bartender, thinking that he was confirming who we were, would say: "Mr. So-and-so? Regal 432?" Or some such thing. And I would have to say: "No. Mr. V. Caribe XXX". Had he not asked, and had I not been honest, Mr. So-and-so in Regal 432 would have been charged and there would probably have been no way to sort this our when Mr. So-and-so disputed the charge, short of looking at CCTV footage of the time and place of purchase which I doubt anyone will do. So that led me to think, if they are confusing me with someone else when I make a purchase, might they be mistaking someone else for me when that person makes a purchase? After all, those Medallion Readers are picking up on people who are in the vicinity, and not just right in front of the reader. As luck would have it, we never found a charge on our account that did not belong to us, but we did seem to be missing some bar charges that I am sure we made. Circumstances where the bartender never bothered to confirm who we were, and probably placed the charge on someone else's tab, confident that the Medallion Reader does not lie. So yeah. Check. And check. And check. As I said, bar charges would show up within minutes of our order. Restaurant wine charges took a bit longer but were always on our account before we went to bed. Laundry tokens showed up instantly, and the refund that we needed to get for an excursion we had to cancel showed up instantly as well.

If the ship was leaving Invergordon, then it was not our cruise as we did not go there. Our cruise was 4/30-5/8 and the Live thread is of the cruise right after ours. Nevertheless, I'll take a look at them on that other thread.

Day 6-Greenock (For Glasgow and the Highlands) (Continued) After returning to the ship we headed to our cabin to swap out today’s packages for some that we had picked up in Cork. While at the English Market we bought some cheeses, crackers and olives with the intent of having “Wine and Cheese” on board but had so far managed to skip that activity. But we were determined to do so now while we enjoyed the delayed sailaway. While I am thinking about it, and in the interest of full reporting, I want to mention the reboarding process. At every port, upon our return to the ship, we went through an airport-style x-ray machine and our bags were placed in bins and sent down a conveyor belt to likewise be x-rayed. At no time did we ever try to secrete anything that we were bringing back on board, whether that be cheese, olives, or in today’s case, unopened bottles of Irn Bru. For those who do not know, (and I am betting that there are legions of you), Irn Bru looks all the world like a plastic bottle of Fanta Orange Soda, although the flavor of the bru contained therein tastes nothing like orange soda. The point being that if liquids were not allowed to be brought onto the ship, surely this bright orange concoction would be found out and confiscated. And if it were, we would not shed a tear. Long story short, nothing that we brought back on board from any port stop was examined, questioned or confiscated. (I am not counting Southampton here, as we are strict rules followers at the port of embarkation.) Too late to call the authorities on us now, but we managed to get cheese and olives onto the ship in Cork and Irn Bru on in Greenock. Would the result have been different had we tried to get on bottles of Scotland’s other, more noteworthy liquid gold? I don’t know. We didn’t try. But I don’t know if the security team was bothering to differentiate Irn Bru from Islay Whisky. The weather seemed good enough (just barely) for us to stake out a spot in our favorite sailaway venue which is the Outrigger Bar, aft on the Lido Deck, and the covered lounge chairs and tables nearby. (When we went to the cabin I dropped my camera gear off in the room, so the picture below is not mine.) As it was already almost 6:00, some of the tables in the area had been set for dinner. Although we doubted that many people would want to eat out here given the wind and threat of rain, we avoided any table that had been set that way and chose one that gave us a good view and set up our own little picnic. We each got a glass of Whispering Angel from the bar and succeeded in checking off our first outdoor bar of the trip from our BINGO card. A word on the outdoor bar. While the size of the wine pours up to this point had been spot on, (either into our own glasses or into the thick utilitarian glasses that you get free with government cheese and then redeposited into our own glasses), the pours we received at Outrigger seemed pretty deficient. For obvious reasons, the pour wine into plastic glasses up there. And those glasses seem more befitting of an after-dinner glass of Port than a glass of dry wine. Even if poured uncomfortably to the rim, the amount of wine in the glass would have been a tad short. But we didn’t bring our glasses with us to the bar, and am not sure that they would have poured the wine into them had we done so. I suppose that we could have secretly made the transfer, but we aren’t that obsessed. Outdoor bar—outdoor beverageware. I can play by those rules. Just be forewarned that your “glass” and your volume may cause your eyebrows to raise a bit. Also of note is that both S and I, who volunteered to get our order while K set up the cheese plate, noticed that the liquors available at this bar were more upscale and interesting than those that we had seen up to this point at most of the indoor bars. Better Scotch. Better Rum. We made a mental note of that for the future. Wine and cheese in hand, we alternated between sitting and standing at the rail, the latter affording us a better view to look for “runners”, or people who are rushing back to the ship before the gangways are taken down. While doing so we saw a number of cars driving into the lot, seemingly bringing people to the ship after the announced all aboard time. But we soon realized that the people arriving were assembling as a band, and before we knew it, we were being serenaded by a local pipe and drum band which I later researched and found out to be the “Inverclyde Pipes and Drums”. We got a nice concert of bagpipes and drums while we enjoyed our wine and cheese, (which transition over to “cocktails and cheese” since we didn’t want any more short pours of wine in cheap plastic picnic glasses), and watched as the local dock workers heaved and ho’ed to get the lines removed from their posts to set us free from the dock. By 7:00 it was time to go back to the room and get ready for dinner. As I think I noted in earlier posts, we weren’t overly impressed with either the Formal Night nor the Dress to Impress menus. Usually those are the “pull out all the stops” menus, and we thought that they were more like “put up all the stops” menus. Not sure why the cadence was off, but tonight proved to be the first of two menus that were “Formal Night” worthy. I started with a dish that I had yet to try on a Princess ship, which was the Oxtail Soup en Croute. The broth was rich and flavorful, but if there was supposed to be braised oxtail meat in the dish, its invitation got lost in the mail. But treated like Oxtail Consommé, it filled the role admirably and the pastry that topped the soup was tasty. S opted for the Ginger-Carrot-Coconut Soup. A lot going on there and she said that she enjoyed it. K tried the Vol-au-Vent which was advertised as “overflowing with lobster and shrimp bisque.” The pastry was excellent, but the use of the term “overflowing” was stretched past the level of truthfulness. But the proof was in the tasting, and she said that it was very good. For Mains, S and I doubled up on the Beef Wellington. We thought that it was only appropriate to have Beef Wellington in Scotland given how many episodes of “Hell’s Kitchen” we have watched and how many times we have heard Gordon Ramsay scream about that dish. Since he was born and raised a mere 30 minute drive from Greenock, we thought that we owed it to ourselves to give that dish a try, and I will tell you that it was excellent. My biggest fear of that dish, (perhaps owing too much from Mr. Ramsay’s protests) is that the meat will either be “raw!” or “burnt to a crisp!” fit only for the nearest bin. But we both ordered ours medium rare and the meat was cooked spot on, and the cut was both tender and flavorful. This was truly an exceptional dish (for a cruise ship). And I must digress with a bit of wisdom imparted upon me by a friend who owns a vineyard and small winery. “There is no such thing as a great wine. Only great bottles.” So too with food. There is not such thing as a great menu item. Only a great dish. Just because ours were terrific does not mean that if you order the same dish on a different ship on a different night that yours will be too. I can only hope that you are as fortunate as we were. K opted for the Rack of Lamb which she did with some trepidation. Rack of Lamb is one of my specialties and K has come to measure all others by mine. (I made it for her on Mother’s Day just to prove the point.) That said, she said that this was a very worthy dish, that while falling short of mine, would be one that I would have been proud to have made and served. I stole a taste and she was right. For desserts we chose the Chocolate Tart (me-to me, “dessert” and “chocolate are synonyms, found side-by-side in any Thesaurus worth using); the Lemon Raspberry Bar (S) and the Chocoholic Cheesecake (K). We were all very happy with our choices. Best meal on the ship so far, not even close. For our “Enchanted Evening” I offered the ladies the choice of the Illusionist in the theater or “80s Music Trivia” in Princess Live and they opted for the latter. So we got some drinks at the Princess Live Bar, got ourselves situated and put our heads together for what we thought might be another trivia win. And it turns out that we finished….second. Again. Two second place finishes in a row. Still, this was proving to be our best trivia cruise ever. After trivia was over, Princess Live was set up for “Karaoke Power Hour”, an event that I would typically attend only if it was “Free Drinks Night”. Well, it so happens that we had the Old Plus Package and were nowhere near our 15 drink limit for the day, so in essence the drinks were free. S really enjoys karaoke. With her musical theater background, she and her friends partake back home from time to time, and she considers it to be quite fun. As for me, S inherited her music and singing talent from my mother, the Music Major, teacher, choir director and piano instructor. All of that talent skipped a generation. Still, I agreed to suspend my disbelief and we sat for an hour while shipmates performed some mostly credible and occasionally torturous renditions of somewhat recognizable songs. S was too late in the sign-up process to perform which kind of bummed me out. Still, we had a good time and drink way too much. Time to head back to the cabin to take on Wales the following day. Our drink tally for the day was (and I am not proud), 9 glasses of wine and 10 cocktails. The total out-of-pocket expense would have been $298.54. With Plus we paid $21.24. With Premier the total would have been $0.00 Patter Day 6.pdf

A good bit of my life has been spent on the pursuits of food and wine. Some would say too much. But as a result people often ask me what my favorite meal has been, probably thinking that I am going to regale them with stories of Three-Star Michelin restaurants. But my answer and story is always the same. And here it is. I had an uncle who landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day with the Infantry. My father parachuted in to Ste. Mere-Eglise as part of the Airborne a few weeks later. In 1976 we took a family vacation to Europe on the QE2, with a trans-Atlantic on either end of the trip. Our return trip was delayed due to a mechanical issue with the ship, and Cunard put us up in Cherbourg for two days while we waited for the ship to make its way over from Southampton. During those extra two days my father decided to take us over to "The Beaches" and to the American Cemetery and nearby museums, including one in Ste. Mere-Eglise. While visiting Omaha Beach at around lunchtime (which was far less developed than it is today), we spied a lone food cart vendor nearby. My dad walked us over and we saw that he was selling a very French version of hotdogs. While the cart looked like one you would see anywhere in New York City, this one was a bit different. Attached to the cart was a foot-long wooden dowel that had been sharpened at the tip. When we ordered our hotdogs, the man took half a baguette and instead of splitting it, he impaled it on the dowel. He then took another long stick and slathered it in the hottest mustard I had ever had at the time, (I was only 13), and dipped into the hole he had made. He then slid a hotdog into the baguette by way of the hole he had made through the impalement. And there we stood, on the edge of the cliff, looking down at Omaha Beach, my older brother, father and me, silently, watching the calm waters and thinking about what things had been like 31 years earlier. A lowly hotdog, eaten in silence, with my father, in the most impactful place I have ever been in my life. That was my favorite meal of all time. If you have the chance to go to the beaches and the cemeteries, do not pass up that opportunity.

Day 6-Greenock (For Glasgow and the Highlands) (Continued) With lunch over, it was time to head back to the van for more touring. Our next point of interest was not mentioned as a stop along the tour, but a fun cinematic detour none the less. The drive to Stirling Castle takes you close to another castle, (although to be honest, any right or wrong turn in Scotland probably takes you nearby another castle), that of Doune Castle. For those who are familiar with the movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, (and, c’mon, who isn’t) or the Starz television show “Outlander”, you have seen this castle as a backdrop. Just because I cannot resist, here is the castle being defended by French soldiers, and a few unfortunate cows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1TGsFCDrjQ And a still from Outlander. Earlier I had mentioned that it often pays to tour with a local guide, and that Dave was as local as they get, familiar with and to most everyone in the local tourism industry. And here it paid off. Given the recent popularity of this castle owing to the international popularity of Jamie and Claire, the road leading up to the parking lot and parking lot itself are limited to paying customers who play on paying the fee to tour the grounds and enter the castle. We didn’t really have time for that, but Dave promised us that he would try to sweet talk his way past the attendant at the lot if we were lucky enough to have that attendant be one of his friends. Luck was indeed on our side and he negotiated a deal where he would swing the van into the parking lot, have anyone who was interested quickly exit the van as if to storm the castle, so that he could then pivot back out to the main road for a couple of minutes. We would then have 5 minutes or so to take photos when Dave would then come back to the car park where we would hurriedly reboard the van as if we had stolen something. Seemed like a plan, and it was well executed. So in the 5 minutes or so that we were on the grounds, I managed to get a few shots of the castle without having a cow dropped on my head. No sign of the French soldier. Before long we arrived at the star castle of the tour, Stirling Castle. Begun in the late 1200s, the castle has since been added on to and holds pretty much the entire history of the Scottish conflict with England within its walls. Way too much history to go into here, and frankly, if one tours the castle and reads all of the historical information contained therein, a visit of 6 hours would hardly be enough. It was no wonder why S said that she wanted to revisit the castle even though she had been there before. Now that I have been once, I do too. The castle is far to vast for any photo to do it justice, and a bit of rain started to fall, so I did not keep my camera out for very long for exterior shots. The weather was conducive, however, for the full bloom of Spring to take hold here as well. And while I try to take photos without people in them if at all possible, I did inadvertently snap one off with S in the background. The view from the castle walls is impressive, and it is easy to see why this location was chosen for its defensive advantage. With the threat of rain looming, we opted to take a self-guided tour of the Royal Apartments to see how 1% from the 14th Century lived. The ceilings and fireplaces stood out as the most ornate and opulent features. In some rooms there are period interpreters who will speak with you in the voice of a castle attendant of the time. When the time came to reassemble at the van, we met back up with Dave to begin the last leg of the journey. The trip from Stirling Castle back to Greenock is mostly highway and the tour suggested a quick stop in Glasgow if time allowed. But time did not allow owing to building traffic and the promise to return to the ship in plenty of time. This presented us with no grave disappointment because as noted earlier, Glasgow was not at all a focal point of our day. But the highway we took did pass straight through the city so anyone who wanted to say that they had ”seen” Glasgow could do so without telling a lie. But I think that most people slept for this last hour or so of the journey. I know that I caught a few winks along the way, though I was awake for our traverse through Glasgow. Meeting their promise, Discover Scotland Tours got us back comfortably, and our all-day tour absolutely lived up to expectations and then some. I feel that we made a true friend in Always Dave and even though the ground we covered was but a wee bit of the Trossachs, it was a worthy taste that will be fondly remembered. The best trips and tours are the ones leaving you saying: “I need to come back to this place to experience more” and this was all that and then some. We walked back on the ship fully satisfied with our choice of tour company and their delivery on their promise. Shipboard activities to be covered in the next post. Until then..."Go away or I shall taunt you a second time!"

My daughter calls it the "Fix Everything That Is Wrong With You" schedule. Pure-Form Pilates YogaSix Flow Zumba Arthritis and Pain Solutions Relieving Pain Look 10 Years Younger Secrets to a Flatter Stomach Ladies Pamper Party (Mini Facials) Chinese Herbal Remedies Tighten Your Skin With Thermage Pure Barre Workout All real events from just one day of the cruise! Of course, included on that day were: Last Chance Liquor and Tobacco Event Poker Tournament Whisky Making Seminar and Tasting Grapevine Wine Tasting So I guess there is a good mix of vices, and solutions to those vices! 😎

I'm certainly not picking on the OP's tour, but if you look at what they did, a lot of it was "on your own" touring time, including: Skipped the museum and instead walked around Royal Mile for 90 minutes. 3 hours for lunch and walking around Princes street and the area before meeting back up with the tour group Going through the castle on our own and spent just under 2 hours there. Once you skip the museum, 90% of the day is walking and touring on your own. Everything here can be done without paying for a pricey tour. Just make sure to buy tickets to the Castle in advance if you will be there on a busy day. And if you want an organized tour of the castle, those are easy to get. A roundtrip taxi will cost 50 pounds or 25 each for two people compared to the price of the tour. The itinerary above includes 6 1/2 hours of "on your own time." So why not just plan your own day?

No! You cannot get just nuts!! You have to get the whole concoction! I'm betting that by the time Summer rolls around and more families are sailing, they will figure out the idiocy of this and change the rule.

Ah, yes. I have heard her say it a number of times. I just never paid attention to the spelling! Hope to get the next installment up tomorrow. Have to get to the Coronation Party décor on the ship!

More choices are always better than fewer. Your concerns are certainly valid. But pardon the pun, but they threw the baby out with the bath water. Parents very much like the ability to bathe their kids. Can't understand why the decision had to be made to jettison all tubs instead of mixing up the cabins so that some had them and some don't. I generally detest one size fits all "solutions".