Eclipsing Northern Europe by cruise : Basic black , and Baltic blues

[scubacruiserx2]

Disembarkation information

 

 

 

nearing Southamption

 

 

 

 

a Sony sunrise

 

 

 

 

a Canon sunrise

 

 

 

 

the Port of Southamption

 

 

 

Gentle Leader RoRo

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MicCanberra]

No worries, Joe, I can try to help with the planning and such, or point you in the right direction.:D

[cocker2]

Looks like the Southampton weather was fairly typical! I'm still here, still reading and still loving everything in your thread.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[scubacruiserx2]

No worries, Joe, I can try to help with the planning and such, or point you in the right direction.:D

 

Thank you Mic we would really appreciate help and keen insight as we are strongly considering a trip into your part the world . There is one in particular which we are looking at just now , 31 days on the HAL Noordam from Hawaii to Oz and NZ beginning October 5 , 2017 .

 

 

 

As we were researching cabins (aft balcony) we found this great flight medic's view of a hoist operation over the Noordam which put a smile on my face ! :

 

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

Looks like the Southampton weather was fairly typical! I'm still here, still reading and still loving everything in your thread.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Thank you cocker2 for staying tuned in and we're happy that you are enjoying our trip . At this point we were looking forward to touring and experiencing the famous UK weather first hand .

 

If any one has questions about the Eclipse or the Baltic cruise , don't be afraid to ask ! And I have a question for all of the readers . Before we launch into our UK shore excursion , would anybody like to see the Celebrity shore excursion brochure which we received at the beginning of our cruise ?

Edited September 10, 2016 by scubacruiserx2

[MicCanberra]

Thank you Mic we would really appreciate help and keen insight as we are strongly considering a trip into your part the world . There is one in particular which we are looking at just now , 31 days on the HAL Noordam from Hawaii to Oz and NZ beginning October 5 , 2017 .

 

 

 

As we were researching cabins (aft balcony) we found this great flight medic's view of a hoist operation over the Noordam which put a smile on my face ! :

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice itinerary and also the photo of the aft decks.:D

 

A couple of thoughts on the itinerary. As you are both divers, I would urge you to also consider the cruises that go via Tahiti to compare although I am sure Samoa and Fiji would be nice as well. This cruise also finishes in Auckland, which means if you want a GBR dive that would be a flight across the ditch back to Cairns in Northern Queensland.:D

[scubacruiserx2]

One last walk on deck before leaving the Eclipse

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We waited in the comfort of our cabin , watching the ships sail by , until our assigned time to disembark

 

 

 

 

And with a final beep of our cruise card it was over . We carried our own bags and so there were none to find downstairs . And with nothing to declare , we walked unimpeded through the green lane - so easy !!

 

 

Time for a couple of photos before meeting our guide and driver for the day tour .

 

 

 

 

 

 

[shiphappy]

I hope you will share with us the continuation of your trip to London. Loving every word and picture of your review. Thank you so very much.

[scubacruiserx2]

I hope you will share with us the continuation of your trip to London. Loving every word and picture of your review. Thank you so very much.

 

We will be glad to and thank you for reading and writing in shiphappy . :) :D

[scubacruiserx2]

Nice itinerary and also the photo of the aft decks.:D

 

A couple of thoughts on the itinerary. As you are both divers, I would urge you to also consider the cruises that go via Tahiti to compare although I am sure Samoa and Fiji would be nice as well. This cruise also finishes in Auckland, which means if you want a GBR dive that would be a flight across the ditch back to Cairns in Northern Queensland.:D

 

We did look at both the Celebrity Solstice and the Emerald Princess which leaves on April 12 , 2017 , as they both go to Tahiti , but our preferred time is October/November .

 

Our tentative plan for the HAL trip would include :

 

1. About a week in Hawaii before the cruise .

 

2. About a week in Oz after the cruise ( 5 days in Cairns including GBR and a couple of days in Sydney ) .

 

3. A return flight stopping in Tahiti for about a week before returning to LA .

 

No I's dotted or T's crossed yet , just a snapshot of the big picture . :) :D

 

[MicCanberra]

We did look at both the Celebrity Solstice and the Emerald Princess which leaves on April 12 , 2017 , as they both go to Tahiti , but our preferred time is October/November .

 

Our tentative plan for the HAL trip would include :

 

1. About a week in Hawaii before the cruise .

 

2. About a week in Oz after the cruise ( 5 days in Cairns including GBR and a couple of days in Sydney ) .

 

3. A return flight stopping in Tahiti for about a week before returning to LA .

 

No I's dotted or T's crossed yet , just a snapshot of the big picture . :) :D

 

Sounds like a good plan.

The Solstice and others (RCI and Princess) all come here around September/October/November, so lots of options that may suit, even if it means having some time in Sydney between cruises. Not sure if this is a huge factor but for diving water temperatures may be a factor. In the Southern Hemisphere, especially Australia and NZ, the water will be warmer in the March/April times as it is after our summer. As for Hawaii and Tahiti and the other pacific islands like Fiji and Samoa, the water is pretty much the same temps all year round depending on the currents and side of the island.

[scubacruiserx2]

Sounds like a good plan.

The Solstice and others (RCI and Princess) all come here around September/October/November, so lots of options that may suit, even if it means having some time in Sydney between cruises. Not sure if this is a huge factor but for diving water temperatures may be a factor. In the Southern Hemisphere, especially Australia and NZ, the water will be warmer in the March/April times as it is after our summer. As for Hawaii and Tahiti and the other pacific islands like Fiji and Samoa, the water is pretty much the same temps all year round depending on the currents and side of the island.

 

Thank you Mic for all of the great information and advice . We certainly have a lot to consider . We do love our September and October vacations and leaving our hurricane season behind ! :) :D

[scubacruiserx2]

We love the organization and professionalism found here in Southampton

 

 

 

And for that reason we would be using the Executive Connection with Scott as our driver and Sebastian as our guide again .

 

 

 

 

 

We had done this same tour after completing a TA on the Eclipse with Gracie115 in 2015 who had arranged it . We liked it so much that we repeated it again , with 2 other couples this time . Our first scheduled stop was Salisbury Cathedral , but we pulled over before reaching Salisbury . It was a beautiful day for a walk by this river

 

 

 

 

There is a hotel here and parts of it date back to 1250 !

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

There's a nice pond and stream here

 

 

 

 

Video clip:

 

 

And a view across the meadows of the cathedral

 

 

 

Looking and walking across the meadow reminded me of an old Pink Floyd song from the Ummagumma album , Grantchester Meadows :

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MicCanberra]

Thank you Mic for all of the great information and advice . We certainly have a lot to consider . We do love our September and October vacations and leaving our hurricane season behind ! :) :D

 

I do think your plan of missing the hurricane season has great merits and will suit you best.

As for diving and possible sea temperatures, there are numerous sites like http://www.bom.gov.au/oceanography/forecasts/idyoc13.shtml?region=13&forecast=1#

http://www.seatemperature.org/australia-pacific/

[scubacruiserx2]

I do think your plan of missing the hurricane season has great merits and will suit you best.

As for diving and possible sea temperatures, there are numerous sites like http://www.bom.gov.au/oceanography/forecasts/idyoc13.shtml?region=13&forecast=1#

http://www.seatemperature.org/australia-pacific/

 

Thank you Mic , that really helps . We were looking at diving with the Spirit of Freedom and contacting them for proper attire before diving with them . :) :D

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

After crossing the meadow we continued to follow the river into town

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped at the Fisherton Bridge for a few photos

 

 

 

 

 

 

The clock tower is nicknamed little Ben and there used to be a small area there to confine prisoners .

 

 

 

[MicCanberra]

 

Thank you Mic , that really helps . We were looking at diving with the Spirit of Freedom and contacting them for proper attire before diving with them . :) :D

 

 

 

 

 

Wow, that looks awesome.:D

[scubacruiserx2]

Salisbury is a medieval city with a number of interesting buildings . This is the church of St. Thomas of Canterbury ( Thomas Beckett ) .

 

 

 

The next 2 photos I found online and are not mine . The text description of the buildings are not mine and comes from the website h2g2.com.

 

The Church of St Thomas of Canterbury started out as a wooden hut, built as a place of worship for the builders of the new cathedral, and may have been in place as early as 1220. This was later replaced by a stone building but the church as it now stands dates from the 15th Century. It still, however, retains some of the earier features. The cost of the new church was borne by the city's wealthy merchants.

 

The nave boasts a fine Tudor roof, but pride of place goes to the dramatic painting of 'Doom' above the chancel arch - the largest medieval chancel painting in England. This is believed to have been painted around 1475 as a 'thank-you' gift for the safe return of a pilgrim. This was whitewashed over during the Reformation and was rediscovered, uncovered and restored to public view at the end of the 19th Century.

 

The graphic, somewhat macabre scene shows Christ sitting before the New Jerusalem, with the deceased emerging from their coffins to face their judgement. The good queue up to be raised to heaven while the bad are forcibly led downwards to hell. One hell-bound woman is said to be Agnes Bottenham, who ran a brothel in Trinity Street. Eventually, she repented her sins and is reputed to have founded Trinity Hospital as a penance.

 

One of two figures on either side of the painting is thought to be St Osmund, the first Bishop of Salisbury, who was canonised in 1457. The other figure is thought to be St James, the patron saint of pilgrims.

 

The organ was originally presented to the cathedral by George III and transferred to St Thomas's church in 1877.

 

ibid

 

 

The church and the doom painting

 

 

 

Detail of the doom painting

 

 

 

I didn't know about this church when we were there or I would have asked to go inside and photograph it . Thus the photos and details and came after the fact while researching it .

 

The next building of note is the Haunch of Venison in Minster Street, opposite the Poultry Cross, is noted for its timbered features and fireplaces, and is believed to date back to the beginning of the 14th Century.

ibid

 

 

 

 

 

The Cross Keys Restaurant

 

 

 

 

The last medieval building is the Hall of Jonn Halle , which is now a movie palace .

 

 

The Hall of John Halle in New Canal, which is now the home of the Odeon cinema, is the most unusual of these. Externally, the Odeon has a modern fake Tudor frontage and the word Odeon in Gothic script. But step inside — the foyer is an original and typical hall of a 15th-Century merchant - the Hall of John Halle. John Halle was a rich wool merchant who was Mayor of Salisbury four times. His coat of arms and merchant's mark can be seen above a splendid stone fireplace. The hall features stained glass windows in which John Halle is represented holding a dagger and the banner of the heir to the House of York, soon to become the short-lived boy-King, Edward V. The hall also features a high, arched ceiling displaying fine craftsmanship. There are pikes and breastplates hanging on the wall. A plaque reads:

 

'Built 1470 - 1483 by John Hall, wool merchant and Mayor of Salisbury. Later used as an Inn. Restored by AW Pugin 1834'

John Aubrey, the famous Wiltshire antiquary, records that this house was a tavern 'on the ditch' in 1669, and in 1836 it became a china shop. The 'ditch' is a reference to the fact that many open streams once flowed through the city. The street now named New Canal commemorates one such channel. These channels were nothing more than open sewers and accumulated much rubbish. In the middle of the 19th Century, the population of Salisbury was growing fast, and it was more densely populated than most of the big industrial cities. There had been a number of cholera outbreaks at this time and, indeed, Salisbury was a cholera hotspot, being the worst affected town of its size in the country. A particularly high death rate in the 1849 outbreak was finally associated with the water channels and, as a result, from 1854 the channels began to be cleaned out and closed in. The channel in New Canal was filled in in 1875. This transformed Salisbury into one of the healthiest places in England. During the cleaning out of these channels, an amazing number of artefacts were found which are now held in the Museum as the 'Drainage Collection'. This is one of the finest early collections of keys, buckles, cutlery, spurs, horse trappings and pilgrim badges in the country.

 

ibid

 

 

[AntjeG]

Thank you so much for this great read (and all the others), scubracruiserx2! I have been following along without posting anything but I just want to let you know how much I enjoy your reviews.

 

A few suggestions for your next cruises:

MicCanberra is of course a much better source of information for the southern hemisphere but maybe you want to check my review from a 2015 Celebrity Solstice cruise from Sydney to Auckland and a 2 weeks land vacation in Australia prior to the cruise. The English translation of my German blog is on page 3 (see signature).

For your next Baltics cruise may I suggest a pre- or post cruise stay in Northern Germany? Most overseas visitors go straight on to Berlin (I understand your reasons of course) but in my opinion the north is highly underestimated by you folks. I think MicCanberra has chosen a very good itinerary for his day in Warnemünde. There is so much more to see. Cities like Hamburg, castles like Schwerin, medieval architecture in Lübeck or Wismar, great landscape around the Mecklenburg lakes district, cold war history, art and culture, great seafood... I could easily pack you a 1-2 weeks package.

[MicCanberra]

Thanks for the vote of confidence AntjeG.

I find that there is always so little time and money to properly explore any place, no matter where it is. So we end up visiting the 'must sees' and the 'must dos' and occasionally we can get to see and do some of the less well known things as well but we know that if we visit again we can explore further.

 

I will check out your link for the Solstice cruise of NZ.

cheers Mic:D

[scubacruiserx2]

Thank you so much for this great read (and all the others), scubracruiserx2! I have been following along without posting anything but I just want to let you know how much I enjoy your reviews.

 

A few suggestions for your next cruises:

MicCanberra is of course a much better source of information for the southern hemisphere but maybe you want to check my review from a 2015 Celebrity Solstice cruise from Sydney to Auckland and a 2 weeks land vacation in Australia prior to the cruise. The English translation of my German blog is on page 3 (see signature).

For your next Baltics cruise may I suggest a pre- or post cruise stay in Northern Germany? Most overseas visitors go straight on to Berlin (I understand your reasons of course) but in my opinion the north is highly underestimated by you folks. I think MicCanberra has chosen a very good itinerary for his day in Warnemünde. There is so much more to see. Cities like Hamburg, castles like Schwerin, medieval architecture in Lübeck or Wismar, great landscape around the Mecklenburg lakes district, cold war history, art and culture, great seafood... I could easily pack you a 1-2 weeks package.

 

And thank you for reading and writing in . You're English skills and writing are excellent , better than many native English speakers which I know !

 

I took a quick look at your thread and I look forward to reading it all when I have a little more time .

 

I'm not sure if we will be cruising the Baltic again ( This visit was to help further our grandson's education with an eye on history ) . But we would love to see Northern Germany , Poland and Switzerland in the North and cruise the Mediterranean in the South . My wife's parents actually met in Baumholder when he was stationed there . We did have an opportunity to visit Hamburg on a Northern cruise on Carnival in 2013 and visited medieval Luneburg on a rainy day .

 

The Rathaus

 

 

 

 

The Markplatz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the sail out on the Elbe River was very nice when the sun came out !

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so we would love to visit there , perhaps in the future ? We hope so !

 

 

But for the time being , we would have to cancel Alaska if we go to Oceania on HAL . And if we skip Seaborne for Antarctica , we may be able to cruise to Oceania and circle Antarctica on HAL , for the price of the Seaborne cruise !

 

Edited September 12, 2016 by scubacruiserx2

[MicCanberra]

 

I will check out your link for the Solstice cruise of NZ.

cheers Mic:D

 

LOL, I thought your name was familiar, I already had read it.:o

[MicCanberra]

 

 

But for the time being , we would have to cancel Alaska if we go to Oceania on HAL . And if we skip Seaborne for Antarctica , we may be able to cruise to Oceania and circle Antarctica on HAL , for the price of the Seaborne cruise !

 

 

I suppose it is deciding what is more of a priority for your travel dollars for you and Pat. We can provide suggestions but only you two can decide what is really the one for you.

[scubacruiserx2]

I suppose it is deciding what is more of a priority for your travel dollars for you and Pat. We can provide suggestions but only you two can decide what is really the one for you.

 

Our Seaborne spirit is willing , but our wallet is weak ! :) :D