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Royal Princess British Isles June 30-July 12


Cindy
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Before dinner Jim and I went on a walking tour of the neighborhood desperately in search of a drug store. My allergies had hit with a vengeance that morning and were getting worse by the hour. I felt fine, but I could barely talk and was starting to cough a lot. We finally found what we were looking for and met the rest of the group upstairs at the Brazen Head.

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What a fun evening! We attended an event called an Evening of Food, Folklore, and Fairies. We were served traditional Irish food while Phillip shared stories and songs that have been passed down through the generations. The only thing I would have liked was a bit better air conditioning. It was hot for Dublin (upper 70s), and quite stuffy on the third floor of the old pub, especially while eating giant bowls of Guinness Stew!

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While we were at the Brazen Head I got an urgent e-mail from Derek of Beautiful Meath Tours letting me know there was a problem with the air conditioning in our van for the next day. Apparently it was working in the front but not the back. Derek said they would load plenty of cold water on the van for us. We all talked about it (me, Jim, Cathy, Bob, and the Name Tag Sisters and their side-kicks) and decided we would be fine, and we could switch seats throughout the day to make sure everyone was comfortable. Keep in mind the forecast was for the high 70s. It might have been sweltering to the Irish, but to the Houstonians it felt great!

 

Little did I know that when we parted ways at the Brazen Head into taxis back to the ship that was the last time I would see the Name Tag Entourage (henceforth to be know as the Fab Four) except from a distance.[emoji22][emoji35][emoji15]

 

It didn’t take me long to fall asleep when we got back to the ship. It had been a wonderful but long day, and since we were meeting at 7:45 the next day I knew I needed my beauty sleep!

 

Up next — Happy Independence Day from the spectacular Irish countryside, a wonderful guide and day with Beautiful Meath Tours, and what NOT to do when you commit to a tour!

 

 

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Exiting the Book of Kells display, a marble staircase took us to heaven — I mean the Long Room of the Trinity College Library! Oh, how I would have loved to be there and wander through the stacks without all the tourists! As improbable as it seems given the age of the books, the lack of technology, and the number of tourists, this is a working library for the students at the college. Books cannot leave the premises, but they can be requested to be used in the reading areas of the library. I could have lost myself there for many hours!

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Unbelievable!

 

 

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Day 2 in Dublin was an excellent Beautiful Meath Tour of the countryside near Dublin.

 

We woke up early on Independence Day, were greeted by the usual brilliant blue skies and bright sunshine☀️, and started getting ready for our day in the Irish countryside. I was happily sipping coffee a little before 7:00 when the phone rang. The phone ringing that early is never good, and when I looked and saw it was the lead sister from the Fab Four I got a sick feeling in my stomach.

 

To make a long story short, the lead sister thought she “might” be coming down with something, so she was going to stay back. It gets better…her husband was also going to stay back to take care of her. I did some quick calculations in my head and figured the cost wouldn’t be too bad with three couples. I told her I hoped she felt better and we’d see sister #2 and her hubby at 7:45. It gets better…sister #1 said sister #2 wouldn’t go anyplace without her! In other words, a 60 year old woman refused to go on a tour she was obligated to because her sister thought she might be getting a cold![emoji15] I was furious! For starters, even if they decided not to go, they should have still paid. You can’t drop out of a tour less than an hour before departure and completely shrug off your obligations! Secondly, I had said no to lots of people for the tour because we were full. To have four spots go unused at the last minute really bothered me. Even though it cost us a lot more (€225 per couple instead of €112.50), I was angriest about their total lack of consideration in not letting me know until it was too late to find anybody to fill the spots.

 

My gut feelings about Fab Four from the day before were right. I now think they missed the Meet & Greet on purpose, because I don’t think they made name tags for 80+ people. I think they just made a few as they went along for the people they knew they would see. To top it all off…they did this again to another group a few days later. Just incredible. I’ve planned excursions with strangers for years and I have NEVER had anybody completely dump on their fellow roll call passengers like this.

 

I really enjoy the trip planning process, including finding and booking great tours. This experience has made me a little more cautious. I don’t want to handle other people’s money, but maybe I’ll have to look for companies that will take payments in advance directly from the participants. Tuesday was paid in advance, and the Fab Four showed up. Wednesday and the other private tour they skipped out on were “pay the day of” and they backed out. Coincidence? I don’t think so. I can tell you that if they ever showed up on another roll call I’m on I would run as fast as I could.

 

The AWOL couples aside, we had a FANTASTIC day with our Beautiful Meath driver, Martin. The trip was an excellent choice, and since there were only four of us (me, Jim, Bob, and Cathy) we had plenty of room to spread out![emoji23] We started with a drive out of Dublin through the Wicklow Mountains, where we saw the rolling hills of Ireland, Guinness Lake with its black water, and lots of wildlife.

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You could tell how little rain they’ve had, because the views weren’t nearly as green as I expected. In fact, Martin said they had been having some trouble with wildfires in the gorse. Some tours had needed to be rerouted, but we were lucky and everything went as planned.

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Our second stop was at Glendalough — probably my favorite stop of the day. Glendalough is the site of the remains of an early Medieval Monastic settlement in a beautiful valley. I really like old cemeteries, and this one was a great one!

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Hunger was setting in by this time, so we wasted no time getting to our next stop, Avoca Weavers. In addition to the mill and gift shop, they have a small café with a selection of hot and cold sandwiches and salads. The cafe and food pictures are from the Avoca website:

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The weaving facility originally started out as a cooperative for area farmers in the 1700s. They could grind their corn and spin and weave wool for clothing. Today, Avoca produces fine woven products, ceramics, and gourmet food in 12 locations in Ireland. Our tour through the weaving facility was very interesting, and of course we couldn’t resist a trip to the gift shop! The products were beautiful, but a lot of it was way too heavy for Houston. Cathy and I both chose brightly colored scarves with sheep on them, to remind us of all the sheep we saw driving through the Wicklow Mountains.

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Our final stop of the day was at Powerscourt Estate. The gardens were beautifully laid out, and reminded me a little bit of Peterhof with the terraces and fountains. Unfortunately, you could really see the effects of the drought…the grass was brown! We strolled through the flowers but probably didn’t stay as long as we would have if the dry weather hadn’t had such an effect on the site.

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Back at the ship, we got cleaned up and met Deedee and Chip at Crooners for some refreshments before dinner.

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While we were sitting there lo and behold who walked by looking perfectly healthy but the sisters! They were all decked out in Flashy-Blinky 4th of July shirts, and appeared to be headed to the blow-out sale on Deck 7! I thought the most ridiculous thing was sister #1 saw me, pretended she hadn’t seen me, and then grabbed sister #2 and steered her away from the area where we were sitting. It was just like junior high! I hope they had fun at the junk sale and bought lots of worthless things with all the money they saved skipping out on the tour![emoji849]

 

We ate in the dining room again, and had a nice, relaxing meal. It was pretty late when we finished dinner, and I spent a little time in the casino before I called it a day. We had great plans for Belfast and the coast of Northern Ireland, but that also meant another early start to our touring day.

 

 

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So far we haven’t had anyone back out of a private tour, but it sure is a risk. One exception, I helped escort a group of secretaries to Paris. One really wanted to see Versailles. Divided by six, the private tour wasn’t too bad. She went to dinner with a man she met in the lobby and got back the next morning as we were leaving for the tour. We had been calling her room and banging on her door and finally got the front desk to send someone to check on her. She came waltzing into the lobby and of course was too tired to go with us.

She was told she needed to pay her share and she said we could sue her.

The flight home was really awkward.

You really take a risk when you depend on strangers to have a conscience.

 

 

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Day 2 in Dublin was an excellent Beautiful Meath Tour of the countryside near Dublin.

 

We woke up early on Independence Day, were greeted by the usual brilliant blue skies and bright sunshine☀️, and started getting ready for our day in the Irish countryside. I was happily sipping coffee a little before 7:00 when the phone rang. The phone ringing that early is never good, and when I looked and saw it was the lead sister from the Fab Four I got a sick feeling in my stomach.

 

To make a long story short, the lead sister thought she “might” be coming down with something, so she was going to stay back. It gets better…her husband was also going to stay back to take care of her. I did some quick calculations in my head and figured the cost wouldn’t be too bad with three couples. I told her I hoped she felt better and we’d see sister #2 and her hubby at 7:45. It gets better…sister #1 said sister #2 wouldn’t go anyplace without her! In other words, a 60 year old woman refused to go on a tour she was obligated to because her sister thought she might be getting a cold![emoji15] I was furious! For starters, even if they decided not to go, they should have still paid. You can’t drop out of a tour less than an hour before departure and completely shrug off your obligations! Secondly, I had said no to lots of people for the tour because we were full. To have four spots go unused at the last minute really bothered me. Even though it cost us a lot more (€225 per couple instead of €112.50), I was angriest about their total lack of consideration in not letting me know until it was too late to find anybody to fill the spots.

 

My gut feelings about Fab Four from the day before were right. I now think they missed the Meet & Greet on purpose, because I don’t think they made name tags for 80+ people. I think they just made a few as they went along for the people they knew they would see. To top it all off…they did this again to another group a few days later. Just incredible. I’ve planned excursions with strangers for years and I have NEVER had anybody completely dump on their fellow roll call passengers like this.

 

I really enjoy the trip planning process, including finding and booking great tours. This experience has made me a little more cautious. I don’t want to handle other people’s money, but maybe I’ll have to look for companies that will take payments in advance directly from the participants. Tuesday was paid in advance, and the Fab Four showed up. Wednesday and the other private tour they skipped out on were “pay the day of” and they backed out. Coincidence? I don’t think so. I can tell you that if they ever showed up on another roll call I’m on I would run as fast as I could.

 

The AWOL couples aside, we had a FANTASTIC day with our Beautiful Meath driver, Martin. The trip was an excellent choice, and since there were only four of us (me, Jim, Bob, and Cathy) we had plenty of room to spread out![emoji23] We started with a drive out of Dublin through the Wicklow Mountains, where we saw the rolling hills of Ireland, Guinness Lake with its black water, and lots of wildlife.

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I would hunt them down and send them a bill! That is unbelievable! A couple yrs ago on a Med. cruise, I organized a tour group but everyone had to go into the tour operator and make payment. Sad to say, but, you can't trust people! You think you know them because they're members here on CC and you chatted with them for months, but, they could still be inconsiderate! I could never do that! Even if it's a ships tour, you can't cancel out at the last minute and not get charged, unless they're able to fill your space! So sorry that this had to happen to you and it cost you money!:mad::mad:

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enjoying your review-making notes for our British Isles cruise next year

which tour operators did you use for the ports?

 

I've organised several private tours through roll calls over the years and met some great people

it was always pay on day and no problems everyone turned up and paid their share

 

however have had a couple of drop outs this last year

2 were no shows for 8 seater taxi in Gibraltar so the rest of us had to pay a bit more

Another was for a minivan tour from Malaga-none of the others turned up at meet and greet as arranged so we could identify each other

after trying to track them down I ended up contacting tour operator via email a week before tour as didn't want to be liable for full cost of van if they failed to turn up on the day

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enjoying your review-making notes for our British Isles cruise next year

 

which tour operators did you use for the ports?

 

 

 

 

 

Here you go! All were excellent with the exception of Butlers, and I really think that was just an unfortunate situation and we drew the short straw. Most people love them!

 

Woodford Cars Cruise Connection — Transfers including Stonehenge and Salisbury

http://www.woodfordchauffeurcars.co.uk/cruise-connection.php

 

Annette Henry Guernsey Walking Tour

https://annettehenrytours.gg

 

Butlers Bus in Cobh to Cork and Kinsale

http://www.butlerstours.com

 

Dublin Tour Guide Walking Tour of Dublin

http://www.dublintourguide.ie/nearly-all

 

Food, Folklore, and Fairies Dinner

https://irishfolktours.com

 

Beautiful Meath Tours to Wicklow, Glendalough, and Powerscourt

https://beautifulmeath.com

 

Belfast — City and Causeway Tours to Giant’s Causeway and the Antrim Coast

https://www.cityandcauseway.com

 

Greenock — Photo Walk Scotland Tour to Kilchurn Castle, Castle Stalker, and Glen Coe

https://photowalkscotland.com

 

Invergordon — Dunrobin Castle

Edinburgh — St. Andrew’s and Coast

https://gandstours.co.uk

 

Le Havre — Normandy full day tour with Overlord

https://www.overlordtour.com

 

 

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Back at the ship, we got cleaned up and met Deedee and Chip at Crooners for some refreshments before dinner.

 

 

 

While we were sitting there lo and behold who walked by looking perfectly healthy but the sisters! They were all decked out in Flashy-Blinky 4th of July shirts, and appeared to be headed to the blow-out sale on Deck 7! I thought the most ridiculous thing was sister #1 saw me, pretended she hadn’t seen me, and then grabbed sister #2 and steered her away from the area where we were sitting. It was just like junior high! I hope they had fun at the junk sale and bought lots of worthless things with all the money they saved skipping out on the tour![emoji849]

 

We ate in the dining room again, and had a nice, relaxing meal. It was pretty late when we finished dinner, and I spent a little time in the casino before I called it a day. We had great plans for Belfast and the coast of Northern Ireland, but that also meant another early start to our touring day.

 

 

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Loving your review and the amazing pictures.

 

I am curious how much local currency you took with you for each port, especially since you had to pay extra for the excursion with the rude no show sisters.

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Loving your review and the amazing pictures.

 

 

 

I am curious how much local currency you took with you for each port, especially since you had to pay extra for the excursion with the rude no show sisters.

 

 

 

I took enough to pay for the tours with a tip, plus some incidentals. I used my credit card for large purchases or expensive meals, but I found cash to be much easier for small purchases and lunch. Thanks to the sisters I ended up having to use my Pay Pal account and pay a fee for the Beautiful Meath tour.🤬 We were going to stop at an ATM, but it never worked out.

 

 

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I'm only part way through your review, but am thoroughly enjoying your stunning pictures and fun descriptions. Thank you so much for sharing your adventure here!

 

 

 

Thanks! I’m hoping to get back to it tomorrow or Thursday. I have to do some work today![emoji849]

 

 

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