Live - NCL Prima - 06/23-07/04/2024 - Southampton, Belgium, Amsterdam, Norway and Iceland - Is it more beautiful than Alaska?

[Seas2mountains]

Something I didn’t know was that it was a 1.5 mile walk from the visitor center and bus drop off point  to Stonehenge.  The wait for a shuttle bus for a ride to Stonehenge was 30 minutes or more.  We didn’t want to wait in line for 30 minutes so we started walking towards Stonehenge. My husband was still complaining about the 1.5 mile walk there and back. 

I then remembered Clark Grisswold’s (played by Chevy Chase) speech in the movie, Vacation. I mentioned to my husband about this speech and his crankiness turned into laughs and smiles as he also remembered. We then were laughing so much and he stopped complaining about the walk. We were then on a quest to see Stonehenge. 

 

In case you don’t remember, here it is:

 

“Well I'll tell you something, this is no longer a vacation. It's a quest. It's a quest for fun! I'm gonna have fun, and you're gonna have fun. We're all gonna have so much f****** fun we'll need plastic surgery to remove our g-dam smiles! You'll be whistling 'Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah' out of your a***holes!”

 

 

 

And we made it to Stonehenge.  And we made it back to the bus. And we had fun. I don’t know if we were whistling ‘Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah’ but we practically needed the plastic surgery to remove our smiles. Ha ha! 

 

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Here are photos from the walk. It is a shorter walk to stay on the pavement vs. the nature path. 
 

We have no idea why so many people when dressed in white?!? Anyone know why? 
 

 

 

 

 

[Seas2mountains]

People dressed in white at Stonehenge. 

[Seas2mountains]

I’m not done with the updates for today including Salisbury Cathedral. I’ll be sure to uodate this tomorrow. 

[Seas2mountains]

In the meantime, here are sunset photos from Southampton. 
 

 

[Brian V]

2 hours ago, Seas2mountains said:

We have no idea why so many people when dressed in white?!? Anyone know why? 
 

Summer solstice would be my guess...

[Seas2mountains]

4 hours ago, Brian V said:

Summer solstice would be my guess...

Thank you. Yes, that’s what we were guessing, too. 

[Seas2mountains]

13 hours ago, Ellis1138 said:

Popping in. Our United flight was on time. Going through customs was quick and the Hilton Garden Inn Heathrow Terminal 2 was clean and quiet. 

We decided on a private car transfer with Gunwharf. Marc was our driver and he was very good.

We're a bit away, as I needed a Hilton, so it’s Hilton at Utilita/Aegeas bowl. There are only 2 items on Beefy's menu that I can have, but husband liked the fish and chips. 

Tomorrow, we'll try an Uber or Taxi to get to the cruise terminal. 

Yay! Glad to hear you made it. 
 

See you on the ship. I’d love to hear more about your experience if you want to pop in now and then. 
 

Have a wonderful cruise!

[Seas2mountains]

13 hours ago, Muckyduckway said:

Enjoying your posts very much.

I was going to recommend Bill's based on a delicious breakfast we had there but had no personal experience of the rest of the menu so didn't want to lead you astray. Love eating outdoors, but really like the rather eccentric interior too.

 

Glad to see info on Southampton too as so many cruisers either arrive on the day or have a brief overnight (having visited London for obvious reasons).

 

I know you said you avoid bread, but I'd highly recommend fresh cinnamon or cardamom buns in Norway (if that's to your taste). Sitting at the top ofMount Dalsnibba savouring the view and a still warm bun is one of my favourite memories - a feast for all senses.

Thank you for following and for the excellent recommendations. It was lovely to sit outside at Bill’s and wish we had more time to be able to go back. 
 

We have a tour to take us to Mount Dalsnibba and will have to try the buns. 
 

We’ve enjoyed being in Southampton for all three days and plan to return for future cruises.  
 

We never made it inside the Westquay shopping center and found Bill’s by walking the outer perimeter. We may stay at a hotel closer to Westquay next time but would miss the harbor views. 

[Seas2mountains]

Look who is here! 

[Seas2mountains]

9 hours ago, ShannonSC2 said:

We did Pr1ma last year from NYC to Bermuda.  It is a nice ship as there were many people who don't like it.  And of course you could hear all the complaints on the ship.  I love the outdoor.  The observation lounge was a bit small especially when they had events such as the latitude party.   I will be interested of how it does in the cooler climates though.  

Thank you for following along. We will have a little mix of warm and cold weather and thankfully it looks like more warm than cold according to the current weather forecasts. 
 

I am curious what we will think as we tend to listen to the lounge singers/performers and hope the lounges aren’t as crowded as some have described.  

[Seas2mountains]

I apologize for the typos when I was updating about the Stonehenge visit. I was falling asleep as I was typing it as I wanted to do the update for the day before going to bed before 10pm local time. 
 

To continue with the Stonehenge tour, it was a good way to see it when coming from Southampton but it was also a lot of time on the bus waiting for the driver to sell tickets for passengers coming on the bus along with the drive. 
 

Here is the URL for the company and the time table. We chose to skip Old Sarum as we wanted to save time for Salisbury Cathedral and we are glad we did.  

[Seas2mountains]

We got on the bus to go back to Salisbury. Note- the drop off and pick up locations were well marked at Salisbury train station, in Salisbury and at Stonehenge.   For anyone stopping at Old Sarum, there is the option to catch a city bus back to Salisbury using the same bus ticket at no additional charge. 

It was definitely lunch time. I tend to use Trip Advisor to help find restaurants and trip to quickly scan the reviews.

We tried the Ox Row Inn and while we weren’t completely happy with our entrees, we would go back to try something else on the menu.

The outside seating was completely full as it was a Saturday as the weather was so nice. The atmosphere was really neat and reminded me of restaurants in Germany. The floor was slanted in our area - not on purpose but due to the age of the inn. We had to make sure our water glasses didn’t slide off the table. This was a lemonade with gin drink my husband ordered. It was really good. 

 

My husband got fish and chips but we both thought the fish I had at the hotel a few days earlier was much better. The mushy peas had mint added which didn’t make them taste any better. 

I ordered what was described as buttermilk fried chicken but it tasted like Shake and Bake chicken. 👎

I liked the chips but my husband didn’t care for his. He’s not a French fry connoisseur like me. Ha ha.  The purple coleslaw was interesting as it was spicy.  
 

As mentioned, we do recommend this restaurant. 

[Seas2mountains]

We had a short 0.3 mile walk from the restaurant to get to Salisbury Catherdral. 
 

The city had some markets set up. 

[Seas2mountains]

This was a beautiful building we passed on the way to the Cathedral. 

[Seas2mountains]

The Cathedral was amazing to view and wonder how they built such a high spire in the 13th and 14th centuries. 

The cardboard looking thing is part of an art display. 
 

[Seas2mountains]

Here are more photos from outside and inside the cathedral.
 

 

 

Many musicians were in the building and it looked like they were taking a break after having a rehearsal. 

In addition to the tombs, there were stones for bodies that were buried in the church floor which seemed a little creepy to us but apparently was common for those rich enough to afford it. 

[Seas2mountains]

There was a separate room to hold one of the original copies of the Magna Carta. It was kept in an area shielded from light to protect it and photos were forbidden. 
 

 

[Seas2mountains]

We had a nice 0.7 mile walk back to Salisbury train station from the cathedral. 

We saw some ducks. 

And some beautiful swans. 

[Seas2mountains]

We got back after 5pm and had dinner at the hotel as we were quite tired. Our step count yesterday was 23,000 steps. 
 

Burger with what they say is bacon and in the US we would say is ham and buffalo chicken breast with side salads. We didn’t eat the buns. We thought it was really good. 

[Seas2mountains]

Comments on our restaurant experience. 
 

All brought a container of water for the table which was appreciated as we drank a lot of water. 
 

All asked if we had any food allergies. 
 

I love the European way of having fresh flowers or succulent mini plants on each table at restaurants. It’s such a nice touch. 

[Seas2mountains]

One more photo of Prima docked. 
 

The other ship is an automobile container ship. There was a steady stream of cars being driven off that ship.  

[Seas2mountains]

We are at the cruise terminal and today is cruise day!!!🎉🥳👏

 

The bad news is Gate 8 was closed so we couldn’t go ahead with the plan to take the short cut to walk from our hotel to the Horizon cruise terminal. 

The good news is we survived the much longer walk of about a mile with our bags to get to the cruise terminal. The movie theme today is the song from Chariots of Fire.  

 

We weren’t the only ones who were determined to walk. It was all on sidewalks and required one street crossing in the port area. 
 

 

[Seas2mountains]

We dropped our bags with the porters at 10:15am.  It was on the far right side of the terminal. 

We were directed to the boarding area on the right for decks 12-16. 

Security was fast and efficient with hardly any line.  

When we got up to check-in and asked if we needed to go to the suite area for check-in but were directed to an open check-in station. 

[Seas2mountains]

The check-in representative asked the normal check-in questions of are you fit to travel and do you think you are pregnant?  My husband almost always makes a comment about possibly being pregnant. 
 

Then it was time for her to get our cruise cards and she said she couldn’t find them. We asked if they might be in an area for suites and Haven and she walked us over to the Haven representative. 

Photo above shows snacks and drinks for Haven/Suites. It’s not a separate lounge but is a roped off area.
 

Now we are waiting to embark. Husband was happy to enjoy second breakfast. This terminal area is quite nice. 
 

[Seas2mountains]

Here are a few more photos of the terminal.  The ceilings are gorgeous with the arched wood beams. 
 

It’s 11:06am and there is a steady stream of people getting off the ship …still.