Day 5: Dublin, Ireland

Our cruise was originally scheduled to dock at Dun Laoghaire. A few weeks before we sailed, it was changed to the port of Dublin. This change made it easier to reach the city itself. Instead of taking a train ride, we instead took a cab to Trinity College which only cost €10. We arrived at Trinity College around 10am. We bought our tickets online prior to the cruise for €13/person. The cost of a ticket bought at the door is €10/person. For €3 more person, I strongly suggest you pre-purchase your tickets online. As you can see from the 3rd picture below, the line for tickets can be quite long. You reserve your tickets for a certain time but the guard at the door never checked our ticket times. Prior to visiting the Book of Kells, we went on a student-led tour of the college for an extra €6/person. This was very enjoyable as the student who led our tour was funny and informative at the same time. The Book of Kells inside the Old Library was very impressive.

From Trinity college, we walked down Dawson Street towards St. Stephen's Green and had lunch at Hatch & Sons. I had the bacon sandwich made with Blaas, a local soft white roll. After lunch, we boarded the Hoho bus. I don't recall the cost of the Hoho ticket but children are free and it was a good way to travel around the city. Our first stop was Temple Bar/Dublin castle. We then walked to Christ Church Cathedral, and from there walked to St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Blaas Sandwich

Temple Bar

Christ Church Cathedral

St. Patrick's Cathedral

From St. Patrick's Cathedral, we tried to stop at Kilmainham Gaol (historic jail) but the line was long so we decided to skip it. We just stayed on the bus until it's final stop at O'Connell Street. We then transferred to the Docklands Route bus for the Jeanie Johnston ship. The Jeanie Johnston was a ship that transported immigrants from Ireland to North America in the 1800s. Its claim to fame is that no lives were ever lost in any of its journeys.

Guinness Brewery (the Hoho bus stops there but we decided not to go inside)

Jeanie Johnston

Our stop in Dublin was another enjoyable one. The change in port made getting into the city more convenient. We got to see several interesting places (Trinity College and the Book of Kells, St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Jeanie Johnston ship), we were able to sample some local cuisine, and enabled us to stroll through some parts of the city.

Day 4: Liverpool, England

This port has to be the closest to the city center than any port we've ever been to. I mean you cross the gangway, exit the cruise terminal and you're in the heart of Liverpool. Because of the proximity of the port to the city, we've already decided to visit this city on our own.

If you want to get different ideas on visiting Liverpool, there is this excellent thread on Cruise Critic. The thread OP, Towncar T, is a very helpful resource on Liverpool information.

We got off the ship at 11am and took a cab to our first destination, St George's hall. Since we're going to be walking back the same route, we took the cab ride to save some time which only costs £4. The entry fee to St. George's Hall was £2.50 and it was a magnificent building, from both the inside and outside.

From there, we walked to the Walker Art Gallery which was right next to St. George's Hall. After spending about an hour there, we walked to the World Museum which was right next door. Both the Walker Art Gallery and World Museum are free.

Cruise terminal and the Three Graces buildings across the gangway

Inside St. George's Hall

Outside St. George's Hall

The Walker Art Gallery

World Museum

We walked down Victoria Street, turned left on Temple Ct and arrived at Matthew Street. We took some photos of the Beatles shops and had lunch at Flanagan's apple.

Menu at Flanagan's Apple

Kidney Pie

After lunch, we walked down Paradise Street toward the Albert Dock. We went on the Echo Wheel of Liverpool which costs £9/adult; £6.50/child. This ride was probably not a good value. You get to ride the wheel for 3 revolutions and while you get some good views of the port area at the top, the ride was underwhelming.

By the time we arrived at the Albert Dock area, it was already around 4pm. Since it was a Sunday, museums close at 5pm. We chose to go to the Merseyside Maritime Museum instead of the Liverpool Museum and stayed there until 5pm. We took some more photos of the Three Graces buildings and then headed back to the ship.

We really enjoyed our visit to Liverpool. The close proximity of the port to the city center made it very easy to walk and tour on your own. Like most of the museums we've visited in the UK, Liverpool museums are also free of charge.

Day 7&8: Glasgow (Greenock), Scotland; At Sea

The stop in Greenock was from 7am to 2am the following morning. This schedule allows passengers to visit the Military Tattoo in Edinburgh which starts at 9pm. The drive from Greenock to Edinburgh is about an hour and a half so doing this excursion would have made it a really long day. Instead, we opted for this tour: http://discoverscotlandtours.com/tours/highland-lochs-glens-castles-shore-excursion/ for £45/person. Doing this tour on our own would have been very difficult as there are limited public transportation to these places.

The tour uses a small mini-bus with a capacity of 16 persons and it was full. We left port at 8am and our first stop was the town of Luss by the shore of Loch Lomond. From there, we headed to the town of Inveraray and a visit to Inveraray Castle. Being a huge Downton Abbey fan, my wife was excited about this stop since one of the episodes on the show was filmed here. The entrance fee to the castle is not included in the tour and costs £10/adult, £6/child. You can learn more about the castle here: http://www.inveraray-castle.com/

We briefly stopped in the town of Inveraray before heading to Kilchurn Castle. From there, we stopped at the Drover's Inn for lunch before heading back to the ship. We arrived back in Greenock around 4:30pm and had a relaxing evening at the ship. The following day was at sea so we got to sleep in the following morning.

The tour was a good value for £45/person since a similar tour from the ship costs $199.95. We got to see the Scottish countryside and the visit to Inveraray castle was the highlight of the tour.

During the next day, my wife and I decided to join a classic rock name-that-tune contest. I listened to quite a bit of rock music when I was younger but my wife knows nothing about classic rock. Luckily we partnered with this guy who probably listens to rock music all day. There were 25 questions and you had to name the song and artist. Our partner knew every single one of them. We scored 47 out of 50 and the mistakes were because of missed or not quite exact words on the song (the person who corrected our answers was very picky). Needless to say, we won the contest and got some kitchen bag clips for our efforts. I think it's the first ever trivia contest we won during all our cruises.

Loch Lomond

Inveraray Castle Entrance

Inside Inveraray Castle

Inverarary Castle Gardens

Inveraray Castle

Drovers Inn

Fish and Chips at Drovers Inn

Day 12: Paris/Normandy (Le Havre), France

It would have been very difficult, if not impossible to do this tour on our own so we booked a guided bus tour with Overlord Tours. When I booked tour #9B at Overlordtour.com, I received an e-mail saying they only do private tours from Le Havre. I e-mailed them back saying I wanted the tour #9B from cruise port advertised on their website for €95 per person. They e-mailed me back for instructions on how to book the tour. While the tour is payable in cash to the driver, they wanted us to give credit card info as a security deposit.

The tour bus was waiting right outside the ship at 8am. The tour had 4 stops: the American cemetery, Omaha Beach, the town of Bayeux, and a last stop at the seaside town of Honfleur.

The early part of the day was sunny but it started raining when we arrived in Bayeux. It rained for maybe a half hour and then was clear for the rest of the day.

We arrived at our first stop, the American Cemetery around 10am. We spent about an hour and a half there walking around the grounds and visiting the museum. We then headed to Omaha beach and the tour guide gave about a half-hour commentary on the D-Day landings at the beach.

We arrived in Bayeux around 1:30pm under pouring rain. First we went to the Bayeux Tapestry exhibit. The tapestry depicts William the Conqueror's victory at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The exhibit comes with a recorded commentary but there is no photography allowed inside. After the exhibit, we ate lunch at a local restaurant and then spent about 10 minutes inside the Bayeux Cathedral. We left Bayeux around 3pm and headed to Honfleur. We arrived in Honfleur around 3:45pm, spent about an hour walking around town and headed back to Le Havre around 5pm and arrived back at the ship at 5:30pm.

This was a very memorable tour. You can see on the picture below how long it is from the water to the beach at Omaha and you can imagine what it was like for the soldiers on D-Day.

Omaha Beach

Entrance to Bayeux Tapestry. No photography allowed inside the exhibit

Bayeux Cathedral

Honfleur

Our Tour Bus

All in all, the tour was a great value for €95. A similar tour offered by the ship costs $199.95 and it doesn't even stop in Bayeux and Honfleur. This was our last port of call prior to disembarkation in Southampton so it was a nice way to end the cruise.

Day 13: Disembarkation/Flight to Los Angeles via Toronto

Well, all good things must come to an end.

We booked a Princess Transfer to Heathrow and was assigned to disembarkation group Pink 2 which had a meeting time of 6:30am at the Wheelhouse bar. As our flight was scheduled to depart at 12:05, I felt it was more convenient to book the transfer with Princess than using local transportation.

While our group was not express walk-off (which means we still had to pick up our luggage at the terminal), we still had plenty of time. The bus finally left at 8am and we arrived at Heathrow at 10:15am. This gave us enough time to check out the United lounge at Heathrow. Check out the photos below. Much nicer and had more food and beverage options than the LAX United lounge.

Our flight to Los Angeles had a connection in Toronto and a layover of about 2 hours. After this experience, I have to say the U.S. border entry process in Toronto is a nightmare.

Here's how the process works: 1) you have to scan your passport in a kiosk, 2) you have to wait for your name to show on a screen indicating your luggage has been transferred, 3) you then pass through a customs and immigration agent to check your passport, and 4) you fall in line at another security checkpoint.

By the time we got to step 4, it was about 30 minutes before our plane was scheduled to depart. If we had remained in line, we wouldn't have made our flight. Fortunately, the agents were probably used to this situation by now and were calling passengers whose flights were about to depart and made them go in front of the line. We made it to our gate as the plane was already boarding. If I had known about this situation, I would have booked a longer layover or not connect in Toronto at all. I heard later from other passengers that it is the same situation in Montreal so better not connect in Canada at all.

Thankfully, we arrived back safely in Los Angeles later that evening to end an otherwise memorable and enjoyable cruise.

Day 3: Cork, Ireland (Cobh - for Blarney Castle)

DIY trip to Blarney Castle (and kiss the Blarney Stone) and downtown Cork

We slept in a little bit this day and got off the ship at 9:30am. We headed to the train station which is right across from the ship's gangway. See photo below. Bought return tickets for €8.50/person. The train ride took about 25 minutes. The train station at Cork had an ATM and we got some euros there. We walked about 15 minutes to the bus station at Parnell Place and bought return tickets for bus 215 for €7.60. The 215 bus left at 11am for Blarney and the ride took about 40 minutes. The bus stop for Blarney Castle is Woolen Mills. We headed to the castle and fell in line for the Blarney Stone. The line was long and moved at a snail's pace. It took about 1.5 hours to finally reach the Blarney Stone. If you're afraid of heights (as I am), you might think twice about going up the castle to kiss the stone. I decided this is a once in a lifetime experience so I might as well go for it. And it wasn't that bad. There was actually a person holding you while you lie on your back to kiss the stone.

Train station across from ship's gangway

Parnell Place Bus Station

Ticket prices for Blarney Castle

Blarney Stone seen from the outside

Kissing the Blarney Stone

We left the Blarney Castle and took the 215 bus back to Cork at 1:50pm and had lunch at Farmgate Cafe inside the English Market. We walked back to the train station and caught the 4pm train back to Cork.

Train ride back to Cobh:

We arrived back in port at 4:25pm. Since the ship wasn't leaving until 6pm, we walked around the port area and looked into going inside the White Star Line building. Since it cost €9 to get in, we decided against it since we only had a short amount of time left. We just bought some groceries and soda at a grocery store and headed back to the ship.

So the total cost of visiting the Blarney Stone was €29.10/person. Compare that to the cost of the ship tour and you can see why a DIY tour is much cheaper. And the ship tour doesn't even allow you to kiss the Blarney Stone because of time limitations.

While going to the Blarney Stone is considered a tourist activity, the train and bus ride, plus lunch at a local restaurant and walking around the city, also enabled us to experience Cork as a local would. Ultimately, this is what we try to do whenever possible when visiting a new place.