Cruisin' - to the British Isles -

We did it, we went on a 12 day British Isles cruise the first part of August. The travel agent who assisted me with our 3 week retirement journey last year, reached out last February with this opportunity - a cruise to the British Isles going where we’ve been before and traveling to new places as part of a group of 16 on Celebrity Eclipse, which holds 2500 guests and about 1100 staff.

We planned and packed, deciding on land tours, and trusting in our travel experience and the cruise experiences of others to get us prepared. 
We decided to lightly pack two bags each and our carry-on, since we wouldn’t be carrying our luggage from place to place, and since we had a direct flight.

We had a direct flight from SLC to Amsterdam (fanatastic) which was our first stop, and we ran from checking in at our motel to Winkel’s to have the best apple cake on the planet. Getting to and from was disastrous - pride celebrations were rich and the streets were overflowing with celebrants, including a guy pissing over the bridge, nearly hitting out boat while we did a canal tour. Lots of dinking, lots of color.

Sunday morning we repacked and headed to the ship to check in. No big deal. We found our room on the 10th story with the captain’s observation deck right outside of our window. One morning I walked out onto our veranda, not fully clothed, and was greeted by a few men in uniform looking out from there perch. Lesson learned.

Our room was just the right size, a comfy bed, veranda with two chairs and side tables, where we spent quite a bit of time. We also slept every night with that sliding door open- true ocean sounds and breeze are magical (coming home to our white noise ocean sounds was rather disappointing).

We had a dedicated housekeeper, Marie, a woman from the Philippines, who worked for 8 months, then returned home to her two children and her sister who was raising them.
All staff was incredible, with all of them being from outside of the USA. My one word of advice is that all customer

-facing employees should be trained by this cruise line. Just the most amazing people.

Without supplying a play-by-play travelogue, we spent time in:

                                                                       

 Dover, England

                                                        

Waterford, Ireland

Cork, Ireland and the Blarney Castle

                                         

Liverpool, England

Belfast, Ireland and the Titanic Museum

                            

Glasgow, Scotland 

and former student and friend, Andy Sherwin

Fogged in through out our journey to Inverness,missing the long-awaited desire to see the coast and islands to the south and north of Inverness.

                                                                        

Inverness

                                          

Back to Amsterdam and home, gone a total of 14 days.

What I Learned on my Summer Vacation (Interestingly, I wrote to this same title 22 years ago.)

There were 16 of us in our group, half of them knew each other to some degree.
Scott was the oldest, there was us and two other couples, one we did some meals with, the other brought their son, and she was one of Natalee’s assistants. Several of the group worked for an insurance company, knew each other, two early 20's sisters, a mother and daughter, and another lady.
We came into this totally looking for an adventure and new experience. We also had seen several of these places, so we thought this would be a good first cruise. We typically travel f 10 days to two weeks at a time, so the length wasn’t a worry.
There was lots of alcohol, and I worried this might be too much for Scott, and although he did comment on it a few times, it did not stop him from participating in anything. He drank lots of juice and water!

Food was good, and we didn’t need the fancy dining package. Laundry service was great, and yet it sure would have been nice to have had an iron. I won’t pack linens or other clothes that over-wrinkle or need to be line-dried, on our next cruise. I’ll also pack my hair straightener, I got tired of fighting my curls in a clip or ponytail.
We thought we had a drink package, but that fell through, and we needed that for even soft-drinks and decent juices, otherwise $5 plus auto 20% tip gets pretty expensive every time I wanted a Diet Coke (Pepsi is not to be found).

We didn’t have internet, which was nice, and yet I was able to send and receive texts. That was good with a couple of clients in crisis as well as wanting to support Cliff and Jenna with Annette’s death and services. I was able to help without feeling put out or drained. Proof to me that I’m loving what I do and don’t see it as an interruption.
It was nice to not watch the news, and once I got over the Las Vegas superficiality, I was able to enjoy the evening shows and music.

Our time on land was short, and not all the tours were ones we fell in love with. We learned that there are typically cab drivers at all ports who will take you wherever you want to go, and that will be a good option to have.

Because we came on this trip knowing no one, we could be whomever we wanted to be, and for us that was our authentic genuine selves. Scott got to be the happy adhd extrovert who had lots of opinions, lots of love, lots of awareness, lots of elbow slaps and side hugs, and never on the defense. The people in our group and our staff loved his kindness and generosity. I loved watching him be true with no need to be defensive about anything and no reason to bring up anything that could be divisive.
I, on the other hand, got to be a true introvert. I watched, joined in when I wanted, was kind, and yet didn’t feel a need to participate or be a part of the group. In fact, there were a couple of days when I needed less noise, less chatter, my alone space. And I had it. There were times when I wanted to go past chit chat, but then times when it was such a relief to not go deep.
One time Scott and I made the best extrovert-introvert team and our strengths really shined and benefited several people on the team. He caught the situation and pulled me in to have the deeper conversation. It was beautiful.
We really did love being together, and spending this two weeks in a totally new world, with neither of us the experts, gave us level playing ground, and it was delightful.
Another thing I observed was that we were living in the moments, and I can’t remember the last time I was this present, living moment to moment, only worrying about setting the alarm for the next morning’s tour. I didn’t worry about getting us to the next place, where to eat, if our room was going to be ok, etc. And while I didn’t love all the tours, I loved just being! This happens, to some degree, when we're in Hawaii, but this cruise took it to a whole new level. I had to trust in the work and experience of others, because I knew absolutely nothing, and gosh that felt good.

We learned that being with a group can definitely slow the group down, always waiting for someone, and yet it was fun to learn about others and laugh and support each other. We had a fantastic group, and our host did a good job of putting this bunch together. I can only hope it will be so next time.

Speaking of next time, will thee be one? We missed our independence - wandering, darting down a road, being alone. We missed not having more time inland - talking with locals, getting lost and finding amazing places, eating local food, being outside of tourist areas. We had a very tight window of time, being back of the ship most afternoons by 4:30, and we didn’t really need that much time on the ship.
However, the freedom we had from some of the clunkiness of using local transportation and meeting time-tables, toting luggage, unsure if our lodging was going to be good, and finding places to eat was wonderful. Plus, I would never ever drive in Great Britain. 

So, we have one more cruise in us, this one to the Mediterranean. Perhaps next year.

We have a little more international travel on our list, but I think we can drive these places. We also have so much to still discover in the USA, and we’ll fly and rent a car.

Our cruise was not cheap; for the two of us with flights to Amsterdam at about $3000, lodging there at $400, transportation and tips $300, cruise at $3000, cruise incidentals $200, and then spending money $3000, tours $2000, we hit our yearly travel allowance of $10,000 quickly.

And we still have two weeks in Hawaii coming up!