Isle of Portland, Portland Castle (Day 5, Part 1 of 2)

 

We really enjoyed our first night of sleep in our inside cabin.  I mean really enjoyed.  We slept 12 hours!  Since we didn't have anything planned for our first port, we just slept until we were ready to get up.  We had brunch on the Lido deck then headed out.

 

The Isle of Portland is tied to mainland England by Chesil Beach.  Cruisers are not allowed to just walk from the cruise terminal but there are shuttle buses that run regularly.  When we finally headed out, we hopped on a bus and rode the short distance to Portland Castle.  (I don't consider this a bus tour, just a form of transportation.)

The title of "castle" is a misnomer - this was a fort.  It is one of Henry VIII's coastal forts, built in the early 1540s to protect against French and Spanish invasion.  

 

The fort served as an ordnance store for seaplanes on anti-submarine patrols in the First World War. During WWII, it was used as a training base for combined operations including exercises for the D-Day landings.

 

There were a few costumes to try on...

Cannonballs to pickup...

A kitchen to explore...

There was quite the view, which of course would have been exactly what was needed for this fort.

These signs were very common in the UK.  Instead of watch your step...

We took another shuttle to the city center of Weymouth where we enjoyed a great afternoon.  It will be my next post.

The Regal Princess Embarkation (Day 4, Part 2 of 2)

We finally boarded the Regal Princess to embark on our 12 Day British Isles Cruise.  This was our third cruise on Princess and the Regal Princess has the same deck layout as both the Majestic Princess and the Discovery Princess so it felt very familiar.  That is not to say we didn't get turned around from time to time though!

The Piazza

We did something we've never done on a cruise before - we booked an inside cabin.  Of our five previous cruises, four have had balcony cabins and one had a port-hole window.  This time we were completely on the inside.  This saved us a LOT of money!  Since we only had two days at sea with nine days in port, we decided this was the way to go.  Post cruise - no regrets!  We really liked the layout of our cabin and didn't mind not having a balcony.  The only time we would have really enjoyed it was the couple of times we ordered room service, but the savings let us do more things while we were in port.

 

Reality!

I wrote a little about the food on our Princess cruises last year.  The lack of variety, the blandness of the food, and the poor dessert choices.  I am happy to say that was not the case on this cruise!  We really enjoyed the food this time.  That's not to say that we ate 9 times a day.  We often only ate breakfast and dinner, with a snack midday.

We had a little surprise on our onboard account.  We each had about $35 in credit.  This was a refund for our port taxes on the return to Southampton.  Since we got off one day early those taxes were refunded.  We were not expecting that but we enjoyed getting gelato and upgrading our coffees!

Our cabin steward, Rodel, was excellent.  He was like a ninja - we almost never saw him but our room was always cleaned when we came back to it!

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada (Day 7, Part 2 of 2)

 

Since we weren't suppose to dock in Victoria until 7:00 p.m. we hadn't made any plans.  What we ended up with was a pleasant final evening of our vacation.  After walking for about 25 minutes, we found ourselves at the back of the Parliament buildings.

The Parliament Buildings of British Columbia, Canada were officially opened in February 1898. However details, refinishing, additions and upgrades were ongoing until 1915. The buildings are the official residence for the B.C. Parliament to pass laws and where the Provincial Legislative Assembly gather and discuss the direction of the province. 

 

 

There were numerous memorials for fallen first responders.  Search and Rescue:

Paramedics:

 

 

Fire Fighters:

 

Law enforcement:

 

War Memorial to the Unknown Soldier:

 

The only picture of just me and Lori!  More than one crew member asked us if we were sisters.  I gladly claim her!

 

Victoria is known as the Garden City.  The flowers were just beautiful.

I loved these hanging baskets:

We made our way to the front of the building not long before the lights came on.

We finished the evening back on the ship, stretching out our time together as long as possible.

Disembarkation day happened in a blur of breakfast, grabbing our luggage, and goodbye hugs before heading to the airport.  We were happy that our flights both getting to Seattle and getting back home were on time and our luggage arrived safely.  A good time was had by all!

The Passenger Vessel Services Act ~ AKA Basically One More Day At Sea (Day 7, Part 1 of 2)

In case you haven't read my blog in a while, we recently took a cruise to Alaska.  You can read the posts in order by going to this page right HERE!  If you're all caught up you may be wondering, "Didn't she say they were traveling with their friends, Lori and Doug?  Where are their pictures?"  We weren't always together, but when we were, we were just having too much fun to pull our phones out!  I asked Lori if she had any pictures of the four of us and she only had a couple as well.  Being present with those you love is still more important than pictures you can post.  You won't find a finer couple than these two right here:

 

Day 7 was another day mostly at sea.  I should have done more research on this particular route.  We ended up with almost a 1 to 1 ratio of port days versus sea days.  Day 7 was listed as "Victoria, B.C." but upon closer inspection we would not arrive in port until 7:00 p.m.  The real reason for this stop is known as the PVSA:

All cruises sailing from the U.S. must stop in Canada or another foreign port due to the Passenger Vessel Services Act (PVSA). Under this act, foreign-flagged ships must visit at least one foreign country during the cruise. A cruise line would face significant penalties for not complying.

 

PVSA came into force in 1886. At the time, U.S. ferries & passenger liners were feeling squeezed out of domestic shipping routes by foreign companies. 

We would definitely have preferred more time in ports like our 12 night trip to Europe.  We stopped in seven ports with only three full days at sea.  For me, the point of cruising is exploring new places!

 

We were well rested on this final day so Les headed to the Fitness Center. I joined Lori and Doug in the theater for two more presentations. The first was with the Head Chef and the Director of Restaurant Operations (formerly known as the Maitre d'hotel.)   The typical cruiser eats SEVEN meals a day!  With over 3,000 passengers, we're talking over 15,000 meals a day.  It's pretty amazing the quality of food that is produced in a floating restaurant.

This was one part cooking demonstration and one part comedy.  The head chef was definitely the serious one of the duo, who tried to keep the director of restaurant operations from making too big of a mess.  The meal they made included Caesar salad, a pasta dish, a main dish and a black forest cake.   

 

We stayed in the theater for the final presentation by our naturalist.  He talked about the native Alaskans.  When Les and I visited the Saxman Totem Park in Ketchikan we noticed many similarities between Alaskan and Hawaiian cultures. 

 

We were content to spend the afternoon visiting and relaxing.  We found a spot on the Lido deck a little ways from the pool and the sun felt wonderful.  Sadly, we had to return to our rooms to start packing so we could have our suitcases ready to go out that evening.

 

As with many cruise lines, Princess cruises has several "specialty" restaurants onboard.  These are typically an up charge, but our experience has been they are worth it.  We had credit for a meal in one of the restaurants and had made reservations for the Crown Grill prior to our trip.  This was an excellent meal and our waiter, Vlatko, was outstanding!  He started with us ladies and we both ordered Filet Mignon.  Les also ordered the filet.  When it was Doug's turn, he ordered "fried chicken," something that was not on the menu.  Vlatko immediately asked "KFC?  Spicy or extra crispy?"  Our entire meal was like that with Vlatko joking right back with us.  The salted caramel crème brulee cheesecake we had was also excellent.

 

Our ship was already in port when we finished our meal and we all decided we needed to walk off some of the deliciousness.  Part 2 of our final day coming soon!

Another Day at Sea (Day 6)

 

After three full days in three ports we were ready for a day at sea.  AKA a day of rest!  And rest is exactly what we did.  When we finally made it to breakfast the World Fresh Marketplace (AKA the buffet) was quite crowded.  We ended up sharing a table with a group from Santa Clarita, California.  Practically neighbors.

 

 

The man next to me at breakfast was bemoaning the fact that they hadn't seen any whales on their excursion in Sitka.  Just seconds after those words came out of his mouth, he pointed out the window.  At first we thought he was joking, but we kept an eye out and pretty soon we saw not one, but two whales! 

 

We attended another North to Alaska presentation by our naturalist.  This time it was about glaciers and polar bears.  Other than that, it was a super mellow day with at least one nap!

Because we had eaten such a late breakfast, we skipped lunch.  Around 3:00 we decided we were hungry and ordered some room service.  The Princess Medallion App is great for that.  You can see what is available, what is complimentary and what has a small charge.  Once your order is placed, you can see when it is on its way.  This works for delivery anywhere on the ship.

Another cool feature on the app is "Shipmates."  You can connect with your traveling companions and then find them anywhere on the ship.  Lori found the pastry shop!

 

One thing we noticed on our cruise in February was the quality of the food.  I felt like most of the food we ate was very, very bland.  The food on this cruise was much better!  We had never cruised with Princess before this year, so I don't know if some of that was influenced by the long shutdown due to COVID. With cruise lines trying to get back up and running after an 15 month shutdown, I hope this is a sign that things are getting closer to normal.  The number of people on the ship certainly felt like the old days of cruising.

The one area that I feel Princess really needs to work on is their desserts.  Especially their cakes.  It seemed like every cake had some sort of mousse.  When I want cake, I just want cake and frosting.  The proportion of cake to mousse and/or frosting was way out of balance.  We had carrot cake one night.  The menu said "with cream cheese frosting."  What we got was three flat layers with more of a whip cream/mousse frosting.  It was so disappointing!  Doug, Lori and I all ordered it and none of us ate more than two bites.  This was a chocolate pistachio dome that Les ordered.  The only one worthy of a picture!

We definitely enjoyed the gelato shop.  My only "complaint" is that it was only open from 2-9 p.m. each day!