Tuesday, May 8, 2024 The trip home

We awake early and get a taxi to the airport. We both seem to be ready to go home. We haul our luggage inside and get it checked in. Armed with just our carry ons, we are directed down two flights of escalators into US Customs. Yes, you heard me correctly! US Customs in Dublin, Ireland! We have never heard of this before. Our flights are taking us to Boston where we’ll change planes to travel on to Los Angeles.

There are restaurants here so after we clear Customs, we get a bite to eat for breakfast. When it comes time to board the plane we go back up two flights of escalators directly into the Gate! The flight to Boston is comfortable and we have food and wine offered to us as well as spacious seats. The flight is a little over 4 hours and my cell phone camera gets a little use.

The approach into Boston is different from approaches I have seen before. Usually, the approach is over water (plane traveling northwest) and gives the impression that the plane will land in water as the runway is built out into the ocean. This time we fly over many scenic islands and we see land right before touching down. Very interesting! It turns out we landed with the plane flying almost due north! I’ve landed in Logan Airport dozens of times and always with the northwest approach!

We land in Boston and because we cleared Customs in Dublin, it is now a domestic flight to Los Angeles. We find the new Gate and check in for the 5 hour flight home. This flight is not as spacious and food and wine have to be purchased. What’s up with that? But I shrug it off and put my cell phone camera to work! I even get a view of LA’s new SoFi Stadium on the approach into LAX!

Our friend Tony picks us up in Los Angeles and we tell him stories of our trip on the way home!

Monday, May 6, 2024, Day 63

Our last breakfast on the ship! We disembark at 9:30AM after saying some last goodbyes to shipmates. Our ride shows up right on time and drives us to Heathrow Airport. We check in and go through security and sit for a shared pizza and wine. Suddenly we find out our plane is boarding and we don’t even know the Gate number yet!

So we scramble and find the plane and board without any issues and all is well. We take off on time and it is a short flight to Dublin, Ireland. We clear customs quickly and get our bags. Then it is off to the taxi rank where a taxi van pulls right up and we load all of our 6 bags (4 check in bags and 2 carry ons). It takes about a half hour and we are at our hotel in downtown Dublin. We get checked into our small room but it is only for one night and we head off in search of fun things to entertain our cameras with!

Pub after pub after pub after pub after pub we walk by. I’m sure you get the idea. But we are in a very old historic city and it is beautiful! We make our way to the river for some more camera entertainment and we are not disappointed.

We have traveled and walked quite the distances today and are getting tired. We come across a lady with a megaphone that turns out to be a Palestinian protester. We cross the street so we won’t have to walk by her. We walk back towards our hotel and stop at the “Trinity Venue Bar” and order hard cider for Elee and a Smithwick’s Irish Ale for myself. Then we order seafood chowder and beef stew for dinner and all is good.

We chat amicably with some locals and a fun time is had by all. The we finally walk back to our hotel to retire for the evening. We have an early alarm set for the morning for our flight home!

Goodnight!

Friday, May 3, 2024 Day 60

The seas are getting a bit rougher as we head back to Tilbury (London) and I am enjoying the rougher seas. Elee is displaying her Water Color Paintings this morning with her art group. There are a lot of talented people on this ship, Elee among them! I break away for morning trivia and our Team wins!

All of a sudden, there are announcements on the ship for a specific crew member to report to the engine room. In a short while, the announcement is repeated. Then a Red Alert is called. An incident apparently occurred around 7AM. At 11AM, the captain comes on and explained that a crew member seems to have fallen overboard around 7AM and we have turned around to go back and start a Search and Rescue Operation.

Meanwhile, the planned events continue on the ship. I have a ‘sound check’ for our Ukulele Concert at 12:30PM. Then I show up for the concert before 2:30PM. The concert goes from 2:30PM to 3:05PM and I manage to pull off most of the songs successfully. Then I make it to ‘Carpet Bowling’ and there is comraderie among the usual players.

On the way back to our room, we spot the second session of Water Color Art displayed and stop to check it out. I repeat myself, there are some very talented artists on board!

We arrive back in the vicinity of the last known sighting they ship has of the missing crew member at about 3PM. Now, if someone went in the water, it is over eight hours later. The water is cold. The ship zig zags back and forth in the area. There is a helicopter and a search plane also looking. Spain has search and rescue vessels involved and it is a sad afternoon for all involved. There are more than a few passengers aboard that complain that we are participating in this. For those people I say, “Get a life! I hope your loved one never goes ‘Overboard'”

The crew member is never found and it casts a somber note on everyone. Add to that the ship will now be 14 to 16 hours late getting back to Tilbury and we wonder what we will do as we had plane flights that will need to be changed.

Then it becomes a normal At Sea day with the exception that a lot of people exchange contact information to stay in touch with those people who have become friends. Later, in the Purple Turtle we are treated to a small performance by a few of the singers.

Saturday, May 4, 2024, Day 61

Today is a normal At Sea Day except there is no Ukulele class. That part is over. Trivia and games carry on as usual with more collecting of personal contacts to keep in touch with new friends. The whist group puts out paper and everyone puts their contact info on it. Photos are taken of the completed sheets for anyone wishing to stay in touch. A WhatsApp group is formed. In the Palladium, the crew bids us ‘adieu’.

After dinner, the entertainment crew puts on a final farewell show in the Palladium and it is fun.

Sunday, May 5, 2024, Day 62

For the most part, today is a regular At Sea Day with trivia and card games, carpet bowling and general mingling with new found friends. The Palladium shows a movie and there is Music Bingo in the Purple Turtle. The ship docks in Tilbury around 8:30PM. It should have docked at 7AM but due to the delay with the man overboard, we are late. The ship will allow us to stay on overnight and we will disembark tomorrow morning.

They look almost alien, but are actually a relic of Britain’s military past: the Maunsell Forts. Built in the Thames Estuary to defend the United Kingdom from air raids during the World War Two, the forts have been decommissioned for more than 50 years.

Our ship has traveled 35,851 NM (Nautical Miles) in its RTW (Round The World) journey! We joined it in Singapore and traveled 15,971 NM with it. Slightly less than halfway. We did a complete RTW trip in 2020 and I hope some of you followed that! This has been another Bucket List Trip! Stories to tell and experiences to remember!

We have arranged for a new flight out at noon tomorrow and cancelled our original flight for this afternoon.

Thursday, May 2, 2024, Lisboa, Portugal

So we are coming near to the end of our cruise. We arrive in Lisboa (Lisbon), Portugal today and the city looks attractive and promising. It is a short day in port today as we need to be back on board by 2:30PM. So we grab a quick breakfast and some shots of the city from the top deck before bundling up to go ashore. It is 11 degrees C today, or 51 degrees F. The high is predicted to be only 16-17C (60-62F) and we have tickets to ride the open top of the HO HO Bus. (Hop On, Hop Off Bus) We don heavy sweatshirts and are happy we did. There is another cruise ship here today also, the Silversea.

After disembarking the ship, around 8:30AM, we walk about a mile into the city center and find the HO HO Bus and board the first one departing around 9AM. We are the only ones on the bus at this time on a Thursday. The wind blowing on us is brisk, making the sweatshirts a good call! This city has fantastic views of colorful buildings and streets. The loop of the HO HO Bus is almost 2 hours so we finish the loop about 11AM. Our tickets allow us to ride the old time Trolleys also and we find our way to the Trolley stop about a half mile away from the bus stop. Many picturesque buildings surround us and we find ourselves in a large square with statues and ornate buildings while we wait for the Trolley.

We board the next Trolley about 11:30AM and ride it through the streets, again making our cameras happy. After an hour or so, we wonder where we are. On top of a hill, I look out and down the hill and there is our ship. The Trolley route on the map shows us moving away from access to the port so we get off the Trolley at the top of the hill.

We never do find out who “Henry” is!

We are now on cobblestone streets with lots of staircases. So, being the troopers that we are, we start working our way down the hill. Stairs. Cobblestone alleys. Stairs. Repeat. Surprisingly, we handle the trip well. We are amazed at how many restaurants, hotels and AirBnB’s we see on the way down! We stop at one restaurant and enjoy some chorizo, cheese, olives and glasses of amazing wine!

We check our watches and head towards the ship. We walk into the terminal right at 2:30PM, the time slated to be on board. But it seems there are hundreds of passengers here and all is well and we get on the ship about 3PM. I take my cameras up on deck and watch our departure while a DJ plays Sail Away Tunes! More fun photos are taken of the Port of Lisboa as we leave.

Tonight on board, we go off to the Purple Turtle to play a game of Super Ship Trivia with questions relating to the entire world cruise. Elee and I score in the middle because we didn’t attend the first half of the cruise.

Then it’s off to bed for the evening. Good night All!

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 At Sea

We have yet to visit the Premiere restaurant on the ship, Sea & Grass. So today is the day! We go about our normal At Sea Day activities until it comes time for dinner. We thought to make reservations a couple days ago for tonight. We are treated to a SEVEN COURSE DINNER! The food is good and we are grateful for having the knowledge ahead of time that it is chilly inside the restaurant and Elee and I bring sweaters!

Then after dinner I finally get photos of the “Traveling Tilburys”

Goodnight All!