British Isles Cruise 2026 - Dublin / Dun Laoghaire (08/29/26)

 

This was a day we knew we had to get up before dawn.  We had a shore excursion that left for Malahide Castle at 7:45 am, and that we'd be away from the ship for an entire day.

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As usual, I didn't get enough good sleep last night, and was awake since 4:30 am.  Luckily, I found that laying/sleeping on a pillow sitting under the weak part of my spine made it possible to walk without intense pain the next day. So, when I got up, I found I could get around and get showered, dressed, and out the door with more than adequate time to have breakfast before the assembly for our shore excursion.

We were off the ship by 7:45 and on the tender boat to Dun Laoghaire.  This was an easy process, as we met at the assembly point in the ship's theater, then took the boat to the tender boat dock.  From there, it was a little bit of walking until we reached our coach.

Our tour guide regaled us with vaudeville one-liners combined with tidbits about Irish history to keep us occupied during the trip to Malahide Castle.  When we didn't know was that there would be a bit of walking involved, with no place to sit and rest. If I had been able to change to a different excursion, I would have done so.  But I was already in for a penny and in for a pound, so I ended up walking up and down several flights of stairs while at the castle.

After an hour and a half, we got on the coach and went to have lunch at the Abbey Tavern.  We were entertained by traditional Irish music and Irish dancers. The show was interesting at first, but got monotonous after a while. We couldn't wait for the bus to come and take us back to the ship.  With a brief pit stop in Phoenix Park for a bio-break, we were off to the tender boat dock and back to the ship.

 

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After a short break to rest, it was off to dinner.  When we were done, we went to the photo studio area to pick up a compact cell phone battery pack.  There was a minor delay in RQS getting her battery pack, as the salesman had to go to the ship's internal warehouse to replenish the supply in the public store. 

 

 

British Isles Cruise 2026 - Cork / Cobh (08/28/26)

 

Like yesterday, we had no pre-purchased shore excursions.  However, we wanted to step off the ship and put our feet on Irish soil for the first time.  Instead of getting up at the break of dawn, we decided to sleep "late" (to 8:30 am), and have breakfast at the ship's buffet.  This is when we would make our plans for the day.

Again, I didn't sleep that well.  But I did find that I could put a small pillow under my back, and that would ease the pain I'd feel when getting up in the morning.  (It didn't eliminate the pain, it just made things easier to bear.)  We got up around 8:30 am, and were in the buffet by 10:00 am.  We figured that we'd get off the ship sometime after 11:00 am, and see "The Titanic Experience", one of the historical venues that had some meaning to me.  (Neither of us wanted to walk far today.) 

We ended up at the Cobh Heritage Center, less than 100 yards away from the ship, and spent an hour exploring the exhibition of Cobh's maritime history (Criminal Transports and Voluntary Migration to North America and Australia, as well as being a stopping point for Transatlantic Crossings).  My legs started to give out after this, so it was back to the ship for the day.

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This would be a night where we'd dress up for dinner.  (Don't look for any photographs of me in Mario Mode in this blog)  Dinner was OK, but we were both glad to get back to the cabin and get comfortable after dinner.