Six-Week Trip to Europe and the British Isles

 

April 8th through May 21st, we, along with Don and Ada, went on a monster trip.  We boarded the Enchanted Princess in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on April 9th.  We sailed across the Atlantic, visiting a few ports along the way.  We then stayed onboard for a second cruise visiting many places in western Europe, finishing that cruise in Southhampton, England on May 4th.  We then spent five days in London, England, then boarded the Emerald Princess on May 9th for a cruise of the British Isles, finishing on May 21st.  We then flew home from London's Heathrow airport.  It was an amazing experience.  I plan to post about each port and place we visited.  I will post them in the order we visited them over the next several weeks.  I also plan to intersperse posts of many stories and experiences we had along the way. I have been busy preparing these posts and sorting through hundreds of pictures.  I expect this will take me weeks to complete.

We originally signed up for the transatlantic cruise and the Baltic cruise for April of 2020. We would cross the Atlantic, with a few ports, then stay on the same ship for a Baltic Sea cruise. When that cruise was canceled because of COVID, they gave us cruise credit for what we paid plus half again.  So, we rescheduled for 2022 and decided to tack on a British Isle cruise as well.  As the date grew closer, Russia attacked Ukraine and Princess cruises decided we obviously would not be going to Russia, but then the decision was made to not go in the Baltic Sea at all.  So, our Baltic cruise became a Western Europe cruise.  New ports were hurriedly added and our ending destination became London instead of the originally planned Copenhagen.   We still are trying to get money back on flights, etc, Full of changes and frustrations, it was still a nice cruise- cruises.  Melanie, our niece and Don and Ada's daughter , and her husband, Kevin joined us for the second leg of the journey.  They were a delightful addition to our party.  

Ken wrote this in his journal about the trip:  

On April 8th we flew from St. George to Fort Lauderdale, Florida and stayed overnight in an Element Hotel that Princess cruises arranged for us.  Princess provided our transfers from the airport to the hotel and then from the hotel to the Enchanted Princess cruise ship the next morning.  We spent the next 25 days on that ship, visiting the following ports of call:  Ponta Delgata, Portugal; Brest and Cherbourg, France; Copenhagen, Denmark; Oslo and Kristiansand, Norway; Hamburg, Germany; Brugges, Belgium; Falmouth and Portland, England; and ended that double cruise in Southampton, England.  We then spent five days in London before going back to Southampton to board our last cruise line, the Emerald Princess.  On that ship we visited the following ports: Guernsey Island, England; Cohb(pronounced Cork), Dublin, and Belfast, Ire land; Liverpool, England; Orkney Islands, Invergordon, and Edinburgh, Scotland; and finished once again in Southamptom, England.

Although we both felt that this vacation went too long, we also were thrilled at the chance to visit so many places we had heard and read about all of our lives.  It was indeed a vacation of a lifetime.  

We hope you enjoy our journey!