It was a sunny, cool morning. Our Uber driver met us exactly on time. The trip to our Southampton hotel went smoothly, taking two hours. The room was not yet ready so we had lunch in the hotel. It was better than we expected.
The hotel room was much nicer than we expected - super clean - very well laid out, unlike our room in the hotel in London. It was probably newly renovated. The only downside was the very hard bed. I should also mention that this nice hotel was one-third of the price of our London hotel - location, location, location.
We relaxed in the hotel room for the afternoon and then we had a light dinner at the hotel restaurant including Sticky Toffee Pudding. This version was slightly disappointing.
It was Sail Away Day! It was cloudy. We had free coffee in the hotel restaurant, but it was not good coffee. The Uber driver picked us up right on time. She was a very nice British lady.
From the time that she dropped us off until we walked onboard the ship was twenty minutes, most of which was spent walking through the large terminal and a brief wait in the security queue. The whole process was very efficient.
We sat in some comfortable seats on deck seven and were right near the Aperol Spritz station! The Majestic Princess had an Aperol Spritz station. A few years ago, almost nobody had heard of an Aperol Spritz. We had discovered the drink in Florence and really liked it. Now it is everywhere, including on deck seven of the Majestic Princess! It's just Aperol, a citrusy, sweet orange liqueur, Prosecco, and soda water, usually with an orange slice as a garnish. It's very refreshing. Spoiler - we never actually had one on the ship.
When our stateroom was ready we dropped off our carry on bags and headed to the buffet for lunch. Lunch was tasty.
After lunch, we did our favorite activities - unpacking and laundry, well, to be honest, unpacking isn’t our favorite activity but it’s much better than packing. Doing laundry isn’t my favorite activity but I think it’s Donnie’s favorite.
Then we went to the Hollywood Conservatory which was a very nice, quiet place at the top, front of the ship. It had seats facing out of some big windows looking over the bow, some little curtained off sitting areas on the sides, some with deck chairs, some with couches. It had topiary sculptures, a large (2 foot high) chess set, game tables, etc. It was the only really quiet spot on the ship. I think that the Majestic Princess is the only Princess ship that has it. Unfortunately, we couldn't use it as much as we would have liked. More about that later.
In the early evening we attended a port talk on Falmouth and Cork. The speaker was an assistant cruise director Cathy X Heaven. Yes, that was her real name. She didn’t want to reveal what the X stood for. She was very bubbly and tried to be funny and “interactive”, but her talk was very unfocused and not very helpful. We watched some of her other port talks later in the cruise and they were very uninformative.
We had dinner in one of the main dining rooms. It was ok - not great - a foreshadowing of things to come.
It was a rainy morning. We had breakfast in the buffet. The weather cleared up for the afternoon.
We got on the tender, which Princess now calls a “Water Shuttle”, which took 25 minutes to get to the shore. Then we took a short shuttle bus to town. We walked through the pretty little town Main Street with lots of little private shops, no corporate chain stores, and lots and lots of dogs. Almost everybody had a dog, or even two, or three. We stopped to get some mandatory Cornish Pasties. They were pretty good, but not as good as we had had many years ago when we drove around Cornwall.
A Cornish pasty is a hand-held pastry, sort of like a big empanada, filled with beef, sliced or diced potato, turnip and onion, seasoned with salt and pepper, and baked.
Educational Information - skippable if you already know everything.
Legend says that the side-crimped pasties supposedly allowed the tin miners in Cornwall to eat the pasty holding the thick edge, which was later discarded, thereby ensuring that dirty fingers (possibly including traces of arsenic) did not touch the food or mouth.
Eventually we took the shuttle bus back to the tender dock and then the tender, oops, I mean Water Shuttle back to the ship, where we relaxed in the Hollywood Conservatory where I had a Gin Fizz. Later I had a nap. The two facts are not related.
At 7:30 we went to the Vista Lounge to see a comedian, Geoff Boyz, a Scottish comedian. He was very funny. We were surprised to learn that Scotsmen had a sense of humor.
Afterwards, we went to the theater to see an acrobatic/juggling/contortionist act - Anna and Oliver. It was very different and impressive.
We were in Cobh, Ireland. We learned that Cobh is pronounced “Cove” because Gaelic has no letter V so they use “bh” instead. This finally explained all the times on TV when we had seen the name Siobhan pronounced as “Shevaun”.
It was partly sunny in the morning but it got cloudy by the time our excursion started - of course.
Our bus drove one hour to the very famous Blarney Castle. The tour guide was very informative and helpful. Once there, the sky very overcast so we took a large number of very bad pictures - another continuing theme. The Castle was larger than expected and impressive. The Gardens were very nice also.
Educational Information - skippable if you already know everything.
Legend suggests that Queen Elizabeth I requested Cormac MacDermot MacCarthy, the Lord of Blarney, be deprived of his traditional land rights. Cormac travelled to see the queen, but was certain he would not persuade her to change her mind as he wasn't an effective speaker. He met an old woman on the way who told him that anyone who kissed a particular stone in Blarney Castle would be given the gift of eloquent speech. Cormac went on to persuade the queen that he should not be deprived of his land. Now millions of people have "kissed the Blarney Stone".
We absolutely did not wait on the hour long line to climb over a hundred claustrophobic stairs to lay down, lean way backwards and kiss the very unhygienic Blarney Stone. We’re already full of Blarney.
We found out that Blarney Castle is privately owned. The family that owns it must make a fortune from gullible tourists.
The Blarney Woolen Mill on the property, which was recommended in most tourism guides, was just a very large clothing store, geared to the huge number of tourists - obviously.
The bus took us back to the ship where there was a very long line to get back onboard but fortunately it moved quickly. We went to the Captain’s Circle lounge event for snacks and drinks, since as “Platinum” Captain’s Circle mucky-mucks we were entitled. We don’t really feel entitled. The snacks were nothing that couldn’t be gotten elsewhere on board and the drinks were not free.
Yet another late start. Maybe I shouldn’t bother mentioning that. We spent a long time in the buffet talking to a couple from Southampton and only went out about noon. Of course, it started to rain as soon as we got out. Fortunately the rain didn't last long, but the sky remained dark and overcast.
Donnie went into “The Fab Four“ shop to buy a Liverpool magnet. The store had every Beatles souvenir imaginable, but - no CD’s, no LP’s, no music whatsoever.
We walked to the Albert Docks, a historical maritime area not far from the ship where we stopped for tea. Afterwards we wandered around the area, taking a very large number of very boring, badly-lit pictures. There were also a significant number of antique trucks and vans converted to food trucks.
We had an early breakfast and then took a two hour bus ride to the Giant’s Causeway with sun and clouds on the way.
We stopped briefly for photos at the Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge.
It was totally overcast when we got to the Giant’s Causeway. It was a long walk down from the visitor’s center to the rocks.
Educational Information - skippable if you already know everything.
The Giant’s Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, formed from cooling lava. The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Most of the columns are hexagonal, although some have between four and eight sides.
According to legend, the columns are the remains of a causeway built by a giant. The story goes that the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn MacCool) was challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant Benandonner. Fionn accepted the challenge and built the causeway across the North Channel so that the two could meet. Fionn hides from Benandonner when he realises that his foe is much bigger than he is. Fionn's wife, Sadhbh, disguises Fionn as a baby and tucks him in a cradle. When Benandonner sees the size of the "baby", he imagines that its father, Fionn, must be a giant among giants. He flees back to Scotland in fright, destroying the causeway behind him so that Fionn would be unable to chase him down.
We took another huge number of poorly-lit bad pictures, along with the hundreds of other tourists who didn’t know or didn’t care how bad their pictures were.
Fortunately there was a shuttle bus back up. Later, the excursion bus stopped for a quick photo opportunity at Dunluce castle, where it was still dark and overcast, of course and where we took more bad pictures. I’m seriously thinking of publishing a book called “My Worst Photographs”. It will be a very large book.
We got back to the ship about 5 PM. Since we had no lunch we decided to have an early dinner at the buffet. This time the food was good and we topped it off with ice cream.
After dinner we went down to the Piazza to hear some Irish music and stayed for some country music. Both were good.
It was yet another rainy morning. We took the excursion bus for over an hour to the town of Stirling. The weather was clouds and sun - mostly clouds. We walked up steep hill to Stirling Castle which was very tiring. We got to the castle car park which was not really very close to the castle itself. So, exhausted, we walked down again. We wandered briefly through the town, but we had spent too much time walking up to the castle car park and didn’t have a lot of time left in Stirling so we just stopped for a quick pastry.
Next, the bus drove to “the Kelpies” - two very huge metal contemporary statues of horses heads. It was still cloudy and drizzly so we took some bad pictures of the Kelpies.
Next, the bus drove to The Falkirk Wheel, a modern marvel - a rotating boat lift, which replaced a large set of canal locks.
Educational Information - skippable if you already know everything.
The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift in Falkirk in central Scotland, connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. It opened in 2002 as part of the Millennium Link project, reconnecting the two canals for the first time since the 1930s.
The wheel raises boats by 79 feet. The Falkirk Wheel is the only rotating boat lift of its kind in the world
We took a boat ride up the wheel and small part of the canal but our seats were too far from the boat windows to see much - all we saw were the backs of the heads of our fellow passengers.
We went to a nearby huge Tesco for some cough drops. I added this important detail for no good reason. Ok, we both had bad colds and very annoying coughs.
We had dinner in O’Malley’s Irish Pub on the ship. I thought that the burgers were good but Donnie was less impressed. The service, however, was very, very slow. The Irish musical accompaniment, which was our real reason for going there, was great. Disappointingly, the only beer on tap at O’Malley’s Irish Pub was Heineken. No Guinness available. Shame on them!
We hoped today would be a restful day, after four consecutive tiring excursions. We were just going to fill our thermoses with coffee or tea but ended up having breakfast at the buffet.
Donnie went to an enrichment lecture after breakfast and I went to the Hollywood Conservatory to try and find a couple of comfortable seats and work on my writing. I did actually get a couple of lounge chairs but they weren’t exactly comfortable.
Donnie joined me after her lecture and after a while we went and got pizza on the pool deck and brought it back to the conservatory. The pizza was pretty good, for ship’s pizza.
Later we went to an enrichment lecture on prohibition. The speaker, Susan Morrison, was funny and interesting. She was Scottish and talked about how the Scottish distilling industry was involved in bypassing prohibition. She also mentioned that Scottish parents could be very strict and, as a child, she thought her name was “Susan Morrison Stop That”. She was the second Scottish person with a sense of humor that we had encountered. There might be others.
In the early evening we went to the Captain’s Invitational event where we were given free drinks and canapés and listened to a music group - more mucky-muck bennies. Ok, it was a little disappointing since canapés turned out to be one canapé.
We had another dinner in the buffet. The food in the Dining room has been so uninspired that we are dining in the buffet more than we have on previous cruises.
Today we had an excursion to the “Ring Of Brodgar”, a stone-age standing stone circle. First we stopped in Stromness - a nice little Scottish town full of stone houses. There was no rain but it was overcast.
Then we were driven to the stone circle. We were only given a half hour to walk a long way to the circle and around it and back. It was very impressive, and, miracle of miracles, there was NO RAIN! However the light was pretty bad - more bad pictures.
We had lunch in the buffet and then went out to Kirkwall - another nice Scottish town. We wandered around some and found a little shop selling local foodstuffs and alcohol. We bought a sampler of Orkney whisky and some Orkney rum, some Orkney cookies and Donnie bought a tin of Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties - yay! For you non-Scots, that’s Haggis, turnips and potatoes.
Educational Information - skippable if you already know everything.
Haggis, the national dish of Scotland, is composed of the liver, heart, and lungs of a sheep (or other animal), minced and mixed with beef or mutton suet and oatmeal and seasoned with onion, cayenne pepper, and other spices. The mixture is packed into a sheep’s stomach and boiled.
It sounds disgusting, but Donnie likes it. I have tried it and found it a little too "gamey" for my taste, but I don't like liver. When served, it frequently just looks almost like a hamburger.
Just as we got back to the ship, the rain started.
We had lunch in the buffet again and spent the afternoon resting in our stateroom.
We had a surprisingly good dinner in the dining room and finished just in time to hear the bagpiper in the Piazza. His rendition of Mexican music was very good. I’m not joking. He did play some.
We decided to skip the excursion to Inverness because we were both not feeling well enough. We have had colds for a while. This turned out to be a bigger problem later.
We had breakfast as usual in the buffet. Then we participated in one of our favorite activities - laundry. Then we performed “The Great Bog Roll Caper”. Our room steward had not been replacing our toilet paper for several days and now we were down to half a roll, so we appropriated, ok - stole one from the room steward’s carts. Note: Bog Roll is British for a roll of toilet paper.
This turned out to be an unplanned “down” day.
There was a long wait in the theater before we were called for the ”Water Shuttle”. Eventually we made it ashore. The water shuttle sailed under the famous old, Firth of Forth Bridge. Then there was a Miracle - it was a SUNNY DAY! We took some decent pictures of the bridge.
Educational Information - skippable if you already know everything.
The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge across the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, west of central Edinburgh. Completed in 1890, it is considered a symbol of Scotland (having been voted Scotland's greatest man-made wonder in 2016), and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The bus dropped us off at the Edinburgh lower town so we walked up and up and up to the Edinburgh castle. We had been there before so we decided to stroll down the "Royal Mile", which is the main street of the upper town and has the castle at the top.
Donnie had to go into the touristy Tartan shop and buy some Douglas Clan scarves. She has ancestors in the Clan Douglas. Note: the scarves were sufficiently cheap that they were undoubtedly authentic Douglas Clan Chinese scarves.
We walked down most of the Royal Mile, along with a million other tourists and then took a cab back to Charlotte Square in the New Town.
Donnie wanted to sit, have a drink and use a restroom so we went into Brown’s Brasserie and Bar which turned out to be a fancy place and we had to have a whole meal. It was relaxing but too much food.
We had to set our clocks forward one hour that night. We were going to be in Europe on the next port day in Le Havre, France - well, that's where the ship docked, but we were going to go on an excursion to the little quaint town of Honfleur.
It was cloudy of course. The ship was rocking a little but to be expected since we’re on the North Sea. Later the Captain announced that we were experiencing 50 knot winds. The ship’s rocking wasn’t very bad. Later in the day it was even calmer.
We attended another enrichment lecture on the witch trials in Scotland. Interesting and well presented by Susan Morrison again.
The Captain announced that an emergency medical evacuation by helicopter was going to occur. It must have been very scary because of the winds. The helicopter couldn’t land on the ship so the passenger had to be winched onboard. I tried not to imagine what would happen if the winds crashed the helicopter into the ship. Thankfully, that didn’t happen.
We attended another enrichment lecture by Susan Morrison “House of the Lion”, about the bloody history of the Scottish Kings. It was very interesting and she had a great sense of humor.
We stayed for the Globetrotter trivia. We didn’t do very well. We scored fifteen out of twenty three.
At five PM we were invited to a party for the 840 people staying onboard for the repositioning cruise, held in the Hollywood Conservatory. Many people got dressed up for the free drinks and snacks. We didn't.
We got up early to go on an excursion to Honfleur, a small medieval French town. The town was full of old half-timbered buildings. Once there we were on a guided walking tour for an hour. Since I had my camera with me in a very picturesque place, it was very overcast. After the tour we had about ninety minutes to walk around ourselves.
We bought some candies and some tiny bottles of Calvados (A renowned apple brandy produced in Normandy) and Donnie got another magnet.
The rest of the afternoon we got some needed rest. We were still not feeling well.
We had dinner once again in the buffet. There were no good choices. The food in general has been disappointing, except for the pizza and burgers on the pool deck and the bread everywhere. Also the coffee has been good.
Copyright © 2026 by Jeff Kravitz