Saturday, May 30, 2015
I was up first this morning. There was a crack in the
curtains and through it I could see bright light and land! Last night there was
nothing but sea, this morning there is Ireland! I was looking Giant’s Causeway.
We aren’t there yet, but if visibility is good enough and we are sailing this
close at that time, we are on the starboard side and should see something. We
won’t get to Belfast until 1pm.
Since we spent 2 nights in Belfast before, we have made no
plans here. All aboard is 10:30pm and I guess sunset today is 9:44pm, but still
it feels like a half day here to me because I know we won’t stay out past 6pm
or so. Originally, I had questioned the judgement of those who booked tours out
to Giant’s Causeway today, but if this weather holds today, they will probably
have made the wise choice.
There were very few people up in Terrace this morning. We
finished breakfast and went up to Horizons to look out while we waited for our
cabin to be cleaned. Clay had his tablet GPS tracking all the while. After we
got up to Horizons, he turned it off and put in his earbuds and resumed his
decades-long rerunning of BBC’s Pride & Prejudice. He had got past Darcy’s
proposal to Lizzie and was at the wet shirt scene about the time I started
telling him about land on the port side. He told me not now, he’d turned off
the GPS. So, we sailed past Dunluce Castle ruins and Giant’s Causeway without
even looking for them and without binoculars. It isn’t clear that we could have
seen anything, but we weren’t even trying up in Horizons behind glass and with
our naked eyes. Anyway, we are now sailing between Northern Ireland and
Scotland and it is beautiful. It is rather too cold to sit outside though even
with jackets. The high today is forecast to be about 55F and it should not rain
until after 6 or 7pm. We’ll hope for a pleasant afternoon in Belfast.
When we drove along this coast on our previous visit to
Ireland, it was one of those on a clear day situations. On a clear day, you can
see the coast of Scotland. We didn’t ever see it then. Today while it became
increasingly cloudy and overcast, we could see both the coasts of Scotland and
Ireland. Once again, it was clear that the grass really is greener in Ireland!
We could see the demarcated fields with cattle or sheep in them. We saw
hillsides of gorse in bloom. It was wonderful. There were colorful little
seaside villages. There were sailboats and ferries. We slowed considerably as
we made the turn into the mouth of the River Lagan. We had not heard or seen
the pilot boat and he has always come up on our side to date. It was about 10
minutes after the time the Captain had said he expected to pick him up before I
heard the pilot boat roaring up from behind us. I got out just in time to take
his photo and have him wave at me. I waved back so I don’t think I got a photo
of him waving!
Since we cleared UK customs and immigration on the first sea
day I would expect that as soon as we are docked that the ship should already
be cleared, but I guess we’ll find out. We are 6.4 miles (or something else)
from Belfast now and it is 11:25am. It looks like we dock out near the Titanic
Museum and not in town in Belfast which explains the complimentary shuttle. I
am not sure why they think it will take until 1pm. I’ll report back!
It is 20 of 1pm and we’re alongside but not yet docked or
cleared. We entered a channel that has the Titanic Experience building at the
far end of it. The ship pirouetted around and we backed up on the other side of
the channel to what looks like a freight dock. But here we are. We can see the
H&W cranes Samson & Goliath. We could see them from our hotel window
from in Belfast when we were here before.
We went up for an early lunch at Terrace after entering the
channel. The first thing we spotted on the buffet was mushy peas! They had gone
all out with a UK lunch. Clay had the fish & chips and pronounced them some
of the best he’s had. They big piece of roasted beef of some kind at the
carving station and Yorkshire puddings. I had a half ham & cheese sandwich
and a slice of cheese pizza. I had a scoop of strawberry cheesecake ice cream.
Clay had chocolate fritters (disappointing) with vanilla ice cream, then went
back when I told him they had pistachio. I don’t know how he missed it since it
was green and covered with nuts.
Julie announced the ship was docked and cleared right around
1pm. We went down and got in line to get a map and shuttle schedule from the
onboard destination desk. The shuttles were to start running at 2pm and stop at
5:50pm. We went out and got in a bungled line and around 1:20pm the first
shuttle came and we managed to make it onboard. There was another 5 minutes or
less behind it, so probably only the first shuttle had a line or a wait. The
shuttles were to run every 15 minutes. They were bright pink double deckers so
they held a lot of people. They were fully enclosed and very nice buses.
The first shuttle stop was the Visit Belfast Welcome Centre
right across the street from City Hall. We got off there. The second shuttle
stop was the yellow fountain by Victoria Square Shopping Centre. The 2 stops
are only a few blocks apart and all within the Cathedral Quarter. We got off at
the first stop because the tourism people onboard told Clay that is where he
would find the closest ATM. He did. It was in the front wall of their building,
right beside the front door. Clay actually made 2 withdrawals there. I guess
there were no fees on the first withdrawal and he figured that he’d get all the
pounds we need before we go home from London. The bad news is that after we got
back to the ship around 4pm, he studied his money and realized it was all
Northern Bank notes and not legal currency in the rest of Great Britain. Oops!
I had already gotten undressed from shore clothes by the time he decided to get
on the next shuttle and try to get the Visit Belfast Welcome Centre to exchange
these Northern Ireland notes for Bank of England notes. So, he is gone! I
absolutely do not remember having anything like this problem the last time we
were in Belfast and I have to assume it was just the ATM we used. We passed a
load of ATMs from international banks that I recognized the brand names, but
Northern was the first one we saw since it was in the tourism office’s wall,
and that was the one we used. Well, I have my fingers crossed that he gets them
exchanged easily somewhere and get back soon.
After the ATM, we went inside the Visit Belfast WC and I
found a Belfast patch. Clay paid for it with pound coins he had brought with
him as leftover money from the last time we went through London. Then we came
out and headed away from the area. There was a large and noisy demonstration of
some kind drawing a large crowd in front of City Hall. There were dozens of red
jacketed young men in the same block aggressively shilling HOHO bus tickets to
the cruise ship passengers being dropped off as well. We really couldn’t get
out of there fast enough without even getting our bearings.
I headed us toward the Clock Tower with an idea of walking
past it to the River Lagan and along the river to see the artwork I remembered
and then over to the yellow fountain and the shopping center. We thought we
might stop for a snack somewhere but nowhere appealing presented itself along
our route. We went into a Boots, a Pound Plus and a Tesco where we finally
bought some crisps, or potato chips. We have been craving potato chips onboard
with sandwiches or drinks and all they serve on Marina is these big thick fat
French fries! Problem solved now!
We came back on the 3:20pm shuttle and I guess Clay caught
4pm shuttle back into Belfast. The last shuttle at 5:50pm should be leaving
town now. I hope Clay is on it! He took his camera, but left his phone, so I
have no way to find him! Actually, Currents says the last shuttle back is at
7:35pm, but the timetable from Visit Belfast, shuttle provider says 5:50pm. I
have to assume the shuttle provider has the correct information though. Clay is
back. He is about as mad as a hornet. Nobody wanted to exchange the NI pounds
for British pounds. He got all but about 200 pounds worth exchanged before
everything in town shut down for the night and he caught a shuttle bus back. He
is trying the onboard currency exchange now even with the 5% fee. This is
really on the Visit Belfast tourism people. Clay asked onboard a ship in NI for
a half day where to find an ATM and they direct him to one on their building
that will dispense money that is not even legal tender here in Belfast? When he
went back to the Visit Belfast office (where according to their website they
offer currency exchange) they refused to help him at all at first. He learned
from a guard on the dock while waiting for a shuttle that they post office was
open and would exchange currency. When he asked at VB if that was true they
confirmed it and said that Marks & Spencer had a currency exchange too.
But, Marks & Spencer wouldn’t accept the NI pounds after he stood in line
for over 30 minutes.
We are docked on the port side today. We have a pretty
scenic view out the starboard side. There is no actual cruise terminal here.
They have a medium sized tent set up out on the pier to function as one. I
think this might be the first cruise port since NYC that did not have some kind
of permanent structure to serve as a cruise terminal building. I know the crew
had to be missing the free wi-fi that has been at every previous port,
especially after 3 sea days. There were a ton of people using the wifi in the
Visit Belfast WC though!
It is almost 5pm and a large tanker, the Mersey Spirit from
Liverpool, just sailed past us, spun around and is now sidling up to our
starboard side. I guess we need to bunker fuel. I was a little surprised they
didn’t mention anything in Currents or make any announcements about bunkering
today after 3 sea days of sailing. I figured we’d need fuel, and they usually
issue dire warnings to the smokers on bunkering day. Maybe they figured all
guests would be ashore, but they aren’t!
We’re back from dinner and they are still bunkering. In
other bad news, we had a letter on the bed informing us that due to adverse
weather forecasted for the Irish Sea and English Channel that they are
canceling our last 2 ports between Dublin and London. So, instead of Holyhead
and St. Peter Port we will be docked in Dublin from 8am on 5/31 to 8pm on 6/1. The
other bad news is Marina has been notified that Ireland requires ships to shut
off all satellite communications within 12 nautical miles of Dublin, so no
Internet and no phones. Don’t worry if I don’t post any new entries for a few
days. The other bad news is that we had signed up to join with some Cruise
Critic roll call people to do a private excursion in Holyhead. The woman who
organized it had to pay in advance and she collected our shares from us a few
days out of Montreal. Also, her husband took ill and they left the ship before
we started across the Atlantic. So, while we will miss the ports and the
excursion, I guess we’ll also miss the money spent. This is always the risk
with booking independent cruise excursions especially if you don’t handle the booking
yourself or like this you agree to pay up front instead of on arrival. Once
again, a calculated risk that went bad. We’ve been hemorrhaging money in
Ireland! Gotten nothing for it but our trouble and haven’t enjoyed ourselves
here yet! I can only hope things turn around in Dublin though I can’t imagine
how they could make up for all we’ve now lost in a city where 2 years ago this
month we spent 2 nights.
