Paris and Trans Atlantic Cruise 2019

Summary of trip to  France, Denmark, Norway, Scotland, Ireland, and transatlantic to Nova Scotia  a nd New York. Delta Select was better than United First Class and United was better than Norweigan Air. Delta provided the screen to watch movie while United required using your own smartphone or computer plus they required you to download the app prior to boarding the aircraft or purchase Wi-Fi to download   the   app. Paris was great although rather expensive but worth the cost. The food   selection and quality onboard Regal Princess disappointing. Our cabin stewart was ourstanding as well as our dinner waitress. Flying anywhere is a hassle.  

September 2 - 3, 2019 - Days 1 - 2 - Travel days We flew from Reno to Salt Lake City, then on to Atlanta, then on to Paris.   Our journey began at 10:00AM on Monday, September 1 st and we arrived in Paris at 1:10PM Tuesday, September 2 nd . On the flight   from Atlanta to Paris we were seated   across from a family with a crying baby.   She cried off and on all night.    We got very little sleep.  Our driver was at Charles de Gaulle airport to meet us as scheduled, however, we walked forever and forever getting to the baggage area where he was.   This was the largest airport either of us had ever   been to.   Lynne’s knee was terribly sore and swollen from so much walking which worried us because our trip was just beginning and we had visions of her not being able to do the things we had planned. The food and service on the Delta flight from Atlanta to Paris was excellent. 

September   4, 2019 – Day 3 - Paris The long   day yesterday exhausted us.   We tried to stay up but we finally gave in to our exhaustion and went   to bed at 6PM.   We were ready to get up at 2AM. We stayed up until 4:30 AM and then went back to bed   and rested until   6AM.   We tried using Uber for the first time.   We were unsuccessful.   The driver spoke no English and drove past the pickup place.    We ended up taking a taxi to Arc De Triumph. The first thing we did was to have croissants   and coffee at an open air café.   We remembered doing that 20 years ago and it was just as enjoyable today as it was then.    We then took the Hoho bus    which toured all the main attractions in Paris.   After our tour we took a   taxi to the So Ouest shopping center. We had an American style lunch at Chipoltes and then did a little shopping.   We bought matching car...

Day 4 - Paris Today we went to Disneyland.  We had prepaid tickets, however, the cost of the transportation far exceeded the cost of admission….. 22 euros for the taxi to the train station, 50.50 euros for the train, 50 euros for the scam artist that helped us procure the train tickets and another 18 euros for the taxi back to the hotel.    The visit to Disneyland was fun, however, it was exhausting.  It was about 4:00 when we arrived back to the hotel, only to find the room wasn’t cleaned yet so we went down to the lobby to wait for the cleaning crew. Lynne was too tired to consider walking one block to have dinner so I went   down the street and obtained dinner chicken creeps and a French style egg mac muffin.  I also picked up a pint of beer from the bar in the hotel and wished we had access to a movie in the room. We’ve been back to the hotel room early every night so far only to discover we can’t get a movie on the televisi...

Day 5 - Paris This was our last day in Paris and we wanted to revisit the shops along Avenue V Des Champs Elysees and sample croissants and coffee at sidewalk cafes.  We started out with a taxi to the Disney Store on Champs Elysees and purchased some wonderful Disney products that were not available at Disneyland.  Then we enjoyed croissants and coffee at one of   the many sidewalk cafes and then on to more and more stores. Bill’s backpack was overflowing as well as my shopping bag.   The next thing on our agenda was another tax ride to the Bateaux Mouches boat tour for a one hour and 10 minute scenic ride on the Seine River where we saw Notre-Dame, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre   and other sites from a different prospective.  Our last taxi ride of the day was   to the Pont des Arts (bridge of love padlocks) where we placed our padlock on the bridge and tossed the key in the river as is the custom   for a “romantic gest...

September 7, 2109 – Day 6-   Paris – Copenhagen This was a travel day. EagleCab picked us up 10 minutes early.   The traffic was terrible but we arrived at the Orly airport when we planned. The security check was better than the TSA at home. They went through my carry on and confiscated one Costco size tooth paste.We needed two carts to haul our luggage from the airport to the Airport Clarion Hotel.

September 8, 2019 -Day 7 - Copenhagen Our overnight stay at the Clarion hotel was awesome. The room was very clean and large. The bathtub could fit a family of 5.  The breakfast was absolutely the best ever.  After breakfast we hauled our luggage back to the airport to catch the Princess shuttle to the ship. We met our table mates at dinner, one of whom was drunk. We will see what happens tonight and if it repeats we will ask for another table.

September 9, 2019 - Day 8 -   Kristiansand, Norway It rained hard all day long. We planned on doing the Segway tour today at 10:00 but it was rained out so we rescheduled for 12:00. It was also rained out. This was disappointing as we were looking very forward to the Segway tour. We were so sorry for the owner since he said this was the largest ship to visit the city this year. He lost a lot of bookings.   Even though it was raining hard we did a little shopping on the boardwalk.   We found a wonderful gift ship and bought a Norway   90% down jacket and a couple of hats.   After arriving back to our cruise room we had to change clothes and sox and shoes because we were drenched.   We had an umbrella but it rained so hard that we still got wet.   We then watched a movie in our room.   Our tablemate at dinner was still a little crude but he wasn’t drunk so we decided to stay put for the cruise.   It’s an interesting table, one couple has ...

September 10, 2019 – Day 9 – At   Sea We went to Alfreado’s and had pizza for lunch.   We were not hungry for formal dinner night so we stayed in the room and watched movies. I’m not feeling well.   It’s possible   we might have to cancel the tour tomorrow in Scotland.

September 11, 2019 – Day 10 – Greenock, Scotland Lynne was feeling okay so we went forward with our planned outing.  What a fiasco! We had trouble getting off the ship as too many people were trying to meet up with their tour. Our tour was not as it was advertised.  It was disorganized, it was suppose to be a 16 person van but turned out to be a 45 person bus with 42 tourists. We had a terrible guide, it was longer than expected and we were hungry.  We both were  very tired and unhappy with the tour. It ended up being 8 hours which is just  too long.  Having said all that, we saw quite a bit of Scotland 

September 12, 2019 – Day 11 – Dublin, Ireland We arrived on time and contrary to the ship’s information taxis were waiting at the ship and we were not required to take a shuttle to the taxi stand. We shared a taxi with another couple heading to the center of Dublin. The driver was young  and provided a very informative trip. He was very anti Great British and talked quite a bit about the potatoe famine.  He was still very angry that GB did not provide any food to Ireland. He was happy that GB was having issues with Brexit. He was very hostile to GB but gave us a wonderful introduction to Dublin. The other couple tried to use a credit card but were informed only Euros were accepted. They didn’t have any foreign  currency for any country and stated they have used credit cards for the entire trip. So we paid the 20 euros and they gave us $10.  We went to the Temple Bar district and downed a pint at the famious Temple Bar.  The visit to St. Patrick’s...

September 13, 2019 – Day 12 – Cobh, Ireland Today we walked a short distance to the Titanic museum and were very impressed. They gave us random boarding tickets representing actual tickets with the name of the person we were pretending to be. The idea was at the end of the tour to see if we survived the sinking. After the tour we shopped and took a 90 minute tour with 31 others. It was very informative with lots of photo ops.   We exited the tour at the last stop and walked down the steep hill to the local pub. Bill tried the Guinness   beer which he hated in the past but loved from the tap in Ireland.

September 14 - 18, 2019 - Day 13 – 17 At Sea I took a Zuma class this morning while Bill went to the gym. We had five days at sea to look forward to.   We ate and ate some more. At the end of the fourth day the captain announced that he was going to divert the ship from its   planned route to avoid hurricane Humberto.   We traveled above the 45 th Parallel and that meant no Internet since the satellites are below the 45th Parallel. We were both selected as models to participate in the ship’s fashion show.   Every day we relaxed and enjoyed afternoon tea.   On the fifth evening the ship had a renewal of wedding vows which we were thrilled to do.   We did the same thing on a Princess Cruise some 20 years ago before we were even married.   We had a ship credit of $950 allocated to us from various specials Bill found as he put this cruise together.   Lynne purchased two very nice travel bags and matching wallets.   We watched current mov...

September 19, 2019 – Day 18 – Halifax, Nova Scotia Today was a great shopping day. Immediately upon leaving the gangway we entered a fantastic shopping area. Every store had unique products. The management of the shopping area did not allow any store to carry the same product as another store. Consequently even the baseball hats differed from store to store.   After shopping we went back to the ship to deposit our purchases and get a bite to eat. Then back to the stores to purchase more and then we walked down the boardwalk.  We stopped to taste a lobster roll and some local beer. The lobster roll was like egg salad minus the egg plus the lobster. Then back to the ship where Bill went up to the sun deck to get some vitamin D.  We were joined by two other couples to participate in the renewal of vows ceremony out of over 3,000 passengers.   After the ceremony we bought Lynne a bracelet to celebrate the occasion.

September 20, 2019 – Day 19 - At Sea

September 21,2019 –   Day 20 - NYC – Travel to home Our plan for today was to take a taxi to the car rental office then drive to 911 Memorial then to LGA for our flight home. We were delayed departing the ship since the baggage transfer to the dock wasn’t completed on time. We finally gathered up all of our luggage, hopped in a cab for the Budget car rental located at Marriot Brooklyn Bridge. The bell hop at the hotel was very helpful with our luggage and directions to the rental office. We planned on using Google Maps to direct us to the 911 Memorial, however we forgot to charge one of the cell phones and found ourselves almost without directions in NYC. It was very hard to find street parking so we opted for a $30 garage for our 1 ½ hour stay. The attendants at the garage were very unfriendly to the point of being rude.  The 911 Memorial and museum was a disappointment. We had to walk too far, we were concerned about time and we had to deal with very unpleasant p...