Day 17 - Sun - 08/23/26 - Belfast, Northern Ireland

It was a nice day in Belfast when we woke up this morning.  I was scheduled to lead the interdenominational church service in the Explorer's Lounge at 8am which sort of coincided with our arrival.  Because of this conflict the attendance was down, but the service went well although it was interrupted twice by going ashore messages over the PA system.  

After the service, we went up to the LIDO to have breakfast and watched the passenger traffic as they were loaded on double decker busses and shuttled to the center of town.  The shuttle was $20/person round trip and we took it when we were here three years ago on the Regal Princess.  Today, our plan was to stay onboard as it's a Sunday and lots of things are closed and we've seen many of the major tourist items on previous visits.  

We did make a trip off the ship to visit the little port shopping area and purchased a couple of T-shirts.  But we came right back on board and I found a nice table in the LIDO overlooking the port area.  There I worked on updating my blog for most of the day.  During that time I did have about an hour long conversation with another couple about cruising that was very enjoyable.  

Our scheduled onboard time was not until 7:30pm, but many were back to the ship well before that time.  We had a folkloric show: The Magic of Irish Rhythms at 5pm and repeated at 6:30pm.  After the first performance we enjoyed dinner and then chilled out until 9:30pm when the Princess World Orchestra put on a one off show featuring music from around the world.  It was quite good. Afterwards, while I returned to the room, Angela did her customary late night karaoke session.

Tomorrow we are in Liverpool, England and have a Beatles Taxi Tour planned in the morning with another couple.  We've been there before so we'll likely make it a low key day.




3 Irish musicians

Allwyn, Our Cruise Director

Princess World Orchestra  

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