06-29-2023 Embarking on a Long Awaited Cruise

Our drive north on I-5 to Melody’s house always includes a stop at this lovely rest area for a Mattie run

Yes, it has definitely been a while since I last wrote.    Anyone who has followed my blog for any length of time has experienced these periods of silence.  When life gets a bit too complex, I slip away mentally with barely enough energy to deal with the stuff of every day.  Writing slips into the background.  I was brought up short when a distant friend and follower sent me an email asking if everything was OK.  I immediately wrote back to Liz, and let her in on the many happenings of the last three months. I had full intentions of writing a blog that day, and yet here it is, a month later, with nothing written.  

We had a few lovely sunsets to view from our deck at home during June

Somewhere on my desk is a notepad with a synopsis of what I need to write about, but it is lost in the shuffle of airline and cruise itineraries, receipts for water system upgrades, calendar notations for chores that need to be completed, and yes, schedules for some fun times that we slipped into our everyday lives as well.  But there will be time enough to catch up on the past three months since I last wrote after I write about our most recent adventure.

A very long time ago, before COVID changed everything, Mo and I decided to sail with Oceania Cruise Lines on a trip around Scotland and Ireland.  It was in 2019 when we made our first deposit for the cruise, excited that we would be sharing ten days on the Sirena with friends Erin and Mui.  I vaguely remember that they were on a much longer cruise, but the segment around the British Isles was the portion where we would be sailing together.  

For years we have read about our friends’ extensive cruising with Oceania and knew we could trust their recommendation.  We heard about the cruise through Mo’s Alma Mater, Oregon State University when they sent a flyer about this cruise, and we originally booked with the travel service through OSU.  All that changed when COVID shut down cruising, not only for our booked cruise date in 2020 but for the second booking in 2021, which was also canceled.  When it came time to roll our money over one more time for the same cruise in 2022, we had already paid for our RV trip in New York City with Adventure Caravans, and there was no way we could fit a cruise in before that long trip.

Once again, we rolled over the money and booked a cruise with Oceania for 2023.  It wasn’t exactly the same cruise.  It was on a different ship, the Riviera, with a bit of difference in the itinerary, and sadly, Erin and Mui would be somewhere else on an extended cruise during the dates in 2023 so we wouldn’t be sailing with our friends.  

We spent much of June packing and making arrangements for home care, dog care, and dealing with some water issues, but that is another story.

Mattie adores Melody and Robert so we knew she would be in good hands

By the time June 27 rolled around, everything was arranged.  The most important arrangement for the day was delivering Mattie to her home away from home with daughter Melody and husband Robert.  As anyone who follows my Facebook knows, Mattie adores Melody and Robert.  When some previous arrangements for Mattie’s care fell through, we were thrilled and relieved when Melody and Robert agreed to keep her for the two weeks we would be gone.

This isn’t exactly a small request.  Melody and Robert have two very spoiled cats that tolerate Mattie but don’t exactly adore her.  They also don’t have a fenced yard, and keeping the dog would require morning and evening walks, and all the other needs that little dogs have that are not quite the same as living with cats.  In addition, the cats have food down all the time, and Robert’s first comment was, “Well, I guess we will have to figure out the feeding thing”.

Our departure for the cruise was arranged by Oceania, with a flight from Portland, Oregon to Vancouver, British Columbia, and then from Vancouver directly to Dublin, Ireland. We were scheduled to leave Portland on the 28th at the reasonable hour of ten AM.  Our trip north to Portland wasn’t difficult.  We dropped Mattie off with Melody at lunchtime, enjoyed a visit with her, and then continued north to Mo’s brother Dan and wife Chere’s place not far from Portland.  They kindly offered to take us to the airport, keep the car so we didn’t have to pay for parking, and then pick us up when we returned. 

We arrived at their place in the late afternoon, with plenty of time to visit and enjoy a lovely supper that Chere prepared for us.  The guest room was waiting with Chere’s beautiful quilts that I always enjoy and a comfortable bed.  

The morning was easy, with a light breakfast before we traveled to the airport, arriving at 8, about 3 hours before flight time.  Check-in was easy, and everything was smooth as we navigated the security lines and enjoyed a coffee as we waited at the gates for our on-time flight to Vancouver.

Seeing the City of Portland from the air is always a treat

We got a great view of Sauvies Island and the Columbia River where we camped last spring

Once in Vancouver, we had four hours of layover time to deal with passport control and get our boarding passes for British Airways. I had requested assistance before boarding, and in Vancouver wheelchair assistance, and once we were through passport control, we were provided with a ride on a golf cart to the correct terminal for our flight to Dublin. For some reason, we weren’t able to use the phone app for this airline and needed paper boarding passes, even though I had completed all the online check-in procedures.

Our first flight was on a plane with two seats per row which was quite nice

It wasn’t until after we enjoyed a nice lunch in the airport that I noticed with chagrin that our seat selections had been changed and we were no longer seated together.  I went immediately to the gate the second it opened and managed to get our seats changed, but the seats we were assigned together were in the second to the last row of the plane.  Not a good choice if you care about noise on a ten-hour flight.

My interesting clothing choices are so that my heaviest shoes and pants weren’t in my suitcase and I expected to be chilly on the outer islands of Scotland. Mimosas in the Vancouver Airport.

We were both happy that we had enjoyed such a great lunch when the meal service started.  We were informed that there were no other choices except for some kind of vegetarian food which was very strange, and we aren’t new to vegetarian food.  The other two choices of chicken and something else were long gone by the time the food service trolley reached our row.  

I am not a fan of British Airways.  The seat spacing is the tightest I have yet to experience on an airplane, and the seats are hard and very uncomfortable.  We were in a window and center seat and were lucky that the young man from Ireland seated on the aisle in our three-seat row was quite delightful. He talked a bit, but not too much, and was always kind when I had to climb over him to get to the bathrooms.  It was nice that the bathroom was just a row behind us, but that also meant that we had a lot of traffic coming and going past our seats.

The young man and I conversed a bit during the long flight, and I learned he was from Sligo, not far from the hotel where Mo and I stayed when we were in Ireland in 2015.  He told me that it was the first time he had to fly separated from his mum and twin brother who were several rows ahead of us.  At the end of the flight, he asked to hug me and thanked me for being so kind to him and that it had made his flight much easier.  I will always remember his sweet smile, his curly red hair pulled back in a ponytail, and his kind blue eyes.

I did try to sleep, but the cramped seats and lack of legroom were pretty hard to take, and my legs started cramping and jumping about halfway through the flight.  I finally decided to take some of the prescription gabapentin that helps with this problem and dug deeply into my carry-on bag to find the med container I had carefully packed.  What I didn’t know until bedtime on the ship was that in the crowded craziness of the airplane, I somehow managed to lose the little pill container I had so carefully packed.  

Our lovely terrace overlooking the port of Belfast

We arrived in Dublin on time at 8:30 in the morning, Dublin time, and managed to get through immigration/passport control without incident.  I did have my walker with me on this trip, and it was a godsend for getting us past long waiting lines through special gates for those of us with trouble walking.  Not a bad thing.  Oceania had a representative waiting for us at the baggage claim but so many people were having trouble getting their checked baggage that it was a long wait before we got on the bus to Belfast.

Now this seems a bit crazy, but we were flown directly to Dublin, and we had arranged transport with Oceania, which was a godsend since we had to get to the ship port in Belfast to embark the ship. We would then set sail that evening for the next morning’s arrival back in Dublin.  I think this must have had something to do with Dublin lacking a large cruise port, but perhaps Belfast had issues with certain airlines.  We never did figure this out. The drive to Belfast took about 2 hours and I found myself nodding off a few times before we arrived.

Once in Belfast at the cruise terminal, the embarkation process was quick and efficient.  I must say we got on that ship more quickly than we have ever managed to do on a cruise.  Our concierge-level room wasn’t available for another hour, but the regular staterooms had to wait much longer.  We took advantage of the time to enjoy a simple burger for lunch from the Waves Grill and explore the ship a bit.

When we opened the door to our stateroom, we were delighted to find it roomy and comfortable. Our complimentary bottle of chilled champagne was waiting for us on the table. I immediately checked out the bed and was thrilled to discover a perfect mattress with fabulous bedding.  Opening the bathroom door was an even bigger surprise, beautifully redone in the most recent ship upgrade.  The bathroom was bigger than we have ever enjoyed on a ship, and much bigger than most RV bathrooms, with a roomy shower and lots of extra drawers and cupboards.

Mo napped a bit, but I was too excited to sleep, even though I was exhausted.  Supper that evening at the Terrace Cafe dinner buffet opened at 6:30. 

The Riviera is a lovely ship, with just 1200 guests and all the amenities you would expect on a luxury cruise ship.  There were a total of 16 decks, and we were on deck 9, reasonably close to the elevators.  In addition to the traditional Grand Dining Room, there is the Terrace Cafe, serving buffet meals, the Waves Grill for burgers and pizzas, and four wonderful specialty restaurants.  We had reservations scheduled for a night at each specialty restaurant.  Even though the ship is moderately sized based on current cruise ship standards, it has a nightly production show, music in the lounges, and afternoon tea served on deck 15 in the beautiful Horizons Lounge. We had great expectations for this cruise.

After our lovely dinner, we settled into our room and at that point, I discovered that my prescription medications were missing.  It was a bit terrifying, but I realized that I might be able to get replacements the next day at the onboard medical office.  I was so exhausted that with the help of a Benadryl I managed to sleep soundly until morning when we docked in Dublin.