The Independent Cruiser: Sea Princess 7-9-05 Pre-cruise and itinerary

Date	Place	Arrive	Board	Depart
Jul 09 2005	SOUTHAMPTON		12:00PM	05:00PM
Jul 10 2005	AT SEA
Jul 11 2005	DUBLIN	06:00AM	05:30PM	06:00PM
Jul 12 2005	GREENOCK	07:00AM	12:30PM	01:00PM
Jul 13 2005	AT SEA
Jul 14 2005	REYKJAVIK	08:00AM	04:30PM	05:00PM
Jul 15 2005	AKUREYRI	12:00PM	06:30PM	07:00PM
Jul 16 2005	AT SEA
Jul 17 2005	TORSHAVEN	08:00AM	04:30PM	05:00PM
Jul 18 2005	LERWICK	07:00AM	01:30PM	02:00PM
Jul 19 2005	FLAAM	08:00AM	01:00PM	01:30PM
Jul 19 2005	VIK	04:30PM	06:00PM	06:30PM
Jul 20 2005	STAVANGER	07:00AM	01:30PM	02:00PM
Jul 21 2005	OSLO	08:00AM	01:30PM	02:00PM
Jul 22 2005	AT SEA
Jul 23 2005	SOUTHAMPTON	07:00AM

We had a wonderful time on the newly recommissioned Sea Princess, sailing the itinerary above. Please understand that we always have a good time on a cruise, and take any our negative comments as anecdotal information, and not an indication of our overall happiness with the cruise, Princess cruise lines, or their employees.

Pre-cruise and the London bombings of 7/7

We don't often say what we do pre-cruise, but since this cruise started two days after the London bombings, it did affect both the cruise and the arriving passengers, who were mostly British (1,200+ of 2,100 total passengers). Even Americans like us were affected, as we elected to fly to London on 7/5, and spend three nights there. We stayed in Kensington (the view from our hotel room is shown), which was well away from the bombing sites, but we did take the tube in from Heathrow -- the Picadilly line, one that was bombed the next day. Ironically, one of the tube workers at the airport talked us out of getting a 3-day tube pass ("They're a ripoff!").

On 7/7 we went to the tube stop nearest to our hotel, Gloucester Rd. Station, at just after 10am, and were stopped at the front entrance, and told that the tube had just been bombed. The officer said it looked like two bombs on the tube, and one on a bus. We went back to our hotel, and watched the TV News for the next couple of hours, as the carnage was disclosed. Badly needing exercise after the long flight, we decided to see what we could do from where we were, and went for a walk, seeing the Natural History Museum (free of charge), Hyde Park, and Knightsbridge. The main roads leaving London were jammed packed, and absolutely nothing exceptoccasionalional emergency vehicle was going into central London, a very strange sight. Taxis were hard to get at first, but later became more available. Of course the busses around London were as closed as the tube. A lot of shops were closed, and even some pubs weren't serving food, as their full staffs had not made it into town. Below is a London street, and Pub we frequented, on 7/7.

At any rate, we made the best of a bad situation 0n 7/7, and got some good exercise too. The next day, it was almost as if the bombing never happened. The tube was open, mostly. Busses were running, mostly. Taxis were plentiful, and everything seemed to be open. We had to admire the Londoners, and their determination to not be beat by terrorism.

At any rate, we went to the West End and got some play tickets ("Woman in White") for that evening, walked around, had dim sum in Chinatown, walked through Picadilly, Trafalgar Square, and then Green Park, and Buckingham Palace before returning to our hotel to rest and dress for dinner. We had Italian that night at Ristorante Cappuccetto, and had a very nice meal, just a stones throw from our theater.

The next day we used a taxi service (150 GB for the four of us, and our luggage) to take us and our bags to the port of Southampton to board the Sea Princess.