Summer of 23 - Introduction

Monday, April 24th, 2023

We stayed in a cabin at NAS Jacksonville at the end of a long week!!!

We have been preparing for our summer trip to the UK, packing for a transatlantic cruise and 5 month stay in UK and Ireland before returning on the same ship on their return transatlantic.

The planning has been going on since March 1st, 2022 when we booked the cruises.  There was a great sale and the cruises cost less than return flights. So, on an impulse we booked!!! We have since realized there is a lot more expense involved, the worst being a car rental for the 5 months. Yes, we could have got trains, coaches etc. but the convenience of the car and going at our own pace, not having to lug all our luggage around was worth every penny or pound of the cost. 

It is my 70th birthday this year, so what better than to splash out and celebrate in the UK. 

We have slowly devised a route and booked accommodation for most of the trip, mostly Air BNB's with weekly or monthly stays to reduce costs.

The positives of doing this before we settle down in one place is that we will have no monthly rental or mortgage payments while we are gone.  Just the storage fee for Lily. So that goes a long way to pay for our accomodation over there.

The last few weeks we have been compiling lists of what we need to take, six months of prescriptions was top of the list!!! The joys of getting older!!!  Clothes for the cruise and clothes for all climates. 

Unfortunately I believe I have everything except the kitchen sink in our luggage. The perks of driving and cruising is no weight limits to worry about!! We just have to carry/drag the bags around. 

The packing started a few weeks ago slowly and ramped up this last week, together with cleaning out the motorhome of everything food related and giving it a good clean.  We finally got it in storage today and we are exhausted. 

Tuesday April 25th, 2023

Click Route from Jacksonville to Cape Liberty to see our route in USA to get to the cruise port.

We checked out of the cabin, said our goodbyes to friends at the RV park and office and will see them all again in November when we return.

The drive to Latta was uneventful, thankfully no traffic jams and hours of moving at a snails pace like Christmas 2021, when we visited Ryan and family. We checked into our hotel for the night and tried to relax. Bryan needed a new battery. No problems we bought some and packed them before we left. One of the processes for my packing, as it has been done over a few weeks, was to make lists of what was in each case and approximately where. So, I checked the list and batteries were not on it, but we knew we had packed them so I must have forgotten to write them down.  We went through the cases as best we could as we didn't want to completely unpack and couldn't find them. Hmmm, might be easier to buy a new pack!!!

Tomorrow we will start the drive to Ryan & Christina's where we will stay a few days before leaving our car there.  We had booked a train to go from their house to the cruise port but when we saw how much luggage we have we decided to do a one way car rental. So we will pick that up on Friday, 28th and drive to Newark, New Jersey. 

Wednesday April 26th, 2023

We drove to Ryan & Christina's arriving mid afternoon.  It was great to see them again and Trystan & Colton.  How the boys have grown, most noticeably Colton who is now walking and interacting with everyone and everything.

Thursday April 27th, 2023

We had some last minute stuff to buy so went to Walmart and hopefully got everything we will need. We enjoyed catching up with Ryan and Christina. 

Friday April 28th, 2023

Christina took us to pick up our rental car for our trip to Newark tomorrow. The weather forecast for the weekend isn't good and looks as though it could be wet, windy and cold. Bryan only had one sweater so we decided to buy him another and went to the Nex at Little Creek. 

Unfortunately while everyone was out Lilo decided she was bored and tore up some of the vinyl tile flooring. I think with all the excitement of the last few days she suddenly found herself alone, and didn't quite know what to do with herself. So, Ryan & Bryan went to see if they could find a match for the flooring. Unfortunately they weren't successful but hopefully will find something that will work. Tinnie in the meantime put together a play kitchen for the boys. I tell you, these "toy" kitchens are very posh these days.

 

Saturday April 29th, 2023

Well the day has come for us to drive to Cape Liberty.  We are staying in a hotel near to the port for the next two nights.  They have a shuttle that will take us to the port on Monday and also one that goes to the nearby train station that we will use after we drop the car off there tomorrow.

It was a long drive taking about 7 hours but we got here. We checked into the hotel and then walked to I Hop for dinner.  The last couple of the hours of the journey weren't really pleasant and it rained quite heavily. The traffic was bad although we didn't get stuck for hours anywhere. It cost $33.30 in tolls but it was worth it as it shortened the drive. One of the tolls we had to pay maximum because we didn't have a ticket showing where we got on.  Not sure how that happened, oh well!!

We rented a hybrid car and have only used about half a tank of gas since we picked it up. We will see how many gallons we used when we fill it up tomorrow. It really fascinated me how it worked, watching the diagram showing on the dashboard as we were moving, showing when it was using battery power and when using fuel.

Sunday April 30th, 2023

We had an easy day. It rained most of the day and was cold and miserable so we decided not to go to the 9-11 Memorial and Museum.  There will be another time for that. 

Unfortunately Bryan slipped in the shower and actually fell over the side of the bath onto the floor. There was no shower mat or bevelled bottom to the bath, and it was very slick. No grip at all. I called the front desk and they sent someone up to see us. The hotel is being modernized but I don't think they've thought it all out very well, as the bathroom was a death trap!! They brought us towels to put in the bottom of the bath to stand on!!! Fortunately although shaken and bruised Bryan appears to be ok.

We went back to I-Hop for breakfast and then took the car back to the rental agency at the airport here. It was a bit of a maze getting there as we had to get gas to fill the car up before returning it. We did approximately 370 miles and our gas bill was $36.16. I think it was $4.58/gallon which is expensive but what you pay near an airport with car rental returns!!! Which means we got approx. 46mpg. We really liked the car and can't complain about the miles per gallon.

Tomorrow we set sail on Royal Carribean Anthem of the Seas, for a 12 day transatlantic cruise to the UK.  We will stop at Ponta Delgada (Azores), Cherbourg (France) and Le Havre(France) before arriving at Southampton on May 12th.

We have purchased an internet package for on the ship but there are many reports that it does not work that well, so we expect to be out of touch whilst in the middle of the Atlantic.

Map showing cruise from Cape Liberty, New Jersey to Southampton, UK

We will then begin a tour of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland & Wales before returning on the same ship when it completes it's European season and returns to the USA for winter season.

I took a screenshot of our 2023 UK Travel map. I know it's not great but best I can do. You can always click the link below and it will take you to the actual map with names of places we are staying. Most of these places are booked, although I've added a few spots that we want to see and may do a couple of days side trips to those from our booked accommodation.

Click the following link to see a more detailed map. 

 2023 Travel Map of UK & Ireland

I'm lying on the bed finishing off this blog. Bryan is deciding what he is going to have for dinner tomorrow by looking on the ship's app at the menu.

I think he's decided on Roasted Tomato Soup, Southern Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Corn-on-Cob, and Boston Creme Pie. Oh boy, now he's looking at day 2!!!

Anyway, it will be nice having someone else doing the cooking.

We found out today that the ship will sail toward the Statue of Liberty instead of away from her. Then do a 360 degree turn so that wherever you are on the ship you will hopefully get a good view. The weather is supposed to be better, so fingers crossed for that. 

Not sure when the next blog will be, it'll depend on what the internet on the ship is like and also if I have time amongst all the entertainment and things to do.