Dublin, Ireland: Northern Europe Cruise on RCCL Jewel of the Seas

---

We woke up to a rainy morning, but Captain Thor reported that the day would clear up by afternoon, during his daily weather report from the bridge. We hopped on the first ship shuttle bus into the center of town, and the driver was nice enough to drop us off at O’Connell Street and the River Thames, where we planned on joining the first double-decker hop-on hop-off bus tour of the day.

The bus ticket office was closed when we first arrived, so we had a cup of coffee at the McDonald’s next door. We got a kick out of the T-shirts the workers wore that had different sayings about how they were faster than the worker on the other line. This also provided a nice, dry place to sit until the office opened at 9:00 AM.

We were first in-line to get our tickets, and ventured across the street to hop on the tour bus. It was too rainy to sit on the upper deck, so we grabbed seats inside. However, the bus roof leaked, so Danny and Layna needed to sit inside underneath an umbrella to keep dry.

Our bus driver had the Irish gift of gab and was quite hilarious as he described the sites we passed enroute to the house of liquid gold, a.k.a St. James Gate and the Guinness Storehouse. We were some of the first to arrive, so didn’t need to wait on any lines. We toured the fantastic multi-media museum that describes the history and making of Guinness Stout.

After that, it was a well deserved perfectly poured pint of Guinness, at the Gravity Bar, included with the storehouse admission. It is a round, glass-walled room with magnificent views over the whole of Dublin. Luckily, the weather cleared while we were inside and we were able to see our cruise ship off in the distance.

We caught the hop-on hop-off bus right in front of the brewery and were able to sit on the upper deck this time. We continued around the outskirts of Dublin past the zoo and got off when we returned to the River Thames, so we could have some delicious Guinness Stew at the Brazen Head (Dublin’s oldest pub).

We hopped back on the bus and completed the loop, and re-visited the part we did earlier in the day. We hopped off near Trinity College and stopped at O’Neill’s Pub (Tom’s namesake) and Staggs Head. Both of these pubs are well known for their décor and ladies’ snugs, in addition to pouring an excellent pint of Guinness.

From here, it was a 10 minute walk to the shuttle bus stop. We hurried to catch the “supposed” last shuttle at 4:30 P.M. However, there were at least 250 other passengers waiting on line for the return shuttle buses. We ended up waiting over an hour for the bus back to the ship.

We quickly changed upon arrival back on the ship and raced up to the Sports deck to watch Tom and Danny climb the rock wall. They both did an excellent job while we cheered them on. We enjoyed a relaxing sail away with a couple of ice cold beers on the upper decks.

Tonight we had dinner at Chops Grille. We were looking forward to having Rayfton, our dear friend from Goa India, as our waiter. We were so proud to see that he got promoted from assistant waiter on our last cruise. He was all smiles as he described the different and delicious cuts of meat we could have. I chose the filet mignon medium, which was perfectly cooked and scrumptious. We had an assortment of side dishes served family style including garlic mashed potatoes, steamed asparagus, creamed spinach and grilled mushrooms. For dessert, most of us had the mud pie loaded with rich, dark chocolate.

We headed back up to Vortex and spent a large part of the evening outside on sports deck, as we cheered on the cruise staff who had a chance to climb the rock wall. We had a great time watching them enjoy themselves.

---

Photos

St. James Gate
Home of Guinness

Good to the Last Drop
Tom and Guinness at Gravity Bar

Brazen Head
Dublin's Oldest Pub

Tom at O'Neill's Pub
His namesake pub

Ready for the Rock Wall Climb
Get a load of those outfits !!!

Rayfton and me
Our Happy Waiter

Comments

[Rayfton Fernandes]

too good
too good