20230501 Celebrity Silhouette cruise - Day 12/21 - beaches, buses, and blasts

Celebrity Silhouette cruise day 12 - back in the U, back in the U, back in the U...K...K...K

Trip day: 12 / 21

 Today's port is the island of Portland, in the county of Dorset, in the United Kingdom.

That's us at the "A" - the island of Portland is just below the "A"

Here is the island as we approached from the southwest.

The day was shaping up, weather-wise.  Like Cobh, Portland has pouring rain the day before we arrived, but we brought clearing skies and sunshine.  The temperature today is a little more brisk pushing perhaps 62F, but the 20MPH winds are driving the chill a little deeper.

The port itself is somewhat industrial.

We weren't the only game in town as the Regal Princess was already docked

We docked at 11am, giving us time to fail again at morning trivia. Some of today's questions were positively obscure.  

• According to Fair Works Australia, how long must one work before qualifying for Long Service Leave?
• Seven years - nobody got this
• What was Pepsi originally known as?
• Brad's Drink
• What does a funambulist walk on?
• Tightropes
• The song, "I Feel Pretty", is from which musical?
• West Side Story
• What singer had a hit in 1955 with 16 Tons?
• Tennesee Ernie Ford
• What Bond film featured 007 flying in "Little Nellie"?
• That was a helicopter in You Only Live Twice
• The north star, Polaris, is in which constellation?
• We thought big dipper, but it is the little dipper / ursa minor
• What is the largest breed of domesticated cat?
• Maine Coon

This was likely the last trivia for us for this cruise, and at this point, that seems merciful.

We watched the docking process and hung out in the room for a bit.  We didn't see any excursions that particularly interested us so our plan was to take the shuttle into town and explore.  They advised that the busiest time would be the first hour or two, so we decided to stay onboard, grab lunch, and head out.  Today is May 1, and in the UK, that's Labour Day, a bank holiday.  We expect that some businesses might be closed, but we'll find out after lunch.

We headed out and waited in line for the bus to Weymouth.  The documentation from Celebrity said that there is a bus that stops and Portland Castle and then continues on to Weymough before returning to the ship.  We figured we'd stop at the Castle, continue to Weymouth, and then come back.  We found out that was wrong.  There was a bus to the Castle and a bus to Weymouth.  You had to pick one.  Once back at the ship, you could go back out, but it was two trips.  As I've said, it's the little things.

One of our bus drivers mentioned that this port is new and just opened last week, so they’re working out the kinks.

We opted to head into Weymouth and then decided about going to the Castle later.  It was about a 15-20 minute ride into Weymouth.  It is a seaside city that caters to cruise tourists as well as resident tourists.  There is a large beach and esplanade along the water.  We walked all over, taking in the sights.

Yes, it is a crochet bicycle

Ahh, the traditional English Mexican tapas

There, that's more like it

I have no idea what they sell and don't want to know

There were several pedestrian shopping streets

We meandered over to the beach and walked the esplanade.

Arlona, doing the Arlona thing

Isn’t she cute?

Since it was a bank holiday, there were tons of families enjoying the beach, even with the cooler temperature

King's statue

Jubilee Clock to commemorate the reign of Queen Victoria

St. John's Church

There are several war memorials in Weymouth.

Weymouth Cenotaph

With the upcoming coronation of Charles, there are tons of commemorative trinkets in the shops.  But seriously, can someone please get a decent photo of this man?

More essential British things.

The Post and phonebooth

OK – a bit of a rant coming here.  We headed back to the bus pick-up location.  When we got there, there had to be at least 400 people in line.  As we waited, the line swelled to more than 600 people.  Princess dumped 3,600 passengers in port today.  We have 1,500 and at least half of those were on excursions and half of the rest stayed on the ship. So we contributed perhaps 400 people to the crowd today.  Who was in town, on the phone, arranging for more buses?  Celebrity officers.  Princess, and perhaps Portland/Weymouth dropped the ball here.  More buses were added, but it took us more than 45 minutes before we could get on a bus.  The 200+ folks behind us waited even longer.

This only shows about half of the line

As we sailed, we were serenaded by a brass ensemble on the pier.

While we were eating dinner in Blu, we saw a small SUV towing what looked like a canon into the port.  It turns out we were right and a team of soldiers presented us with three canon blasts as we sailed out of Portland.

Portland is surrounded by a large break wall.  We headed out toward the channel exit and sailed through the opening.  

We only have a short distance to travel overnight to Le Havre, France.  Tomorrow will be a long day.  It starts tonight when we time-travel, moving forward another hour to UTC+2.  Our excursion tomorrow leaves at 8:30AM.  We will make the 2.5-hour bus ride to Normandy where we will spend the day seeing various sites that played important roles in the D-Day invasion.  After the 2.5-hour ride back, we’ll have spent 10.5 hours away.  Adding to the day is the fact that we have to pack our suitcases as we will disembark the following day, and, I’ll have to blog about it all before going to bed.  At least we’ll pick tonight’s lost hour back up tomorrow night, but we’ll lose it right back that afternoon as we make our way to Paris.