Author Archives: JerryLukins

We got up just before 5:00 and got around for the day and finished packing. We went for breakfast at the buffet and then headed back to the room to complete the last minute items to pack and disembarked the ship. We took an Lyft to the airport where we had almost a 5 hour wait before boarding. We met Gail Salmen sitting at our gate but she had an earlier flight to Dallas and then back to Little Rock. We chatted with her for a few hours and shared more stories about travel experiences. We also got her email address to write to her in the near future. We boarded close to on time but then got on the taxi ramp about 5-6 in line to take off and they closed the airport for about an hour and 40 minutes due to weather. We originally had a 4 hour layover in Washington DC but it turned into an hour and 40 minutes. We boarded our final leg on time and departed just a few minutes late. We got through the airport quickly after we landed and were one of the last ones on the shuttle to head to the green lot to pick up our car, so we didn’t have to wait for another shuttle. We got home right at 10:00pm. We had greetings with Zoey, Loki and Bella and then went back to bed after a very long day. This trip was amazing and checked off several boxes on our bucket list as far as places to see and activities. Nikki and I can’t wait for our adventure!

We woke up at 5:00 and moving the clocks forward an hour overnight. Nikki went and got her coffee and then we both went and got breakfast. We then went back to the room and relaxed after three days of wonderful long physically draining excursions. We left the room to allow our steward to clean up and watched a cha cha dance class and then headed to lunch and wandered around the ship for about an hour before heading back to the room. We are not used to the 80+ degree heat. We ended up taking a nap and started to pack for tomorrow’s disembarkation. We then got ready for dinner which was prime rib for me and scicillian shrimp for Nikki. After dinner we headed to the theater for our high energy entertainment We got back to the room and finished packing what we could and got ready for bed

We woke up around 6:00 which included a 1 hour time change forward. Nikki got coffee and had some quiet time reading her book. I got ready and when I came out into the room Nikki was enjoying the sunrise from the balcony as we approached Isle of Cozumel. We then went and got breakfast and headed back to the room to pack our day bags for another long day. We got lots of messages about the violence on the west side of Mexico, but there was none reported on the Gulf side of Mexico. But, there was none reported on the Gulf side of Mexico. We felt safe since our excursion was out in the water. We met as a large group for excursions in the main dining room and then walked off the ship and had our bags checked for fruit and food before heading to the water taxi. We took the 35 minute water taxi to Playa Del Carmen and split up again into even smaller groups for our specific excursion. Santi was our tour guide and was wonderfully informative on the entire trip and was able to answer all the questions every guest had. We stopped and swam at Akumal beach which means place of sea turtles in Mayan. We saw several colorful fish and two sea turtles. It was amazing to watch them eat and the cone up for air. After we rinsed off the salt water we got back in the cramped van and drove to the Suelo Cenote and were blessed by Mayans in their native language with water and incense. We then swam in the Cenote which is basically a water filled cave. We were not allowed to take our cameras in though which was disappointing. Also the water was very cold, but after a few minutes of hugging each other we warmed up. There were bats on the cave and guppy’s in the water. After we got out we drove to where lunch was served on the beach. I had the beef burrito and Nikki had something with chilled shrimp and fruits. We then took the van for the last time back to Playa Del Carmen and then a water taxi back to Cozumel and directly boarded the ship. Nikki took the day bags back to the room and I got strawberry daiquiris to enjoy in the room. We both took showers and then went out to eat at the main dinning room. After we ate we were totally exhausted and went to bed.

We woke up at 5:30 and Nikki got coffee from her favorite coffee stand. We then waited to get tender tickets as there was no dock in Belize. We got breakfast and went to the room to pack our day bag. We got on the tender to Belize City and then had a short wait where we bought a beach tote before catching our bus to the two minute ride to the dock. We got checked in and had a short wait u til our excursion boat left shore. It was about a 50 minute boat ride to Caye Caulker, Belize where we ordered for lunch after our excursion. We then took the 2 minute boat ride to the reef and went snorkeling for almost an hour. We saw Morey Eels, plenty of colorful fish, and a sea turtle. We then went to a second place and there were rays and nurse sharks that swam all around us and touched us. It was absolutely wonderful and an incredible experience. We then stopped back at Caye Caulker and got the lunches we ordered earlier. We spent exactly 1 hour for lunch and then boarded the boat for the 55 minute return ride to the dock. We walked to the tender for Majestic Princess at terminal 1 and then took the 25 minute boat ride back to the ship. Nikki got drinks from the bar and I took the day packs upstairs and rinsed off the salt water in the shower. Nikki did the same after I was done. We decided to have dinner in the main dinning room as tonight’s menu was surf and turf. We ate dinner and both of us were exhausted and went back to the room and were in bed by 8:00.

We had to switch our clocks back an hour and even with the late night we were up at 5:00. Nikki went to get coffee and I got ready she came back to the room about 5:40 and we went to breakfast. After breakfast we went back to the room and grabbed binoculars and watched our approach to Roatan. We then went down to the shore excursion desk and booked a shore excursion for Gumbalimba Park. We sat on the balcony while the ship docked and just watched the beautiful scenery. We then got ready and disembarked the ship around 10:00 and took the chair lift over to Mahogany Bay beach where we lounged for about an hour sipping on strawberry daiquiris. We took the chair lift back to the main shopping are at port and got in line for our main shore excursion. We got on our bus and the seats on the bus are not made for someone over 5’10”. Let alone an overweight man who is 6’3”. I was sitting in my seat and one of a group of three older ladies from Boston was hanging off her seat over the 6” isle gap and sitting partially on my lap while complaining loudly to her blind friend that I was the one taking all the room. I look over and there is about 8 inches between her and her friend. We couldn’t get to our destination fast enough and it was about a 45-50 minute bus ride with this lady that looked her make up artist was Tami Faye Baker. As soon as the bus stopped I stood up which threw her off my lap and we got off the bus. Our tour guide was Javier and he was great. He would say things like this is the only place in the world where you can find this bug, tree or animal and then before he could take a breath one of the three Boston ladies would ask where else in the world those were located. Or he would say we have to wait our turn for the group in front of us to clear so that they can come out the way they came and all three Boston ladies would cut off the previous groups exit and complain loudly about how the previous group was for not getting out of their way. This went on for several hours. The tour was informative thanks to Javier if you would listen to him, and we got to see lots of native trees including cinnamon, almond and many other species. We got to see an insect collection that was huge and fascinating. And we got to see iguanas, macaws and monkeys in the wild. We even got to convince the capuchin monkeys to come out of the trees for pictures with the guests by bribing them with treats. We finished the 4 hour tour and Javier had to load the bus with his group but the 3 ladies from Boston were too busy heading in 3 opposite directions and being unable to follow directions took Javier about 30 minutes to get the group together to load on a bus. Then one of the ladies walked right in front of bus trying to leave when it wasn’t our turn to be loaded. Javier said it the first day he was working as a tour guide and the worst experience of his life. Everyone from our group felt bad for him. We did meet a nice couple from Wisconsin who were on the other Princess Cruise in port at the same time and went on the excursion with us. We hung out with Tom and Shelly for most of the 4 hour tour. After the tour we were hungry because we hadn’t eaten since breakfast and walked for several hours. We went to the room to drop off our packed day bag and I went down to reserve a seat at O’Malley’s while Nikki did something with her hair after wearing a hat all day. We watched the Whiskey Martyrs and ate dinner and called it an early night as neither of us had the energy to stay up late. We went to bed early and woke up the next morning late for us.

We woke up around 5:00 am the ship was still rocking pretty good. Nikki went to get coffee and read and I got ready in the room and met up with her and then we got breakfast at the buffet. We then got back to the room and Nikki got ready for her message we scheduled the previous day for 8:00 am. While Nikki had her massage I showered and shaved, which was difficult with rough seas. We attended a shore information seminar with several raffles, we didn’t win anything. We headed up for lunch and met a couple, Richard and Sharon from Montreal and talked about different travel taken and future plans. We talked for about Two hours with them. We then headed back to the room and ended up taking a nap.
After a good, rolling, snooze, we headed back to O’Maley’s pub for dinner and more music by the Whiskey Martyrs. We meet Gail and Zai. Two wonderful women who love traveling together. Gail from Alabama and Zai from Perth, Australia. Both recently lost their husbands. Zai’s husband was from Ireland. They traveled often, all over the world, by motorcycle. Now, she and Gail travel together, all over the world, mostly by cruising. Entertainment for the evening was the theatrical performance of Encore in the Main Princess Theater. This show was singing and dancing accompanied by a live band including brass members and a violinist. The show was entertaining and well done. We then attended a stand up comedy show in the Vista laugh lounge at the aft of the ship on deck 7 with AJ Jamal

We both were up a couple of times during the night, but then slept in until shortly after 6. We showered and then went down for breakfast we started watching the men’s Olympic hockey gold medal game. We only got to watch the first two periods before we had to checkout from the hotel and take a Lyft to the cruise port and terminal. I think the entire process of security and check and get our medallions took about 20 minutes. We then boarded the ship and took our luggage to our room. The room wasn’t prepared yet so we went to explore the ship get some drinks, since.we have a drink package, and get lunch at the buffet. We watched some live music and then went back to the room which was prepared by then. I thought sail away was 5:00 but it turned out it was 3:00 and we spent some time out on the balcony enjoying the sights and intense sun. We explored the ship some more and then decided to havedDinner at O’Maley’s pub with Entertainment by the Whiskey Martyrs. They were a guitar and violinist performing Irish music and it was awesome. We had fish and chips for dinner. Afterwards we attended our evening entertainment in the Main Theater which was the comedy from The Mighty Quinn. Afterwards we went to bed and the weather took a turn and the ship rocked us to sleep all night into the morning with some rough seas.

We left the house around 9:45 and headed to the airport. We parked in the green lot across the street from the airport and took the shuttle in. We parked way in the back and were able to park next to a bus terminal so that worked out great. We used our TSA pre check and skipped the line, although the line really wasn’t long. We got to the gate about 40 minutes before boarding. The flight was uneventful and we flew to DCA in Washington DC and had about an hour layover. We had to change terminals but it really didn’t take that long. We grabbed a Ceasar chicken wrap and split it. We boarded for the next flight but were delayed by maintenance for about 40 minutes. Once we got in the air the flight was quicker than expected and landed only a few minutes late. We grabbed a Lyft and were taken to Four Points by Sheraton in Dania Beach fairly close to the airport. We ate dinner there which was just bar food but surprising very well done. It was about 7:30 and we decided to read and write today’s blog entry before going to bed.

Nikki and I had booked weekend trip to Cleveland to see Jimmy Carr at Connor Palace located within the Playhouse Square district. We had originally planned on going up Saturday morning and riding the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad and see the start of the fall colors in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We were also going to meet a coworker of min, Patrick Jones, for lunch before heading from the Akron area to Cleveland to check in for our hotel and get ready for the show. Unfortunately our golden retriever had gotten sick and we planned on leaving her with Nikki’s brother and his family for the weekend. We ended up cancelling th efirst part of our trip which was disappointing, but Saturday morning, Zoey was back to normal and no longer having digestive issues. We confirmed she was doing much better and instead of loosing money on the hotel and show tickets we rushed around, dropped her off at Guy and Patties, and headed up to Cleveland.

We checked into our hotel and had to find a place close by that we could have dinner. We chose the Hofbraaus in Cleveland whcih was walking distance from the hotel and show venue. We were not thinking about it, but they were celebrating Oktoberfest and were packed. They got us in fairly quickly though and the service was so fast that we actually had time to spare to make it to the show.

Jimmy Carr was great and we enjoyed his comedy show and his quick intelligent banter with crowd work. There was someone who sat in front of us that kept trying to get him to answer a question and then would not let him answer the question, he kept roasting her for about 20 minutes. His show was a over two hours and he didn’t even have a warm up comic. After the show we walked less than a block to our hotel and called it a night. The location of everything was very convenient.

The next morning we took Patrick’s suggestion and visited the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and spent just over 3 hours there. We recommend the museum and if you visit be sure to walk outside along the elevated boardwalk to see the animals they have outside. They had a pair of wolves that every time an emergency vehicle went by they would sing along with the sirens. And it happened about every 10 minutes we were outside with them. Thank’s Patrick for the wonderful suggestion! We are planning on visiting Cleveland again and seeing more of the sights up there.

Day 0, August 10, 2025
We got to the airport in Cleveland early and it was a good thing. Jerry did not check Jonny’s dates close enough and just checked the flight number. Jonny had booked to return a day early. So we spent a good part of our early time rebooking him back on the 19th. The flight itself was fine. Being on the plane for 7 hours was rough and we didn’t get much sleep about and hour or hour and a half total, and we planned on hitting the ground running.

Day 1, August 11, 2025
We arrived and retrieved our luggage with no issues and made our way to the car rental. We found that when Jerry cancelled the original booking and rebooked for July instead of August. They didn’t have any more cars available so we had to go to another counter and get another car. They only had a station wagon Toyota so we booked it for 3 times the amount of the original booking. We were shuttled to the place to pick up the car and they had a small compact waiting for us instead. They didn’t have the car we booked at all. They moved us to an SUV they had available and we loaded all of our luggage to make sure it would fit with 4 people. Jerry went back in to finish the paperwork only to find out the vehicle needed to go to the shop for repairs. So we unloaded all our luggage and had to wait for an hour to find a car that would fit us. We needed up with a Skoda sedan than had a really big trunk and was going to work. By then we had to directly rush to our Guinness tour. We were scheduled for 3 hours after our plane landed. We barely made it in time. The Guinness tour was interesting the smells and tasting were good.

We then toured the Dublin Castle and did a little walking around to sweater shops, but did not buy anything. We checked into where we were staying. The garage was made for mini cooper parking or smaller. We heard a couple of people hitting concrete poles trying to park their VW gulf hatchback. I was able to squeeze my car into a parallel parking spot. Then we had to climb 4 floor of stairs with 90 kilos of luggage since the elevator was out. We did meet up with Guy, Pattie and Hayden for dinner. We both got the fish and chips and it was really good or we were really hungry!

Day 2, August 12, 2025
We woke up around 7:15 and got ready and repacked our bags and walked around a couple of miles and had breakfast at a place called Rosie’s Cafe. We drove to the city center to pick up Jonny and Alexys.
Brú na Bóinne (Newgrange) Visitor Centre
Newgrange – World Heritage Site.
Newgrange is a Stone Age (Neolithic) monument in the Boyne Valley, County Meath, it is the jewel in the crown of Ireland’s Ancient East. Newgrange was constructed about 5,200 years ago (3,200 B.C.) which makes it older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Giza. The mound is ringed by 97 large kerbstones, some of which are engraved with symbols called megalithic art; the most striking is the entrance stone.
Jonny asked Alexys to marry him at Newgrange. We’ve gained a wonderful daughter-in-law to be!
Hill of Tara, inauguration place and seat of the High Kings of Ireland; it also appears in Irish mythology. Tara consists of numerous monuments and earthworks—dating from the Neolithic to the Iron Age—including a passage tomb (the “Mound of the Hostages”), burial mounds, round enclosures, a standing stone (believed to be the Lia Fáil or “Stone of Destiny”)
After we toured the Hill of Tara we ran we talked with a bicycle rider named Gerry who was a tour guide and gave us some suggestions on places to see while we were in Gallway.
Dinner at Tyrrellspass Castle on our way to Galway where we rented a house with Guy and Pattie to stay for the next 3 nights.
We could only shower one at a time due to power constraints on the in line water heaters and it was after 11:00 before everyone ate and got showers and into bed.

Day 3, August 13,2025
We got up before 7:00 and slowly got around and ready for the day in Connemara National Park, north of Gallway. We drove the 90 minutes to the park including the last 10-15 miles on tiny roads with sheep all over the place including the road. We parked and had a quick bite before hiking some trails and seeing some beautiful scenery in the mountainous area. We had a light lunch there after spending about 4 hours in the park. Jonny and Alexys hiked all the way to the top of diamond hill. We only hiked about a third of way up, but the views were spectacular. We then headed back to Galway where we did some grocery shopping and then ate at the house we rented before relaxing a little by telling stories of Jerry and Guys driving trials in Ireland and going to bed.

Day 4, August 14,2025
We were up at 6:00 which gave us plenty of time to get ready for our trip to the Aran Islands today. We booked a ferry for 11:45 but had to drive 25 miles, about an hour, to catch the ferry. We arrived for the ferry about 11:00 and parked the car and walked to the ferry and were there by 11:15. Enough time to use the restrooms and at about 11:30 the ferry arrived and started to board. We left promptly at 11:45 and the ferry took about 45 minutes to get to Innishmore which is the largest island and furthest into the Atlantic Ocean. We disembarked and at the end of the pier was the place we rented electric bikes. We were glad we got electric bikes as it was very hilly and allowed us to see more than we could have ever done without the electric power assist. Riding electrics bike was very enjoyable and we got to enjoy the scenery and wonderful weather. Part of the island is a small town and as we rode out we passed tiny fields of about 1/4-1/2 acre and they were fenced in with stone walls and the visual effect was amazing. Although they are known for their wool sweaters we didn’t see any sheep, mostly cows, horses and a few alpacas. We went beyond the farms until the end of the road and parked the bikes and took the 1/2 mile uphill climb on a mostly gravel path. Once we got close to the 3000 year old fort, the gravel gave way to a rocky uneven path up the last 100-200 meters. We entered the fort with its stone walls and one side was open due to the cliffs. The view was absolutely amazing down the coastline of the island and views back towards town were just as incredible. We climbed down the hill and did a little Aran sweater shopping at a place at the bottom of the path. The family run business was helpful in helping Nikki find what she wanted and it was a pleasure listening to the young man who helped us out. As the Irish would say, “It was rather lovely!” We rode back past the only sand beach on the island and took the green trail, lower road, back to see the seal colony before heading up a steep path back to the red trail to go see the old lighthouse that was built within an old castle ruin. The path from the red trail to the castle ruins was so steep our electric bikes couldn’t handle the grade and we had to leave them scattered along the stone walled path wherever could go not further on bike and decided to walk. The castle was a ruin and the lighthouse was out of order for renovations and we were the only ones up there. Again the views were spectacular and worth the climb. At that point our time was running out and we headed back to town where we visited another sweater shop before turning the bikes back in and heading back tot the ferry with only a few minutes to spare. It was probably the most pleasurable 4 hours of the trip so far.

Day 5, August 15, 2025
We had to be out of the house by 10:00. Alexys made cinnamon French toast, eggy toast in Europe, and Jonny made eggs and toast for everyone in the house. We got packed up and headed to the ruins of Merlin Castle in Galway. We spent some time there and befriended a border collie type dog, Peggy, who wanted us to continue throwing her stick and didn’t want to continue on with her owner. We then left Galway and headed towards Mooghaun Hill Fort where we hiked for about an hour exploring the big wall that encamped many smaller walls and was dated to about 3000 years ago. We found tons of blackberries along the trail and ate as many as we could find. From there we stopped in Newcastle and had a nice lunch at The Brown Morel. We then toured the partially restored Newcastle Castle built back in the 13th century and then rebuilt upon again in the 16th century. From there we finished our trip to Glenbeigh where our next house rental was. The kids were dropped off back in town as they wanted to eat and drink at a local pub. They texted us at 1:30am asking for a ride back as the taxis were no longer running and it was really dangerous to walk on the winding narrow rods with no sidewalks.

Day 6, August 16, 2025
After breakfast. We went out exploring and found Rossbeigh beach and walked the beach. We tried several times trying to get up to the top of mountain overlooking the beach and bay. The road up was a small single lane narrow road and we attempted to get up it a few times and were met with vehicles and we had to back out with a steep hill on the left and a steep cliff on the right. We abandoned that idea and headed back to the house. We went out later and had lunch in town at the Tower Hotel Pub. Lunch was very good and we enjoyed the heavy accent Irish conversations going on around us. We then did a short hike along the fairy trail that had lots of flowers and painted fairy houses along the way out to the bay that was at low tide and allowed us to go out on the rocks and explore a little further.

Day 7, August 17, 2025
We made breakfast and got around for our planned trip to Killarney National Park which was about a 50 minute drive from the house. We visited Ross Castle and took the tour for 5 Euros each. It was technically a tower house and was restored in the 1970’s. It was very informative and the history was actually pretty depressing. From there we drove through the park and visited Torc Falls and took the yellow trail which was almost 1.75 miles. We descended on the switchbacks and rose on mostly steps that were explained in someone else’s blog as:
“There is a continuation up to the top of the waterfall and beyond which almost killed us both (fit young and able bodied) would not recommend the secondary part to anyone unwilling or unable to climb 100 million steps and paths that never seem to end. However if you are a mountain goat the experience might be overall very pleasant for you.”

Day 8, August 18, 2025
We packed up and Jonny and Alexys made “American Style” pancakes, eggs, and sautéed onions and peppers. Today was the first day the high wasn’t going to reach 70 or 80 and be the normal mid 60’s. We all went to Blarney Castle and Gardens. The gardens were amazing. So varied, so many plants I’d never seen before. I loved walking around and exploring with Jerry. We walked to the top of the castle tower so that Jerry could ‘kiss’ the Blarney Stone.
Then we drove to Cork. Dropped Jonny and Alexys off at the very lovely Vienna Woods Hotel and headed to our our hotel, the Maldron Hotel South Mall Cork City. For dinner, we went to the Italian restaurant Scoozi! Where we shared a Nutella brownie with ice cream. Yummy!!

Day 9, August 19, 2025
We packed our bags and headed over to pick up Jonny and ALexys at the Vienna Woods Hotel. From there we drove to Dublin Airport, returned the rental car and took the shuttle back to the terminals were we went through security and Nikki was flagged and had her bag searched for her illegal hair conditioner that their scanners and sniffers could not identity. Other than that everything went according to plan and we boarded our plane around 3:15 to head back to Cleveland.

Post trip notes
Our rental car is a Skoda, tons of room.
Jaunting Carts everywhere
Be careful on narrow roads to historic monolithic sites. Tour buses take the entire road.
What may appear to be county hedges may be stone walls covered in ivy.