Cruising Archives - Meandering Mumfords

October 26, 2025November 6, 2025

New York and Cruise to UK

Well, we arrived in New York after a 2 hour wait on the tarmac in Montreal airport and wow, what a city, busy, busy, busy (and very expensive!). Probably not the best place for a claustraphobe like me, but we managed to explore over 2 days without me screaming! It was our first visit here, and we’d arrived in the middle of a federal shutdown so weren’t sure which museums would be open. So instead, we walked for miles, managed to avoid too many heights for Andy (other than a 22 and 26 floor hotel room!!), and have seen a lot of the sites – Empire State building, Rockefeller building and watched folk ice skating in the Rockefeller Plaza, admired the murals in the Chrysler Building,

stepped into the Grand Central Station Terminal,

strolled down streets you hear about on the TV (Madison Ave, Park Ave, Lexington Ave, Hells Kitchen, 5th Ave – all of which are easy to navigate by foot), seen the steam venting up through the streets from the subway running underneath, dodged the crazy yellow cabs, enjoyed the space in Central Park and listened to some excellent buskers there,

whilst watching young couples having their wedding photos taken, watched the filming of an advert for Theory clothing whilst chatting to the ‘Fixer’ who sorts out the permits for filming, walked the High Line (an old elevated freight railway line that nature has taken over and has now been turned into a wonderful walkway with great views over the city, Hudson Yards, with the Shed (a massive moveable building), the Vessel and the Hudson River),

eaten delicious fish tacos in Chelsea Market (the old biscuit factory where Oreos were concocted), walked through Broadway and gotten overawed by the bright neon lights of Times Square.

Andy made a friend in a gorgeous golden lab called Ruby who decided his knee was just the right height to rest her head on, whilst we recovered from our walking with a cup of tea and chatted to her owner. Oh, and we did manage to pop into Macys and the Hard Rock Cafe!!
We were apprehensive about visiting New York, but we enjoyed the tiny bit we saw in the short time we had. You do get a sore neck looking up at all the skyscrappers and some lovely architecture!!!!!!
Then it was time to start our final leg to the UK – via a transatlantic cruise on the Queen Mary 2.

This was our second Cunard cruise and first on the Queen Mary 2.

We sailed out of New York, passing the Statue of Liberty,

and then, for the next 7 days, had a fairly smooth sailing!
The ship is lovely with lots of interesting, informative boards (200 apparently) about her history around the decks. She has a strange layout but with some great quiet spots along with the usual lounges, shops, restaurants etc. Sadly, though, the planetarium experience was not available.

We did have a free lesson in roulette, three card poker and blackjack, followed by Andy entering the blackjack competition for fun – and only ended up in the final (and even got to the top of the leaderboard on the 1st day!)!!! Which, of course, he then lost!
Our Maritimes trip took 69 glorious days, 1 cruise, 3 flights, 2 hire cars, 1 AirBnB and numerous hotels, motels and B&Bs, exploring Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick before heading to New York and then home.

December 31, 2024January 8, 2025

Christmas Cruising 2024

As we didn’t get to travel in November and were getting itchy feet again, we managed to find a late saver Christmas cruise with the help of Andy Sharples of Cruise and Travel Holidays. A couple of firsts for us this time – first Christmas cruise and first time with the Cunard line. We started with an overnight stay at the quirky Moxy hotel in Southampton,

The Light Ship at the Moxy, Southampton, complete with flashing light!

enjoying a pint of Dancingmanbrewery’s Vagrant Pale Ale (lovely brewery in the old medieval Wool House), followed by a delicious Thai meal at Thaikhuan and a wander around the Christmas Market. Then, the next day, we boarded the Queen Victoria for our christmas adventure!

After a relatively calm crossing over the Bay of Biscay, we arrived at our first port of call – Lisbon – and the sun was shining to welcome us. Having visited the sites, including Sintra, and riding the famous trams through the narrow streets of old town back in 1999, we elected to just have a wander.

We found the Hard Rock Cafe, so we had to buy a keyring, then explored the christmas market, with its lovely food and drink stalls and some unusual craft sellers (lots of cork and porcelain tile related items which Portugal is famous for), enjoyed a delicious Portuguese custard tart

and simply soaked up the atmosphere in the sunshine.

We left Lisbon just as the light was fading and the city lights came on, twinkling in the distance and dressed for the first of our 3 Gala Nights!.

Our next stop was Funchal, Madeira, the garden islands. Again, we have visited before and ridden the cable car and toboggan, walked the beautiful botanical gardens and admired the agapanthus growing in the wild along the levados. So this time, we simply walked into Funchal, passing the “Hawk man” who uses a hawk to scare away the seagulls from the port and walked to the old town,

with its tiny streets and colourful painted doors, enjoyed the local Christmas market, admired the beautiful gardens and well stocked market – so many chillis

– and wandered back to the ship.

The third stop was Tenerife. We just explored Santa Cruz where we docked as the weather was very variable! We still managed to walk miles, had coffee at the beautiful theatre (looks like one of the Sydney Opera house domes),

Monarch butterfly in the Botanica Palmetum

enjoyed the views from the Botanica Palmetum (a transformed municipal dump now containing the largest collection of palms in Europe apparently), meandered through the old town and another Christmas market – lovely artisan goods here, all the while dodging downpours!!!

Our 4th port of call was Las Palmas, Gran Canaria where, of course, we walked miles and explored the old town area,

with its tiny off roads (main street is rather commercial), containing fabulous tapas bars and beautiful shops and the amazing Santa Ana Cathedral. For a Catholic cathedral, it is surprisingly simple but elegant, with simple coloured glass windows that spread beautiful highlights of colour when the sun strikes them.

We found another Christmas market, and again, there were some beautiful artisan items for sale – it seems my earring collection is growing!!!
Then it was off to Puerto Rosario, Feurteventura. A small capital with lovely open air art, murals and sculptures dotted around.

We visited on Christmas Eve and it seemed very quiet, but we are not sure that is the case normally.
We spent the rest of the trip at sea and the ship put on some lovely Christmas shows, officers carol service

Officers Carol service, complete with snow.

and Father Christmas even managed to drop down the funnel to visit.🤣 And we even had Christmas dinner with a couple who are called Mr & Mrs Christmas!!!

So what were our impressions of the Queen Victoria? She was beautifully decorated for Christmas,

but generally, we found her quite dark – wooden panelling and quite low ceilings in places. She is certainly not the most steady of ships (and we had a smooth sailing) and certain areas were quite uncomfortable due to the constant shaking (Britannia restaurant and the Commodore Club). The lectures and entertainment were generally good quality and interesting, although we thought there was far too much emphasis on ballroom dancing for our liking. The food was rather bland for our taste but lots of guests said they enjoyed it.
All in all it was a good trip away, just what was needed, a bit of sunshine and warmth, lovely staff, great people, new places visited, even the Bay of Biscay was good and we managed to avoid the outbreak of gastroenteritis on board!! Not sure that Christmas cruising will be our new tradition but it was fun.

April 5, 2024April 17, 2024

Ambassador Cruise – Singapore to Cape Town

We boarded the Ambssador cruise ship Ambience in Singapore on its inaugural world tour, and we were just doing one 25 night leg of the trip.

Joining a ship half way through a world tour has proven to be an interesting insight into the human psyche – the cliques have already formed, favourite quiz tables and theatre seats identified, Queen and King bees have amassed their audiences, interest groups have developed waiting lists, destination experiences nearly fully booked up and heirarchies have been forged – and then in come the “interlopers” causing ripples to run through the various groups dynamics.

There is no “free dining” times on Ambassador so we elected to try the 6pm sitting on a table for 6 and we were very lucky with our wonderful dining companions Sue, Liz, Peter and Denise and subsequently had some very entertaining times with them.

Our first port of call was Penang , which we’ve visited a few times, so we just had a wander around Georgetown and enjoyed the wall art and the colours and smells of the spices in Little India,

then onto Phuket – ww were moored miles away so had to take a taxi to old town for an explore of the Wats, old streets (reminiscent of Melacca) and enjoyed a Singha beer and mango, sticky rice (yum). Then had a crazy tuk tuk taxi back to the ship! That nights entertainment was the Lady Boys of Phuket – an excellent show that the locals put on for us.

Next stop – Sri Lanka and its crazy capitol – Colombo, where we took a tuk tuk trip around and visited a stunning temple, complete with donations from Rolex watches to an old Rolls Royce car! Again, we had an excellent show from Sri Lankan locals that evening before we sailed away. It was lovely to see the Litus Tower all lit up.

Male in the Maldives was next – not at all what you see in the tourist brochures – for that you need to get out to the atolls and big resorts – we just did a submarine dive but sadly, although lots of fishes, the Reef looks in a bad state.

Then onto Mahe, Seychelles, which was much more our style with lots of lush green hills. We did a tour of the botanical gardens to see the famous Coco-de-mer double coconut and the giant tortoises

and then a quick trip around the north of the island – very beautiful.

Then it was 2 days in Mombassa where the ship was met by local tribes dancing and drumming (they certainly have plenty of energy!) Sadly, Andy wasn’t too well, so we just visited Fort Jesus on the second day, which was very interesting, but it was extremely hot and humid! The port put on a shuttle bus to a hotel in town, which was safer for visitors.

Durban came next, not sure what we were expecting, but we enjoyed it here – took a walk to the Golden Mile beach and a bus tour out to the botanical gardens where we saw pelicans in the trees, weaver bird nests and some ducklings,

Victoria market, whale bone pier (not real whale bone)

and past the stunning Moses Mabhida stadium with its graceful arch – the Arch of Triumph

Then finally to Cape Town and our ungainly entrance to the port (we collided with a cargo ship when high winds took the ship away from the tugs)!!

We were glad to get off – 25 nights is way too long for us, but it got us to where we wanted to be, we visited places we have not seen before and made some new friends along the way.

June 11, 2023February 4, 2026

Cruise to Alaska

The Celebrity Hubbard Glacier cruise – we sailed from Vancouver,

Sailing under Vancouver’s Lions Gate Bridge

past Vancouver Island and up to Icy Strait Point (the only privately owned cruise port in Alaska, owned by Tlingit nation),

Historic salmon cannery, Icy Strait Point

then up to Hubbard Glacier in the Bay of Disenchantment (aka the Galloping Glacier, it’s tidal and still growing. It’s 76 miles long and has a 400ft terminal face) – our captain and the pilot got us SOOO close it was amazing, and we had beautiful sunshine too, making the ice look quite blue. We saw a few episodes of calving at the terminal face, but no huge ones – by the time you hear the crack, it’s too late – the ice has already calved. We also spotted harbour seals and 1 pup there.

Hubbard Glacier – aka The Galloping Glacier.

Then, working our way back down, we stopped at Juneau (Doyouknow!). It’s the capital of Alaska, only accessible by sea or air, built on gold mining with downtown buildings very reminiscent of that era,

Great fish tacos here in Juneau, locally caught fish.

then on through the spectacular inner passage to Ketchikan (Catchmeifyoucan!). Built on the salmon industry with some interesting history. If you visit during salmon season, you’ll see salmon laying eggs in the creek gravel, possibly moving up the specially built salmon ladder and maybe even a bear in the creek after their favourite food – salmon! We did a lovely self guided walk of historic downtown and Newtown areas and met some colourful locals!

Creek Street, Ketchikan – the old red light district

The Rock, with lots of characters from Ketchikan’s history.

Then, on through the passage back to Vancouver. The scenery was spectacular, and we spotted several whales and dolphins from the ship, we also saw bald headed eagles in Icy Strait. The budget didn’t allow us to take any shore excursions (ship based ones are expensive but you could do cheaper ones from the ports) but as we discovered you don’t need to spend a fortune to see the wildlife – it was just all around us. We had a resident whale watcher Michaela on board (working for the Orca charity) who was very informative about whales and also glaciers.

Recommendations – check out the itinerary and cruise ship as many go to the same places (each port can get very busy if lots of ships are in on the same day). Pick your excursions carefully. Take binoculars!

October 1, 2022March 1, 2024

Ruby wedding anniversary cruise to Iceland

Well, as we decided that 40 years together was a milestone worth celebrating, we treated ourselves to our first overseas trip since the pandemic!

We joined the Celebrity Silhouette at Southampton for a 12 day cruise, stopping at Guernsey, Cobh and Dunmore East (Ireland), Akureyri and Reykjavik (Iceland) and Greenock before returning to Southampton. That was the plan but sadly we were unable to visit Guernsey (a tendering port) due to bad weather so we ended up in Portland instead – ironic really as we first met in Weymouth many years ago!!

We took the opportunity to visit Nothe Fort whilst there as we’d not done that before – well worth a visit, it’s been well restored with interesting exhibits ranging from Victorian times through to the Cold War.

2012 Olympic Statue, Queen Victoria Reighton clock, Nothe Fort, One of the Nothe Fort guns, old Fort on the walls leaving Portland.

Our next stop was our first in Ireland, Cobh (pronounced Cove) which is the port for Cork (you can get a train to Cork from here). We explored this lovely colourful town (including the famous deck of cards – a street of houses that the locals say if the bottom one goes the rest will tumble like a pack of cards!), visited the Titanic memorial garden (the last sighting of the Titanic as she left Cobh in 1912), the glorious St Colman’s Cathedral (had to leave due to a funeral) and learnt about the history at the very informative Cobh Heritage Centre (potato famine, emigration, sinking of the Lusitania, last journey of the Titanic and the plight of the convicts on Spike Island before being transported to Australia). Oh and of course we had to have a Guinness at Kelly’s bar.
We had an interesting meal experience at Le Petit Chef on board which is an animated meal! And finally we were entertained by the fabulous Celtic Nights and Irish dancers.

Our second port of call in Ireland was Dunmore East – the port for Waterford. We got the tender into the harbour, had a chat with the local RNLI coxswain, was met by a guide from the local information office and picked up some tips. You can get a bus into Waterford (famous for the Waterford Crystal) but feeling the need to walk off all the great food we’ve been eating we decided to walk the Dunmore East Coast path to Portally Cove and back. We met a few locals on the way, all wanting to chat and one asked if we’d just got off the ferry (not sure Captain Jorge would appreciate his ship being called a ferry)!!!!! Then we wandered back into town for locally caught fish and chips and of course found a pub for another Irish Guinness before returning.

After a rather grey and wet day at sea, passing St Kilda along the way, we arrived in the port of Akureyri, Iceland’s second largest city in Northern Iceland bathed in glorious sunshine and blue skies. We could see steam rising from waterfalls in the distance (signs of the geothermal heat of this amazing island). We took an excursion from the ship around the city (all the red traffic lights are heart shaped – to cheer people up after the financial crash a few years ago), visited the botanical gardens and were surprised to see many of the plants we grow at home, then went up over the mountains to vist the stunning Gadofoss Falls.
We were lucky enough to spot 2 whales as we were leaving the fjord to continue our trip to Reykjavik.

Steaming waterfalls, Gadofoss Falls Eryngium, Leaving the fjord.

The night we sailed around Iceland to Reykjavik was clear and cold but if we’d stayed up till about 2am we’d have seen the Northern Lights – we were sound asleep by then but had seen a slight hint of them earlier in the evening! We spent 24 hours in Reykjavik over two days which allowed us to explore on the Hop On Hop Off bus on our own the first afternoon. We had a pint in the Hard Rock Cafe and bought the obligatory keyring before heading off to visit the stunning Hallsgrimskirkja cathedral. The next day was an early start (but caught a stunning sunrise) to do the Golden Circle tour, taking in the Geyser area, Gullfoss Falls and the National Park where the American and European tectonic plates are pulling apart (so Iceland is growing). It has formed a huge wall and canyon that was used in the Game of Thrones as the North Wall.

We enjoyed our small taste of Iceland very much and Celebrity had invited Orly Orlyson to be the guest speaker – he gave 3 very different entertaining talks on board about his homeland – ranging from how astronauts were trained in Iceland to how his home town nearly won an Oscar!

View from our balcony, Hallsgrimskirkja cathedral, Geyser, Gullfoss, Techtonic plates canyon, National Park lake.

Our final stop before returning to Southampton was Greenock, Scotland. You can visit Glasgow by train from here but once again we opted to explore the port ourselves. We did the town trail and learnt about the history of ship building, sugar refining and James Watt. We also visited the largest cemetery in Scotland.

Our thanks go to all the amazing staff of Celebrity Silhouette for making our trip so amazing and to Andy Sharples of Cruise Holidays for trying to keep it all a big secret from me!!