Tracy-Shane-Trips

It’s Ireland Day, and this is how it started. It’s called a tender, and it’s a smaller boat used to service, support, or transport people and supplies to and from a larger vessel or the shore. You can’t see the ship in this photo, but we are way the heck out there in the Irish Sea and had to take this boat to get to port. The port city was called Dun Laoghaire (Leery), which is a suburb of Dublin. We couldn’t dock at Dublin because Irish officials have heavily restricted or banned cruise ships to prioritize essential cargo traffic. We left the ship at 945am and the ride in took about 30 minutes. Then we got on the coach for the ride into Dublin, which also took about 30 minutes. The guide’s name was Pat, and the driver was Peter. Really nice guys.

We drove all around Dublin, and Pat gave us a bit of the area’s history. Nothing to blow your socks off, just little tidbits. It was hard to take any photos through the coach window, but there were some really gorgeous churches, Trinity College, which Pat said both these kids attended. It costs about 750 Euro each year. Shane said maybe he should have chosen to go to Ireland for college.

Around 1130 am we stopped at Phoenix Park. Phoenix Park is known in Irish as Páirc an Fhionnuisce. The English name “Phoenix” is actually an anglicization of the Irish phrase fionn uisce, which translates to “clear water” but sounds like Phoenix when you say it. This original Gaelic name referred to a clear, natural spring well located near the center of the grounds. We didn’t see the spring, but we did see the kitchen garden. Fun Fact: The certified organic kitchen garden at Phoenix Park supplies the Irish president’s official residence with fresh produce, free-range eggs, honey, and fruit.

We passed by the President’s house on our way out of the park, and Pat told us that the Irish President has no legal powers of government. I looked it up, and here’s what I found.

The current president is Catherine Connolly, who is serving a 7-year term that began in Nov 2025. Her role is largely ceremonial: she represents the Irish public abroad, meets with world leaders, hosts dignitaries, signs legislation into law, and serves as the supreme commander of the Irish Defense Forces. Here’s her photo. She’s 71. She’s the 10th president since Ireland won back its independence in 1922,

So from there we went to the Jameson Distillery Museum. The first thing they do when you start the tour is give you a drink. LOL. Shane and I both got the whiskey, ginger ale, and lime. This is officially my new favorite drink now. BTW, the drinking age in Ireland is 18, so don’t judge me.

They don’t actually distill whiskey there anymore because they moved the operation to Midleton in County Cork in 1975 when they were having financial trouble, and they merged with two other distillers, Cork Distillers and John Power, to form the group Irish Distillers. The original Bow Street facility (where the museum is) in Dublin lacked the space and capacity to keep up with growing global demand.

The building and the museum were really beautiful. We learned a little about the making of whiskey. And then there was the tasting.

When we finished, of course, the way out was through the gift shop and the bar. Jamesons for me and an engraved flask for Shane. I don’t want to know what he’s going to put in there.

At the bar, I snapped this pic of their monthly special. Actually, it sounds pretty good, so I may try it at home.

The coach took us back to the dock, and Shane and I walked into town for lunch. We walked around a little and ended up at the Miami Cafe, if you can believe that. There was a lot of Americanized food and shops there, including a Burger King.

I got the fish and chips, which were pretty good, and Shane got the deep-fried hamburger, which was really weird, had no real taste, and he only ate half. He did start out with a Kinder Bueno milkshake, so that’s something.

We walked back to the tender and waited to depart back to the ship, and this was our view out the window. Many little sailboats and the L.É. Gobnait (pennant number P72), a 55-meter Lake-class Inshore Patrol Vessel of the Irish Naval Service, docked for maintenance.

So, as we traveled back to the mothership, here are the views of the Irish coastline.

Our day tomorrow is in Wales. We dock in Holyhead, then drive to Beaumaris for our tour at 130pm. This is our first afternoon trip, so we have the morning to sleep in, which I’m sure Shane will appreciate.

Here’s how Shane ended his day, so it can’t be all bad. Gelato, some little cakes, and a mocktail pina colada.

It’s 10pm here now, and I’m pretty tired. See y’all tomorrow. Let’s hope for another gorgeous, sunny day. The weather here so far has been amazing, so of course I just ruined it by saying that!

Tracy