Leaving the Canary Islands, we turned north back towards England. Three sea days was spent relaxing and enjoying the ship. November 11th was Veterans Day in the United States and Rememberance Day in England. There was a patriotic service on the ship. Many English people dressed up for the service with men in coats and ties. For several days leading up to Nov 11th, most of the English wore poppies. At 11:00 AM on the 11th day of the eleventh month, there was a moment of silence with bells on the ship.
The night before reaching Southampton, there was a special performer on the ship by the name of Michael Ball. Evidently he is a big deal in England. Many British had taken this cruise just because he was performing live on the ship. We heard some Australians also booked the cruise just because of him. The English were amazed when we told them we had never heard of Michael Ball. Every American we asked on the ship had never heard of him. He performed four shows and they handed out time stamped tickets to control the crowds. The English dressed up for his concert like they were going to the opera or a ball. We attended the concert, not knowing what to expect. Michael Ball was a good singer but not that impressive to us. As a fellow American said, we enjoyed his concert but we wouldn’t pay to go to his concert or buy his CD. Surprisingly, he sang two Elvis songs, a Kenny Rogers song (The Gambler), a Tom Jones song and then several songs we had never heard before. Listening to the crowd, you would think Elvis was performing.
We reached Southampton on Nov 14th, ending the first half of the cruise. Most of the British left the ship at this point while 472 of us were continuing on for the second half to Florida. If you remember, on the first leg there were 80% British. We learned that on the second leg of the trip there would be 3,463 passengers of which 60% are Americans, 16% British and 15% Canadians.
We had three hours of blissful peace and quiet from the time people left the ship until all the new people came stampeding onboard. It was very nice. No problem finding a place to sit, no crowded elevators. We enjoyed every minute.
After everyone was onboard, we headed for the next port of Portland, England. This port does not get many cruise ships and we were one of the last ships of the season. The weather was chilly and overcast. The nearby town of Weymouth provided free shuttle buses from the port in Portand to the village of Weymouth, population 54,000, about a 15 minute ride. In my mind it was very smart of the town to provide the free shuttles. In exchange for their cost of running the shuttles, they had about 4,000 passengers and crew spending money in all the stores and restaurants.
Bill and I took the shuttle and enjoyed walking around the town. Located on a sheltered bay, it was such a pretty, charming English village. Weymouth played a major role as a departure point for the Normandy Landings in World War Two.
We found a geocache and went in the Holy Trinity Church, built in the 1830’s. The church was decorated with poppies from Rememberance Day.

We Found a Geocache Near the Royal Mail Truck

We crossed The Town Bridge.

Weymouth played a major role as a departure point for the Normandy Landings in World War II.
We went into a local supermarket to get some snacks for our long excursion in a couple days in France. I remembered loving the English shortbread cookies from previous trips to England so I had to pick up a box of those.
The shuttle buses ran efficiently and it was easy to take one quickly back to the port.

Next up: An excursion in France that is one reason we took this trip. Can you guess where? There is a hint in the blog above.