Tag: travel

Len Hall – In Memorium

As anyone who cruises regularly, one of the best perks of cruising are meeting new friends. Some friendships last and some don’t but then there are the ones that are extra special. This was the case of Len and Honor Hall. We met in April of 2022 on the Grand Princess during a 16 day Hawaiian Cruise, and as usual, at the Horizon Court Buffet. We happened to meet up for just about every breakfast and lunch.

Len and Honor were from Northern Ireland, about 45 minutes away from Belfast, and when people say Irish people are kind and friendly, they weren’t kidding. The four of us would spend hours at a time just laughing and swapping stories, They were incredible people. We kept in touch with them and hoped we’d meet again.

In 2023, we decided to go on the Regal Princess for a trip around the British Isles and one of the stops was Belfast. We had a video chat with Len and Honor and told them the news and they told us they would meet us at the ship and give us a personal guided tour of the city.

WOW, did they ever! Len found out when the Regal Princess would be in port prior to our arrival. This way he could see exactly where to meet us. On the day we arrived, we disembarked the ship and there they were, 20 yards away from the gangway! We gave them hugs, jumped into their car and headed to the Titanic Center, where Len had already purchased passes. The Titanic Center is awesome and highly recommended.

After the full tour, they drove us to Stormont, which is the equivalent to the Capital Building.

Afterwards, we headed to the Belfast City Hall, where then President Clinton had given a speech.

We walked through downtown to a restaurant for lunch. My attempts to grab the bill failed, so they again treated us.

We took a trip through the part of Belfast where most of “The Troubles” happened. I was under the impression that most of the conflict had ended, but Len took us down one street where there were steel barricades that they still close up and night. Turns out Len had grown up in the area and worked at one of the hospitals where many of the injured were treated.

After the tour, we headed up to Belfast Castle on the other side of Belfast. We could see our ship from within the Castle.

On the way back to the ship, we drove past the old courthouse. The courthouse was on one side of the street and the prison was directly across, interconnected via a tunnel.

As the end of our day neared, Len and Honor took us back the the ship and we said our goodbyes.

We continued to keep in touch, but then we got the news that Len was ill. In one of our last video chats, he said things weren’t looking too good but he was going to fight. After a few months, we got a text from Honor that Len had passed away.

Rest In Peace my friend!

Cruise #27 – Crown Princess – Hawaii

This was our fourth visit to the islands, however far from routine. We started the cruise by meeting Anja, the girlfriend of our buddy and “adopted” British kid , Tony Tromboney, who is one of the Princess Music Managers. Anja is Serbian and part of the Production Staff.

We got unpacked in our balcony stateroom, Lido 254 and looked forward to a nice relaxing time. On night two, we decided to go to the Princess Theater to see “Magic To Do”. We’ve seen it several times, so like to compare the Singers and Dancers.

After the first song or two, I was feeling a bit lightheaded and could barely keep my eyes open. At some point, I shut them. Next thing I know, I was laying in the stairway, the house lights were on and I had several people in my face asking if I could smile and grasp their hands. I could, but was completely unaware of what happened. I looked at my wife, Suzi, and saw she was shaking like a leaf!

Within minutes, I was helped back to my seat and the medical staff arrived. He started to check me out, but I asked if we could move out of the theater so everyone else could get back to their show. I felt good enough so walk out of the theater to a round of applause. They put me in a wheelchair and asked a few questions. I was wondering where Suzi was. She was so shaken, several people helped her, including the Head Of Security, Paul Harris. They ended up putting her in a wheelchair, too.

They took us through the innards of the ship to the Medical Center. They ran blood tests and an EKG and found nothing. They kept us there for a couple of hours. Paul stayed and comforted Suzi and conversed with me.

I was released but they wanted to see me first thing the next morning. We went down and they re-ran all of the test, and again, normal and consistent. Whew!

Although I didn’t remember a thing, Suzi was traumatized. For a few minutes, she thought she lost me. I had no color and would not wake up. She started screaming until people came to my aid and they halted the show.

The funniest part (no, really), was that I made the Facebook group for this cruise. Somebody enquired about the commotion and some one replied, “it was an elderly gentleman…”, well at 63, I’m hardly elderly, although, I did feel it at the time. Regardless, I’ve been fully checked over by my local doctors and they feel it was a combination of dehydration and low blood pressure.

So Anja was working the show and knew there was a medical emergency, just didn’t know it was me. I let Tony know via WhatsApp and he let Anja know.

The rest of the trip was “different”. I had all sorts of crew and passengers stop me and asked how I was. I was fortunate to meet most of the first responders so I could thank them in person.

We had three days at sea for me to rest and relax. In Hilo, we took a shuttle to the Farmers Market and downtown Hilo, walked around a bit, then back to the ship.

The next day / port was Honolulu. We took a shuttle to the Ala Mauna Mall via the Hilo Hattie’s bus. If you haven’t been to Ala Mauna Mall, it’s a great place to hang if you are not a beach person, like us. We’ve been spoiled as we live within 10 miles of the ocean.

The next port was Lahaina. It’s a tender port, so we decided to go ashore with Anja to grab lunch. Even with our Elite status, there was a greater than 1 hour wait (and this was after 2 hours since they started tender operations). We heard from Anja that no crew were allowed off to accommodate guests, so we just decided to stay on board and have lunch with Anja in the buffet.

We had no idea that we would never see Lahaina the same way again. Less than 4 months later, the devastating fire ripped through and destroyed most of the town. Fortunately, we had the pleasure of visiting Lahaina several times.

Next stop, Kauai. Although we had a car rental setup, I decided to rest. Suzi walked down to the local ABC Mart to buy Anja a little stuffed animal.

Time for the return towards the mainland. Five glorious days at sea, then Ensenada. I have no idea why so many people give Ensenada a bad rap. No that the have the pedestrian bridge that takes you to downtown, it’s a nice walk. Sure, the shop vendors are a bit aggressive but a simple “no, gracias” usually works.

Well another wonderful cruise, although way different. Something we hope to never happen again.