Our 1st Transatlantic cruise
Sun Princess cruise ship (14 nights)
+ Dublin, Ireland (2 nights)
March 21 - April 7, 2025
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When Craig 1st brought up this trip (when we were in Ecuador), I was not so keen on crossing the Atlantic ocean, with no land in sight for over a week! He only convinced me to go when he sweetened the deal with the mini-suite experience! I'm glad I held out for the spoiling, because it was pretty awesome! Due to unfortunate circumstances for one passenger with a medical emergency, our "days at sea" were shortened by 1 day. They ran into issues when we were right in the middle of the Atlantic, so all they could do was speed up and get to our 1st port, one day early. This meant we had 2 full days and an overnight in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. We were informed that the passenger was in stable condition when they were loaded into the ambulance. I hope they are ok and back at home. 💖
Our routing for this cruise was from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Santa Cruz de Tenerife (in the Canary Islands) (Spain), Cartagena (Spain), Valencia (Spain) and finally Barcelona (Spain).
Distance travelled by ship: Approx. 4600 nautical miles (8500 kms)
+ 6 time changes, a lot of food and a lot of drinks! For fun, we kept track of our drinks and what they would have cost had we not had the booze included and it came to a grand total of:
$2188 USD for 121 drinks!
Since we had visited Barcelona a couple of times before, we immediately flew to Dublin, Ireland for 2 nights following the cruise and then flew home (it was also WAY cheaper than flying home from Barcelona). |
Craig enjoying a 24k margarita (includes Grand Marnier) in honour of you, Francine 😍
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All aboard!!! Our first look at this new (1-year old) ship, the Sun Princess. This area is called the "sphere" and it's on either side of the newly designed piazza area.
Guest capacity: 4300 (our sailing had 3900)
Staff: 1600
Tonnage: 177,882
Length: 1133 feet
Height: 200 feet
# of decks: 21 |
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Cheers! For my 1st drink (blueberry elderflower), I proceeded to spill it down the front of my white shirt a few minutes after this picture was taken, but luckily, I managed to get it out! 👏
We were very spoiled on this sailing because Craig splurged for a mini-suite, Sanctuary collection with premium package. All that to say we had a beautiful, balcony room, had access to this sanctuary pool area (and The Sanctuary restaurant) and we mostly ate at specialty dining restaurants such as The Catch by Rudi (our favorite - seafood), The Butcher's Block by Dario (meat, meat and more meat), Crown Grill (steak mostly), Makoto Ocean (Japanese sushi), Sabatini's (Italian), Umai Teppanyaki & Alfredo's Pizzeria. It also meant we had wifi and tips included, ate WAY too much and drank our faces off (well, mostly Craig did)! |
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| Although it was only about 20 degrees, we managed to get in the Sanctuary pool and hot tub a few times |
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| With our package, we were able to have access to all the photos taken by ship photographers, so instead of shying away from them (like we'd normally do), we took advantage and managed to have some lovely photos from it. These were all taken at various points throughout the cruise, so I've just included them here, at the beginning of the blog post. |
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| Ahhh...I like this one. 😚 |
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| Sweet 💗 |
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| It was a little awkward at first, but then we relaxed and just tried to enjoy the moment to be able to capture some nice shots |
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| I'm wearing my new jean jacket and the tagua necklace I bought in Ecuador and Craig is sporting his new shirt and "Breitling" watch (fake one from Dubai). The watch sellers from the shops even noticed it from afar and asked him about it. No, he didn't tell them it was a fake. 🙊 |
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| Our 1st ever mini-suite, balcony cabin #10443 (304 sq ft - our usual inside cabin is about 145 sq ft)! For a cruise cabin, it's really spacious and had TWO large tv's. Even the bathroom was larger than usual. Gonna be hard to go back to a regular one! 👸 |
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| The Sanctuary pool area - Craig was coincidentally wearing a "Here comes the sun" t-shirt while setting sail on the "Sun Princess"! One of MANY Zacapa rum and coke drinks Craig enjoyed on this trip. We really enjoyed spending time in this sanctuary area with no kids and not that many people. |
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| In the Sanctuary pool area, from 3-4 pm, if you go up to this flower wall and ring the bell a glass of champagne magically appears. I forgot to do it!!! |
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| Craig enjoying retirement! |
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| Craig was so thrilled to be able to take advantage of some sun on this trip. We had fantastic weather nearly the entire time! Can't complain about it at all! Sadly, we returned home to a snow storm and 2 days later, it's still on the ground and only a high today of +1! I was hoping to plant some flowers, but I guess that will have to wait a bit longer ⚘ |
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| The Sun Princess model - you can see the "sphere" area in the middle of the ship and the "dome" area closer to the front. |
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| This appetizer at The Catch restaurant, was called "Tale of citrus" and it was a delicious lobster tail appetizer from our favorite specialty restaurant. |
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| Teppanyaki was entertaining, but the meal wasn't really the best and was very salty. |
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So a freaky thing happened...in the dome area, we attended a mentalist performance and right away, I was picked to go up on stage. Normally I'm one to shy away from being in the spotlight, but I decided to go for it. I was so easily influenced that he kept me up there for a 2nd trick (that's a little disturbing). For his 1st trick, he had me close my eyes (while standing on a moving ship - not easy) and I felt someone tap the back of my right shoulder, twice. He then asked me to put my hand up if I felt someone touch me, so I did. Then he asked how many times, so I answered "twice". Then he asked where, and I showed him that it was the back of my right shoulder. Well, he never touched me. Nobody did. Craig took a video of the whole thing and there wasn't anyone near me. I'd post the video, but it is too long. When he was asking me the questions (with my eyes closed), he already knew what I'd answer and was showing the audience that. When I looked back at the video, it was proven that he did NOT touch me, nor did anyone else. WTH? Freaky.
For the 2nd trick, he had Craig pick a random stop point in a magazine. Someone else then circled something on that page and then a 3rd person was handed the magazine and told to think about what the image was that was circled. Nobody said anything or showed me anything. The mentalist (I did not take note of his name, unfortunately, but he was VERY good) had me sit down and he brought a blank note pad over to me. He had me just randomly doodle something on the underside of the note pad with a marker (I could not see what I was drawing). I honestly just felt like I was randomly making squiggles and not paying any attention to where the marker was going. The only criteria he gave me was for it to be one continuous motion. Then he asked the man what had been circled on the magazine and he replied "a flamingo". Well, I had no idea, but I had "drawn" the word "flamingo" when I thought I was just scribbling all over the page (with my left hand). I even remember thinking I was drawing some mountains when I was actually drawing the letter "M" in "flamingo". It takes a bit to see it, but you can definitely make out the spelling of the word "flamingo" on the page and it even takes up the entire piece of paper - see picture of it below. Blew my mind! 🤯 |
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How the heck does this happen? I tried to write "flamingo" again (from underneath and not seeing what I was drawing), KNOWING what I was writing, and couldn't do it as clearly
(see below).
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| Where's Waldo (Craig)!? |
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| There he is! |
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| Cheers! The party, known as "our retirement" continues! |
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| "Smoked salmon sensation" appetizer and our favorite waitress (Bella from the Philippines), in our favorite ship restaurant (The Catch) |
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| Craig stuck in the heart floaty |
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| Finally, we were able to put our feet on land and it was lovely to walk around Tenerife. |
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| A beautiful old tree in Tenerife. |
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| I love that cruise passengers can just walk off the ship and enjoy a stroll in Tenerife. It's so easy and it was a nice day. |
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| We LOVE the architecture! |
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Cartagena, Spain
Population: 215,826 (2021
Castillo de la Conception (Conception Castle)
Cartagena is a major naval station on the Mediterranean coast. |
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| Beautiful peacocks at the Castillo de la Conception in Cartagena, Spain |
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| The Roman Temple of Conception Castle area in Cartagena. It is said to have been founded between 5 and 1 BCE (before Christian era). Not sure exactly what that means other than it's over 2000 years old! |
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| This is an absolutely stunning area and a great viewpoint to see the city. What a perfect day! |
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| Craig holding up the castle walls |
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| Me practicing with a more interesting pose and location and I really like this shot |
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| City Hall in Cartagena |
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| The Gran Hotel in Cartagena |
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This was the 1st time the Sun Princess had stopped in Valencia, Spain and it was a magnificent location, but not the easiest to get to the Old Town area from the cruise port. In the picture, above, is the twin city gate towers - part of the original remains of the ancient walled city. We actually didn't realize you could ascend the towers (for free) until we were leaving Old Town.
There was no possibility of just walking off the ship in Valencia because it is a very active shipping port, so we took a bus provided (€15 pp return), which took approximately 30 minutes from ship to the Old Town. It worked very smoothly from the ship, but on the way back, the bus drivers decided it was time for a lunch break and there wasn't a return bus for over an hour - then 3 showed up. Not ideal when you have thousands of people to get back to the ship. They need a lunch break, absolutely, but staggard them at least! The effort was worth it though as we truly enjoyed exploring the Old Town area. |
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| Impressive and well-preserved tower gates of the original ancient city walls |
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| Built between the 13th and 15th centuries, Valencia Cathedral nestled between the impressive plaza de la Reina and plaza de la Virgen. It costs €9 pp to enter the cathedral, which includes a self-audio guide headset. Unfortunately, the tower was closed on the day we visited, but I enjoyed touring the cathedral while Craig explored the plaza area. Because the cathedral was built over centuries, it has a mixture of artistic styles, but originally was gothic |
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| Beautiful statue with Valencia Cathedral in the background |
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| Ornate entrance to the Valencia Cathedral |
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| Inside the Valencia Cathedral - very impressive |
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| This is the chapel of the holy chalice within Valencia Cathedral and it is my favorite spot in the cathedral. That ceiling detail is incredible! the chalice, itself, is said to have been the official chalice of many popes and is dated to the 1st century! |
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The preserved arm relic of Saint Vincent the Martyr |
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| 14th century apostle statues in Valencia Cathedral |
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| Interesting dried fish carcasses in the Valencia Central Market. It's a beautiful, clean and very large market in the heart of Old Town. |
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| Building on the far left is the Central Market building, built in 1914, which is definitely worth visiting when in Old Town Valencia |
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| Not everyone is happy about tourists - this was protest sign in Old Town telling tourists to "go home". I understand that, to an extent. It must be so frustrating as a person who lives there and there's always thousands of tourists in your way. I noticed a lot of citizens getting impatient with the tourists when they wouldn't move out of the way. It must be especially painful when cruise ships come to town. Just ours alone inserts 4000+ people all at once. On the other hand, the money generated from the tourists helps to preserve the ancient architecture and provides a living for many restaurants and other businesses. It's a delicate balance and I do appreciate that there can be TOO many tourists. |
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| Santa Catalina Tower, Old Town Valencia |
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| On our way out of Old Town, we realized you could climb the towers (for free) to get a lovely view of Old Town. It is always worth it to climb up into towers - for as long as we're able to do so. 💘 |
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| I had to "erase" a lot of the other tourists to capture this shot of Craig in one tower while I was in the other. I just noticed now that I missed one! Oh well. |
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| Not sure what this was for, but we enjoyed seeing the lady in a traditional Spanish dress. |
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Valencia is a VERY large and busy shipping port
It was so wonderful to have visited Valencia. This was also our first time there and I imagine there are many more wonderful areas to see in this city. Sadly, this meant that we only had the evening left on our cruise before we reached Barcelona at 5 am the next morning. We just went straight to the airport for our 11 am flight to Dublin (because we had previously visited Barcelona). |
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| Naively, we thought this was "Temple Bar" only to find out that the whole area was called Temple Bar and many of these pubs had that in their name. Still, this is a cute building. SO many pubs in Dublin. One is never far away no matter where you live. We did notice there was a significant number of intoxicated people downtown! lol |
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| Unveiled in May 2024, the Dublin Portal is positioned facing the capital's main street, O'Connell Street. It became the fourth Portal in a global network of identical Portal sculptures. Being all located in the public space, Portals offer a real-time, unfiltered livestream 24/7, inviting people of different cultures to meet above borders and differences. Craig and I didn't see the appeal until there was a young lady getting so excited to see her parents with a sign on the other side of the portal in Philadelphia (formerly in NYC). It was a very popular spot! |
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| We really enjoyed the ribs and lamb stew while drinking a Guinness, gin & tonic and listening to live music! |
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| I couldn't resist this $5 cdn donut - thankfully, it was fresh and delicious! |
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| THIS is the actual "Temple Bar" bar. |
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| Craig posing for me in the entrance to the park of Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin. It's a beautiful spot to hang out, especially on this gorgeous, sunny day (rare for Dublin). Many locals told us it was "their summer" because it was so nice out for the 2 days we were there. |
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| Gotta love the architecture and cathedrals in Dublin |
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| I loved the intricate Celtic designs in this cross monument. Incredible craftsmanship. I often think what a shame it will be when (if not already) the art of this type of craft is lost forever. |
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| The beautiful Christ Church Cathedral and park |
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| Dublin Castle grounds |
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| The Love Wall |
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| Hmm... you can tell where people rub the brass |
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| Gorgeous, sweet old lady included |
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A short walk from our downtown Dublin hotel (Holiday Inn Express) was Bram Stoker's (author of Dracula) home on Buckingham Street
(1858 - 1864) |
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| Murray's Pub & restaurant - right next to our hotel |
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| Craig enjoyed trying another Irish beer - I think it was called "Smithwicks" and it was "red" - the 3rd last tap on the right of the row of taps |
I didn't provide a whole lot of information on the history of the places we visited this trip, but I hope you enjoyed the journey.
Although I was reluctant to go on a Transatlantic cruise, it turned out to be pretty wonderful. We were so lucky to have nice weather and calm (for the most part) seas for our journey. I truly do appreciate every opportunity we have to explore this beautiful world with the love of my life and best friend. Yes Craig, I would possibly be open to another transitioning cruise, but keep in mind, you'll have to spoil me again for all those days at sea!
Next up, another cruise, this time with the "6 Cruisers" to Iceland and the Norwegian Fjords in June. Looking forward to the reunion of the OG cruisers, sailing together once again!
💗🚢💗
