Sep 24

Sep 24 Day 02 - Portland (Stonehenge)

Ship: Princess Cruises Sun Princess
Itinerary: 16-Night Transatlantic - Southampton to Fort Lauderdale

This morning, Sun Princess is docked at Portland, England, where we plan to visit Stonehenge. The morning begins with a quick visit to The Eatery for buffet breakfast.

We were instructed to meet at 9:30am in Horizons Dining Room on Deck 7, which we did. We received our tour number stickers and were invited to sit and wait for further instruction.

Soon, we were asked to walk down one deck to disembark Sun Princess and board the waiting motor coach for our group. The people going to Stonehenge was split into three groups of about 45 people in each group, and three motor coaches. Our motor coach was comfortable for the two-hour drive to Stonehenge.

Once we arrived at Stonehenge, we walked a few hundred yards to the Visitor Center where we boarded a shuttle bus that takes you to the “stones”.

A path has been created around the circumference of the Stonehenge structure and guests are instructed to not cross over the barrier ropes lining the pathway. It is cloudy, a little windy, and cool this morning. Typical British weather, I suppose.

Stonehenge is one of those bucket list destinations that we were not sure we would ever get to see. It is truly amazing and well worth the four-hour coach trip (to and from).

We had fun trying to take some unique photos of Stonehenge.

Tonight was formal night, so we had to get dressed up before our dinner reservation at The Catch by Rudi. This is Rudi Sodamin’s signature restaurant on Sun Princess.

For starters, I ordered the shrimp cocktail, which was excellent. The shrimp were large, perfectly cooked and the cocktail sauce was good, although it could have used a bit more horseradish for my tastes. I also ordered the fried calamari, which was disappointing. The calamari was sliced very thick and had a very rubbery texture.

For my main course, I ordered the steak and lobster combination. The lobster was good as was the beef filet. However, the filet lacked flavor and was smothered in a gravy. A really good piece of meat does not need any sauce; just give me salt and pepper. The meal was good, but honestly, I think the Rudi’s on Carnival Mardi Gras was a better experience, as was the Rudi’s on Holland America.

Rickee had the Branzino and she said hers was a little dry.

The desserts, on the other hand, were excellent. I had the chocolate croquembouche which was good, but paled by comparison to Rickee’s strawberry pavlova, which was one of the best desserts we have had in quite some time.

After dinner, we decided to head to Wheelhouse Bar for a nightcap. I had a glass of Crown Royal and Rickee had a Sambuca.

When we returned to our stateroom this evening we saw a notice to set our watches and clocks forward one hour for a time zone change, the first of many to come on this transatlantic voyage.