Monday July 13, 2026
We had a “fustercluck” of a day here. Sometimes things just
don’t work out as planned.
We prebooked the HOHO with the DART train that picked up
near the ship. Cruise
Ship Dublin Shore Excursions
We went to the designated Elite tender area and were
instantly given a number and said follow me I’ll get you on the next water
shuttle. Wow, that was too easy! They weren’t supposed to start until 7:30 and
we got on at 7:00. Off to a good start! The seas weren’t that rough but there
was a lady we were sitting with, and she was worried she’d get sick. Her friend
and I kept her talking to keep her mind off it and she did fine.
We have used many HOHO’s around the world and most work quite well. This one didn’t work for us. (Buenos Aires was worse) We asked the guy at the Dart Station how to handle our voucher for the train. He pointed us to the window. We presented them to the ticket guy, and he told us to just go to the platform. (he was supposed to convert our vouchers to actual tickets)
So, when we got to the station in town, we couldn’t get out as we had no
tickets to scan to open the turnstile. Luckily, a kind young man said quickly
follow me.
Out on the street we weren’t anywhere near where we were to
meet the HOHO. Instructions said go to Pearse Station or Tara Street Station
for the most convenient access to the DoDublin HOHO Bus. (not for stop 1-
though that was not explained) So, we walked about a half an hour getting to
stop 1. The DoDublin office wasn’t open yet, but a nice man named Michael said
he would work out our train tickets and to ask for him personally when we got
back around to stop 1.
Our plan was to ride it all the way around and get off at the 2nd to last stop to tour Kilmainham Gaol (Jail). As we got up to exit the bus the guide announced that if you didn’t already have tickets, you wouldn’t be able to get in. The website went into great detail that the Guiness Tour definitely needed advance reservations but nothing about the jail needing them. (I should have looked into that prior, my fault) So, we stayed on and got off at Dublin Castle. Only to find out you couldn’t really even see it. It was closed to the public because the venue serves as the main Irish base for the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
There were many museums we could have visited in our time, but they were closed on Mondays. It was also very frustrating that the live commentator never referred to the stop numbers. (hard to know where to get off) We found it was even harder to find where to get back on. The sign was tiny and the stop number was the size of a postage stamp. Not easy to see from the top of the bus.
We got back on the HOHO and got off at the next stop for St Patrick's and Christ Church Cathedrals. Christ Church was closed as they were having a service (on a Monday morning) Be prepared for lots of bad photos from the top of the bus.
We missed St Patrick’s as we didn’t think we had time to get off the bus and reboard after visiting and make it back to Stop 1 to talk to Michael and have lunch before our 2:30 reservation at the Guinness Storehouse. We mused that after several hours we actually had done nothing! Yes, we passed many things we could have visited. So, we could say we saw them.
We went in to find Michael and the guy inside called him and
said he’d be there shortly. He didn’t have the train tickets and thought we
were done touring and ready to go back to the train station and he would take
us there. We said that we had tickets for Guinness at 2:30 and were headed to
lunch. He said, when you are finished, I will be here with your train tickets and told us the latest we could be and still make the correct train.
We had a great lunch at St. Omalley’s Pub of Irish Beef
& Guinness Stew. (discount for using DoDublin) It came with a pile of
mashed potatoes on it and was very tasty. It was so dark in there we had to use our phones to see the menu and getting photos was a challenge.
We rode the HOHO to the stop for the Guinness Storehouse and
made it on time! Buy
Tickets for Tours & Experiences | Guinness Storehouse
We booked the one with the tour and the Gravity Bar that
came with a half pint of Guinness or soda (you could choose the full pint
option) The tour was self-guided and well done. We waited for the elevators to
take us up to the 360* Gravity Bar. I tasted Greg’s Guinness (which isn’t bad
actually) and I had a Diet Coke. Of course, you were able to order more if you
wanted and pay for it separately. It appeared many were enjoying the experience
to the fullest! There were beautiful views of the city all around. It was jam
packed and we finally nabbed a table and another couple asked if they could
join us.
In case you were wondering, the Harp is national symbol of
Ireland and Guinness uses a harp as a symbol to proudly show that it is an
Irish beer, based on a famous historical Irish harp and trademarked in 1876.
By the time we rode the HOHO back around to Stop 1 it
was time to see if we could find Michael with our train tickets. He did explain
to us earlier that we should have found the booth with “their people” not go
directly to the train station. We asked how we would know we should have done
that since it wasn’t in the instructions for use. He agreed.
Anyway, he saw us arriving and was right at the bus door
when we got off and he handed us our tickets. He then talked to the driver and
told him to drop us directly at the closest train station, (stop 4 on the HOHO,
not stop 1) skipping the other stops to get us there on time. Hopefully, our
experience will help them with being more informative on their website. We also could have just bought our train tickets on the day and that would have solved that issue.
While we had a chaotic day, missing most of what Dublin has
to offer and only had time for lunch and one really expensive beer experience,
Michael really went the extra mile with his Irish hospitality. (missed the jail
& St Patrick’s, and there was another route that included the Docklands
that should have fit into a day)
We got the DART back to the ship and as we were leaving the
station, we saw a kiosk (that wasn’t open when we got the train that morning)
where we should have converted our voucher for train tickets. Then we zero in
on the LONG line for the tenders. It went for blocks. We arrived at 5:30 and we
got on the ship at 7:00. A couple of Big Bus Princess tours arrived after us
and the line got even longer. We passed the time chatting with a mother and 2
adult daughters. One noticed my World Cruise sweatshirt and that led to pretty
much our life story after retiring and all of our travels. We said people either
think we are crazy or say, “you really know how to retire”. The daughter had
treated her sister and mom with this cruise, and they were interesting to talk
to. She said she was inspired to like us when she retires. They were doing ship
tours and asked about doing private tours. We talked about what they did that
day and what we did. The mom said it was comforting to know that seasoned
travelers can have a bad day. (bad being relative as we just laughed it off and
accepted that we saw what we saw and enjoyed it)
Since it was so late, we ate at the buffet and skipped the
show. I wanted to see it as it was a production show called Sweet Soul Music. We learned later that the tenders had been suspended for a long time that
morning due to rough seas. Even when they were running people said there
were many people scrapping their plans and not getting on the tenders. So, I guess
that explains the long tender line and Princess tours getting back so late. (makes
our day look better as we got off and on and the seas weren’t that rough) There
was one lady on the tender that they got a barf bag for “just in case”.
Everyone understandably let her off first when we got back to reboard the ship.
Tomorrow, we visit Belfast.
Web Albums: https://photos.app.goo.gl/cq2L5fLhhEM65RA5A
