We left the hotel at 730am today to head to the port to board our cruise ship for the rest of the trip. We are on Princess Cruise Lines, our ship is the Crown Princess, Baja Deck, cabin B615 with balcony.

On the way we stopped at Stone Henge for about 1.5 hours. It was very crowded as it is Saturday. Amazing sight, and I'm glad we stopped there.

We arrived at the Southampton Dock around 1pm. At check-in, I denied turning over my passport (at the behest of the Irish government) and I was informed that I would be woken up at 4am for an Immigration check at each port in Ireland, and that I could be prevented from exiting the ship in Ireland. I said "OK", but I am holding onto my passport and I will see if the immigration officers come to rouse me at 4am (I highly doubt it). I knew I only needed to be inspected and admitted to Ireland once as a visitor, not at each port, and turning over my international travel and identity document to Princess Cruise Lines was NOT going to happen. I do not know how many other people refused to turn theirs over. We were not informed of this in advance, and many felt in-easy turning over their passports to be held until August 24th. Those who did were only given a little yellow slip of paper as a "receipt" from the cruise line, not even an official receipt from Irish Immigration.

We had our requisite emergency drill on the ship at 4:15pm, and I am all showered and feeling less grimy.

Our cabin boy is Joel Tuva, from the Philippines.