Day 15 (May 17) Cherbourg

We arrived in Cherbourg around 8am and because we had no shore excursion involving travel planned, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast in the Lido.  The ship was quickly cleared for disembarkation and we finally left the ship a bit after nine.  The museum we wanted to visit was literally adjoining where we were docked so we waited for its 9:30am opening and were among the first in it.

We first did a full tour of France's first nuclear submarine, Le Redoutable.  They gave a very nice portable audio system to guide one through the ship.  Following that we took a Disney type ride that simulated riding a submersible on the sea floor.  A visit to the Titanic exhibit followed that.  Cherbourg was one of the last stops for that ill-fated ship.  After a quick lunch in the museum  cafe we spent the rest of our time in the very nice acquarium.  All of this left us a couple hours left over so we caught a ship's shuttle to downtown and walked around before walking back to the ship.  Once onboard, we met with the future cruise consultant to book a 45 day 2017 cruise before enjoying a nice dinner in the main dining room, level 2.  I had the prime rib.

For some reason the ship didn't depart on time, and the captain came on the PA system to announce first that there was going to be a possible cancellation of the next port of LeHavre due to a French general strike that cancelled all shore excursions by the tour operators.  Later on during dinner, the Captain came back on and said we officially would be cancelling the port call and that HAL would come up with some alternatives for Cherbourg. A few minutes later Jonathan the CD came on the PA system announcing 3 new options for tomorrow and that the free port shuttle would operate tomorrow as well.

We then went to a cast show of Billboard Top Hits which was probably one of the finest HAL cast shows I've ever seen.  The tribute to Whitney Houston with Whitney singing on the big screens accompanied by the cast singer was so poignant.  The Beatles tribute was also quite good as was the Chicago tribute.  The World Stage venue was packed!

Afterwards we went up to the Lido for some tea and I'm trying to figure out with our tour organizer whether we'll attempt to go to Mont St. Michel tomorrow from Cherbourg.

I  note that Cherbourg is a major ferry port with service to the UK and Ireland.  I made note of that for a possible future motorcycle trip to Ireland.