Welcome again to a different month-to-month replace from Root of Good! We spent half the month of Might within the British Isles cruising round Scotland, Eire, and England. After a pit cease in Raleigh for a couple of weeks, we’re again on the highway once more in June for one more European cruise.
Whereas in Raleigh, we loved the nice and cozy springtime climate and fantastic thing about the outside. Our two grownup children are busy with their first post-college jobs. Our son is wrapping up his center college profession, with commencement in one other couple of days.
Faculty is sort of out which implies summertime is correct across the nook! We’ll be gone for a lot of the the rest of June however we plan to spend your complete month of July at house. After that, we’ve got a brief household journey to California deliberate in August earlier than the again to highschool occasions begin in mid-August for our son.
Let’s bounce into the recap of final month!
Monetary Replace
On the revenue facet Might was a really mild month of funding revenue, with just some hundred {dollars} in dividends. June needs to be a lot better for funding revenue since dividends receives a commission on the finish of every quarter sometimes.
On the spending facet, Might was a bit larger than regular. We paid the annual house insurance coverage premium and the six-month auto insurance coverage invoice. I “charged” every child $250 to cowl their portion of the auto insurance coverage invoice, so the a part of the invoice that I paid wasn’t that massive.
The spending on our cruise was fairly low. I booked a number of Ubers and a rental automotive, plus a dozen bus/practice/metro tickets. Apart from that we didn’t spend an excessive amount of out of pocket on this final cruise.
On the web price facet, we’re nonetheless above $4 million on the finish of Might. The online price continues to carry regular. The trendline for 2026 is certainly upwards up to now.
Might Recap
We flew to London and hopped aboard the Majestic Princess for a 12 night time cruise across the British Isles with a fast stopover in France. Many of those ports had been repeats from earlier cruises however we additionally hit a couple of new spots too.
12 night time cruise across the British Isles
We’ve got a really handy nonstop flight from Raleigh to London. So we hop on the airplane within the night, get a couple of hours sleep (possibly!), stroll out of the airport after a seven hour flight, and find yourself on our cruise round midday on the next day.
Coming house from London is even simpler because it’s a daytime flight. We landed in Raleigh round 5:00 pm native time.
Our every day cruise itinerary:
- Southampton, UK (departure)
- Falmouth, England (cancelled as a result of 30 mph winds!)
- Cobh, Eire (horrible rain; didn’t get off ship)
- Liverpool, England (visited close by metropolis of Chester)
- Belfast, Northern Eire
- Glasgow (Greenock), Scotland
- Orkney Islands (Kirkwall), Scotland
- Invergordon, Scotland
- Edinburgh (through South Queensferry)
- Le Havre, France
- Return to Southampton
The cruise began out with fairly good climate. Someday after we left Southampton, a storm kicked up within the English Channel and we missed our first port of name in Falmouth, England as a result of excessive winds.
The following day we had been in Cobh, Eire with heavy rains persevering with. We simply visited Cobh twice final 12 months and didn’t need to courageous the chilly rain and wind this time round. I spent the afternoon within the scorching tub as an alternative of getting off the ship.
Chester, England
Since we visited Liverpool final 12 months, I searched for one more metropolis to go to whereas docked in Liverpool. The close by metropolis of Chester was a brief 45 minute journey away by metro (actually extra of a practice). We walked about 10 minutes to the metro station from the ship, hopped on, and rapidly reached town of Chester for a day of exploration.
Chester dates again to a minimum of the Roman period, nearly 2,000 years in the past. We loved strolling across the previous metropolis partitions and among the many tudor-style homes lining the streets of the historic middle of city. In addition they have a pleasant assortment of church buildings, parks, and bridges.
I had by no means heard of Chester earlier than so it was an excellent shock to seek out such an fascinating metropolis in shut proximity to our cruise port of name.
A number of years in the past we watched a documentary sequence known as “Cruising the Lower” that adopted a man that lived in a canal boat whereas motoring across the canals of England. We managed to catch a fast glimpse of the canals in London on a earlier journey however didn’t have a lot time to take a great look.
In Chester, a serious canal runs by way of town so we received to see the canal boats and locks up shut whereas exploring town. The small canal boats look cool however I feel I’ll preserve crusing on the large cruise ships for now.
Large’s Causeway exterior Belfast, Northern Eire
We docked in Belfast, Northern Eire the following day. Since we had a protracted day in port, with a late departure of 8:00 pm, we determined to hire a automotive and go to the Large’s Causeway about 1.5 hours from Belfast.
It was my first time driving within the UK. I used to be shocked at how difficult it was!
Nearly a decade in the past I drove on the left within the Bahamas, a former British colony. And it was not that difficult. Nonetheless, the Bahamas rental automotive had the steering wheel on the left, so driving the automotive felt acquainted. In Belfast and the remainder of the UK, the steering wheels are on the proper, so I felt misplaced and struggled to middle the automotive within the highway.
Finally we made our solution to the northern shore of Eire the place we visited the Large’s Causeway. An incredible spectacle.
On the drive again to the port, we took the scenic route for some time. Finally I gave up and headed towards the freeway to hurry up our return to the ship. We had been operating out of time and the slim backcountry roads proved intimidating within the big SUV the rental automotive gave me for the day. Nonetheless a blast, nonetheless!
Glasgow, Scotland
Our subsequent port of name was Greenock, Scotland. On a earlier cruise we had explored Greenock extensively. Prepared for a change, we took a brief practice journey to the close by metropolis of Glasgow about half-hour away.
We took the subway a pair miles throughout city and commenced our exploration of town. Alongside the best way we visited the college, the massive central park, and a mixed historical past and artwork museum.
Kirkwall within the Orkney Islands, Scotland
We had been scheduled to go to the Orkney Islands on a cruise final 12 months however excessive winds prevented our ship from docking. This time round we made it!
Kirkwall is a small city within the Orkney Islands. The Orkney islands are located simply off the northern tip of the Scottish mainland. Kirkwall is a fairly city with out a lot occurring. Even with the cruise ship on the town it didn’t really feel significantly crowded. We strolled round city and visited the cathedral, the native museum, and did slightly window purchasing.
Invergordon, Scotland
This was our third go to to Invergordon within the final twelve months. It’s normally a brief port name and pretty distant, so we didn’t trouble taking the bus or practice into the bigger close by cities. As a substitute, we walked up Citadel Road to the citadel that hasn’t been there for a while.
We preserve going again on the identical path again and again as a result of the surroundings adjustments with the seasons. The primary time we visited within the spring it was luscious and inexperienced with the wheat waving within the wind. Then in summertime after the harvest, it was brown and lifeless and it smelled like that they had simply plowed rooster manure into the sphere (yeah, gross!).
This Might, the identical patch of fields had been filled with colour and vitality. The intense yellow of canola flowers (rapeseed vegetation) stretching from edge to edge.
Edinburgh, Scotland
We visited Edinburgh once more after visiting town final 12 months. We didn’t get an opportunity to go to the citadel on our final go to because it takes a minimum of half a day to see it in full. This time, we booked superior entry tickets for the citadel and made it the point of interest of our Edinburgh journey.
Le Havre, France
Our final port of name was Le Havre, France. We booked spherical journey practice tickets to go to Rouen for the day. It’s solely an hour from Le Havre by practice. Nonetheless we rapidly realized our day won’t prove as deliberate when the practice’s departure time rolled round and the practice didn’t transfer an inch.
After the French-speaking passengers let loose a collective sigh in response to the temporary garbled announcement over the practice’s intercom, we figured it wasn’t excellent news despite not understanding a little bit of the announcement.
I pulled up the practice line’s app and noticed the delay notifications for our scheduled departure. We had been delayed an hour however there was a second delay anticipated to final 4 extra hours as a result of a downed tree on the tracks.
Station workers had been of minimal help, probably as a result of a language barrier however low high quality service appeared to be the expectation amongst the French talking passengers we talked to.
After ready a bit over an hour, we ultimately determined to surrender on our day journey to Rouen and simply stroll the scenic route again to the ship to burn a few hours. Quickly after getting off the practice, we noticed the practice pull out of the station. I assume they cleared the downed tree earlier than anticipated however we missed the practice. It’s simply in addition to we wouldn’t have had a lot time in Rouen earlier than having to return to Le Havre and get again on our ship.
Ideas on the British Isles Cruise
Regardless that this was our third time cruising the British Isles within the final 12 months, I nonetheless loved this cruise so much. Every port had one thing fascinating to see even when it was our second or third time visiting the identical place.
We missed one port fully as a result of climate. At one other port it was so wet we determined to skip venturing into city. And at a 3rd port, a prolonged practice delay tousled our plans to go to the previous city in Rouen, France.
One factor we’ve discovered about cruise journey is to be versatile. Climate interruptions are frequent and might change your itinerary fairly a bit. We had a good time and received to see and do the whole lot we needed in six out of 9 ports on our cruise. And the three days of interrupted plans simply meant we had three extra days to loosen up and benefit from the cruise ship.
The Majestic Princess ship itself is fairly good, which is lucky since we’ve got three extra cruises deliberate on this ship within the subsequent couple of years. Good meals, good music, and entertaining reveals. In the event that they turned the new tub down a couple of levels it will be excellent!
The logistics of getting there and again aren’t too unhealthy both. A comparatively fast transatlantic flight and we’re in England. It’s truly faster than a few of our flights from Raleigh to the west coast.
As standard, we booked the journey nearly solely with factors and miles and paid comparatively little out of pocket.
Get free journey like us
In case you are fascinated about getting free journey out of your bank card like I do, contemplate the Chase Ink enterprise playing cards (my referral hyperlink). Proper now, the Chase Ink playing cards provide an above common $750-1000 price of Chase Final Rewards factors that may be redeemed immediately for $750-1000 in money (or much more for journey!).
Chase is fairly liberal relating to “what’s a enterprise”. In case you promote stuff on eBay or Craigslist or do some odd jobs sometimes then you have got a enterprise and will get a bank card as a “sole proprietor”.
I exploit the 90,000 Chase Final Rewards factors from my current provide by transferring them to my Chase Sapphire Reserve card (additionally providing a 150,000 level join bonus proper now). I can switch these Final rewards factors to over a dozen journey companions’ airline/resort packages like United, Southwest, or Hyatt. For instance, I transferred 6,500 Final Rewards factors to Hyatt and used them to ebook a $300/night time room that sleeps 5 in the course of the peak season within the Virginia mountains.
Capital One Enterprise X card
One other favourite journey card in my pockets is the Capital One Enterprise X card. The Enterprise X card is a “keeper” for me. First off, it comes with a $750 join bonus after spending $4,000 within the first three months. The bonus is paid within the type of 75,000 bonus factors you can redeem in opposition to any journey purchases from anyplace. You then earn a stable 2 factors per greenback spent eternally! The opposite massive perk is airport lounge entry. You get free entry for your self into Precedence Move and Capital One airport lounges (friends price additional since February 1, 2026). Add to this main rental automotive insurance coverage protection and a bunch of different perks.
The Capital One Enterprise X card does have one catch – a $395 annual payment. However they reward you yearly with a simple to make use of $300 journey low cost plus $100 price of factors. Collectively, that makes $400 they provide you yearly which fully offsets the annual payment. For the reason that annual payment is offset in full by journey credit every year, I personally plan on holding the Enterprise X card eternally for the reason that card advantages are so nice.
Closing ideas
I’ve loved the previous few weeks of peace and quiet at house. A trip from my trip! We had loads of time to analysis our upcoming Norway/Iceland journey and refine the plans for another future travels as properly.
Our portfolio is doing properly, though the information stays as scary as ever. It’s greatest to ignore the information. And let the portfolio do what it’ll.
As summer season rolls round, our oldest daughter is about to hit her one 12 months anniversary at work. Our different daughter is making an attempt to succeed in an enormous monetary milestone – hitting $100,000 of investments earlier than turning 20! She’s very shut however her success is admittedly depending on how a lot the inventory market goes up between now and the top of summer season.
Lastly, we’re mere days away from celebrating our son’s commencement from center college and transferring upward to highschool within the fall.
Time goes on, and we’re making an attempt to benefit from it!
Okay, that’s it for me this month. See you subsequent month!
Who’s prepared for summer season??!!
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