{"id":20884,"date":"2014-06-05T01:00:53","date_gmt":"2014-06-05T08:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cruisingdoneright.com\/?p=20884"},"modified":"2014-06-05T01:00:53","modified_gmt":"2014-06-05T08:00:53","slug":"thursday-96","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/?p=20884","title":{"rendered":"Only Azamara Cruisers in Normandy on D-Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tomorrow, on the shores of northern France, the free world will remember. It will remember that 70 years ago, armies of four nations (Great Britain, France, Canada and the U.S.) stormed the beaches of Normandy in what turned out to be the beginning of the end of World War II.<\/span><\/p>\n

D-Day.<\/p>\n

The armies left behind a trail of tragedy: thousands of dead soldiers, disabled and sunken vessels and code names that became familiar names of the beaches — Utah, \"Juno<\/a>Juno, Omaha, Gold and Sword — that are in the French vocabulary and on maps of France to this day. It is good to remember and, for those who still can, it is also painful.<\/p>\n

And this has what to do with cruising?<\/p>\n

Cruise ships occasionally land at Cherbourg<\/a>, a pretty city not far from the beaches. Ironically, on the 70th anniversary of D-Day tomorrow, there will be but one ship in port: Azamara's<\/a> Journey. Cherbourg isn't exactly a hotspot for cruise ships and only a handful of big ones are still on the schedule for 2014: Queen Mary 2<\/a>, Queen Victoria<\/a>, Holland America's Prinsendam<\/a>, Celebrity's Constellation<\/a> and two from Costa Cruises<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our visit, four years ago, was during the Celebrity<\/a> Eclipse's re-positioning cruise to begin its 2010 European season. It gave us a chance to do something we'd often talked about doing: visit the beaches.<\/p>\n

They're up to 90 minutes from the port and the only way, really, to visit them is by renting a car. So we did, getting as far as Juno Beach, where we spent so much time \"Normandy\"<\/a>that we barely made it back to the Eclipse<\/a> before it left to cross the Straits of Dover<\/a>. Both our fathers had crossed the ocean to fight in World War II and, while neither was in Normandy on D-Day — if they had, maybe we wouldn't be here — our visit made for a moving day in towns and villages occupied by people who never do forget.<\/p>\n

Somehow, we don't think our Dads crossed the ocean in anything remotely resembling the palatial vessel that is the Eclipse. They certainly weren't sitting in a breakfast buffet 13 stories above the water wondering what kind of croissant to have with their coffee in the morning, and we can only guess they could likely feel every whitecap hitting the hull that encased their cramped sleeping quarters.<\/p>\n

The Eclipse was in port for maybe eight hours. Tomorrow, the Journey<\/a> will be in Cherbourg for 18 hours, from six in the morning until midnight.<\/p>\n

On D-Day, how appropriate is that?<\/p>\n

Today at Phil Reimer's <\/span><\/a>portsandbows.co<\/span><\/a>m: The latest in cruise news<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Royal Caribbean Vision of the Seas<\/a>
\n\t4 nights<\/span>
\n\tJuly 31, 2014<\/span>
\n\tFort Lauderdale<\/a> (return): <\/span>Cozumel<\/a>
\n\tInside: $399<\/span>
\n\tCost per day: $99<\/strong><\/span>
\n\twww.royalcaribbean.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tomorrow, on the shores of northern France, the free world will remember. It will remember that 70 years ago, armies of four nations (Great Britain, France, Canada and the U.S.) stormed the beaches of Normandy in what turned out to be the beginning of the end of World War II. D-Day. The armies left behind… Continue reading Only Azamara Cruisers in Normandy on D-Day<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,32,25,31,15],"tags":[143,535,137,743,138,451,600,1005,912,72,819,35,1268,1050,1269,994,26,27,242,268,33,810],"class_list":["post-20884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cruise-industry-news","category-deals","category-people","category-ports","category-stories","tag-azamara","tag-azamara-journey","tag-caribbean-cruises","tag-celebrity-constellation","tag-celebrity-cruises","tag-celebrity-eclipse","tag-cherbourg","tag-costa-cruises","tag-cruise-bargains","tag-cruise-deals","tag-cruise-news","tag-cruises","tag-d-day","tag-holland-america-prinsendam","tag-normandy","tag-northern-europe","tag-phil-reimer","tag-ports-and-bows","tag-queen-mary-2","tag-queen-victoria","tag-royal-caribbean","tag-royal-caribbean-vision-of-the-seas","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20884\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}