The Waltons on tour!

A visit to the Titanic Quarter in Belfast has been on our To Do list for a while.  Trying to organise the seven of us to be in the one place at the one time took a mountain of organising – never  mind sorting the hens and delivering two little dogs and two kittens to a  neighbour for the weekend.

Ellie and Kate

We settled on November 21st and decided to make a weekend of it.  The older kids were travelling from Dublin, but from Carlow, Belfast is quite a trek.  This was never going to be an inexpensive trip with seven of us, but three hotel rooms for two nights in Belfast city centre would have been outrageously expensive.

Eamonn and his baby girl Ruth

After a bit of research we all agreed on a three bedroom apartment overlooking the sea in Newcastle, Co Down.  Not only was it the best value, but it meant the drive for the Carlow contingency was more than manageable.

Joe with his girlfriend Edel brings our family headcount up to seven…

It was also far more relaxing for a family gathering than staying in a hotel.  We had great chats over glasses of wine or mugs of hot chocolate in the evenings.  We kick started the mornings with a walk by the sea.  We laughed a lot.  It was perfect.

Titanic First Class Menu

Our trip to the Titanic Quarter didn’t disappoint either – we were really impressed.  With three student discounts and a family rate for the rest of us, the entry cost for the Titanic Experience was £72.  It was worth every penny.  What with the special effects, full scale reconstructions and vast amount of interactive features, the hours just slipped away.

We were ravenous when we finished up so my advice is to eat before you start the tour.  We ended up eating in a Mexican themed restaurant in the city centre and the food was overpriced and the service poor – but we were really hungry and just picked the first restaurant that had availabilty.  Lesson learned. Apart from that, we enjoyed some great food, excellent service, the people were really friendly and I highly recommend both the Titanic Experience and a stay in the seaside town of Newcastle.

And now it’s back to reality – work, homework, final year exam stress and Christmas preparations.  I might have had to use every single ounce of my organisational skills to make this weekend happen but it was so worth it.

Why not put the Titanic Experience on your 2015 TO DO list?

Fiona

PS: I’ll be  back soon with a little competition to win a signed copy of Food from an Irish Garden – it’s a perfect Christmas gift for someone you love.

Disclosure

I was not invited to Co Down or paid to write this blogpost.  I booked our accommodation through holidaylettings.co.uk and bought our Titanic tickets on the day of our visit (although these can be prebooked online).  If you would like more information on our accommodation, please contact me directly.