Surprise Landing at D-Day's Utah Beach

When a cruise itinerary changes, the choices come down to whining about what will be missed or making the best of what will be.

We would not begin as scheduled with a relaxing sea day followed by our first port of call in La Coruna, Spain. We learned upon boarding Caribbean Princess that a tropical storm forced cancellation of our much-anticipated first stop in northern Spain.

Instead, we would postpone that sea day and proceed the next morning to Cherbourg, France.

As Doris Day famously sang in an Alfred Hitchcock movie, Que Sera, Sera.

While awaiting word of what Princess excursions would be available, Julie and I began searching Viator for day tours.  We found none were available.  Shore Excursions Group arranges tours based on the scheduled itinerary, and this was too late in the game for that.

Mike and Linda headed to the shore excursions desk before most of us knew Cherbourg had opened for booking.  They secured an excursion to D-Day landing-site Utah Beach and the village of Sainte-Mère-Église.

On a transatlantic cruise a few years back, Mike and Linda had booked a D-Day excursion and been disappointed when the port was cancelled, so they jumped on this serendipitous opportunity. 

Mike tried to message me on the Princess app, but one of the few remaining annoyances of Medallion is that you can send messages but there is not an audio notification for the receiver when it arrives.

Nonetheless, we soon learned of their plan and immediately signed up for the same morning tour.  

After all, this was a great opportunity to visit an American landing beach from D-Day, an important pivot point in World War II when the push to drive Nazis from France began in earnest.  It's a great site for all freedom-loving people.

$189.95 for this 4-hour excursion seemed steep.  For the money, I think a 6-hour tour would have been more appropriate, allowing a more leisurely pace to appreciate the stops.  But at least we received our Princess Captain's Club Elite 10% discount off that price.  We'd already found there was no viable alternative, so we made the best of fate.  C’est la vie.

As it turns out, upon checking current prices for Princess excursions from Cherbourg, ours was not out of line.

After morning cappuccinos and breakfast, we headed to the excursion meeting room and received a sticker identifying our group.  Mike and Linda were already waiting at a table, wearing stickers with a different number.  I went to ask if anything could be done, but it was too late to change.  Soon, we were following our respective leaders to the gangway.

It was raining in Cherbourg when we arrived, making me question why this was a better alternative than La Coruna weather-wise, but of course we arrived a day early.  As we would learn later in the trip, the rain in Spain may fall mainly on the plain, but on this particular week, it would rain unusually hard on the beautiful people of Costa Del Sol.

Once again, we found having a guided excursion makes all the difference.  The town of Cherbourg seemed unremarkable as we passed through and hit the winding roads toward Utah Beach.  

As we drove, our guide provided an excellent commentary about the famous landing of the British, Canadians and Americans on D-Day.

The Brits took two beaches, Canadians one and the American troops landed on Omaha Beach and Utah Beach.

Utah Beach was the real landing site for one of the Niland Brothers that was the inspiration for Saving Private Ryan.  

The movie plot unfolds at Omaha Beach, where there was greater carnage than Utah Beach, presumably better cinematically for Spielberg.

The landing party on Utah Beach was actually blown off course by strong currents, so they fortunately did not meet the fangs of German resistance upon landing.  They were a bit more distant from their ultimate goal, capturing the important port city of Cherbourg, but I would call that a blessing overall.

Interestingly, General Erwin Rommel, the famous German whose Afrika Korps played such a huge role in that desert war arena across the Med, was transferred to the French coast in preparation for an anticipated Allied invasion.

In seventh grade, I did a research paper on Rommel.  I came away believing he was a good general on the wrong side of history.

Rommel warned the top echelon of the Third Reich that if he were the Allies, Normandy is where he would attack.  

He reinforced artillery bunkers on high ground a good distance from the beaches.  With proper positioning and calculations, the guns would fire shells at approaching ships out of sight of enemy fire from the sea. 

With limited resources, including troops, Rommel could not protect all possible landing spots, just the most likely from a military perspective.  That worked to the Americans' advantage at Utah Beach. 

The Allies did a good job of keeping their true invasion plans secret.  They fed the Nazis propaganda that convinced Hitler the invasion from the west would attack through an entirely different zone.  

Nonetheless, thousands of Allied soldiers were killed or wounded on D-Day, though fewer on Utah Beach than the others.

The only action we saw that day we visited were horses racing along pulling chariots in preparation for harness racing.  This trotting on wet sand is apparently the norm in late fall, because our guide told us we might see that.

The stops we made were literally dampened by rain, and we almost missed one of the main viewing spots thinking it was just a place for restrooms and cafe based on what the guide said as we got off the bus.

This misunderstanding reminded me of our experience at Culloden Battlefield and perhaps missing the point of our guide's instructions, but we hadn't learned that lesson to be mindful completely.

Our tour continued with a visit to the charming village of Sainte-Mère-Église, where Allies paratroopers perilously dropped behind enemy lines illuminated by an untimely fire.

A parachute still hangs on the beautiful church as a monument to their bravery.

D-Day action that unfolded in Sainte-Mère-Église was immortalized in The Longest Day, an international-ensemble docudrama. We made a note to see that flick and re-watch Saving Private Ryan upon returning home.

We took a pleasant tour of the beautiful church led by our guide.

He gave us enough time to walk around the village a bit, but we did not feel we had sufficient time to visit the museums here or at Utah Beach.  I learned later that museums were open and free for those who took quick peaks.

As mentioned previously, I thought the price for this excursion warranted another two hours on the tour, but even one more hour would have been helpful for enjoying a relaxed coffee at a cafe to soak in the ambiance or shop.  The merchants would have surely appreciated that, too.

In all fairness, the tour ultimately ran about 4 1/2 hours.

The tight turnaround schedule allowed Princess to run an afternoon repeat of the same tour.  It turned out to be sunnier for them.

With so many cruisers wanting to experience this port and little time to set up tours, Princess probably did the best they could on such short notice.

We talked about going out to explore Cherbourg after lunch, but as we took the bus back to the ship, we didn't feel the urge to return to what looked to be a rather unspectacular town.

With Princess Plus or similar beverage packages on top of all the wonderful free dining on cruises, it becomes hard to justify searching the town for a quintessential watering hole where we have to pay for our drinks and snacks.

We have plenty of lovely venues on board as well.

Still, no one should let those creature comforts on their floating resort stop them from enjoying local eateries to soak in local flavor any more than being comfortable at home should stop us from enjoying a nice time on the town.

We enjoyed our surprise landing in Normandy during this 80th Anniversary year of historic D-Day.

More of Julie's Photos

More of Wes's Photos

I dropped my phone and accidentally took this photo.

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Bonus!  Mike and Linda's Photos