Live (sort of as usual) from the Celebrity Silhouette 10/20/22

[Orator]

31 minutes ago, MikeMary4449 said:

Hope you and DW have a fantastic cruise.  Wish we were going with you!

Be well. We'll be thinking of you.

[abbydancer2003]

Greetings from the United Polaris lounge, formerly the United Club in the International terminal.

 

Today went pretty much as I expected - woke up, took care of things including the lab, posting our roll call, paying a bill or two, and finishing packing.  At about 2:45 we turned of the AC, turned of all the lights and left.  We went to see my mom, who is looking better every day.  (She reports the food isn't great, but better than the hospital).  She's still on oxygen, so can't really walk far yet, but she is feeling better.  I'll call her every couple of days.  The mystery of her missing device remains.

 

My sister was there, so she decided to head out.  We stayed for about a half hour and then headed to mom's for our ride.  

 

Before we could leave, Glen had to take out her garbage cans for Monday AM pickup.  The challenge is that he wants to park in the driveway, but has to park near the gate to leave room for mom's car,  which blocks the gate.  So, he parks halfway, moves the cans, and then moves the car up.  Someones going to have to repeat tomorrow.  

 

After that was done, it was off to the airport.  Took about 25 minutes, and we were dropped just under 3 hours from our flight.  Checking in was fast and easy, security didn't take long and 1:45 before boarding we entered the Polaris lounge.  Since we didn't have lunch, we went to the restaurant for a snack.  Glen selected a raman bowl and I had two starters - pea soup and a cheese plate.  The problem was, they brought the appetizers first,  but not his main dish ramen.  When we asked where it was, the server offered a shrimp cake.  Glen said yes, and it arrived just after the ramen did.  We kind of shared it.  Then, since he was eating and I was done, I had some lemon something which was somewhere between a mouse and a pudding.  

 

After that we parked ourselves in some chairs, and we're now 35 minutes from boarding and I'm going to try to post my view.

 

[mchell810]

Hope you have a smooth flight. 😀

[abbydancer2003]

Now in our hotel room, trying to stay awake long enough to get up at a reasonable hour.

 

Just after 7, we boarded.  There was a biometric face reader there, and then the agent looked at your passport.  I took my seat which featured an array of bedding.  As usual, I can't figure out where to put it.

 

 

 

The menu was at the seat as well.

 

 

I first selected the short ribs, and then switched to chicken since I don't like chocolate.

 

The flight was exactly on time, even though we pushed about 5 minutes early.

 

I plugged in their headphones and decided to start with The Secrets of Dumbledore, since I'll often start with a movie I've seen due to the constant interruptions of early flight activities.

 

I'll go into the details on the next post tomorrow, because it's Monday night and I've been up most of the last 28 hours. Also my typing is getting really bad.

 

 

[abbydancer2003]

First, sorry for 3 copies of the menu.  I guess I was tired.

 

So moving on - after ordering dinner, I looked back to check on Glen.

Clearly, he's doing fine, so I went back to my movie.  Soon after we pushed for an ontime departure.  

 

After a starter of drinks and the usual first class mixed  nuts, they brought the tray.  To my surprise both the starter and the entree were on the same tray at the same time.  There was also a generic type of roll.  Hard to believe, in some ways, that this was International Polaris service, other than a printed menu, it looks the same as domestic first.  

 

Here's pictures, although I started eating before I remembered to take them.  Hopefully will get better over the course of the cruise.

 

This was OK.

 

Not bad, but the thing that looks kind of like an artichocke on the left?  That's a mushroom.

 

During dinner, I switched the movie to Lightyear.  That was pretty good.  

 

For my dessert choice, I had the 'egg custard' which was kind of a mini pie that was good, but with no flavor other than sweet.

 

After that movie, I went back to Secrets of Dumbledore, and watched the rest of that.  Then it was decision time.  Should I watch the Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings series?  Which would put me to sleep better.  

 

I chose Harry Potter, and started with the Sorcerers Stone.  Of course, movies never put me to sleep, so I paused it and rested for a while.    

 

And my battery is almost dead, so I'll stop for now.  If I'm up in in a while, I'll continue tonight.

[Norwaylady]

@abbydancer so happy to see that they gave you a proper duvet and mattress cover. And that you received a meny😁 Your dinner looked much more tempting then the brown ish they served us👍

 

Looking forward to follow🥰

 

[abbydancer2003]

we now resume.  I think I got about 2-3 hours of sleep, but maybe or maybe not.  In any case, I was up about 2.5 hours before the plane landed.  I figured at some point soon, they'd probably serve breakfast, so I resumed the movie.  About 45 minutes later, they turned on the lights and eventually served breakfast.  I had the gruyere coddled eggs, with the fried avocado and fried avocado with tomato hollandaise and turkey bacon.  I didn't get a picture, but it was odd.  It was sitting on a dish of turkey bacon that wasn't at all crisp.  Next to it was an avocado covered in what looked like fried breadcrumbs, with the hollandaise on top.  There was also a roll that looked like a croissant, but wasn't.  I think there was some fruit and yogurt also on the plate.  The egg was Ok, the avocado thing was odd but it tasted Ok,   Not their finest, but whatever food is sometimes food.

 

Once the movie ended, I put on the second movie, got a warning that. I wouldn't finish it in the 30 minutes left to the flight, but that was OK.  

 

We landed on time, and were at the gate roughly on time.  Although we were in the front of the plane, we we took our time in getting stuff back into the backpacks, so left probably after the first 20% or so did.  

 

We did see this sign walking through the terminal:

 We wondered if it will be the Kings terminal when we come back next time.

 

Customs was easy.  We were able to go to automated kiosk to scan our passport, look at our faces and we we done (I remember one previous trip, when I was going as the alternate to our dance team, and the customs guy asked why I was there, and I said "I have no idea")

 

Next stop was baggage claim.  Our bags came out fairly quickly.  We gathered them and headed out.  We found an information booth, and asked the best way to get to our hotel by Tube.  The person helping  gave us a printed route, and sold Glen a new Oyster card.  (I still had my old one).  We then walked quite a ways to the tube station, where I added money to my card and then we entered.  After about 4 minutes a train came going where we wanted.  We got on and sat, as it would be about a 45 minute ride.   Looking at the map on the wall  of the train, it didn't look like our transfer station was actually a transfer station, so I looked at google maps.  It said the same thing, so I decided to go with it.

 

Turned out it was, and we took the District Line to Westminster station.

 

Heading out, there wasn't an escalator (hadn't been at the transfer station either), so Glen carried both or suitcases (about the weights he uses in his workout).

We looked at the subway maps on the wall, and picked what we hoped was the best for our hotel.  We walked up the stairs (thanks again, Glen) and we routed across the Westminster bridge.  There were lots of people on the bridge, as it was around 3:45 by this time.  Right after the bridge was our hotel, The Marriott London County Hall.  (Learned later that it was the county hall from 1926-1989).  There were stairs into the hotel, but the front desk staff took our luggage, which was a great relief.

 

We quickly checked in and went to our room on the the 5th floor.  It was small, but nice.  

 

We took showers, and Glen rested for a few minutes and I checked out the lounge.  it turns out they have sodas and a coffee machine, but no real food - you order it between 5:30-7 from a small appetizer menu.

 

We were meeting a couple from our roll call at 7 at a restaurant called Cubana, about a 10 minute walk from the hotel.  We set out with google maps.  It was a little confusing, as there was a roundabout for the Waterloo train station.  We took a road that went under the tracks, and then had to walk down some stairs to get to the parallel road.  Three blocks down was the restaurant, and they were there, enjoying happy hour.  We got there at about 6:58, but nobody came by.  When the waiter came, we asked if we could have happy hour.  He said yes, and so we enjoyed 2 small margaritas.  We ordered dinner, I had ropa viega, one of my favorite cuban dishes.

 

At about 8:45, we were fading so we said goodnight and walked back.  The map app wanted to send us via a pedestrian tunnel, but it looked a little sketchy with graffiti artists, so we took the same tunnel we did before.  We got back to the hotel noticed this memorial in the entrance:

 

Then it was back to our room, work on the blog and to bed.  Tomorrow is a bucket list activity for me - Harry Potter studio tour.

 

 

[abbydancer2003]

I'm back and on the ship.  Didn't sleep last night so only one post today, but I'm now writing in text edit docs, because I've had problems with losing posts on ships.  FYI, we have a router in the room so may be better.

 

Anyway, first part of Tuesday:

Anyway, We got up around 9 to get to breakfast by 9:30 or 10.  It’s serviced until 10:30 in the Library of the hotel.  We arrived in plenty of time.  The choices are fairly limited, and it’s a menu, not a buffet like in many M clubs.  You get a cold ((bread, roll, yogurt, fruit, etc) and a hot.  The main hot is a British one pan breakfast (sausage, bacon steak, mushroom cap, tomato, baked beans, scrambled eggs, hash browns and toast.  There was also a vegan version available.  There were American Pancakes and a couple of other options.  Glen opted for the British breakfast and I had the American pancakes.  I had a cold starter of fruit, but Glen didn’t have one.  The pancakes were a little thick.  See picture below.

 

 

Glen realized that he needed toothpaste, and a cash machine, so he found some banks and a drug store on the far side of the river.  He wanted to go there before our visit to Warner Bros, but I didn’t think we had time.  We decided to walk across, and rather than go back to Waterloo station to board the Tube, we could do it at Embankment on the far side.

 

So we set out, walking along the river, past the London Eye, to the pedestrian bridge.  During the walk, we had a nice view of Big Ben.

 

[Susanb10567]

Enjoy your voyage…a transatlantic is on my short list so looking forward to following along.

[abbydancer2003]

Once we were across the bridge, we realized we didn’t have time to run the errand.  I thought we’d have time at the end, so we headed to the tube station.

 

We were off to North London to the WB studio for the Harry Potter set tour!  Definitely on my bucket list.   The route was Tube to Euston Station, and then transfer to the rail up to Watley Junction.  From there, a shuttle bus would take us to the studio tour.

 

The transportation worked well  When we arrived at the final station, there were signs to the shuttle, and a waiting area for it.  There was a bus there waiting, so we were on our way quickly.  It was about a 15 minute ride, with a tv on the bus explaining what we’d see.

 

After arriving we walked to the entrance scanned our tickets and walked into the entry hall.

 

 

In the back corner, there was a line to start the tour.  You walked through several  rooms, including the pages of the scripts and movie posters from around the world.  We were then ushered into a room where a short media presentation introduced the exhibit.  It included some history, and some thoughts from the actors on how to enjoy the exhibit.

First page of script:

 

We were then taken into a theater where a short film on the history of it.  Afterwards, the front of the theater opened and a guide led us not the great hall.  We learned a bit about the set, and were then set off on our own for the rest of the exhibits.  

 

I can’t really describe everything, there were sets, props, and costumes from all movies, with great descriptions of everything.  There were even death eaters.

 

Here’s a picture from the Quiddich exhibit.

 

 

 

And I'll stop for now, since I'm on ship wifi, and I don't completely trust it.

 

 

[abbydancer2003]

I'm back.  I'm not as far behind as it looks, since I've been doing bits and pieces.  We're currently back on the ship after our last port adventure, so with 7 seas I might. catch up before I'm done.

 

Here's the end of the first day in London.

 

I took a lot of pictures, at least until my phone died midway through. The charger I brought was also dead, I thought I’d charged them all, but I guess not.  Fortunately, Glen’s phone camera worked well, so we have pictures throughout.

 

We spent about 2.75 hours there (we started around 12:30 and left at about 3:15).  At the ext, you went through the gift shop, and I looked for a guidebook, and maybe a pin or magnet of the exhibit.  I found none of them, but as we walked out I saw you could get a guidebook at the exit, so yay I got it.

 

We waited just a few minutes for the shuttle and headed back to the train station.  There was a train leaving immediately, but Glen’s Oyster was out, so we had to refill it.  It wasn’t a big deal, because we wouldn’t have made it.  The next train was in 20 minutes, and we had plenty of time.  

 

We got back to our area in about 35 minutes, and found a bank and drug store.  

 

We went back to the hotel and decided to take our covid tests.  I’’d brought 3 of our Emed tests, in case of a problem.  Also, we thought we could give one to a fellow cruiser if they needed one.

 

Glen went first, because I still have a COR.  He started the test and realized that the box had no dropper with the reagent.  So we opened a second test and used that reagent.  

 

He did the test, and it was looking good, when the connection dropped.  Another guide came on and saw that he was doing the test, so restarted the timer.  So, his test took about 30 minutes, but was negative.

 

I used the last box for a negative test.  At this point it was about 6:20.  We’d planned on finishing by around 5:30, and going to the lounge for a snack and coffee before heading out to dinner.  We had about 10 minutes.  So we had lattes and some olives.

 

We headed out to the Duke of Sussux to meet Fred and Kandi, another roll call friend.  We’d spoken on the phone several times, and were traveling by train to Southampton tomorrow.  

 

We got there about 3 minutes late, and met Fred and Kandi, as well as some friends.  We had a very. nice time, and agreed to meet at the station tomorrow between 11:45 and noon.  On the way back, we took the graffiti tunnel because there were more people there.  It wasn’t bad at  all.

 

We went back to the hotel.  Once there we tried to figure out how to call the US, and couldn’t do it.  The hotel graciously figured it out and let me call my mom.  She’s doing well.

 

After that, back to the room and bed.  

[abbydancer2003]

On to day two of England - London to Southampton.  Posts should be coming fairly regularly now.  Is anyone still reading?

 

Today is the day we go to Southampton.  Our train leaves at 12:35 from Waterloo station.

 

We decided to get up at 9 for a leisurely breakfast.  Our bodies, however disagreed and we missed our alarm.  I woke up at about 10:11 and we threw on cloths to get down there by 10:30.  We arrived right at 10:30 and they said we could eat if we hurried.  I very quickly decided on the British one pan and Glen had a bagel with smoked salmon and I think eggs.  We ate fairly quickly, and then went up, finished packing and left for the station around 11:35.

 

We knew the tunnels took us around the back side of the station so we decided to go that way, because maybe it was the front.  However, we met a young man with some bags, and asked him.  It turned out he wasn’t going to the train station, but knew how to get there.  He told us to go back a block, turn right and follow the road.  The station would be on the right.  

 

The main entrance was just to the right about two blocks down, but we walked a block past to get to the accessible entrance because of our bags.  We walked into a typical train station, with the departure board not yet showing our train.  As we wandered the station, we found Fred and Kandi, along with a couple of people they just met because Gary, the husband, was wearing a sweatshirt from a team near them.  

 

We eventually walked back to the departure board, and our train went from platform 11-19, to platform 12.    A moment later a station employee told us to go through the turnstiles to get on the train.  I had printouts of our QR codes, and those worked.  

 

WE found a table for 4 mid train, and settled in for the 1.5 hour trip.  There were a couple of stops with little movement of people, but at the Winchester stop a whole lot of college kids got on the train.  We talked to them and learned they were with the Winchester college of Art, and were attending an orientation.

 

Two stops later, we arrived at Southampton Central.  We’d seen a sign that the lifts were broken, so Glen carried the suitcases up the stairs to cross over the platforms, and down again to platform 4 which was the exit that had cabs.  Soon after, Fred and Kandi arrived, and we found  a cab big enough for all our luggage and us.

 

It was a quick ride to the Moxy hotel, no more than 10 minutes.  We unloaded and and stood in line at the bar (the ground floor of this hotel is a bar with seating on one side and some chair seating on the other.  I had put in for, and got a Marriott suite upgrade, so they put us on floor 2.

 

The elevators were difficult to figure out - turns out you have to hold the key against the reader while pressing the button.

 

We got into the room, and while it was big, it was an accessible room, and I don’t like the showers.  So I went back to the lobby, and asked about a non-accessible room.  They said they only have regular rooms.  (I didn’t call because their rooms have no phones) (or refrigerators).

 

So we moved to a small room (standard -they’re all small) on the 6th floor.  It had an entryway with a luggage rack and two pegs on the wall.  This was across from the bathroom.  The room had a bed, a chair and a small shelf containing a remote for the tv and a tea maker.  Two pillows on the bed.  The bathroom had two bath towels and two hand towels.  Apparently they don’t use washcloths in the UK.

 

 

We dropped our bags off and headed to the lobby to meet Fred & Kandi for a walk.  Glen needed to get cash nd I wanted to go to a bank to change my old money for new, since no place takes them anywhere.  We found a mini mart next door, so Fred and Kandi stopped for Ice cream.  We started walking towards the mall, but end near us was under construction.  We did see a mall guide that mentioned a bank on level 3.

 

We went back, got Fred & Kandi, and wandered around looking for an entrance.  We found what looked like an office building, but turned out to be a mall entrance.  We went  in, took the elevator to level 3, and ended up in a department store.  We found a helpful salesperson, who told us to go out of the store, and turn left out to the mall, and we’d find the bank.    

 

We agreed to meet Fred and Kandi later, and headed off.  We found the bank just where she said it would be, and Glen went to the cash machine and I went in to the bank.  There was a long line, but eventually an employee asked me what I wanted.  I said I wanted to change out the bills, but he said I had to be a customer.   I said I was a tourist, but they wouldn’t budge.  They did suggest I try a chain bank.

 

So I went out and went to HSC.  Same thing, but he said I should go to the post office nearby and they’d change it.  There was a post office across the street, so I went there.  They couldn’t do it either.

 

Back to HSC.  I asked if I could ask a customer to change if for me.  The guy looked at the money, and said I might try a third bank, because one of my bills was Bank of Scotland, and they were owned by a Scottish bank.  

 

So across the mall I went.  They said no too, at which point I again asked about having a customer do it.  I was getting a little upset at this point, since it looks like I had 80 pounds of play money.  The worker offered to ask her manager and came back, and said the manager said she’d do it.  She was very nice and traded my pounds.  She did say that in around 2025 they’d change again when they replace QE2 with KC3.  

 

I then met Glen outside, and he said he’d found some interesting stuff.  We walked down the outside mall and found the old gate from around the 1300’s.  We walked through it and found pieces fo the wall that Edward 3 had had built to prevent invasion.  There was also a plaque explaining it, and indicating you could take stairs up to the top of the wall to see the old city.  So we did that.  

 

Some pictures of our walk:

Glen by the old gate.

 

 

Gate from a distance:

 

 

View from the 14th century tower. Remnants  of the wall in the foreground.

 

 

At about 4:40 we headed back to the hotel to meet to go to the cruise critic meet and greet at one of the bars.  

 

We joined Fred and Kandi and took an Uber.  We did meet many of the people I’d been communicating with and it was a nice time.  After about an hour and a half, we decided to go to dinner.  I found a pub, Duke of Wellington, that was close to our hotel.  So we said our goodbyes (most people had left by then), and called another Uber.  

 

The Uber driver tried to drop us off mid block in the middle of nothing.  Fred told him he’d said the Duke of Wellington.  So the driver backed up down the street and found this small pub.

 

There were only about 7 or 8 tables in the whole place.  We all ordered their “pie of the day” which was a chicken and mushroom pie atop a bed of chunky chips (steak fries here) and veggies.  They were quite good, but the veggies were cauliflower and broccoli which are my two least favorite.  They were nice enough to bring me some peas.

 

And one of the few times I remembered to take a food picture. 

 

 

After dinner I used google maps to route us down the street, over a block via a pedestrian walkway, through a parking lot to our hotel.  We said goodnight to Fred and Kandi, as we were planning to walk to the ship, and they were going to take uber.  In any case, we wouldn’t go together because few cabs are big enough for our combined luggage.

 

Back up our spartan room, and to bed.  Tomorrow - we board.

Edited October 27, 2022 by abbydancer

[Jim_Iain]

Abby -  Sorry to hear you had such a difficult time trading in your old notes for new ones.   I think the old ones went out of circulation in September of 2022.  Good reason to minimize holding on to foreign notes.

 

We were lucky enough to have Iain's sister come to the bank for us as a customer and they exchanged them without a problem.   Also being in Scotland they had no problems exchanging both Scottish and British notes.

 

 

[abbydancer2003]

Hi all

 

Right now the internet on this ship is terrible.  I do my best to email pictures from my phone, and my laptop email spins and spins.  I'm writing the blog, so it will get posted, but please be patient about updates.  If I'm up late tonight, I'll post the first day then.

 

Thanks.

[Jim_Iain]

Just checking on your progress and looks like your in the middle of the Atlantic which is usually a pretty tough location for internet.   Hopefully connectivity improves soon.

 

[Lena11033]

On 10/27/2022 at 11:22 AM, Jim_Iain said:

Abby -  Sorry to hear you had such a difficult time trading in your old notes for new ones.   I think the old ones went out of circulation in September of 2022.  Good reason to minimize holding on to foreign notes.

 

We were lucky enough to have Iain's sister come to the bank for us as a customer and they exchanged them without a problem.   Also being in Scotland they had no problems exchanging both Scottish and British notes.

 

 

I worked in a grocery store in England and my family are Scottish so I normally have both from traveling. Legally stores and banks should accept Scottish notes no problem because they are legal Stirling pounds. I find people that say they can't just don't know any better. 

[upwarduk]

On 10/27/2022 at 4:22 PM, Jim_Iain said:

I think the old ones went out of circulation in September of 2022

Jim,

You are telling me something I didn’t know and I live in UK.😱

However, I’ve not used bank notes since March 2020.

My granddaughter showed me how to use my mobile phone to pay for restaurant meals and I use a credit card to pay for groceries.

You will see requests in shops to use this method of payment, rather than notes.

At one time there used to be a lower limit of £5, before they would accept bank or credit card payment. But since COVID they prefer that method of payment.

Edited October 29, 2022 by upwarduk

[upwarduk]

I recently saw a photo of Silhouette in Madeira on Twitter.

I think it was posted by one of the crew.

 

I was particularly interested, as my daughter and family have been staying there this last week.

Apparently, 6300 passengers descended into Funchal and then it 😱

 

 

[chemmo]

Really enjoying your review, what a pity your Southampton hotel was so underwhelming.

 

Just a few questions…

 

The weather?

The food?

Staffing?

 

Hope you are enjoying…

[upwarduk]

It rained in Funchal in the afternoon.
Somehow that piece of information disappeared from the above photo.

[abbydancer2003]

7 hours ago, chemmo said:

Really enjoying your review, what a pity your Southampton hotel was so underwhelming.

 

Just a few questions…

 

The weather?

The food?

Staffing?

 

Hope you are enjoying…

Weathers been pretty good on the crossing.  

 

First couple of days were rough. Lisbon was nice, as was Tenerife, but Tenerife was cold.  Madeira was a bit warmer, but it did rain and was very foggy.  

 

Food is good.  Same as usual, in my opinion.  Some things outstanding others just OK.  

 

Staffing seems good, although to be honest, sometimes service can be a bit slow in coming.  We've been playing games in Ocean View, and it can sometimes take a little while to get the attention of the bar staff.

 

For some reason this site comes up better than others.  Tonight, I think I can post the first on ship post.

[Cheshire Blue]

10 hours ago, chemmo said:

Really enjoying your review, what a pity your Southampton hotel was so underwhelming.

 

Just a few questions…

 

The weather?

The food?

Staffing?

 

Hope you are enjoying…

Likewise am enjoying your cruise (by proxy)

 

Have stayed at the Moxy in Southampton - perfectly adequate for one night pre cruise (although I agree it's not somewhere I would choose to spend longer).   

 

It's a lower level Marriott brand, quite cheap and so you get what you pay for (bit quirky - hence the lack of wardrobes - but if all you have is an overnight bag, then not a problem).  

[abbydancer2003]

Silhouette Day one

 

We’d set the alarm for 9 am in order to get coffee at the hotel.  We’d opted not to buy the breakfast (turns out buffet I often get for free), but they did tell us we could have coffee.  We dressed, packing as we went (it will be nice to completely unpack later today).

 

We headed down about 9:45 and got coffee.  It was rainy outside, so we weren’t sure we wanted to walk.  We sat in the other side from the bar, and I looked at cruise mapper to see where the ship was currently.  It turns out it was at the city pier, which is right across from the Holiday Inn, which is close to our hotel.  Google maps confirmed it was a 10 minute walk.  We noticed the rain seemed to have stopped, so we decided to walk.  We went up and finished packing.

 

I wanted to get out quickly because I figured the elevators would be a zoo, since there are only two, one decent sized, and one small and there are 6 floors of about 30 rooms each and pretty everyone was going to the ship.

 

So around 10:15 we gathered our luggage and headed to the elevator.  The advantage of the 6th floor was that there was only one floor above, so less chance of an elevator car full of luggage.  We were lucky, there was a mother and son (presumably) there, and so we squeezed in.

 

There were a lot of people with bags in the lobby, so walking seemed like a good option even more.

We headed it.  The route was to walk a short block (size of an office building, which was the Carnival UK building),  cross the street,  and head down the street about two blocks, where the road into the terminal veered off to the right.  Once we cleared the Carnival building the ship was right there.  We crossed the major (sort of) street,  and noticed several pedestrians going over the small road fence to cross earlier, and Glen said “we could just follow the crew”.  The walking route led us across the Holiday Inn parking lot and straight into the terminal.  At the entrance, we asked the workers there if we needed to show our boarding pass (we did once in Ft. Lauderdale), but they said no, just follow the crew guys.

 

We walked along the terminal  to the entrance, but we didn’t see porters.  We asked a gentleman in uniform where the porters were.  He started to point them out, and than said “I’ll just take them” and took them off that way.  (I did later check my airbag and was relived to see it was still in the terminal or on the ship).

 

From there we headed to check and were directed to  the line.  When we got to the front an agent did the normal, passport, vaccine card, covid test thing.  We asked if there was a suite waiting area, and she said we were supposed to have been directed to suite checkin.  She then said she walk us over there.  She did, and the workers there said we should just get on the ship.  So she took us over to where the ship was boarding and we joined the group currently getting on.  

 

We were soon on the ship.  We headed up to deck 11, and found the following signs in the elevator lobby:

We’re in 1669, which is not on the even side, nor is it between 1615 and 1667.  Glen asked if I was sure we were on the right ship.  I said I’d seen the deck plans, and there really was a 1669.  At the end of the hall on the odd side we found it.  We continue to refer to it as the secret room. Sometimes they’ll have retreat concierges to guide you onto the ship, but that’s intermittent.  None this time. 

 

We then went to the lounge.  I had my cruise critic name tag on, so a couple recognized me, and we talked to them for a while.  We were planning to meet Susan and Lu Ann outside there at 12:45 where we will arrange a specialty dinner and then go to lunch.  We were originally going to treat them to lunch in Luminae, but Susan had upgraded to a suite, but she’d taken advantage of a program where a single in a suite can buy retreat access for a friend. (Very limited).  We arranged for dinner on Lisbon night and then went to Luminae for lunch.  It was nice, the food was very good, but the service seemed a bit slower than I was used to.  No matter, we weren’t in an hurry.

 

After lunch, we went back to the room, and our bags were there, so we unpacked.  There was plenty of drawer space, but not always practical.  I do prefer Princess closets, especially on shorter trips.

 

Soon after it was time for the Sunset Bar sailaway.  We got up there and it was very crowded.  Almost impossible to find the CC people.  We did find a few, but not a lot.  I did connect with one member who want to play Catan, so that was good.  (Later we determined that there were several groups there.  It was 5pm and we hadn’t sailed yet, so we headed up to the retreat sun deck.  We met up with one of the CC people we’d talked to last night, and so we talked to him for a while. 

 

The captain came on and said we were loading cargo, and would leave when that was done.  He also said we were going to have rough weather, and Miami would make the determination if we were going to have to slow down.  That put the port of Lisbon in jeopardy.  We sailed around 6pm, and then said goodbye to Steve. (Our cc friend), and headed to our room.

 

Following that, we got dressed for the evening, and headed down to the atrium.  There was a duo finishing up in the foyer, and they seemed danceable.  They said the were heading to the ensemble lounge.  We went there, but no dance floor so we headed to the lounge.  We ended up chatting with the couple and their friends that we’d met earlier for a while.

 

Around 8, we decided to head to the atrium and check out the party band.  They were good, but seemed to only be playing swing music.  (That would change later).  After a couple of swings, we decided to go to dinner.  

 

We were seated in the back, and near us was the table for our friends from Vancouver and their friends.  They were a group of 12, but there were 9 at the table.  I went to say hello, and found that another 2 were disembarked in Southampton for a medical issue and taken to a hospital (not covid).  Her daughter went with her, so that plus the one person who had covid put them at 9 people.  It was nice to see her.

 

After dinner we went back to the room, and I checked out the on demand video.  Not a great selection at all.  So I watched the Harry Potter reunion show while checking internet and working on the blog.

 

And then bed.  Our long anticipated trip has begun.

 

[chemmo]

Keep the posts coming, I do love live reviews!

[Cruise a holic]

Following- have a great cruise!