This will be one of my short posts tonight (as predicted). We move clocks ahead an hour overnight (so 6 hours ahead of EDT), plus we have to meet for tomorrow’s shore excursion at 7:15am. Luckily, though we had a busy day, it was largely un-blog-worthy, so brevity should not be difficult.
We didn’t set an alarm for this morning. We had to be at the Victoria Coach Station by 10am, but we fell asleep so early last night that we never considered we might still sleep in. If we had stayed asleep, we’d’ve been just fine, but we’ve been waking up about midnight and having a party of sorts. Our first night in London we awakened hungry, so we were rummaging through luggage for some of the snacks we brought with us. Last night we weren’t hungry but we still woke up about the same time, found something interesting to watch on TV (a documentary on the real story behind The King’s Speech) and stayed awake until that was finished. This jet lag!
At any rate, I first opened my eyes at 8:40am. So much for our plan to wake up early and go walking again. We rushed through showers and repacking (luckily, our large suitcases had stayed closed in London) and got ourselves and our luggage down to the Victoria Coach Station at 9:55am. We were specifically told not to arrive before 10am; still, when we got there, we were given tickets for a bus at 11:30am. We weren’t exactly pleased that the earlier tickets had been handed out already, and I’m not advocating arriving early, but if we weren’t such rules followers, we would have scored one of those early tickets by arriving shortly after 9am, even if it required setting an alarm to do so.
Fortunately, that gave us time to go to the Pret á Manger right next to our gate, where I found some vegan porridge that perfectly kept the handful of pills and vitamins I’d already swallowed happy and settled in my stomach. I also found a canned fuzzy water called Yoga Bunny water. Naturally, I had to buy that, too. Despite the fact that we were warned our departure would be even further delayed, we were on a bus and driving out of the Victoria Coach Station at exactly 11:30am.
G had Google Maps open on his phone and filled me in on the areas we were driving through until we were outside of London. He, like most others, napped, and I, of course, did not. It’s about a 2 hour drive from London to Southampton, and I amused myself by watching the countryside and fall leaves (which are about two weeks behind ours at home).
We arrived at the pier just after 1:30pm, and, despite the fact that check in was seriously bogged down because so many passengers are staying on until Singapore and their visas all had to be verified, we were in our cabin by 2:15pm. The first thing G did was check for the Maitre d’s hours for dining consultations; they ended at 2:30pm, so he ran down to take care of that. The Maitre d’ is Generoso, who needs no last name for Princess cruisers to know whom I’m talking about. Generoso took care of us with a nice table for 2 in the International Dining Room at 6pm…perfect.
The afternoon was a blur after that. Unpacking and a late muster drill because embarkation was so delayed, and clean up for dinner while watching sailaway from our balcony (a nice upgrade I’ll tell you more about on our first sea day), and a wonderful dinner served by Alma from the Philippines and Boonta from Thailand (salmon and broccoli and a fruit starter for me). G is at the Welcome Aboard show, but I knew what I had to do. My daypack is ready for tomorrow, with tickets and money and ID, my clothes are laid out and my iPhone is charging. The alarm is set for 5:30am Paris Time, which is quite a bit different from where we were just three days ago. If I believed I could sleep on the three hour bus ride to Paris tomorrow, I’d be at the show, too, but I know myself too well.
Tomorrow: one of my favorite cities in the world. This is another case where it’s G’s first time, but I didn’t even need to open a guide book to know how we’d be spending our day. I’m anxious to show him all my favorite places…or at least as many as we can squeeze into the four or so hours we’ll have there.