Day 7: Lisbon, Portugal

It is after 10pm as I type these first words, and we move clocks ahead an hour overnight, so this kind of day always presents a quandary:  so much to write about, so little time to write it. So I’ll start with a summary and fill in the details until I fall asleep and my iPad slips and hits me in the nose. 

The summary is...we had the BEST day!!

It didn’t start out very ambitiously, and I was initially afraid that the day would be a bust. I was up by 6pm, awakened by an alarm clock that didn’t cause my husband to even stir. I slipped out of the cabin and went to the Horizon Court Buffet for a breakfast of oatmeal and fresh melon (which, by the way, has been exceptionally tasty). I kept my phone on (the local system was Vodafone, and the data speed was awful but texting worked fine) in case G was looking for me, but my phone was quiet. I returned to the cabin to find him still sleeping, so naturally I laid down again and slept for another hour. Eventually I awoke and took care of some paperwork (disembarkation form, if you can believe that, and Captains Circle Party RSVP) and walked around the ship a bit, which is fun to do when everyone is off in a port, and eventually I picked up two danishes and a vanilla latte for G and took it to him in the cabin, and finally he came alive. 

I think last night’s Most Traveled Guest cocktail party did him in.  He partied a bit too much!

It was nearly noon when we finally walked off the ship.  This was our first time ever in Lisbon, and all on board time was 3:30pm, so we had some serious sightseeing to do, and quickly. In this situation, there is only one thing to do: we hired taxi driver Sousa for three hours for €100 and got a wonderful tour of old town Lisbon (the Alfama), Downtown Lisbon (the Baixa) and Belem, the launching point for early Portuguese explorers. Sousa spoke perfect English, had a nice car and was patient with us at photo stops (because we like to take a lot!) and by the time we parted company, we knew all about Lisbon and Belem AND his three sons, ages 27, 24 and 17 and his 14-month old grandson Francesco (and we saw photos of all of them, too!). 

Our first impression of Lisbon is that it felt a lot like Naples, but much cleaner. We didn’t see a single piece of trash anywhere today. But it’s hilly like Naples, with very narrow cobblestone streets in the Alfama area, and lots of red-roofed buildings. The Alfama area had a devastating 8.5 to 9.0 earthquake in 1755 and the city quickly rebuilt in the Baroque style, so there is some homogeneity among the buildings. Our first stop was Miradouro de Nossa Senhora Del Monte (Lookout of our Lady of the Mountain) with its expansive views of the Castle of St. George, Lisbon and the port.

We loved this table and chairs set on an sloping sidewalk!

We next visited the 17th century church of Santa Engrácia which, in the 20th century, was turned into the National Pantheon, where several Portuguese dignitaries are interred.  Finally we visited the Se Cathedral, and with its barrel ceiling, many naves and large stained glass windows, it was stunning. 

Se Cathedral of Lisbon 

We left Alfama and drove to Baixa, home to the central business district with its wide, orderly streets, green spaces and large squares.

Praça Don Pedro II

On the outskirts of this area was a long 2000 year old Roman aqueduct that just floored me.  It is currently used as a trail for walkers and runners and I can’t imagine doing that. If we ever return to Lisbon, that’s #1 on my list of to do’s. 

The Belem area featured the UNESCO World Heritage sight of the Jeronimos Monastery. The naves and stained glass windows in this one were more stunning even than what was in the Se Cathedral. 

Inside the Jeronimos Monstery

From there it was a fairly close distance to Belem Tower. It was built on the bank of the Tagus River in the early 16th century to defend the city from attacks by water. The Monument of the Discoveries is shaped like the prow of a sailing ship; it commemorates Portugal’s great explorers including Vasco de Gama who “discovered” Brazil.

Belém Tower

Monument of the Discoveries

We returned to the ship, driving by the large commercial square, one of the largest in Europe. 

Sousa also stopped with us at an ATM for me to get more Euros. We’re now all set for awhile. I always prefer to go to an ATM when I’m in a taxi and not simply walking back to the ship. 

Scenes from sail away:

The Pathenon

Praça de Commércio


25 de Abril Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in Europe


Belém Tower

We walked back onto the ship at 3:32pm, late only because we where held up by others also returning at the last minute. Go us!  We were famished but more dirty, so we showered first and then went for a hot tub soak.  We have a hot tub clache thing going on there.  We cut it short just to get cleaned up for our other discussion group ;-) located in Skywalkers during the PES Lounge. G ate lots of fresh veggies with dressing (he calls it his dinner salad) and started on a beer. But we arrived in the International Dining Room still hungry for dinner, and I ordered four courses without stressing about it; they were mostly seafood with a spinach salad and everything was yummy. 

We were quite excited to see a new (to us) show called the BackBeat Beatles, and we were dancing in the aisles by the end of their show. They’ll play again tomorrow night for the outdoor pool party; that the next day is a sea day means we might get to go. 

We then went down to  Club Fusion for Princess’ Oktoberfest. Cruise Director Paul Chandler is a harious comedian and he kept the party going so well with his never faltering fake German accent and his quick wit. We danced and sang and it was a great good time. (Mom, Gramma would have won the award for best polka dancer, for sure!)

And that is how it came to be 1:20am the new time and I am still finishing this up. I will end it now, and correct its many errors tomorrow. 

Day 6: At Sea

I promised I would talk about the Sapphire Princess today, and I’m going to do it early, so that time doesn’t get away from me again. It’s only 9:30am, but I’ll back up just a bit and then move right into that discussion and work on this post throughout the day.  If it ends up feeling a little time warped, that’s the reason.

Despite our late night, I was up fairly early.  Although I didn’t hear room service knock on the door at 6:30am, I did hear G answer it and bring in our coffees.  He fell back asleep and I didn’t.  Instead I put on my swimsuit and soaked in a hot tub in the covered Calypso pool area, and then alternated between that and the pool for over an hour. The sun was shining brightly, but the air temp was quite chilly, just 51F this morning.  We have had extremely calm seas the whole way so far, and, frankly, if it wasn’t for the constant low hum of the ship’s engines, I would think we were on land.  

I guess that is a good enough segue to offer some impressions about the Sapphire Princess. I mentioned that I was on the ship in its inaugural season, and remembered it was beautiful, but most ships are beautiful in those early years. It’s obvious now, 14 years later, that the ship has been meticulously maintained. Everything still looks like new in the public acreas, and our cabin is in very respectable condition. The carpeting throughout the ship is gorgeous, large, flat panel screens with deck plans and advertising are on walls in the public areas around the ship, and, as we anticipated based on information on Cruise Critic, the cabins have all been fitted with very large (42”?) flat panel TVs with extensive on demand programming. How nice is that?  I’ve been hearing about the new on demand TV system for a few years, but only experienced it for 5 days on our one Royal Princess cruise. I think it has spoiled us for any other kind of TVs at sea. . 

The ship has the new Princess mattresses and bedding. I’ve made my peace with the mattresses; they’re softer than I would prefer, but, as long as they’re not broken in too much, I can tolerate them.  What we’ve tried (and tried, and...) to tolerate, but can’t, are the linens.  We’ve slept soundly so far on this cruise, with minimum tossing and turning, and despite that, we awaken every morning with our top sheet one direction, and our duvet pulled out of that ridiculous topper with a pocket at the top.  This means we’re touching a comforter that does not get laundered between passengers, not a pleasant thing to think about. Like last year, beginning tonight, we are going to sleep on top of the whole mess and loosely cover up with a freshly washed blanket. 

Naturally, having Generoso as Maitre d’ and Godwin as Assistant Maitre d’ (we caught up with him in the Horizon Court Buffet after we returned from Paris), aka The Dream Team, means that the on board dining service is impeccable.  Crissy Reid from South Africa is the Captains Circle host, and she has long been a favorite. And, as I’ve previously mentioned, it’s always wonderful to see some familiar faces among the crew. All in all, we’re extremely happy on board, and are especially happy that we’ll be returning to the ship on November 28 (and, G would add, not doing the repositioning cruise with all the sea days). 

We have booked a cabin on Lido Deck for the Southeast Asia cruises.  Actually, we had booked that cabin for the repositioning cruise, too, but it was unavailable for this first cruise, and our favorite cabins on the back of Aloha Deck were not available for all the cruises either.  So we had resigned ourselves to moving one time, after this current cruise, and marked this cruise’s booking as receptive to an upgrade. Quite a few months ago Princess called offering us a balcony cabin on Aloha Deck “because we know how much you like that area of the ship”. That was rather unusual, but, yes, please, we’ll take it. And it’s been nice, although we have not really had balcony weather until this evening. We’ve only really been out there for sailaway from Southampton (we arrived in Le Havre and left in total darkness) and tonight’s sunset. And our opinion is unchanged...the space in a balcony cabin is not as well utilized as in an inside cabin made up with two twin beds. This layout is much more cumbersome. I feel like I have about 18” of space on my side of the bed in which to dress and put on shoes; two of us in the space by the vanity, with that superfluous barrel chair and round table, is just too crowded. When we were on the balcony at sailaway, it was noisy and echoing and we heard our neighbors on each side and below too well.  I would always book a balcony in Alaska, but for most other cruises, a well located inside or ocean view cabin is still our favorite. 

We spent some time after lunch today (International Dining Room, Greek salad without feta cheese) walking the upper decks of the ship from forward to aft. This ship, in my opinion, is the best of the quasi-Grand Class ships.  It fixed the errors of the three original Grand Class ships (especially Skywalkers as a shopping cart handle), but kept what worked well (such as the covered Calypso Pool area). And it doesn’t contain the extra 500 passengers of the Caribbean, Emerald, Ruby and Crown. There is an abundance of deck chairs and pools and all the hot tubs are open and are actually hot. I think it’s accurate to say that this ship may be our favorite larger Princess ship. 

I spent the rest of the afternoon watching the pre-recorded destination lectures for Lisbon and Gibralter on TV and reviewing some information for those ports I had downloaded on my iPad before we left home.  G went to the Grapevine Wine Tasting and held down a hot tub (to date, I’d spent more time in one than he had, which is a real shocker). I also packed a day bag for tomorrow in Lisbon, as we had a busy evening planned and we arrive in that city at 7am tomorrow. 

For the first time this cruise, we went to the Platinum, Elite and Suite (PES) Lounge held in Skywalkers from 5pm to 7pm...except it wasn’t held in Skywalkers tonight because they were preparing that venue for the Most Traveled Guest Party.  Instead we were directed down to Club Fusion (we really need to pay more attention to the paperwork we get on the first day of each cruise, because I’m sure that change was pointed out in it). The PES Lounge doesn’t hold as much appeal for me since I no longer drink alcohol, and, with dinner at 5:30pm, we hardly need to eat at 5pm, but we have already met new friends on board and it’s a nice place to get together for a chat. 

Just one of the reasons we cruise

We ate lightly at dinner (I had just a seafood soup in a broth base), because the Most Traveled Guest cocktail party began at 7pm. We had never before met our Finnish captain, Heikki Laakkonen, nor any of the other senior officers either, for that matter, and the cocktail party is my favorite way to get to talk with several of them and our fellow guests. As always, the hors doerves that were served were out of this world, and I was glad I saved some appetite for the party. 

We had tentative plans afterward to go to comedian Jeff Stevenson’s show in the Explorers Lounge at 8:15pm, and then vocalist Peter Horwarth’s 10:15pm show in the Princess Theater, but, as always, we stayed and chatted after the party until nearly 10pm. I am in bed with contacts out and an alarm set for 5:30am. G decided at the last minute to go to the show in the Princess Theater. We’ll have a long day of sightseeing tomorrow, and, even with less sleep, he’ll outrun me ten times over. 

Life is good, but not quite fair. ;-)

Day 5: At Sea

Do you recall when I said we like sea days, but only occasionally and only when we’ve exhausted ourselves after several port or travel days?  Well, this was one of those sea days of which we can be quite fond. We started the day last night by ordering breakfast room service on the Princess@Sea intranet website. We never order room service, and we never bring food back to the cabin to eat, so this was a real break with tradition and an even bigger treat because of it. 

The alarm was turned off and, for the first time in weeks, we had nothing we had to race out of bed to do. The knowledge of this fact alone made for a good night's sleep; add to it our exhaustion after all our recent busy-ness and I slept until nearly 8am. I looked around the cabin to see if room service had been delivered (I hadn’t heard a thing), and, sure enough, it was sitting there on the vanity. G must have let them in, eaten part of a pastry and a few slices of orange and fallen back asleep. 

I’ll interject here that we do have kettles and packets of instant coffee in each cabin. Our room steward, Soupe from Thailand, told us they will be removed after this cruise, and only put back in the cabins when the Sapphire returns to Southampton next spring. I know the Brits love their kettles in the cabin and apparently Princess does too.  My point in mentioning this now is that I ordered only hot water and herbal tea from room service for breakfast, so I could easily have just used the decaf coffee that was already in the cabin or a few of the tea bags I brought from home. But since G wanted some food, too, the order was placed. 

Once awake, I lingered in bed even longer, reading Rick Steves” Mediterranean Cruise Ports book on my iPad (I had downloaded our local library’s copy  using the Overdrive app just before we left). G raced out of the cabin to sign up for the Egg Drop Challenge later in the cruise (I could tell he’d been thinking about that one since we did it on the Golden Princess in January), and I did eventually officially start my day, but I had warned G that these were going to be two days of relaxation and rebuilding for me, and stuck to my guns. I’ll be getting plenty of walking in ports (16000 steps yesterday, despite six hours sitting on a bus!); no need to be walking on the ship, and, though it wouldn’t hurt for me to do some strength training in the fitness center occasionally, it will be done on a whim, not planned into my days. In other words, sea days are going to be days of rest that allow me to get through our many port days. 

I spent most of the rest of the morning figuring out where things were in this cabin. I had unpacked in such a rush Sunday, and only managed to squeeze it in before the muster drill because that had been delayed, but nothing was logically put away. The problem was that I had liquid toiletries I’d packed and liquid toiletries in my carry on that I used in London, and the same for dry toiletries, so I had two of some things out to be used, and none of other things, and still hadn’t found the Bose noise cancelling headphones I’d used on our flight to London. Those were not cheap, and I needed to hunt them down. They were eventually found, as was everything else I was searching for, and I feel more settled as a result. 

Something caught us off guard yesterday. Word went around that we needed to take our passports or a copy of our passports ashore with us in Le Havre. We never take our passports ashore, particularly not in pickpocket-prone areas. And we did have color copies of our passports...but do you think we could find them?  No, we could not. So we walked off with our actual passports, mine in a money belt around my middle. That’s why, when we were approached by those miscreants on the Pont Alexandre III, I was far more irritated than worried that they might actually steal something from us. Today I gathered up the passport copies so we’ll have them for our other ports. And also today, we did find something in writing in our cabin telling us we’d need our passports or passport copies ashore. It’s just that we had not had the chance to read that before we arrived in our first port. 

Remember what I said about a starter’s pistol?  Yeah, it’s been exactly like that until today. 

I met up with G for lunch in the International Dining Room.  Actually, I first went to the midship dining room on Deck 6, as that is where lunch is usually served on sea days, but there was  a garage sale taking place in there. So I walked down to the midship dining room on Deck 5 but that wasn’t open. (Honestly, I’m not even certain right now what the names of those dining rooms are. I know there’s the Santa Fe and Savoy and the Pacific Moon, but the fourth name eludes me and I couldn’t say which is which.)  That took me up to Guest Services to get a Patter so I could see where lunch was being served, and that was the first time since we boarded that I’d actually held a Patter in my hand. Talk about playing catch up!  It turns out that the dining room breakfasts and lunches are being served in the International Dining Room on Deck 6 aft, the same one in which we have dinner. So it was up to Deck 7, then back to the aft stairs and down to Deck 6 and the International Dining Room. I’ll get the hang of this cruising thing eventually. I think it might be easier if I had never before cruised on a Princess ship, because I would be much more attentive to the whats and wheres.  Instead I’m just going on instinct, which is letting me down. 

Lunch was chatty, with a couple from Reno and another from Western Australia. I had special ordered the grilled veggies starter but without the sliced deli meat it usually included. They breaded some calamari for me specially with no dairy and I added some gazpacho and it was a delicious meal. I returned to the cabin to start this post (I love it when I can do that on sea days!) and G went off to do...something. We met back up for the BIG!!!!!! $1000 Treasure Hunt Drawing*!!! (*must be present to win), held in Club Fusion at 3:15pm and, naturally, won NOTHING.  Oh, I bet that’s where G went, around to the various departments to get those stamps on the entry forms. Then it was hot tub time, pool time, formal night clean up and dinner at 5:30pm in the International Dining Room (give me a second to set up that keyboard shortcut, because typing that out every time is already starting to get old). 

Headwaiter Adrian from Romania is being very attentive to my dietary requirements. Since I know to avoid meat, but I will eat some fish, he told me to ask for items to be made lactose free during breakfasts and lunches when he is not with me, and that has worked a charm. Tonight I had a fruit starter, a salad and shrimp Diablo that actually had some kind of creamy sauce on it, but it was vegan friendly and delicious. Then for dessert, I was surprised with a slice of fruit pie with a vegan crust and whipped topping. I’m so glad someone knows how to make these things!

The Captain’s Welcome Aboard Party and Champagne Waterfall started at 7pm, and we stayed for a few minutes talking with junior officers from Guest Services and then we made tracks to the Princess Theater for tonight’s production show, Bravo. Well bravo for Bravo!  I think this was one of our top three favorite productions shows we’ve seen on Princess. As we were delivering a much-deserved standing ovation at the end, I was thinking, “I’ve got to see this again at 10pm”.  As soon as the curtain fell, G turned to me and said, “I’ve got to see this again at 10pm”.  And we did, and I can’t remember the last time we did that on a cruise. What a great show!

Afterward, we stopped by the International Cafe for late night decaf cappuccinos, which were made by none other than Andrea, one of our favorite bartenders on the Pacific Princess. And as we walked to the elevator afterward, we ran into Food and Beverage Manager Melldon, who we’ve known for years. We never count on seeing familiar faces on board, but somehow we always do. And we’ve seen two couples we know from prior years’ cruises, too. It’s a fun part of cruising. 

I know I said I’d have some comments about our cabin upgrade and the Sapphire Princess in general, but it is 12:19pm, and I think I need to end this here. I’ll do more catch up tomorrow, which is another sea day. 

We don’t like them until we need them. And then they’re the best. ;-)

Day 4: Le Havre/Paris

The alarm sounded at 5:30am, and we didn’t exactly leap out of bed, but we at least managed to avoid hitting the snooze button. By 6am I was showered and in the Horizon Court Buffet for a quick breakfast. It helped that there were already many others up there too; G said that, at last night’s show, Cruise Director Paul Chandler-Burns had commented on the number of passengers going to Paris today (I think it was 1700). These Paris excursions, whether guided or on your own, are long days with early departures. 

G and I caught up with each other (having T-Mobile cellular connected us to Orange in France, and we could easily text each other) and were in the Explorers Lounge at 7:15am. By 7:45am we were on a bus leaving the port of Le Havre, roughly a three hour drive from Paris. We had chosen to do Princess tour ‘Paris On Your Own, which basically covers your transportation to and from the city and a small map. There was no reliable way for use to arrange our own transport to Paris by train, so it was logical to book this tour through Princess. 

I was actually surprised that G wanted to do this excursion. I thought he’d be averse to the long bus ride and also have more of an interest in the Normandy beaches, but, no, he had two major requests: to see the Arc de Triomphe and go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Not knowing exactly how much time we would have on our own in Paris, I tentatively added Notre Dame Cathedral to the plan, as well as a walk by some other sites on our way back to the bus parked on Cours de la Reine. I purchased the Eiffel Tower tickets online in late August to avoid the purchase line today, but still didn’t know how much time would be required there; hence, the rest of our day needed to be flexible. 

G and I were seated together on the bus, and before we even left the port, the man in front of me reclined his seat so much I heard it pop, and my knees were forced up to my nostrils. After a few minutes of this, I spotted an empty seat at the back, and moved over to it, only to learn the man of the couple in the row in front of it had done the same. Still, I had two seats to use there, and survived with my body in one and my legs and feet in another. G slept most of the way to Paris, but, predictably, I did not. Instead I used the time to contemplate the yet another difference between men and women. From my vantage point at the back of the bus, I could see that nearly every man (including my own husband) was fully reclined in his seat, while nearly all the women weren’t. Is this because women are more acceptable of discomfort or because they are more careful to not cause others discomfort?  I wonder…

From the start, the weather wasn’t promising. Though it was pitch dark when we boarded the bus, and it didn’t get light until nearly an hour into our trip, it was foggy and windy, and rain varying from a mist to a drizzle was falling. We made a pit stop about two hours into our trip, but so did all the other Princess-contracted buses to Paris, and using a bathroom was a hopeless cause. That’s when I acquainted myself with the toilet on the bus, and that was an experience one does not enjoy every day. But it was clean, and for that I was grateful. 

I guess I have to return to the European ways I learned in the Med two years ago:  drink water sparingly and carry urinary euros and toilet paper. 

We arrived in Paris about 11am and our driver drove us by the Arc de Triomphe, and I was very thankful for that in the end, because we never would have gotten there if he hadn’t and that was one of G’s must do’s. 

L’Arc de Triomphe

We arrived at our bus parking spot about 11:15am. We were dropped off just south of Le Petit Palais and the Winston Churchill memorial on Cours de la Reine. Our tickets for the Eiffel Tower were for 12:30pm, so we decided to just head that way on foot. Within three minutes on Pont (bridge) Alexandre III, we were accosted by youths who held pieces of cardboard in front of our faces to fluster and disorient us so they could pick our pockets. However, we aren’t easily fluster-able, and simply pushed by them. My money was securely in a money belt anyway; I had less than €5 in my pocket for quick cash. Then, as soon as we left the bridge and were walking along the Seine, a lady tried to pull the “I found a ring. Is it yours?” trick. Twice within about 5 minutes!  We must look like easy marks…but we’re not. 

Pont Alexandre III with the Tour Eiffel 

Pont Alexandre III with Hôtel des Invalides in background

The rain had stopped by then, though it remained cold and very windy and dreary. Still, although I’ve seen it before, it is still exciting to get glimpses of the Eiffel Tower appearing above the apartment buildings when walking toward it. 

I love this view from the base looking up

It had been 18 years ago in June when I had last taken the elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and I sure don’t remember crowds like today’s, nor the level of security scrutiny we faced. We had to pass through security to even enter the area around the base, and again before we went up the south corner. We waited in line probably less than 30 minutes, which I know would be considered great in the summer,  but it felt quite claustrophobic to me. And, naturally, those sideways elevators aren’t exactly roomy. We were packed in like sardines to the second level, when we switched elevators and took another straight up to the top. 

When we had first arrived in Paris, the top of the tower was shrouded in fog, but, fortunately, it was clear when we reached the outdoor observation deck that’s as high as the public can go. I was rather surprised by how my photos turned out (the camera on this new iPhone is remarkably improved).

Looking toward the Louvre


L’Ecole Militaire

Notre Dame Cathedral mid-photo

Each elevator (two up and two down) required waiting in a queue, and I could see our other plans for the day (Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle, a walk by the Louvre and through the Tuileries Gardens) quickly slipping out of reach. We had to be back at the bus no later than 3:15pm; we left the Eiffel Tower, walked back along the Seine and barely made it. Oh well. G was very happy because he saw the two things most important to him, and I’ve spent a fair bit of time in Paris already and always count on returning. In fact, today’s weather reminded me of a promise I’ve made to myself but not yet kept: I want to go to Paris alone during the winter and spend days wandering through the various museums there. On my own terms. On my own schedule. Doesn’t that sound heavenly?

The sun started to appear as we made the long drive back to Le Havre and the Sapphire Princess. In fact, it was quite clear by the time we reached the coast. It’s too bad it just didn’t improve while we were still in Paris. 

Our first hint of sun on the gently rolling hills outside of Paris.  Better late than never!

It was sunny by the time we returned to Le Havre. 

We had obviously missed our 5:30pm dinner seating in the International Restaurant, but Generoso, who knew that tonight's attendance in the dining room would be light, had a table for us at the 8pm seating. We couldn’t quite wait (it had been over 12 hours since we”d eaten) and went to the Horizon Court Buffet for a light pre-dinner, and then to the dining room where G had four starters and I had three and we called it dinner. 

G is out watching the late show featuring a Britush comedian. I have showered and removed contacts and am happily in bed blogging with one eye on the huge, wonderful on-demand TV in our cabin. I have much to write about the Sapphire Princess (and how much we are loving it), but it will have to wait until tomorrow. My other goal for tomorrow:  spend time finding the things I know I packed, but that seem to have disappeared. 

BTW, photos tonight are courtesy of Orange cellular in France (much faster than what we had in England) and that three hour bus ride back to the ship. 

Day 3: Embarkation on the Sapphire Princess

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.