A Long Tiring Day

  We arrived in England early this morning. When we were checking in in Toronto, the kiosk would not print our boarding passes because “something was wrong”. This was the first time that have not been able to do this. Turns out that the problem was that the name on the reservation was not the same as on Judy's passport. The reservation was made with here middle name but her passport does not show it. We need to be sure of this in the future.

   The flight to England was under 7 hours which was about 6 hours to long. We were jammed in as usual but our seats backed on a bulkhead which meant we had about 1 inch of lay back room. The they did not come around with more wine! Flying is getting more uncomfortable all the time. We cleared immigration in an hour. We thought that we would never get out of that airport. The bus had to pick up passengers at 2 other terminals.

The transport from the airport to the ship took 2 hours. We were among the first to arrive and quickly checked it. Princess had an “Elite” lounge set up with drinks and fresh baked goods. The ship started boarding shortly before noon. Having been up all night we were tired but glad we had finally arrived.

   We lunched in the dining room with a couple from Australia and one from England. Both were well traveled cruisers. One had been to the fjords a couple of times and it was good to hear first hand from someone who had already been there. A walk around the sunny deck and a small nap before the life jacket drill followed in quick order. Luggage was in our room by the time we got back. Clothes were put away before the emergency drill. We fought the need to sleep all day! The sailaway party was a bit of a bust!

On Deck

   Our assigned dinner time is 8 pm. We arrived first and immediately asked for a new table. We requested a table of 10 and ended at one with 4. We saw the head waiter and changed to a table of 6. One couple is from Australia and the other is from England.

  There are 1400 British, 900 Americans and 300 Canadians. A good mix! We attended the welcome aboard show with a comedian. He did about 50 minutes and had some good lines. Judy remembers him from a previous cruise. Finally we can get some sleep. Tomorrow is a sea day followed by formal night. We should be able to get our energy back before our first port. A long tiring day comes to an end.