This was one of the most uneventful parts of our trip so far, and yet I feel that there is something important to note....
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London traffic makes New York, Chicago and Los Angeles traffic look like their drivers are running in the Indianapolis 500. Given the distance between Heathrow Airport and London's central district, it took 2+ hours to reach out hotel. Going to Southampton was worse, as it took 3 hours to reach the cruise terminal - an hour of that inside metropolitan London itself. This is one city in which I never will under any circumstances drive any motor vehicle, nor should any one else do so unless s/he is a bus driver.
Arriving at the cruise terminal, I was impressed at how quickly we were processed, given that Princess Cruises' computers were acting up and that they both had to find our Medallions and warn us that our security photos might have to be retaken onboard the ship. (We were lucky - we scanned onto the ship without problems.)
Our first stop was to our cabin, where we found a plate of chocolate covered strawberries waiting for us. Once we watched the muster video, it was off to the grill for burgers and dogs before checking in at our muster station. But this was not the only thing we had to do. RQS had bought an extra pair of specialty dinners that were not being recorded on the folio. First, we had to nap, as we were still suffering from disruption to our sleep schedules.
After our nap, it was off to the main dining room (MDR) for dinner, where we had an enjoyable chat with two families residing in the UK. Towards the end of dinner, I got on my soapbox a little and mentioned that the populist, right wing, authoritarian trends we're seeing in the west shouldn't be unfamiliar, as they are the same as what happened in Europe in the 1920's and 1930's. (RQS said that I didn't go too far or too heavy on the topic.) Luckily, I didn't offend the families, as I was feeling no pain after two glasses of wine and a double espresso with two shots of Sambuca.
Finally, we were off to Guest Services, where our claim of having 4 paid for specialty dinners was confirmed. We could now rest easily for the evening. And, boy did I need to rest - this was the first time I could say that I wasn't sober enough to drive in years. I'm glad I left that task to the ship's captain....
