Day 01 - Embarkation & Revelations

 Today's blog is a long one.  And what a surprise to start our day!  We started listening to game 7 of the World Series midnight when around 1am there was a sudden noise from the bathroom.  By the time Angela was able to reach the bathroom, the floor was totally covered in water as the bidet hose had exploded under the water pressure as someone else had not turned off the water at the nearby valve. We don't use or even know how to use the bidet.  She was able to turn off the valve and I got up and mopped up the bulk of the water.  I then called the front desk and a workman was sent up immediately who diagnosed the problem and fetched a replacement hose.  The original hose was split at the nozzle and he said that it happens quite frequently.  When he was finished, a housekeeping attendant came with a stack of towels and completed the mopping of the floor.  He also left us 3 extra towels just in case.  

With all of that excitement behind us, we settled in to listen to the rest of the game which the Dodgers ended up winning in 11 innings. We then were able to catch a little bit of sleep until the alarm went off at 8am.  Our transfer coach was #2 scheduled for 10am, so we had enough time to pack and eat breakfast in the hotel buffet.  We were in the lobby by 9:30am and Alan suddenly announced that there were 4 spaces on the first bus.  So we took 2 of those spaces.  It turned out that that bus was driven by the driver that picked us up at the airport: Assan.  Only 35 people were carried on each bus because I think that they run out of luggage room under the bus.  We took our customary seats in the back of the bus for what turned out to be a 2.5 hour ride to Southampton.  It continues to amaze me how much luggage people think they need to travel with.  

Our route there would normally take the M4 and the M3 but due to an accident on the M3, Assan took us down the A3 via Portsmouth.  We passed through the town of Richmond which the setting for the Apple TV series, Ted Lasso, which is about an American football coach who revives an English soccer team.  It's a program we enjoy watching.  We took a rest stop at a Shell station that was not expecting us and soon another transfer coach and passengers arrived to use the two small bathrooms.  

Much of the route outside the metropolitan areas was flanked by beautiful English countryside and we crossed the Thames River several times.  From Portsmouth, it's only about 18 miles to Southampton.  Interestingly, the English use a combination of Imperial and Metric measurements on their highway system.  Overhead signs are in miles, but markers along the roadway are in kilometers.  Weird, but of course, they drive on the left which is more weird for us Americans.

At the port, Assad must of done something wrong as the port traffic directors sent him around for another loop before reposting us at the terminal around 12:30pm.  There were lots of passengers there and fortunately we didn't have to handle our luggage that was under the coach.  We simply verified that it was on the curb and a porter took it from there. We next saw it in our room a few hours later.  There was a long queue of people eating to check in, but the line moved pretty consistently.  Our friends' bus arrived shortly after us even though they left a bit behind us.  Their driver took the normal M4/M3 route and the accident had been cleared.  

Our route

Once we were inside the terminal, we took the escalator to the second floor and joined another queue where we were assigned #15.  As Platinum level cruisers, we had a very short line to be quickly checked in by presenting our passports.  We then had to wait in seats before being directed to the security line for the priority guests (Platinum and Elite).  We were seated by a couple who asked if we were going to see the special entertainers and we had no clue about that.  We'd learn more about it when we reached our stateroom and even more in an encounter with the Assistant Hotel General Manager just before the evening show.  Security screening was a bit slow due to passengers who were unfamiliar to the process. Also, they seemed to. Be much. More security conscious as we had to remove belts and watches even though my watch is a plastic one.    I got stopped because I forgot to remove a battery from my pants.  All totaled, the embarkation process took around an hour and we were on the ship by 1:30pm.  

We easily found our room after checking in to our muster station at the Crown Grill along the way.  We watched the second part of the safety drill process while checking out our room.  It turned out that the layout was virtually similar to the room we just spent a month in on the Emerald Princess except that now we had a balcony and a slightly larger but still very small shower.  There was a packet containing tickets for two performances by special entertainers from Imagine Cruises.  One was a famous English soccer coach and the other a well known English West End singer.  We'd learn more on our this later. Our stateroom attendant came by and introduced herself.  She's from Nicaragua and Angela engaged her in Spanish, but she didn't seem to want to speak in Spanish.  Her English was excellent.  

A visit to the LIDO buffet was next on our agenda and it's on deck 16 on this ship.  We enjoyed a light lunch and our friends joined us.  After lunch we walked around the entire ship to refamiliarize ourselves with this ship's layout which is similar to the Regal and Majestic that we previously sailed on.  It also allowed us to get our required steps in.  During this walking tour, the Captain, Tony Draper, came on the PA system with some bad news.  Due to an approaching storm, we are going to skip our first two Spanish ports and head directly to Funchal where we'll spend an extra day (two in total).  This meant that the first section of our cruise will be three sea days followed by five port days and ended by a final three sea days before reaching the turnaround port of Southampton.  

We had a light dinner in the LIDO before heading to the Princess Theatre for the evening show which was a comedian, Josh Daniels.  Before the show started the Assistant Hotel General Manager, Barry,  engaged me in conversation and I learned that this ship was to be a full charter by Imagine Cruises, but Princess took back half of the ship when Imagine couldn't sell it out.  However, he said that because it was not a full charter, Imagine Cruises had to make all of their entertainment available to all guests.  So that's how we ended up with what Princess calls "Enrichment Entertainment" and how Travel With Alan ended up with 300 plus passengers on this voyage. The shows are scheduled throughout the day and tickets are required to attend.  Our first show is set ofor 7pm on Tuesday, 11/4. The comedian was okay with nothing memorable that stood out.  Perhaps I was too tired to take it in.

After the show, I made my way back to the stateroom and Angela went to karaoke.  I worked on my blog and watched NFL football on the designated channel on the TV.  I noted that the Seattle Seahawks were playing at 1am so I easily figured out that it was going to be another short night.  Fortunately nothing important was scheduled for the next day so I could sleep in.  

Tomorrow is a sea day as are the following two days.  We should be able to get to know the ship well.