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| Port of Harwich, England |
Our next day took us to the cruise ship. To start with, we had breakfast. The night before, Justin had told us that he got upgraded to a room that allowed access to a lounge that serves breakfast. He gave us his extra key and we went up to have breakfast with him. It was really nice. They had a spread of baked goods, pastries, fruits, cheeses, cereals and more It was a nice area that had been renovated recently. I got a bagel with lox and fixins and some cheese. Lisa got the same. They had the same croissants from the coffee shop so I had to have one of those as well.
After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and loaded up into our vans to take us to the port, Harwich, England. It was about an hour drive from London and a very pleasant one. We got to see the east side of London and then the English countryside. At one point someone noticed that we were going fairly fast. I looked at the speedometer of the van and it was showing between 80-100. I assumed it was kmph, but when we asked, the driver said it was actually mph. She was booking it.
The port was pretty small and easy to get in to. We dropped off our luggage, which was sent directly to our room. We then went through the check in process, where we were given the wrong packet with keys and information, so we had to go back and switch it. We went through security and then showed our Sea Pass cards half a dozen times to get on the ship. Once on the ship, we went to our rooms to drop off our small carryons. Our room was connected to Justin's on deck 2. There are 11 decks with 2 being the lowest passenger deck. We were on the port side as far back as possible. We joked that our rooms were in "steerage" and probably would have been locked behind the gates in the Titanic.
Next stop: Find a bar. Our cruise included Celebrity's classic drink package. For the most part, this was a great deal. There will be more later about the issues. When we found a bar we asked how it worked, and the bartender told us that we had a select list of drinks that are on the package and when we order one we just give them our card, swipe it and it is included. From that aspect the drink package was great. We really saved a lot of money by not having to pay for drinks. Once we had our drinks, we decided to check out the ship. It is a very nice ship. Not huge, but a good size. It has a casino, several bars, outside and inside swim areas, theater, buffet, main dining room, and a couple of specialty dining options. There was also a spa and fitness area, but we did not use them. We did walk through the spa while checking out the ship and as they gave us information about their treatments, ironically we were standing there with a cocktail. We found a gelato shop, which was giving out free samples. It was good, but not Paciugo. After checking out the ship, we met up with our group on the top deck for the departure party. It is always exciting to stand up on deck and watch the ship leave the port. There was a really pretty sunset as we were leaving as well. Next was dinner. We found our seats at dinner and we had two big tables, one sat 11 and the other 10. Our waiter was Hamballi and his assistant Oliver. The first night was prime rib. It was pretty good. We also got escargot, which was available every night. Escargot was a running theme of the trip. After dinner we went to the casino to play craps for a bit. This is my dad's friend Dale's favorite game. He taught me how to play on a Mexican Riviera cruise and my taught brother how to play on a carribbean cruise. Our group really enjoys craps. After we played for a bit, Lisa and I went to bed because we had to get up early to head to Paris. Our train was leaving at 8:00 and the ship would let us off at 7:00 so we had to get up around 6:00. We packed what we needed for Paris and went to bed.
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| Goodbye England. Thanks for the hospitality. |
Next up, Paris...........
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