My husband K, older daughter J, and I all got up at 6. I'd had a rough night, which I'd tried to preempt by staying up late, but no such late. I'm always wound up/ nervous just before travel.
We ate the food we'd bought yesterday at Zeit für Brot and lamented that that would be the last we'd have from there. Boy, their stuff is so good!
At 7:34, as we were pulling ourselves together, I checked the weather. It was 51°, but felt like 49°. We thought that might be prep for what might be ahead.
At 7:40, we were finished checking out of the hotel. We then dragged the luggage down the street to the Angel station. By 7:50, we were on the platform awaiting the Northern to King's Cross. We boarded at 8:52 and were off 2 minutes later.
We headed to the Piccadilly platform to reverse our steps from the day we arrived. Unfortunately, we got almost there only to be met by a sign saying there was no Piccadilly train to Heathrow today due to construction or something. There was a tube employee there giving people directions as to where to go to get where they needed to be. J confirmed with her what we had to do before we headed off to the Hammersmith platform.
We were at that platform at 8:05 and we boarded at 8:07. We arrived in Farrington at 8:09. Then, we had to get ourselves to the Elizabeth platform to get to Terminal 3 at Heathrow.
At 8:17, we made it to that platform and had to wait. This was the fanciest platform we'd encountered. There were plexiglass panels along the edge separating us from the tracks. J said there was something similar in some stations of the DC Metro. It is to keep people from falling on the tracks.
We got off at 3 at 9. We made our way up the ramp to ground level to the waiting area outside of international arrivals. Here we found the Holland America Line (HAL) representatives at 9:10. They gave us colored stickers and said we'd be called by color and we could go sit down.
We found a spot to park and took turns using the restroom, roaming the shop, etc. People around us were also there for Princess. We could see on the board that there were late arriving planes and overheard people who were in groups that originated in different places and some of their flights were delayed.
At just before 10, our color was called. The larger pieces went under the bus, of course. I was about to take my roll on onto the bus,when the HAL rep there said that it had to go under because it had wheels. I said that it had important medical equipment and I couldn't afford for anything to happen to it. He promised to personally put it under and to retrieve it, when we reached the port. I had no choice, but leave it with him and hope for the best.
When we sat down in the bus at 10:03, I checked- it was now 56° and felt like 53° and was partly sunny.
We were finally on the road at 10:20. We were amazed at how much traffic there was on a Saturday. I dozed some and played games on my iPad.
As we neared Dover at 11:55, it had become overcast. Ten minutes later, we reached the terminal at the port. We claimed our luggage and I was happy to get the roll on back. The big luggage was dropped off to be scanned and loaded on the ship. At security, I tripped something, probably due to the new knee, and had to have a pat down. We scanned our passports with the help of staff, even though it was easily figured out. We had photos taken for identification for the ship (our photo will pop up every time we scan to get on or off the ship). We then had a group photo of the three of us taken in front of a blue screen by the ship's photographers.
After all that, we were told to have a seat to wait to board. It was now 12;!7. It was a good opportunity to use the restroom.
When we were called, there were people coming from another direction, who, I quickly surmised, had been on a shore excursion or out exploring. That was because I heard one guy say, quite disgustedly, "Oh, right, we have to get on with the people just arriving". Poor puppy.
There was a line, but we were onboard the Nieuw Statendam by 12:35 and warmly greeted by the crew members. Elevators there had been dedicated to getting us up to our decks. The cool thing for the three of us was that we'd sailed on this ship almost exactly three years ago, but in the Mediterranean.
We went up J's cabin, 6-131, first. She likes interior cabins and that's what this was. I was very happy to immediately see there were balloons at the door. Her birthday is on this cruise and whenever that is the case on a HAL cruise, I order flowers to be in her cabin, when she arrives. Often, there are are also balloons. When she opened the door, I immediately saw the flowers across the room. Hurrah! We quickly realized this was a handicapped accessible room. She hadn't needed or asked for that, but it is what she got. She found she couldn't leave the balloons on the door because they interfered with its automatic closure. But, nice room, huge bath.
We went down to deck 5 to cabin 5-114, which was our Veranda Suite cabin. It looked exactly like the one we had 3 years ago, which afforded a level of comfort that let us feel at home quickly.
I insist on a veranda, because I like to go out and see what is out there and take photos. Happily, the ship was positioned so that we had a view of Dover and its famous White Cliffs. We could even see the castle up on the hill. K and I saw the cliffs in 1984, when a tour we were on brought us over from Calais. This was J's first chance to see them.
Our luggage had not yet arrived, but we left the hand luggage in the cabin and went up to the Lido deck at about 1:10 for lunch. We found a table and took turns getting food. J manned the table first and I left her my key card to order Coke Zero. She and I like to split a variety of desserts. So, I grabbed three- Swiss Roll, Red Velvet Cake in a Jar ( actually, a cup), and double chocolate cheesecake- before going off to get my traditional, custom-made salad. The guy who did it wanted to make sure I knew his name was Frejan. He kindly came up with the idea of giving me an bowl of balsamic vinegar to dip my bread, after I turned down butter, saying I used the vinegar from the salad.
J went for a more substantial meal of tri tip, cabbage and mac and cheese. She also got us a slice of peach and berry pie.
K decided to still be careful with his stomach and got rotisserie chicken, cauliflower, and potatoes.
At 3:50, we finally figured out how to get to the muster video and hurried off to check in at our station. We then roamed a bit before J and I went to do the daily crossword and to color at 4:30.
One thing I like about HAL is that they keep a priest onboard. He's really there for the crew, but he does daily Mass for the guests. I'd been concerned at home, when I could see the daily schedule and it set Catholic prayer service, not Mass. When the three of us got to the room for it at about 5, we were the only ones there. I guess no retired priest was anxious to go to Norway at this time of year. J looked up the readings and I used the book to find prayers for the beginning of Mass. She had me do the readings. I was not comfortable going any further with a Mass. So, we were done at 5:15.
We had no assigned dinner time in the main dining room, but rather open seating. I convinced K and J to have dinner on the Lido Deck. They were doing a British night and it was our last chance for actual British food on this trip. So, we gathered quite the selection of soup, pies and desserts. We were seriously full, when we finished.
J was feeling worse and worse due to her sinuses. So, she went to her cabin at 7:45. We were in ours by 7:55.
We decided to watch The Fall Guy, which was one of the movies available on the TV. It was really good! Afterwards, I showered and K went to bed. I finally turned in around 12:30.
The phone logged 6960 steps for 2.6 miles, but no floors logged.
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