It’s been a long but satisfying day.
It started with us waking in a Travelodge in Brentwood. We’d chosen to drive down yesterday, so that
we could visit family on the way. So
this morning we took it nice and easy, enjoying breakfast in Asda, (cheep and
cheerful), and then pottering around PC world before making our way to Tilbury
Cruise Terminal to board the ship.
Once at the terminal, we offloaded the masses of luggage
from our campervan. We had to take the
van, all these suitcases would never have fitted in a car. But they are necessary, not least because I
NEEEEEEEEED all of those clothes, and Peter does give out a lot of watercolour
paper as part of his classes.
Lucky that the porters take most of it away then. They grabbed our luggage and took it to be
x-rayed before it is loaded on ship. The
next time we saw it, it was outside our cabin door. That left us with our “hand luggage”, but
Peter had to take the van away to the car park.
When he got back, we made our way into the terminal
And once again, CMV looked after us. All the regular passengers were waiting their
turn to board, but partly because our “hand luggage” includes a plastic 6
drawer storage cabinet full of art materials, and partly because we are
Supernummaries , and partly because Peter is becoming well known, even by the custom and security people at the
terminal, we were able to jump to the front of the queue, get straight through
the security checks and walk on to the ship in double quick time. (Well as quick as we could bearing in mind
Peter is pushing around a plastic drawer set on a sack barrow).
We’ve been given an extra large cabin again which makes us
feel exceptionally lucky. It’s a cabin
for four, but the way it’s split we get a sort of lounge area and a bedroom area. The extra space is handy considering all the
kit we have with us. And we have a kettle!
Apparently CMV are now putting kettles in all the cabins, which in my
very humble opinion, is fantastic. The
tea stations up in Raffles Bistro are OK, but it is a bit of a nause having to
go up there to get your last cuppa of the evening. This is so much better.
As usual, we took a wander around the ship and see the
changes. So far we’ve noticed that there
is a very interesting looking cafe/coffee bar on the Mall, which we may have to
check out, and they’ve updated the coffee and water machines in the bistro,
also a good thing.
Over the course of the afternoon and the fire drill, we’ve
bumped into and chatted with all the other crafters, said hi to a few of the
staff from the Marco Polo, spoken to the Shore Excursions desk and sorted out
our first tour escorting duties (Peter is doing a walking tour tomorrow. He hates walking tours. Hee hee)
Unpacking finished, we went for an evening meal in the
Bistro which was very nice, as usual, and I got to taste the coffee from the
new machine, it’s not Starbucks, but I give it a thumbs up.
It’s going to be rough tonight apparently, gale force 9. Let’s hope I’m asleep when it happens, eh?
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| The sleeping area of our cabin. The beds are easily pushed together and we have loads of room |
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| The crafting area of the ship |
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| The Show Lounge. |
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| The Captains Club |
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| The Kensington Restaurant |
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| Sinatra's Bar, except that's Peter, not Sinatra. |
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