May 28-31 GettiNg adjusted
May 28-9. Travel day at last!
We arrived at Pearson around 3:30 and were through all the preliminaries by 4:30. And then the notices of departure delays started! What began as a 20 minute delay to our 6:20 PM departure turned into over an hour late leaving Toronto. The flight time was also adjusted to try and make up time, but we didn’t arrive until just after 7:30 AM this morning (Thursday).
Dinner was served on real dishes with real cutlery, and of course, the required tumbler of red wine! We had pre-ordered Beef Stew, carrot salad, and carrot cake which really hit the spot! By this time we were so hungry they could have served anything and it would have been delicious!! We did manage to catch a few winks, but it was hardly ‘restful’! Before we landed they brought breakfast - more like a snack of yogurt, cranberry loaf and coffee.
Heathrow is such a busy airport which meant we had to circle for 5-10 minutes before getting clearance to land.
Once at the gate we were ready to use the Special Assistance Service 👩🦽➡️👩🦽➡️ to take us to the meeting spot for our driver.
As I may have mentioned in other blogs or emails, ‘special’ assistance is not always ‘special’ in the positive sense of the word. Heathrow, like Pearson, has a relay system where a wheelchair takes you to an area where you are transferred to a ‘black hole’ where you are dropped off to wait for an electric cart, which then takes you to another spot to wait for a wheelchair to finish the arrival procedures. We ended up waiting for almost an hour in the black hole for the last transfer!!! On my third trip up to the desk to inquire politely about the exceedingly long delay,I finally was able to get some action to get us to the passport control and our baggage which I suspect had been cruising around on the carousel for a very long time!!!!! I guess a letter to Heathrow Special Assistance will be a project for one of our sea days!!!
We are always grateful for the service as it means we can travel through what seems like kilometres of airport corridors in a chair!! A person would have to be in training for the Olympics to be able to walk these distances!! 🏃♀️🏃♀️. Good thing we had a ride this time, because when we finally reached passport control there was a long snaking line three deep with people until it ended in the passport hall! There had to be in excess of two hundred people!!!!!! But our special assistance took us right to the fast lane and we were through in a matter of minutes. Since our luggage had not been picked up, it had been taken to the area where my walker arrived and the attendant brought everything to us!
Now to find the driver who would take us to Southampton. No one was waiting with a sign with our names, so we contacted the service. A very helpful gentleman who was waiting for other passengers to arrive offered to call for us; they knew that the flight was delayed and had adjusted the pick up time. Soon our driver showed up and got us to the car for the pleasant ride to the port town. It always works out, but we had a few uncertain moments.
We can’t check in until 3 so we are hanging out in the restaurant until then. I won’t dare lie down on the bed! We are planning to have an early dinner and a very early bedtime!
So check back here tomorrow to see what we’re up to on our day before embarkation. Hopefully we will have recovered from a really long travel day!
Cheers!
TwoTiredTravellers
🥱
May 30 - Southampton
Wow! We slept for 9 1/2 hours last night!
We started our day in Southampton with the included buffet breakfast at the hotel.
The weather is about 17°, partly sunny and breezy so we ventured over to the West Quay Mall. Not being shoppers, Mary wandered around scouting out the stores and discovered the mall is a two storey affair, including a full grocery store at the Marks & Spencer’s. After stopping for coffee at Costa ( the UK version of Tim’s?) we went outside to enjoy the fresh air and people watch. It seems it is a British holiday as there were many families, kids, teens, dads pushing strollers etc so there was always something to look at! We found a bench and sat down with Paddington Bear!!! This was a popular spot as many of the families ( and even adults) stopped to take photos with this popular British storybook character!
We came back to the hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon there. The Premier Inn is a modest hotel - very comfy beds, an onsite lounge/restaurant, but no pool. We have the breakfast and dinner included package which turned out to be reasonable and convenient. It is a busy place; the server told us there are 5 big ships in port carrying about 20,000 extra people!
We have reserved a taxi to the pier in the morning when our real trip begins. Come back to this page tomorrow where hopefully I’ll be ble to post a photo or two of our home on the Sky Princess for the next 28 days!!
The Two Excited Travellers!
🚢 🤗 😃 🚢
May 31 - Embarkation Day
Yay!
It’s a beautiful day to board the ship! Temperature about 18° and sunny! Our taxi driver arrived a few minutes early and we were on our way! Embarkation was a breeze; the cabins were not ready so we went to the Lido to wait for the announcement.
Now it’s dinner time!!! We have a table for two (as we have done ever since Covid) every night at 5:30 with our waiters Liberty, from Zimbabwe and Basnet from Nepal! They seem really nice and attentive. We had a few laughs and will look forward to getting to know them better as the days go by.
