Friday - Disembarking

Well today was an early day. My phone started receiving service around 3 AM, so I received a text saying that I am now on international roaming. That woke me up. I decided to look outside and we were approaching the port of Southampton. I had trouble going back to sleep, so I went out on the verandah with a blanket and watched us “back in” to the dock. Our wakeup call came at 6 am which is much earlier than we are accustomed to getting up. We dressed and went down for breakfast. The atmosphere was so subdued today. You could tell that everyone was sad that we were leaving today. We had our omelets for breakfast and said our goodbyes to the Queen’s Grill staff. We have never experienced such service – anywhere. The next 30 minutes went so fast I wasn’t even sure what was going on. I had scheduled a wheelchair transport off for my mom since I wasn’t sure of the distance off of the ship. We had hardly arrived at the designated area before a most kind gentleman was there to pick her up. We were expedited off of the ship, down several walkways and before we knew it we were outside. We had done the immigration portion on board ship, so things went very quickly and smoothly. I realized I still had the suitcase we were shipping back, but before I could even do anything he was asking at the information desk and taking the suitcase to the correct location. He then went and hailed a cab for us to go to the Southampton train terminal. We had the kindest taxi driver who took us the 5 minutes to the terminal where we purchased out tickets. We went in the coffee shop to have a seat. The 09:00 train came, but there were way too many people trying to get on and I wasn’t sure what to do with the cases. I asked one of the information officers on the platform and he said he would come and get us before the 09:30 train and help us get on board. Sure enough, 5 minutes before the train arrived he came and got us and took our luggage down the platform to wait. We were the first to board and he took care of all of the luggage. I tried to give him a tip, but he wouldn’t hear of it. We have just encountered some of the nicest people. I am typing this as we’re on the train to Waterloo. We are at our fist stop – Winchester. We should arrive in London around 10:30 and start making our way to our hotel. I am looking forward to internet that doesn’t cost .50 a minute!!