Arrival in Southampton

We have officially been away now for a week and time has flown by. This morning we awoke at 6:30 am in order to go down to the Queen’s Grille for our breakfast. I think our waiters were very surprised to see us since this is the first day we’ve made it down to the dining room. We really did enjoy the different options for our first meal of the day. We had to say our goodbyes to many that we met on the crossing. We were back in our suite by 8:00 which is earlier than we usually get up. I decided to go ahead and do a couple of loads of laundry (while Mom slept!). I also had to take care of mailing some postcards and some other errands. I actually felt like I had accomplished a little something. I had thought about going into Southampton, but it was just too bitterly cold. They had snow on the ground and are expecting more. I think we are in a Little Ice Age rather than suffering from global warming. It was a very strange day on the ship as most of the morning we had run of the ship. We needed to get out of our cabin so they could clean it so we went down to the Grand Lobby and watched all of the preparations take place. We were even able to watch them replace the main flower arrangement – it was really amazing to watch the transformation. By the time the florist was done it was already noon and the new passengers were starting to board. The pianist who played the classical concert the other afternoon arrived to play a set. We had to wait until 1:00 pm today for lunch as the dining room opened a little later. We saw many new faces during the luncheon hour and realized we really miss Barbara and Jane. Since we finally had cell service we came back and made several phone calls. It was so nice to talk to the family. By 3:45 we had both fallen sound asleep. I am beginning to think there is something in the water! We were rudely awakened by the muster drill for the new passengers.

By 6:00 pm we were setting sail and they gave us quite a send off. We’ve figured out that this is “officially” the start of the World Cruise so they had a band playing, confetti, etc. Just as we were coming out of port, they also had a fireworks display. It almost made us feel as though we were just beginning our trip. We managed to get to dinner about 8:00 pm, but we had missed most of the people who are still on from NY. I know I sound like a broken record, but dinner was excellent…and that’s all I have to say about that. We went down to the Grand Lobby to listen to the string quartet after dinner.

They played until 10:30 and then we spent our time “people watching”. We are now in our suite winding down for the day. We will not lose anymore time for at least a day or two which we love. We have been forewarned by the Commodore that we will be coming into some very rough weather tomorrow. In fact, they have rescheduled some of the receptions and the evening Ball due to this forecast. We will be at sea tomorrow and then arrive in Lisbon around noon on Wednesday. Here’s hoping the stabilizers do their job tomorrow!