Today was our turn to sail. We joined the Sea Princess to officially start our adventure.
You know it is World Cruise Day when the Today show interviews a pair of perpetual cruisers. Wayne and Joan have appeared a couple of times as a result of their many months at sea each year. We have cruised with them on several occasions, and they are just the loveliest people…
Outside, it was a wet and miserable morning and you couldn’t be blamed for thinking “damn, the forecasters were right,” but as the day progressed so did the weather. The rain cleared, the clouds parted, and the sun made its appearance.
The beauty of being so close to the pier meant that as early as 8am, we could walk down and check in our luggage. Then when time came to check out of the hotel all we had with us was our carry on.
We arrived at the terminal and walked straight in. Although check in was seamless, it was a little slow. Now, it probably was not that bad but remember, we are the husband and wife check in team extraordinaire (well in our own minds anyway).
We were feeling a little conspicuous pulling our two cartons of wine behind us, but we didn’t feel so bad when we saw a large four-wheel trolley loaded with at least a dozen cartons waiting to be pulled straight through to security as its owner passed through immigration.
Some of you may remember from last year’s blog we were “that couple,” when one of our boxes tumbled off our trolley and smashed to the ground and emitting a very fruity aroma.
We managed to make it past immigration and through security without incident. We paid our corkage for twenty-two bottles to the waiters, which now that I reflect, looked a little confused with the process.
When we thought we had made it onboard without drawing too much attention to ourselves, we were just about to ding on, and down the line came the waiter waving his stamp looking for us. So now we had to stand to the side while he stamped every bottle. You might notice the words “every bottle”… so our little benefit was we actually got all twenty four bottles stamped.. So yes, we once again became “that couple” as everyone had something funny to say as they walked past us.
Lucky I was wearing my sunnies when we walked into our cabin as there was this blinding light, more commonly known as a window. That little upgrade fairy had been working overtime and we are the proud residents of an Oceanview. Thanks to its position, we have the added benefit of being woken to the tune of anchors away on some port days, and being rocked and rolled to sleep in inclement weather. But we do have daylight, and best of all, we have floor space.
Instead of the traditional sail away cocktail, small bottles of Princess Prosecco were on sale for $9 each instead of the usual $17.50. Now here is a bargain which needed taken advantage of, so several of us have taken delivery of a carton or two in our staterooms for future use.
It didn’t take long for us to gently slip back into routine. A familiar ship and familiar faces makes it so easy.
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