10-Night France, Iceland, and Norway Cruise - Day 4 Embarkation
Embarkation
Dru and I had arranged to work out together in the park first thing in the morning so we met in the lobby at 7:10 AM for a 7:15 workout. I led Dru through a workout and we had a lot of fun before meeting everyone else for breakfast at 8:30 AM. After breakfast we returned to the room, got cleaned up and packed. At around 10:00 AM we went for a walk. We walked down to the original Southampton town walls and to Bargate, the original gate into the town which also served as a government building and prison built c. 1180.
We did a little shopping (Emmaline packed a tube of mascara that ended up being empty) and then grabbed some coffee (Emmaline wanted British Starbucks) before going back to the hotel. By this point it had started to rain, not heavily, but it was somewhat steady. We checked out of the hotel and tried to get an Uber, which didn’t work. It seemed that there weren’t many XL cars available, so Nils called two taxis for us, which worked fine. We said goodbye to Dru and Nils and got to the port at 12:30, which worked out well since our port arrival time was 12:15-12:30.
By 12:45 we were done with checkin and security and they were boarding groups 1-10 (we had group 12). To pass the time we used the restrooms and took a photo in which Emmaline was being a typical teenager, Roger was carrying all the bags and looking unenthused and I was overenthusiastic. The helpful lady taking the photo for us kept counting down “3, 2, 1!” as if prompting Emmaline to look up. I told her that was the joke! At 1:00 PM they called group 12 and we got onboard and headed straight for Cabana’s to have lunch.
After lunch, it was time for our cruise group meet and greet in Pub 687 at 2:00 PM. I was there for an hour (Roger left earlier and so did Emmaline) but Roger and I regrouped later and went for ice cream on the pool deck. We checked the room for luggage but it still wasn’t there. At 4:00 PM it was time for the muster drill which was, thankfully, in the Buena Vista Theatre because the weather was still rainy, windy, and cool. Roger and I went back to the room after muster to see if we had luggage (we didn’t) and Emmaline went off to meet her friends in Vibe (the teen club).
It seemed like we left port really late, finally starting to pull away from the dock at 5:45. We still didn’t have our luggage and the AirTags I had placed inside hadn’t pinged since 3:00 and at that time, one of them was still on the dock so I was getting nervous. Plus, I wanted to unpack! The stateroom host asked if we had our bags yet and we didn’t so she asked us what they looked like and said she would go down to try to find them.
At this time I heard a whistling coming from the verandah door and I opened and closed it and tried to figure out why it seemed there wasn’t a seal. It turned out that the handle was loose and air was whistling through it and it was really annoying. I managed to jiggle and position it just-so and it wasn’t too bad, but I called guest services to report it and I asked that they come the following day tor repair it, but not that day as we would be going to be early. I told them we would be gone by 7:30 AM and they would have all day to look at it.
At 6:00 PM it was time for dinner in Enchanted Garden. We had requested a server so we went down and I saw her in the hallway and I said “we requested you! We are at table 10.” She replied that table 10 was not in her section. So we went to the host stand and they had no record of our request. Our wonderful travel agent was NOT amused.
That said, our serving team was great and we had a great meal that was super fast and moved along really well. We don’t have any table mates, which we were surprised about. It’s okay because sometimes it’s a little hit or miss with the table mates. We went back to the room after dinner and we had luggage! Our lovely stateroom host had put them into our room for us. Phew! We got everything unpacked and ready for our excursion the next day. We were totally exhausted and we were losing an hour to the time change so we went to bed super early at around 9:15 (which was actually 10:15 with the time change).
At 9:30 I heard knocking. I was already half asleep and very confused. I heard it again. I told Roger I thought someone was knocking. Just as I got up to go see, the stateroom door opened! It was a man there to fix the door! I explained that we got it adjusted somewhat and could they return the next day.
I was worried I would have trouble going back to sleep after my 15 minute power nap, but I was so tired, I had no issues at all. We were warned that the seas would be rough with 8-9 foot swells. Everyone took a Bonine just in case. If we had big swells, I didn’t notice and slept quite well.
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