The trip from Paris back to London was
uneventful. It was a nice relaxing train ride. Of course, we had to go through
the underwater tunnel again. This time, I knew exactly where my passport was before
boarding and Matthew did not lose his when he purchased his snacks.
Once in London, we met up with the
rest of our group and finally had the entire group of 16 together for the first
time. Aunt Sandi and Carrie had enjoyed their extra time in Paris and JD was
finally able to get time off work and fly over from the States.
We then had to take another train from
London to Dover. This train was not as nice as the bullet train to Paris. We
were supposed to have a couple hour wait in London, but we were a bit lost and
didn’t know where to go, so Matthew went to ask for help and one of the
managers not only guided us to the right location but got us on an earlier
train that was boarding immediately. The difference with this train was that we
didn’t have assigned seats, and there was very little room for luggage, so a
couple of the guys stood in one of the doorways and watched all our luggage for
the hour plus trip to Dover. The rest of us were scattered throughout the
train, wherever we could find seats. It was quite an adventure, but we made it
to Dover with all our luggage.
At the train station, we were able to flag
down two taxi vans that managed to load all the luggage into the vehicles and fit
all of 16 of us passengers. It was a tight squeeze, but we were able to go to
the front of the line because of our group size. It was a quick drive to our
hotel in Dover where we were going to spend one night before boarding the
cruise.
After getting settled into the hotel,
we decided to figure out dinner plans. We knew we were too big of a group to
eat together so we split into smaller groups. My parents and us decided to go
to an Indian Restaurant. It has been a long time since I have eaten Indian food,
so Matthew helped us choose different meals to trial. It was delicious and we were
very happy with our choice. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel to relax for
the evening.
On August 1st, we woke up,
ate breakfast and got ready to head to the port. We used the same company that brought
us to the hotel the day before to get us to the port. Thankfully, we were informed
that traffic would be crazy in the morning so we asked them to come earlier
than needed and knew that they could be later than expected. Other guests were
freaking out about their taxi service being late. Once we loaded the van, we
realized how bad traffic was… only to find out that not only was Carnival
loading their boat but there was a ferry to Paris loading at the same time. They
did not have the infrastructure to maintain that much traffic. We were able to
make it to the ship on-time but since we arrived in two different groups, we
did not get a full-group picture. Kim and Keb waited for the others since Elizabeth
was with them.
It was an easy process to load the
ship, especially since we had Matthew and his wheelchair service leading the
way. Once onboard, I made sure to pick up a cooler for Matthew since it is
first-come-first serve. The next order of business was to get lunch. We all
opted to get burgers from Guys Burger.
Once we were allowed to get into our rooms,
we all parted ways and went to our rooms to unpack and organize our belongings
for the trip. What I love most about cruising is that you can see a variety of locations,
but you don’t have to live out of a suitcase to do so. We were able to settle
in, unpack and just enjoy the next 10 days. We also got to meet our room attendant
for the trip. We always get first class service onboard. Cruising is definitely
a vacation… you don’t have to cook or clean or worry about anything really for
the entire trip.
After unpacking, we were on our own
for the evening. Some of us met back up on the main deck for the sailing away party…
we watched the shore as we took off for the trip. Took pictures and just
enjoyed the fact that we were going to be out at sea for the next 10 days.
The first day was pretty much another
day of rest for Matthew. After we left Dover, he went back to the room until
dinner time, and I explored the ship and got my 10,000 steps in for the day. I
was also able to get some laundry done. I figured it would be pretty empty on
the first day on the ship and the perfect time to get all our clothes cleaned
from the first week of traveling. We joined my parents, Aunt Sandi, and Carrie
for dinner and then headed back to our room for the evening. Before going to
bed, I was able to spend some time in the Word. It was the perfect way to start
the cruise.
August 2nd was our first
Fun Day at Sea. So, it was a day to completely relax. Matthew took full
advantage of the day of rest and spent the entire day in bed. I would check on
him throughout the day but spent most of it out and about on the ship visiting
with my family or exploring. He was hoping to only rest during the first part
of the day and then get up in the evening since it was the first night of
dressing up and taking pictures, but he was in so much pain that he wasn’t able
to get up. In fact, while I was getting dressed, he would moan in his sleep. I felt
horrible leaving him, but he didn’t want me to miss out on the festivities with
the group. It definitely was not the same taking pictures without him.
build a stronger friendship...!
Elizabeth's Senior Trip Cruise...
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