Saturday, August 17, 2019
I’m typing this from our room on the ship. We made it! Mary is zonked out on the bed. I should be resting too, but I’m not tired right now. It has been a whirlwind eighteen hours. We got up Friday like normal, but we knew it wasn’t going to be a normal day. We think we’re ready and of course there are always things that get put off until the last minute. Some things have to wait. Mary got cash (after we agreed how much to take). We divided it and split it up among our bags so if one went missing only some of the money would be lost. She also picked up our prescriptions. On Friday morning we got in the van, after Mary put her car in a neighbor’s garage, and drove into Belleview. Mary had two boxes that needed shipping back. From there we went to Cal’s for a full breakfast. We weren’t sure when we would next eat so we loaded up. From there it was back home. Mary made arrangements with a guy in Del Webb to drive us to Tampa. She called him several times but it went to voice mail. By 12:30 we were pretty antsy. I looked up long-term parking at Tampa International. Worst case, we would drive and leave the car in parking. I started searching for another number for him. I found the Summerfield white pages. There was a Danny Kelly that lived in De Webb. Mary called the number and our guy picked up. He was ready to come over. He explained his cellphone does not work in his house. Huge sigh of relief. He showed up about 1:45. We did our last-minute-last-minute things and got in the van.
Danny drove the hour and forty five minutes, most of it in blinding rain, to the airport. It was an uneventful ride, thankfully. He dropped us off and we made our way into the terminal. We went to the American area only to be told we needed to go to British Airways. Over there we got a helpful agent. It took a while, but she changed our seats so we were sitting together. There was a momentary question about the SmartDrive and its battery. Days earlier, I printed a document from the SmartDrive site that showed the device was approved so it could travel with us. So, we were off to the security check. As always, my pat down took twenty minutes. Mary got the serious pat down this time too. Of course, TSA wanted to look through one of our bags. We carry an allen wrench set to fix my chair if it should come up,. This sets off the scanners every time. With that all behind us we had to take a train about half a mile to the international terminal. These are always fun (sarcastic). I have to try to get on the train quickly which does not happen. I get in just as the doors close. Mary quickly locks the wheels. I can’t because I’m loaded down with my bag and the sliding board. So, I just get on and I grab a pole to hang onto because I know the train will jerk to a start. Then thirty seconds later, the opposite needs to happen – unlock and race to the door. This doesn’t happen according to plan either, but I manage to get off the train. From there we head to gate F90. It sounds far away it really wasn’t. We went to the gate and it was after 5:00. I’m glad we got there really early. We needed every minute. After a quick pee stop we were set to get on the plane. The staff was helpful and we were ready to go. The transfer from my chair to aisle chair to plane seat went very smoothly. It took about thirty minutes for everyone else to board. Then we had the twenty minute ride on the tarmac before taking off. We had nice seats. We paid for premium economy. Mary was at the window and I was on the aisle. I got situated because I knew it was going to be a long eight hours. The plane took off without a bump. I was listening to my book while Mary read hers. About an hour into it I switched to my iPad to watch a dumb movie – The Spy Who Dumped Me. Mary fell asleep. Dinner was served about an hour into the movie. The food was actually good. I had beef and Mary had chicken. They came with a funky salad which I passed on. There was a tart thing for dessert. Over all it was pretty good. After dinner Mary went back to sleep. She slept for several hours. I finished one movie then started a second one before I fell asleep. This was about 11:00pm. I slept for about two hours. I slept hard. By this time the plane was making its way up the English Channel. All night it flew up the east coast before turning east after Nova Scotia. A breakfast was served – egg and cheese on toasted bread. Mary liked it. I passed. The plane landed without concern. Same routine only backwards – drive on tarmac, wait for everyone to get off then we got off. Without exaggeration, half the passengers were kids.
Gatwick takes disability services to a whole new level. Same transfers – plane seat to aisle chair to my chair. From there we went on a special carrier that was on the opposite side of the plane from the jetway. This carrier drove us right to baggage claim. It saved a ton of time and miles of walking. Mary found our one checked bag and we were off to customs. We sailed through customs with the help of the disability guy. He then led us to where we found our driver. The whole process was seamless. They did a great job.
We met our driver. I didn’t get her name. Maybe Mary did. We went to her lift equipped van. She loaded us up and were off. The trip from Gatwick to Southampton took about two hours. It was strange having the driver on the right side and having traffic reversed too. On the expressways the traffic flows opposite. We saw a lot of English countryside. We also saw quite a bit of Southampton. It was a bit odd seeing ruins from when England was ruled by Romans in the shadow of a Starbucks sign. We asked the driver to stop at a grocery store to see if they had Monster. The first place didn’t, but the second did. Yeah!
She dropped us at the cruise terminal around 11:30. We gave our bags to a porter to bring them on the ship. We then made our way to the registration area. This, too, was super easy. We got our cruise cards and went to a waiting area. We sat there for thirty minutes. We were early and had to wait for security. Through one last security check we went aboard the Sapphire Princess. We were told that we couldn’t go to our cabin until 1:00. It became obvious few were waiting to go to their cabin, but we waited. I noticed my phone wasn’t working. I thought I had international plan added but I guess not. Using Mary’s phone, we called Verizon and got it fixed – thankfully. I suggested Mary go up to the cabin to see if it was ready. It was so I made my way up to deck 12, room 301. Two of four bags arrived so Mary unpacked them. It was now 1:00. I started writing this update while Mary napped. We were waiting on the two bags we had delivered by LuggageForward. We were a but worried but email said they were delivered. I let Mary sleep until 3:00. We had to go to the mandatory fire drill.
The fire drill was down on seven. We, with a hundred other people in a small area listened to several safety and security topics. It was over in about thirty minutes. We headed back to the room. Still no bags and, we remembered, no rented tux. Not much we could do so I laid down and napped. Somewhere in the next 90 minutes everything we were waiting for showed up. Whew! Mary unpacked that stuff while I slept.
We decided to go to the dining room on five. It was busy, but we were seated quickly. We sat by ourselves – not a shared table. I ordered a Manhattan – it was good. I had chicken broth for the appetizer. For the entrée I had steak and onion pie – apparently an English favorite. All mine was good. Mary had salad and prime rib. She seemed pleased with her selections. I had cheese plate for dessert. Mary had ice cream. It was a good first meal.
The only super small goof of the day was we did not bring a power cable for non-Apple devices. In the grand scheme, we did pretty damn well if that is all we forgot. So, before heading back to bed we bought the needed cable, and got some tea and cookies. These first days are always killers. This was no exception. Nonetheless, it could not have gone much better.