IT IS FINALLY HERE! Our trip up to this point has been lovely and enjoyable, but you know what? We are here for the cruise and are SUPER excited. We ended up waking up at 7am but we were rather slow, been a whirlwind couple of days. We went to breakfast for the last time and went back to the room to gather our last minute things.
It was at this time when I was finally able to have time to take photos of our room and a video tour of it.
Our room while in London
Looking into the room from the entry way. Rich dinking around on his phone.
For reference, Rich is 6’4”.
Turning the camera left after entering into the room
Standing in the corner looking back at the entry
Looking right from the corner (where the small wardrobe is). This is our ensuite.
Immediately to the right of the entryway into the ensuite. Small sink, small area, but better than sharing a bathroom!
As you can see, the shower is right next to the toilet
The shower. I forget if I had to stand on the toilet or if Rich took the photo for me
Looking out of the ensuite into the room
Yes, it was a bit small, but for us, it was just fine. I really enjoy seeing how people make small spaces a livable area. We live in a studio apartment (granted, bigger than this room) and so we are used to being in cozy spaces. The price and location was right, plus breakfast, what not to like?
We finally got our bags together and went to check out. It was really smooth. We then took the 2 minute walk to St. Pancras station to obtain our Southeastern Rail tickets. We just went straight to the customer service desk and they printed them off for us. The tracks were up a floor where there is an escalator that takes you right to the entry, where there was a little waiting area. I believe there was a little cafe cart up there selling pastries and coffee.
Sitting on the bench, looking towards the gates into the platform
We didn’t wait for horribly long, maybe 15 minutes? Before we were able to board. Since we were right there, we were able to find a good spot onboard; a four top table so we could stash our luggage.
One large green suitcase, a black/blue roller duffle are in the seats, the bags up top (2 blue carryons and a tote) are also ours.
That’s where we are going!
We were on the Southeastern Highspeed train, which bypassed all the local stops. The image above shows the stops that it made. There was a lot of concern about this leg of the trip because there was some construction going on with this line and people in our group were really concerned. Well, since this is a WHOLE different track than the local ones, this one was not affected.
Shortly after the photo was taken, we were off to Dover Priory.
It took about an hour until we got to the shores where I could take this lovely photo
First view of the Magic!!
Made it to Priory Station! This is the front of the station. (it’s small)
Looking out from the doors from the previous image
It was a rather small station and it kind of bottlenecked coming out. Just an FYI for anyone with a stroller or wheelchair, it’s a tad crowded when everyone is getting off. Of course it’s like, 99% of the passengers are going for the cruise (I made that number up) so there was a lot of luggage to navigate around as well.
We were one of the first people outside and our plan was to take a taxi to the port, however, there was a gentleman in a construction vest with Disney Cast Member uniform and lanyard who was telling people that there was a shuttle we could take at $10 a person. Yes, in USD because the money would be taken out of our onboard account. In all of my research, I had heard NOTHING about this, so we were a bit weary, but even his pen was a
DCL pen, so we were the first to approach him and see if this would really work out.
The possible CM taking down names. More people signed up after we did.
The shuttle
The shuttle was a bit late from the time the possible CM told us, but it did arrive and the photo above shows what it was. It was rather tiny and they had a fun time fitting all the luggage in the back. There were no markings on this shuttle to show it was a DCL run shuttle (to my recollection). Inside was teeny tiny and I had to put my wheeled carry-on under the seat while holding onto my Dooney tote … I was kind of squished, but worth it to have those two with me. Once all tucked away in the shuttle, we were off towards the port (so we trusted). I took a few photos along the way.
First view of the cliffs, right next to the road
To our relief, we made it to the port and were dropped off. Our luggage was taken care of for us, they just started unloading and they were like “we got this, go on and check in”. So, there it was. No dropping off our luggage with porters, they just took it from the shuttle.
One potential kidnapping successfully avoided.
So there we go people. As of the 2018 WBTA, DCL provides a shuttle for passengers from the Dover Priory train station to the port. This was not advertised and was not on Disney’s website about transportation for this departure port, their information only stated transportation from Airports & Hotels in London. From this experience, I think the $10/pp was well worth the cost.
This is really happening!
Despite the terminal not being Disney, they did a great job making us feel the magic prior to the ship. I may or may not have shed a tear going across this threshold. I did not take photos of the security area but from what I remember, it was on the second floor, right next to the check in area of the terminal. Rich actually got stopped at security because they had thought he was trying to sneak in more then the allocated limit for alcohol per person. I had gotten so excited that I got through security just fine and started wandering off! Poor Richard. We were bringing on 2 wines and a mead. I had to go back and show that we were traveling together and that we were within the limits. They were kind about it, but professional and took it quite seriously.
We got to the check in line, which was a little long but nothing bad. The check in was pretty simple but they did require us to surrender our passport but they took a scan and gave that to us (with a receipt attached) so we can use in ports if needed.
We were hoping there would be a post box at the terminal so we could mail the postcard we got from the tour yesterday for Jane (the creator of Jane Hat) but there was not one.
Of course there was a place you could stand to take a photo in front of the DCL welcome banner … thing. They are weirdly distorted because Rich’s phone did something weird with the selfie settings. We didn’t realize until later in the cruise. Sorry for the odd photos but they are the only ones we have of these.
JANE HAT ALERT
When you walk into the terminal from security, the photo area is kind of in front of you across the way and the line to the check in is to your left. There is also a hall going away from the photo area that has the restrooms. Across the room, diagonally to your left is a little cafe and doors to another room. Just beyond these doors is the waiting area to board and let me tell you, this was PACKED. It’s a pretty small area and people like to bottleneck the entry area since the entrance to boarding is right there when you walk through the doors. The staff were not joking around about letting people board before their time, they required people to show them their boarding card before being able to pass through.
Rich finally got his lanyard! He pouted on his first cruise cause he didn’t have one.
We ended up not waiting long to board, flashed our #6 boarding card and boarded the ship. We skipped the boarding photo. Our first stop was to the Promenade Lounge to change our Palo reservations. There was a decent line of people doing the same and there was a CM handing out numbers that they would call when it was your turn.
Then off to Lumier’s to have lunch. The people we were sat with were rather chatty. That’s mostly what I remember about that, I was a lot more hungry lol
Lunch menu for embarkation
The mixed salad - both ordered
We both also ordered the Potato and Leek soup
Rich got the Sliced Roasted Beef Sirloin for his entree.
My entree was not photoed but I got the Pennette Pasta.
My dessert: Welcome Aboard Sundae. It was SOOOO good
Rich’s dessert; Cookies ’N Cream Cheesecake
After our yummy lunch, we headed towards our cabin and dropped off our luggage, come to find our Romance at Sea package and our Silver gift. The Romance at Sea package is now called Luxury at Sea online.
The table has our non-alcoholic sparkling cider, champaign glasses (to use), chocolates and a rose which is part of the ‘at Sea’ package. On the couch are two robes (in the bags) that come with the package and a backpack sling, which is the silver castaway member gift.
Now, let me explain something here, we LOVE Martinelli’s sparkling cider and we were excited to have this option for our cruise. However, since we were departing Europe, all of the food/drinks that were stocked were European, so we got an Italian cider instead. We were a bit bummed, but could say we tried it, at least. The funny thing is, we had a full bottle of Martinelli’s cider with us because in our online group, I found that a couple from the UK was also wanting the cider because they really enjoyed it. So, I decided to go to our store and pick up a bottle to surprise them with it. This also served to help us pack for our return trip since we knew we were going to be bringing back the wines and mead, we were able to test our packing for glass bottles and bring the necessary packing materials for them. See? Not completely an act of kindness but I think it was helpful for everyone involved.
After dropping off our luggage, enjoying our cabin (6511, sideways cabin) we went and had a rousing muster drill. Ha.ha. After the muster drill, we ended up going to deck 10 so we can enjoy the sailaway party and enjoy the views.
~ To be Continued in next
post ~