All aboard and it's smooth sailing....

It’s Saturday and we are sailing toward Spain. Our travel via airplanes to London and then the port of Southampton went smoothly and without any incident, just very tiring. We left the house at 7:30 am on Thursday, flew to JFK in NYC and then after a 4-hour layover we flew to London, arriving about 9:30 am on Friday morning. Our transfer transportation to the port went well and before we knew it, we were onboard the Grand Princess. We were on this ship in March, just 2 weeks before it went to drydock for a little facelift. It was fun to see the new additions to the ship, but unfortunately the new things are just in the public areas…..no upgrading to the staterooms, except for the replacement of the tv with a flatscreen. We are hardly ever in the cabin so no big deal to us.

The Grand Princess

Last evening we met up with our Colorado neighbors, Bob and Tissy, and enjoyed a before dinner drink and then dinner with them. They have a balcony cabin and rounded up a couple extra deck chairs so that we can enjoy a drink on the balcony in the upcoming days. It’s a bit cool to be sitting outside now but the weather will get warmer as we head south and then into the Mediterranean.

Leaving the Southampton port

Terry, Joyce, and our Colorado neighbors, Tissy and Bob

This ship is full and we learned that 90% of the passengers are from England—Brits they call themselves. We have met several couples already and have enjoyed visiting with all of them. We laugh over the differences in our English language and find the conversations center around where are you from, where have you travelled and where are you cruising to next. While visiting with a couple of Brits at lunch, I noticed a way to tell the Brits from the Americans is that the British ladies all seem to carry handbags around the ship. I would say purses, but the Brits would correct me on that as a purse to them is actually what we would call a billfold or wallet, that goes inside the bag, which they would call either a handbag or shoulder bag. Why one would want to carry this around all day baffles me…..all I need is a pocket to stash the cruise card. 

A change has been made to our itinerary. Instead of our first port being Cadiz, Spain, inclement weather to that area has made the captain change our destination to Malaga, Spain instead. That’s one of the nice things about cruising. The ship likes to avoid adverse weather whenever possible. So we’ll be flexible and see what that port has to offer. We really had no plans in Cadiz except to walk around the old city and explore. That’s probably what we will be doing in Malaga.
Since we were so tired last night, we chose the buffet for dinner instead of the dining room. Tonight we’ll probably check out one of the dining rooms and enjoy a leisurely dinner and maybe a show.