Bonney's
Vacation Sagas

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Jump In The Line

Jump in de line, rock your body in time. OK, I believe you!

After sleeping in the next morning we went right back down to the generous Continental breakfast that was included with our room fare. Next, it was the toting of the luggage back down stairs while we waited for the taxi to take us to the pier. Gotta have that money ready for the cute little guys and the taxi driver.

While waiting for taxi time, we checked out the area around the hotel, even though there was a nip in the air and rain was threatening to drizzle. In addition to some nice buildings and a couple of birds, the most surprising thing we learned was Harwich, England is where the Mayflower launched from in 1620. It was also home of the commander Christopher Newport, who established Jamestown in 1607. Who knew?

Our taxi left the hotel at 11:00 with our anticipation of arriving at Royal Caribbean Cruise Line's Jewel of the Seas, at the dock, ahead of the crush of people who would be standing in endless lines. We left our checked bags, my carry on, and more Monopoly money with the porters and walked into the terminal that had just opened. We filled out some short paperwork pledging we were not sick and had not been sick recently.

Then, because I have become a "Platinum Member" (that's only one step above "Gold"), we were directed to a different check in ahead that had coffee, lemonade, and cookies. And NO line at all. We whizzed by there after receiving our room keys and boarded the ship. That, surely, beats standing in an endless line for over forty-five minutes.

One of my favorite movies is "Jewel of the Nile," so when I learned the ship we would be on would be Jewel of the Seas, I was having a difficult time calling it by the correct name. So, if I mistype it here, you'll know why. But I digress.

Jewel of the Seas

For this trip, we decided to splurge and get a balcony stateroom. Find the little red asterisk below, mid ship.

If you've never been on a cruise, there's one thing you learn to do very quickly. Eat. And, oh goodness, it was lunchtime! If you board early enough, the second thing you do is explore the ship while waiting for your bags to be delivered to your room.

While we were waiting for our room to become available at 1:00 PM, Lesley and I went to the Windjammer, a cafeteria style, serve yourself dining area.

While Lesley went in search of coffee, I gravitated to one of my favorite spots, the FREE ice cream machine.

Before the ship leaves port, there's the lifeboat drill. Then if you selected early dining, it's time to eat dinner. That's one of the reasons I prefer late dining. When coming in from a day of shore tours, there's more time to relax before having to dress for dinner.

Although we had requested late dining, we had been assigned early, so after hunting for our suitcases in the hallway by our room and participating in the emergency drill, Lesley and I tried to get reassigned to late dining. We were unsuccessful, so we went to the 5:30 PM dinner and met our six other dining companions. Since it was the first dinner onboard, casual dress was recommended.

One of my suitcases was still delinquent on delivery, so this time Lesley was the first one to unpack. We met our room steward, Allan Cubero who was watching out for my missing bag. It eventually showed up. Still jet lagged, we went to be early.

Here's where the blanket becomes important. Lesley's and my bodies are on totally different thermostats. So while I am trying to run the air conditioner when it was about 55° outside, she is always freezing—at 75°. I was hoping her having the extra cuddly, warm blanket would make it so I could have some cooler air to breathe better while sleeping (and any other time I could get away with it). Unfortunately, at her tolerance zone and at mine, neither of us was comfortable.

This brings up another issue. Not being able to breathe contributes to my snoring, apparently loud enough to wake Lesley—and me! I think I've gotten worse. I thought my snoring was coming from my sinus issues in my head, but discovered it was a rumble from my throat. I prefer to call it a loud purr…. Maybe I'm having a really good dream!

Between long daylight hours into the night, keeping the curtains open to the balcony sliding glass door and windows, the room temperature issue, and the alleged snoring, Lesley and I were awake and asleep several times during the night. I often looked over to her bed to see her grasping the pillow over her head. Like I was too noisy! We'd ask each other if it was time to get up, turn on a light to read a book, or go back to sleep.

This was the first of many time changes that would had on this trip. This time it was one hour forward.