Late, late Sunday, August 31

Our first day at sea

August 31 brought us our first day as sea as we travel to Copenhagen.

The pictures are: (the pictures will not upload, will try tomorrow)
Barb and Claudia, our casino host at the slot tournament.
Barb playing video poker for the first time – and probably the last time.
Barb writing in her travel journal
This is what you see from our cabin deck – just the sea, but what a sight.

It is the first time that we have ever been on a cruise where it was too cold to lay out on the deck with sun tan oil on. The day was bright and clear but it was just a little cold to lie out.

So we did the next best thing – we slept, ate and ate and gambled.

Ed was up and ate breakfast while Barb slept in. We joined our friends for lunch and stuffed ourselves. Then it was on to the slot tournament where both Barb and Sheila qualified to be two of nine for the finals. Sheila didn’t place and Barb came in second. First paid $500, while second brought Barb some Carnival “stuff”. Ed didn’t make it to the finals.
We went to ABBA dancing and then played bingo. Talk about relaxing. Then we played a session of gambling and did great.

The evening was eating, going to the show and then gambling till 12:30; but, we have to turn the clocks ahead one hour so we had better say good night because the next stop is Copenhagen.

From somewhere at sea!!!

From somewhere at sea!!!

Wow – doesn’t that sound wonderful?

The pictures are:
The church built in 606
Inside the church
The Borough Market
Departing the Port of Dover
Barb at the pool on the Lideo deck

We started our first day on the cruise by getting up early in London and taking the tube to the London Bridge stop. Just outside that stop was a church that was first built in 606. It is now a Cathedral serving the south half of London. An amazing church to see and read the history on its walls.

Then we went to Borough Market. This is the largest outdoor food market in London and it was huge. Every kind of food you can imangine and also flowers that were very beautiful.

Almost every one of the booths had samples to try and we spent the next hour eating our way around the market.

Following the market, we took the tube back to our hotel area, which was at the corner of Hyde Park and walked down and back on Oxford Street, a very main shopping area.

By that time it was noon and it was time to be picked up and taken to the ship.

After a 2 hour ride with our friends from Florida, we arrived at the Port of Dover and our ship. It is the largest one that Carnival has built and there are 3,200 guests aboard but the ship is so well laid out that it does not seem crowded

Our check-in was slower than normal because their computers were down and everything had to be done by hand, but after a half hour we were in our cabin – a 10th floor balcony cabin.

Our dinner table was perfect, a round table for 8 in the first level of the main dinning room, the Black Pearl. Our table mates are a couple from Vermont and a couple from New Jersey along with our friends, Bob and Sheila from Florida.

Barb and I then went to the casino and met the new casino host, Claudia, and she seems very nice. We had fun in the casino meeting everyone on the staff and finally crashed about 12:30am.

This morning brings clear skies and cool enough that no one is wearing a bathing suit to

day. It is going to be a wonderful day at sea. Bye for now.