June 17, 2016
I slept like a rock last night…apparently 10 hours of touring London plus no sleep for three days makes for a great antidote to jetlag! 🙂 We met our friends, Ron and Chris, in the lobby, and the driver we had arranged was already there waiting for us. We used “Airport Express (http://www.adlg.co.uk/) on the recommendation of another car company that was already booked solid. We were very happy with our car, driver and service.
We had pre-scheduled a stop at the White Cliffs of Dover and arrived there about 2 hours after leaving the hotel. I knew the White Cliffs had a visitor’s center complete with a little café. I actually emailed them ahead of time to see if they would be serving tea and scones this morning! They graciously assured me that they would be and that they would be made fresh that morning! I grew up enjoying delicious tea treats from my mother. So, one of the things I was most looking forward to about being in England was having English tea and authentic scones. I was so excited to FINALLY get my first taste that I made everyone stay in the Visitor’s Center and have breakfast before doing any exploring! I am happy to report that I was not disappointed! The tea was fantastic and the scones were delicious! The clotted cream was served in a little package alongside a small jar of jam. I am used to lemon curd with my scones but all three (THREE!! 🙂 ) times I had tea during this cruise it was served with jam. So I am guessing this is the traditional English way!
Ron and Kermit enjoyed some coffee while they waited for me to finish my tea.
We had a great view of the MAGIC from the porch at the Visitor’s Center. It was fun to look down on the harbor and see all the activity!!
Ok, NOW we can go exploring!! There is a long stretch of land that you can walk while exploring the cliffs. There is a lighthouse and tearoom at the far end of the property. We would have liked to have gone that far but we knew we didn’t have enough time. There is also a new tour offered of an underground shelter used during WW2. Fan Bay Deep Shelter, originally built on Winston Churchill, was just recently discovered! We all would have loved to have seen this but the tours didn’t start until the afternoon. Next time!
Despite a little drizzle we loved exploring the parts of the cliffs that we could. It was a lovely property with wonderful views!
We left the cliffs around noon and headed to the port. It was a very quick drive! We pulled right up to the port and unloaded our luggage directly onto the transfer carts. The port was very well staffed and much nicer than I had anticipated! The check in process was very smooth and extremely fast (especially since there was a separate line for platinum cruisers). Boarding started at 12:30 and we boarded in the first group. Hello, Disney MAGIC! I am so happy to be back! 🙂
I immediately went to Lumiere’s for Palo reservations. We were able to get both brunch and dinner but the gentleman helping me told me that on the cruise the previous week the waiting list for Palo had 180 people on it that never got reservations!
I found Kermit and Ron already enjoying their happy spot! They both fell asleep in these chairs! A true sign that vacation has begun!!
We pulled out of port around 5:30 PM. We had fantastic views of the White Cliffs from this vantage point! It was fun to see where we had just been hiking! We also had a great view of Dover Castle–one more thing on our list for when we return!
Dinner was in Lumiere’s tonight. We had a table for 4 which we were excited about! We were also excited to see that the menu had a section dedicated to “regional cuisine”. This appeared each night and always featured several traditional dishes from the country we were visiting. Kermit wasn’t as inspired by this section as I was. Instead, he splurged with two glasses of chocolate milk–his favorite vacation beverage!
After dinner we enjoyed the Welcome Aboard show (hello, Clayton, our favorite cruise direction who just happens to be from Minnesota!!) and then did some shopping in the “local merchandise” shop. This is located in the old duty free shop between Fathoms and O’Gills. They had a small, but fun, assortment of items from Norway and Iceland on display. We ended up buying several things here over the course of the cruise. Not only were the purchases tax and VAT free, they also honored my platinum discount!
For our last stop of the night we took in a show from “Graffiti Classics”, a comedy string quartet. It was fun to see something so original! They were fabulous musicians and the music was top notch!
We headed back to the room around 12:30 AM. I ordered room service because, well, because I could! I enjoyed my cheese plate while relishing the thought of having 12 nights on this wonderful ship!! 🙂
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