The first day of every cruise adventure is a long one, and this was no exception. We left the house at 4:30 Wednesday afternoon (10:30 Stockholm time) and as we type it is 9:30 Thursday evening Stockholm time. After a busy day, we’ve unpacked, unwound and are sitting on our balcony with a glass of wine – well, some of us have a glass of wine – watching the sun set over the port of Stockholm. According to Reflections, the sun will set at 9:58 tonight; of course, it will rise again at 3:41 in the morning, so there WILL apparently be some night tonight. The nights are starting out short, and will get shorter as we go along.
Our flight to London was uneventful, although different from usual. Because we were on the late flight, we were served a buffet dinner in the Business Class Lounge before boarding to allow us more time for sleeping. Nice idea. The flight is just under 7 hours, and we managed to spend about 3 of them in some sort of sleepy state. Our second flight, from London to Stockholm, took about 2 hours and was also quite nice. It was amazing to see just how narrow the separation between the North Sea and the Baltic really is. No more than a few miles (at least from 39,000 feet up). We landed at 4:00 this afternoon and once all the luggage was collected, boarded the bus for our 45 minute drive to the port.
Once on board, the rush started up again. We got into our stateroom in time for our Butler, Neil, to come and introduce himself, followed almost immediately by our cabin stewardess, Vesna, and then the luggage. Our doorbell doesn’t ring anywhere near this much at home! While we were unpacking (after 5:00) we realized that it wasn’t open seating dinner but regular seatings, and our dinner was at 6:00. So we stuffed our clothes in the closet and the drawers and ran off to the Dining Room.
Our tablemates are all very nice; one couple from California, and the other from Virginia. If we have a fourth couple, we didn’t see them today…We’re the most seasoned Crystal cruisers at our table. It looks like it will be a good group and we should have some fun.
As to staff we’ve seen so far (and of course, we haven’t been to the Lido or the Pool yet), there’s Victor (the Food and Beverage Manager) Natalia (bartender in the Avenue Saloon), Giuseppe (the Maitre d’ in the Dining Room), and, although we haven’t talked to him yet, we’ve caught a glimpse of Lorinc (former bartender, now sommelier). We have seen Raymond from the pool deck in his ‘other job’ serving canapés in the bars before dinner, so we’re sure that by tomorrow breakfast, all the Lido guys will be looking for us.
Well, it’s been a long day (or two) and we’ve got an 8:45 tour in the morning. We’re signing off now and hitting the hay. Not only do we have an all-day tour, but we lose an hour of sleep tomorrow night. Good thing Saturday is a sea day…
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