Scandinavian Cruise Day 1: London and boarding the ship

LONDON 

Our stay in London was quite short. Dave and I were going to try to head out for a sight seeing run in London before heading out to Stonehenge...but the time difference really got to us so we opted for a little extra sleep.

We did get up in time to head to The Roastery for an iced Americano and bagel with lox. We wanted something somewhat light and this hit the spot for us. The bagel was fresh and the lox were tasty. We just may have stood out like a sore thumb... the woman at the counter asked us, “Are you visiting from out of town?” Yup. Yup we are!

After breakfast we hopped into our ride with Dave’s parents and made our trek to Stonehenge (~1 hour and 40 minutes). We got there around 10 am. The line to get tickets was pretty short but as we approached the stones, I wasn’t optimistic we’d get good photos because it looked like it was super crowded. Once we got closer, I realized it wasn’t too bad. I recommend getting there early so that you beat the tourist buses. On our way back the lines were really long and we could tell it was going to get tough to get good photos.

Another tip...don’t take photos right when you get up to the stones...keep walking towards the back! There will be more space to take photos and I would say even a better view because you are a bit farther away and can get it all.

If you have some time, you may want to make the 1-1.5 mile walk versus taking the shuttle from the visitor center.  We took the shuttle because we had a schedule to keep but if we weren’t in a rush we would have walked as the scenery was beautiful and it was perfect weather.

THE SHIP 

We got to the ship around 2:30ish? The process went pretty smoothly...more smoothly than our Alaska boarding. We think this is because we got to Alaska right when boarding started whereas this time we came later. 

We didn’t do anything too exciting that first day. We unpacked and went to the mandatory safety drill. We had a mini tour of the ship and went for a quick run in the gym. We had dinner in one of the dining halls. Dave’s dad housed many meals as it is unlimited. And we headed to be early. We had to get up early for our first excursion in France. We are much happier with our room for this trip because you can actually move in the bathroom this time and we have a balcony so we don’t feel like we are in a cave.