This is our 32nd cruise overall, our 25th on Princess. At the conclusion of this cruise, we will have almost 400 days aboard cruise ships. My thanks to Patty for arranging this cruise and for picking the best cabin on the ship for us.

I have found it helpful for me to record interesting things that we do, or stuff about the cruise experience, as soon as I could after they happened. So, this will be my log of the trip, with notes about what we did and what was going on around the ship.

Our trip actually starts a couple of days before the cruise departs. Our custom is to arrive at the departure port on the day before the cruise starts. For this time it means leaving home on Wednesday, flying from Tampa to London, an overnight flight, and then navigating from the Heathrow airport down to Southampton, the departure port on Thursday. On Friday, we will have just a few miles left to get from the overnight hotel to the port.

Sunday - November 2
We are down to about a week and a half before departure, and I am working on preparing the laptop for the trip. The itinerary page is complete - you can see it by clicking here. I am also copying files from my desktop machine to the laptop, for both personal stuff and for MVA stuff.

Friday - November 7
We are facing a possible flight disruption next week because of an impasse in Congress. So that we can watch what is happening with the aircraft that we will be flying, I have figured out some things about our flight. Virgin Atlantic uses an A339 aircraft between London and Tampa daily, operating as VIR 129, leaving London around 10:30 EST, and arriving in Tampa around 19:15 EST. That same aircraft is scheduled to leave Tampa around 22:15 for the trip back to the UK, so we will know next Wednesday morning if the plane will be making the trip to the US.

Sunday - November 9
We are down to two working days before departure. I have been getting the laptop prepared - windows updates, complete backup, virus scans and copying files that I might need from my desktop machine to the laptop. I think I'm done. I am planning to do a complete packing job tomorrow, to be sure that I have all the things on my checklist. And, by the way, today's version of our flight made it across the Atlantic both ways yesterday, and it is coming across Virginia, with 1.5 hours to go, today. It is scheduled to depart Tampa on time later today; that is good news for us.

Wednesday - November 12
We are expecting to depart from Tampa International Airport this evening.

Thursday - November 13
We expect to arrive at Heathrow near midday, then move on to Southampton for the night.

Friday - November 14
We expect to board the Sky Princess today.

Saturday - November 15
We expect to visit Portland, UK today.

Sunday - November 16
We expect to visit Cherbourg, FR today.

Monday - November 17
sea day

Tuesday - November 18
sea day

Wednesday - November 19
We expect to visit Vigo, SP today.

Thursday - November 20
sea day

Friday - November 21
sea day

Saturday - November 22
We expect to visit Ponta Delgada, Azores Islands.

Sunday - November 23
sea day

Monday - November 24
sea day

Tuesday - November 25
sea day

Wednesday - November 26
sea day

Thursday - November 27
We expect to tour Bermuda.

Friday - November 28
sea day

Saturday - November 29
sea day

Sunday - November 30
We expect to arrive in Port Canaveral.

Thanks for having a look at the log.