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
This is departure day and final packing day. I am ready to go, The Five is on TV but I am not paying attention. Called for an Uber around 6:15, the car arrived around 6:35 and I was at the airport around 7:10. Then bag check and boarding passes and headed to airside around 8:00. Through security at 8:20, with an hour to go before boarding. We left the gate 5 minutes early, actual takeoff was at 10:22. Then around 11:50 pm I am sitting beside Patty on an Airbus 330, eating mac & cheese, listening to Bruce Springsteen singing "Racing In The Street". It does not get any better than that.

Thursday - November 13
It is an overnight flight, so it is Thursday when we landed in London at 6:15 EST, 11:15 am in the UK, at the gate 10 minutes later. Passport Control, baggage claim and customs coming up. We found the driver and left the airport around 12:45 pm. The ride from London to Southampton took an hour and a quarter and we found the hotel around 14:00. The room was not ready yet so we found the bar and waited. We had dinner at the hotel.

Friday - November 14
Hotel checkout was around 11:00 am, then an Uber was ordered, and arrived within 10 minutes. The port is about 2 miles away and it probably took 10 minutes to cover that distance. Next came bag check and the line for check-in, then security and boarding the ship. We are early for the room, so we found a place to sit in the piazza and got a beer by about 12:05. Patty is ready to exhale as we wait until 13:00 when we can go to the stateroom. We must watch the safety video and find the muster station, and wait for bags and unpacking. Dinner is at 19:30 every night; tonight we are at table 86 with Suraj as the waiter and Abitjit as the assisting. Patty says the Greek salad sucks.

Saturday - November 15
Today we visit Portland, UK and take our excursion to Stonehenge. Watch the movie to see what we saw. Last night we asked for a different dinner table, so we are at a new table tonight, with Bineed as the waiter and Jake assisting.

Sunday - November 16
After a short transition overnight we are in Cherbourg, FR today and it is raining. We have an excursion to Normandy, so we leave the stateroom around 07:00 in the rain. Our bus is nearly the last one we check, but we got on and departed the parking area around 07:40. Stops during the day are at St. Mare Eglise, where there is a paratrooper hanging from a church. Then we visit a bunker on Omaha Beach, Pointe Du Hoc, another place on Omaha Beach, and the American Cemetery. We are heading back to the ship around 14:30, after a rainy and cool day. Watch the movie to see the sights.

Monday - November 17
sea day

Tuesday - November 18
sea day

Wednesday - November 19
Today we visit visit Vigo, SP. We meet in the theater around 09:30 for our tour, head out to the bus, and are on our way around 10:20. We tour around town, visit a resort and stop for lunch before heading back to the ship around 13:30.

Thursday - November 20
sea day

Friday - November 21
sea day

Saturday - November 22
Today we find Ponta Delgada, Azores Islands after our first visit to the Horizon Court for breakfast. We arrived about a half hour early for our tour, which got us on the first bus to depart for a tour around the island. After arriving back at the ship, we found a duty-free shop for chips and ruffles, and are back onboard around 15:30. We are away from the dock around 16:00. I watched some of the Buckeyes game before dinner. Watch the movie to see the sights from around the island.

Sunday - November 23
sea day

Monday - November 24
sea day

Tuesday - November 25
sea day

Wednesday - November 26
sea day

Thursday - November 27
Today we are in Bermuda with a tour around the island. Watch the movie for details. Also, on one of the previous sea days, we attended the Captain's Party for frequent cruisers. It was announced that there were 3498 total passengers on the cruise including 865 elites, and the most travelled passenger had accumulated 1930 days of cruising

Friday - November 28
sea day

Saturday - November 29
sea day

Sunday - November 30
Today we are in Port Canaveral for disembarkation. We schedule the routine to start for us around 08:45. We walk off near that time, retrieve our bags, make it through all the security checks and find a ride to the car rental lot, where we picked up a car, loaded our stuff in it and drove back home.

Thanks for having a look at the log. I encourage you to watch the cruise movie, which you can find on our itinerary page just below the itinerary list.