A "Wicked-ly" great time in London!

Due to the Gale Force 10 winds we encountered on our last day at sea (exciting!!), the Grand Princess arrived late into port at 12:30pm (instead of our originally scheduled arrival at 7). By the time we disembarked the ship, gathered our luggage and picked up our car it was already after 3pm. As DS and I had tickets to see the show Wicked at London's Apollo Victoria Theatre at 7:30 that evening, we were getting a bit nervous about making it to the show on time.

We arrived at our hotel, The Marriott County Hall in London at 6:15pm. DS & I literally just had time to change our clothes, grab a few bites in the Executive Lounge, run to Westminster Station, and catch the tube to the theatre! This in itself was quite an adventure! Luckily, we arrived at the Apollo at 7:10 and even had time to check out the gift shop! DS was besides herself with excitement in anticipation of seeing the show. In fact, several theatre patrons and employees were quite amused by her enthusiasm. For me, it was extra special since I personally saw my first musical Starlight Express here at the same theatre in London!

We had great seats in 4th Row Center Stalls (orchestra) and enjoyed the show immensely.

An almost perfect evening at the theatre (DS' shoes broke!) ended when DS got to meet Elphaba, Galinda (DS' favorite next to Elphaba), Nessa and a few other cast members who took pictures with her and autographed her program.

DS with Dianne Pilkington (Glinda)...Drew's favorite!

Glinda and Elphaba in character...


DS with Alexia Khadime (Elphaba)... She's absolutely FAB!

Then we headed back to our hotel and enjoyed seeing Big Ben, The London Eye and the River Thames lit up at night......

Meanwhile PS and Daddy had fun strolling the Queens' Walk in front of our hotel, enjoyed the night lights and a nice sushi dinner at a nearby Japanese restaurant.

It's a green theme tonight... PS eating (and enjoying!) Green Tea ice cream...

After DS and I came back from the theatre, we had the chance to catch up with Ray and exchange stories on what we did that evening. We were also able to enjoy the lovely suite the hotel upgraded us to! I took several pictures of our room since it was SOO nice! The views in itself were absolutely amazing.

View from our hotel bedroom...

The next morning after a leisurely breakfast, we walked to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards. By the time we got there, the huge crowds made it difficult for the girls to see anything. So, we decided to just get out of there. But as we were working our way out, we got lucky and got stuck right at the entrance of an opened gate where we got a clear, front-row view of a little part of the ceremony!

We then ditched the crowds and ended up at Green Park where the girls enjoyed running around before heading back towards our hotel. On the way back, we again got caught at a road stop where we got a great view of the guard's band leaving Buckingham Palace. We walked through beautiful St. James Park where we stopped for drinks while the girls enjoyed feeding the swans and squirrels their spare snacks.

St. James Park

After strolling past Big Ben and the River Thames, we proceeded down the Queens Walk in front of our hotel trying to find a place to eat Fish and Chips for lunch. To the girls disapointment, we couldn't find any, but ended up satisfied with a local noodle shop instead.



All too soon it was time to depart London to make it back for the 6:30pm ferry back to France. While on board the ship, wouldn't you know the special dinner of the evening was fish and chips!!

By jolly, brilliant!



We put the girls to sleep in the car as the next day was their first day back to school... And back to a normal routine again. What a perfect way to end our summer!!

See our 1st trip to London here...