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...

Princess Cruises Day 6 & 7 - The End of the Line

All throughout the cruise, I was thinking about how calm the seas had been and what I was going to do with all the Dramamine I had brought on board... Well, as usual, I spoke too soon.

Day 6 began with a lot of rockin' and rollin' on the high seas! The Grand Princess had encountered some stormy seas and we were in for a long day (and night).

Luckily, the girls and I were not too affected by the constant rolling motion of the ship. In fact, DS and PS seemed to enjoy the ride (Jo thought it was exciting!). Unfortunately, the Yuki's were not as lucky and we didn't see very much of them the rest of the day...

DS and PS riding out the rough seas...

DS and PS kept themselves busy during their last day on board. They spent some time in the Pelican's Club, and also went with mommy to to the Arts and Crafts demonstration to make some beaded bracelets after lunch. Jo was amazed at the beautiful bracelets the girls had put together for themselves!

PS making a special bracelet

Later that afternoon, we went to see Magician Richard Griffin's "Close-Up Magic Show". As I sat quietly in the front row, Mr. Griffin came down and volunteered me to help him onstage. Instantly, I had a flashback to our Greek Island cruise and David Ng's onstage experience! I almost made a run for the exit, but decided to just go with it. Luckily, Mr. Griffin was kind enough not to embarass me!

That night, the Yuki's didn't make it to our last dinner on board, because they were feeling the effects of the rough seas.

Maitre d' extraordinaire, Massimo

And they missed out on the traditional "Baked Alaska" presentation!

But they were not the only ones! PS missed most of the dinner as well, since she had a long and tiring day...

The rough seas had seriously slowed down our progress back to Southampton. We were scheduled to arrive on Saturday morning at 7, but the latest estimate was that we wouldn't be arriving into port until sometime after 4pm! At first we were ok with it, until we realized that our plans for Saturday evening would be ruined if we were to arrive that late...

But luckily, the next morning we received some double good news! The seas had calmed down sometime overnight and the ship regained full speed and made up a lot of lost time! The new estimate was arrival into Southampton at 12:30, which was a whole lot better than 4!

James and Ray enjoying the view

We made our way into the English channel and sailed past Portsmouth, on our way back to Southampton. It was a beautiful day and it was a welcome change from the stormy weather of the last day and a half...

Spinnaker Tower, Portsmouth

Finally, we arrived into Southampton, but then had to wait a few more hours for the disembarkation process...

It was time for the kids to say goodbye to their new onboard friends, and also say goodbye to TY and JY (until the holidays).

We had a great time cruising with the Yuki's and appreciate everything they had done to pull this trip off for us. Thanks, guys!

But, there was no time for long goodbyes or pictures by the ship. The Yuki's needed to get on to see Stonehenge. And we had to make tracks to get to London, so Jo and DS could have their special night out to see Wicked...

Princess Cruises Day 5 - Oslo, Norway

The Grand Princess arrived into Oslo Harbor early Thursday morning, September 3rd. Although I have made several trips to Oslo for work, it was always in the neighboring areas and not within the main city of Oslo. So, this really was a first-time trip for all of us!



Conveniently, the Hop-On/Hop-Off bus tour stopped adjacent to the ship's berth and we were quick to purchase tickets for the day.





The bus tour again was wonderful. We love the fact that we can view the many sights of the city (with narration) and then choose where and when you want to get off.







We chose to stop off at Vigeland Sculpture Park, to see the over 200 sculptures of the human form. It was situated in a beautful park-like setting, just within Frogner Park in the central city. First stop was a large playground where the kids enjoyed some serious playtime while burning off the big breakfast from earlier that morning.





Just a few minutes walk from the playground took us through the rest of this beautiful park and to the first of the sculptures, located just past the bridge.





All of the sculptures were nude, except for the one sculpture of the artist himself, Gustav Vigeland, a famous Norwegian sculptor. Apparently, he was not yet ready to bare all to the world. However, the kids thought these naked statues were quite amusing...





The sculptor donated all of his art to the city, on the condition that they be displayed to the public free of charge, 365 days a year.





Jo and DS at The Monolith, the centerpiece of the exhibition


The bronze fountain


After all that walking, we hopped back on the bus to see more of the city. Before re-boarding the ship, DS & PS went inside a gift shop to see what they could buy with the few remaining Norwegian coins we had left. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to buy anything in the entire store. However, the kind shopkeeper gave DS a souvenir "I Love Norway" heart that cost more than what the girls had. After realizing PS was sad that she didn't have a souvenir of her own, the owner came out and gave PS a souvenir heart as well! Now that's what I call Norwegian Hospitality!

Two "happy campers" after receiving Norwegian hearts!


Once back onboard, we had a bite to eat and headed upstairs to watch the beautiful Norwegian scenery as we departed Oslo.





A little later, we all gathered poolside to watch "Movies Under the Stars" on the giant screen. This afternoon's movie was "Grease".



That evening was our last formal night, so we got "dressed up" and met up for dinner. The kids wanted to head to the disco after dinner, so we went up to let them "burn up the dance floor". Lucky JY got to escort the three lovely ladies, I guess you can never under-estimate the power of a tuxedo...

Next day was "At Sea", as we sailed back to Southampton and the end of our cruise. Stay tuned...