(written June 22 by Devri)
We got up around 8 and got to work showering, folding clothes, and getting things packed up. The host asked us to return the keys to Kings Cross Station again, and after our driver said that would add a lot of extra time to our trip, we asked if we could do something else with them, and he said to just leave them in the apartment. With everything packed up, we headed out of our sweet London crib and out to our driver’s van. He loaded up all of our bags, and we headed to Dover!
It took over two hours to get to Dover due to traffic, and I spent the bulk of the journey trying to work on these summaries. My google doc, where we are writing this stuff up, wouldn’t load, so I ended up starting a second document. I don’t know if my iPad is just having a struggle, or if we really have written that much!
We finally arrived at Dover, and we decided we loved embarking here the best. The people were all so so nice. We worried about Michael’s blacksmithing projects getting flagged, confiscated, or thrown away during security, so we tried asking the security teams there. We wished that we had just found a way to mail them home. Finally, we just sent the bag through and hoped that they wouldn’t toss them.
We ran into another hitch at check in because our kids were all in a room on their own, which I had cleared with Carnival when I booked it. The system was upset because there wasn’t a person older than 18 in the room. Our helper eventually got us checked in, and we were escorted by another lady onto the ship and to guest services to switch Michael and Brian in the system and to get extra room keys for Michael, Brian, and myself.
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| Embarking on the Carnival Miracle in Dover |
By this point, our rooms were all ready, so we went up to drop off our bags, and found out that most of our keys didn’t work. We sent the kids to go get food on the Lido deck and got back in line at guest services. There was also an issue with getting the Carnival app to work on Rachel’s phone so she could have the chat on the cruise. We got the room key situation figured out, but had to give up on Rachel’s super-locked down Troomi phone and get her set up with texting on the Carnival app on her iPad. That was a whole thing, but we got it sorted and figured out, but there were tears and anger in the meantime.
Finally, Brian and I got to go get lunch, and when we finished lunch and went back to our room, we had most of our bags. The luggage with the metal pieces was still missing, and we tried staying positive about the thing. I went through some worst case scenarios with Michael. We prepared for the worst and hoped for the best.
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| View of Dover from our balcony onboard the ship |
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| White Cliffs of Dover |
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| Sailing away from Dover |
Just before dinner, the final luggage piece arrived, and the metal pieces were missing. We found a paper inside saying that they had been confiscated. Brian went to guest services again and found out that because we had the paper, that means the pieces didn’t get thrown away and that we should be able to get them from security when we get off the boat in Dover. Phew!
We had dinner, and by that point, Brian and I were really struggling with our cold remnants. We headed to our room, keeping tabs on the kids via the app and them checking in with us.
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| Raspberry Cheesecake at dinner--Carnival knows how to deliver sauce, unlike MSC |
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| Entertainment at Dinner |
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| Exploring the ship |
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| When Michael, Rachel, and Brian arrived at this spot at the exact same time from three different directions |
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| See caption above |
Gabe went to bed, then Brian and I, and as we were tucking in for the night, Rachel and Michael also went to bed.
Our ship, the Carnival Miracle is a smaller ship, and our kids are so familiar with Carnival that we’ve just let them do their thing, so long as they check in. Everyone feels so happy being back with something so familiar. We loved eating a burger from Guys, seeing towel animals again (including the mascot), and we loved hearing, “Good evening, Carnival Family” over the loudspeakers. We’re still a long way from home, and still a week out, but it’s given us a boost to be back with things so familiar. Almost feels like home.
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