September 1, 2008 | Cruise Ship, Dover

We began our final day in London with the same perfect hotel room service breakfast, then grabbed cabs in order to meet the cruise line bus at a nearby hotel for transfer to Dover and the ship. Typical of London traffic on a weekday morning (and part of the driving force between limiting car entry into the city), it took about 35 minutes to go just over a mile. Had we not packed such a ridiculous amount, we could have walked it in half the time!

We wandered around the neighborhood for a bit, walking through Covent Gardens briefly, then grabbed sandwiches for the 3 hour bus trip to Dover. Dover is a cute town and I kind of regretted not heading there first thing in the morning to explore before boarding the ship.

Photo by John DeMaria

We boarded the Crystal Symphony which was docked with a great view of the White Cliffs of Dover. I immediately lost my sunglasses, and shortly thereafter lost my camera while toasting our travelling companions with a glass of bubbly. We began the typical cruise ship feeding frenzy, snacking on tea sandwiches and cookies, and having some more champagne while listening to the piano player in the lobby bar (or “where we always drink” as my friend Gail likes to call it).

Photo by John DeMaria

The first night on the cruise is always casual dress, and we were couldn’t wait to see the menu for dinner, which is always great on a Crystal ship. Here’s my first dinner:

• Iceberg lettuce wedge with bacon and Caesar dressing
• Sea bream on whipped potatoes and sauteed spinach with a citrus buerre blanc sauce paired with a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc
• Fat free butter pecan yogurt which I switched with my husband because a small dish of real cinnamon ice cream always beats a big bowl of nonfat yogurt

After dinner we had some more champagne (which I regretted the next day) while watching the opening night show on the ship, then hung out in the saloon until after midnight, which was really 1am because we were changing time zones that night.