Northern Europe - RCCL Jewel of the Seas

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Our replacement plane finally took off at 1:15 AM, and we watched the clock closely, hoping the pilot would be able to make up some time in the air, being we had a
2 ½ hour drive from London to get to the cruise terminal. We landed at London Heathrow around 1:15 PM, and luckily, the stars were in alignment that we were able to clear immigration, collect all of our baggage, clear customs and enter the arrivals hall at 2:00 PM. That left us 3 hours to get to our ship before her sailing time from Harwich at 5:00 PM.
It took a few minutes to locate the Royal Caribbean representative. She led us to a private van transfer for the 6 of us. Our driver must have been Mario Andretti’s younger brother, because he provided a high speed hair raising ride to Harwich. We departed the airport at 2:20 PM and pulled up in front of the cruise ship terminal at 4:05 PM (he managed to shave 45 minutes off of the normal travel time).
It took us a few minutes to check-in at the terminal, where workers were already breaking down the area to prepare for sail away. We embarked the ship, as the other passengers were heading to their muster stations for life boat drill. Our cabin stewardess Ruth, warmly greeted us and then ushered us off to drill.
When drill was over, we couldn’t wait to get to the bar to see our dear bartender friend Carlos, who had a cold, frosty beer waiting for us. After the hugs and kisses greeting, we ventured outside to the Sky Bar to visit with bartender Clayvill and enjoy the glorious sunny skies during sail away.
As the sun began to set in the sky, we went up to the Vortex in the Royal Viking Crown Lounge. We received a big greeting from our other dear friend Pavlin who poured us the perfect martini.
A quick shower and it was off to dinner to meet our dining room waitstaff. Our waiter Schaba was from Romania, our assistant waiter Jan was from Slovenia, and our head waitress was Susanna from South Africa. We also got to visit with our waiter Marc who served us last year, who greeted us like long lost friends.
We all turned in early tonight, since it was a very long travel day.

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Photos

Carlos
Our dear friend and fantastic bartender from Buenos Aires wearing his New York cap.

Our dear friend Pavlin
Pavlin from Varna, Bulgaria pours the perfect martini