Sea Day and Dover Castle

Yesterday was a lovely, relaxing day on the ship. I slept in late and skipped breakfast. What I quickly realized, by not being an "early bird" I am used to there being fewer people on the ship when I am ready to eat!

This morning, Joe and I went upstairs to the buffet and found it crawling with people! They were everywhere! Imagine that. So we thought that it would be a great day to go to the sushi bar, which is an additional, nominal fee, and eat where it was much less crowded, and also delicious.

Afterward, we found the card room, with only one other couple playing cards, so we decided that it was "safe enough" and played a few rounds of Hand and Foot. During our second round, another couple joined the four of us. Within minutes one of them sneezed. My head perked up, and I waited; a second sneeze, and a sniffle, and on went my mask!

The coughing began, and the sniffling continued, I looked over and they put their masks on. The other couple left, and we finished our round as quickly as possible and left. I am not gonna lie, I was annoyed, they obviously knew they were not well, why in the world didn't they stay in their own room?

There were already eight cabins that were quarantined with people who have covid. Not bad considering there are over 2000 passengers on board, but of course, we know that there were many others who just did not report they were sick, as we heard coughing everywhere. We have all continued to mask everywhere we go, and all are feeling well.

We had another great dinner and enjoyed a set of music in the Red Frog Lounge before heading to bed, as we knew that we would be docking, back in Dover, in the morning, and there would be a lot of commotion, early in the morning, even though we were not getting off the ship.

Eventually, we all got up, had a little bit to eat, and headed out to Dover Castle. Dover Castle is the custodian of over 400 historic monuments, buildings, and sites and sits up high above the white cliffs of Dover.

It is impressive, to say the least. We heard that it is the oldest castle in the UK, but don't quote me on that. The Joe's climbed to the top of the Great Tower and were rewarded with amazing views and depictions of what the rooms in the castle looked like hundreds of years ago.

Henry ll built the present castle in the 1180s and over the next 800 years, it was adapted to meet the changing demands of weapons and warfare. I enjoyed walking around the kitchen area of the Great Tower, and they had another building that was set in scenes from World War I.

notice a theme?

We also toured the underground hospital, which was full of memorabilia, sights, sounds, and smells of days gone past. I am still trying to figure out how they recreated the mess hall to smell like a pot roast.

After touring the hospital, it was time to find our way back to the ship, which was no easy feat, as cabs are few and far between, and many of them are busy picking up new passengers for the cruise, from the train station.

Eventually, we walked all of the way to the hotel we stayed at before the cruise, and they called a cab for us. They took us to the liquor store where we got a few bottles of wine and some beer, and straight back to the ship. Carnival in Dover Port did an amazing job boarding the passengers. No waiting in line, and in Europe, they allow you to bring alcohol onboard. ten cans of beer for the price of one.

So we are starting this cruise with a full fridge and clean laundry. Gotta love the Platinum status, just for laundry, we managed to wash everything we needed, for four people, for free.

We have another sea day tomorrow, and then we will be in Copenhagen, Denmark. I am betting I will enjoy these ports, more than the last cruise.

We shall see.

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