April 23, 2020 
Yay…Caribbean here we come!!!
All our bags are packed and ready to go, and it’s only 5:30am! Thomson included a chauffeur to take us to(and from) Gatwick airport, “cool” i said “I’ve never used a chauffeur before”. She promptly arrived at 5:50, put the bags in the boot and off we went! Really hope we havn’t forgotten anything, but too late now! 🙂
The driving was the smoothest i’ve ever witnessed, the acceleration and the cornering were like silk. didn’t move a inch in my seat, well impressed! lol.
London Gatwick Airport…
After a slightly less smooth check in, Sarah bought a fantastically colourful Swatch watch(pic coming soon), then we drank a nice coffee and waited to board the 787 Dreamliner! Sorry i couldn’t take the photo below, but i couldn’t get the window open! 🙂
⇧ The Thomson 787 Dreamliner – image from Google images ⇧
As i’ve only been abroad once(Tuscany Tour 5 months ago) and only been in an Airbus A320, i was interested in this 787 monster, as our flight is 9 hours. It was huge inside, plenty of seating space and legroom, and had remote dimmers on the windows, instead of a plastic pull down blind! Impressed again! lol. The Air conditioning was fantastic and the time just seemed to fly by! 🙂
Montego Bay, Jamaica…
Who turned on the massive hair dryer?! It was hot, but we managed to get through the airport and get on the bright yellow bus that will take us to the ship. The bus was fantastic, super soft suspension bouncing us along to loud reggae music, with stunning vividly saturated colours painting the landscapes.
Wow that’s a big ship…
After having our photos taken and registering for our on board payment cards, it was time to board. Again i’d only ever been in small speed boats when i was little, so this was another huge 1st for me! 🙂
⇧ The Thomson Dream Cruise Ship ⇧
As it will be my 40th birthday tomorrow(15th April), and we needed a fridge in the room for Sarah’s insulin, we booked a suite which we eventually located on Deck 7.
⇧ A folded towel Elephant ⇧
We were welcomed by a fantastic folded towel elephant, and a bottle of Champagne chillin in an ice bucket, fantastic! 🙂
The cabin crew said that we had beaten our suitcases to the ship, so we went for a little exploring.
Well i said exploring…we found the fantastic “Coffee Port” on Deck 8, a quiet oasis with stunning views overlooking the Jamaican coastline. Oh and it has sofa’s too!
⇧ Sarah relaxing in the coffee Port with views of Montego Bay ⇧
After beautiful and strong coffees we waited for the emergency drill at 6pm up on Deck 9.
⇧ Me on left wearing a life jacket ⇧
Once out on deck we were guided to our posts and shown how to put on our life jackets. It took me longer to squeeze my head through the tiny hole of the jacket than it took for the whole drill. lol.:)
It was really hot and humid out there, and after hearing a bit of a shuffling panic, a person had passed out near us and was stretchered away, I heard the person was fine shortly after and it was due to heat etc.
Returning to the cabin, our suitcases had arrived, so we spent the remainder of the extra long day(as Jamaica is 5 hours behind the UK) unpacking. Sarah was pleased to find a huge walk-in wardrobe and promptly started filling it. 🙂
I’d hoped to get more photos of the day, but as we were always on the move, being hustled to and from transport, i had to concentrate on walking instead of taking photos. 😦
Tomorrow will be my 40th and a full day at sea as we head towards La Romana, Dominican Republic. We have booked an excurtion around Altos de Chavón(mediterranean style European village) and a paddle boat ride along the Chavón River where they filmed scenes from Rambo pt 1 & 2, and Jurassic Park.
Hope you enjoyed Day 1? Hope to see you at sea on my 40th! 😀
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