Day 1 Southampton

Sunday 7th January 2018

Southampton is a modern, historic city which is rich in maritime heritage. It also boasts an impressive cultural offering from museums, parks, music venues and art galleries to the vibrant nightlife, numerous restaurants and fantastic shopping facilities. Close to Southampton is the beautiful New Forest National Park famous for its free roaming ponies and wildlife.

And we’re off.

Sunny day with a cold NE wind.

Short drive down to Mayflower cruise terminal.  Sent the car off for it’s holiday somewhere in a muddy field?

Cruise consists of seven sectors :-

First Sector - Southampton to New York.

Southampton 7th January

Hamilton, Bermuda 14th January

New York, New York, USA, 16th January 

More as we get to them.

Soon on board, excellent stateroom, time to make a start on all the food we have got to get through before the end of the cruise.

Returned to stateroom to face the prospect of unpacking and  finding somewhere to keep everything.  Abandoned the job in favour of seeing the British Imperial Military Band playing in the Queen’s Room, a group of retired musicians from the armed forces, they gave us an exhibition of brass band renditions of some old favourites.

Soon time to get togged up in all our winter gear to go out on deck for the sailaway, somewhat delayed by other traffic, thankfully not too long, and away down for a last Au revoir and then to enjoy the fireworks display.

Time to warm up with a light dinner in the buffet before a return to the unpacking and an early night, usual problem with the sea air tiring us out.

Day minus 1

Saturday 6th January 2018

The day has finally almost arrived, feels like we’ve been packing for a week, Oh, we have been packing for a week.

All the leftovers from Christmas eaten up and the house cleaning accomplished, trusting of course that the dust will not reappear while we are away and the spiders won’t make any webs.

Just a few cases, so not much left in the wardrobe, let’s hope it all will go in the car for transport to Southampton and the cruise terminal.

Looking forward to the firework display as we start off sailing down the Solent.  Expecting cold weather but no storms at least for the first part of the crossing of the Bay of Biscay.

First stop Hamilton, Bermuda, nice long southerly sweep across the Atlantic, planned to avoid North Atlantic winter storms,  and looking for warmer climes.

Day minus 6

Monday 1st January 2018

Happy New Year

Our cruise certainly has been a long time coming, but getting so close now.

Pretty much on schedule for preparations - but also lots left to do.

Anticipation and excitement with a touch of trepidation seems to be the mood of the moment, all should turn to just plain enjoyment once on board.

Here’s a map of the route, more detail of itinerary will appear here as time goes by.

Day 4 - Southampton

Saturday 18th November 2017

Rather early start this morning, already berthed in Southampton, Mayflower Terminal, weather overcast and a little damp today, still, better now than in Belgium.  

Finished packing then breakfast.  All too soon our disembarkation time arrived and without having to wait any longer we were ashore. Quickly though and got our lift back for morning coffee and then away up the motorway home.

Day 3 - Zeebrugge, Belgium

Friday 17th November 2017

This morning berthed in Zeebrugge, a lovely sunny morning, perhaps a bit cool but excellent considering the time of year.

After breakfast and giving time for the rush ashore to clear we made our way  off to take the free shuttle into Blankenburg.  Strolled down through the town to the seafront, town very quiet, out of season so lots of shops haven’t opened.  Decided to forego the pleasure of a morning dip in the sea, tide a long way out and just not quite warm enough for such excursions.

Much more pleasant to just make a couple of visits to the local chocolate shops to make a few purchases.  Being quite unable to find a nice looking coffee shop we resorted to getting the bus back to the ship to have coffee on board, and we even managed to find a nice comfy seat by a sunny window to enjoy it while the ship was still underpopulated.

Spent the afternoon sitting out on deck just enjoying the sun until it began to sink toward the horizon and we moved into the Crows Nest lounge.  Managed to procure our sailaway champagne, somewhat delayed since Southampton, but thereby lies other story.

After dinner in the buffet, oriental theme today, off to the Palladium theatre for the Headliners show, “Reel to Reel”, a show of mainly songs from the musicals with some theme music from well known movies.

Sadly, now it’s time for packing  Clocks back to UK time tonight so extra hours sleep even though the need for an early start remains.

Day 2 - at Sea

Thursday 16th November 2017

Last night clocks went forward on hour just to confuse us even more.  This is doubly tricky as we are slumming it in an inside stateroom, so no daylight to help with body clocks.

After breakfast went for a few laps of the Prom, weather quite pleasant if overcast with some showers about, sea pretty near flat and wind very light.

Morning coffee in the Costa coffee shop, down in the bowels of the ship,  for some reason most of the ship’s public rooms seem to be a jumble of enclosed spaces without any WOW factor, not very impressive, especially for first time cruisers.  Even the atrium which in our experience is designed to impress on this ship certainly doesn’t.  Still the coffee was good.

Spent some time in the Crow’s Nest watching the French coast moving past very slowly.  Lots of ships and ferries about, as well as some seagulls, but no whales or dolphins!

And so to afternoon tea and scones.

Wasted some time sorting out P&O’s shambolic accounting system, another new frustration, and our credit card, eventually straightened out.

Ship has arrived at it’s anchor point off the Belgian coast, so we will be stationary tonight, in the morning the pilot will come aboard and then we will proceed into Zeebrugge to tie up alongside for the day.

Dinner in the Buffet again tonight, Italian theme.

Then to the Rising Sun, the ship’s pub, for a little something to drink while being entertained by the High Tides Duo,  well one of them, the other not well, playing some great classic pop songs, accompanying himself on guitar, interesting mix of Cliff Richards, Dire Straits, Elvis, Johnny Cash, etc. all very good, and not too loud!  Time to go, its Karaoke next.

Closed the day with a bit of NFL back in our cupboard.

Day 1 - Southampton

Wednesday 15th November 2017

Today we are off on a very short cruise to Zeebrugge and back with just one day at sea.  This will be on the P&O Arcadia, a new ship for us, though we are familiar with the class of ship.

Arrived at Mayflower Cruise Terminal and went through the usual hell of joining our ship.  P&O seem to delight in making up procedures to drive the passengers mad!  Still, eventually got on board and went for walkabout to find  the layout of the ship, discover the venues we are likely to need and to get a spot of lunch.

Managed to unpack and then off to attend emergency drill.  Already getting dark, next it was sailaway. While we were having our dinner in the Belvedere Buffet we were confused by the Spinnaker Tower, Portsmouth, going past the windows on the wrong side going the wrong way, not sure why, but eventually we managed to get going and the Isle of Wight appeared again where it should be.

Dinner tonight in the buffet, couldn’t be bothered with the main dining room, as expected the the was Best of British!, but food was fine anyway.

Tonight’s entertainment in the theatre, the Palladium, was a very good foursome giving us a tribute to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, “Walk like a Man”.

Time to retire, as usual the first day at sea just wears us out, can’t decide if it’s the stress or just the sea air?