After
an early morning tea and then we set about the usual round of getting the house
ready for our departure. There are quite a few things to do when you go away
for 7 weeks, fridges to clean and empty, check the pond, make certain all the
bills are paid included the dreaded HMRC due at the end of January.
The
taxi collected earlier than planned and so we arrived at Southampton Cruise
terminal at 11.15 rather than the 12.00 requested time but we were not the
first to arrive. Check was very quick as apparently we had priority check in
based upon our cabin choice and so less than ten minutes we were through
security and waiting to board. At 12.30 we were shown to a restaurant where we
could partake of light snacks to await our cabin availability and this happened
at about 13.45.
The
room is nice and a reasonable size with a good balcony and a bottle of shampoo
and fruit waiting our arrival. We walked around for a while whilst waiting for
the suitcases to be made available and so by 15.30 we were unpacked and ready
to tour around the ship for a while. Trips to the Gym and spa and a walk around
the open deck and pools then back to the room for a rest before dinner.
We
had purchased a wine package for the trip and had been told on purchase that we
would receive a set of vouchers for the bottles we had purchased but when I
spoke to several people in the wine department and then reception it became
clear that the organisation was missing, I then I was cut off from reception
and so tried again and spoke to a different person who was able to assist.
We had chosen to have the first night at one
of the speciality restaurants on board and so we went to Marco Pierre White’s ‘Grill
Room’ where we had previously booked there for a 6pm Dinner. We arrived at
about five minutes only to find the restaurant had some opening problems and
would we mind waiting for about ten to fifteen minutes and as an apology would
we accept a bottle of house wine to drink whilst we were waiting. So that was
pone bottle saved from our wine plan and what with champagne and canapés
delivered to the cabin earlier meant we did not even have to touch the wine we
brought on board. So, so far, two bottles saved.
Dinner
was very good but the restaurant was very quiet but the staffs were good and we
both tried a steak, me the rib eye with a couple of shrimps and Jennifer the
sirloin. Both bits of meat were excellent and as we know the supplier of the
Casterbridge beef, our neighbour Gerry I am sure he will be pleased to know if
was cooked to perfection.
Whilst
eating dinner we passed the beached car carrier just at the edge of the harbour
and the vessel was protected by two safety ships, anybody waiting for their new
Land Rover or Jag will have to wait a little longer. They must be quite badly
damaged?
We
wandered through the ship for a while and came across the cinema which was
showing Nick Frost (Hot Fuzz) called Salsa and it was quite funny and then back
to the room for a little quiet time, Noel listening to Ipod and Jennifer
reading all the blurb about tomorrow. Looking at the list of stuff to do you
would never be bored from 0800 until 2000, that’s if you like card games and et
al. And so, off to bed.
