Sunday, January 11, 2015

6th Jan 2015- Let’s go cruising baby!

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.
There was the ‘muster’ call and we went to our station to don our life vests and listen what to do if the ship sinks etc., always encouraging like being told the security stuff on board an aircraft.
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.