SOUTHAMPTON – EMBARKATION

We’re back on another cruising adventure. It’s only been six weeks since we disembarked the Spirit of Adventure, concluding the Christmas and New Year trip, which feels like nothing at all. In fact, my voice is still a tad croaky from the bug picked up on the last one… hopefully I’ll avoid any new bugs this time around.

Yesterday’s drive down from Yorkshire was pleasantly uneventful. We arrived at our hotel in good time, checked-in and then drove up the road to pick up an Indian meal we’d ordered online… which was lovely (and a change from our usual Chinese).

This morning, we had a sausage sandwich breakfast in Cafe Nero, in Fareham, before heading to Portsmouth Cruise Terminal, where I’d been instructed to have the car parked by CPS, by 11:30am. On this occasion, Saga has been unable to secure parking slots for about half a dozen of the entertainments personnel in Southampton, where we’re actually leaving from. It’s a little complicated, but in a nutshell; the ship was originally scheduled to leave from Portsmouth and come back to Southampton. Then that all changed, and now Southampton is both the leaving and final destination port.

After about a 30-minute wait, we were picked up by minibus and transferred, with all out luggage, to Southampton – a roughly 20-minute drive away.

Once at the Southampton cruise terminal there was another brief wait as they sorted out our cabin number, in order to tag our luggage, and we were surprised to be told that we would be in cabin S501, on deck 13, right next to the Fitness Centre. Folks pay a little more for these cabins, so we were trying to decide whether this was an upgrade from where we are normally put (usually on deck 7 or 8), or a downgrade. The cabins are identical; it’s higher up than we’ve ever been (and you know what they say… the more you pay, the more you sway…), and it is about as far away from the Amalfi Restaurant (where the art classes will be held) as is physically possible, so we shall see.

Once on the ship, we were immediately guided towards the dining room for lunch, because – we were told – not all the cabins were ready yet. As soon as we realised we were being herded towards the dining room, we asked it if would be okay to go upstrairs to the Grill; it was… and we were the first people in there.

In fact, I’m happy to report that our cabin is identical to what we are used to, except everything is the opposite way round, almost like a mirror-image, which is a bit strange, but I guess we’ll get used to it.

The emergency drill took place, as planned, at about 5:15pm, and the ship left the harbour on time, at around 6pm. Immediately after the drill, we attended the traditional entertainments team get-together in the Ward Room, where we met the Cruise Director and his staff.

Immediately after this, we checked the locker to see what art kits were available, and were slightly concerned to discover that only 50 have been delivered today. Considering the fact that I am expected to give two classes to up to 30 guests per class – and that’s before you consider new attendees joining as the cruise progresses – this would seem like a potential problem. After speaking to Grethe, the consensus is that we should limit the classes to 22, and encourage any couples to share a kit. Watch this space…