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Southampton – Embarkation Day
Seas: Calm
Weather: Sunny and warm
A straightforward run down to Southampton … although we did make a little diversion skirting around the edge Winchester to around the traffic joining the M3. The M3 was fairly slow going but it kept moving.
A bit slow at the end of the M271 as four cars had gone into each other. Everyone looked to be ok and just hope no one was joining a cruise. Not the start you need to your holiday. Straight forward run from there into Dock 10 and our first glimpse of Britannia – and then tried to work out which of the aft cabin balconies was ours!
A very short queue to drop the car off with CPS, our cases disappeared through the hole in the wall and we headed into the terminal. Red B was boarding and we were given Red L cards. We didn’t think we’d have too much of a wait but then they kept calling green letters in between the red – we think it was coach passengers arriving and they get to queue jump.
People watching and it was a very mixed bunch of passengers. A fair few people our own age and families. But a lot of older people too and several racing cars (mobility scooters). Several call outs for property left behind … mobile phones … hats … walking aids … passports!
Once the batch of green card holders had been checked in, they raced through the rest of the numbers until we were called. From check-in to boarding took 15 minutes and we set foot on Britannia at 2.30pm. Mum and Ann were waiting for us in The Glass House … their glasses long since finished.
A quick welcome aboard drink and then we stopped by our cabin to find our suitcases had arrived. These were left in the cabin along with our hand luggage as we went to register Callum in Kids Club. There were 164 kids aged between 9-12 on board but a maximum of 67 would be allowed in Scubas at anyone time. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast so the next stop was the buffet. Chow mein, salad and chilli con carne for Callum! Then a quick explore around the ship.
Next job was to unpack and settle into the cabin. Plenty of storage for a week long cruise and just about got this done before Muster Drill. As we were right at the very back of the ship, our muster station was in The Live Lounge – a show lounge right at the back of the ship.
Muster drill complete and the obligatory photos taken. Just the walk up 5 flights if stairs to get back to the cabin, drop life jackets off and meet Mum and Ann in The Sunset Bar.
This is a fab bar at the back of Deck 16 with loads of seating, most under cover so can still be used if the weather is a bit iffy.
Unbeknownst to us, we chosen the seats that Mum and Ann had been using the previous week.
We had started to push away from the shore and Britannia had only moved about 5 metres … when Captain Dunlop came on the tannoy saying there had been a medical emergency and we would need to go back to offload the passenger and his family for hospital. Our new departure slot was 8pm.
We had arranged to meet Mum and Ann in the Glass House at 8.15pm for pre dinner drinks and headed to our table (64) in the Oriental Restaurant.
We were very lucky and were allocated a a window table right at the back of the dining room. We were now sailing down the Solent, passing the Isle of Wight and Portsmouth. A lovely sunset although the clouds over Mainland England looked ominously dark and wasn’t too long before we saw some rather large flashes of lightning. Bit of deja vu – same thing happened on the first night of the same cruise the year before!
Food was lovely although the menu appeared the same as on previous cruises. Crab and leek pasties for Jon, hot smoked trout for me and game terrine for Callum. We all has Cullen Skink for soup and Callum had lamb for mains whilst Jon and I opted for Swordfish.
Cheese and biscuits for me whilst Callum wolfed down a portion of Sticky toffee pudding whilst Jon tackled the molten chocolate pudding.
After the meal, Callum wanted to do the movie quiz … if he thought these would be more recent films, he was very much mistaken. The “newest” film was Top Gun with a lot of films from the 1950s. We did manage a very respectable 15 out of 20. If Mum and Ann had joined us earlier, we would have probably scored one more point as they would have known Henry Fonda. The other questions, who wrote the books The Godfather and the book that inspired Dr Zhivago; no chance!
Callum now flagging so we called it a night.
