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Saturday 18th February 2017
Cruise: N703
Port: Zeebrugge – Bruges
Sea Conditions: Calm
Weather: Foggy
Mum and I were awake fairly early this morning but didn’t get out of bed until room service arrived with coffee and hot chocolate. Taking a peek outside the window, we couldn’t see a thing – it was still really foggy and the fog horn still sounding. The captain must know what he was doing!!
We headed down to breakfast in the MDR – much more civilised than the bunfight in the buffet (Jess ordered her starter and main!). Afterwards, we headed back to the cabin to grab our stuff before leaving the ship to find our tour – today we were doing Bruges on your Own. Our guide into Bruges was Valerie. It was a 30 mins drive to reach Bruges – not an awful lot to see en route as it was still foggy. It started to lift a little as we approached Bruges.
We walked from the coach park to the meeting point in Walplein. Had to be back for 3.40pm. We now had around 5 hours to explore. Our first port of call was to do a boat trip on the canals before it got too busy – Euro 8 for mum and I, Euro 4 for the kids. A pleasant way to spend 30 mins.
Mum was feeling cold so we headed towards the main square to find somewhere for a hot drink. We ended up in a largish place in BERG square. Lattes for Mum and I and the kids had Belgian Hot Chocolates. We shared two waffles between us – one with strawberries and cream and the other with Belgian Hot Chocolate. Yum!
With the kids chocolated out, we carried on walking to the main square. There was some event being prepared for – Urban Trail so large parts of the square were out of bounds. Bruges as well was undergoing a lot of renovation and repair – cobbled streets dug up and being relaid. A lot of the buildings seem to have been cleaned up since our last visit – they looked very white/cream.
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We found the main shopping street and had a wander. Mum was looking for some stationery shops, there were a couple but not what she was looking for. She also found a Kipling shop which had the new range in … decisions, decisions … she settled on the smaller bag … and a new purse to match! Jess bought herself a little Kipling Monkey!
Back towards the main square in search of somewhere for lunch but alas being Saturday, everywhere was really busy. We ended up in a little Italian restaurant, long queues everywhere if they were serving mussels . Callum had a filled Pizza Bread with an artisan ham and cheese, mum and I shared a meat and cheese board and Jess a HUGE bowl of beef ragu and pasta. Plates were cleared.
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Still some shopping to finish off before wandering back to the meeting point – Belgian Chocolates. The best area was near the meeting point and after checking out a couple, we settled on buying some from the Leonides (Valerie’s recommendation). Chocolates bought and mum even had a couple of minutes to look around the embroidery store.
We got back to the ship at 4.30pm – the time everyone had to be back onboard for. The queue stretched from mid-ship to the front of the ship! Most people were returning from official tours so that planning was down to P&O! You could see the officers keeping an eye on us from the bridge – they weren’t going anywhere until everyone was back on board. A few more coaches turned up afterwards and the queue seemed to grow by the minute!
Back onboard, bags dropped off in the cabin, we headed for the sailaway party. Disappointingly, this was held in Metropolis (the small bar at the back of the ship) rather than being held outside – it had turned out really nice and was reasonably warm too. It was packed and very stuffy inside so we just got our free drinks and mocktails for the kids and went outside on deck to watch the ship sailaway from Zeebrugge and head straight into more fog! Foghorn was back in action tonight!
Last night onboard so we headed back to the cabin to pack before getting changed and heading down to Cinammon for dinner. Again, a little wait for a table, but time to have drinks delivered to our table in the atrium before being buzzed through to dinner.
Jess chose tomato soup and a beefburger for dinner, Callum the Mussels (only 6 – Callum was disappointed!) followed by Meatballs in Tomato Sauce and Spaghetti, I chose the Cod Cheek Ceviche starter and Lamb whilst Mum had the mussels followed by Haddock.
We headed to the Glass House once more for a nightcap via the photo gallery. It was really quiet and Mum got the photos she wanted. Callum and Jess happily settled down for another round of Uno – all square this evening as Callum won tonight. Mum tried the Pinot Grigio whilst I settled for a glass of Peller Ice.
Final things thrown in the suitcases and our bags put outside the cabin to be collected and taken to the luggage hall.
Sunday 19th February 2017
Cruise: N703
Port: Southampton
Sea Conditions: Calm
Weather: Foggy
We woke up as we were arriving into Southampton. Our alarms were set for 6am and as we were awake already, this was our queue to get up so we could make the first sitting at breakfast. Doors open at 6.45 and close at 7am!
We were really unsure how this disembarkation was going to work – over 3,000 passengers onboard and everyone left to their own devices as to when they left the ship!
After breakfast, we went back to the cabin and collected our bags and then came the announcement that all luggage was in the hall and you could disembark at will. As we were up and done, we headed down to Deck 5 and joined the queue by the atrium lifts. I think everyone was pleasantly surprised how quick the queue moved and within 5 minutes we were being scanned out and directed to the luggage hall.
A deck luggage was right down the far end. I had taken our bright green case and realised that others had the same idea – there were loads of them!! Even though we were some of the first people off (so luggage hall full of suitcases!), we found ours really quickly and they were all close by to each other that helped.
Off to the car park – as predicted as we arrived really early, our car was parked as far away as it possibily could be by the fence! Luggage in car and with roads clear, we were back dropping Jess off within the hour.
I know mum wasn’t impressed with the Pullman bunk configuration (we have the bumped heads to show for it!) but it was only for 4 nights. If she does anything similar again, it would probably be in a cabin with a sofabed. This was her first time on any of the larger ships in the P&O fleet but hoped she enjoyed it.
