{"id":3024,"date":"2017-10-20T22:00:08","date_gmt":"2017-10-20T22:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karenandjon.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3024"},"modified":"2025-10-31T18:45:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T18:45:25","slug":"day-1-leaving-southampton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/?p=3024","title":{"rendered":"Aurora: Day 1 – Leaving Southampton"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Friday 20th October<\/h2>\n

Weather: Overcast but dry
\nSea: Expected bumpy<\/h3>\n
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Callum was packed off to school this morning for his French and English lessons.\u00a0 He was leaving after Lesson 3\/4 so would miss Art and DT today.\u00a0 He promised us his Art Homework would be handed in that morning.<\/p>\n

We left home at 1pm and it was a straight run down to Southampton, pulling into the port at 2pm. Alas no priority boarding this time as Mum was already onboard.\u00a0 We were given Red Boarding Card “N” and had a 30 mins wait to check in.\u00a0 Check-in took a little time – Jon and I were fine however they couldn’t find Callum’s cruise card.\u00a0 Another 30 mins wait whilst the ship printed a new card and send it across shoreside!<\/p>\n

It was 3.30pm when we got onboard and Mum was waiting for us in the foyer.\u00a0 She’d spent a very quiet day onboard and had enjoyed the Caribbean Reception complete with canapes and a glass of bubbly.\u00a0 We dropped everything in the cabin, met our cabin steward, Noel (very chatty!), grabbed life jackets and headed to muster drill at our station in Carmen’s.\u00a0 \u00a0Muster complete and we headed up to Deck 13 for sailaway. It was dry but overcast.\u00a0 Storm Brian was approaching and Jon was hoping the seas would be a little tougher than we usually experienced.<\/p>\n

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It was pretty breezy so Deck 13 cleared quite quickly once we’d set sail.\u00a0 Aurora would be following Navigator of the Seas<\/strong> out of Southampton.\u00a0 We passed\u00a0Azura<\/strong>\u00a0on our way out – they would be staying an extra night in port to avoid the worst of Storm Brian as they were sailing transatlantic and heading straight into it.\u00a0 Callum couldn’t wait to try his hand at Shuffleboard.\u00a0 The deck was very uneven (or that was Jon’s excuse!).\u00a0 After a couple of games, we headed back down to the cabin to unpack.<\/p>\n

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At 6.30pm we headed down to The Glass House for dinner to celebrate my birthday.\u00a0 A glass of Peller Ice, Prosecco, Money Spider and diet coke, then deciding what to eat.\u00a0 Mum went for sirloin, Jon and I the fillet surf and turf whilst Callum had the sliders.\u00a0 We moved onto a glass of red wine to accompany the steaks … Argentinian Malbec for me, Californian Pinot Noir for mum, and a Mad Dog Shiraz for Jon.<\/p>\n

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We delved into the pudding menu this evening.\u00a0 Callum fancied the retro series of puddings (walnut whip, wagon wheel and arctic roll interpretations) whilst Jon and I shared a cheese platter with quince jelly which was really nice. Mum and I rounded the meal off with a latte whilst Jon took Callum down to Champions to play top trumps (and watch the footie).<\/p>\n

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The quiz was meant to be on at 9.30pm but alas the football was on.\u00a0 Even though the quiz was on the schedule, the felt intimidated by the 4 people watching the football and thought that if she turned the screens off they would create a scene so she cancelled the quiz. Mum and Callum headed off to bed only to for the Entertainment lady to change her mind and would run the quiz once the football had finished.\u00a0 Really wish we hadn’t bothered to wait – the quiz consisted of 20 pictures of celeb faces morphed beyond recognition and you could only get the answers from the clues.<\/p>\n

We didn’t bother hanging around for the answers!<\/p>\n

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Callum’s Bingo Check list:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n