After 976 days, a global pandemic, several lock-downs (with no parties!!) and a triple heart by-pass, Sylvia and I today returned to a cruise ship.
We had chosen to travel to Southampton by coach rather than driving ourselves, and this turned out to be an excellent option. The coach was designed to carry 60+ passengers but today the total number of travellers was 18 which meant plenty of space for everyone. The other bonus was that passenger 18 joined the bus at Severn Bridge Services which gave us a non-stop journey to the cruise terminal. We arrived about one and a half hours before our scheduled time but the queues to board the ship looked horrendous. After ridding ourselves of our luggage we joined the long snaking line to show our vaccination certificates and negative covid results and to pick up our cruise medallions (these replace the old fashion cruise cards). Surprisingly the line moved quickly and before too long we had cleared security and were heading to our cabin.
Our cases were already in our room when we arrived together with two chilled glasses of sparkling (pretend) champagne which we sipped as we unpacked. Actually more precisely I sipped as Sylvia unpacked!!!
It was a beautiful afternoon in Southampton as we explored the ship. It’s the first time we’ve sailed on Sky Princess but the layout of the decks are very similar to others that we have used before. There were a number of other ships sailing today today including Celebrity Silhouette, MSC Virtuoso and PandO’s Iona, which possibly explained why the city was so busy.
A stroll along the open deck gave a couple of photo opportunities……..
……before sitting down in Alfredos for a pre-departure pizza.
The captain announced we were ready to depart but then added we would be late getting to our first port of call as we could not travel at full speed due to an engine issue. Then with the ship’s hooter playing the theme from “Love Boat” the ship slowly left the quayside. As we watched from our balcony Portsmouth’s Spinaker Tower came into sight…..
…..we knew our trip was finally happening.