Thankfully, no squeaks in the night, so a fair sleep. When we awoke, we’d already berthed in Southampton and the sun streamed in once we’d opened the curtains. It was not only sunny, but already quite warm – with the temperature expected to rise to about 24 degrees. I was out on our balcony not long after 7am, watching to see when the first people went ashore. We’d berthed on the starboard side, and this time, at the Mayflower terminal.
Customs/Immigration rules are that passengers not carrying their own luggage ashore, have to wait until all the luggage is off-loaded. Presumably this is for safety reasons, as there are forklift trucks galore buzzing around the collections area with the trollies carrying maybe a max of about twenty or so cases, so with 3,000 passengers each with at least one suitcase, there is a lot of traffic dockside.
The first passengers walking off seemed to be about 7:20am, then there was a lull before those with cases to collect were able to disembark. We wandered up to the buffet, then back, as unlike departing passengers who had to be out by 8am, we had until 9am and sure enough, there was a knock on the door and the ever helpful crew loaded our cases onto a trolley, hung our hanging gear on it and went straight off to our port side cabin on Riviera deck.
The ‘new’ cabin was the identical layout to the previous one, with our least favourite ‘side’. Alternate cabins are mirrored, and we prefer the other way around, with Paula’s side of the bed next to the dressing table.
On the Crown, there appears to be just one double power outlet, on the balcony end of the dressing table, to USA configuration. The spacing is so narrow, that there is only room for one adaptor plug. Not much use for travellers these days, so a multi outlet is essential and I have just shifted from a 4 way power board, to a ’cube’, which has 4 Kiwi/Australian outlets, PLUS 2 USB sockets. At least on the Sea/Sun Princess, there are at least two or even three power outlets. The problem now is that when the cabin steward needs to plug in his vacuum cleaner, there is just one outlet with one socket and if he can’t squeeze it in, he has to unplug our adaptor and I have to reset the travelling clock! I’m afraid that a night time visible clock – especially given the time changes and extended daylight – is essential for us.
Given that the Marriott Hotel’s upgraded rooms (see day 1 or 2 of this blog) have about 9 USB points, it will be interesting to see if Princess upgrades its ships when they go in for their refits.
The Crown’s TV system and picture quality is not up with the refitted older ships at all.
It didn’t take long to unpack again, so although we changed decks, cabins and even the side of the ship, we hardly notice the move – other than the balcony ranch slider door now goes from right to left.
Never having been aboard during a change-over before, I was very impressed with their efficiency. Between each balcony, there is a connecting door, that is normally locked, unless there are adjacent friends/family. All these doors were unlocked and the crew washed down all cabin ranch-slider doors, and the glass balcony rails, inside and out, then another crew member came along with a squeegee. Another came along, lifted and checked the balcony floor mats – though I’m not too sure what he was looking at.
We had arranged to meet with Trevor and Ami at 11am, but we headed downstairs early, showing considerable restraint when passing the doughnut display down in the International Café. We clocked out using our old cruise cards and literally, just walked straight out, to where a jobsworth was directing incoming taxis and cars to one of two lanes, for pickups and drop offs.
Ami and Trevor found us OK, but then battled the sat-nav to get to the pre-booked lunch venue, which I think was called Cowherds. This was on the route of a5 mile or 5km run, so car parking wasn’t easy – until we realised that the cone blocking entry to the car park were to keep out runners, not diners.
An excellent pub meal and a generous portion of two kinds of pate for starters, followed by what was advertised as a steak and mushroom pie, but turned out to be a large steak and ale pot pie, plus nicely cooked carrots, mash, broccoli and cabbage – with a small jug of gravy. Very substantial and most enjoyable, served on a red hot plate. Big thanks to Ami and Trevor, as they insisted on paying. They dropped us off OK and we had to queue a short while to get through the luggage scanner, before re-boarding, using our new cruise cards. The photographs had been transferred.
As we had attended the muster drill just two weeks ago, we didn’t have to attend this one – but as the blurb is transmitted into every cabin and every speaker on the ship, even sitting out on our balcony, enjoying the beautiful English sunshine, with the door closed, it was still very loud.
I always have a sense of pride when cruising out of Southampton, seeing acres and acres of British made vehicles being exported. There are at least 5 multi storey car parks and several large compounds, with another new 5 storey car park under construction. The vast majority of cars seem to be Minis and Range Rovers plus lesser numbers of Jaguars. Then there are buses, trucks, vans and earthmoving equipment. A huge export income for the UK which I doubt Brexit will affect. (Mainly due to the huge numbers of BMW, Audi, Mercedes and VW’s imported.)
We were allocated the same dining table as before and we were first there, only to find that our waiters had been moved along! The menu for this next 14 days is identical to the last 14, which is a bit mean, given the number of people doing back to back cruises. Using the excuse that ‘if you enjoyed it last time gives you the option to enjoy it again’, doesn’t really wash I’m afraid. The longer cruises have a 31 day menu.
One other couple turned up, but one didn’t, so just the four of us, so we chatted to Huw and Pauline (from Wales...).
We headed for the 10:00pm theatre show, where the shows and even some of the entertainers are as per the last cruise, so again, back to back, may or may not be such a good idea.
Opening night, traditionally, the theatre late show isn’t so well attended, as so many are tired and turn in early. That makes it extremely tough if the guest entertainer on night 1 is a comedian, as playing to the first rows of empty seats would be enough to put anyone off. John Martin (a Liverpudlian) and like Jo Little on the last cruise, struggled a bit and one or two of his jokes we’d heard last week anyway, which was a bit of a let-down. Better that they have a singer on night one.
Clocks on again 1 hour tonight with a day at sea tomorrow (the first of 4). The weather forecast is for another fine day, but not as warm.
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