British Isles and Liverpool Salute

Sunday 17^th May – Southampton.

This is on the blog just for you, Jenny!!

We had set the alarm for 8am but Nesta was excited and up, making tea and getting some “fresh air” long before that.

By 10am we were out of the door, with one large suitcase and one small rucksack, and walked to the bus stop where a number 9 bus came unexpectedly early. This meant we were on the platform at Temple Meads with 40 minutes to spare!

The train we caught was going to Brighton and it stopped at every conceivable station along the way (11 in total) including a “request” stop! Still, the countryside was attractive and it was far more relaxing than charging along the M4 etc.

We got a taxi to the Ocean Terminal where hundreds of people were waiting to embark…We found the “preferential embarkation” desk, said “platinum” and were whisked to the front of the queue and on-board in no time!

The security man scanning our cards recognised us and welcomed us back on board and two of the porters in the Grand Lobby also gave us cheery waves.

We made our way to our cabin which was the same as our previous cabin except that everything is the other way round! I wonder how long it will take for us to stop opening the wardrobes when we want to go into the shower room!

We had some lunch and then phoned the friend who had stowed our “formal” suitcase under his bed during the last fortnight - and by the time we picked this up and unpacked it, our other luggage had been delivered so we were all shipshape!

We went to Deck 8 aft for the “sail away” party. The entertainments team handed out plastic union flags and “Land of Hope and Glory”, “Rule Britannia” and other patriotic tunes were played as we sailed down Southampton Water and past Portsmouth before entering the English Channel!

We decided to eat in the Britannia restaurant tonight and managed to change our table to one near where we ate previously. Unfortunately, Robert (our waiter) has been moved to another section downstairs which consisted of three tables for eight – so no Robert this cruise…

We thought we’d give the new guys a chance but were not immediately impressed, although the restaurant was very busy.

The evening show was Philip Hitchcock “one of Britain’s finest entertainers” who is a magician, apparently. We decided that seeing him would be one excitement too many, so we gave him a miss and had a quiet drink and an early night!

 

Monday 18^th May – Day at Sea.

There are some RADA students on board and Nesta went to their first workshop. (Not sure she needs help or tuition to be more dramatic) She enjoyed it and plans to go to the others.

The lectures this morning had subject matters ranging from astronomy to Downton Abbey (we gave them all a miss) so visited the tours desk to book a couple of tours in Cork and Dublin.

In the afternoon we went to a talk by Dr Stephen Payne OBE. He is the naval architect who actually built the QM2 and is also an excellent speaker. It was a very interesting presentation and we learned a lot.

Tonight was the first of three formal nights on the cruise and we chose to join the queue to greet Captain Wells at the cocktail party, to see if he remembered us from the first half of the world voyage…he did!

We were also recognised by Cat, who is now the Asst. Entertainments Director (both Skippy and Dumbo having got off for a holiday) and Jo – the Entertainments Director – who remembered Nesta from the impromptu muster and tea party on the first leg which occurred because hot water pipes in several cabins sprung a leak.

We also spoke to Stephen Howarth – the Deputy Captain – and had our photos taken with both him and the Captain.

During the party we spoke to Anfisa (who was our world voyage concierge). She is now an officer in the technical department and she asked us if we’d like to dine at the senior officers’ table this week…we said yes!!

The sea was moderately rough (force 7) which normally is not a problem for this ship - but it was rolling around a bit. The Captain explained, during his entertaining welcome speech, that as Cork wasn’t far away we were going slowly (12 knots). The ship is designed to go twice that speed and doesn’t like “pootling” around!

We went into the restaurant again – and the service was really slow. Nesta was so unhappy that she got up and left when, an hour later, we still hadn’t been served our main course. Bring back Robert and Leo!!

Later in the evening, we went to a RADA performance of the “History of Cunard” which was both entertaining and funny.

 

Tuesday 19^th May – Ringaskiddy, for Cork.

Originally we were due to dock at Cobh (the Titanic’s last stop) but because we were too big, we docked across the bay at Ringaskiddy. (Cork Harbour is apparently the second biggest harbour in the world after Sydney)

We had booked on the afternoon walking tour of Cork and then we discovered that the ship was actually providing a complimentary shuttle service to both Cobh and Cork! (Oh well – it’s only money!)

We got off the ship early and took the shuttle around to Cobh (pronounced Cove). It took a good 40 minutes to go by road a distance that, by water, was about a mile and a half! Cobh is a quaint little town and we went to the Titanic Museum and the Lusitania memorial. (The Lusitania was torpedoed just off the coast and survivors were brought ashore here). We were going to buy a coffee, but Nesta discovered that she had brought the purse with the still unidentified foreign currency in it from the last trip - rather than the euros purse! Thank goodness for cash machines!!

We shuttled back to the ship in time for our walking tour. We had two guides (Mary and Eleanor) and we’re sure that Mary is knowledgeable and professional but we never found out - because Eleanor never stopped talking, singing and entertaining (?) us the whole trip. We were even in her group for the walk. Cork is much smaller than expected for what is the main city in South West Ireland but is quite interesting.

We decided against the evening entertainment – swing and jazz vocalist, Kai McKenzie! – So went to eat in the Chef’s galley.

After this we went into the Winter Gardens where we discovered that Ryan (one of our favourite bar staff) was working. We had a couple of pints and a good talk to Ryan – interrupted only when other passengers were rude enough to want drinks serving!