Days 4 and 5 Southampton/Bon Voyage

We had a bit of free time on Sunday morning as we weren’t due to board the Nautica until 1 pm. So I went out for another walk early, making it as far as St Mary’s stadium (home of Southampton FC). Typically for a lot of British stadia it is in the middle of an industrial/council housing area but only a 15 minute (if you know where you’re going) walk from the city centre.

Also typically there a few signs pointing you in the general direction and you can often see the place but it takes a series of dead end guesses as to which actual street is the correct one! Anyway several false starts and curse words later, I found it (see attached photo) and took an alternative route back to town.

Following that we did a bit of shopping and took the 3 minute taxi ride to the ship. Boarding was really easy and we were having lunch and a drink within 15 minutes of turning up dockside.

Hotel review.... We stayed at the Premier Inn Westquay. Pros - it’s really close to town, the port and transport routes and it’s pretty cheap. Cons - just about everything else. It has no reception to speak of, the rooms are really basic (no fridge!), and there aren’t too many staff around to do anything.

We are en route to Edinburgh and had a sea day for the first day of the cruise so not much to report or see. Lots of reading, forming of quiz teams, playing of games and lazing around.

Photos attached ..... Southampton FC’s St Mary’s Stadium, Central Hall and the Premier Inn Westquay.Read more