United Kingdom
Southampton

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    • Day 87

      Southampton: A Pre-Embarkation Stroll

      December 3 in England ⋅ ☁️ 37 °F

      This being our third time in Southampton, we had no real sightseeing plans today. Having spent the majority of yesterday sitting, however, we felt that a stroll around town would not go amiss. After breakfast at the hotel, we headed out toward the old city walls and followed them to Bargate … built as part of the city defenses back in 1180.

      Though the sun was out, it wasn’t doing much to temper the morning chill … the temperature was just above freezing, so no surprise I guess. Nonetheless, we persevered. Believe you me, the room never felt more welcoming than when we returned to the Holiday Inn nearly an hour later.

      Peeking out the window, we caught a glimpse of our ship at the Horizon Terminal. Time to meet up with Deniz and embark the ship!
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    • Day 86

      To Southampton … via London

      December 2 in England ⋅ ☁️ 46 °F

      Our travel luck held! We are now settled into our room at the Southampton Holiday Inn … 90 minutes earlier than expected!

      The first bus ride — from Stansted Airport to the Victoria Coach Station in London — was uneventful. We even got a surprise ‘free’ panoramic tour of London that gave us glimpses of some of the city’s iconic landmarks … Big Ben and Parliament; London Bridge; the Thames and the London Eye … amongst others.

      Once we reached the coach station, we were able to switch from our 7:00p ticketed departure to an earlier bus at 5:30p. We had just enough time to grab some yummy meat pies for a quick dinner before it was time to board the bus.

      Getting out of London was the worst part of our travel day. It took about 45 minutes to do so in stop-and-go rush hour traffic. It was a bit chilly on the bus … even with the extra layers National Express had strongly suggested we bring with us. Once on the motorway, however, it was smooth going. Nightfall hid from our eyes what was outside the windows, so I whiled away the time by reading my book; Mui napped.

      A short Uber ride from the Harbor Parade Coach Station in Southampton brought us to our hotel; Deniz took a cab to his hotel. We will meet up at the cruise terminal tomorrow.

      Time to get some shuteye now.

      (I’m not one for ‘through-dirty-windows-photography’ but I could not resist snapping a few memory shots … attached to this footprint in lieu of a boring photo of our hotel room at the Holiday Inn.)
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    • Day 6–7

      Southhampton

      May 2 in England ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

      Took the train from London to Southampton today. It took around 1.5 hours and was lovely to see some of the countryside. Hotel is above our expectations and is gorgeous. Porter collected our bags from taxi and brought them up to our room, all very fancy. Then we were off to the Westquay shopping complex, you could get lost in there! We needed another suitcase but decided to do two carry-on cases and see how we go. Then we brought our very tired feet back to the hotel, so a nap before our dinner reservations. The couple next to us in the dinning room were having trouble with their phone when I spotted the cruise app... conversation was started and we had a lovely meal while finding out all about cruising from our new American acquaintances. She is 70 in July and honestly doesn't look a day over 50 - must be due to the 21 cruises they have done, maybe the new fountain of youth 🤷‍♀️ Tomorrow, we embark on our 12 night cruise of the British Isles.Read more

    • Day 11

      Southampton / London

      May 18 in England ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

      Der Tag fing mit einem imposanten Bild im Hafen an. Fünf Kreuzfahrer waren in Southampton (die Aurora und die Iona von P&O Cruises, die Norvegian Star von NCL, die MSC Virtuosa von MSC und die Mein Schiff 3 von TUI Cruises).
      Für uns ging es auf einen 10-Stunden-Ausflug nach London (3 Stunden hin - 4 Stunden Aufenthalt - 3 Stunden zurück). Durch wenig Verkehr und einem zügig fahrenden Fahrer hatten wir bei 2,5 Stunden Hin- und Rückfahrt tatsächlich 5 Stunden Aufenthalt - toll!
      Es wurde auch ein sehr guter Bus bereitgestellt mit viel Beinfreiheit (auch für uns großen Menschen!) und sehr bequemen Sitzen.
      London ist schon begeisternd. Wir wurden am London Eye rausgelassen und sind dann die Runde über den Big Ben, den Trafalgar Square, den Buckingham Palace, den Hyde Park, zurück auf der Rückseite des Buckingham Palace und durch das "moderne" London über die Westminster Abbey zurück zum London Eye und somit zum Bus.
      London war überall tierisch voll, die Straße zum Buckingham Palace für alle Fahrzeuge gesperrt, sodass wir mitten auf der Straße zum Palast schlendern konnten.
      Wie angekündigt war es wettertechnisch bis zum Nachmittag bedeckt bei angenehmen Temperaturen, nachmittags kam dann die Sonne raus. Also perfektes Ausflugswetter!
      Zum Schluss hatten wir noch ein wenig Zeit und haben noch Fish & Chips gegessen - der Abschluss eines perfekten Tages in der britischen Hauptstadt!
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    • Day 3

      Queen Mary 2 Setting Sail!

      June 23 in England ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

      This afternoon I headed off to the boat to New York! It took almost an hour from the time I got there till I got to my room, which considering how many people there were was not bad. I thought it was going to take a lot longer than that. They obviously know what they are doing, and I was wearing my mask the whole time as I do when I am inside and ready to take it off if someone needed to see my face to verify it is me and all. Well, I had a hat on as well and the lady at check-in was looking like she was trying to figure out if it was me or not against my photo and I started to say "oh, do you need me to take off my mask," but I didn't get that far cause I took off my hat as I was talking and she said "oh, there's your hair" and that was good enough. It made me laugh.

      I got to my room and it is pretty nice. The balcony is huge! I did a few laps on the upper deck you can walk around on (and it has lots of comfy looking lounge chairs to sit on!) and found the pool (which looks bigger in the photo - it is pretty small), and some spare propeller parts at the front of the ship. We started sailing and it is so flat I cannot even tell we are moving unless I see the water. It is also silent - I can only hear the water and people on deck and stuff. I have never been on a ship this quiet and Raymond was looking up info about it and said it was just retrofitted last year with a fancy new engine in a soundproof room which is really nice. Also all the freshwater is supplied by three seawater desalination plants! Crazy! So fancy!

      I was reading in my room when it got loud all of a sudden so I went to my balcony to spy and this little boat came up right under my balcony and picked someone up! I was like what in the world?? And I told Raymond and he was just like that was probably the harbor pilot. I guess big boats don't drive themselves in and out of the harbor - there are special people in each harbor that do it instead because they know the currents and depths and all of that. I learned so much today! I never knew that was a thing!

      I didn't explore that much, I kept going up to the buffet area to get water and tea (which is where you get to the outside deck from) and ended up doing a lap outside every time cause I would go spy and well once you start walking around you have to spy on all sides right? I did so many laps I didn't explore much else, but that will be for tomorrow. There is a sign on deck that said 3 laps is 1.1 miles, 2 laps is 1.1 km so I did at least 3.3 km (I can't remember how many times I walked around out there, but at least 6! But that and all the walking around town this morning was a lot of walking).

      Sunset was pretty nice - I am on the wrong side of the boat for it, but I looked out and the sky was pretty so up I went for another walk around the deck! The sunset reflecting on the propeller parts was fun. And when I was coming back in I thought I would spy on the buffet again and found a banana chocolate mousse cake thing that I could eat - and it was super tasty! So far the food has been pretty good (though they had a different chocolate mousse cake thing earlier that was...not great. And I was too hungry when dinner got here to remember to take a photo of that - I ordered room service as the buffet wasn't what I wanted, but I am happy with all the vegan options they have!).

      The weather tomorrow is supposed to stay good so hopefully it does! If it is like this the whole time that would be perfect, but I don't really expect it will be. We shall see! It is a fun adventure!
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    • Day 6

      Last night in Southampton

      November 23 in England ⋅ 🌧 59 °F

      Partying late with Helene and her family the last night in Southampton. We had a couple drinks at the Red Lion. The oldest pub in town. The floors weren't level. The walls weren't straight, but the atmosphere was joyful, and the company was great!Read more

    • Day 11

      A day out in Southampton UK

      May 12 in England ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

      We decided to get off the ship in Southampton for a few hours. We checked out a historic Tudor home/museum/garden, walked thru the old village a bit, popped into a bookstore (because we can’t resist one) and we had a great fish and chip lunch. And we got in a nice walk on a very beautiful day.Read more

    • Day 1

      Endlich auf dem Schiff!

      October 6 in England ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

      Nach einer fast endlosen Busfahrt sind wir endlich auf dem Schiff angekommen. Den langen Weg vom CheckIn bis zur Sicherheit auf dem Schiff wurde die Mensch gerollt, so dass es dann doch etwas schneller ging. Emma, Betti, GG und Jollita studieren das Programm des Abends und lernen die Kabine kennen. Nicky und ich streunen schon mal über das Schiff und genehmigen uns einen Begrüßungs Tonic. 😜Read more

    • Day 87

      Embarking Encore & Bye Bye Southampton

      December 3 in England ⋅ ⛅ 41 °F

      With check-out from the Southampton Holiday Inn set for 11:00a, I had chosen the 10:30-11:00a slot for embarking Encore.

      Ubering over to the Horizon Terminal — a short 5 minute ride from the hotel — we joined Deniz and got in line for the check-in formalities.

      The first line was for the security check-point … long but moving along at a steady pace. What came as a surprise was that we were asked to remove laptops from carry-on bags. We had to take off jackets, watches, and belts as well … and anyone with clunky boots had to remove their footwear, too. Don’t remember ever having to do this at a cruise port before.

      The next line wasn’t a line at all … we were directed to the check-in counter immediately and had our cabin keycards in hand within a minute or two. It was nice not having to repeat everything we had already completed online. Then came the waiting. With the ship coming from dry dock there were no disembarking passengers, so this was a surprise. Finally, about 30 minutes later, our group was called and we made our way aboard.

      Muster drills since the COVID-19 pandemic have changed. Seldom is there an in-person drill anymore. Instead, we are sent a link to watch the safety video before embarking the ship. Once aboard, passengers head to the muster station indicated on their keycards to check-in. This ensures that everyone knows where their muster station is in the unlikely event of an emergency. So, to our respective muster stations we went once we were scanned aboard. (By the way, a more extensive video is on the in-cabin TV, which must be watched before one can switch to any other channel)

      With the ship arriving empty from dry dock our expectation was that the cabins would be ready for us immediately upon embarkation. This wasn’t the case … still not sure why. So, we went to have lunch instead. In addition to the buffet at the Garden Café, several dining venues were open to accommodate the 3,000+ passengers sailing on this cruise (well below the ship’s 3,998 max at double occupancy). We opted to go to Taste, one of the smaller complimentary dining rooms on the ship … good food and good service.

      By the time our lunch was over, the cabins were ready, so we split up to go to our cabins … us on deck 10 aft; Deniz on deck 10 forward. Not all of our luggage was delivered yet, so we decided to go off on an exploratory wander around the ship instead. By the time we returned to the cabin an hour later, all of our bags were waiting for us. It didn’t take long for us to find a place for everything we wanted to unpack … thanks in part to having once again used our Biaggi zipcubes.

      Having settled into our cabin, we were free to enjoy Encore’s departure from Southampton as the sun set over the horizon. The sailaway from this port is not a very exciting one. We watched from our balcony anyway as Encore maneuvered its bow toward the English Channel and the city lights slowly came on.

      We went to the Manhattan Room — the main dining room — for dinner … another good meal. The show tonight headlined Chris Burke in “Legends of Soul.” Mui and Deniz went to check it out, but neither found it entertaining enough to stay the entire 45 minutes. Oh well.

      Tonight we have an unexpected time change … losing an hour as we head east to Spain. This will be the only time we have to set our clocks forward on this trip. The good news is that tomorrow is a day at sea, so we can sleep in.
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    • Day 45

      Southampton

      August 4 in England ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

      I am so tired right now, but it was a great day wandering Southampton!

      I got woken up before 7 to someone trying to get into my room (one of the cleaning people or whatever, which I don't know why as I had my do not disturb sign up!!) so that was fun. It was loud and my lock was on so they couldn't open the door, but they were trying. Then I couldn't get back to sleep so I had a relaxed morning as I was so sleepy and then headed out about 10 to spy on what I could spy on.

      The weather was gorgeous! Sun with some clouds and a light breeze. Perfect temp for a wander. We were docked farther west than we left from and I was surprised by how close it was to the train station! I was walking into town, was going to go to a grocery store as I was looking for some sweets, and the train station was right there! They also had all of these lighthouses up around the city and there was a map of their locations and such. I saw so many groups of people, families, rushing around trying to see all of them and I am not sure why. Maybe they had limited time or something. I did enjoy wandering and spying them as most were really pretty.

      I went to the grocery store looking for Parma Violets as I wanted to try them and forgot last time I was here. They either had to make something with them or someone made something that tasted like them on the British Bakeoff and they sounded interesting (delicately perfumed violet sweets). At first I found them oddly sweet and not as perfumy as I would have expected, but they grew on me. I like them!

      Then I wandered to find something for lunch. I ended up walking by this sourdough pizza place that had a special roasted eggplant pizza so I had to try that and it was so good! The dough was delicious and the toppings as well. It was so much better than my disappointing pizza when I was first in Southampton!

      I found that north and east of the train station were much nicer than the area of town where I had wandered before. There were lots of big parks and I sat and read for a while after lunch and it was really nice. On my way back to the boat I stopped to get a milkshake...that ended up being chocolate milk So disappointing!!

      Got back on the ship and I am on the perfect side! Mainland Europe will be out my window and I am now on the sunset side of the boat also! One more day and then I will be in Hamburg!!

      I went down to spy on the show tonight, a 60's band, to see what they were like. They are going to be playing the dance venue tomorrow night so I wanted to see what they were like....and they were awful. I was like well, I guess no dancing for me! Oh well, I am still having fun :)
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    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Southampton, STH, ساوثهامبتون, Sauthempton, Горад Саўтгемптан, Саутхамптън, Σαουθάμπτον, ساوت‌همپتون, סאותהמפטון, साउथहैंपटन, Սաութգեմփթոն, サウサンプトン, Саутгемптон, 사우샘프턴, Hantonia, Sautamptonas, Sauthemptona, साउथहँप्टन, ဆောက်သမ္ပတန်မြို့, Hantonne, ਸਾਊਥਹੈਂਪਟਨ, ساؤتھمپٹن, Саутхемптон, เซาแทมป์ตัน, 修咸頓, 南安普敦

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