We are now on a cruise from Southampton to New York City aboard the Grand Princess. Joining us are our daughter and son-in-law, and a number of friends from California.
Labor Day Monday, September 3, 2007
We have left dry land and are a "ship at sea". Our last day in England we walked to the Quay at Christchurch, strolled along the beach at Friarcliff (there are rows of "huts", little one room storage places which people rent short-term or for the season. Inside can be found everything from tables filled with picnic food and drink to beach items. Some are fancy and some just hold the essentials.) We ate dinner at the local pub where a major soccer game was being televised -- the Brits were very quiet fans, not ones that talk back to the TV when a play goes good or bad -- although they did react with slight cheers when the only goal of the game was finally scored. Even though there were 40 or 50 people watching the game, it was all very civilized and reserved.
At Southampton, we dropped the car off at Hertz (Colin was in luck as the office was supposed to be closed on a Sunday but by chance an employee stopped in and handled the return, saving Colin a trip to the airport and back to the ship). Our cabin is identical to the one we had on the Panama Canal Cruise (only in mirror image) so we could settle in there fairly quickly. A tour of the ship was a different story. We have an aft facing cabin -- great view but at the far end of a ship almost 1000' long so we get to walk -- a lot! The Grand Princess has several "you can't get there from here" spots -- dead ends, "crew only" stairs, etc. So we exercised by looking for the major destinations. At least twice we headed forward when we wanted to get to our cabin and ended up having to traverse the whole length of the ship. We try not to take the elevators and walk off our meals that way and our one experience of waiting for an elevator confirmed that we made the right choice. It only took about 5 minutes to arrive and then stopped at almost every deck!
Daughter Jocelyn and son-in-law Dave came aboard about 3 p.m. as did our friends from Walnut Creek and their family and friends -- 12 in all. We invited everyone to a bon voyage party on our balcony as we left Southampton at 5 p.m. Beautiful beginning to our 16 day cruise. After dinner and the evening show, we had a visit in our cabin from the wonderful steward who was with us on the Panama Canal cruise. He regaled us with stories of his years on cruise ships and the "unique" passengers he has served. (I'm sure we are among them but, in fairness to ourselves, he did transfer to Grand Princes because he knew we were going to be on this journey -- Johnny is very special and has a unique, story telling, relationship to his "Mr. Colin".)
Spa appointments, a lecture on the Vikings and the places we will visit that were explored by them, relaxing and enjoying being pampered filled this day on the North Sea. We have passed several giant oil platforms, seen many fishing boats, and were close enough to view the coast of Denmark. During last night we sailed through the Dover channel, the narrowest and most active shipping lane in the world. It is only 21 miles from England to France and there is a steady stream of vessels. The ships HAVE to know their nautical positioning and definitely have to keep right in this tight space. All we could see were lots of lights.
The North Sea is known for being "rough" and our first night included lots of bangs from the waves, but no rock and rolling as the huge stabilizers do their job. It was hard to sleep, however, from the noise which lasted until about 4 a.m. when the seas finally calmed down. Ethel claims she took it all in stride, but the bruises on Colin's arms proved she also attempted to perform some personal "life saving" grabs of his body!
When we finish crossing the North Sea, we will make a stop in Bergen, Norway, and then in the Geiranger fjiord and the town of the same name. After those two places, we will once again cross the North Sea to the Faroe Islands. Check our next blogs for details.
Labor Day Monday, September 3, 2007
We have left dry land and are a "ship at sea". Our last day in England we walked to the Quay at Christchurch, strolled along the beach at Friarcliff (there are rows of "huts", little one room storage places which people rent short-term or for the season. Inside can be found everything from tables filled with picnic food and drink to beach items. Some are fancy and some just hold the essentials.) We ate dinner at the local pub where a major soccer game was being televised -- the Brits were very quiet fans, not ones that talk back to the TV when a play goes good or bad -- although they did react with slight cheers when the only goal of the game was finally scored. Even though there were 40 or 50 people watching the game, it was all very civilized and reserved.
At Southampton, we dropped the car off at Hertz (Colin was in luck as the office was supposed to be closed on a Sunday but by chance an employee stopped in and handled the return, saving Colin a trip to the airport and back to the ship). Our cabin is identical to the one we had on the Panama Canal Cruise (only in mirror image) so we could settle in there fairly quickly. A tour of the ship was a different story. We have an aft facing cabin -- great view but at the far end of a ship almost 1000' long so we get to walk -- a lot! The Grand Princess has several "you can't get there from here" spots -- dead ends, "crew only" stairs, etc. So we exercised by looking for the major destinations. At least twice we headed forward when we wanted to get to our cabin and ended up having to traverse the whole length of the ship. We try not to take the elevators and walk off our meals that way and our one experience of waiting for an elevator confirmed that we made the right choice. It only took about 5 minutes to arrive and then stopped at almost every deck!
Daughter Jocelyn and son-in-law Dave came aboard about 3 p.m. as did our friends from Walnut Creek and their family and friends -- 12 in all. We invited everyone to a bon voyage party on our balcony as we left Southampton at 5 p.m. Beautiful beginning to our 16 day cruise. After dinner and the evening show, we had a visit in our cabin from the wonderful steward who was with us on the Panama Canal cruise. He regaled us with stories of his years on cruise ships and the "unique" passengers he has served. (I'm sure we are among them but, in fairness to ourselves, he did transfer to Grand Princes because he knew we were going to be on this journey -- Johnny is very special and has a unique, story telling, relationship to his "Mr. Colin".)
Spa appointments, a lecture on the Vikings and the places we will visit that were explored by them, relaxing and enjoying being pampered filled this day on the North Sea. We have passed several giant oil platforms, seen many fishing boats, and were close enough to view the coast of Denmark. During last night we sailed through the Dover channel, the narrowest and most active shipping lane in the world. It is only 21 miles from England to France and there is a steady stream of vessels. The ships HAVE to know their nautical positioning and definitely have to keep right in this tight space. All we could see were lots of lights.
The North Sea is known for being "rough" and our first night included lots of bangs from the waves, but no rock and rolling as the huge stabilizers do their job. It was hard to sleep, however, from the noise which lasted until about 4 a.m. when the seas finally calmed down. Ethel claims she took it all in stride, but the bruises on Colin's arms proved she also attempted to perform some personal "life saving" grabs of his body!
When we finish crossing the North Sea, we will make a stop in Bergen, Norway, and then in the Geiranger fjiord and the town of the same name. After those two places, we will once again cross the North Sea to the Faroe Islands. Check our next blogs for details.
No comments:
Post a Comment