The Cruise Begins

Day one began with an early start and two grumpy but slightly excited kids to contend with.

The drive went without a hitch except for a few detours around Birmingham and trying to be a clever sod by going into gate 10 when I should have gone in gate 8 at Southampton docks. Once there it was a breeze, all credit to the staff for making it so. We were having lunch in the Windjammer restaurant by 11.30 and we set sail at 16.30, which gave us plenty of time to explore the boat, alright, alright, it gave us plenty of time to park our arses at the first bar we came to in the enormous central promenade and sample the brew.

Sail away was something of an emotional experience, don’t ask me why as I couldn’t put a finger on it, suffice to say we were both quite emotional. I guess it has been an emotional few years, for Debra especially and it’s times like these that bring home just how lucky we are to be able to do such things, whatever the reason we were very emotional, and when the horn went off we all jumped out of our skin!!

The weather has been kind to us so far, although very cold when we left it hasn’t rained and we have had some bracing walks along the deck, yesterday (Sunday) afternoon the sun appeared and the pool area suddenly became attractive, especially the heated whirlpool areas, well we were still in the Bay Of Biscay with a very bracing wind! Olivia has done her usual water baby routine and Oscar has surprised us all by his enthusiasm, from trying escargot (that’s snails to you and me) to donning his Tuxedo for the first formal evening of the cruise, he has been brilliant.

Yesterday evening we stood on our balcony and the treat that Debra has been waiting for happened…. Yes she actually got to see real live dolphins piercing through the water, leaping across the swell of the water at the bow of the ship, suffice to say she is a happy camper.