Woke up at 8.00am with great excitement, as Trevor pulled up the blinds and we looked out of the window towards the sea. From our vantage point we had a good view of a red funnel that had to belong to a Cunard ship, and sure enough a glimpse at the MarineTraffic app confirmed that Queen Victoria was in port.
As there was a McDonald’s very close by, we decided to go there for our breakfast, and as we exited the Ibis we looked to our right and spotted the distinctive twin funnels of the Borealis, feeling a new surge of excitement at the thought of our impending voyage.
We were setting off on the first leg of the World Cruise, which would cover the first 18 nights of the 101-night adventure. We should actually have been doing this cruise in January 2022, but because Covid restrictions were still in place in many countries, the cruise had been postponed for two years, and now the day had arrived at last. 😊
Inside Maccy Dee’s we each ordered a breakfast McMuffin and a cup of coffee and it was with a sense of déjà vu that we found ourselves sitting at the very same table where we had sat in August 2021, whilst waiting to board the Celebrity Silhouette. We had been given a check-in time of 11.30am, so we had a couple of hours to kill before then.
Once we’d finished our breakfast, we decided to take a walk in the direction of the Borealis and see if it was close enough just for us to trundle our cases round from the hotel, instead of having to order a taxi for a journey of less than a mile. However, the streets we tried were all dead ends, and the immediate dock area was fenced off to any pedestrians, so a taxi it would have to be. Spotting a cab at the kerb, Trevor went and spoke to the driver to ask if we could book him to pick us up at 11.20am, but he said we needed to book through the office and gave us his card, with the taxi company’s phone number on. As we headed back to the Ibis, Trevor made the call and sorted it out. 😊
We checked out of our cheap and cheerful room at 11 o’clock and took the lift down to the foyer with our luggage, while we waited for the taxi to come. He arrived a little after quarter past, loaded our bags into the boot, then off we went for the short ride to the City Cruise Terminal. How exciting was this? 😊
As we made our way into the long building, our cases were loaded onto a trolley to be taken to our stateroom. It didn’t take long at all to check in, and whilst we were there we saw three members of the entertainments team who also recognised us from our cruise on Borealis only a couple of months ago. Once we’d registered our credit card and handed in our passports and ESTAs (for visiting the USA), we were issued with our cruise cards and given a ticket with the number 47 on it; boarding would be staggered in small groups to prevent a bottle neck at the gangway. In any case, the Borealis is only a small ship with a maximum of 1350 passengers, and as they were still advertising this cruise on the Fred Olsen web site a few days ago, we could assume the ship wasn’t full. 😊
Presently, the call came for “those passengers with tickets numbered from 40 to 50 may now proceed on board” and we happily shouldered our rucksacks and followed the cheerful yellow sign “TO THE SHIP”. We trooped down a zig-zagging airbridge and soon we were inside the plush interior of the Borealis to the cries of “Welcome on board!” from the smiling crew members. It was 12.10pm – just in nice time for lunch.
We didn’t need to be shown the way to our cabin; this was our fourth time on Borealis and we’d only left her 53 days ago, so it was like coming home. Walking along the carpeted corridors, with the quirky artwork on the walls, we felt as if we’d never been away. 😊
We took the lift to Deck 7 and headed towards the stern and our junior suite, number 7055. It’s the third time we’ve had a junior suite on Borealis, and they are all very similar (almost identical, in fact). The only difference could be the layout; sometimes the balcony was to the left of the bed, as it was in this case, and sometimes it was to the right, as it was the last time we were on this ship.
The stateroom was clean and comfortable and tastefully furnished and decorated. We had a fairly deep balcony with a couple of reclining chairs with foot stools and a small table. It wasn’t as big as the balcony we had had last time; that was one of the large aft-facing balconies and you’re lucky if you can get one, as they tend to be popular and sell out quickly. The cabin contained a king-sized bed, large four-seater settee, glass coffee table containing a bottle of fizz and a fruit bowl, and a large dressing table. There was lots of wardrobe and drawer space.
As our cases had already arrived, we spent some time emptying them out and hanging up our clothes and folding them neatly into drawers. One of the many things we love about cruising is the fact that you can visit lots of destinations but only have to unpack once. Now this had been done, and our time was our own. 😊
We went up one deck to The View self-service buffet, which was not crowded at all this early. I enjoyed a plate of crisp salad vegetables washed down with a glass of chilled cava, and Trevor opted for the traditional Sunday lunch of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.
We then made our way to the poolside bar. As we each perched on a bar stool, we felt as if we’d never been away. The retractable roof over the pool was understandably closed in the chilly January air, but we could expect it to be opened as we headed to sunnier climes, and we’d remembered to pack our cossies. 😊
After enjoying a drink each, we then went up to Deck 9 and the Observatory, with its big wraparound windows affording us a wonderful view over Southampton. We could see the Queen Victoria nearby, and wondered what time she would be leaving – we were due to set sail at six o’clock, where we wouldn’t see terra firma again until a week’s time.
We then decided to return to 7055 and enjoy a half-hour power nap, then I read for a while. I am re-reading The Picture of Dorian Gray by the inimitable Oscar Wilde, an excellent and original story. In fact, as Oscar Wilde was mainly a playwright and poet, Dorian Gray is actually his only novel.
A card had been placed in our stateroom advising that we had been allocated table number #87, a table for six in the Borealis Restaurant. We looked forward to meeting our table mates later on.
Tonight the dress code was smart casual, and I wore a black sparkly cold-shoulder knee length dress, with black fishnets and black and gold Irregular Choice shoes. As we walked through the ship on the way to the restaurant, I wished I’d bought a wrap as the ship was quite cool; the aircon could have done with being turned down a notch.
Finding table #87 to the left as you walked into the restaurant, we saw that our companions were already seated, and it appeared that the two couples knew each other, having met on previous cruises. They introduced themselves as Alan and Kaye from Portland, and Alan and Lesley from Bristol. Alan and Kaye were doing the whole 101-night world cruise, whereas Alan and Lesley were disembarking in Sydney. Trevor and I consider ourselves cruising veterans and this was our 64th cruise, but we were mere amateurs compared to Alan and Kaye who had sailed over 1,000 nights on Fred Olsen ships alone. Wow! Impressive. They must never be at home!
Our table companions seemed very nice indeed, and there was no shortage of conversation and amusing anecdotes and tales of the high seas. I enjoyed a fresh garden salad with honey mustard dressing to start, followed by a ratatouille stuffed pepper with couscous – very tasty indeed. It was accompanied with chilled house rosé wine and followed by a cheeseboard with coffee and a glass of ruby port. A delicious meal, and one of many more to come.
After dinner we told the other couples “see you later”, and Trevor and I went along to the Morning Light pub for a drink while we were waiting for the Neptune Lounge doors to open for tonight’s show. As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by a waiter: “Hello Mr and Mrs King” he said, with a huge smile. He had been on the Borealis when we were last on in November, and he recognised us straight away. 😊
When we went into the Neptune Lounge, we saw that the extra seating that had taken up a lot of the dance floor for the previous three Borealis cruises had been removed, leaving only the fixed seating and tables. Apparently many passengers had complained about the lack of dancing space on the ship (the ballroom dancing takes place in the Ocean Bar, on the smallest dance floor possible), therefore the answer was to free up the large dance floor in front of the stage. This made a lot more sense, and no doubt Trevor and I will be getting up to practise our dancing at some point in the voyage. 😊
Tonight’s show was called “A Taste of Things to Come” and, as its name suggested, gave us some small introductory clips of some of the evening musical entertainment we could expect. The Borealis Theatre Company performed a couple of Beatles numbers, then Simon, the entertainments manager, introduced to the stage our speakers/lecturers as well as others from the ‘enrichment team’ as they were called. We recognised the art teacher; he was none other than Michael Gahagan from the last cruise, from whom I’d bought a lovely painting of an oyster catcher.
After the show had finished, we did what we do every night (on every cruise!) – went along to the Morning Light pub to take part in the quiz. As we collected our quiz paper and took a seat, Alan and Lesley from table #87 came to join us. We didn’t do all that well, however, only scoring 9/15, but the team whose paper we marked only scored six, so we weren’t bottom, anyway. 😊 The winner scored an impressive 13/15.
While Alan and Lesley said their good nights, Trevor and I decided to go up to the Observatory for a night cap. This is a very popular venue and is usually packed, and sometimes it’s difficult to get a seat. However, it was only half full tonight; maybe people had had a long way to travel to get to Southampton and had all gone to bed early. As it was, we enjoyed the music of the guitar duo “Stattus” and I had a sangria while Trevor partook of a Newcastle Brown. It was around midnight when we returned to 7055 and settled down for our first night on board. Popping out onto the balcony for a short while, we found it was too cold and windy to prop the door open this time (plenty of time for that later) so we just snuggled into the rustly clean sheets and fell asleep within minutes.