A mere 16 days after we disembarked the wonderful 11-passenger Glen Massan in Inverness, here we were once again setting off on another cruise. There could not have been a bigger contrast between that vessel and the one we would be joining this afternoon; Cunard’s Queen Anne, the newest of the Cunard queens and carrying just shy of 3,000 passengers.
Regular readers of this blog will know that we enjoyed an excellent cruise on Queen Anne last May; and we really liked the ship. So when Trevor’s older brother Billy telephoned and said he and his wife Carole had been thinking about doing a British Isles cruise on Anne and would we like to join them, we jumped at the chance. 🙂
As we would be completing a full circumnavigation of the British mainland, I have decided to call each day’s blog entry after the Shipping Forecast areas in which we will be sailing. 🙂
Now, at five o’clock in the morning, we found ourselves travelling to Washington motorway services on the southbound side of the A1(M), after a good friend had offered us a lift. On arrival, we spotted the Weardale Coaches vehicle and our friendly driver Jason helped us load our three cases in the coach’s luggage hold; a suitcase each plus an extra one just for my shoes! 🙂
Saying thank you and goodbye to our friend Carl, we boarded the coach where we saw that Billy and Carole were already there, in the front seats. It was around 5.15am when we set off on what was to be a long day.
The coach made more pickups as we headed south, one of them being Leeds. Here, we were able to pop in briefly and get a cup of coffee and used the facilities. This was very welcome as I hadn’t fancied any breakfast at 4.30am so I enjoyed it now, in the shape of an almond croissant.
As we continued on our way, we picked up more passengers, in a couple of the instances having to wait for the inevitable latecomer who inconsiderately kept the rest of us waiting. One of them had ordered her taxi for quarter past eight, when in fact it should have been quarter to, and when Jason called her to see where she was, she was sitting in her kitchen having a cup of tea instead of waiting at the coach stop with her suitcases! We then had to wait another 15-20 minutes while she hurriedly arranged for the taxi to come earlier, and eventually she arrived and boarded the coach, studiously avoiding everyone’s eyes as she slunk down the aisle to find her seat.
As the coach inexorably made its way further south, the passengers who had boarded first (that was us, from Washington) couldn’t wait for the chance to have a longer break and stretch our legs. 10.00am sounds early, but we had already been on the coach five hours by then!
Eventually our driver, Jason, announced we would be pulling into Leicester Forest East for our long-awaited, hour-long break. Great! Soon we were thankfully alighting from the coach, stretching out the kinks in our legs and backs and making a beeline for the restrooms.
We then enjoyed a Subway sandwich and a cup of coffee each before wandering around the inevitable WHSmith, where I purchased a magazine and a bag of Haribo for the rest of the long journey. 🙂
At some point in our journey south we pulled off the road into the southbound motorway services at Northampton, where we had another three couples to pick up. Two of the couples were there ready for the coach, but after waiting 10 minutes or so, there was no sign of the third couple, so Jason got on the phone to her. She was waiting at the northbound side! While he told her we were waiting for her on the southbound side (Southampton is, of course, south of Northampton – the clue is in the names of the places!!) she argued that the joining instructions she had received stated she had to wait at the coach park on the northbound side of the motorway, which didn’t make sense at all.
Eventually she arrived and, tight-lipped, continued to argue with the driver, saying she’d done loads of cruises and always met the coach on the northbound side.
As we continued on our way, the traffic grew busier the closer we got to Southampton. We had already checked MarineTraffic and noticed that the Queen Anne was the only cruise ship in port that day, so the traffic was evidently not caused by would-be cruisers. The coach inched its way along and we watched each blue motorway sign as the miles to Southampton counted down. 🙂
We arrived at the cruise terminal around 2.20pm, and Jason asked us to wait while a member of the InterCruises team explained the boarding procedure for the benefit of first-time cruisers. As soon as the lady boarded the coach, she was collared by Mrs-Northbound-Side-Of-The-Motorway, who started on again about being given the incorrect instructions. At that point Jason the driver interrupted and asked how come the other two couples, who had received the same instructions, managed to be present at the correct pick-up point?
The argumentative passenger continued by trying to prove her point by delving into her handbag and producing her copy of the InterCruises joining instructions. “Pick-up will be at the southbound services, on the M1 motorway at Northampton” she read out. Both Jason and I said, in unison, “southbound services”. It was there in black and white, that the lady should have been on the southbound side. But still she continued to argue! “The coach park is on the northbound side” she stressed. “But it says in your instructions the southbound side”, Jason continued. “You’ve completely contradicted yourself!” Incredibly, the lady still would not back down, and told the InterCruises rep she would be writing to her supervisor to complain. What an obnoxious woman!
Once this little charade was all over, we were each given a green card with a number on it, which would allow us to jump the huge queues we could see outside. In any case, Trevor and I are Platinum in the Cunard World Club while Billy and Carole are Diamond, so those statuses allow us priority boarding anyway.
Once we had left the coach (and I had collected my shoe case!), we shouldered our rucksacks and made our way excitedly into the terminal to check in, being directed to the priority queue. It didn’t take too long, and soon we were following the cheerful yellow “TO THE SHIP” sign which is such a dearly familiar sight for us at Southampton, and it always makes our heart beat a little bit faster as we make our way along the corridor and onto the air bridge. 🙂
Soon we were inside the plush interior of Queen Anne, to the cries of “welcome on board!”. We had been allocated balcony stateroom 4066, with Billy and Carole next door in 4064.
As the lift area was understandably crowded on embarkation day, Trevor and I decided just to climb the stairs a couple of decks to get to Deck 4 – we needed to stretch our legs after nine hours of sitting in the coach.
On the way, we were directed to attend our lifeboat muster station, where we checked in and our names were ticked off the list, after being advised to watch the safety video in our cabin. Finally, we were able to make our way to stateroom 4066 and dump our bags. As I had my shoe case with me, I was able to empty out the 10 pairs of shoes (!!) I had brought to wear on this cruise and line them up neatly in the bottom of two wardrobes. 🙂
Cabin (sorry, stateroom; Cunard insists on calling them staterooms) 4066 was just what we expected it to be, as it was almost identical to the balcony cabin 11046 that we had when we were on Queen Anne last year. A massive king-size bed dominated the room, with a bedside cabinet each side and a two-seater sofa and small table. On the table was a pair of champagne flutes accompanied by a half bottle of Cunard’s own-label Blanc de Blancs sparkling wine, which we immediately put into the fridge to enjoy later on. 🙂
There was also a dressing table with a large circular mirror and chair, with some shelves adjacent. At the other end of the cabin were a couple of large wardrobes, with a narrower wardrobe next to the bed; the wardrobe contained a couple of cosy bathrobes and slippers for our use during the cruise.
A large, flat-screen TV adorned the wall above the bed, and it all looked very comfortable and cosy. We looked forward to having 4066 as our “home” for the next two weeks.
Our balcony, while not being huge, was adequate, and contained a couple of deckchairs and a small table. Our stateroom was advertised as having a “partially obstructed” balcony view, but it just meant that we had to look over the tops of the lifeboats on the deck below; it didn’t block any daylight or impede our view of the sea too much.
As our cases hadn’t arrived yet, we phoned Billy in the cabin next door and told them we were going up to Deck 14, to the Sky Bar, to enjoy a freezing cold beer each, if they wished to join us. 🙂
We made our way to the top deck (“the lift is going up” said the robotic woman’s voice) and emerged into the sunshine and the Sky Bar, that overlooks the swimming pool, the roof of which had been retracted in the May sunshine. We have had an unusually warm and dry spring this year in Britain; April and May have been glorious. The gardens are desperate for rain, however.
As we accepted our glasses of beer and found a seat around the corner and out of the direct sun, Billy and Carole appeared. We all sat around a table on comfortable seats with plump cushions, and enjoyed our drinks as we gazed over the city of Southampton. In the distance Trevor and I spotted the Ibis Budget hotel, where we stayed the last couple of times we cruised from Southampton. It felt absolutely great to be back in this south-coast port ready to start another cruise. This one would be our 70th. 🙂
I enjoyed a chilled glass of rosé wine, which I took back to our stateroom to finish. We were pleased to see that our cases had arrived by now, and we spent some time emptying them and hanging all our clothes up neatly and folding them into drawers. This meant we would be able to get changed in time for dinner which was at the ludicrously-early time of 5.30pm for first sitting on this cruise.
I wore a pair of black trousers with a row of sequins down the outside seams, teamed with a sparkly one-shouldered top. Of course, I had to wear my nautical Irregular Choice shoes; what could be more appropriate? 🙂
The table we had been allocated was #393, a table for four set in the middle of the Britannia restaurant, with the high ceiling above us. I enjoyed a starter of ham and vegetable terrine, followed by a classic Caesar salad and a perfectly-cooked chateaubriand for my main course. It was all washed down with iced water and chilled rosé wine, and followed with coffee and petits fours. A delicious first dinner. 🙂
At some point during the meal, we noticed that Queen Anne was slowly making her way along Southampton Water and into the English Channel. Our British Isles cruise had begun. 🙂
It was about 7.30pm when we left the restaurant and, as the show didn’t start until eight o’clock, Trevor and I decided to pop along to the Golden Lion pub for a pre-show drink, while we said we’d see Billy and Carole later on.
The Golden Lion looked exactly as it did last year, so it was with a massive sense of déjà vu that we took our seats at a table, and a friendly bar waiter came to take our order.
After our drinks we hotfooted it along to the Royal Court Theatre to watch tonight’s featured entertainer, which was a singer called Nicola Jane. She was excellent, but I didn’t really do her justice as it was difficult to keep my eyes open during the 45-minute performance after my 3.40am start.
When the performance ended at 8.45pm, we saw that there was karaoke on in the Bright Lights Society at nine o’clock, and normally I would have been straight in there and put my name down for a couple of songs, but I just didn’t feel up to it tonight.
Instead, we made our way up to the Commodore Club, the elegant bar and lounge up on deck 12 that overlooks the bow of the ship. I wanted to get a photo of the sunset, but I’d just missed it, although I did get the lovely glowing orange sky above the distinctive funnel of Queen Anne.
As we had guessed, we found Billy and Carole up in the Commodore Club, and we went to join them. I enjoyed another glass of the house rosé wine, and decided to finish the evening off with a nightcap of a “wee dram” of Jura with ice. It went down a treat, too. 🙂
Billy and Carole, who are not night owls at all, returned to their stateroom afterwards, but Trevor and I went down to the Golden Lion to take part in the wipeout trivia. This is a quiz of 10 questions; you answer the first nine questions and get 100 points for each correct one. Question 10, however, is the wipeout question. You can gamble as many of your points as you wish on this question and, if you get it right, the points gambled are added to our score. If you get it incorrect, however, you lose all of your points. So the maximum score is 2000. Of course, you have to state how many points to gamble before you see the final question.
Trevor and I had scored 700/900, and we decided to gamble 500 of our points which would give us 1200 if we were correct. Indeed we were, but several teams had 1400 points or more, so no prize for us this time. 🙂
We were really flagging by now, so despite it only being 11.15pm, we decided to go back to our stateroom, where I read for a short while before we settled down in our massive bed with its plump pillows and rustly cotton sheets. We were out like a light and slept very, very well.