Day 1

January 5th

We had ordered our taxi for 11:30, and sure enough he was there and we loaded up all of the stuff into his van and headed to Ocean Terminal, getting there at 11:45. We filled out the health forms and went up the escalator. We were given purple passes and headed straight into the check in line. We were soon at the front of the line and got our cabin cards. Then after a brief wait it was off through security, who didn’t seem to mind all of our goodies, and by 12:30 we were in our cabin. Three of our bags were waiting for us, so I quickly set about unpacking.

The QV Britannia cabins really don’t have much storage space, but after reading blogs about world cruises, we had come prepared. Out went the wooden Cunard hangers (clearly Gabriel our room steward had seen this before), and in went the narrow velvet ones. We adjusted the hanging rods in the cupboard closest to the door so we had more space, and low and behold, we were able to hang everything up! Unpacking is so much more fun than packing and in no time everything was in place and we headed up to the lido for lunch.

On our return to the cabin the 2 missing suitcases were still not there, however we had heard of people whose cases had arrived after sail away so we weren’t perturbed at all.

We then headed off to the Queen’s Room to watch a performance by the British Imperial Military band. It was rather a small space for a marching band, but they did a great job, and we all got Union Jacks to wave, so I was happy. Next it was the lifeboat drill, sorry Guest Emergency Drill, and then the sail away. It was a cold, but clear night and I bet we looked like a beautiful sight sailing away. There was a great, but short fireworks display, and then we slipped away into the night, saying goodbye to England’s green and pleasant land for a while.

There was still no sign of the 2 missing bags, so I finally decided it was time to visit the pursers’ office. Sure enough one bag was quietly sitting there. The luggage label had come off so it was basically homeless. I arranged for it to be delivered to our cabin, but there was no sign of the other bag. My enquiry was met by a look of extreme suspicion, as if we were up to no good. I thought they may be holding it hostage until we returned the liquids we had brought on board in our hand luggage, but luckily that was not the case. The security officer had seen a “suspicious” object on the X-ray so we had to go to Connexions 1 and open the bag in front of him. The offending object was not the magnets, hooks, duct tape or screwdrivers, but some kind of tool the Brian has that has a small blade to cut our favorite South African food, biltong. This was promptly confiscated and will be returned to us at the end of the voyage. So the issue is – how on earth are we going to slice our biltong now?

We got over the annoyance due to the joy of meeting up with our bags and we rapidly emptied them into every nook and cranny in the cabin, stuffed the smaller bags inside the big ones, which we then put under the bed.

We used our magnets to hang up the scratch world map our daughter had given us – it will be fun to scratch off all the countries we visit as we sail across the world.

As is our tradition we placed our flags in a glass on the desk, and consumed the dreaded Pol Acker unpacking juice, while listening to our sail away play list of great British music, and got ready for dinner.

We were the first people at our table for 6, and as the evening wore on it was becoming evident that we were going to be the only people at our table for 6. As much as we like each other’s company, one of the things we love about cruising is meeting interesting people, and this was clearly not going to be the case for this segment. Finally a rather dapper gentleman was lead to our table. He had peeked around a column to check out his assigned table and had rejected them, but clearly had seen our lonely table and took pity on us. He turned out to be another ex pat, living in California, and very personable, so although he was only one person we were happy for his company.

The meal was excellent and the service was great. I was one very happy little person.

After dinner we went to the Commodore Club for a nightcap. As they don’t make Milky Way Martinis any more, I had to settle for a Chocolate Affair, which is an adequate substitute but I miss the stick of chocolate in the Milky Ways.

Then it was time to head to our cabin and be gently rocked to sleep. Our first world cruise perk was awaiting us – a potted plant. I hope it will survive the journey. I can hardly believe that we have another 90 days to go. What total perfection!