Day 24

Sunday April 14^th

Southampton

This is the end of the voyage for the large majority of passengers. No one looks happy to be leaving, especially the full world cruise passengers who now see Mary as their home.

We still have 7 more glorious days ahead of us, so we were feeling very happy, if not a bit cold as we stepped onto the air bridge to go ashore.

It was 33 degrees when we arrived in Southampton, and by the time we disembarked we was a balmy 41 degrees.

We were docked at Ocean Terminal (my favorite) and were the only cruise ship in port, which has never happened to us before. There has always been at least another ship here with us.

Cunard provided a shuttle bus to West Quay Shopping Center for the in transit passengers, and narrowly missing the first bus at 9:00, we caught the 9:30 for the very short ride in to town. It was a double decker bus – what fun!

On arrival at the West Quay shopping center we stood outside in the cold taking in the fact that the mall and the shops didn’t open until 11:00 on Sundays.

Even the nearby Starbucks was closed, so we walked around the outside of the mall in order to try to keep warm. We probably should have just gone back to the ship, but our brains were frozen, so we just walked around in the cold.

Finally the doors to the shopping center opened, and we hurried inside to warm up.

Brian is very involved in ancestry research. My great grandfather was a navy man, born in Portsmouth, and Brian had managed to track down 2 distant cousins of mine. Luckily they were available to get together with us, and we met up in the café at John Lewis. Iris and Dave had driven for 3 hours to be there, and Penny and Martin had come over from the Isle of Wight. They had brought copies of birth certificates, death certificates, wills, photos and sundry other family memorabilia. We spent hours chatting, and going over the information they had, and trying to clarify mystifying facts we had discovered about my great grandfather and his wives. All fun stuff!

After they left, we did some shopping, and then took the shuttle bus back to the ship in good time for the sail away.

In the terminal we picked up a couple of the free magazines there. One had the headline “How to Get a Seat on the Captains Table”. Now I HAVE to read that.

It was freezing out on deck, so we retreated to our cabin, and watched us sail down the Solent, listening to our sail away play list from the warmth and safety of our balcony. This is the last sail away of this voyage, wow; it is simply going by way too fast.

We waved goodbye to England’s green and pleasant land and watched our progress on the TV as it was getting very cold on the balcony

With fewer than 200 of us in transit, and over 2,400 new passengers, the cabin stewards must have had a very busy day getting all of the cabins ready. Our cabin steward, Ting, was as perky as ever; I am always very impressed with how hard they work.

We are at the same table for dinner, but with all new tablemates as our previous ones are all on their way home by now.

No more ports – just 6 wonderful sea days ahead. Yay!