Southampton

May 10^th, 2024

We woke up to a bright and sunny Southampton morning, not the best view, but I was excited to be back in England.

We had to leave our cabin very early so our room steward could get it ready for the next occupants, so we had a couple of hours to wait until we could move into our new cabin.

We sat in the Commodore Club and did some work. Noon arrived so we went to see if our new cabin was ready, and indeed it was.

There was our bottle of Prosecco – not only in an ice bucket, but the ice bucket stood on a plate so that the water from the condensation did not flood the table. There was also a napkin to assist in serving, and 2 chocolate truffles.

There was a sprig of orchids in the vase on the desk. On the previous voyage we had had a vase, but no flowers ever arrived.

We were feeling that things were going to be much more organized on this voyage.

We had lunch on board, and then took the shuttle bus into town.

I love West Quay, but we were very disciplined and only went to Boots, Asda, and the biltong store. I will be back in 2 weeks time, so I can shop to my hearts content then.

Asda had good supplies of peppermint Aeros and Cadbury Flakes, well enough for 2 weeks, and Brian was able to stock up on nuts.

We had a very successful time, and then caught the shuttle bus back to the ship. I think it is great that they have the bus so that guests on back to back cruises can get in to town to do their shopping.

Back on the ship we unpacked all over again, but as our cabin is identical to our previous one, we knew exactly where everything would go.

Well, it was identical except for problems with the bathroom fan noises and the room temperature. The fan in the bathroom was so loud we knew we would not be able to sleep with the noise it was making, and the cabin was freezing cold. We adjusted the thermostat, but that did nothing. Cold air kept blasting out of the vent above the bed. I wanted to move back to our original cabin.

Marisol, our stateroom attendant, was able to fiddle with the bathroom fan to reduce the noise, and said she would call maintenance to deal with the thermostat.

We went up to the back of the ship on deck 11 to watch our sail away. There is a great bar there, the Cabana bar, and you get a good view of the Panorama pool where the sail away party was happening.

Well DJ Lily was playing music and there were people having drinks, but I certainly would not have called it a party. I had been hoping to get another flag to add to my collection, but there was no sign of any of the entertainment staff and certainly I couldn’t see any evidence of flag distribution.

Come on, this is only the 2^nd time that Queen Anne has sailed from her home port of Southampton. I really had hoped for more of a celebration. Maybe we will get one when we leave on May 24^th.

Still, it is always lovely to sail out of Southampton, so we watched for a while from deck 11,

and then took our drinks down to our stateroom and sat on our balcony as we slowly made our way out into the Channel.

One thing I loved about the sail away was that we blew our whistle loud and long as we made our way past the Isle of Wight. It was really fantastic, and it let everyone know a Queen was on her way. What ever Queen Anne’s failings, her whistle makes up for it for me!

Brian had a poached pear for dessert at dinner and I was intrigued by its shape. My attempts at poached pear never look like that.

Service at dinner was faster than usual, and we were finished long before the start of the evening show. We decided to go to the Royal Court Theatre and wait there. It is usually pretty crowded by the time we get to the theater, but because we were so early it was pretty deserted.

This gives an idea of what the theater is like. It really isn’t a great looking room, but the seats are very comfortable and there are no obstructed views.

The performers tonight were Ida, we had heard them before and I really enjoy them. It was a great show.

When we returned to our room it was still freezing. Clearly there is something wrong with the thermostat. However, we were too tired to try to deal with it. We were just thankful for the thick duvet and hoped it would keep us warm.

We had had a good day, and I was excited about the next segment of our Queen Anne voyage. The first week had had its issues, but things seem to be settling down now, and we are in our comfortable routine. Life is good.