Something felt not quite right today as we headed down to Southampton to begin our 2 week Baltic Cruise aboard the Sapphire Princess, perhaps I associate traveling now with flying from Heathrow, Gatwick or even Bristol! The thought that you can travel to Russia by boat from the UK is one of which I had never thought of before now.
Anyway, we chose to purchase cruise parking on a ‘meet and greet’ basis enabling us to simply drive the van to the terminal and then the guys take care of the rest! Now, I’m not being ageist here (honestly!) but it is common knowledge that cruises are mainly targeted at (BTW we are now sailing through Portsmouth as I type), shall we say…the older generation? This thought stuck with me as we made our way through the terminal and onto the majestic ship, I would say, bar from a few kids, we are some of the youngest on here! Nonetheless our staterooms (albeit a little outdated) are majestic, here’s the view from my balcony…
It was at this point that one of my PA’s discovered a joyous safety video on our TV. You get all sorts these days but this one seems to top that. Think of a Disney song but then a bit of a cheese whilst conveying a meaningful message of what to do if the boat was to sink (what a thought to have).
Our first port of call tomorrow is Bruges in Belgium, however the ship docks in a neighbouring village meaning a taxi is necessary to travel to the centre so we will see how that goes!