Today’s the day. We were up at 7:00 and finished the overnight packing. The luggage labels are attached and the suitcases locked. We had some breakfast and then went through the final protocols of washing up, emptying the residual milk, cleaning the sinks and bleaching the plug holes. With everything ready we just had to wait for our driver.
Our driver arrived at 09:30. We were all ready to go, so packed the car and headed off to Southampton. We had an unexpectedly good run through (considering the Boat Show is on) and were dropped by the kerb a few minutes after Jane and Trevor had arrived. We were early, so had to wait for about 10 minutes before the pods opened to allow us to drop our cases. Once that was done we joined the queue to check-in. We had priority (as we have a suite) so we were among the first to go in once the doors were open.
Once we had passed through security, we were able to board. Ventura seems huge compared with Arcadia. We found our way to our muster station first, then we had an invitation to lunch in “Cinnamon”, one of the restaurants on board. We had some sparkling wine and then a nice light lunch. While we were eating, the crew were managing boarding for the other passengers and taking our luggage to our suite.
With luncheon finished we made our way to our suite. It is a lovely size and has a large curtain between the bedroom and the living room. This will be useful if I get up earlier than Diane in the morning.
We started unpacking. There is plenty of storage space. We did, however, hit our first problem… we had both brought a large suitcase and a medium suitcase. Neither of our medium suitcases would unlock. I tried everything, and in the end called reception. They sent our butler along. With the help of my Swiss Army knife and his muscle, we managed to free the locks on both suitcases. This will come as a great relief to fellow passengers as this was the case containing my socks and underpants for the next couple of weeks!
We went to explore the ship, but soon realised this is an adventure worthy of the great Victorian expeditions. We saw bits of decks 18, 17, and 7 but by then it was time to meet up with Jane and Trevor for a glass or two of Champagne. Besides which, it was wet, wet, wet (I could feel it in my fingers, feel it in my toes). This was, ostensibly, to celebrate the “sailaway”. As it happened, sailaway was later than planned. There was a strong (cold) wind holding us against the dock and we had to call for a second tug boat to help get us out into the channel.
Just before going to dinner, we realised we couldn’t open our room safe. I always use the same combination when we travel, so I was certain we had the right number. I did, however, try a couple of other combinations to no avail. As Di’s meds were in there, we had to ensure we could open it before bedtime, but we were locked out for now. We went down to dinner with a view to addressing the safe later. Dinner was held in the Bay Tree Restaurant on deck 6 and we had a nice table by the window. The food was excellent, and the portions were a sensible size (given how much we are likely to offered over the next two weeks).
Leaving the restaurant we made our way to the Havana Lounge where an Elton John tribute act was performing the first of his three sets tonight. He really was very good indeed and concentrated on Elton John’s early stuff (when he was still good). At the end of the set, I returned to our suite to call maintenance and get the safe opened. Unfortunately, it took them about 90 minutes to arrive, and 10 seconds to open the safe with their master key. By then, the others had returned, Jane and Trevor retired, and we sat reading.
That was quite a day.
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