Monday 27 April 2015

Brittannia Cruise 2015 - Day 1

I've just been on a wonderful cruise with Andy on the new P&O ship Brittannia.  This is Day 1 of the exciting day.

The excitement has been building for weeks.  And the nerves.  I've been worrying about everything going wrong and we not being able to go.  Doesn't help that a week before going, the motor on my electric chair went kaput!  I had visions of no chair for the trip or worse me breaking down in the middle of the road somewhere abroad.  Then nearer to leaving, Andy caught a terrible cold.  So I'm worrying he's going to be really ill at sea.  Then two days before leaving, Andy's back seized up and he's in agony and can hardly walk.  A visit to the chiropractor helps but he's still looking in pain and walking very slowly.

Somehow despite all fears Saturday 11 April arrives and we are all set to go.  Drew, our lovely taxi driver arrives at 9.15 prompt.  This is it, we are actually on our  way!


The journey takes approx 2 1/2 hours.  I love it when you get near to the docks and suddenly you see the ship.  It looks magnificent, wow! It's huge.  This is me entering Ocean Terminal and you can see some of Brittania on the left .... what looks like a building is actually the ship.


Pictures Andy took while we were in the Terminal through the window.  The ship is so big you can't see all of it



We were unbelievably quick in the Terminal.  Straight through to check-in.  Then before we knew it we were in the queue to board.  After our hand luggage was searched and we were frisked we passed this sign


And then we were onboard.  We had our picture taken together and were told our cabin wasn't ready yet but we could go up to the Horizon deck for lunch.  First we sat in the Atrium, taking it all in


This was my first photo and not great.  More pictures of the Atrium will be in later posts taken by Andy as he is my official ship blog photographer :).

During lunch .... I had a roll and cheese and Andy had a huge plate of something I can't remember. Over the tannoy we were told we could go to our cabins which were now ready.

And wow what a wonderful cabin.  Because it was a disabled accessible cabin it was really large, like a suite.  B709 was to be our home for 2 weeks.  I was so impressed!  A great bathroom for easy access.  This bathroom was pretty much the same as the one we had on P&O Oceana, I don't have a picture but you can see a picture on Tom's Cruise blog here disabled bathroom.


We chose twin beds as they have no king sized ones and we don't want to be squished on a double.  But there again being in a single is a bit uncomfortable as you are too near the edges.  And I have a wall against mine.  Andy pulls it away for me so I can stretch my arms out a bit. 





And then our balcony!  We feel so lucky to have one.  Here is Andy checking it out




Our luggage hasn't been delivered yet.  We can see from the balcony that there is tons of it being loaded onto the ship.  With over 3,000 passengers it's going to take time.  By 4:45 pm we have all of it.  But then it's time to dash to our muster stations to learn what to do if the ship sinks.  I don't learn  much as apparently I have a different life jacket from everyone else and it wasn't in my cabin so I watch Andy put his on.

After that we are on 1st sitting for the dining so we head on downstairs.  There is a bit of a fight for the lifts with everyone wanting to get there at the same time.  

We go to the Oriental dining room and meet two of our table friends Louis and her daughter Jen. They seem really nice people so that's good.  The other two people who should be joining us don't show up.  We have a delicious meal.  I have prawn coctail for starters, salmon, potatoes and vegetables for main and sultana brioche and butter pudding.  Delicious.   Here is a picture of my dessert.  Sorry it's out of focus, it tastes better than it looks!


That's it for now.  I should be back tommorow with Day 2 of our holiday .....



3 comments:

Andyc said...

If that's the first write up, can't wait for more! xxx

Andyc said...

If that's the first write up, can't wait for more! xxx

JohnnyGee said...

Great!