Because this was a short cruise my theory was we wouldn’t need much luggage so it would be a good time to try getting the train to Southampton. It turned out that I could book First Class return travel for the pair of us for £66, much cheaper than the cost of driving down and the CPS car parking. My only concern, apart from the ongoing train strikes, was we’d get there too early. I’d booked the 11:05 from London Waterloo, arriving at 12:21 in Southampton. That turned out to be the least of our worries. The first problem was massive disruption of our services into London because of a “trespasser” on the tracks at New Cross.  Luckily living in South London has the advantage of multiple options for travel into the City, so we walked to a different station and took a line that was unaffected by the New Cross incident. The next issue was the woeful lack of space for luggage on SW Rail’s First Class compartment. We managed to slot the little case into the “hutch” formed by two sets of seats backing on to each other, but the large one wasn’t fitting anywhere and ended up taking up the two seats across our table from us. Luckily the carriage wasn’t anywhere near full or we would have had issues. When we arrived at Southampton it was time to grab a cab to the Mayflower Terminal, not as easy as it should be because there’s roadworks outside the front of the station and the Taxi rank has moved across the bridge outside platform three. There’s a lift to get over the bridge, there’s also a massive queue to use that so we decided to not bother and ordered up an Uber to meet us on the other side of West Quay Road. Ten minutes later and £6.98 lighter we were dropping our bags off and strolling into the Mayflower Cruise Terminal.

The Mayflower Cruise Terminal is my new favourite, on entering we were ushered in to the Priority queue courtesy of our Platinum status, and all checked in in less than 10 minutes. There was a big old queue for Security, but that moved on quickly and before we knew it we were through and climbing the gangplank to start our voyage.

Our first port of call was muster station B to get our card scanned, when we got there we realised that we hadn’t been to the room to pick up our cards, but it turns out that our boarding pass works just as well. We would need our room cards though for lunch in  the Golden Lion Pub. My suit carrier was waiting by the door to our stateroom, so I quickly unpacked that while Jane inspected the Pol Acker in the fridge. 

Lunch in the pub was good, I had no real complaints about the Chicken Tikka Massala other than it wasn’t very spicy. Jane had the Fish and Chips and had a bit of a moan about the tiny portion of mushy peas, and the tartar sauce wasn’t very tartar, a distinct lack of capers apparently. 

Lunch out of the way meant it was time to check on our table for dinner. We’d requested a table for 10 second sitting fixed dining. Turns out that table 622 is a table for two. Time to go and see the Maitre’d and see if we can get this resolved. It turns out that there are only two ten seater tables on the whole ship and there are lots of groups on this short cruise taking up all of the eight and ten seat tables.

We chilled in the room for a while with Jane unpacking and me tapping away on the keyboard before it was time to hit the Commodore Club and our afternoon drink. We walked there via deck ten overlooking the Lido pool and the Sailaway party. This is very much a party cruise, there were far more people around the pool than I’ve ever seen at a Sailaway outside of the Caribbean. The Commodore Club was really busy, with most of the tables taken and the two waiters rushing around delivering drinks. We sat down near the piano and waited for a waiter, and waited, and waited…….. eventually after waiting for over twenty minutes, Jane gave up waiting and headed to the bar to get the drinks. There were only three staff on, the barman and two waiters for a full Commodore Club. It didn’t stay that way though, the crowds soon thinned out with the early diners drifting off and more staff appearing. Our second drink was procured much more quickly and even came with nibbles. Jane was pleased to see the Cosmopolitan was more to her liking after being disappointed with it on QE last year, but she was even more pleased with the Ginger Cosmo she had for her second drink. By now it was seven pm and after listening to the band for a while it was time to get ready for dinner.

We arrived in the Britannia Main Dining Room discussing whether to see if the Maitre’d had found us a larger table or just head to the one assigned to us. We went directly to the table to see someone sat there already, so we headed to the Maitre’d again to find it was all a mess. I’m still not sure what went wrong, but there was something about a group of six sitting at the 3 adjacent tables to us who shouldn’t have been there and at least two of us had the same table number. After an age it all got sorted and we ended up as a table for eight. It wasn’t ideal as it was just four tables pushed together and the end couples couldn’t hear each other, but we still had a very pleasant evening once it all got sorted. I won’t mention the lack of a sommelier and it taking an age to get the wine as again that was sorted.

We got ready for breakfast and headed down to the MDR where we asked for and received a table for two near the aft windows. I’m a Northerner, and my accent coupled with a tendancy of speaking far faster than necessary means breakfast ordering tends to be a bit of a lottery. Bircher muesli is always excellent and I had that to start, I fancied scrambled eggs and smoked salmon on a bagel as a main, but ended up with smoked salmon and cream cheese. This was soon corrected and the scrambled eggs arrived, Jane took my dollop of cream cheese and I had a very nice breakfast. I quite like the brown sludge that Cunard call coffee, but Jane isn’t a fan so she asked if she could have a cappuccino expecting to have to pay, but was pleasantly surprised it was free, gratis, and Jane really enjoyed it.

It was the first of my lectures at ten o’clock, so we went back to the room to get everything in order before that. Jane’s not enjoying her book on the Kindle at the moment, so I suggested popping down to the Library to borrow a book. That way Jane could decide on which book to read the old way by reading the fly cover.

My first lecture was presented by Alex Leger who had been a TV producer with the BBC working on the iconic children’s program Blue Peter. This was a staple of many generations of British children’s TV consumption for decades. It was informative and very enjoyable to hear his tales of his time there.

I’d arranged to meet Jane up in the Garden Room after the lectures and arrived there just before her, she’d been looking for a bookmark to keep her page in the newly borrowed library book but had been unable to find the shop. In it’s place on Victoria is the Future Cruise Sales office. It seems like the shop has been amalgamated into the bookshop , and ironically it’s a bookshop that doesn’t sell book marks. For bookmarks you need to go to the clothes shop.

A nice cup of tea later and it was time for lunch so we headed down to the Main Dining Room to eat. We’d some of the Rose from last night’s dinner left over so the Sommelier retrieved that for us. Cunard excels at lunchtime pasta dishes and invariably I plump for one for my main and today was no different with a very nice spaghetti bolognaise, Jane had the same. I really enjoy dining in the MDR, it has a really good vibe, a nice buzz which you don’t seem to get in the Grills restaurants, I find the PG restaurant to be a little soulless, especially at lunchtime.

As we were finishing lunch we noticed we’d arrived at the sea lock to start our transit to Amsterdam and the scenery was now riverbanks rather than the flat expanse of the North Sea. We decided the best place to watch the world go by was going to be the steamer chairs on the Promenade Deck. Steamer being the operative word, it was jolly hot sitting in the sun.

We gave up after baking in the heat for an hour we decided that we needed to sit somewhere cooler and the Commodore Club fitted the bill nicely as we could happily chill and watch the approach into Amsterdam. Holland and America’s Rotterdam was sitting in our berth so we had to wait until she departed which made us late getting in.

At 4:15 they had the Afternoon Trivia quiz in the Winter Garden room on deck nine, much to the annoyance of the Manchester United fans watching the game on the big screen. It probably saved them a bit of heartache given the lost 3-1 at home to Brighton. We carried on our usual tradition of being the “nearly” team coming in second with 14 points, which wasn’t two bad as there were only two of us and only one was contributing answers. After that it was back to the Commodore Club for a livener or two where we met one of the couples sharing our dinner table and spent a very pleasant couple of hours chatting with them before retiring to get ready for dinner

It turns out the table for two we had was probably actually a table for eight. All of us had the same table number assigned to us, so it was probably a mix up in setting the table initially. Roast rump of lamb was on the menu tonight, so that was Jane’s dinner sorted and she enjoyed it, really, really, enjoyed it, which is good. I had the chicken. It was far quieter in the MDR then the first night, I can only assume the party animals were hitting the town. Ginger is back as a digestitive and handed out with the petit fours after dinner which is good news as well, we haven’t seen it in evidence for such a long time. After dinner Jane was persuaded to go to see West On Sunset play in the Theatre, they were an R&B trio (Fleetwood Mac R&B, not Byonce R&B) and had the oldies feet tapping.

I’m really enjoying being in a Britannia cabin on this cruise, yes the stateroom is slightly smaller than the PG stateroom and you don’t get free bottled water delivered every day, but I do have a shower that comes up past my chest and as Jane has discovered, after many years of cruising with Cunard, room service will happily deliver a jug of iced water for your fridge. 

Amsterdam was grey this morning, which is a shame as it was so nice yesterday, so after a nice shower we headed down to the MDR for another excellent breakfast, remembering to speak more slowly when placing my order this time meant I received exactly what I asked for today. Some ladies on a table next to us got a little panicky upon hearing a “man overboard” announcement over the Tannoy, until Jane explained it was an exercise.

After breakfast we ended back in the cabin to let the rain slacken off before heading into Amsterdam, typically I’d forgotten anything waterproof to wear, but not to worry I’m a northerner and not made of sugar. It was quite a trek to Central Station where we picked up a couple of GVB travel cards. €18 well spent. There were throngs of people by the station, all out for a bit of a jog, the Dam tot Damloop 10 mile run, rather them than me, but it looks like they had the perfect weather for it.

We had no real plan for our day, I’ve spent lots of time in Amsterdam and have been every where I want to go, but Jane fancied a look at the Rijksmeuseum, so we hopped on a tram for a couple of stops getting off at the flower market to mooch through there and then walk up from there to the museum. We joined the queue when we got there and a very helpful American explained that we actually needed to login to their website and book a timeslot. Well needless to say I couldn’t be bothered with all that, I’ve seen the Night’s Watch already and Jane didn’t feel like she was missing out so we decided to head nearer to town and grab some lunch. 

I fancied some street food, the Dutch don’t really have much of a cuisine outside pancakes, but I really like their street food, especially things like frikandel speciaal and frites with frites saus. Or shoarma, which isn’t really Dutch but evokes many memories of my wilder youth in Roermond and Eindhoven.  So we walked for quite a while looking for somewhere with seating, ending up at the Chippy King a not so salubrious fast food joint, but which served excellent frites, and frikandel speciaal, it was a first for Jane and she seemed to like it as I had to fight her for the frites. 

Once eaten we headed back to the ship for a bit of a rest, watch the end of the Singapore GP and catch the end of afternoon tea in the Lido. We thought we might catch the Afternoon Trivia in the Golden Lion, but we were a little too slow but we did end up on the Future Cruise Sales office where I managed to to get my Forces benefit added to our upcoming cruise to the Greek Islands, that saved me remembering to do it when we get home.

We thought it would be prudent to pop into the Commodore Club early as it’s the Gala night tonight and people will be out and about in their finery while I’m still wandering around in shorts. Jane is in an experimental mood today, and started off with a Citrus Cooler, a nice long drink followed by a Cool as a Cucumber, a more sophisticated drink served in a martini glass, me I went non-alcoholic with a couple of Atlantic Mist’s, they are no longer on the mocktail menu, but they will make it and a Sea Breeze on request.

There were only six of us at dinner, and even that was too much to have a decent conversation when your table is three tables for two pushed together. It was the Black and White themed Gala night and the dress code was very well adhered to with only one chap that I saw in a light suit and no real monstrosities. It was a typical Gala dinner of Chateau Briand, which was perfectly cooked and a very nice rose pavlova for dessert.

Nicely showered we headed down to the MDR for breakfast, there was a queue for the first time on the voyage, probably because we’d departed Amsterdam earlier and now everyone was back on board. We sat next to a couple of first time cruisers who weren’t very impressed by the number of things that had caught them out on the cruise. This highlighted how much Cunard fails to communicate things well. From the very first thing they arrived at 15:30 to board and were berated about being late and it was intimated that they might not be allowed to board even though the last boarding was stated to be 16:00, they hadn’t realised about registering their card at the muster station (I’m not sure how as the TV in the room constantly repeats that message) and when leaving the ship they didn’t realise that they would both need their cards to leave the ship. As seasoned Cunarders these are second nature, but if you don’t know you rely on being told the correct procedures.

Such was the chatting at breakfast I almost missed my first insight lecture and had to get a wriggle on to make the Royal Court Theatre for Andy Wyatt’s lecture on his career in the RAF flying Lightnings and Hawk trainers followed by his time on Boeing 747s with British Airways.

Andy’s lecture was followed by Alex Leger and his account of his time as a producer on BBC’s Blue Peter.

When I got back to the room I found Jane all tucked up in bed, apparently it’s all my fault she’s very tired after having her sleep disturbed. We relaxed in the room until it was time for lunch in the MDR. I had a zoom meeting for work at 14:00, so was going to give it a go and see how the internet behaves on the Premium package. I had intended to try and utilise the Atlantic room on deck 10 as that seems like an ideal spot for this but that was already being used, so I ended up in LGBT corner in the Commodore Club as that hopefully is the most out of the way spot. It turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag. The WiFi is certainly good enough to hold a Zoom meeting, The down side was, that the weather closed in so the Commodore Club started to fill up and the background noise was such that I had to mute my mic as it’s noise cancelling properties wasn’t good enough and the background chatter caused some distractions. The heavens opened and it started to rain quite heavily causing the internet reception to drop dramatically for a little time, it wasn’t too bad and my meeting concluded successfully.

After my meeting it was time for a nice cup of tea and a wee bit of cake in the Lido, we had intended to take part in the the Afternoon trivia, but because of the weather the Winter garden was full with no seats left, so we waited in the Lido for a while to see if it quietened down, but it never did and then the time got the better of us and we ended up getting there just too late for the start, so we sat under the covered area by the pool and listened to the quiz over the PA, but it was just a bit too cold, so it was time for the Commodore Club and a nice Margarita for Jane and an Atlantic mist for me.

We were dining in the Coriander pop-up for our final dinner, we’ve never been to the pop-up restaurants before, we’ve never felt the need as the MDR is generally very good, but as this was a short cruise it seemed like a good time to try it. I’m really glad we did, the starters and entrees were both excellent, the desserts not so much, they were nice, but I was so full after the rest of the meal I had no room left, so ended up leaving some which is unheard of for me. After a brief stop in the Winter Garden we headed back to the stateroom to finish off the packing and put the cases out ready for disembarkation in the morning.

Our returning berth had been changed from the Mayflower to the Queen Elizabeth cruise terminal. Our only experience of this terminal was not a good one with train movements causing traffic chaos and extensive delays to cars arriving at the terminal. So naturally we were worried since our train was scheduled for 10:30 and our disembarkation time was 09:40. Normally plenty of time to collect our bags and get to the station but in the circumstances we were concerned. It turned out that it wasn’t an issue, our 09:40 turned out to be an 09:10 with an announcement for all remaining passengers to depart. So we left the ship and collected our bags without incident. There was quite a queue for taxis, but it moved swiftly and we were at Southampton Central 45 minutes before our train was due. We grabbed a coffee in the Costa opposite the station to kill some time and before we knew it we were home.

Our returning berth had been changed from the Mayflower to the Queen Elizabeth cruise terminal. Our only experience of this terminal was not a good one with train movements causing traffic chaos and extensive delays to cars arriving at the terminal. So naturally we were worried since our train was scheduled for 10:30 and our disembarkation time was 09:40. Normally plenty of time to collect our bags and get to the station but in the circumstances we were concerned. It turned out that it wasn’t an issue, our 09:40 turned out to be an 09:10 with an announcement for all remaining passengers to depart. So we left the ship and collected our bags without incident. There was quite a queue for taxis, but it moved swiftly and we were at Southampton Central 45 minutes before our train was due. We grabbed a coffee in the Costa opposite the station to kill some time and before we knew it we were home.

Our returning berth had been changed from the Mayflower to the Queen Elizabeth cruise terminal. Our only experience of this terminal was not a good one with train movements causing traffic chaos and extensive delays to cars arriving at the terminal. So naturally we were worried since our train was scheduled for 10:30 and our disembarkation time was 09:40. Normally plenty of time to collect our bags and get to the station but in the circumstances we were concerned. It turned out that it wasn’t an issue, our 09:40 turned out to be an 09:10 with an announcement for all remaining passengers to depart. So we left the ship and collected our bags without incident. There was quite a queue for taxis, but it moved swiftly and we were at Southampton Central 45 minutes before our train was due. We grabbed a coffee in the Costa opposite the station to kill some time and before we knew it we were home.