A long time ago, (in a galaxy far far away), I was looking at the Royal Caribbean site. The Trans Atlantic voyage on the world’s newest, longest, heaviest and widest cruise ship had been announced.
A TA was one of the cruises I have always wanted to do. Don’t know why, just loved the idea of it.
I played around with prices…..a balcony overlooking the Aqua Theatre came up for a great price. So I put a deposit on. By the time my solo supplement was applied the price was too good not to do. $1776 AU with tips. 14 nights on a super ship. Yay. And the best way to experience a new super ship is on a voyage with lots of sea days.
So the planning began……
No point going that far without doing a bit more travel, so add a trip out of New York on another newish ship – Anthem of the Seas. May as well make it a Back to Back to do a Thanksgiving trip. I’ve always wanted to sail out of New York.
Ohhh, but look. There is a cruise out of Southampton going to the Canary Islands and Morocco on Navigator of the Sea just before the TA. But that would leave a gap of about a week. May as well do a B2B on that trip as well.
Suddenly my TA, with a price too good to pass up, has become a massive two month trip going to England, Canary Islands, Morocco, Portugal, France, Spain, Florida, New Orleans, St Thomas, St Kitts, St Martin, Sint Marteen, Puerto Rico, Bahamas. Ooopps.
28th September. Fly to England… And the 29th
1st Oct – ‘Navigator’ 14 nights Canary and Africa
14th October – ‘Navigator’ 7 night France and Spain
23rd October – ‘Harmony’ 13 nights Trans Atlantic to Florida
5th November – a trip to New Orleans
10th November – ‘Anthem’ 10 nights Caribbean
20th November – ‘Anthem’ 7 nights Bahamas
27th November – Get off my ship day – to the airport and go
29th November – arrive home.
Got my flights on Qantas point – Love points. Business class. But beggars ..well pointers, cannot be choosers so my flight was through Hong Kong. I have a few hours there so we shall see how I feel.
Then I had another great idea. My flight left Sydney at 7am. Too early for a morning flight. And I hate spending on a hotel overnight, to get up at 2.30am. Taxi drivers are pigs for short trips, you don’t sleep that night, get up early to get to airport etc. I may as well get the midnight bus – or as I like to call it the “Night bus” as in Harry potter. So off I went. Arrived at 3am, waited until 4.30 for check in!
Bad idea. Stupid idea.
But it was all done and I had some time in the lounge. At this stage I’ve been awake for 23 hours ……. So just maybe I will sleep on the plane.
And now – London bound via Hong Kong.
The flight to Hong Kong was with Cathay Pacific. Lovely. The food was great.
I did notice a few design things not as good on some other planes. One I found out about the hard way. The shelf next to you – – didn’t have a lip. So when the plane hit a bump my iPod jumped off and shot under the seat behind me. The guy saw it go under.
After a quick look, they couldn’t see it, the staff decided that it was a fire risk.The poor guy was moved and I had to wait till the end for an engineer to get it out. Nooo – No iPod for sleep music for 9 hrs. 
So I waited till everyone was off and the engineer turned up. He couldn’t find it …
After lots of dicking around..
It was decided that it would take a few hours to remove the seats…..so bad luck me. No more iPod. When I mentioned that wow, it no longer a fire risk, they didn’t really have an answer. Lets hope who ever is in seat 14K doesn’t find there seat on fire tonight when they move their seat and said iPod mashed wired and ignites them.
Yes an iPod is easy to replace…but not the library. That has to be done from the home computer.
After my delayed arrival. I hopped on the train and went into Kowloon for dinner.
The trains are super efficient and cost $15AU for a return trip. At the Kowloon station were 6 free buses that headed off in loops to various places. I went in search of good Hong Kong food.
First stop looked amazing.
But sadly that menu didn’t start for 90 minutes. They brought me the al la carte menu – lovely burgers and pizza etc…but not like the poster. But then I found a noodle house and ate off the ‘local food’ menu.
Great food. The chicken feet – were yum. Sticky gelatinous things. I do wonder how much poo they walked in.
Then back to the airpot, to the lounge for a shower then onto British Airways flight. 14 hours. Leaves at 11pm. Arrives at 5 am.
And let me say here….there are not a lot of things better than an airport shower and clean clothes after being out of bed for 40 hours and with another 26 to go till I get to bed again. But I did get at least 15 minutes on the bus and 3 hours sleep, in three goes, on the last flight so I will be fine.
See you tomorrow. – Here that is.
Day 1 – 29th Sept. The flight to London was lovely. I slept! For a few hours. Yay. British Airways Business class seats are not a patch on the others – but still lovely.
We arrived a bit early so off I went to collect my car at about 5.30am. And off I set. I rambled along today – turning when something looked good.
Windsor – I drove around a beautiful estate. Not sure what it was but it was stunning, with it’s Enid Blyton trees.
Winchester. Absolutely stunning place. So pretty.
Home of Winchester Cathedral – as in the Beatles song, among other things. A Church of England church and one of the largest cathedrals in Europe. Construction started in 1070. Jane Austen is buried there.
The New Forest – with wild New Forest Ponies everywhere. And a herd of donkey. Beautiful houses and building were everywhere.
Then a drive along the cliff drive from Christchurch to Bournemouth for a visit tot he famous pier. And that too was lovely.
Then back to Southampton via a wiggle way – “Oh, a corner, I shall turn down it”.
Then off to the hotel. 5.30pm here and the struggle had become real! I have been out of bed since 8am on Tuesday 27th. It is currently 2.30 am on Friday in Canberra. That’s 66 hr since a bed – but I have had 8ish hours sleep since then. But must not sleep now before dark. And I will sleep well tonight! A quick walk to stop an accidental doze!
It’s dark now. Shower and bed!
Day 2 – Isle of Wight. 30th Sept
After a great nights sleep I headed off – that is after my “Full English Breakfast”. I decided to go over to the Isle of Wight. I thought about taking my car over – that would be fun. Till I found out it is THE most expensive car ferry in the WORLD! So no – I would not be taking the car. Instead I returned it early and headed off on the Red Jet Ferry – the fast speed catamaran. Then bought a day pass on the local bus network.
Isle of Wight is pretty stunning. Village after village with amazing looking building everywhere. And heaps of history. There is one of the most important Roman sites in the UK, discovered by a farmer in 1879, when he struck a mosaic floor while building.
Carsibrooke Castle where King Charles 1 was imprisoned.
The Jurassic Coast full of Dinosaur fossils and the site os a beach of footprints.
Osborne House where Queen Victoria lived with Albert and the nine kids.
The Needles landmark, where you ride a chairlift down the cliff from Alum Bay, then go for a boat ride to see Needles Rocks and the Trinity lighthouse. And the coloured sands. There is also the Fort and Battery above.
The chairlift down was ….fun!
Then a boat ride out to see ‘The Needles’. Stunning place.
And a huge trip on the local bus.
And of course heaps of modern attractions as well as many lovely shopping places. You could spend a lot of time here. But I didn’t have a lot of time. And as much fun as the public bus system was – – it must be not so much fun if it was your main form of transport. Very slow with the tiny roads winding through villages, and the many stops. But perfect for me.
I went from Cowls, across to Alum Bay and of course road the chairlift and the boat. Then caught a different route back along the Jurassic Coast line. And through more amazing villages.
Then back through more stunning villages and sites.
This bus is a locals bus remember – and they all thought I was very funny squeaking with delight at every second corner. They started to tell me what was coming up. As one person would get off with their shopping, another would take over at giving me my personal guided tour.
Fantastic.
Next tab – Leg 1 Navigator of the Seas. Click below to go there.