Southampton to Rotterdam

Friday May 9

Our stop in Southampton was only for 4 hours and that was mainly to allow about 600 passengers to disembark. However every passenger, whether disembarking or not, had to present themselves to British Immigration officials to have their passports stamped. At least the British were a lot more efficient than their Indian counterparts so we didn't have to wait too long. By then we were ready for a leisurely breakfast.

We decided not to go ashore as there simply wasn't enough time considering the size of the port and where we were docked. There didn't appear to be any wifi cafés in the port area so we couldn't update the blog for you! We set sail again just before 11am just as we were completing our walk around the promenade deck so we stayed and watched as the ropes were winched back on board and the thrusters powered up to push us away from the dock. It's amazing to see how the Captain manoeuvres the ship in such tight ports using only the thrusters until it's facing the right direction and he can start to use the motors.

It's always interesting to see other cruise ships in port and you wonder what they are like. Apart from the 3 Cunard Queens who had travelled with us overnight and were now in Southampton too, there was also the P&O Arcadia. We checked it out as much as possible as we sailed past because it was one of the ships we had considered for our cruise as it left from Sydney in early March and obviously got here at much the same time but we have been very happy on the MS Rotterdam and will definitely sail with Holland America again in the future. There was a lot of shipping around as we sailed into the Solent and past the Isle of Wight before making the turn for Rotterdam, our final destination on this cruise.

With the reduced number of passengers it feels like we have the ship to ourselves as there are no queues for meals, the laundries are empty and we have the choice of any seat in the theatres. However we do have a major chore ahead of us and that's packing our suitcases! Whenever a cruise ends you have to have your cases packed and in the corridor outside your cabin by 9pm, and as we're travelling east we also lose an hour so that really means 8pm. This is the most pressure we've felt in 6 weeks!

Packed and ready for collection!

 

We received the cruise logs for the 2 legs of this cruise, and on the first leg from Singapore to Piraeus we covered about 13,000 km in 25 days while on the second leg from Piraeus to Rotterdam we covered about 6,500 km in 18 days. All in all a most enjoyable cruise.

 

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