Arcadia - all set for departure.
Alison Lucas - Product Director - P&O Cruises came to wish us 'Bon Voyage' on Arcadia's Inaugural Round World Cruise. Alison knows all about this winter weather as she was stranded in Portugal after New Year! Thankfully Alison got a flight back in time to see us as we will not be back in Southampton until the 15th April 2010.
The last of the baggage loading taking place - the Adjutant Generals Core Band is playing - all teams on board Arcadia Deck, Technical and Hotel are completing final pre departure safety checks, passengers are lining the rails and balconies, there is a BUZZ!
It is a P&O Cruises tradition to have a Band for Southampton Sail aways - what Airport would do this for you?............
Adam, James and Jeanine say thanks to the Conductor!
The colours of the P&O Cruises House Flag adding to the sense of occasion!
Rosemary Mole from Home Port Operations came to say Good Bye! Rosemary has just returned from the Caribbean where she was over seeing a fly cruise turnaround for Artemis.
The baggage hall is clear...............
Thank you to our Southampton Security personnel who keep us safe. Take care until April.
Confirmation that all passengers and crew are on board. Ocean Terminal is 'clear'.
Jeanine and Adam from Port Operations who did such a good job for us, and Elaine who is In Charge of the Check In Desks - you did us proud. Thank you all.
Let's go - I have a ship to board.............................!
On board final departure formalities are complete in the Administration Office.L to R Belinda, Adam, Bob, Sheldon and Jeanine.
Meanwhile on Arcadia's Bridge Simon and Dennis are getting ready for the Commodore to take Control for sailing.
Let go forward, let go aft, ship the brow and secure the door...................Arcadia edges off the berth.
Good Bye to the cold British winter - see you again in Spring - what a lovely thought!
No such thing as a quiet departure for Arcadia - all of Southampton knew we were on our way.
Sail away fireworks light up the sky.
As we sailed down the Solent it was a relief to be on our way. Thankfully our day had been so much smoother than we could have imagined.
My thanks to Adam Sharpe, Port Operations for sending me this picture. Arcadia sails out of Southampton. Isn't it exciting to be part of some one's DREAM HOLIDAY of a LIFETIME!
On Monday morning this was the view from my balcony. I had a feeling it was going to be a good day. And it was! Nothing like a nice sun rise with a cup of coffee to start the day.
Next port Madeira.
Monday was a day of everyone settling in to the ship. On Tuesday we experienced a Force 8 with 45 knot winds! We were pitching, rolling,yawing, heaving, swaying and surging all at the same time! Arcadia is young and she likes to dance! It settled down for the evening for the Commodore's Welcome on Board Gala Reception and Dinner. Today, Wednesday has been smooth and the forecast is good for Madeira tomorrow.I met a couple from Norway last evening who booked the entire Round World Cruise simply because they discovered this blog!
Nigel Travis is an authority on the Panama Canal and will be doing the commentary as we sail though so I have asked him to be a 'guest blogger' on the Panama Canal - to which he has agreed. So lots to look forward to as we sail the globe.
Best wishes meantime and I will post again soon.
James.
'Wish me luck as you wave me Goodbye'
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21 comments:
Looks fantastic! My parents are onboard Arcadia hopefully having that holiday of a lifetime.
My daughters (age 8 and 5) and I are enjoying watching where Grandma and Grandad are and hopefully we may spot some photos of them between here and San Francisco!!
Have a great trip all (especially Mum & Dad!)
Love Tx (and Izzy and Eleanor) x
Oh I have been looking forward to your first report - thank you for getting it written so quickly.
I am glad your sailaway and first couple of days were good - even with a bit of weather. Hopefully from now on things will warm up and you can get into your whites again - it was odd seeing everyone in the photos in winter uniform.
Enjoy Madeira - one of my favourite islands.
Gill
We so wish we were still on there! We disembarked on Sunday, after the Christmas cruise. Looking forward to reading your blog as the cruise progresses, we have only discovered it in the last couple of days.
Could you tell the Senior 1st Officer that HP and PP say hello please!!
Hi James,
I can understand the couple from Norway booking this cruise on the back of your blog! I followed every entry of it last year and enjoy reading every minute of it!
I was so pleased to hear that everyone got onboard ok, the weather here has been really bad, we woke up to snow again today. The roads are lethal.
I would love to hear what people fill their time with on sea days, on a world cruise.
I think you must have to take a different outlook on your time relaxing and I’m sure you must have to spend more time in the gym…..all that food.
Safe sailing
Carol
Hi James,
Greetings to all on Arcadia,lovely sunrise photo's, i think sunrise at sea and sunsets are the best you will get anywhere on earth.
Hi Elaine, sorry for rubbing it in but we are in summer and expecting extremely hot weather on the weekend with the forecast for Sunday being 42c. Hope you are getting better, and that they are now gritting the roads.
You cant beat having a band send you off especially when you embark on a 3 month journey.I miss all that excitement of when i was at sea.Still i can always catch up with life at sea through this fantastic blog.Also we do the odd cruise now and again money permitting.
Take care looking forward to the update from Madeira.
Regards Geoff Witts Perth
I think that I really can't cope with any hotter than we have it here in Qld. 32 degrees in the shade today. Sweat day and night. I look forward to a cool night some day, makes it much easier to sleep.
I hope that Perth has cooled down a bit by the time we visit on Aurora in March, and I do know that when we reach Southampton I will whinge about the cold...Qld winter is perfect, 20 degrees most days.
Hope your cough is not any worse Elaine.
Bet everyone on Arcadia are having a great cruise so far, the latest pics are fantastic and I can't wait to do it all again in 45 sleeps.
Geoff, you rub it in as much as you like! I think your winter temperatures over there in Australia are probably better than our British summer ;-o) What do you do with yourself on a day when the temps get up to 42c?? I assume you have air conditioning? Do you actually have central heating for the cooler winter month evenings? Can't decide if they've gritted the roads here today Geoff or if it's just the passing traffic that's cleared the road. The bin men have come today. Only 4 days late! I'm ashamed to say that a bit of snow seems to bring the UK to a crumbling standstill.
James, the BOB looks eerily calm in the photo's - especially for January, which goes to show you just can never tell what the BOB is going to be like at any time of the year. The photo's are lovely. I especially like the one of the sun presumably coming up - absolutely beautiful. I see from the webcam that it didn't last too long and by the time you got off the coast of Portugal the white horses were back! I actually think that this part of that journey can be the worst (certainly over the past couple of years). It was on our return on the Xmas cruise wasn't it and in fact it was quite a bit more comfortable by the time we got to the BOB.
Still feeling pretty rotten! Been home 4 days now and I just can't get motivated! And the pile of ironing staring at me isn't helping ;-o)
I hope all you bloggers have a good day. I'm hoping to venture out later today - weather permitting!
Elaine (aurorabore)
Thanks for the update James, it's lovely to be able to follow 'our' ship as she makes her way towards us and our cruise in 42 days from Brisbane, can't wait! Whilst we are not quite at 42c at the moment, we were on Monday here in Victoria, and it was a case of 'bunker down and endure'.
No A/C for us here, we live on the coast so get a lovely sea breeze most days - it's not worth the money for the 3-5 days a year we would need to use it - would rather spend it on a cruise!
Will be following your blog with interest James and look forward to seeing you on the 26th Feb!
Regards,
Danielle.
Hi James
Just to wish you all bon voyage and please look after the Arc -we shall be on our first cruise J002 sailing 15th April - talk about hot bedding ! - will you be with us or taking a well earned break.
And thanks so much for the blog, as first time cruisers we are learning so much from you and yuor fellow bloggers, not least about what nice people you all are.
Hi James,
We are following your blog on this cruise with a great deal of interest as we will be joining you in Brisbane for the trip home - our third Arcadia cruise. Last year we were with you from Southampton to Singapore and had a great time.
Thanks for the good work which all of our (very) jealous friends will be following. Until Feb 26th ----->
Jenny & Mike Jones
Hi James, Fireworks and band what a great send off.
Bon Voyage everyone, I will be following you till I set off on Aurora in March. Still lots of snow on the ground here, not much gritting on side roads and no refuse collection for two weeks! No tennis for 3 weeks, getting fatter with no excercise. Hope snow goes soon or I wont fit into clothes before the cruise let alone during and after it!
Hope your cold gets better soon Elaine, I have laryngitis, very tedious.
Regards to all Judith
PS I've just looked at the webcam. Arcadia is in Madeira harbour looking at another ship. The water is so still that the ship's reflection is very clear.
Wonderful. When I was there in December Oriana had to sail away because it was too rough to stay.
Judith
Well, here we go, off again on the world cruise, reading this blog is about as near as most will get to doing one, so reading about it is a good substitute, keep it up!!
Regards John.
Hello James
Love your blog. My parents are on board for the world cruise for my father's 80th birthday. Really good to be able to follow their holiday of a life time. Keep up he great work.
Sandra from Switzerland
Have a fantastic time. We were on board Arcadia in March 2007 - which including a Pamana Transit with Nigel doing the commentary. He really is an authority on it and his commentary really made our transit. Looking forward to following the blog over the duration of the world cruise!
my sister and brother in law Viv and Mick Turner are onboard and missed my birthday yesteray but said they were going to celebrate in Madeira for me. I Hope they had a brill evening, and thanks for the spaghetti swirler!!!!
Hello!!
We are following your blog as our Geography topic! My name is Claire McMurdo Y6 teacher at St. Bega's School in Hartlepool! We've decided to follow your ship as one of our teachers who retired in the Summer is aboard for the whole of the 94 days!! They are Angela and John Cooper!! Hope to see some photos of them on here!! Look forward to reading your blog and keeping on track with your fun trip!! Stay Safe xx
hi james keep the news coming we ca'nt get enough information.We are joining the ship in Auckland and have two cases in lock up can a future review be about a baggage left on board.where it is stored and labled and how it works,it is interesting to us as we have altered staterooms since we left the luggage on board.
thanks for the blog.our friends ,derek and june cooper from wells somerset are on board for the whole journey and its good to get some insight about the cruise as it happens. we will be on ventura at the end of march so not long now. maurice and josie day
really enjoying your blog and looking forward to joining you on san francisco sydney leg in time for mardi gras. thanks for the updates ira and louis
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