Today we bid farewell to London, and its extraordinarily nice weather during this week of gastronomic exploration.
We had a painless transfer by private car to Southampton, a 90 minute drive south. The boarding procedures in the new terminal were quite efficient, and soon we were settled into two cabins. Unfortunately, the two cabins are about a quarter of a mile apart (and that isn’t really hyperbole). Because Dani isn’t twenty-one, Linda and she are technically sharing an outside cabin and I have a mini suite. I have to say that there isn’t a tremendous difference between them, space-wise or in their outfitting.
Since we’re old hands at this cruise thing, the first thing we did was get on the phone and reserve tables at the various specialty restaurants for about half the nights of the cruise. (As it turned out this was unnecessary, as on this cruise the specialty restaurants were not well attended.)
There’s a new event, a chef’s table that sounds interesting.
After the traditional lifeboat drill (which is indoors in the lounges these days) we set sail for the southwestern tip of the UK.
For dinner American Express comped us into Sabatini’s, the Italian specialty restaurant on all Princess ships, and we had a nice meal (and a lovely bottle of Ornellaia) with a sweet server named Yana.
