Cruising 2010

With Callum starting school in September, we were making the most of one final cruise outside of the school holidays.  We were going back on Aurora – the ship we had our first cruise on three years ago, and got us hooked!  We were departing from Southampton so an easy drive down the A34, M3 and M27 and we were making our way to Ocean Terminal.  A bit more of a trek than Mayflower, but you couldn’t fault the organisation once we were there.  A porter took our cases away and we would see them (hopefully!) in our cabin in a few hours time.

We were onboard for 2pm so headed straight to our cabin to drop our hand luggage off and meet Noel, our cabin steward who would be looking after us for the next two weeks.  After that, next port of call was lunch in The Orangery (self service buffet restaurant).  Very quiet and no problems finding a seat as everyone was heading off to find their cabins.

Before sailing, we all had to attend the muster briefing … checking to make sure everyone understood what to do and where to go to should an emergency arise … and to make sure everyone could put their life jackets on. 

From here it was up onto the sun deck for sailaway.  It was a gorgeous sunny afternoon so armed with a glass of champagne (and Callum primed with a glass of Apple Juice!) and we watched Southampton disappear into the distance and the Isle of Wight become ever closer.  Our next port of call was the kids club briefing to find out what activities they had in store for all the kids and then we moved onto The Orangery to see what delights they had in store for the kids tea.

Callum couldn’t wait to go and play in Toybox for the evening so we dropped him off and headed back to the cabin to unpack.  Loads of storage space in the cabin (just as well, given the amount of stuff we brought with us!).  We were on second sitting so we had a little breathing space and enough time to get changed and head down to the Alexandria Restaurant.  An early night was in order on the first night – Callum was still wide awake in Toy Box but pretty settled watching Toy Story 2.  Once back in our cabin, he was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow … and we weren’t too far behind him!