SCandinavian Cruises - 2026
Friday 8 May'26 - London/Southampton/Embarkation [the 9th is further down this page]
Finally, a reasonable wake up time (0600). Hopefully the body clock is starting to settle down. A nice little breakfast back at Gail's before packing the bags for the next stage of the journey.
Picked up at 1030 for the just over 2 hour transfer to Southampton Cruise Terminal's , in this case Horizon, and then boarding the Celebrity Apex. Uncannily, as we were making our way to our room (6127) after attending the obligatory Muster Station drill, we bumped into the 2 lovely young ladies befriended on the 2024 Xmas river cruise, or as I call them, the USA kids... The ship left right on time, 1600 and a few minutes later we were heading out through the major tidal estuary where the River Test and the River Itchen meet.
A nice ship and the room is very spacious with heaps of storage space so after unpacking in full and stowing the bags under the bed. The large window you can see on the verandah, is actually in 2 parts. The top half can be lowered to any position, providing a balcony effect if desired. After unpacking, we headed to the Rooftop Garden Bar for a reccy and drink, catching up with Sarah & Rickell, where they presented me with a nice little Santa gift from Boston. They had kindly made a reservation for dinner in one of the 4 "free" restaurants for dinner, the Tuscan. The food, drink and more importantly, company was fantastic I made my own presentation to them of a Raiders cap and bucket hat, as well as the prestigious Order of the Golden Kangaroo ( a little trinket I keep to present to VIP's)... After dinner, a cleansing ale in the Martini Bar before sleep.
Saturday 9 May'26 - Sea Day
Overnight, "the ship time" changed to the Norwegian time zone, meaning we are now only 8 hours behind AEST. A much more relaxed awakening and then breakfast in the main eating space, the buffet or Oceanview Cafe (better know to me as the Pig's Trough). The rest of the day was spent at a Trivia morning, then a talk on Norway (which was very informative). After that, we had lunch back at the Oceanview Cafe with the lovely Rickell & Sarah (see, they are real people). To fill in the afternoon, we played Bingo before relaxing back in our room. Throughout my life, I had always thought the North Sea was this turbulent stretch of water but we have been sailing all day on something resembling a mill pond.
Dinner was again at the Oceanview which is ok, given the diverse range available. The reason was due to the fact that we wanted to go to the premiere of the new show on the ship, Crystallize, which was created especially for the spring/summer cruising season. A spectacular light, sound and acrobatic show! After that, a couple of cheeky Pinot Grigio's before bed.