N and N's New Adventure: Day 11: Landing in Southampton

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Tuesday morning came early...5:00 AM. We wanted to see all the celebration stuff in the Southampton Harbor. The celebrations was in honor of Queen Elizabeth's Diamond (60 years) on the throne. The three Cunard ships....Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria, and Queen Elizabeth 2....all arrived at the Southampton piers at the same time. The festivities actually began during the night as the ships began following each other up the Southampton Channel. Queen Mary was in the lead. The other two ships then reached their berths. One of them turned around so that the Victoria and Elizabeth were nose to nose. Queen Mary then came along side of the other two. The ships all met nose to nose. I know there is a special term...I think it is bow. Most of the passengers were up and on deck. There were helicopters, and ships in the harbor so that we had our own flotilla. The ships had great fun blowing their horns. I am sure that no one in Southampton was asleep after 6:15 AM.

After most of the celebration was over, we joined the mob inside for breakfast at King's Court buffet. It was mobbed essentially because everyone had the same idea at the same time. Additionally, passengers had to be out of the staterooms by 8:30 AM. Since we had early disembarkation we went to the Royal Court Theater to wait to get off.

Getting off proved to be a bit contentious. People didn't want to listen to directions and get off at their assigned times. Then one group of crew were announcing one set of passengers to get off the ship, and another part of the crew was trying to disembark a different group. Because of the celebration we were late disembarking by an hour and a half. A lot of people had connections that needed to be made.

We got off in good time. The cabs we had arranged were waiting for us. The booking agent for the cab company decided that we could do with only one cab. It worked. We went to the Southampton Train Station where three of us got our senior passes. Once those were paid for and our tickets retrieved, Nancy went to talk to one of the station workers about changing trains in Reading. He said the Reading Station was under construction and was a mess. He looked out our mountain of luggage and the number of people and told me to get them on the train to London Waterloo which was coming in within the next three minutes. He told me not to bother with the tube....just get a taxi.

We made the train to London Waterloo and for the next 45 minutes, we rode in peace. We actually got to London before our original train was scheduled to leave Southampton. We got two taxis to take us from Waterloo to Euston. At Euston we found the elevator to take us from the underground taxi stand to the main level. With some help from one of station guides we found a lounge where we could wait. We all paid the 30 pence to use the restroom, aka toilets. About an hour before our scheduled departure time Nancy discovered the first class lounge. Unfortunately, it was on the second floor and the elevator access was not working. We stayed in the general lounge. About 15 minutes before our train was scheduled to leave, we went out to the big board to check for our platform. It was soon announced, and we headed to our train. We have first class tickets on a quiet coach.

Our train got into Glasgow Central about 8:00. Actually British trains are almost always on time. They apologize if their trains are two minutes late. Pete met our train and helped us with the luggage. We got to two taxis...one for Jan and Bonnie to take them to their hotel, The Heritage House B and B. Our taxi took us to Pete and Jess's flat.

After saying our hellos, unpacking some clothes, we all went to bed. Joey gets up early.

Steps: 7,626

Ship's log:

Queen Mary 2 docked at 7:30 AM

Photos: