Sailing into Saturday

You know the routine, you’re knackered, you’ve got a big piece of work that is finally hopefully going to be over by Friday and your wonderful parents have taken pity on your crazy, disorganised life and agreed to take the kids for the weekend. Relief. So, what will you do with that precious slice of free time? You could tidy the house, nahh that can wait. You could ask me to find you a nearby hotel or last-minute city break. Or you could try something different. And this is how I discovered the mini cruise. What is a mini cruise I hear you say? And honestly, until very recently, I didn’t get the concept. But not only is it a thing, it turns out to be a very good thing - practical, trouble free and incredible value versus that last-minute airfare. And so it came to pass that we found ourselves crammed into a rush hour train carriage one Friday morning, all bound for Southampton. A few myths to debunk before I go further; the idea of cruising as some sort of club for the over tanned, over privileged, and over aged really seems to have disappeared in the last few years and I’ve been shocked by the sheer range of things that fly under the cruise banner. You want to cruise with the Royal Ballet? Or with Belle and Sebastián? You want waterslides or a go kart track? It’s pretty much all there to be found. The first thing of note is how different a cruise departure is from an airport - no queues, no fuss, and everyone there to help; we were literally on board the towering Queen Mary 2 within 30 minutes; our bags arriving at our door only minutes behind us. Time to explore; so, the great thing about our trip was that nearly all food was included; and there was food everywhere; all the time! While the vast, almost 24hr rolling buffet perhaps lacked the charm of the Art Deco inspired ship overall, it was balanced by numerous little bars and restaurants offering afternoon teas, cocktails, pub food, oriental dining. Why fly to Europe when you can eat your way there, says I? We set sail late Friday afternoon, sun improbably streaming onto the pool deck; in scenes that weren’t a million miles from some sort of Miami Beach party (or the nearest you’ll ever find in Hampshire), cocktails flowing, hot tubs and swimming pool in action. We were officially cruising! As our steel palace weaved through the Solent we headed indoors and started to plan. A plan seems to be important; if you think a 24hr at sea sailing could be boring you’d be wrong; there were a wealth of activities, entertainment (shock, not all of it naff!) and things to see all laid out within the ship’s daily newspaper. The rest of our day included blagging free Prosecco from the art gallery whilst pretending we know something about art; witnessing an initially awful, but ultimately hilarious Armenian comedian/pianist and ending up on our seventh/eleventh(?) cocktail at 1am in the ship’s nightclub (a nightclub?!) Saturday saw us charging through the shipping lanes of the North Sea, somewhat hung over, still eating, and appreciating the ample sun loungers and fresh sea air. One thing that surprised was how friendly and unpretentious it all was, a cocktail making class was filled with down to earth people no different to ourselves and the Saturday evening big event; the Gala Dinner proved surprisingly normal; everyone we met friendly and unassuming. What’s more, and perhaps what I least expected was how uncrowded and relaxed our full sailing was; no bar, or room, or restaurant was ever full, there was never a sense that we were part of a crowd or couldn’t find space to ourselves to relax and explore (The Commodore Club my favourite); and there was always a member of Cunard staff on hand to help. Before we realised it, the sun was setting, and Cunard silently transported us through the night into Hamburg port, the long weekend had been amazing, and was only just beginning.

For more information on mini-cruises or to make a reservation, get in touch and I can give you the low down!