shopaholic6

I'm on the 22nd April sailing from Southampton, which has been moved to 23rd April due to the previous cruise from Dubai to Southampton being cancelled (Red Sea issues) but haven’t heard of any others being cancelled.

Gratuities of the Seas 🤣🤣🤣

I bought a top from an online shop (in the UK) and at checkout it asked if I wanted to leave a tip 🤣🤣🤣🤣

That’s great thank you 😊

Oh thank you - that’s interesting to know!!! 😎😎

Hi everyone, Next year I will be on my first MSC cruise on the Virtuosa, having done a few Royal Caribbean, P&O and one Costa cruise in the past. Can someone let me know if you are allowed to pick morning or evening cabin service (assuming it has gone down to once a day) or do you just get it when they get round to it each day and don’t get a choice? thanks 😎

If you can remember the ship and dates you can look on Shipmate - go to ‘Explore’, then ‘Ships’ and pick your cruise line, ship, then click ‘Itineraries’ and sailing date, it will tell you the itinerary. 😎 not sure how far it goes back though

The Pilgrim Inn in Marchwood, just across Southampton Water, is lovely, and only a short drive in the morning to the port ☺️

I agree! I did Anthem out of Southampton in 2015 which I loved, but when I looked at it again for this year it still has ALL the same entertainment! 8 years later! Not for me! 🤣

Apparently there were ‘limited’ toilet facilities in the Abbey, but they were closed from 10.30 until 1pm. ☺️

Amazing pictures!! 👏👏👏👏

Lol that’s Roly 😺😺 loving your review - you have such a brilliant style of writing 😁😁

Sorry, TOM not Tim! 🤣

A Fatal Crossing by Tim Hindle is a good one! It’s set on a cruise ship in the 1920s and has a lot of characters to keep track of, but if you like a mystery, it’s a cracker!

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yep and you do you 🤣 enjoy your hurricanes and pastel coloured buildings 🤣. Again.

What - on account of only one ship sailing from the place you want to sail from? That’s your decision. I like to visit interesting places, the Caribbean is not one.

Like I said, I’ve sailed on the Anthem and cruises round the Caribbean don’t interest me in the slightest. Plus I don’t like flying. So yes, I would look for another cruise line because I don’t want to keep sailing on the Anthem. Not sure why that would seem strange to you? MSC have some cruises from Southampton next year on two different ships, so yes I would probably try that. Believe it or not, there are other cruise lines! 🤣

Obviously I don’t.

No but that’s the impression I (and others) got. Clearly I was wrong. Still disappointing. Not much point bringing it here for trade sailings if it’s not going to actually sail here 🤷🏼‍♀️

Yes I mean, why WOULD people expect it to come to the UK? You know, after MB said it would? 🙄🙄 and I don’t think anyone is ‘whining’ - it would just be nice to have a different ship from the UK for a change, rather than 75% of itineraries being ‘western or eastern Caribbean’.

Unfortunately I think after that statement from Michael Bayley, rightly or wrongly a lot of people assumed the Icon would be sailing from Southampton and therefore planned to sail on her for their holiday in 2023. I certainly did. Unfortunately as Royal have only given us the Anthem, and I’ve already sailed on her, I’m going to have to look for a new cruise line I think 😢

The Southampton Harbour Hotel & Spa in Ocean Village is lovely - it’s close enough to walk into the centre of Southampton but just a little bit away from all the traffic of a city centre. There are some lovely places to eat in Ocean Village too.

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Yes I stayed at the Harbour Hotel in January before my last cruise - it is absolutely gorgeous and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it. We didn’t eat or drink there so I can’t comment on the food or drink but the rooms are lovely and the whole area it is situated in is really nice.