Royal Princess arriving at Southampton today

[tom_uk]

I went down to Southampton to see Royal Princess arrive. Unfortunately the weather was horrible - rain, thunder & lightning - so they conditions weren't conducive to photography. Nonetheless, here are three pictures I took. The first two are from a place called Stokes Bay about 18 miles out of Southampton. It overlooks the eastern Solent, which is the channel of water that separates the English mainland from the Isle of Wight. Basically, once a ship enters the Solent it is in enclosed waters.

 

The first image is taken south-easterly, and show Royal Princess pretty mucch when she first appeared. She must have been more than five miles away at that point; the picture was taken with pretty long lens.

 

The second image was taken when she was directly opposite me, perhaps two mile away across the Solent. Again, a long lens shot.

 

The third picture was taken an hour more later, in Southampton. Shortly after this her stern was pulled round to starboard - towards the left hand side of the picture - and then she was gently tugged into the Ocean Terminal, stern-first. Being tugged in is quite unusual - most of the ships that berth there use their main propulsion + thrusters to position themselves, but then again most of the other ships are quite a bit smaller. The Ocean Terminal is reserved for Carnival Corp ships, so it's P&O, Cunard or Princess ships that use it. But Ventura, for example, or Azura - both very similar to Crown Princess - nip in and out of the berth on their own with alacrity. The only ship that uses that berth that's about the same size as Royal Princess is QM2, and to be honest I don't know if she has to have assistance or not.

 

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pictures. As I say, the conditions were dreadful: Southampton once again welcomes a new ship, or a cruise ship celebration, with bad weather!

 

 

 

[dchip]

Tom, thanks so much for posting the photos of the Royal Princess arriving in Southampton. How exciting to be there and watch her come into port!!

 

Cheers, Denise

[FlynnRider78]

Fantastic pics, thanks for sharing them, must have been great to see her arrive for the first time in Southampton

[gcvt]

Thanks for the pics - love it!!

[Mom33]

She looks great. :D Thanks for the fine pictures.

[iriemon]

Thanks for the pics and keeping the excitement going! Can't wait to get on her. Did anyone else notice that there does not seem to be a lot of life boats? I know they are also on the other side but just seemed like there were only a few. Maybe they are bigger than normal.

[TorontoTL]

Thanks for braving the dire weather conditions to take photos of the Royal Princess and sharing them with us.:D

[Northender]

Thank you for those pictures. Good job.:)

[littlesteelo]

QM2 doesn't need tugs to get into the Ocean dock, so I don't know why Royal was using tugs. Besides, Royal isn't that much longer than the Grand class ships, so the size won't have been a huge factor. Was it perhaps windy? That may have been the reason.

[Sea Day Cruiser]

Thanks so much for going out in the weather and taking the pictures and posting them for us. The ship looks great even on a really cloudy, dark day.

[Happy2cruise]

Another thanks for posting the pictures. Great job:cool:

[macmax]

QM2 doesn't need tugs to get into the Ocean dock, so I don't know why Royal was using tugs. Besides, Royal isn't that much longer than the Grand class ships, so the size won't have been a huge factor. Was it perhaps windy? That may have been the reason.

 

I may be wrong:eek:, but I'm sure that QM2 uses Mermaid/Azipod propulsion while Princess has stuck with the old style/traditional propulsion system with Royal. That may explain it.

Regardless, IMO she is a very attractive ship especially when you consider how butt ugly some of the of other lines new ships look.

[Keith1010]

Thank you for the photos.

 

Keith

[Fletch1]

Great photos....thanks for posting and braving the weather.

[rkacruiser]

Thanks for the photos. Lovely looking ship. But, for one so large, the funnel looks a bit small, I think.

[Tak8]

Even with bad weather, great pictures. Exciting to see the ship at sea.

[BLS]

Thank you for posting the photo's! We board her in 123 days in Venice for her first transatlantic sailing.

So very excited.

 

Aloha,

Bev

[London-Calling]

Nice images Tom. A bit of a grey day for it.

 

Here are a few from ABP Southampton Port:

 

http://youtu.be/ttDW68eTRd0

[mek]

Thanks for the pictures - she looks spectacular!

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

Thanks for the photos of the New Royal Princess. What a giant of a ship!

Makes me weep as I remember being on the last sailing of the 1st (I think) Royal Princess in May 2005. So much smaller and so much lovelier. Just me I am sure.

[Psychedout]

thanks for the pictures!!:)

 

Hugh

[dmwnc1959]

Hi Tom!

 

How cool it must have been to watch her sail by at speed. :D

 

THANK YOU for the cool pictures!!! Like the one of her broadside with all of the balcony doors reflecting the light.

[tom_uk]

I have been given permission by a fellow photographer, Andrew Sassoli-Walker, to post some of his images from Friday in my blog - you can find the page with them here.

 

But here's a taster of one of Andrew's images. Taken from a small boat, in which I gather he got soaked!

 

[kikki21]

Thanks for the pics, they look great, despite the weather! :)

[Who Knew]

I have been given permission by a fellow photographer, Andrew Sassoli-Walker, to post some of his images from Friday in my blog - you can find the page with them here.

 

But here's a taster of one of Andrew's images. Taken from a small boat, in which I gather he got soaked!

 

 

For some reason I LOVE this picture!!! :D