After a pretty stressful spring and summer, we are so happy and thankful to be heading for a short visit to Florida aboard Sky Princess, sailing from Southampton. We’ve been on Sky Princess before in 2022, when we did a Caribbean cruise with our friends, Stuart and Fiona. It was a lovely cruise albeit with a few strange things as it was right after the covid restrictions slightly lifted, although we still had to have tests. Anyway, nice to be back aboard.
This is a repositioning cruise. She has spent the summer sailing out of Southampton on various cruises and is now repositioning to Florida for the winter season in the Caribbean. Like all repositioning cruises, the price is really good. We paid £1010 in total for the two of us for 15 nights/16 days. That’s just less than £34 a day each for accommodation, unlimited food, the ports of call and all the entertainment. Plus we get a lot of perks from Princess loyalty ie a one time fully stocked mini bar, free laundry, a nightly happy hour and nibbles buffet, 2 cocktail parties, a free wine tasting event and discounts on wifi and purchases. Oh yes, and Princess also gave us a cabin credit of $150 just for booking. So… when we saw it, we jumped at the chance. When we get into Port Canaveral on November 20th, we transfer to our timeshare in Orlando till the 26th and then we are going to stay with my cousin Frannie and her husband Dave for 3 days and having Thanksgiving with them and other family and friends. We fly home on the 29th, landing on the 30th. It will be just the job after our house move and then Bob’s operation and recuperation which is still ongoing.
We were going to do 2 x one way car rentals to get us from home to Southampton and then Gatwick back to home but then we found that it was cheaper and in some ways better to drive to Gatwick and park and then train to Southampton. The car will then be waiting for us when we land at the end of November. The parking in the Gatwick Long Stay (very convenient) was about £75 and then the train to Southampton with first class tickets was £40 for the two of us. The first class was funny. It turned out to be a small area in a main cabin with its own entry doors. There was one table for 4 each side of the aisle and then 2 single seats behind. The seats looked exactly the same as the standard seats except they had a little white headrest cloth. There weren’t any other perks ie food or drink on offer. Still… it was only £10 more than 2 standard seats so I suppose we can’t complain. Luckily we were the only ones in there on both trains (we had to change at Barnham). Anyway very convenient and comfortable trip from Gatwick to Southampton Central and we would definitely do it again. £115 for the round trip vs about £300 return taxi is a no brainer really and even the car rental was about £250. The only downside was that we are both old crocks and hauling the luggage onto the trains was a bit much but we managed ok.
Got to the ship at about 130 and check in was quick and easy. We were on board in about 20 minutes. We have an inside cabin on deck 10 and it’s fine. Not huge but big enough. We only sleep in it and get changed in it anyway. All our luggage arrived to the door and disappeared into the wardrobes as though it was a tardis.
There was one nice surprise. Our final port before we cross the Atlantic was due to be Tenerife. However on the day we were going in there, the Spanish Trade Unions have called a nationwide strike and therefore the ship decided not to dock. Instead, after Madeira we are beginning the crossing but will call in for a day at Puerto Rico instead of going non stop to Florida. A much better stop than Tenerife. And even better, it’s on my birthday!! The captain sent a letter apologising to everyone but NO NEED AT ALL!!!! We are delighted.
We had a bit of a late lunch up in the buffet (delicious prime rib) and then came back and unpacked, did the lifeboat drill, rested, had a g&t as we sailed away at around 5PM. It’s a strange sailaway because tomorrow we make our first port of call which is……. Portland….. not very far away at all. Nice for all the Americans on board because it’s handy for Stonehenge, Corfe Castle etc. However, we are just going to take the shuttle bus into Weymouth and get a few supplies. So, tonight the ship is going really slowly ie 8 knots around the Isle of Wight…
There are some Xmas decorations up which seems a bit premature and clearly no one on board this American ship has any idea it’s Bonfire Night! Probably just as well, it’s always a bit awks explaining exactly what we’re celebrating….
Tonight we went to dinner at about 8pm. There are lots of restaurants on board including 3 “main restaurants” which all serve the same menu. We went to one of those and it was very quiet. I think a lot of people ate much earlier. It was nice anyway. I had a prawn cocktail, then caesar salad, mains was slow cooked beef short ribs with creamed polenta and broccoli – delicious. And because it was our first night and I’d lugged suitcases, I had a dessert – milk chocolate souffle with almond liquor sauce and then espresso…. Very nice and portions were just right, not too big at all.
After dinner we went to the main theatre to see a magician. He did a very stripped down sleight of hand magic act and he was very good indeed. No idea how he did any of the tricks. At one point he chose a little 4 year old girl to assist him and she went right off the track and he had to improvise like crazy to keep going. I bet he doesn’t do that again. It was very very funny to watch. The cruise director came on and told us the arrangements for tomorrow. The vast majority of passengers are Americans closely followed by big groups of Brits and Canadians. I don’t think the ship is full. We will no doubt get some accurate figures from the Captain at some point.