All at Sea: DCL UK Staycation 20 August 2021 - Travel Day

[Gill H]

<<Pre-trip


I never sleep well the night before a holiday. My brain is just too busy! So eventually I decamped to the sofa and my good friend Disney+ before eventually managing a few hours’ shuteye. I was up early though, for the oh-so-glamorous task of changing Cookie’s tray and putting the bin out.

Once Peter surfaced, we packed hastily, not forgetting the free goodies our lovely Travel Counsellor Helen had sent us.

And also some extra masks, courtesy of Sew Tiki, aka Robyn, who will feature in this trippie later!

Not forgetting my Sorcerer Mickey dress, made by Queen_Ursula_UK which you will see more of later on too!

I headed to the hairdresser for my 8.30am wash and style. Meanwhile Peter grabbed breakfast in our local café, and met me just as it was starting to rain. We nipped home to pick up the cases and say goodbye to Cookie, who was trying to camouflage herself on the duvet.

We then dropped in on Mum and Dad to say goodbye, and headed off to the station.

[Gill H]

Despite (or perhaps because of) the driving rain, we decided to grab a coffee from our local coffee van Piccolo Blu, and I got a biscoff rocky road brownie as I hadn’t had any breakfast. I didn’t get a chance to eat it though, as we had to negotiate lugging our cases over the bridge while carrying hot coffee, in the pouring rain. Not the easiest manouvre, but we made it and were soon sitting in the shelter enjoying our coffee.

Next to us was a very chatty 14 year old lad wearing a Star Trek t-shirt, who was keen to talk about cruises to us and told us he’d been on 10 of them already. He was very knowledgeable about trains and cruises, and we chatted until the train arrived. If he ever reads this, I hope he doesn’t mind that we nicknamed him Wesley Crusher afterwards… hey, it’s a compliment. Really.

The 45-minute journey to Cardiff was uneventful, and the weather improved so we could see some of the more scenic parts of the route; as we got off the train, ‘Wesley Crusher’ advised us what platform we wanted for Southampton – and was of course correct. However, we decided that first we would go to the ticket office and try to book seats for our Southampton train. We had originally planned to be on a train that evening after Peter finished work, but since he’d been able to get a day off, we were travelling earlier than expected and had an open ticket. The lovely lady in the ticket office wasn’t able to book seats for us but said the train shouldn’t be too busy. Then Peter went into W H Smith to look for some locks for the suitcases, but didn’t find any; so instead we grabbed a cold drink and headed to the platform, where we had our drinks and shared the biscoff rocky road brownie that I still hadn’t eaten.

The train arrived at 11:20 and as predicted, it wasn’t busy. We were soon seated, and it didn’t feel too long at all before we were pulling into Southampton station at 14:05, and then straight out and into a taxi to the Premier Inn West Quay.

Our taxi driver was really friendly, helping us with our cases and asking about our plans. It only took 10 minutes or so before we were at the hotel and checking in. As we always find at Premier Inns, the staff were lovely (we’re not being sponsored, honestly…) and our room was fine.

As we were directly opposite the West Quay shopping centre we decided to head straight out and find ourselves a late lunch. Five Guys was the first place we came to, and we were soon sitting and enjoying our cheese and bacon burgers and sharing a carton of fries. We don’t do Five Guys very often – at those prices we feel we deserve plates and waiter service! But there’s no denying they do make a tasty burger, and on this occasion it hit the spot.

Next we had a wander round the shopping centre. As Peter works for John Lewis, we of course headed in there (all in the name of research – and I have to say the sleek new look the Southampton store is modelling is very attractive!) We bought a US adaptor and some locks for the suitcases (TSA locks of course, as we are hoping to finally get back to the US before too long). Then we headed to M&S for some packets of Percy Pigs for the crew, and then out of the shopping centre to explore the rest of the area nearby.

I got some ginger sweets from a health food shop in case of any seasickness, and Peter bought a travel-size bottle of mouthwash.

At this point we decided that rather than rifling through our cases for our nightwear that evening, we would treat ourselves to new ones. How decadent are we?! We figured that Southampton might well have a branch of Yours Clothing, and sure enough, we found one and I bought a cute blue nightshirt. Then it was back to M&S where Peter found some PJs, and then we strolled back to the hotel for a rest. The weather at this point was really muggy and we were glad of some air con in the hotel so we could chill in both senses of the word.

[Gill H]

Later that evening we walked to the Dancing Man Brewery where we had booked a table for dinner. This proved to be a very popular place with lots of people sitting outside, but fortunately the restaurant upstairs was only just opening and there was plenty of room.

Our server talked us through their beer list and Peter got a Garden Party beer which had hints of pineapple.

I am not a beer fan (sorry!) so had a passionfruit Rekorderlig instead.

To start, Peter ordered the chicken satay, which was beautifully flavoured.

I had the salmon tartare which was delicate and refreshing.

For our main courses we both went for a pie – the restaurant made a big thing of their pies and they didn’t disappoint. Peter’s was the ox cheek and ale pie, rich and hearty. Mine was the chicken, ham and leek pie, real comfort food. They both came with veg and creamy mash, and a jug of delicious gravy.

We were too full for dessert and Peter had started to feel a cold coming on, so we decided to stroll back to the hotel. We did have an idea of trying to see some of the ships and made our way down to one of the entrances.

However, there wasn’t much to see, and we soon headed back, taking in some local views along the way.

Back at the Premier Inn we bought ourselves a coffee in the bar. A party of three were sitting near us, and since the little girl was wearing Mickey ears we guessed they would be going on our cruise tomorrow! They turned out to be a gran, mum and daughter from Cardiff – well, just like the ride says, it’s a small world. After a good chat we went back to our nice comfy room, and settled down for a little channel-hopping. The Proms were on BBC and we caught the end of an opera prom – I can’t say we are big fans of opera but this was very enjoyable. It was followed by a production of An Inspector Calls - a play which I had studied in school and we’d both seen on stage in London several times. It still packed an emotional punch, and was well worth seeing.

By now it was late and we were ready to turn in, so we headed to bed and were soon dreaming of happy days to come on board the Magic.

>>Day 1

INDEX

[disneypars]

A good travel day looking forward to the next episode.