wowzz

Thanks for the information. Given that Sky is a relatively new ship, I'm surprised that the technology was not incorporated at the time of construction, rather than being retro fitted after only 5 years.

The problem is that a 16:30 flight does not give you much time to visit anywhere. You would have to be at LHR about 14:00. Leaving the ship at, say 8:30, would get you to LHR about 10:30, so basically you only have four hours "spare: You could use a private car service (see ports of call forum for recommendations) and spend a few hours in, say, Windsor for a stroll round and a pub lunch, before heading to the airport.

No, because lots of other diners said they were happy to share, but were all directed to tables for two. So, nincompoopery. Why ask people if they want to share, and then ignore their wishes ?

So, first formal night. No shorts in sight, no baseball caps either, but lots of elegant dresses, majority of men in tuxedos, the rest in suits. Admittedly, I didn't go and see what people were wearing in the buffet, but, for this European cruise, formal cruising is alive and well. The piazza was buzzing, and full of people in formal clothes. Especially nice to see the children dressed up as well. As to the dining set up. We had a 20:00 reservation in Soleil. Joined a short queue. Although our reservation was for a table for two, we thought we would be helpful and said we would share. So, shown to an empty table for eight. And we sat and sat and sat, whilst people behind us in the queue were shown to tables for two. Eventually the waiter took pity on us, and on his own initiative moved us to a two top. Just sheer nincompoopery. What is the point of having a table for eight left empty ? Staff were great, (I always like it when the waiter asks if I want a large glass of wine !) food was pretty good, but the seating arrangements were rubbish. It will be interesting to see what happens on quieter, non formal nights. Thanks for all the comments so far. Tomorrow, Vigo, and a stroll through the old town.

Not sure if it is different in the US, but boarding Sky in Southampton yesterday, no one could care less about your boarding time, or the colour of your boarding pass or your QR code. The check in agent said the QR code was scanned if someone showed it to them , but they only did it our of politeness, and it made the process more lengthy !

I think you got there so early that the queues had not started. If everyone got there as early as you, you would have experienced the same queues as I saw. The earliest official boarding time was 11am, and the CPS queues were massive by then.

To be fair, this was only our experience in four venues yesterday, so may not be ship wide.

In all honesty, having a table for two is of little real protection in the scale of things when on a cruise.

The only pads the waiters had were paper pads which they used to write your room number and order details.

That is of course the case. But, in the past, when we ordered a more expensive drink, by design, by scanning the Medallion at the time of ordering, the server could make sure that we knew that a charge would be incurred.

Rock Opera is on tonight at 20:00 and 22:15. Kettles are in the cabins.

Just an observation. Ordered about six rounds of drinks today for Mrs W and I. No problem. But interestingly enough, all the bar staff just asked for our cabin number. Absolutely no one scanned my Medallion.

Sorry, we are not coffee aficionados, so can't help you there. Our Americanos from the IC seemed ok to us.

Ships are to be dry docked even if they are not in service, for maritime insurance. Apologies if that is not the correct term.

Not sure if it is that soon. Iirc it is the first dry dock for Sky since being introduced into service, so probably on schedule.

Yes, and in theory we can make a booking for our July cruise. However the staff member was adamant that BsM was going.

Just set sail from the Mayflower terminal. Love Boat theme played, causing all the burglar alarms on every Tesla in the adjoing Tesla compound to go off. Reminded me of the days when Concorde took off !

No worries. If anyone wants to post menus etc, feel free. I will just post any snippets that might be of interest.

English schools broke up yesterday for two weeks.

I know this isn't the correct thread, but out of interest, the queue for CPS parking at Mayflower today, was horrendous. I used Parking4cruises, and was in and out in five minutes, but the queue for CPS was at least 60 cars long. Admittedly this was right when boarding started, so I suppose the lesson is not to turn up early with CPS.

I have no wish to do a live blog, but thought I would just post random thoughts on our 14 night cruise, as they occur to me. Apologies in advance to non-Brit readers for any parochial content. The cruise is the first European cruise for Sky in 2023, and comes after an early arrival into Southampton - already well documented ! After this cruise there will be a short 4 day "booze cruise ", and then Sky goes into dry dock. A staff member confirmed today that Bistro de Mar will be removed during the dry dock. We drove to Southampton yesterday. Stayed in the Premier Inn City Centre ( not West Quay). Booking ahead, the room cost £62. The weather was miserable, so we bought the meal deal for £25 each, as we did not fancy the (admittedly)short walk into town in the rain . The food was actually pretty good. Unfortunately we got one of the dreaded rooms overlooking the railway line, so a bit noisy. Car parking at the hotel cost £10, so overall £122 for the stay. In July we will drive down the same day. We arrived at the Mayflower terminal at 11am. Dropped off our bags, and my wife. A porter took our cases - I don't carry cash, but gave him £1 or so in loose change from the stash I have in the car for car parks. Seemed happy enough. Then I drove a short distance to the short stay carpark - handed the car over to Parking4cruises. £135 for 14 days. 5% discount for previous customers. Worth pointing out that there were enormous queues for CPS at this stage. Three lines of cars, with 20 cars in each line. Met up with my wife and went straight through to check in. No one asked us what our check in time was, although we did have an 11am slot. The agent checked our passports onto her iPad, and then collected and gave us our Medallions. I took the opportunity to ask her about the QR codes that everyone worries about. Her response was that if someone shows her the code, she will scan it, out of politeness, but otherwise the QR code is not needed. Total time - Five minutes. Security was efficient and extremely friendly. We were actually on board the ship by 11:30 ! Cabins not ready so found a seat in the Photo Centre. The central piazza was pretty packed. No announcements were made as to when the cabins were ready, but around 12:45 people just seemed to disappear, so we upped sticks and went to our cabin (standard minisuute). Then to Alfredos where we shared a pizza, and had a couple of celebratory glasses of wine. Final observations for now: 3960 pax on board, so pretty much full, with quite a lot of children Staff are all happy and enthusiastic, as always.

Thank you, and everybody else as well.

Premium or Plus ? We just go for the Plus, and pay extra if we fancy something posh! I'll let you know what we find. As an aside, we arrived at Southampton just after 15:00. Pleasant enough drive, despite the intermittent rain. The worst part was the last 1O miles on the M27 coming into the city

But that was a P&O problem, not an act of God. Totally different scenario.

On that I am totally in agreement. Very poor show.