Live from Splendor, Copenhagen to Southampton

[BuckGood]

6 minutes ago, Gilly said:

We'll see you on board, since we're sailing B2B and will disembark in Reykjavik.

Friends of ours boarded today and told us a “Large” group of “ Camp At Sea” kids from Blackpool will be boarding the ship in Southampton, needless to say we are Not happy! In May when we were on the Splendor on our b2b cruise there were children on board and we’re Horrible, running through Prime 7 at dinner and No One did Anything! 

[RachelG]

Gilly, just catching up to this as work has been very busy.  So happy you are onboard, and I will be following along.  I always enjoy your reports. 

[SandyKnits]

Following along on your thread, as we anticipate our Splendor cruise in October. I’m also enjoying your blog posts with your beautiful photography. Thanks for doing this live thread.

[Gilly]

5 hours ago, BuckGood said:

Friends of ours boarded today and told us a “Large” group of “ Camp At Sea” kids from Blackpool will be boarding the ship in Southampton

I will see what I can find out.

[BuckGood]

21 minutes ago, Gilly said:

I will see what I can find out.

That would be great! 

[bitob]

17 hours ago, BuckGood said:

Friends of ours boarded today and told us a “Large” group of “ Camp At Sea” kids from Blackpool will be boarding the ship in Southampton, needless to say we are Not happy! In May when we were on the Splendor on our b2b cruise there were children on board and we’re Horrible, running through Prime 7 at dinner and No One did Anything! 

Yuck

[Gilly]

But, if this is so (and I have no idea if it is or not) there's nothing we can do about it except hope for the best, is there?  There are children on board - or perhaps more accurately, "youngsters" - with their families who are no bother whatsoever.  I appreciate a group of children might be rather different.  We'll see.

 

We are in Lysekil today and joined a "seal safari" tour this morning.  The weather was clear and dry, a bit "brisk" at times but the sun put in an appearance now and again.  We sat on the top, open deck of the boat and enjoyed the scenery and yes, spotted one or two seals, appreciating the fresh, clean Scandinavian air.  I think that those around us would agree that it was an enjoyable trip and had been fairly described in the tour information.  But to illustrate the varied responses to these things, as we waited for the shuttle bus back to the ship, we overheard someone from that same tour tell a passing friend that it had been dreadful.  "Don't do it" they said!! 

We'd recommend it wholeheartedly, depending on the weather of course.  

 

[GeorgiaPeach51]

Looking forward to reading about your trip!  There haven’t been too many comprehensive cruise blogs lately, so now we have something to read with our morning coffee.  🥰

[swansong]

15 hours ago, Gilly said:

I will see what I can find out.

I looked up Camp at Sea and it is listed as a programme on Celebrity Cruises which is specially tailored for kids. Hopefully Regent hasn’t taken it on board. ( no pun intended!)

[BuckGood]

2 hours ago, Gilly said:

But, if this is so (and I have no idea if it is or not) there's nothing we can do about it except hope for the best, is there?  There are children on board - or perhaps more accurately, "youngsters" - with their families who are no bother whatsoever.  I appreciate a group of children might be rather different.  We'll see.

 

We are in Lysekil today and joined a "seal safari" tour this morning.  The weather was clear and dry, a bit "brisk" at times but the sun put in an appearance now and again.  We sat on the top, open deck of the boat and enjoyed the scenery and yes, spotted one or two seals, appreciating the fresh, clean Scandinavian air.  I think that those around us would agree that it was an enjoyable trip and had been fairly described in the tour information.  But to illustrate the varied responses to these things, as we waited for the shuttle bus back to the ship, we overheard someone from that same tour tell a passing friend that it had been dreadful.  "Don't do it" they said!! 

We'd recommend it wholeheartedly, depending on the weather of course.  

 

Your right! 

[rcandkc]

When I looked it up several cruise lines came up…Celebrity, RCL, and Carnival. 

[GillyCG]

Amazing how 2 people can have such a different embarkation experience. We were through in about 10 minutes. No queue at all. In Oslo today. Lovely city 

[Gilly]

1 hour ago, GillyCG said:

Amazing how 2 people can have such a different embarkation experience. We were through in about 10 minutes. No queue at all. In Oslo today. Lovely city 

Five minutes makes all the difference. We barely stopped walking between the transfer bus and the lower end of the gangplank, only needing to stop for a few minutes to allow crew members to fit the wheelchair ramp, make use of it and then fold it away again securely . I've not seen them do that before and it was quite interesting and rather impressive.

Lovely to have sunshine in Oslo, isn't it?

[Gilly]

We had a fab first day in Oslo yesterday, even though our first choice tour (Beyond the Blueprint) was cancelled.  We were rescheduled for the afternoon one to the Maritime Museums, which didn't fill us with enthusiasm but which turned out to be terrific.  A great guide makes all the difference and she was first class.  Not only that, but we got back in time for Trivia, found our team and somehow came in first too 😉

We decided to give Sette Mari a try last night, even though it's not our favourite. We hear so many good things and thought that perhaps we need to see what we're missing.  Hmmm.  Several large tables of friends/family made it incredibly noisy and we were glad to find somewhere a little quieter for a drink when we'd finished dinner.  

The ABBA show in the Atrium was fun though and the cast put on a great performance!

[rcandkc]

Did the possibly large group of kids board?  (Post #26)

[Gilly]

1 hour ago, rcandkc said:

Did the possibly large group of kids board?  (Post #26)

Not so far...

[BuckGood]

On 7/29/2023 at 3:23 PM, Gilly said:

Not so far...

I was told they were going to board in Southampton!

[Gilly]

Currently sailing in the North Sea, in calm waters and fine weather.  We enjoyed breakfast outside la Veranda this morning and lunch in Chartreuse just now.  A spot or two (understatement) of rain yesterday didn't spoil our day and we look forward to a wee dram or two in Scotland tomorrow.  Life is good on board Splendor!

[Mudhen]

Hi Gilly,

Thank you for posting! Always fun to read your comments!

We'll be on the   Splendor in Sept for a 'round GB number so we're following with great interest!

Have fun and carry on!

L&J

[seasickphil]

I couldn’t agree more with what Gilly has said. The weather forecast before we came did not augur well but in actual fact has been very pleasant, Oslo especially.

I don’t think that I have been on any cruise that has so many young people on, it make’s one feel positively old,🙂🙂 though it does make for a very nice ambience on board, although not so sure about their singing on karaoke night.😂😂 It also caused the staff one or two tiny issue’s in Prime 7 last night, when 19 of them were helping to celebrate a young lady’s birthday.

[Cruisefriends158]

Hi Gilly,

Is it possible that you post a list of the included wines on the splendor from the Head Sommelier 

Thanks

[Gilly]

@seasickphil interesting to read about P7 last night - I guess it made for a lively evening?  We enjoyed a splendid time in Pacific Rim, which rounded off the (busy!) sea day nicely.  @Cruisefriends158 whenever we've seen the head sommelier in CR so far, he has been chasing his tail and incredibly busy, so I hesitate to ask him for something else - maybe someone else here might catch him at a quieter time for you.  But if I get the chance, I'll see what I can do, of course.

 

We are in Invergordon today and on an afternoon tour so thought we might sneak a bit of extra sleep this morning.  Sadly, the UK Border Force had different ideas and invited us to show our faces at their immigration inspection starting at 7.45am.  Even though we weren't part of the first group, we felt we needed to be ready, just in case, so no lie in for us!!

[cruiseatc]

On 7/26/2023 at 4:39 PM, Gilly said:

We'll see you on board, since we're sailing B2B and will disembark in Reykjavik.

How lucky to be able to do B2B. We are also joining at Southampton. There is a roll call thread and we are hoping to meet people at 6pm on the first night in the observation lounge. It would be lovely if you could drop by...🙂

[cruiseatc]

On 7/26/2023 at 4:18 PM, BuckGood said:

We will be boarding the Splendor in Southampton for the 4th time in less than a year! 

A Splendor expert! We will be boarding at Southampton too. Our first time on Splendor, we were on voyager pre-covid. The roll call thread is suggesting a meet up at 6pm on the first evening, might see you there.

[pappy1022]

49 minutes ago, Gilly said:

 Sadly, the UK Border Force had different ideas and invited us to show our faces at their immigration inspection starting at 7.45am.  Even though we weren't part of the first group, we felt we needed to be ready, just in case, so no lie in for us!!

We will be traveling to the British Isles in September and Invergordon is one of our stops. Is it common for the UK Border Force to conduct immigration inspections at different ports or was this a random inspection?