I left my home in the
south of England just a few days after celebrating Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth
II's Platinum Jubilee with family and friends.
It had been a wonderful four days of Bank Holiday celebrations on the
2nd to 5th June 2022 and many of us felt so thrilled to watch the national
events on television and enjoy celebrations locally.
At my home I had prepared
a display of souvenir items I owned, collected over the years since the Queen's
accession to the throne in 1952. I was a
child at the village school then but on half term holiday, and on that 6th
February day I remember my mother coming home from the village shop. As she opened the door I greeted her with the
words I'd just heard on the wireless (!) that "the King had
died". She was shocked of course
and after that life changed for everyone for ever.
Thursday 9th June 2022
Now on 9th June, here I was with a pull-along suitcase for a
ten day cruise on the good ship CARNIVAL PRIDE, sailing from Dover in Kent to several ports in Norway and back
again. A train through the south of
England to Ashford International Station meant I had just under 10 minutes
there to get off the train, take a platform lift down to a subway, run along
that (fast) with my suitcase, and take another lift up to a platform to get the
train to Dover. I did it!
At Dover Priory station I
went to the Ladies facilities and was surprised to be in the way of a young man
leaving those facilities at speed, who did apologise as he rushed past. OK, welcome to Dover I thought.
A local taxi took me to my
overnight seafront hotel, where I checked in and left my case, before taking a
bracing walk along the seafront of a curved bay. The town was accessible by walking through a
tunnel under a busy dual-carriageway road and arriving in the midst of noisy road
works. I was soon on my way back,
looking at the many naval memorial stones as I walked, and thinking of those
brave war-time men and women who had given their lives for us.
I could see several
P&O or DFDS ferries arriving and departing from the port of Dover, heading
over to France. Tomorrow I will be meeting up with my travelling
companions and we too will be sailing out of the port, but on a cruise ship and
heading for Norway - lucky us. We all met as members of the Ocean Liner
Society and became friends; the monthly
meetings are currently held via Zoom, thanks to the OLS Committee, and are
really well-attended.
Friday 10th June 2022
One of my travelling
companions arrived to join me for hotel breakfast so that was a good start to
the holiday here in Dover. Carnival had requested
that we all be Covid-tested ready to sail with them, and proof of a non-NHS
negative test e-mailed to them within the last couple of days, so I was happy
to get a taxi to the cruise terminal to board CARNIVAL PRIDE.
At the quayside my
suitcase was taken away to be delivered to my cabin, and we were free to check
in and join the queues to board the ship.
Union Jack flags were flying outside, and the sun was shining so all
went well and we were soon on board. I
was first asked to go to an officer who was handling the Boat Drill and gave my
name which was ticked off on a list.
Several of us were then shown how to put a Life Jacket on properly and
that seemed to be the official part done.
I could then head for the Buffet Restaurant on Deck 9 aft for lunch . Carnival had issued and printed an actual
paper Welcome Aboard sheet detailing food, drink and music locations for today,
plus entertainment details and locations for the day, which was very welcome
and avoided me clutching a phone in one hand like so many other passengers.
Another travelling
companion was in the Buffet Restaurant so we had a happy reunion and an
enjoyable lunch together. One more
friend will be arriving soon so our little group will then be complete. We all live in different locations in the UK so
always enjoy meeting up for a ship trip.
After lunch we all went
down to the Normandie Restaurant on Deck 3 aft to check that my name had been
added to our group table of 4 - it had - so that was very reassuring. Over the many weeks since I booked this cruise
on line, Carnival had found it difficult to accept that I was English and lived
in England, and that my e-mail address was what I told them it was but all
seemed to be well and this week they had started to e-mail me correctly.
These aren't real problems but did make me wonder. We had all had to be Covid tested Negative within
the last couple of days by an outside source and the proof forwarded to
Carnival, before boarding today so I knew I had been accepted as a passenger,
even if the ship's dining arrangements had refused to accept my original dining
request. Ah well, all seems to be going
well now.
After that we each went to
locate our own cabins and key. I first
went to sea as a Purserette with the wonderful Union-Castle Line so my voyages
were based in a 'cabin', and I tend to use the word still. Anyway, my suitcase was outside my cabin and
as I heaved it inside, the door closed behind me and so I had a slight
problem. My new stateroom attendant introduced
herself and let me in, so that amused us both.
I was pleased to find out
that the gross tonnage on this Carnival Spirit Class ship is 85,920, holding
2,124 passengers. She was built in 2001, launched in 2002 and last refurbished with
upgrades in 2019. With 1062 cabins, 3
pools, and 13 decks, CARNIVAL PRIDE is
advertised as a Fun Ship, so as four positive people we intend to have FUN!
We all met up again as the
ship was preparing to leave the port of Dover, up on deck 10 above the Lido in
the sunshine. Far below us in the
sparkling sea we could see two local tugs, DAUNTLESS and DOUGHTY, sending plumes
of water spray high into the air on our port side although we are still tied
up.
My Ocean View cabin 1107
was down on deck 1 starboard side forward and very spacious for my single
use. The bathroom had a shower and other
facilities but I noticed that the signs over
the shower controls were not correct.
The on/off sign was over the water/temperature control and vice versa,
which was disconcerting at first. I told
my stateroom attendant and she arranged for engineers to visit the cabin and
put them in the correct position. If
this ship has been fairly recently refurbished I wonder how nobody noticed.
I met my friends up in the
mid-ships Deck 2 Bar at the bottom of the Atrium and this is when we began to
notice and enjoy so many of the Joe Farcus design features around us in this
ship. In front of the Bar was a spacious
compass-rose styled dance floor, with settees and comfy seating set around it,
and behind the bar on a small stage were two real musicians entertaining us
with enjoyable music before dinner. Carnival
Corporation is celebrating its 50th Birthday Anniversary this year and we were
very happy to be on board and able to join in.
We were notified that our
dining table was then available and we made our way to the Normandie
Restaurant, deck 2 aft. An actual menu
was requested and available from our dining room steward which I thought that
made life so much easier, to choose one's food from a complete selection. I was very grateful to my friends for telling
me the various courses during our pre-dinner drinks, as it did avoid me having
to put my reading glasses on and look at those details on a small phone in my hand. I noticed I was not the only person looking
at the menu on our table. I'm aware that
Carnival want us all to be digitally-minded all the time, and that's fine, but
I think there has to be a happy balance.
I shall leave it at that.
After a really enjoyable
meal we made our way to the Taj Mahal Show Lounge for the Welcome Aboard
Show. This was forward in the ship, with
a choice of seating on decks 2, 3 and 4, so there were good sight lines
everywhere . The entertainers were
really talented and it sounds as if we will be
coming here most nights. There is
no live music here in the Show Lounge but that seems to be the way of it on
some cruise ships. There were lots of
other entertainments going on throughout the ship, offering a good choice.
My friends decided to go
to The Punchliner Comedy Club after the main show, so I joined them for a short
while. The clocks go forward 1 hour
tonight, although we have a day at sea tomorrow. I saw from the TV details that we are doing
19 knots this evening in what feels like
calm seas.
Ships seen: P&O Ferries, DFDS Ferries, new Irish
Ferries vessel Isle of Inisheer, Carnival Pride, tugs Dauntless and Doughty
To be continued...