Our house sitters arrived at 2pm and Penny and Jim at 3pm then it was off to Southampton to stay the night in a very nice restaurant with boutique rooms however we didn’t eat then instead we walked into the new part of West Quay and ate in L’Osteria. Where we stayed used to be a warehouse and it’s claim to fame is that it was where the first class passengers who went on the Titanic stored their luggage! This photo shows one of the old cast iron ceiling supports.
Sunday 9th September
We couldn’t quite see the Celebrity Silhouette from our hotel room but as we got outside to the car there she was waiting for us.
After the debacle of the taxis last year we had decided to take our car and park it in the car park right next to the ship (we could see the car from our balcony!). As we drove up porters came and took our luggage and the next time we saw it was outside our cabins. The car park cost about the same as the taxis last year.
As Jim gets tired quickly we had assistance and he had a wheelchair right into the ship. We are travelling Concierge class this time and would have had priority boarding but with the assistance we got through very quickly. Celebrity Silhouette is a sister ship to Eclipse that we traveled on last year and it was like coming back to an old friend! It made us realise why people go to the same place each year for their holiday but we do get to see a different place almost every day.
One of the perks of travelling Concierge is that we got a nice lunch in the main dining room. We sat on a table with 4 other couples who were all seasoned cruisers and we certainly picked up a few tips. We had a starter and main course but declined the dessert as we had been accosted at the entrance to to the dining room and had booked a speciality dinner for that night.
We stayed in the dining room until the call came to say that the cabins were ready. We found our cabin and unpacked, just finishing before the call for the muster drill - it’s not a drill but a rather silly video but at least we know where our muster station is should, God forbid, we ever need it.
It was then up to the top deck to say goodbye to Southampton only we had to wait for 15 minutes to get an elevator. I’m trying to rest my knee as much as I can when we are at sea so that it is good for excursions. Robert, Laura and Tobyn had gone to the Queen Elizabeth Country Park to wave to us so there was much chatting on the phone, looking through the binoculars and waving of Richard’s hankie! Eventually we saw them or at least I think we did! We stayed up on the aft deck and had a couple of drinks before going back to our cabin to rest in preparation for our speciality dinner.
We had chosen to go to a new restaurant called Le Petit Chef. It was pretty much a set menu of soup, lobster, filet minion and an ice cream thing. However the lure of this restaurant is that each course comes with a video which is beamed onto your plate. Le Petit Chef creates all the dishes, in a very amusing way, on your plate and then when he has finished the actual dish arrives. It’s very clever and amusing but rather gimmicky but the food was excellent and well worth a visit.
We didn’t go to the show - an American comic - which we found out the next day was a good move!!
We finished off the evening with a Baileys or two (it was only a couple as two bars had run out!), returned to our cabin and fell fast asleep.
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