Royal Princess Day 1 – Southampton.

We left home at 9:30am prompt and made our way on the quiet roads to Southampton. We arrived at Ocean Terminal, Southampton at around 11am and left the car with the superb team at Southampton Stress Free Cruise Parking. Check in was busy but with my priority boarding we were on board the ship offloading our hand luggage in our stateroom by 11:30am.

First impressions were absolutely stunning, the Grand Piazza had my mum with a lump in her throat The Piazza really is such a fantastic and outstandingly beautiful area and by far my favourite area on this gorgeous ship. I spent the first part of the afternoon with Jodie from Cruise.co.uk having a lovely bite to eat in the main dining room before showing her some of my favourite parts of Royal Princess. She was unfortunately only on board for the day so I waved her off down the gangway and could just see the look of jealousy on her face (sorry Jodie).

I then spent a little time on deck enjoying the warm sunshine in Southampton and it was soon time for muster. A very detailed muster was over by 4pm and by 4:09pm Royal Princess had slipped her lines and was bound for Copenhagen. The ship sounded the Love Boat horn as we creeped past Queen Mary 2 which got a good cheer and a blast on QM2’s Mighty horn in return. Pleasure boats, jet skis, yachts, power boats and the Red Funnel ferry all swarmed the ship with again lots of waving and cheering. A great atmosphere.

After a drink at the aptly named Outrigger bar at the aft of deck 16 overlooking the ships wake and Seadream II leaving Portsmouth I returned to the cabin to unpack.

Dinner was in the Concerto dining room tonight, one of the Anytime dining restaurants after 7:30pm when the first seating passengers had finished. I had spring rolls to start with a peanut butter dip which was simply divine, main was beef medallions with the most beautiful green peppercorn sauce, and dessert was The Love Boat Chocolate desert, a beautiful rich chocolate mousse based with chocolate biscuit. Superb service by Jose our waiter.

After dinner I showed Mum & Dad more of the ship they hadn’t seen and could tell they were very impressed and admittedly is definitely starting to creep in front of their favourite cruise so far on Celebrity Reflection. We saw the hilariously funny Diane Cousins in the main theatre, fantastic voice and had the whole theatre in stitches.

After my nightcap (hot chocolate) we retired for bed and planned the next day’s activities on the daily planner, Princess Patter. I drew the short straw and am staying in the Pullman berth which comes down from the ceiling. However even at 6ft 1in I had no problems and slept like a baby (even if I did have earplugs in to save me from shouting at dad to stop snoring every half hour).

A truly lovely day on board Royal Princess, can’t wait for tomorrow!