Norway Part 1: Southampton and Life Aboard P&O Britannia

Hello!  I am so excited to share our Norway adventures with you.  First up, our pre-cruise Southampton adventures along with P&O Britannia and our sea days aboard this ship.

 

The flight to London Heathrow felt long this go round.  The bus ride to Southampton felt even longer with added traffic delays.  We were tired and hungry when we arrived and opted to stay close to the hotel with dinner our first night at Dancing Man Brewing.  It was delicious and for sure a great stop for a return visit.

 

Our second day was a full day which started with a visit to the Solent Sky Museum.

 

We walked around Southampton stopping into White Star Tavern for a pint and a bite of lunch at Pig in the Wall.  WOW!  The food was delicious, and I loved the flavor of the sausage roll.

 

With time to kill and the IKEA nearby, we camped out at the window to watch the Regal Princess, our ship for our December cruise, sail away before wandering (i.e. getting lost) in IKEA.  We had dinner was at another amazing restaurant Duke of Wellington with traditional British dishes and enjoyed a pint at The Titanic before returning to the hotel.

 

P&O Britannia is a very traditional ship.  From the food to the dress code restrictions, the Brits love a certain style of cruising.  While we had fun, we won’t be cruising them again unless there is another specific reason.

 

P&O Britannia Sea Days: When we booked this Norwegian Fjords cruise so we could set sail with The Cruise Monkeys, watch them on YouTube you’ll love them, I had no idea they would be so down-to-earth and so wonderful!  Gavin & Luke were the BEST hosts and checked in asking often if we were enjoying ourselves.  We also met Cruise Buoys, Tristin & Justin and their adorable son Josh.

 

The Cruise Monkeys

The Cruise Buoys

Our group of about 50 was also amazing and really great to visit with. We had several planned gatherings which allowed us to visit with lots of different people in small groups.  For “posh night” knowing we weren’t packing ball gowns, extra shoes, and a tuxedo in our carry-on only luggage, this was as fancy as we got.

The night ended with a silent disco in the atrium, which seemed like an odd place for this type of event, but it worked!  Seeing all these fancy people dancing was amazing.  I wish all cruise lines had a silent disco on the itinerary.  The cruise had a second silent disco on our final sea day which was just as fun.

 

I’ll be back with more of our Norway adventures.