Southampton Monday April 29, 2019
So I paid about $100 USD extra to cruise out of Southampton and not out of Hamburg. It was 100% worth it. I decided to drive in a day early because I always worry about what if there’s road delays, the train had us switching THREE times which seemed like a pain with kids alone, and it’s also just nice to be able to relax. I booked the Holiday Inn Southampton https://hisouthamptonhotel.co.uk for £179 which included the hotel for a night, parking for the night and 15 nights of the cruise, taxi to and from the pier (which you could probably walk to if at the city terminal), and breakfast.
Southampton Tuesday April 30, 2019
We waited until noon which was the check out time to leave since we’d heard they hadn’t been letting people board until 2pm. We walked over to Ikea and had lunch and grabbed a few things to leave in the car until we got back. Embarkation was a bit slow but only due to limited security queues. We were still on by 3pm though.
Safety drill was simple. Kids got signed up for the kids club and got their bands easily. Lots of people trying to talk us into beverage packages. I opted for no package this cruise as the price has gone up a LOT since our last MSC cruise. I also don’t drink that much alone and the kids maybe got 3 drinks a day so just wasn’t worth it. We were originally slotted for late dining but I was able to switch that to early without any hassle even though there was a sign saying that they couldn’t.
We were booked on the 9th floor in a quad inside Bella room. Pretty much the cheapest room on the ship! It was fine though and no complaints there.
Jaunting Around The World 