Circumnavigating the UK - Part 1: Days 1+2 - On board the Magellan

I'm very sorry for not posting about this sooner but I really am the worst person for blogging my holidays. The thought of writing a large recount always fills me with dread as succinctness is not one of my most pertinent skills!

In case you have missed all previous references, I went on a cruise with my Mum in August.

As you may know, CBC went off to Costa Rica with his school this Summer.

We've known for well over a year and  half, that he was going. Thus, I needed to find some plans of my own. Originally, I thought of going back to Bali. It's 10 years since I was last there and I confess to having tempeh, Cap Jai and Avocado juice cravings, plus the wish to see my old professors and friends.  

However, then Alex at Odd socks and pretty frocks wrote a post about her May visit to the Orkneys.  The Orkneys have been on my wishlist to travel to since the year 2001, when I gave a lecture recital for my degree on a piece by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies called 'The Kestrel paced round the Sun' which encaptulates the Orkneys landscape in it.  I fell in love with the images I researched of it.  Alex's post talked about all the Neolithic stone circles and the such like and my Mum adores such things. Thus, I texted her instantly saying, "When  CBC goes to Costa Rica, let's go to the Orkneys." 

Her response was that she had visited there for a day on a cruise a good few years ago. I took this to mean that she didn't want to go so I was rather pleased when she phoned me a week later saying that she had been researching Cruises and had found a UK one which visited the Orkneys and all sorts of other scrumptious locations.  She mentioned there was an offer to Buy one passenger and get another (half price or was it free?) and would I like to go?  She said that she'd pay for the tickets which was incredibly generous of her!

I thought it was a splendid idea and thus, I've had over a year to get excited about visiting all these amazing places.

On the 3rd August, we drove to Tilbury in Essex to the London International Cruise Terminal which was very easy to reach from my house.  The difference between the hassle of getting to and through an airport with all its security, crowds and lack of seats and strolling onto a cruise ship was utterly amazing! We managed to get on the ship in under 20 minutes and someone else took our luggage.

As we reached the gangplank, we experienced our first photographic moment of the trip.

An utterly cheesy moment that one!

On board, we found our cabin. I was pleasantly surprised how like a normal room it was. I know that sounds daft, but my only experience of residential boating was a lot more simple than this!

 My Mum was so kind and had ordered a card wishing me a good trip and ordered some chocolate-covered fruits.

 We went to have a quick explore of the ship which was very spacious.

 Brilliantly, it was lunchtime, so we headed to the self-service restaurant, Raffles for lunch.

At this point, I should say how amazing all the staff on board the ship were. So kind, generous and helpful, never in an obsequious way.  The variety of food available was excellent and we had a little bit of many options.

 I loved these two melon carvings.

 Soon after, we had our practice emergency procedures and going to the muster stations with our life-jackets. It was quite hilarious seeing hundreds of people walking like robots in bright coloured jackets congregating.

I took a seat at the piano.

 Eventually, the ship set sail and we travelled along the Thames estuary out to sea.

 After a leisurely afternoon of exploring and booking ourselves appointments in the spa, we headed off to dinner in the Kensington Restaurant.
How it worked was there was a menu with the following courses:
Aperitif, Soup, Salad, Main meal, Dessert.
Each one had 3 options and there was also a vegetarian option plus some general plain options and of course, special dietary requirements were catered for. You didn't have to have all the courses.

I failed to take any food pictures until dessert where I had this After 8 mint mouse with Spun sugar decoration.

All of it was delicious and you didn't have to wait long either.  We met 4 of our table members: Elaine, Dan, Fran and Mike who were two couples who were friends. It was funny that Dan mentioned he'd met another musician Kerenza through his graphic design job and I asked if it was a violinist I'd known at the Academy and it was!

 After dinner, we went and took part in a quiz in the Captain's Bar and then went and played with the paradoxical mirrors near Reception! It's really hard to get your own head out the way!

 We watched the Sunset and then headed off to bed.

 The next day was a sea day and we rose and went to breakfast which was a great buffet and went to the Spa.  I had a pedicure and then went to have a Hot Stone treatment whilst Mum had a Massage experience.  The ladies in the Spa were lovely and the Spa itself was sumptuously decorated.  I had a lie on a heated lounger whilst awaiting my second treatment.

 There was a sort of 'market place' which demonstrated and showed the various services and skills on board the boat. The chef responsible for the amazing Sugar work was demonstrating which is something that fascinated me.

Later on we went to lunch.  

This was my dessert. I added the olives on the same plate because I hadn't spotted them until after my main meal.

We sat out on deck reading with tea.

Interestingly, as I began my book, my Mum had told me that when the Armada set out (or returned?), Queen Elizabeth I visited the troops at Tilbury and bizarrely, I read exactly the same fact in this book, not 5 minutes later.

 We had booked a tour of the Bridge which was very interesting.

 I absolutely love the 'Dead slow' option!

 This was the First Mate.

 We were amused and delighted to find out that the captain grows his own cucumbers and tomatoes on the Bridge.

 After this, we were chatting to Miriam and John, a lovely couple from Norfolk (originally Irish and Scottish) who told us there was a Songs of Praise in the Show Theatre. Our cruise had a theme: "Saints and Sailors" and we had some special 'celebrity' guests who gave talks etc.

 I was delighted to meet Dave Bilbrough, Christian modern song writer who wrote the amazingly popular, Abba Father.  He sang it in such a sincere,heartfelt and beautiful way and I was really touched to hear how he came to compose it.

Our main host was Pam Rhodes from Songs of Praise who was so charming telling us fun anecdotes of faith between songs. It was great to sing our hearts out.  Incidentally, she is the author of a series about a Curate and one of the books is called 'Saints and Sailors' which was about a cruise ship circumnavigating the UK!

 After this, Mum and I headed to the Jacuzzi. It was SO windy on deck. Mum was being attacked viciously by her towel as she tried to photograph me!

Later, we headed back to the room to shower and change for dinner. Tonight was to be a Gala night where the dress code was Black tie and posh frocks.

Mum wore her wedding dress and I wore this lilac silk dress I'd charityshopped years ago and given to Mum but it didn't suit her, so she brought it along for me to wear as I was sad that the pink silk gown I wanted to wear didn't fit me anymore!

At the fair earlier, I had recognised that one of the photography team Ayu was Balinese so I spoke to her in Balinese and thus began my popularity with the entire Balinese Photography team who were eager to meet me including the manager who used to teach Photography at my Arts College in Denpasar Bali! We reminisced about the Professors and things we missed from Bali.

Dinner was a triumph

 I loved having an extra course of Champagne Sorbet to cleanse the palette! (which type of palette!??!)

 We went to play with our favourite mirrors again.

 In our room, we discovered that Viktoria, our steward had made us a towel flower!

 It was charming that they turned down your bed for you and laid out your pjs though I became increasingly ashamed, the messier I made the cabin over the coming days!

We were excited for our first stop in Scotland.

Come back soon to find out what we did and where we went!

xx

Have you been on a cruise before?

If you have any cruise related questions or any questions, leave a comment and I will try to answer it in my next post!