DAY-08: Embarkation Day Aboard the M/S Marina

Day - 08: Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Starting Location: The Southampton Hilton Hotel, Southampton, England, UK 

Interim Location: Southampton Marine Terminal
Ending Location: At Sea En-route to Bruges, Belgium

The big day has arrived, today we embark on the Baltic cruise and Northern Europe.

No rush this morning as we would not board the Marina until early afternoon. With a slow morning we almost missed breakfast showing up with only minutes to spare, no seconds today as the staff was closing the buffet behind us as we made our selections.

By 1145 we headed down to the lobby with our luggage in tow. Good thing we had reserved a taxi as there were many guests with similar ideas of making it to the terminal around noon. The taxi drive to the Marine Terminal took about 15 minutes. Once there our tagged luggage was unloaded and handed over to the porters, perhaps stevedores as it was a marine port.

We entered the terminal building for check-in. The process was for identification purposes and to arrange all of the shipboard needs, ID/charge cards, etc. Security followed, actually it was the only delay and not much more than ten minutes with entry through a typical airport scanner system for carry-ons and then the body magnetometers. Only real difference is that liquids are allowed to pass through and onto the ship. Hurray for that, my two bottles of Coke Zero were good to go.

From security we passed to the boarding ramp and the M/S Marina was before us, our home for the next two weeks.

M/S Marina

By 1 PM we were onboard following like sheep the people in front of us, hoping that someone in the lead had been directed to something other than jumping off the other side of the ship. Sure enough the unseen leader took us into an eating gallery, the place for feeding the hordes, The Terrace Cafe, the food trough if you will.

Here we sat with a couple we had met while in the security queue; they were a couple from Florida much like ourselves. We dabbled at lunch, Sheila had a piece of veggie lasagna and I had a scoop of chocolate ice cream. Hopefully the ice cream portion was not an indication of portion sizes to come, as I'd never seen ice cream served with a tablespoon sized scoop (Note to File: Order multiple scoops in the future).

By 2 PM our room was ready but we stayed with the other couple until about 3 PM when all of our rooms were announced. We were assigned cabin #11000, all the way forward on the port (left facing forward) side, 11th deck. We'll have no problem getting our (pick your number 5,000, 8,000 10,000 etc.) step count in while onboard. As a note, our cabin is on the conning bridge level and situated just behind the captain's sea cabin or I suspect on cruise ships, his only cabin.

The cabin is great with plenty of room for two people sharing a limited space for two weeks. How should I describe the cabin? For the most part I'll let the pictures do the talking but as an example, onboard Marina our bath is larger than in either of our homes at Kitty Hawk or St. Pete Beach. What's to be done with all that space?

Anyway let us show you our "at sea" home from the entryway. 

And to think that I was worried about the possibility of not having a combination of Dead Sea (white crystal) and Himalayan (pink crystal) rock salts available for the cruise.

As for closet space, we didn't bring enough clothing, next time we'll know.

In summary the cabin is notably larger than on the Oceania ship M/S Nautica we sailed in 2014 on the Far East cruise. The ship in general is larger and it's noticeable right away from passageway widths to cabin configurations. As for other ship features and decorations, here are examples and we'll likely add to the photo album as we go.

One of my favorite pages in the passenger information booklet is with regards to safety and security. The image used on the "Life Jackets" page simply needs the following caption:

"Oh no, we're in the brutally cold North Sea and we've just hit an ice berg, our ship will sink in 15 minutes, but I'm so happy you're wearing your short-sleeved golf shirt and I had time to get my make-up just right for the disaster!"

We did some quick unpacking but by 1645 I was topside for the departure from Southampton. Our scheduled departure was for 5 PM and at the last second, the final line (rope for some readers) was in and our sideways shuffle had begun to move us away from the pier and forward.

We were soon in the exit channel with another cruise ship before us and another trailing behind. For the Navy folks it was an undisciplined FOMATION ONE, a column maneuver if I recall.

Bridge to Main Control: "Black out of one, two, three, four, ..."

As a note, I checked out the buoy situation and sure enough the Brits have stayed with the RED RIGHT DEPARTING thing, backwards from the U.S. convention; true to what we learned in Australia several years ago on the Great Barrier Reef excursion.

Sail boat aground off of Portsmouth, not their best day!

Old Royal Navy Frigate at anchor off Yarmouth.

While at lunch a ship's hostess had mentioned that the Red Ginger Restaurant had an opening for the evening if we were interested. The Red Ginger is the most interesting and noted of the Oceania Cruise Lines' restaurants so the four of us accepted and signed up for 7:30 PM.

The restaurant is much different than the other three specialty restaurants onboard, I'll let the cruise line describe the place:
"With a nod to feng shui, Red Ginger radiates harmony and tranqility. The interior simply glows with ebony woods, hand-blown glass light fixtures and striking, modern Asian artworks."
Could I have possibly said it better?

So at 7:30 PM we met for dinner, a good dinner if I do say so, it must have been that feng shui sauce or something. I had rack of lamb and Sheila had a sea bass dish along with a variety of accompaniments. At dinner's end the chef stopped by to confirm our happiness with his restaurant, the service and of course the food, very nice touch.

Following dinner the four of us went our own ways, well Sheila and I went the same way as did the other couple. We headed for the Grand Bar for a nightcap; we only have nightcaps on ships I suppose; it's certainly not something we would normally do at home.

As often happens we were sitting next to another couple of similar age. Something was said a little too loud that ended in bringing our two tables together. Turns out the newest friends had a USNA connection. The gentleman of the pair graduated in 1971 and was for his junior or second class year actually in my company, the 8th Company. We didn't recognize each other but did exchange a couple of names that we both recognized. With drinks completed and again suggesting dinner together some night, we parted company. 

Cruise day #01 was over. Onward we sail toward Belgium.