Ship-Photo

Vision of the Seas short cruise, 29th April - 3rd May 2011.

I had never got round to going on a cruise before so my friend Patricia (of Liner Lovers) who is, in her own words, 'a certifiable (cruise) ship nut and total cruise addict', talked me into coming along on Vision of the Seas' positioning voyage from Southampton to Copenhagen via Amsterdam, a short four night cruise.

The cruise was booked in February and the day of sailing, 29th April 2011, came round quickly. I caught the Red Jet over to Southampton where I met up with Patsy on Town Quay. After the obligatory photos of the ship line up - as well as Vision of the Seas, other cruise ships in were Celebrity Eclipse, Ventura, Saga Pearl II and Black Watch, which should have sailed two days before but had broken down. Unfortunately it was a misty and murky day, although bright, and the photos are a bit washed out; having the camera set to JPEG (L) and not RAW didn't help either - it was to save card space but I should have stuck with RAW.

We checked in and boarded the ship immediately. Patsy has sailed with Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises, who are allied, and has enough points to have 'Platinum' status so we got priority boarding and disembarkation, which saved a lot of hanging around.
After lunch in the Windjammer Cafe on Deck 9, which has a view forward, we went up to Deck 10 and waited for the crocked Black Watch to sail on her delayed cruise to the Med. BW had her departure put back so many times in the past 48 hours it was becoming something of a joke (although presumably not to the passengers on board!) but, just after 3pm, she sailed. A couple of people on Vision had friends aboard BW who they were in contact with via mobile phone and, unsurprisingly, they were very pleased to at last be on their way. Prior to her sailing, I had noticed a few people walking away from the ship, complete with luggage, I guess these were people who had decided to cut their losses/accept compensation for the delay and leave. There was also an ambulance on the quayside which left with no lights or sirens but with only the driver visible, which probably meant that the victim wasn't seriously hurt - or was dead.
Black Watch was docked starboard side to, so she had to go past us up to the Upper Swinging Ground to turn. It's true that the best place to take a photo of a ship is from another ship.

Our sailing was on Southampton VTS as 1745, but we were told it was 1630. Before that, at 1600, we had to go along to our lifeboat stations on the boat deck (Deck 5), although we didn't need to bring lifejackets from the cabins with us, to be told what to do and where to go in the event of disaster - in our case it was Muster Station 14 on the port side.
Once that was done, it was back up to Deck 10 to watch the other ships go and to wait our turn. While we had been waiting for the muster station practice to finish, the container ship Bangkok Express had left her berth and was in the process of going past us when I got back to my vantage point on Deck 10 so, unfortunately, the only photo of her was an 'arse shot'.

The other cruise ships sailed at, or just after, 1630. Saga Pearl II went first from the QEII Terminal, followed by Celebrity Eclipse from the City Cruise Terminal at Berth 101 (I agree with Patsy when she says that she wishes that they'd drop the 'Celebrity' prefix from the ships' names) and then Ventura from the Ocean Terminal.

1630 came and went, then 1645, then 1700 and we didn't move. I have no idea what the delay was, and the dockers were ready on the quayside to cast off our ropes, but we eventually went at around 1715. I was hoping we'd be on time because my aunt was waiting at East Cowes to see us go past and I'd already phoned her and told her we were leaving at 1630.

While it always seems to take ages travelling down Southampton Water on the ferry after visiting Southampton (I usually travel on the vehicle ferry rather than the fast ferry because it's cheaper with the added bonus that you can take pictures from the car ferry), it seemed to take no time at all on a big ship. Soon we were at Calshot, where a number of ship photographers were gathered, and beginning our turn round the Brambles, listing spectacularly as we did so, and into the Thorn Channel.

My aunt was at East Cowes to watch us go by - another ambition fulfilled: I have always wanted to sail down Southampton Water and past East Cowes on a big ship and be seen to be doing so! - and she took a number of photos of us, two of which are shown here.

As we left the Solent and passed the Nab, the light was beginning to go and thoughts turned to dinner. Our sitting was the second sitting at 8.45pm, this was because we didn't want to miss sailing down the Solent but we did want to miss families with small children who would be at the first sitting. After dinner, we went up to the Viking Crown Lounge, where a disco was in progress. The music was lame, mostly drum 'n' bass stuff you usually hear on Radio 1, so we didn't hang round for long, especially as there was a stag do group who were loud and obnoxious and who, contrary to notices all round the ship and PA announcements when we sailed, threw litter over the side. One of them took a glass onto the dance floor, which was not allowed, and promptly dropped it with the entirely predictable result that the glass smashed and the dance floor had to be cleared. Luckily we seemed to have lost them at Amsterdam, as we never saw them again - hopefully they got chucked off!

We sailed along the Channel and up the North Sea to Amsterdam overnight. It had been a stormy night, with a gale and fairly rough seas, meaning the boat deck and sun deck were closed off, but Vision of the Seas is a steady ship and we hardly felt it.The next morning, Saturday 30th April 2011, found us off IJmuiden where we picked up the pilot for our entry through IJmuiden locks into the North Sea Canal. We also collected a tug, Svitzer Muiden, which was to accompany us through the locks, along the canal and into our dock at the city's cruise terminal. The tug attached itself to our stern, presumably to keep the ship from swinging due to the low speed. It was at this point that that outside decks were, thankfully, reopened. I hate being on a ship and not able to get outside but I can see why they did it as the wind was incredibly strong, enough to blow you off your feet.

The ferry King Seaways was in the ferry terminal on the seaward side of the locks. This is the former King of Scandinavia but was better known to people on the south coast of England as the former Brittany Ferries' Val de Loire, which I once sailed on with some friends in the early 2000's.

The canal was lined with industrial places, as well as farms and highly cultivated countryside. There were oil refineries, oil storage tanks, bulk berths, coal heaps, container ports, science fictiony-looking chemical factories and steelworks with smoke issueing from their chimneys, docks, warehouses, ships, farms, houses, cows, birds...it is a busy place.

Continued in Part 2.