Sunday, April 23rd, 2023 Queen Victoria, Southampton, UK
In the early hours of today the Queen Victoria steamed up the Solent and into Southampton Water to dock at the Mayflower Cruise Terminal. After almost 23,000 miles and about 23 countries we are finally back to where we started. It’s been an amazing journey with some downs but mostly we’ve had a fantastic time and met some great people. We’ll spend the next month with our daughter and grandson, who are flying in from California today, visiting with family in the UK before we board the Queen Mary 2 and cross the Atlantic back to New York and fly on to California.
Disembarkation was a bit chaotic; with the advent of Covid guests are now requested to stay in their cabins until their appointed disembarkation time, previously as Platinum Cunard members we were invited to a lounge, provided with refreshments, and then escorted off the ship. When our time arrived, we headed down to the gangway only to be met by a gigantic line of passengers; so much for a coordinated easy exit – the slow-moving line looped along the length of the atrium area and back, it took about 30 minutes to reach the gangway. While this was frustrating, we were not really pressed for time as our daughter’s flight was not arriving in London until later in the afternoon.
Collecting your luggage after disembarking can sometimes be a challenge; typically all baggage is sitting in a gigantic hall, arranged by color code. Immigration checks were done onboard the ship a few days ago, the UK agents having boarded in Lisbon – this makes the disembarkation process so much easier. We met up with the agent for the Luggage Forward Company, attached their shipping labels and handed off three bags that will be shipped to a relative’s home in the UK, and then shipped back to the Queen Mary 2 when we leave the UK; these bags contain items we won’t need during our UK stay – ball gowns, tuxedo, suits etc. We also shipped our large trunk back home to California. This process went very smoothly and will enable us to travel around the UK with less luggage.
Outside the terminal in Southampton we headed for the bus parking area to meet up with our prearranged transfer up to Heathrow airport. This was another very chaotic scene as the agents did not seem to be very organized, bus assignments were very confusing. We eventually joined the queue for our assigned bus, but the bus was full before we could get on. More confusion resulted in us being assigned to an alternative bus along with 4 other passengers, it felt good to finally get a seat – however the happy feeling soon started to wane as we waited and waited for more passengers to fill up the bus, the agents had no clue what was going on. After about 45 minutes and several angry complaints our bus pulled out with only 5 passengers and about 50 empty seats. Thankfully the trip up to Heathrow was very uneventful and took about 90 minutes.
We were dropped off at Terminal 5 and found a coffee shop where we could hang out for a couple of hours until Laura and Noah arrived. I used this time to buy the tickets for the Heathrow Express train into London; this is the fastest way to get from the airport to the center of London, we find it very convenient as the trains come right into the airport and terminate at Paddington Station which is where our hotel is located – there are no stops in between, it takes about 15 minutes, we use it every time we come to London. I also scouted out the location for our rental car pick up, this will be after our stay in London. There is only one hotel attached to Terminal 5; the Sofitel is also the location for Sixt Rental Cars and their desk was about a five-minute walk from the arrivals area inside the terminal.
The flight from the US was a little early and Laura and Noah emerged from the arrivals area looking suitable bleary-eyed though still excited, especially Noah as it was his first ever flight on a plane. The signs for the Heathrow Express led us to three gigantic elevators and we took one down to the platform level, followed by a very short walk and wait for the next train – it’s a very smooth and easy to follow process. The Heathrow Express trains are modern, clean, and efficient – there is even wifi, and in no time we were pulling into Paddington Station. The Paddington Hilton Hotel is actually the original station hotel built in 1854 as the Great Western Royal Hotel; it's so convenient – walk to the end of the platform, up an escalator and you are in the lobby! Paddington also has a London Underground station, and this network will get you anywhere in the city; there are also ample taxis and busses available at the station.
We checked into our adjoining rooms and unpacked; we’ve stayed at the Paddington Hotel many times over the years and have found the rooms to be a good size, clean and the beds very comfortable – though the hotel is old and as such there are occasional problems; this time we could not get the heating to work in our room and despite a few visits from the technical staff the problem could not be solved. A space heater was promptly supplied, and it help a lot.
The Bizzarro Italian restaurant is located just a block from Paddington Station, it’s very convenient when you are low on energy and don’t want to spend a lot of time hunting for some place to eat – we’d eaten here before and tonight it lived up to our memories with basic Italian fare that hit the spot.
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