Southampton

April 18th
Southampton

I woke up this morning, finished getting my stuff sorted and began the check out process. The first flaw of what I’m expecting to be many, was the mixed messages I was getting about how I’m going to my hotel. I was supposed to get my stuff off the ship by 10, but I couldn’t check into the hotel till 2. I was supposed to provide my own transportation to the hotel, but John (the other sax player who’s in the exact same situation as me) had a taxi arranged for him by the company. Everything was confused and changing every time I asked someone, so I got off the ship with all my stuff at 10 hoping for the best, and got it. I was planning on just taking the shuttle into the city and walking the rest of the way, but I ran into one of my friends who was rejoining the ship, and he had his car with him because he lived in the area, so he drove me to my hotel, nice!
At the hotel, they couldn’t find my reservation, problem two. He found John’s, but I didn’t have a reservation to check in for that day. After 10 minutes we figured out why…I had a reservation for checking in yesterday (while I was sailing out of France). Luckily though, this mistake was in my favor, so I could move all my stuff into my room right then, grab my continental breakfast, and then walk back to the city at my leisure. And the reservation was for two days, so I knew I was covered for tonight. So I returned to the city, found my band, hung out at a café, and then returned to the ship with John on the shuttle to get one last free lunch and grab his bags for his taxi ride to the hotel.
I decided not to hop in the taxi with him and the other 2 guys that he was sharing with, so I went back to the city on the shuttle and walked to the hotel where I waited for John to get settled in before we started trying to figure out what we were going to do during our extended stay on Southampton.
I started out with a trip to a café to make some phone calls and take care of online stuff, hung out till they kicked me out 15 minutes after closing time, and returned to my room to take an amazing bath! Having my own hotel room has some killer advantages over the cabins I’ve been in for the past 2 months. This was followed by dinner with John, and then we headed into the city to find Neil, the drummer in our band, who had also signed off the ship that day to take care of some family things back at home.
Neil was at a different hotel, so we walked in that direction, and in the tradition of any good band member, we knew the best place to find him was at the closest bar to the hotel. Bingo! We sat down for a drink, some last goodbyes, and then he headed to bed so that he could catch an early train.
By the time John and I had left the bar, we noticed a huge line of college kids outside of a night club, something that was too out of character for this city at night to not check out for ourselves. There were literally hundreds of college kids lined up to get into this place, and apparently they’d all just returned from vacation and were about to start a new semester at school. We eventually started talking to one of the bouncers at the door and asked about the club. It was an “American sports bar” aimed at college kids, though I’ve never heard a sports bar blasting dance music in the states quite like that. We told the guy our story, that we were stuck in the city, and I jokingly asked if we could get in free since we’re Americans. And amazingly enough, he was going to let us walk right in, in front of the hundreds of people, so that we could have a beer and check it out. The best part though was the condition that John needed to “lose” his bright yellow, “authentic island wear” baseball cap. Apparently he just wasn’t cool enough for the bar with it on. We thanked the guy for the offer, but not wanted to blow out our eardrums, we made our way back to the hotel joking about how many ways John’s yellow hat was the antithesis of cool.
Anyway, that’s day one of who knows how many. We are set up in the hotel for as long as needed, but I’m hoping this ash cloud problem gets sorted out quickly enough that I can make it home this week. Till then, I’m stuck in a city that I’ve never been in for more than a few hours, living in a hotel, provided with 2 meals a day. But hey, I’ll just try to use this time to relax, cool down after the ship, and get excited about seeing people back at home. And at least I’m not stuck in some third world country, or somewhere that doesn’t speak English, so the situation could definitely be worse. I’ll make the most of it while I await word from P&O for a plane ticket home. So till then, fingers crossed that this ash cloud dissipates quickly and that I’m back in my own country. Thanks!