Hello 
Me & DF have just been away for a few days on a 'mini cruise' to Bilbao from Portsmouth.
I have decided to do a quick trippie as a practice run for my trip to Orlando in July/Aug and also there may be a couple of you who are thinking of doing a mini cruise who may benefit from a bit of detail.
This trip is for 3 nights on board at £114 with 3 eve meals & 3 breakfasts for £116 so £230.00 in total for 2 adults. Not bad. The main reason for this trip is the stress we (and by we I mean me!) have been feeling due to our house renovations taking so long and builders been anywhere but at ours.
A mini mini trip report....
Day 1 Sunday: Portsmouth for 20.45 sail
Set off at 14.00 from Selby much to the disgust of DF who cant believe he has to listen to grand Prix on the radio rather then watch it on the telly
. Got our Passports, Booking references and a handy RAC print out telling us we should be there in 4hr & 19mins.
Journey down has no problems whatsoever. I even manage not to get us lost! Something I regularly do when forced to read a map or RAC guide (for some reason I am fine when finding my way by instinct. Go figure)
Get to Portsmouth around 18.20 where DF attempts to drive onto ship! Ooops
Alas was are not going to DLPR via Dover so we need to use the multi storey (£19.50) Go to terminal hand over mobile phone where booking reference is stored and leave with two tickets, two shiney yellow boarding passes and instructions to go to deck 4 to collect cabin keys. Thankyou nice check in lady.
Boarding begins at 19.00 yet there is already a queue of several hundred people jostling for space near the front door. Why do people do this? They are blocking the walkways and generally getting in everybodies way. I dont see the point, Especially when they call people with specials needs or very small children first meaning they all have to shift.
Board around 20.15 collect cabin keys and go to our room for the next 3 nights. Cabin is exactly as we expected but a little 'tired' looking (a recurring theme throughout the ship) but everything is clean so no complaints. Decide we are hungry but have no idea what the procedure is for eating, We have paid for all our meals upfront but unlike when we went to Amsterdam we have no 'meal tickets'. Pop up to reception to ask about this but langauage barrier means we come away none the wiser. Go back down to deck 4 where we collected out cabin keys and ask for help. Pop back up to reception on deck 6 and swop outbound ticket for meal vouchers. The vouchers have a cash value - £16.00 evening meal & £8.50 breakfast - and can be used at any restaurant onboard, No change will be given and any extra is to be added to out of your own pocket. Fair enough.
This problem all sorted we decide to visit the carvey. A buffet meal for £14.95 plus drinks. I have the rarest beef ever to grace my plate (left uneaten) and DF opts for pork. Both fill up on the buffet and have a bottle of becks each. £34.00 in total so only £2.00 to add.
Wonder around the ship for a bit to get our bearings. Have a couple more beers then off to bed.
Day 2 Monday: Day at Sea
Up at 09.45 after a dodgy nights sleep. I have been drinking ginger ale as had a tip this could stave off any motion sickness, but it has a side effect. I cannot stop peeing so I was up and down all night to the loo!
Decide on breakfast at the carvery again. Another buffet but with drinks included so just the £8.50 vouchers required here. DF was most impressed they used Heinze beans (I am engaged to a culinary expert
)
After breakfast have a wonder around and decide to play cards. DF has never played go fish so I teach him but as luck would have it I always win which results in lots of cheating claims to which I respond in my usual fashion, you dont need to know what that is (a lot of thumping is generally involved) After such a busy morning I need a lie down. I suffer from terrible motion sickness which DF claims is all in my head and as the sea was completley calm from start to finish I would agree with him. But a good nap usually sorts me out.
All napped out we go to the top deck and brave the wind. The weather is sunny and bright but a little windy. The captin claims he can see a group of whales to the Portside of the ship so everyone on the top deck dashes over (is this really safe to have most of the people at the same side of the ship?) We didnt see any whales or any of the numerous reported sightings of Dolphins. Am a little sceptical there ever were any. There was a guy onboard giving talks about the wildlife and attempting to raise funds for his cause and a sighting of any Whales & Dolphins would have helped him to boost his fund.
Back to the safety of the windless indoors we opt for the International food court for dinner. Fish and chips all round with vegatable soup for starters (so thick we could have used to tile our new roof) and cheescake for pudding. When getting to the checkout we realised despite our best efforts to spend £32.00 between us (several bottles of water to take back to the cabin) we were way below so we added a few muffins to our pile and some flavoured milk but we were still a lot under £32.00. I have to say we gave in at this point. I could barely lift my tray!
A few beers in the Silverstone bar (sounds alot flashier than it was) and off to bed for an early start.
Day 3 Tuesday: Bilbao trip
Up at 06.00 (Do these people not realise I dont do mornings!?) Breakfast at the International. Full English, Toast, Cereal, Tea, Croissant, Orange juice and we still only just spent £8.50 each.
Nip back to cabin for our passports, Return tickets and trip vouchers. We are going on an 'excursion' to Bilbao which constists of a 45 min coach journey into the city, A 2 hour wonder around shops that didnt open until we had been there 1 hour then a 45 min coach journey back. We did the trip because Spanish requirement was that everyone on board had to disembark the ship and check in as return passengers so there wasnt anything alse to do for 3 hours.
11.30 back on ship to start return journey to Portsmouth we decide a nap is in order after our early start. Wake up 4 hours later, Ooops. Off to grab a sandwich for lunch from Olivas. A nice baguette but horrible Italian beer.
The nights entertainment has been amended due to the England friendly with Columbia which will be shown in the Silverstone bar. DF perks up when he hears this but so do most of the people onboard. Decide to get to the bar early to ensure a seat. This means an early dinner (didnt we just eat lunch?) opt for the easiest option of carvery. I have Turkey and it is much better then the raw beef that was plonked on my plate on our previous visit. DF has Chicken Tikka Massala which he loved.
Off the the Silverstone bar where we are treated to a mini show by the entertainments team. Think the usual spandex, Dodgy perm and 3 wannabe in steps dancer/singer types and you will have a rough idea of what we are made to suffer through.
The match started promptly (as they usually do) I am sat sideways to the screen as I find I get far less sick if I am facing the direct of the ship but this does make it difficult to know whats going on. At 65ish mins into the match we decide to call it a night. The ciggarette smoke in the room is awfull and several groups of lads are getting rowdy very near us which means was cant hear much anyway.
Day 4 Wednesday: Back to Portsmouth
Up at 10.00 after a night with lots of peeing, Am going to switch to ginger biscuits for flight to Orlando. Have breakfast at the Carvery as this is the only place we can guarantee spending all of our £8.50 voucher.
Spend most of the day playing cards and travel connect4. At cards I now only winning 95% of the time but connect4 is 50/50 so DF obviously prefers this
Get chucked out of our cabin at 14.30 so cleaning can commence. We can leave luggage in there and we can return later but as there is a very quick turn around at Portsmouth the housekeeping needs to start before we arrive.
Not much to do and everywhere is really busy as we have all been booted out of our cabins so we wonder up to a bar that is hidden away from the main area and find it relativley empty. Not sure if is is quiet because it is hidden away or if the name 'Posh bar' puts alot of people off. Spend our last fews hours playing connect4 and watching the misty skys clear.
Arrive at Portsmouth on time, 17.30. Me and DF stay put and have a look at all the Navy ships in port while we dock. When we do venture down at around 18.00 deck 4 is heaving. This is the deck where our cabin is and also the deck where the gangway is put for disembarkation so we hide in our cabin for a bit until the throng has cleared. I have two gripes here. 1 - Again I have to ask why do people do this? why do they prefer to stand for and hour with luggage and screaming kids rather then wait a bit and 2 - When we did disembark and got back to the terminal the two women infront of us hadnt got thier passports out, why not? this held us up and everyone behind us for quite some time as they had massive handbags and spent ages delving into them before producing the document the knew they would be asked for. Gripe over.
Simple walk back to car park where I take luggage up to car while DF gets in queue to pay.
Looong journey back home to Selby as no matter how hard we try when coming back from down south we ALWAYS end up on the M25?!?
Notes & Thoughts:
We only went on this trip as we were in much need of a break. I am never going to do another cruise mini or otherwise as wether or not my motion sickness is a state of mind it is there.
The ship was very tired looking and in much need new seat covering etc but everything was clean and tidy. the ship was called Pride of Bilbao.
Food. Some of it was very nice and some of it ok. The only thing I couldnt eat was the rare beef but this was me and not a reflection of the chef.
All in all we had a good time but his had less to do with where we were and more to do with the break from home and houses and just been able to spend some stress free time together.
Jodie
Will get a couple off pictures on as soon as I remember hw to do it!
Me & DF have just been away for a few days on a 'mini cruise' to Bilbao from Portsmouth.
I have decided to do a quick trippie as a practice run for my trip to Orlando in July/Aug and also there may be a couple of you who are thinking of doing a mini cruise who may benefit from a bit of detail.
This trip is for 3 nights on board at £114 with 3 eve meals & 3 breakfasts for £116 so £230.00 in total for 2 adults. Not bad. The main reason for this trip is the stress we (and by we I mean me!) have been feeling due to our house renovations taking so long and builders been anywhere but at ours.
A mini mini trip report....
Day 1 Sunday: Portsmouth for 20.45 sail
Set off at 14.00 from Selby much to the disgust of DF who cant believe he has to listen to grand Prix on the radio rather then watch it on the telly
. Got our Passports, Booking references and a handy RAC print out telling us we should be there in 4hr & 19mins.Journey down has no problems whatsoever. I even manage not to get us lost! Something I regularly do when forced to read a map or RAC guide (for some reason I am fine when finding my way by instinct. Go figure)
Get to Portsmouth around 18.20 where DF attempts to drive onto ship! Ooops
Alas was are not going to DLPR via Dover so we need to use the multi storey (£19.50) Go to terminal hand over mobile phone where booking reference is stored and leave with two tickets, two shiney yellow boarding passes and instructions to go to deck 4 to collect cabin keys. Thankyou nice check in lady. Boarding begins at 19.00 yet there is already a queue of several hundred people jostling for space near the front door. Why do people do this? They are blocking the walkways and generally getting in everybodies way. I dont see the point, Especially when they call people with specials needs or very small children first meaning they all have to shift.
Board around 20.15 collect cabin keys and go to our room for the next 3 nights. Cabin is exactly as we expected but a little 'tired' looking (a recurring theme throughout the ship) but everything is clean so no complaints. Decide we are hungry but have no idea what the procedure is for eating, We have paid for all our meals upfront but unlike when we went to Amsterdam we have no 'meal tickets'. Pop up to reception to ask about this but langauage barrier means we come away none the wiser. Go back down to deck 4 where we collected out cabin keys and ask for help. Pop back up to reception on deck 6 and swop outbound ticket for meal vouchers. The vouchers have a cash value - £16.00 evening meal & £8.50 breakfast - and can be used at any restaurant onboard, No change will be given and any extra is to be added to out of your own pocket. Fair enough.
This problem all sorted we decide to visit the carvey. A buffet meal for £14.95 plus drinks. I have the rarest beef ever to grace my plate (left uneaten) and DF opts for pork. Both fill up on the buffet and have a bottle of becks each. £34.00 in total so only £2.00 to add.
Wonder around the ship for a bit to get our bearings. Have a couple more beers then off to bed.
Day 2 Monday: Day at Sea
Up at 09.45 after a dodgy nights sleep. I have been drinking ginger ale as had a tip this could stave off any motion sickness, but it has a side effect. I cannot stop peeing so I was up and down all night to the loo!
Decide on breakfast at the carvery again. Another buffet but with drinks included so just the £8.50 vouchers required here. DF was most impressed they used Heinze beans (I am engaged to a culinary expert
)After breakfast have a wonder around and decide to play cards. DF has never played go fish so I teach him but as luck would have it I always win which results in lots of cheating claims to which I respond in my usual fashion, you dont need to know what that is (a lot of thumping is generally involved) After such a busy morning I need a lie down. I suffer from terrible motion sickness which DF claims is all in my head and as the sea was completley calm from start to finish I would agree with him. But a good nap usually sorts me out.
All napped out we go to the top deck and brave the wind. The weather is sunny and bright but a little windy. The captin claims he can see a group of whales to the Portside of the ship so everyone on the top deck dashes over (is this really safe to have most of the people at the same side of the ship?) We didnt see any whales or any of the numerous reported sightings of Dolphins. Am a little sceptical there ever were any. There was a guy onboard giving talks about the wildlife and attempting to raise funds for his cause and a sighting of any Whales & Dolphins would have helped him to boost his fund.
Back to the safety of the windless indoors we opt for the International food court for dinner. Fish and chips all round with vegatable soup for starters (so thick we could have used to tile our new roof) and cheescake for pudding. When getting to the checkout we realised despite our best efforts to spend £32.00 between us (several bottles of water to take back to the cabin) we were way below so we added a few muffins to our pile and some flavoured milk but we were still a lot under £32.00. I have to say we gave in at this point. I could barely lift my tray!
A few beers in the Silverstone bar (sounds alot flashier than it was) and off to bed for an early start.
Day 3 Tuesday: Bilbao trip
Up at 06.00 (Do these people not realise I dont do mornings!?) Breakfast at the International. Full English, Toast, Cereal, Tea, Croissant, Orange juice and we still only just spent £8.50 each.
Nip back to cabin for our passports, Return tickets and trip vouchers. We are going on an 'excursion' to Bilbao which constists of a 45 min coach journey into the city, A 2 hour wonder around shops that didnt open until we had been there 1 hour then a 45 min coach journey back. We did the trip because Spanish requirement was that everyone on board had to disembark the ship and check in as return passengers so there wasnt anything alse to do for 3 hours.
11.30 back on ship to start return journey to Portsmouth we decide a nap is in order after our early start. Wake up 4 hours later, Ooops. Off to grab a sandwich for lunch from Olivas. A nice baguette but horrible Italian beer.
The nights entertainment has been amended due to the England friendly with Columbia which will be shown in the Silverstone bar. DF perks up when he hears this but so do most of the people onboard. Decide to get to the bar early to ensure a seat. This means an early dinner (didnt we just eat lunch?) opt for the easiest option of carvery. I have Turkey and it is much better then the raw beef that was plonked on my plate on our previous visit. DF has Chicken Tikka Massala which he loved.
Off the the Silverstone bar where we are treated to a mini show by the entertainments team. Think the usual spandex, Dodgy perm and 3 wannabe in steps dancer/singer types and you will have a rough idea of what we are made to suffer through.
The match started promptly (as they usually do) I am sat sideways to the screen as I find I get far less sick if I am facing the direct of the ship but this does make it difficult to know whats going on. At 65ish mins into the match we decide to call it a night. The ciggarette smoke in the room is awfull and several groups of lads are getting rowdy very near us which means was cant hear much anyway.
Day 4 Wednesday: Back to Portsmouth
Up at 10.00 after a night with lots of peeing, Am going to switch to ginger biscuits for flight to Orlando. Have breakfast at the Carvery as this is the only place we can guarantee spending all of our £8.50 voucher.
Spend most of the day playing cards and travel connect4. At cards I now only winning 95% of the time but connect4 is 50/50 so DF obviously prefers this
Get chucked out of our cabin at 14.30 so cleaning can commence. We can leave luggage in there and we can return later but as there is a very quick turn around at Portsmouth the housekeeping needs to start before we arrive.
Not much to do and everywhere is really busy as we have all been booted out of our cabins so we wonder up to a bar that is hidden away from the main area and find it relativley empty. Not sure if is is quiet because it is hidden away or if the name 'Posh bar' puts alot of people off. Spend our last fews hours playing connect4 and watching the misty skys clear.
Arrive at Portsmouth on time, 17.30. Me and DF stay put and have a look at all the Navy ships in port while we dock. When we do venture down at around 18.00 deck 4 is heaving. This is the deck where our cabin is and also the deck where the gangway is put for disembarkation so we hide in our cabin for a bit until the throng has cleared. I have two gripes here. 1 - Again I have to ask why do people do this? why do they prefer to stand for and hour with luggage and screaming kids rather then wait a bit and 2 - When we did disembark and got back to the terminal the two women infront of us hadnt got thier passports out, why not? this held us up and everyone behind us for quite some time as they had massive handbags and spent ages delving into them before producing the document the knew they would be asked for. Gripe over.
Simple walk back to car park where I take luggage up to car while DF gets in queue to pay.
Looong journey back home to Selby as no matter how hard we try when coming back from down south we ALWAYS end up on the M25?!?
Notes & Thoughts:
We only went on this trip as we were in much need of a break. I am never going to do another cruise mini or otherwise as wether or not my motion sickness is a state of mind it is there.
The ship was very tired looking and in much need new seat covering etc but everything was clean and tidy. the ship was called Pride of Bilbao.
Food. Some of it was very nice and some of it ok. The only thing I couldnt eat was the rare beef but this was me and not a reflection of the chef.
All in all we had a good time but his had less to do with where we were and more to do with the break from home and houses and just been able to spend some stress free time together.
Jodie
Will get a couple off pictures on as soon as I remember hw to do it!
Thanks for sharing all about your break.
