But it was only a few minutes before we were alongside the terminal unloading the cases, through check in, and on board. We were directed to the Peninsular restaurant for lunch, and rather than the normal buffet, it was a full three course lunch with a menu, much, much better.
The walk from where you enter Britannia to the restaurant can only be 100 yards ( sorry, but I still work in old money ) but Sue had managed to lose her cruise card 😌, but a swift retrace of our route, and I managed to find it on the floor.
Lunch consumed, it was time to explore. I have to say, the first impressions are WOW.
Nw I'm sure you must have seen photos of the above "star burst" by the hundreds by now, but I had to include another one as it it so imposing.
We also met Eric Lanlard outside his market cafe, and stopped for a chat. We have also booked the shore exec in La Rochelle for a walking tour with him, so looking forward to that.
Our muster drill was delayed, due to a later arrival of a coach, and the subsequent sail away. By now the clouds had moved in to cover the warm sun of the morning, so it was a bit chilly on deck.
We decided to eat in the Glass House that evening, which is situated on deck 7 by the atrium. We were shown to a side room for our meal. The food was very good, but felt the ambience that there is in the glass house on Azura, was lacking here.
The next day, we arrived at our first port of call of St Peter Port, Guernsey.
One thing to note, if like us you have an inside cabin, and are used to using the mast web cam on the TV to let you know when it's light in the morning. The TV's on Britannia go into "sleep mode" so all you get is the Samsung logo screen saver.
We had no tour booked, so it was just a wander ashore. Now I'm sure you know that Guernsey is a tender port, and the Captain had warned the night before, that it could take a while to get the 3600 passengers ashore, so we did expect a bit of a wait.
So at 09:15 we proceeded to the theatre to get our tender tickets, with no queue we were soon boarding the tender for a very smooth crossing to the harbour. There was a bit of a delay once we got into the harbour to dock, but not too long.
We were landed at a different pier to what we were used to. Before it has been by the large mast in the middle of the road flying lots of flags. This time is was the other side of the marina by M&S
Being a Sunday, all the shops were closed, however, it was "Taste of Guernsey Seafront Sunday". The road had been closed and had been filled with stalls, selling mainly food related items, but also cooking demonstrations, and it was very well attended.
The sea was a bit more lumpy on our return tender trip, and the coxswain had to use all his skills to get us back alongside, and the movement once alongside made for an interesting embarkation back to Britannia.
We ate in the Horizon restaurant that evening as it was an Asian buffet. There is only one word I can use to describe the restaurant and that is "enormous" and it's the most "chilled out" buffets on any P&O ship we have been on.
There are also hand washing stations as you enter, which of course are ignored by some passengers 😡😡
Our entertainment for the evening was Rob Lewis in the live lounge ( it does fill up early ).
Rob is a tribute act to Phil Collins, and if like me you have a stack of his albums on your IPod ( Phil Collins that is ) then Rob is the man to see, his show was excellent.
So today is a sea day as we make our way across the bay, to La Coruna. I'm sitting in the glass house overlooking the Atrium typing this blog as its a little too chilly to sit outside at present, but maybe later.
First formal night tonight, and we are booked to go to Sindhu, so reports later.
So until then
Bye bye
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