1st Stage of the Virtual Journey: Crossing the Atlantic Ocean
Trips
Created: 31. Jan. 2021
Manfred Goschler
After getting a flight to London in the early morning, we were relieved to arrive on time at the airport, where the shipping company’s shuttle service took us to Southampton. As with previous cruises, at such hubs you often meet other passengers with the same destination, which is not surprising given the high number of passengers on today’s cruise lines. Sometimes you get into conversation with other fellow travelers and new acquaintances arise from this, which deepen in the course of the trip.
Though we haven’t had a bad experience checking in on a ship, we found that most ships have entrance areas for faster check-in that are privilege-dependent. You can get authorization for faster clearance in several ways, e.g. a specific travel package, room class, or frequent cruise traveler status. Fortunately, this doesn’t really matter to me, which avoids further disappointments and allows me to be more relaxed and take advantage of the short waiting time to read a book or listen to music.
After you are on the ship and have enjoyed the welcome drink, you usually have to do a first inspection to get some orientation and maybe enjoy the view on deck and watch the ship cast off. At the day of arrival, I always look forward to a refreshment in one of the restaurants, which are usually available around the clock. Then it goes to your room, where you can usually find further information material to get a better overview of the ship and the next days of travel. The journey can begin, the ship leaves and the rhythm is quickly found.
Walks and visits on the ship
In the first few days we walked a lot around the ship, although the upper decks were sometimes closed due to stormy weather conditions. This is not uncommon on this North Atlantic route at this time, but it doesn’t matter as there are many other opportunities to keep yourself busy on the ship. But most of the time the decks were open and strolling the deck several times a day was a must. It didn’t take long to relax here, and I think the same is true of other fellow travelers who also seem very relaxed. I assume that this also due to this route with its many days at sea. The focus is on the journey with a ship that crosses an almost endless ocean.
After a short time I found my favorite places on the ship, which were often quiet and beautiful retreats for reading or working with the computer. One of these places was called “The Highway”, where you could lie back and relax. But there were also many interesting lectures and guided tours that we were happy to take part in.
Stormy weather. Ship changes route.
The walks on deck were interrupted on the second and fourth day at sea by stormy weather with rough seas, which you could see from the swell and the whitecaps. Nevertheless, the journey was still relatively calm and not unsettling for these conditions. Due to the storm in front of us, the captain relocated the original route to the north in order to bypass the bad weather area with a lot of wind and high waves.
Although I have to admit that I have already been impressed by some of the amenities on board of the ship, the real fascination came from the magnificent view of the impressive expanse of the sea.
I have often asked myself how travelers or emigrants must have felt in the past and how such trips started under completely different circumstances. It is not that long ago that the development of iron-built steamships in the middle of the last century ushered in a new era of passenger ships for crossing the Atlantic (#Link)
