| Mein Schiff 1 was beginning to be a regular fixture as she was in again on the 7th May 2013, the third time in two weeks. She would be in Mayflower Terminal this time so had been in City, QEII and just needed to be plonked in Ocean now. She was joined by Adventure of the Seas, which Royal Caribbean has now based here instead of the Med for summer as a running mate to Indy, though they weren't scheduled to be in together - boo! Doesn't the person who plans these things know we love fleet mates meeting in their home ports??? Adventure was the first of this class we'd had cruising from here since Navigator's only season in 2007 but won't receive these "Royal Advantage" things most of the others have until 2014. She arrived in Southampton to begin her first season of summer cruising on the 5th May. They would be joined by a baby ship in the form of Europa 2. The brand new 42,830grt ship is based on the current Europa but aimed squarely at the deluxe market. She had originally arrived for a showcase the day before but with it being Bank Holiday so crap public transport my dad couldnt get down and I was nearing New York on Norwegian Breakaway so he left it until this day to get both of these. She had gone the long way round to get to Southampton. She was handed over on the 29th April, calling at Le Havre, Amsterdam and Antwerp first. Europa 2 was scheduled to return the journalists at 3.30pm but not sail until 8pm for Cuxhaven before the maiden voyage on the 11th while Mein Schiff 1 wasn't sailing until 11pm. That left Adventure at originally 4.30pm but she was about fifteen minutes late. |
