A couple of Southampton debutantes on the 27th April 2016. The 92,402grt MSC Musica was a mere ten years old and I had last seen her in wet Bergen in Jul 2013. Meanwhile AIDAprima was the actual new girl. Built in Japan, this new design for any Carnival brand was a year late due to delays. She is 124,500grt but evolves from prior AIDA vessels. Both were originally scheduled to arrive at 8am but VTS listed Musica as 7.30am. That would still be ideal since I'd finish work at 6am but then they were altered again to 6am for the MSC with the AIDA forty-five minutes later. Bloody ships! So I went home as usual and, since I wasn't working that night, went down for the departures. Musica was due to sail at 6pm while the AIDA the usual 8pm. Well, Musica was late and during the wait the sun was covered in rain clouds while the wind whipped up making it very bitterly cold. Thankfully, the pier train driver opened the waiting room for me so I could at least be a bit warmer and in comfort. Two couples turned up. One of those had come from somewhere in Lower Saxony just to see the AIDA because their friend was onboard. Just after 7pm, the engineers had finished and she started to move before 7.30pm and by now the rain had stopped - yay! Unusually, she went down as far as berth 104 to turn and had to blast on the horn several times to get the idiots on yachts out of the way. In the end, the harbour master boat sped forward, flashing the lights. Then it was time to wait for the AIDA and the rain came down yet again with strong wind. She shifted her stern almost half an hour late as the rain eased thankfully and was very loud after she had swung. She will be in every Monday at varying times. We walked back down the pier, not long before it would close for the night - phew! |