Day 15- Travel to Queen Victoria Ship

We had an early rise again to travel to Civitaveechia being the port where we are picking up the cruise of the Queen Victoria.

After breakfast it off to the train station to take our ride on the train ….getting the tickets on line was relatively easy.

Earlier we had real issues trying to sort out our travel arrangements to the port from Rome as we thought it was included in the cruise package… it seems after numerous calls back home to the travel agency, we were on our own!

But being inveterate explorers we organised our own adventure on the train.

Fortunately we arrived early at the station only to find we had a long walk to our designated station platform ( 29!!)

Boarding the train was interesting with our 3 roller cases but we found a less popular carriage and settled in for the 1 hour trip to the port. ….

We arrived at the port station…. The name of the town is too complicated to spell out each time on the blog… to find we had another trip from the station to the port… I thought we had paid for a shuttle to get to the ship… no wrong!

We had to get a taxi to the port which cost € 10 but at least we were there! God only knows what the shuttle service was!

At the port we went to the Cunard boarding terminal and after a bit of mucking around with security and boarding passes we boarded the ship.

The QV is very impressive and on boarding we had to go to our emergency meeting station to get registered and look at an emergency video which was playing in our room.

Our stateroom cabin is quite generous and has an excellent deck balcony where I am writing this blog. The room has plenty of space to unpack which is a change from our recent accommodation spots.

After unpacking we explored the ship a bit and had a bite of lunch in the Lido buffet…. Not bad lunch really. We then made enquiries at the Pursers office about various tour options at places where the ship was to dock along the cruise. We also made enquiries about what was and was not included in our package and it seems that most things are not including drinks…. Bugger!

So it really is a cost plus trip!

After this we went and had a rest by one of the swimming pools on the ship ahead of the ship leaving the port…. It was good to be on our way!

As the ship left we went to the bar for a drink…. Robyn had a Prosecco and me an aperol spritz…. Robyn’s drink was only half full and after enquiring it seems that this is the norm!!! Money again!

After watching the ship navigate out of the port we went to our stateroom to change for dinner…. Neat casual was the order of the day. Our designated dining room was the Britannia Bar which is an exclusive area for guests in our staterooms on the ship. We have our designated table with food and wine butlers!!! All very nice.

Dinner was good with excellent Sancerre wine.

Then it was off to bed to reflect on the day of the day!

Boarding the QV!