Boundless Horizons

Day 4 – Debarkation

All too soon, it was our last morning. We woke at 7am and packed the last of our things into our cases. After one last look at the view from the verandah, it was time for breakfast. Cabanas was serving from 6:30am-8:30am, but as we were on late dining we had been allocated an 8am breakfast at Royal Palace.

The debarkation breakfast is a more limited menu than on other mornings, but there’s a good selection. I had the Eggs for the Road while Rhys had the French toast. Over breakfast we used the app to book a placeholder for our next cruise. These give 10% off your next sailing, but must be used on a cruise that sails within two years of the day you buy the placeholder. We always book this over breakfast on the last morning to give us the most amount of time to use it – booking on our last day (19 August 2024) meant that when the confirmation email came through, it said we had to select a cruise with a departure date of no later than 19 August 2026.

Our other final pre-departure task was to select which photos we wanted to purchase. While they can be downloaded for up to 30 days after leaving the ship, they need to be purchased on board. As we hadn’t taken the photo package this time, we wanted to select a couple to buy individually ($20.95 each, vs the package cost of $194.95 in advance / $229.95 to buy onboard).

And finally, we downloaded a copy of our cruise folio showing all of the purchases we’d made on board! This used to only be available in the app before debarking, but it is now also available on the website for a short time after the cruise so this is less crucial than it used to be.

After breakfast, we took our time leaving the ship as we had plenty of time until our train. Last year Captain Mickey made a final “see ya real soon” announcement at 9:30am so we were hoping to hear him again. However, this time we had a final call to leave made by one of the officers at 9:30am. We were in the atrium at the time anyway so we headed off the ship and into the terminal. Debarkation was smooth, we already had our luggage with us and there were no passport checks. The exit through the terminal isn’t quite as glamorous as the ship, though the character signs to help people find their luggage brighten the place up a little.

We walked back to the train station, taking a slightly more direct route since we knew where we were going! As we weren’t certain how long debarkation would take in Southampton, and our flight wasn’t until the afternoon, we’d allowed lots of time and booked an 11:30am train from Southampton to London Waterloo. We ended up with about an hour spare so we went to Starbucks for a coffee.

Our train was on time, departing at 11:30am and arriving at Waterloo at 12:49pm. By now it was time for lunch, so we headed upstairs to Victory Pub Waterloo. I had the Cider Batter Fish & Chips, while Rhys had the Chicken Schnitzel – both were excellent. We didn’t need to be at the airport until 3pm so we relaxed with a drink until it was time to leave as otherwise we’d just be dragging luggage around London.

When we booked flights for this trip, our options were surprisingly limited for today (nothing from Southampton, and Gatwick’s only flight was first thing in the morning), but we had enough Avios to pick up reward flights with British Airways. We booked the 5pm flight out of London City Airport for £1! It was an easy tube ride from Waterloo to Canning Town and then the DLR from Waterloo to City Airport.

The reward flights included checked baggage, which was a nice bonus. We’d taken cabin cases and a backpack each on the way down, and packed folding bags to use on the return trip. We were able to check in the cabin cases for the flight home and then use the backpacks and folding bags as our cabin baggage allowance. Security was quick, though annoyingly City has had to re-introduce the liquids rule after briefly removing it earlier this year when they upgraded their scanners.

We had a quick look at the shops, then spotted on the BA app that there was a gate listed even though the airport departures board didn’t show it. We settled at the gate to wait for boarding to begin.

When we checked in, we’d selected seats together in row 9. As we boarded, I scanned my boarding pass and kept walking… then I realised Rhys wasn’t behind me. I walked back to the desk to find Rhys’s seat had been changed to row 21, and the ground crew had no explanation. They initially said it was for operational reasons, but the seat next to me had been given to another passenger so that didn’t make any sense. They directed us to the plane and told us to check with the cabin crew. Once we got to the plane, the cabin crew were equally confused and told Rhys to sit in an available seat in row 10 until boarding was complete – which raised the further question of why Rhys had been bumped so far back in the first place. Fortunately the person who was sat next to me in row 9 was happy to swap into the row 10 seat, but it was a complication we could have done without!

Other than that, the flight was uneventful. The flights in and out of City use Embraer 190s, which have more room than the aircraft on other routes (and a nice 2 x 2 configuration so no one has a middle seat). When paying cash, these flights are more expensive than flights into other London airports, but I discovered that BA flights from our local airport to any London airport cost the same amount of Avios, making these a great choice for those reward flights. Another advantage of the BA Cityflyer service is that it still includes a complimentary drink and snack – this has been scaled back to just a bag of crisps as a snack, but alcoholic drinks are still included.

We landed back home on time to some pretty rubbish weather! We’ve also got quite a long countdown until the next Disney trip, which gives plenty of time to plan a perfect itinerary. Though at least I’ve already used our placeholder to knock 10% off our previously-booked Disney Fantasy sailing next August!