St Mary’s

Seasidestevo71

Seasidestevo71

Well-known member
Anyone been? just had a walk up to the ground before boarding the cruise ship, fkin ell what a shit hole, the surrounding streets are worse than bond street.

The town centre in the other hand is brilliant, loads and loads of shops all open with plenty of places to eat, some lovely old buildings but then some dossy 1960’s flats in between.
 
Seasidestevo71 said:
Anyone been? just had a walk up to the ground before boarding the cruise ship, fkin ell what a shit hole, the surrounding streets are worse than bond street.

The town centre in the other hand is brilliant, loads and loads of shops all open with plenty of places to eat, some lovely old buildings but then some dossy 1960’s flats in between.
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which cruise ship? Just two weeks back from the fjords where we got the organised coach down from Blackpool to Southampton and back. Yep, didn't think much of the area we went thru in Southampton itself although the outskirts had some lovely properties.
 
...just looked up your ports of call. 3 the same as ours. Stavanger and Olden are really nice.
 
Can’t say I think a lot of Southampton as a city or a football club. And given where I live, I have visited a fair number of times.

As a bunch of fans: After the Cup Tie in the McCarthy era, I saw scrapping by the coaches (unusual for a game with absolutely no local rivalry) and someone laid out on the ground on the walk into the City. It appeared that he had been punched to the ground. If people around him hadnt helped, there were lots of little Saints scrotes looking to give him a kicking…

As a club: I remember us playing there in 2007, on our return from darkness. Their programme was properly condescending towards us, sniping about the lack of Blackpool fans at Alan Ball’s funeral at Winchester Cathedral.

As a city: It was levelled in the Second World War and rebuilt, as with other such cities, necessarily functionally. It has the usual range of cafes and bars but nothing special. The main attraction I would recommend is Sea City which tells the story how Southampton was affected by the sinking of the Titanic - the bulk of the staff on board came from the City.. but maybe that’s not where you want to go prior to a cruise..

Seasidestevo71 said:
Bet it’s rough crossing that bridge on match days as an away fan, got some pics but too big to post on here
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Away fans are directed to keep walking down the hill as opposed to crossing the bridge. Leaving aside the potential for trouble, the bridge has always struck me as a very narrow access point for the bulk of fans to approach the stadium.
 
20togo said:
which cruise ship? Just two weeks back from the fjords where we got the organised coach down from Blackpool to Southampton and back. Yep, didn't think much of the area we went thru in Southampton itself although the outskirts had some lovely properties.
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I’m going back to the Caribbean next February, flying to Barbados to pick up Arvia, last year we did the Caribbean on Britannia, and that was fantastic. I quite fancy doing the Fiords , but I want the best chance to see the northern lights. I might try Iona. Any info would be much appreciated.
 
Steve Birch said:
I’m going back to the Caribbean next February, flying to Barbados to pick up Arvia, last year we did the Caribbean on Britannia, and that was fantastic. I quite fancy doing the Fiords , but I want the best chance to see the northern lights. I might try Iona. Any info would be much appreciated.
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Birchy, it was the Fjords that got me into cruising 👍🏻 have done them twice and it's absolutely brilliant.
Doing my 1st med cruise in September this year, then the Caribbean again in Jan 26.
Best one we did was when me n Mrs Wizz celebrated our 60ths beginning of last year, Flew to Sydney, cruised up the east coast visiting 5 ports, then onto Philippines and Indonesia, finished in Hong Kong ( the only disappointment due to the weather) flew back from HK👍🏻
 
Steve Birch said:
I’m going back to the Caribbean next February, flying to Barbados to pick up Arvia, last year we did the Caribbean on Britannia, and that was fantastic. I quite fancy doing the Fiords , but I want the best chance to see the northern lights. I might try Iona. Any info would be much appreciated.
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yep done the Arvia from the Caribbean too.

I'm not sure you go far enough north in the fjords to see the lights but we were there in June and it was daylight gone midnight and it got no mention on the cruise so check that out for yourself. It's best in winter to see them. Seems that the ports of call can vary on each cruise too so just check before you book. We loved Flam, Olden and Stavanger.
 
Steve Birch said:
I’m going back to the Caribbean next February, flying to Barbados to pick up Arvia, last year we did the Caribbean on Britannia, and that was fantastic. I quite fancy doing the Fiords , but I want the best chance to see the northern lights. I might try Iona. Any info would be much appreciated.
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Highly recommend the Yukon or Alaska. Lived in that area for a year and the chances, plus the tourism infrastructure for it, are quite good. These last two years have been very prolific for aurora, I live in southern BC these days but I’ve seen the aurora 2-4 times a year easily.
 
On a cruise now(first time) got to say it ain't for me.
The food is brilliant the staff amazing but we like to do our own thing whilst away and it all seems a bit full on.
 
Me and my lot are doing the Fjords on Iona in 3 weeks time. First cruise for us, looking forward to it. We dock back in Southampton on the first game of the season so it's gonna be early disembarking and a quick drive home to Blackpool to get back for the Stevenage game.
 
Used to live a mile or so from St Mary’s and always got along well with Southampton fans. However me and my lad got dogs abuse walking back to the car after the last cup game there. Unnecessary given the league gap at the time and lack of local rivalry. Back there in a couple of weeks too for a cruise on Arvia…
 
Critchknows said:
Me and my lot are doing the Fjords on Iona in 3 weeks time. First cruise for us, looking forward to it. We dock back in Southampton on the first game of the season so it's gonna be early disembarking and a quick drive home to Blackpool to get back for the Stevenage game.
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Hope you enjoy it, we love them. When on board just do as much or as little as you want. If you want to do and see everything there really is so much choice.
 
Critchknows said:
Me and my lot are doing the Fjords on Iona in 3 weeks time. First cruise for us, looking forward to it. We dock back in Southampton on the first game of the season so it's gonna be early disembarking and a quick drive home to Blackpool to get back for the Stevenage game.
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Just one more tip seeing you want to get back for the game. There's two options for disembarking. They are both explained in their newspaper Horizon which you'll get every day and the one about getting off ship the day before. First option is to leave your cases outside your room before 10 pm the previous night and then collect them from the luggage hall. But to do this you have a set time for getting off. For me, and it's what we did, is just to take off your own cases as soon as you can then you can get straight to your car. Loads of people do this but the queue moves pretty quickly.
 
Just done a rib tour in hellesylt, did sky lift yesterday, the views and scenery everywhere are unreal ❤️

Cruising ain’t for everyone, we stay away from the main buffet area and prefer to pay the small fee for the better food/service

Did limelight club with Matt cradle who was very good
 
Seasidestevo71 said:
Anyone been? just had a walk up to the ground before boarding the cruise ship, fkin ell what a shit hole, the surrounding streets are worse than bond street.

The town centre in the other hand is brilliant, loads and loads of shops all open with plenty of places to eat, some lovely old buildings but then some dossy 1960’s flats in between.
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Went to a cup game a couple of years ago , had a very good curry in the town .
 
Low cloud first day but we were paddle boarding so didn’t matter, gorgeous when we was up the sky lift, warm and dry sunny spells last couple days 22-24 deg

Week before ship couldn’t dock in some ports
 
I currently live about 2 or so miles from St Mary’s Stadium, and yes, that area is certainly a tad neglected. I used to live a couple of hundred yards from the old Dell. Saints fans actually tried to nick my scarf back in 1976, after our FA cup match with them, but they were way too slow to catch me. I did after all, run for Blackpool & Fylde Athletic Club prior to moving South. Despite living down here for SO long, I’ve NEVER, EVER thought of following the Saints, and I NEVER, EVER will. There’s only ONE team for me, and I still get to many, many Pool matches. Re: cruising - I’ve been on four these past six months, alone. 34 in total. 🛳️👍🏼
 
Best chance of seeing Northern lights is to cruise up to the North Cape.
We've done it twice on Princess cruises both 14 nighters.
Northern lights were seen but it was around 3am and I'd drank too many vinos to be arsed to get up.
Saw a few videos the next day, looked impressive.
Best Norway tour for me was the Lofoten Islands in the Arctic Circle. Beyond spectacular.
 
7YearCritch said:
We did the Fjords on the Iona @Seasidestevo71 - disappointed by the ship - too big and everything felt rushed. My advice once you’ve been to Stavanger and Olsen stay on board!!
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We did arvia in the Caribbean in Nov for our first cruise, slightly bigger and updated from the Iona, opening sky dome, swim up bar etc heard the Iona is going in for a refurb
 
Seasidestevo71 said:
Oden by far the most picturesque, we did the sky lift in bright sunshine, stunning
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yep, Olden is very picturesque. We did Flam as well and that was pretty too. Stavangar much bigger but very pretty to look round in the old town. Our skylift trip was a disaster. The rain hammered it down and with low cloud you couldn't see anything. Pretty much got up and came straight back down.
 
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