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Ships, castles and spas – passing through southern England and Wales COMPLETED
Ships, castles and spas – passing through southern England and Wales
Dates: Wednesday 10 – Sunday 14 June Adventurers: Me, Cheryl (42), DH Mark (49) Destinations: Cardiff, Wales, Bath, Southampton and Portsmouth, England Resorts: Futures Inn Hotel, Cardiff, Cranleigh Bath and Holiday Inn Southampton Meets: our friends Bruce and Marta, who we first met on the inaugural Med cruise on the Magic in 2007
This trip report started when Marta got in touch with me on Facebook in September 2014 to say that they’d be coming to the UK in June 2015… more of which in a moment. We’d first met her and her husband Bruce on the inaugural Med cruise all the way back in the summer of 2007, and since then, we’ve met up with them on every visit we’ve made to Walt Disney World, as they live locally, and we were also on the same Alaskan cruise as them back in 2011.
Well, the message she sent me asked what we’d be doing over the weekend of 13 and 14 June, as in her words they’d be “passing through England on those dates”. They’d be flying into Heathrow on the afternoon, as it turned out, and then going to Southampton for the day, until they boarded the Queen Mary 2 in the evening to set sail on a return transatlantic cruise. And this is following three cruises on board the Magic, including the transatlantic over. I know, I know – pick yourself up off the floor at this point, it’s just unbelievable, isn’t it?
Her message got me thinking… we’d been talking about going back to the Thermae Bath Spa, which we’d first visited in May 2014, as we’d absolutely loved our day there (starts from post 584), and that’s not that far from Southampton (about an hour and a half), so maybe we should make a long weekend of it, and head to Bath on the Friday. A few weeks later, I got an email saying that the Doctor Who Exhibition would be reopening in Cardiff late in 2014, after a massive update, following the arrival of Peter Capaldi as the 12th Doctor. Now Cardiff is only an hour from Bath… I think you can see where this is going…
As a massive Doctor Who fan, I suggested to Mark that we expand our weekend even further, and take the Thursday off, so that we could go to the Doctor Who Exhibition on the Thursday. Ok, that works for me, although I know Mark wasn’t quite so sure…
Fast forward another couple of months, and I got an offer from Hotels.com, which was basically that you’d get two nights for the price of one as far as their loyalty scheme goes. With this, for every 10 nights you stay, you get one night free, so this was a good deal. Now obviously it would be better if we had a two night or more stay planned anywhere at any point… fine, except we didn’t. That got the wheels turning in my mind, and I think you can see where this is going…
I asked Mark how he felt about driving down to Cardiff on the Wednesday night, and he agreed to it. It’s June, so it should be light for most of the journey, and if we can leave around 6:00pm, provided the roads are clear, we should be in Cardiff by around 9:15pm – 9:30pm, which isn’t too bad, so I went ahead and booked two nights at the Future Inn Hotel in Cardiff, which is right by the Doctor Who Exhibition, and comes with free parking, a definite bonus as we’ll have the car with us. With two nights booked under the offer, that would count for four nights towards our next free night!
The next day as just going to be the exhibition, but then I realised that, despite visiting Cardiff two or three times previously, we’d never been to Cardiff Castle. Well, we could easily put that right, now we had a full day in Cardiff… The exhibition doesn’t open until 10:00am, while the castle opens at 9:00am, so that’s going to be our first stop of the day, then I’ve booked tickets to the Doctor Who Exhibition for 12:30pm. They reckon it takes 90 minutes to get around it, so that only takes us to the early afternoon. If we’re in a fit state, and still have time in the day, then we’ll put our National Trust membership to good use, and visit Tredegar House in Newport, about a 20 minute drive away.
Then as if that wasn’t enough, I discovered that there are previews of the movie Jurassic World that night. We were both really taken with the idea of seeing the film when we saw the trailer, as it’s about Jurassic Park operating as a theme park, and some of the elements in the trailers reminded us of existing theme parks, shall we say? There is a cinema almost next to the hotel, but the show times weren’t great, either too early, which would eat into our touring time during the day, or too late, and we figured we’d be asleep by the end of it. Mark eventually suggested checking out another major chain of cinemas, and although it’s not as conveniently located, at least the film times were much better, so we’re booked for a 3D showing of the film at 6:30pm that evening. After that, we’ll collapse back in a heap at our hotel room after a pretty busy day!
On the Friday, we’ll head over to Bath, and spend the day at the Thermae Bath Spa. Mark’s opted for exactly the same treatment he had last time, the hot stones vichy massage, a stone, oil, and water ritual using hydro massage techniques. You start with a full body exfoliation and cleanse, which is where the water ritual comes in, then it’s all finished off with a hot stone massage on the legs and back.
I’m going for something different, a bamboo massage, a deep tissue massage with warm bamboo sticks. As I love my hot stones massages that I regularly get, I figured this would be similar, and therefore should be just as enjoyable.
Both packages come with a four-hour spa session, lunch at the restaurant, and complimentary use of towel, robe and slippers. We plan on getting there around 10:30am, and our treatments are at 2:15pm, so we’ll still have time after our treatments, especially as the four-hour session doesn’t include time in the restaurant. I’m so looking forward to hopefully having warmer weather than last time, so we can spend more time in the rooftop pool!
That night, after much hunting around, as most bed and breakfast places in the area insist on a minimum two night stay if you’re staying a Friday night I found a well rated B&B called Cranleigh that had no such requirement, so I booked ourselves into it. I’ve also managed to find a pub that’s apparently got lovely views of the surrounding countryside, and again is well rated on TripAdvisor, so I’ve booked that, and at least we don’t have to worry about dinner for that night.
The plan for Saturday, as Bruce and Marta aren’t flying into Heathrow until mid-afternoon and probably won’t make it to Southampton for another couple of hours after that, is that we’ll start off by visiting Prior Park Landscape Garden in Bath, another National Trust place. The plan is then to head for Mottisfont, another National Trust property, and there’s even the chance of visiting the famous Stourhead gardens again (we went about seven years ago), as that’s sort of on the way. As you can see, I plan on putting our membership to very good use this trip.
We’ll then head for the Holiday Inn Southampton, as that’s where Bruce and Marta are staying. That means we can have dinner together at the hotel, then head up to our rooms (it’s always more relaxing when you don’t have to drive anywhere after a meal).
We’ll then get breakfast together the next morning, before we take them over to visit the Mary Rose in the Naval Base in Portsmouth. We’ve seen the Mary Rose, but not since the purpose built museum opened in May 2013, so I’m really excited to see that, as I’m sure that it will present her in an amazing way that befits such a grand ship.
We’ll then get Bruce and Marta to the station, so they can head back to Southampton. It’s fairly cheap on the train, and it takes about an hour, but if we drop them back, it’ll add over an hour to our journey, so we’d rather head home, as we’d like some time back in our own house before we head back to work the next morning.
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Another packed weekend for you! A long one, too. Very nice to be seeing Bruce and Marta again. I've met Bruce a couple of times back when he was posting as "Zazu" on rec. arts.disney.parks long ago. His posts were amazing!! Sounds like he and Marta should just get a permanent cabin on the Magic! Happy and safe travels!
This is sure to be a great long weekend - lots of fun things lined up!
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Tanya
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OK, first of all, so of Bruce & Marta and their trip! THREE cruises on the Magic, with a EBTA, and then a second crossing, on the QE2?!?! Lucky!
Second, I'm excited to read about what there is around Southampton, since I've mentioned we hope to be sailing in/out of that port in August of 2016. I'd feel so much better getting to Southampton the day before we sail, so I'll also be interested in your review of the hotel.
Have a great trip! I guess you'll be hitting the road in only a few more hours!
Another packed weekend for you! A long one, too. Very nice to be seeing Bruce and Marta again. I've met Bruce a couple of times back when he was posting as "Zazu" on rec. arts.disney.parks long ago. His posts were amazing!! Sounds like he and Marta should just get a permanent cabin on the Magic! Happy and safe travels!
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We’d first met her and her husband Bruce on the inaugural Med cruise all the way back in the summer of 2007, and since then, we’ve met up with them on every visit we’ve made to Walt Disney World, as they live locally, and we were also on the same Alaskan cruise as them back in 2011. 
I know, I know – pick yourself up off the floor at this point, it’s just unbelievable, isn’t it? 
A few weeks later, I got an email saying that the Doctor Who Exhibition would be reopening in Cardiff late in 2014, after a massive update, following the arrival of Peter Capaldi as the 12th Doctor. Now Cardiff is only an hour from Bath… 
I think you can see where this is going… 
That got the wheels turning in my mind, and I think you can see where this is going… 
With two nights booked under the offer, that would count for four nights towards our next free night! 
I found a well rated B&B called Cranleigh that had no such requirement, so I booked ourselves into it. I’ve also managed to find a pub that’s apparently got lovely views of the surrounding countryside, and again is well rated on TripAdvisor, so I’ve booked that, and at least we don’t have to worry about dinner for that night. 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
of Bruce & Marta and their trip! 
Waiting for our next adventure after enjoying our Alaska cruise. 
Jenn
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