There’s only one ship in town today, so the roads around Southampton are far less busy. Embarkation at City Terminal is smooth and painless – especially as we have now reached Platinum status with Princess Cruises. This entitles us to priority boarding, which is nice. There is also no longer any need to provide proof of a negative Covid test, which dramatically speeds up the check-in process.

Onboard, and everything feels very familiar. We have a sandwich and a cocktail, visit our cabin stateroom, enjoy the ‘complimentary’ glass of bubbles and head down to the dining room for lunch. Later we go out on deck to witness our departure from port to the strains of Styx’s classic Come Sail Away.

Later after dinner we visit the Vista Lounge in the hope of playing in the quiz being hosted by celebrity chef, John Torode. It’s standing room only, so we head back to our stateroom and watch a movie instead.

Tomorrow is a sea day, so everyone onboard is hitting the bars hard. Things could be messy at breakfast.

Sleep.