September 2024. My parents in law have been wanting to go on a cruise for a while now but didn’t feel like going on their own so they tagged along with Sam and I. My father in law’s ultimate destination would be the Norwegian Fjords, combined with the new that soon-ish cruises to the Fjords would be limited (and thus price sky-rocketing) we decided to cruise to the Norwegian Fjords. Considering I have to take time off at work outside of major school holidays we were looking at September-October, combined with my wish to cruise for longer than a week we ended up with a P&O cruise out of Southampton. 

As travelling all the way from Antwerp to Southampton on the day the cruise would set sail was way too ambitious, with too much variables able to make things go wrong we decided to stay a night in Southampton before the cruise.

The Novotel in Southampton is located right in between the main railway station and the cruise port (at least the one where our ship left). The hotel is located in an Accor cluster with an Ibis and Ibis Budget right next door. Beyond the hotels there where some parking lots with big box stores and both an IKEA and big shopping centre at the far end. When walking though the shopping centre you ended up in the old town centre. This wasn’t anything special and we only made a small stroll.

The Novotel is what you would consider an ‘old’ Novotel. The styling is a bit dated and there is no air-conditioning in the rooms. Despite visiting in September on a cold and rainy day the rooms where still very warm, I can’t imagine what it’s like on a truly hot summer’s day.

Thanks to my ALL gold status we received ‘upgraded’ rooms on the third floor. We looked over the main road into the port with the police station at the opposite side of the road and the hotel had proactively installed a second set of windows to keep the noise out, which worked perfectly as we had a solid night of sleep. My parents in law sleeping at the opposite side of the building looked over the parking and only had a single set of windows.

The room had a double bed in the middle of the room, with the typical old-style Novotel hard mattress. Only one side of the bed had a 230v AC power plug. The sofa was also made up as a fold out bed, we folded it back up to use as a sofa. Opposite the bed was the desk with a swivelling part to be used as a dining table for room service. In the entrance corridor was also the closet to store stuff as well as the mini-fridge with complimentary water and kettle for tea and instant coffee.

The bathroom was divided into two parts as is usual in legacy Novotel’s. The toilet had its own separate room with a solid door.

The rest of the bathroom was located off the bedroom with a set of barn doors. It contained a full bath, a sink with a weirdly located faucet and a shower (which always flooded the bathroom, no matter how well you closed the door).

There were plenty of towels and rituals products provided. Bathrobes and slippers to got to the pool where missing however.

If we wanted to visit the pool or gym we had to sign in at the reception before a member of staff would let us in by opening the code-locked door. The gym and pool both looked good and provided just wat they had to.

A nice addition would have been a sun terrace for the summer as the pool is on the ground floor right next to the garden.

As we had a booked a Dinner Bed and Breakfast rate we had dinner at the hotel. We had the choice of either a set 3-course dining menu or a £23 dining credit. We opted for the 3-course set menu, as it offered the best value for money. It offered three options for starter, main and dessert. However of the three main options on the menu two where out and replaced by items on the à la carte menu. When we order the replacement item from the a la carte menu it also ran out. In the end we had to contend ourselves with the only option left, the Thai curry.

Also the delivery of the items form the kitchen was chaotic, with wrong dishes brought out. The server really did her best to make it all well despite everything that went wrong. Luckily at least the taste of the food was very good.

In the morning a standard a buffet was offered with the usual cold and hot options you would expect from a Novotel hotel.

In the end we had a good stay at the Novotel Southampton. Event though the hotel could do with a refurb it still is a good and solid place to stay before starting off your cruise holiday from Southampton. I would discourage having dinner at the hotel though, as in the neighbouring shopping centre you can find much more attractive looking dining options.