We are mostly independent travellers who have been using cruise ships over the past 4 years to see places we were curious to see but not necessarily for a lengthy stay. During this time we have taken 15 cruises - 4 Celebrity, 4 Disney, 3 Royal Caribbean, 3 Princess and 1 Viking oceans. I have enjoyed them all for different reasons but this one will always stand out in my memory for the bawdiness of some of the passengers. Sad to say, this was also our first cruise out of Southampton and the offending passengers were fellow Brits.
If you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, it looked like a booze cruise on steroids, with bad language and behaviour to match.
I am sure that the vast majority of passengers were absolutely fine, and I am guessing that it was possible to enjoy this cruise without seeing any of this. Certainly in the dining room (we eat early at breakfast and dinner) and on the ship's excursions, the passengers were as unremarkable as any we have encountered on other cruises, and we spoke to many pleasant people.
We hired a car here (in advance) and collected it at the port. This worked very well and was cost-effective.
We crossed the road and turned right after leaving the ship, and took a regular bus which does a circular tour. It took 40 minutes and cost 1.33 euros per person. We then had a walk round and stopped for coffees at a nice pavement cafe.
Disappointed with the short amount of time at this port, but have since seen that this is not unusual so it could be to do with the tides at this port?