---
title: "Finding Our Land Legs in Southampton: From Queen Mary 2 to Peppa Pig World"
slug: "finding-our-land-legs-in-southampton-from-queen-mary-2-to-peppa-pig-world"
description: "We finally reached England! Our first taste of life as a full-time traveling family in Southampton was a mix of exhaustion, exploration, and pure magic at Peppa Pig World."
author: "Adam Clarkson"
lang: "en"
date: "2022-05-26"
published_at: "2022-05-26T22:56:00.000-04:00"
updated_at: "2026-06-14T04:28:42.000-04:00"
feature_image: "https://adamandlinds.com/content/images/2025/06/4280cb45acf1defbcd60bbd92b4a871c.jpeg"
tags: ["Journal", "cunard", "southampton", "UK", "northern-europe", "Europe", "Family", "cruise", "#retag-v2"]
canonical_url: "https://adamandlinds.com/finding-our-land-legs-in-southampton-from-queen-mary-2-to-peppa-pig-world/"
---

After seven days at sea on the Queen Mary 2, we finally made it to England! Our first official week as a full time traveling family in Southampton turned out to be a wild mix of sheer exhaustion, survival mode exploring, and pure, unfiltered magic at Peppa Pig World.

Here is how we survived our first taste of life on the road.

* * *

## Stepping Off the Ship into Pure Confusion

Getting off the Queen Mary 2 was somehow harder than getting on it, and mind you, we had originally arrived in New York with three cranky kids and a small mountain of luggage. After a week of knowing exactly where the nearest bathroom, elevator, and pint of beer at the Golden Lion Pub were, we were suddenly thrust into the real world, wandering around following cryptic signs that may or may not have led to actual freedom.

Naturally, the girls handled it way better than we did. While Linds and I stood there looking completely overwhelmed, they were already plotting their next move. Thankfully, customs was a breeze since we had handled immigration back on the ship. Before we knew it, we were officially standing on English soil, American passports in hand, with our entire lives packed into a few suitcases.

![Cora, Harper, and Lily parked on top of the luggage pile outside the cruise terminal in Southampton](https://pub-7aaf5c6cc1c2496e8b9429b2cc0fe010.r2.dev/photos/large/73e23324-db4d-4f71-af99-2d728c0ccd4a.jpg)

Cora, Harper, and Lily parked on top of our massive luggage pile outside the cruise terminal, killing time after disembarking with nowhere to go yet.

* * *

## When Your Airbnb Host Completely Ghosts You

Nothing quite prepares you for the moment you are standing in a foreign country with three little kids, and your Airbnb host completely ghosts you. We sent messages, checked our phones every thirty seconds, and honestly started wondering if we had accidentally booked a place in an alternate dimension.

Standing outside the Southampton cruise terminal looking like we were either moving to England permanently or fleeing the law, we faced our first real test as international nomads: panic or pivot? We chose to pivot. We ordered an Uber, figuring worst case scenario we would just sit on the sidewalk outside the apartment looking pathetic until someone took pity on us.

### Finding History (and a Fast-Food Lifesaver)

While we waited for the housing drama to sort itself out, we set off to explore. Southampton immediately surprised us. It is this cool blend of historical charm and modern, family friendly practicality. One minute you are looking at a massive medieval gatehouse that is completely unbothered by the modern city built around it, and the next you are walking into a Burger King.

Look, eating a Whopper your first hour in England sounds terribly American, but after a week of "okay" cruise food, we just wanted comfort. The girls were fascinated by the subtle differences. They swore the ketchup tasted weird (though I wouldn't know since I firmly believe ketchup is the spawn of Satan, but Linds thinks they were making it up).

The real lifesaver was a playground we stumbled upon around the corner, complete with a massive pirate ship and castle. After a week of reminding the girls to use their "inside voices" on the ship, watching them run wild and just scream with joy was exactly what we needed. Even Harper, who is usually suspicious of other kids, forgot her hesitation the second she saw the slide.

![Bags dumped at a picnic table in St Mary's Playground](https://pub-7aaf5c6cc1c2496e8b9429b2cc0fe010.r2.dev/photos/large/50e37e2c-ce60-405d-8665-f2e8ad0856b8.jpg)

Bags dumped at a picnic table in St Mary's Playground while the girls ran loose and burned off a week of cruise energy.

* * *

## Managing Meltdowns with Giant Cookies

Eventually, we moved our temporary headquarters to the West Quay shopping center to keep waiting for news on the apartment. By this point, the girls were hitting a wall, our stress levels were spiking, and I discovered that giant sugar cookies make excellent emergency parenting tools. Judge if you want, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Pro tip: When the kids are hitting a hard travel wall and you are still waiting on housing, giant mall cookies are a completely acceptable medical intervention.

While riding a sugar high, the girls spotted these colossal teddy bears in a shop window. They weren't just big; they were the size of actual adult humans and probably cost more than our weekly grocery budget. Lily insisted on taking approximately forty-seven photos with them, because apparently that is mandatory protocol when you are three.

![Lily drinking her first Coke at the mall](https://pub-7aaf5c6cc1c2496e8b9429b2cc0fe010.r2.dev/photos/large/b0dc4e0a-9c6c-4923-9c1a-248ff4a26278.jpg)

Day one in Southampton and Lily is already fully committed to her first ever Coke, shared with Cora at the mall across from our Airbnb.

* * *

## Settling into Full-Time Survival Mode

When our host finally materialized via text, we were so relieved we probably would have agreed to sleep in a broom closet. By the time we actually unlocked the door, we were all running on absolute fumes.

That first night was pure survival mode: find food and water, crack open a beer for the adults (non negotiable), start the laundry, and get everyone to sleep before a total meltdown occurred. Once we caught our breath, Southampton proved to be the perfect landing pad. We filled the fridge at the local grocery store and took the girls to a nearby Lego store so they could play with something familiar in an unfamiliar place.

![Adam morning selfie in Airbnb kitchen](https://pub-7aaf5c6cc1c2496e8b9429b2cc0fe010.r2.dev/photos/large/20939319-194c-4009-acec-f9e6919a9af0.jpg)

Trying to look like I have it together in the Airbnb kitchen, even while dealing with a brutal UTI and trying to plan our next steps.

### Our First Proper British Meal

Our first proper meal had to be fish and chips. There is something almost ceremonial about eating the national dish in its homeland, even if you are eating it while actively preventing your toddler from dumping mushy peas all over the floor.

The girls approached it with typical kid logic, meaning they were deeply suspicious of anything that wasn't a standard chicken nugget. But even they had to admit it was pretty good. Cora, however, spent the entire meal asking when we could go back to the pirate ship playground.

We had planned to stop filming for the night, but documenting our first British fish and chips felt too important to skip. We are still figuring out this whole family vlogging thing, and we are learning that the best moments usually happen when you stop overthinking it.

* * *

## The Big Reveal: Heading to Peppa Pig World

We had been sitting on a massive secret for days, and keeping it from three kids who ask roughly twelve thousand questions an hour was an Olympic sport. When we finally announced that we weren't going to a normal park, but were actually heading to Peppa Pig World, the reaction was pure gold.

The screaming was instant. Lily started jumping up and down like she had won the lottery, Cora started chanting "Peppa Pig World" like a magical incantation, and Harper just started yelling because her sisters were yelling.

Honestly? Peppa Pig World (which sits inside Paultons Park) completely blew us away. My expectations weren't exactly sky high (I mean, how good can a theme park based on a cartoon pig really be?), but it turned out incredible. It was immaculately clean, beautifully designed, and genuinely fun, even for the adults who suddenly found themselves caring deeply about ride height requirements.

### Tackling the Roller Coasters

Watching Lily realize she was tall enough for the Storm Chaser roller coaster was one of those parenting moments that hits you out of nowhere. One minute she is your little toddler who needs help putting on her shoes, and the next she is strapping herself into a coaster looking completely fearless.

Of course, Linds missed the shot because technology loves to fail at the exact moment you need it most. This meant Lily \*had\* to ride it a second time "for the camera" (which was basically the easiest parenting request we have ever made).

The rides were a blast. The teacups made us predictably nauseous, the boat ride was wonderfully chill, and everything was perfectly scaled for little kids who think anything taller than them is a "big kid ride".

### Chasing Dinosaurs as a Team

Beyond the Peppa area, Paultons Park has a Lost Kingdom section with animatronic dinosaurs that looked realistic enough to make Harper a little nervous and Cora totally obsessed. We hopped in little jeeps for the Dinosaur Tour Company ride, winding through a jungle while T-Rexes did their best to look menacing.

Lily was brave enough to pet one of the raptors (mostly just to show off for her little sisters, I suspect), and Cora spent the whole ride making dinosaur roaring noises.

We also hit a classic family travel speed bump when Cora turned out to be too short for one of the coasters. Lily immediately announced she wasn't going to ride it if her sister couldn't. It was either incredibly sweet or incredibly inconvenient, depending on how you look at it, but it was a good reminder that on a trip like this, we are a team. We win together, and we sit out rides together.

* * *

## Our Southampton Footprint

## Our Southampton & Paultons Park Stops

Everywhere we dragged our bags, ordered food, or chased cartoon pigs during our first week in England.

{ "places": \[ { "name": "Southampton Cruise Terminal", "lat": 50.90569722, "lng": -1.42986667, "desc": "Where we disembarked the Queen Mary 2 and waited for five hours with a small mountain of luggage.", "type": "stop" }, { "name": "St Mary's Playground", "lat": 50.90471389, "lng": -1.40149167, "desc": "The awesome pirate-themed park where the girls finally got to use their outside voices.", "type": "attraction" }, { "name": "The West Quay Mall (The Polygon)", "lat": 50.90554722, "lng": -1.40502222, "desc": "Our temporary headquarters for noodles, emergency flamingo cookies, and Lily's first-ever taste of Coke.", "type": "restaurant" }, { "name": "Southampton Airbnb (St Mary's)", "lat": 50.90538333, "lng": -1.40409167, "desc": "Home sweet temporary home where we entered total survival mode, did laundry, and finally slept.", "type": "hotel" }, { "name": "Peppa Pig World at Paultons Park", "lat": 50.9482, "lng": -1.5524, "desc": "The ultimate surprise destination. Clean, beautifully kept, and featured way more roller coasters than Linds and I expected.", "type": "attraction" } \], "segments": \[\] }

* * *

## Lessons from Our First Week Abroad

Looking back, Southampton was the absolute perfect training ground for our introduction to European travel. London would have totally overwhelmed us right out of the gate. Southampton gave us the space to figure out the basics, like how to navigate a British grocery store and whether English playgrounds were different from American ones (they aren't, but the accents are way cuter).

It taught us that flexibility isn't just a nice trait to have; it is your lifeline. Plans will fail. Hosts will disappear. Kids will cry. Sometimes, you will eat cookies for lunch. But those unplanned, messy moments are always the stories you laugh about later.

We also learned the value of balancing the foreign with the familiar. We explored medieval history, but we also bought Legos and ate Burger King when the kids just needed a comfort zone.

### Next Stop: London!

After a few days, the girls had adjusted to new beds, different food, and the unpredictable rhythm of travel. We proved to ourselves that we could actually do this full time travel thing, even if we have no idea what we are doing half the time.

Seeing the pure, unadulterated joy on our daughters' faces at the park made every ounce of stress, planning, and panic completely worth it. London, we are coming for you. But that is a story for the next post!

### Ready to plan your own family adventure in England?

Let Linds handle the heavy lifting! Reach out to custom-curate an unforgettable trip for your crew, whether it is a quick weekend escape or a life-changing international expedition.

[Contact Lindsay](mailto:lindsay.clarkson@fora.travel)