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[jonny shoreboy]

My In-laws are over visiting from Australia at the moment and tomorrow I'm taking them down to Portsmouth for a look around and to visit the Mary Rose, HMS Warrior and of coarse the HMS Victory. Hopefully we will also take a harbour cruise to look at some of the Royal Navy fleet the might be in dock at the time.

It's always a great day out and HMS Victory is one of my favourite ships. Good times.

[DARLEK1]

It is a great thing to do is that, I love it when I can get down there.
 Paul...
 PS, Don't forget "Action stations" if it is stil there?

[craftysod]

Hope you have a good time down here mate,i have booked good weather for you
Mark

[Colin Bishop]

You'll have a busy day then!

I go down there quite often, never get bored. Check out the RN Museum shop for book bargains. If you are lucky with the harbour cruise you might get a view like this.

Head for the Victory first to avoid the queues, they have free flow visiting at the moment which means you can wander around at your own pace instead of being guided - much better.

Best place for a snack is the Georgian tea rooms on the left opposite the Nauticalia store.

Paul, yes Action Stations is still there but more for kids really.

Colin

[DARLEK1]

Cheers Colin, us kids like shooting things 
 Paul...

[Colin Bishop]

I meant kids of all ages Paul! I enjoyed it too. 

Colin

[DARLEK1]

 

[DARLEK1]

Is the Merlin sim thing still there?
 It wasn't working right last time I was there and I can flippin fly a chopper, all the contolls were backwards or not working!
 Paul...

[Rex Hunt]

All in one day ticket is a good bargain Paul......money well spent.......unused portions are valid for a year in case you cannot do everything in one day!

Submarine exhibition just over the ferry into Gosport is worth the trip too.....and don't forget the D-Day museum and RM museums at Southsea and Eastney too!

Rex

[DARLEK1]

I know Rex, is "Explosion" still going or not ?, that was interesting.
 They have full size weapons and missiles in there or did have.
 Paul...

[DARLEK1]

It is one serious hard thing for me to see the Pompy stuff still going strong after the "Plymouth " fiasco! We got almost everything working on there only to be shut down by a gready land grabber. Don't worry those of you who do not know, but, it was a very big company who did the dirty on us.

 Paul...

[Colin Bishop]

The Explosion museum is still there but came very close to closure not so long ago as a result of which it is now only open at weekends - still definitely worth a visit though. The problem is that it's a bit off the beaten track. Most visitors would probably come from Portsmouth and it's a 20 minute walk from the Gosport ferry and not on a bus route. There was some talk of extending the waterbus service up the harbour to near the museum but nothing appears to have happened so far.

The Historic Dockyard itself has to work very hard to keep people coming through the gates. Once you've seen the main exhibits like the Victory, Mary Rose and Warrior then you've seen them so getting people to make return visits is an issue. The way they are tackling that is to hold a series of family friendly themed events and activities throughout the year. Earlier in the year I went to the Festival of Steam when the place was full of working traction engines and other road vehicles - it was very good. A few weeks back they had "The Royal Navy - Past and Present" with HMS Daring open to visitors, extensive model boating displays and a chance to see the Royal Naval Museum's reserve model collections which were beautifully presented - I shall be covering this in Model Boats magazine.

For several years now we have been going to the Festival of Christmas held at the end of November which has a Victorian theme, lots of craft shops and a French Market. A real Christmassy atmosphere with actors dressed up in period costume and lots of fake snow.

If this sounds like a bit of a plug for the place, it is! The more people that visit, the more secure this collection of our maritime heritage will be. Check it out here: http://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/

Colin

[jonny shoreboy]

Just got back and had a wonderful time. Thanks to Craftysod for booking the weather, it was fantastic!
Did the boat cruise this time and I have never seen so many navy ships in one place at one time! (I am from New Zealand were we have 2 frigates, and that's about it..).
There were 3 Aircraft carriers (Ark Royal, Illustrious and one other?) Lots of Frigates including the new funky HMS Darling, and a few sitting in Rotten Way(?).
Spent 2 hours wondering HMS Victory which is always great fun and a long time talking to the crew on HMS Warrior. There is so much to see and do we didn't manage to see it all, but we did see lots we missed the first time.
Some of the new stuff was one of the sails from HMS Victory from the battle of Trafalgar, the largest preserved textile in the world. Got to walk around in the hold of the Victory and see the steam engines and boilers on the Warrior. I also got to play with a replica Longbow (really hard to pull and hold!) and dressed up in some armour and helmet (much to many small childrems amusement).
Seriously cool day out and the full day pass is a BARGIN!!!

[Colin Bishop]

Glad you enjoyed it. Next time try Chatham which is also very good.

Colin