Seadays

“Ponta Delgada is the largest municipality and economic capital of the Autonomous Region of the Azores in Portugal“

We arrived as planned in Ponta Delgada on Sunday. The port is only a few minutes walk from the main town centre so we hadn’t booked any trips and just had a wander around. It is a very quaint area with some pretty buildings and a lovely botanical garden. The sun was out but it was a little on the breezy side – nice weather for walking though. We had done some googling for a place to eat and found somewhere a little out of town but definitely worth the effort. Andrew got his fish fix and I had a delicious chicken dish – it was really good and buzzing with what looked like local families out for their Sunday lunch. Being Sunday a lot of the shops were closed but there was an anniversary parade going on and a big Easter display in a park, so lots to see. We spent a while wandering around the botanical garden, did a little bit of shopping in a supermarket that was open and then headed back to the ship. It was a lovely day and quite a relaxed one for our final stop before home.

So that was two days ago and we are now heading back towards Southampton, arriving on Thursday morning.

The last few days we’ve had sunshine back again so we’ve been making the most of that. We have a formal evening tonight then tomorrow will be busy packing up our cabin. We’ve had an absolutely wonderful time but feel ready for home now and are really looking forward to seeing everyone.

Just a few bits and pieces:

Every day there are various things going on around the ship and a few days ago we decided we should try our hands at quoits and shuffleboard. Didn’t get on very well with quoits but shuffleboard is fun. Of course we hadn’t realised there was a well established group of people who had been ‘shuffling’ since day one of the cruise. You play in pairs and get partnered up with a random person – Andrew struck lucky with his partner Brenda – a skilled player. It is a daily knock out competition and with Brenda’s encouragement they only went through and won in the final! This resulted in a gold sticker which, we hadn’t realised until then, you collect for winning things thoughout the cruise and can then cash in for P&O prizes. Feeling confident, Andrew entered again the next day – AND WON AGAIN – different partner but still with Brenda cheerleading from the sides. I was a bit worried we’d get lynched! However he’s going for another win and we may just leave the ship with a lovely P&O umbrella!

Several days ago we saw evidence of a school of whales alongside the ship. Could only see what was coming from the blow holes but it was quite clear and then we did see one classic image of a tail flicking out of the water. It all happened too fast for photos but was quite exciting and our only sighting of anything like that.

There was another slightly dramatic tannoy message a few days ago when our captain announced we had confirmed cases of norovirus onboard and various activities were cancelled because of it. They have now been reinstated so fingers crossed….

The entertainment continues to be really good and we’ve done quite a few fun and lighthearted quizzes. Sitting in the theatre one evening before the show Andrew overheard someone behind him complaining about one of the previous nights acts. Apparently he’d seen the act three times and “it was rubbish; you couldn’t pay me to watch it again” – Andrew couldn’t help but politely ask why he had gone back the second and third time!

Finally, a couple more of the photos we had taken on the professional photo shoot. The main reason for doing it was to try and replicate the fabulous photo of Andrew’s great grandparents on a cruise ship. We just love the fact that they have such serious faces while wearing party hats!

Well, that’s it then as, all being well, we’ll be back in Stamford in around 48 hours! Can’t wait to see everyone but we won’t have anything to say as you know it all already!

p.s. Sadly Andrew’s shuffleboard winning streak seems to have ended – looking more like we’ll be leaving with a pen and keyring set!! Hey ho!

We’re a couple of sea days past these stops now – at the risk of upsetting anyone – there’s been too much sunshine since to miss out on! Sadly for us it’s much cooler and cloudy today (Wed 29th) and we’ve had some rain, so here’s what we’ve been up to:

Miami

We were warned it was Spring break so would be extra busy. We had a two part excursion booked – first was a boat trip around Biscayne Bay including pointing out some homes of the rich and famous but unfortunately due to road closures that part had to be cancelled. There was also a change in our pickup point which we hadn’t got a message about resulting in us walking several blocks and getting a taxi to catch the second part of our trip which we did by the skin of our teeth!

This was an airboat trip through the Everglades and was fabulous. We saw several alligators in their natural environment along with vultures flying overhead and were told about the plants and other wildlife that exists there. It was a great experience.

After the boat there was a guy in an enclosure with several alligators. Our initial thoughts were “this can’t be in the alligators best interests” but he explained that they had been classed as “nuisance alligators”. If an alligator, believed to pose an immediate threat to people, their property, and/or pets, smaller than 4 feet is caught it can be released but if it is larger than 4 feet the trapper can either kill it or sell it to an alligator farm, animal exhibit or zoo, it can’t be released into the wild. Apparently these alligators would have been harvested for their meat and hides had they not been rescued. He was very entertaining and explained why they were unlikely to see him as ‘dinner’ but even so….

Back in the city things were getting loud and busy but great fun to be a part of – 1000s of students in festival clothes and make up and a buzzing atmosphere. We decided we needed to sample a burger American style and sat outside in the sunshine at ‘Margaritaville’ watching and listening to it all. They were delicious but obviously large and on a huge plate. We didn’t struggle too much so it’s a good job we don’t do this every day!

Back on the ship we had live music out on deck until around 11p.m. which was lovely.

Port Canaveral

Most importantly – Anna’s birthday. We had a Whatsapp video call in the morning and another one later in the day which were lovely but it seemed very strange not being there.. sad face.

Today’s trip was to the Kennedy Space Centre. Neither of us were sure how much we would enjoy this trip but had been told by several people how good it was. They were absolutely right – it was fantastic. So much to see and do that unfortunately we ran out of time to experience the simulator which puts you in the shoes of an astronaut during a launch, but we managed to cover most of the rest of it. There were loads of interesting exhibits, information, spectacular 3d films and old footage of launches.

It was a really good day and as we waited for our bus back to the ship we sampled a bottle of Mountain Dew lemonade and a Root beer float – both delicious at the end of another very hot day!

This last picture is in the Firing Room Theatre, and Google description is – “relive the launch of the first manned NASA mission to orbit the Moon onboard the huge Saturn V rocket in 1968. As you watch and feel the massive Saturn V Moon rocket lift off from the launch pad and blast into space, experience the count for Apollo 8 on the real consoles used during the Apollo missions”. It was quite an experience.

So that’s the end of the main part of this trip. Five sea days before our final stop at Ponta Delgada in the Azores on Sunday 2nd.

Couple of things that have happened over the last few days –

Remember we had to miss our first port of call in Bermuda? Yesterday we had a tannoy announcement that sadly due to another medical evacuation (or the daily medivac as we now know them as) our course was being diverted to Bermuda being the nearest land. So we saw Bermuda, but from our windows… you couldn’t make it up!

On the latest formal night we took the opportunity to book a photo session. We also ate in the fine dining restaurant ‘Epicurean’ which was sensational. A wonderful experience, sitting on the balcony watching the sunset enjoying delicious food. We paid a quick trip to the driving range as well!

We’ve had some fabulous entertainment in the evenings, brilliant singers, comedians and great quality variety shows – the conspiracy theory is they keep the best for last to minimise complaints – but we are just enjoying them!

Hopefully the weather will be kind and we see some more sunshine for our last few days!

Just wow!! We had an absolutely brilliant time in New Orleans..

We had been warned that all crew and even passengers who didn’t want to get off the ship had to be immigration cleared and this could take some time. We were given numbers for when we could go to start the process and we were called at around 8.00 a.m. – that’s good we thought.. Three hours later, still queuing, even our tethers were getting short and you can imagine the complaining going on around us. Some people who didn’t get called until later on didn’t get off the ship until around 4.00 p.m. so obviously very frustrating for them. Not a great start and communication/direction from P&O staff was definitely lacking.

Anyway, not to dwell on that, we were able to leave the ship around 11.30 a.m. in glorious sunshine. We’d booked brunch at The Court of Two Sisters, a well known historic restaurant which Andrew had been to when he visited 39 years ago! We could help ourselves to a buffet of dishes including jambalaya, gumbo, corn bread, grits, beans and lots more traditional choices. These were washed down by a couple of cold mint juleps – altogether absolutely delicious. We sat in the courtyard garden with a jazz band playing in the corner.

After that we had a two hour guided walking tour around the French Quarter. Our guide was fabulous and gave us lots of really interesting information about the history of New Orleans, Cajuns and Creoles and various aspects of life over the years.

After the tour finished we were just in time for our next booking at Preservation Hall.

Now I have to be honest – my jazz knowledge is very limited and when Andrew mentioned booking this I had in mind a regular bar where some old style jazz was played which would be fun. How ignorant am I, as it is truly an iconic venue and what you actually have is a 45minute session (no break, no bar, no bathroom) of absolutely wonderful jazz in a room that doesn’t appear to have changed at all over the years. It had an incredible atmosphere and felt like we were part of something really special. We both agreed it was the highlight of the whole trip so far.

Then back to the ship for our only overnight stop.

Next morning up bright and early to make the most of the time we had, another brunch was obviously necessary. This time Andrew went for a seafood omelette which came with beans and hash browns and, after hearing our guide yesterday talking about one of their French influenced but renowned dishes, I had the beignets with banana sauce – both were delicious.

After that we had a two hour trip on a paddle boat up and down the Mississippi with commentary and a jazz band playing on the top deck.

Just time to do a bit of shopping around a food and craft market then sample a famous Hurricane cocktail in Pat O’Briens. Pat O’Brien’s, Hurricanes are made with a mix of rum and Hurricane mix from the original recipe crafted in the 1940s. Google says – “The Hurricane was created at Pat O’Brien’s in the 1940’s during World War II. During that time, there was a huge surplus of rum coming from the Caribbean islands, while domestic liquor was scarce”.

We were warned to only have one and we paid attention to that!

Very sad to leave but felt we had packed as much as we could in the time we had and it was amazing.

We have since had yesterday and today at sea – the weather is beautiful so we are doing lots of relaxing and reading (and quite a bit of eating)

Of course there had to be more drama – we were woken up at around midnight last night by a tannoy announcement saying a helicopter was being deployed to us for some reason and for people to stay off their balconies on the port side. As yet no idea what actually happened but Chinese whispers are once more flying around the ship like wildfire!

By the way we found this report about the rescue Ventura performed the other day – https://www.cruisehive.com/po-cruise-ship-safely-rescues-three-from-sailing-yacht/96875

Next stop tomorrow Miami!

We had three very busy days and are now having two to recover – all three stops were fantastic.

Thursday 16th – Cozumel, Mexico

Cozumel is an island and municipality in the Caribbean Sea off the eastern coast of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, opposite Playa del Carmen.

We had booked a diving experience here where you wear a helmet with an air pipe attached and can walk along under the sea but unfortunately we had both picked up a bit of a cold and the description mentioned being able to breathe easily so we thought it sensible to cancel that one.

Andrew did some googling and found a place that hired out paddleboards next door to a free access bar restaurant with swimming pool – perfect!
It was a short taxi ride from the port so we spent a very happy day there. Andrew had an hour’s guided paddleboard in the sea which went well and I had a swim in the pool. Had some delicious quesadillas and tacos in the sunshine – a very relaxing day.

Back on board a ‘Sailaway’ party had been announced as we hadn’t had one from Southampton due to the late departure. We were alongside another huge ship full of American passengers and we were leaving first. Along with our entertainments team and everyone up on the deck we were having a good old singalong, waving flags and waving goodbye to our neighbours. We had covered off ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ and ‘Rule Brittania’ in anticipation of setting sail – when we had an announcement…. our departure was delayed as we were waiting for two people to be collected from the ship by ambulance – sadly yet another medical emergency! So our American friends beat us to it and cleared off first….

Friday 17th- Roatan – Honduras

Roatán is an island in the Caribbean, about 65 kilometres (40 mi) off the northern coast of Honduras

We’d booked an excursion called “Snapshot ofRoatan” which was great. While driving around the island our guide told us lots about life on Roatan and was very engaging, We visited an area where a huge amount of Iguanas live. They are free to roam and not caged in any way but get fed so appear happy with having a lot of people around them. They were very funny to watch; climbing on top of each other to get the leaves we held out. Apparently they are hunted and eaten on the island as well though.

We had a dance performed for us and as we sat in the front row of course got called upon to join in – oh go on then!

We had a short boat trip out to see a couple of shipwrecks. There is a coral reef along the length of the island which has obviously caught captains out in the past. Temperature was around 28c so the breeze on the moving boat was very welcome.

Back to the dock and with a few hours still before departure we walked a short distance to an absolutely gorgeous beach and had a lovely swim in the sea. Enjoyed a couple of cocktails in the sunshine then back on board and off we sailed again.

Saturday 18th – Belize

Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north

No excursion booked so we did our own thing and wandered around the city. It was interesting to see and there were some colourful and characterful buildings but a lot of what we saw was very run-down. We had heard the museum was worth visiting but when we arrived a young man on the gate said it was closed due to power failure and could we go back later. The weather was v. hot – 35c with high humidity – so we found some shelter in a restaurant overlooking the sea and had a couple of beers – Andrew got his fish fix with some snapper, rice and beans. We watched some very graceful and entertaining herons swooping and diving over the sea.

We had been warned about safety on the island but the few people we spoke to were very friendly and honest especially when we had confusion about Belize dollars vs US dollars for some much needed cold water! The heat and humidity was intense so we got an early afternoon tender boat back to our ship for a very welcome shower.

Sunday 19th – Sea day – but worth a mention!

Nice relaxing sea day and I received two beautiful mothers day cards smuggled onboard. Had a lovely Whatsapp video call with Anna and Em plus, facilitated by Sue and Kate, a lovely video call with mum. Andrew had a lovely call with Ange too so we both felt very lucky and happy to have our internet package!

Another formal evening so we had booked the Indian restaurante ‘Sindhu’ for dinner – it was absolutely delicious and the best food so far on this trip.

However – there was more drama… part way through the day the sea had become stormy again. A tannoy message from the bridge informed us that a mayday call from a nearby vessel in distress had been picked up so we were turning round to assist…

It was a sailing boat with three people on-board who had got into difficulty and the captain was apparently injured. We could see the boat in the distance from our cabin window and could only try and imagine how scary things had been and what a relief for them to see our gigantic rescue boat. It took quite a lot of manoeuvring during which time the storm was getting stronger with high winds and rain. We didn’t see the actual rescue but these pictures were posted on Facebook by other passengers. Rumour had it their boat had to be sunk for safety purposes.

It was another quite choppy night but we’re getting used to them!

Monday 20th – Sea day

Calmer sea again but weather not so warm – people are sitting/sunbathing on deck but a lot look like they could be at Hunstanton with coats and towels wrapped around them!

We are really looking forward to our overnight visit to New Orleans tomorrow…

Freeport is the main city on Grand Bahama, an island in the northwest Bahamas off the Florida coast. It’s best known for the oceanfront Lucaya district.

Tuesday 14th – we found land!!

We docked in Freeport early hours of the morning – a little earlier than planned due to another medical emergency. The previous morning there was a tannoy request from the captain for any specific type blood donors who had their cards to help someone who was critically ill. It was quite a spine chilling announcement as you may imagine and one of those moments where you wish you could help but can’t. We didn’t hear anything more until the theatre show that evening where, included in one of the acts introduction, was the fact that he had donated blood earlier. Obviously he got a big round of applause regardless of his act! We can only assume that a successful transfusion was carried out as the person was being taken off as soon as we arrived in the early hours hopefully for a successful outcome – amazing!

It was very exciting to get off the ship after so many days and from the port we took a 20 minute open top double decker bus ride across the island to The Grand Lucayan Resort beach where we spent most of the day. The sand was typically caribbean, beautiful and white and the sea gorgeous blue and clear – but a tad on the chilly side! The weather was partially cloudy but hot and very hot when the sun broke through. We had a good hour or so swimming in the sea – “it was lovely when you got in” – and got chatting to a couple from Peterborough.

So happy to be on the beach and in the sunshine that we forgot to take many photos. Will try harder in future.

Back to the ship and with a bit of time before setting sail we had a couple of cocktails at a bar on the dock with our Peterborough friends before dinner back on the water.

A lot of the entertainment acts disembarked here and some new ones arrived. There is usually a show in the theatre at 8.30 and if you want to watch you have to get there fast as there is a steady stream of people leaving restaurants to bag their seats. We saw a young girl singer with a wonderful voice, probably the most talented person we’ve seen so far…but we were so tired after a day at the beach we were both struggling to keep our eyes open. I hope she didn’t notice!

Lack of photos so here’s one of our second formal night which was a couple of evenings ago.

We’ve had a sea day today which started off raining but brightened up and became quite warm, the sea’s calm still so all is good.

We have the busiest part of our trip coming up over the next three days with consecutive stops so need to get an early night tonight!

The general mood on board seems good now with only the odd KIAC moan heard now and again. However I had to record this.. the buffet is a regular, free for all with lots of food counters, as most standard all inclusives are. There are definitely no arrows showing any direction of traffic… This morning at breakfast I was happily minding my own business, putting bits and pieces on my cereal in no particular order when a man behind me said “oh we’re going right to left this morning are we!” He just got a hard stare and I hope he knew what I was thinking!

The sea did calm down a bit on Friday which felt like a relief but the continuing strong cold wind has meant that sitting out on deck hasn’t been a comfortable option. We have spent time planning and booking our upcoming onshore trips which is exciting. Doing lots of reading, I’ve been to the gym a couple of times, Andrew’s watched the rugby and we’ve seen a couple of films too.

Over the weekend we’ve had periods of time when the choppiness has returned – I saw the below picture on Facebook and the author was praising our Captain for dealing with the conditions we’ve had.

We have chatted to quite a few KIACs by now, mostly actually quite lovely, who seem genuinely sorry that our first cruise experience has been so turbulent! Without exception they have all said “we’ve been cruising for…(fill in the blanks….50 milllion years now etc.) and we’ve never known it like this – so don’t let it put you off” However, then almost all go on to complain about P&O as if it is their fault…

At 12 noon every day there is a tannoy update from the bridge on various things like distance travelled, wind speeds etc. and the closest land to us. I think it is a thing they have to do but since our nearest land for the last two days has been – where we didn’t go – Bermuda – as you may imagine those announcments have caused lots of chuntering. Have to say it did feel a bit like – “this is what you could have won”!

He definitely didn’t read the room when he “hoped we had had a relaxing day on board” yesterday.

I saw this on social media

I did also hear a lovely Welsh lady saying she was going to phone reception and check whether the Captain was steering at the time as she thought it was only choppy when he was – thought he should have L plates on!

So, not much actual activity to report but last night we had a lovely meal in The Beach House restaurant which is a bit nicer than the buffet but not as formal as the other restaurants and finally the show did go on. We saw the, twice cancelled, Flamenco dancer and violinist in the theatre – they didn’t fall over and it was quite corny but also quite entertaining.

Very happy to say that today (Sunday) has definitely been warmer – we still have a fair bit of movement from the water but it feels like we are heading in the right direction – yay!

Oh and by the way, if anyone wants to you should be able to leave comments now. Matt very kindly sorted it remotely for me and changed the background to white as I thought it would be easier to read!

This time tomorrow we will (hopefully) be packing our beach bag for Freeport, Bahamas on Tuesday!

Just after I wrote on Tuesday our sealegs were holding up Andrew started feeling a bit queasy. First indication was he didn’t want anything to eat or drink so obviously something wasn’t right. There is a small section in one of the shops with medical supplies but all they had were some magnetic bracelets. I bought them anyway and he managed to eat a couple of ham rolls that I smuggled out of the buffet. Still feeling a bit rough the next day we asked reception about sea sickness tablets and, for around the price of a prescription, they opened a cabinet full of them. Given the conditions it might have been helpful to have had an announcement that they were available. I honestly don’t think it would have caused a rush on reception as the restaurants still seemed continually full of people eating.

The tablets seemed to do the trick thankfully and Andrew started to feel a bit better but we decided to give the second formal night last night a miss regardless and ate with the casual people in the buffet again.

After skipping a day I went back to the art class to find the teacher had recapped on skies the day I missed – got it wrong again! However he patiently showed me and I completed my painting. Reasonably happy with my sky but my sunset definitely needs working on…… he said it looked like the sea was on fire and I couldn’t disagree!

I also ventured to the gym, just for a bit of yoga stretching and a walk on the treadmill. Great view as the gym is right at the front of the ship but a very strange feeling when you can see the horizon moving up and down and feel the motion of the sea so strongly as you are walking and holding on tight.

I’m writing this on Thursday 9th and the weather has been pretty relentless for several days and nights making sleep quite difficult. This morning during breakfast there were several loud crashes and clearly quite a lot of plates and bowls didn’t make it through to lunch. At lunchtime Andrew had to catch a lady who had her hands full with plates before she overbalanced and sat on my salad! But generally people out and about are in good spirits as we are all walking around clinging onto whatever we can to stay upright which can be quite entertaining although I do feel for the people with limited mobility.

There have had to be some changes to the entertainment programme for safety reasons. The “unique theatrical performance” by Duo Esencias a beautiful love story told by a professional Flamenco dancer and a multi award winning violinist has just been postponed for the second time – undertandable as I’m sure it wouldn’t be anywhere near as beautiful performed on a very wobbly stage. The guy in charge of entertainments cheerily blaming “the motion of the ocean” didn’t get many laughs surprisingly.

BUT the big bad news this morning was….. due to forecast conditions being, as our Captain described them, “far in excess of safe operating limits” on Saturday, we aren’t going to Bermuda. Now I know it is currently cold and snowing back home and next stop Bahamas sounds ok…but it is pretty disappointing that we are missing one of our two overnight stops and not seeing Bermuda at all.

I really wasn’t planning to waffle on as much as this but as we won’t now touch dry land until next Tuesday at the earliest….. I hope you can bear with me as it’s giving me something to do!

As I said, people seem to be taking things reasonably well as I think even grumpy old KIAC’s acknowledge the weaather is out of P&O’s control, however I did hear one person comment “they’ll lose business because of this” A more positive comment I saw on Facebook was “we do it every year and have never had it this bad, so don’t be put off” – hmm not sure if that makes it better or worse!

I should say that we are absolutely fine and apart from the odd unplanned dance move (think its good for the core having to constantly keep your balance) we know our trusty ship has seen it all before and is currently keeping us very safe and reasonably comfortable!

HOT OFF THE PRESS… Captain’s just annnounced he expects conditions to improve tomorrow so we might actually get to sit out on the deck for the first time – there may be less time filling waffling going on here!

Formal night was very nice – our Captain welcomed us all and there was complimentary fizz (apparently hasn’t happened since pre-Covid) so most people were happy… We had our evening meal in Cinnamon Restaurant, one of the nicer dining rooms included with our holiday. There are several and you can either physically queue or join a virtual queue on an app which tells you when your table is ready. The regular ‘help yourself’ buffet food is good and there is plenty of it but it’s quite basic, whereas the restaurants have much nicer food with table service. The danger is getting used to regular three course meals which obviously need a glass of wine to accompany them..

Afterwards we went to watch a comedian – I think my wine must have been stronger than Andrew’s as my recollection of him the next day was he had been quite funny – Andrew was less convinced about that..

It’s a strange feeling having several days now where there is no real need to do anything. There are things happening in different parts of the ship the whole time so lots available if you want it.

I decided to attend a ‘Learn to paint the sea’ art class. I imagined a one-off splash a bit of paint on paper sort of thing but no – it turned out to be quite a serious watercolour lesson. As I was opening the shiny brand new painting kit I felt obliged to buy I looked around and realised my fellow students’ paints were looking well mixed – as they had already (smugly I thought) painted their sky to go with their sea the day before! Haven’t felt so much like the new girl at school in a long time. Anyway, the class is on every sea day apparently so I just need to make myself go back and make my sea complete.

Unfortunately the weather during our Atlantic crossing isn’t being too kind. We currently have force 8/9 winds and it is very rocky – feeling like permanent strong turbulence when flying. None of the swimming pools had water in them when we boarded but the covered one was filled a couple of days ago. However the movement of the ship and resulting tidal waves in the pool meant it got closed off and emptied pretty quickly. We didn’t expect to feel this amount of movement; even before the wind picked up it was more noticeable than we thought it would be on such a massive ship. Hopefully within the next 24 hours things will calm down again. Fortunately our sealegs are bearing up at the moment.

 in English is spelt “la Coruna” in Spanish and “A Coruna” in the region of Galicia

First stop yesterday in Spain and, according to weather forecasts, we were very lucky as it was a gorgeous sunny day. The port is very close to the town centre so we had a wander into the town and all along the sea front. At breakfast we had been joined by a KIAC who parked his mobility scooter next to our table. However he was quite entertaining and told us about a previous cruise he’d been on where people had been arrested for drug smuggling. We asked if there was much to do in La Coruna and his advice was “find a bar and stop a few beers going off” When he left us he was taking a banana back for his wife’s breakfast and hoping she “the boss” would have made him a cup of tea. He left us saying he was reporting back to ‘higher management’

We decided we should take the advice we’d been given and had a couple of beers in the sunshine then found a fabulous tapas bar.

Got chatting to a couple of ladies from our trip. Again, seasoned cruisers but not grumpy ones. They mentioned having been on a cruise which included Cuba. They didn’t get off as they didn’t want their passports stamping in case it caused problems getting into USA in the future. This added to my concern as I have a Cuban stamp in my passport and was already aware in the past that would be a problem. Andrew will be ok as he has renewed his passport but will they let me in?! Let’s hope so..

We managed not to miss the boat and sailed away at teatime.

Next stop Bermuda in six days! Time to explore Ventura and tentatively see if we want to join any organised fun!

So far we have eaten every meal in the free for all buffet which has been good but we have the first formal evening tonight. Our captain is going to do a welcome talk so we’re going to get dressed up, go to that and try out one of the more formal dining rooms.

Don’t want to dwell on the moody KIACs but here are a couple of overheard comments yesterday:
“I’ve just had to walk about two miles for breakfast”
“The plates have got smaller; once you’ve put your bread roll on there’s no room for anything else”
“It’s all gone downhill; there used to be trays”

So our exciting adventure started yesterday when we arrived in Southampton just before midday. Check in was a fairly slow process but being newbie cruisers we were happily shuffling along, just pleased to be there. It soon became clear that the “KIAC” (know it all cruisers as we decided to call them) weren’t happy. “It’s never been like this before” “those people are moving faster than us” and even “we’ve been given an upgrade but we’re not happy about it” It appears KIAC are not easy to please….

Given the length of the cruise it probably shouldn’t have been a surprise that the majority of our fellow shipmates appear to be retired. Absolutely no disrespect to any retired readers and we don’t include anyone we know back home but they also appear to be generally a bit grumpy!

Tensions were running high but the tannoy announcement “I’m going to say this loudly – we’ve found a hearing aid if anyone has lost one” made us chuckle at least.

We got into our cabin just after 2pm and, as we were hoping, have been upgraded to a window with an unrestricted view – happy days. Cabin is lovely and we unpacked, managing to find room for everything.

Sailaway was supposed to be 5.30pm but our Captain announced that due to delays in boarding we had missed the slot so it would be 9.30pm. Andrew was keeping a close eye at the lorries loading supplies/luggage onto the ship and was convinced we wouldn’t make the 9.30 departure either. He was right – we finally set sail at around 11.15pm. Captain had gone quiet by this stage – might have been thinking that food and drink would calm everyone down.

We had a nice meal in the buffet and went to one of the entertainment rooms for an hour or so where there was live music and a DJ.

Day 2

Quite strange waking up to a view of the open sea!

A quick look at Facebook informed us that during the night we had in fact turned back towards Southampton due to a medical emergency – someone with breathing difficulties. A helicopter put a paramedic on board but the person and their partner were then transferred by lifeboat to shore apparently. All while we were sound asleep!

Spending the day trying to orientate ourselves with this vast ship – she is a real beauty!

We are around two hours behind schedule apparently and should be docking in La Coruna about 10.30 a.m. tomorrow. Really looking forward to it.