Home again.

Well, I am back now.

I am struggling to cope with being back in the "Real World" and am having Afternoon Tea withdrawals. I feel like I should be getting dressed up for dinner each night and I am quite put out that I have to pull my own duvet back in order to get into bed.

I also stepped onto the scales as well. The official weight gain from a 12 day cruise is 5lb. This was despite Swimming for 30 minutes on 2 days, Taking part in a Salsa aerobics class on 1 day and spending 30min plus in the gym on the bikes (which are much easier to control than normal bikes so I was quite safe) on 3 days! I am sure James won't mind me saying that he has had the same result despite running 5k almost every day (apart from the really rough days when the treadmill became quite a dangerous place to be). Phew, quite damaging.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole cruise experience.

Day 12 - Last Day at Sea.

For our last day James had his final talk to give and then we went for a celebratory pub lunch of fish and chips. Yum. As it was the last day we made sure we made it up for afternoon tea and I stocked up on cake products.



As this was to be our final meal we went for Champagne and Canapes in the commodore club with our fellow table guests.

Day 11 - At Sea

James had another talk to do today and it went very well again.



I haven't any photo's from dinner this evening. We tried something a little different and went to the Alternative Dining Area for their Indian night. We were so excited by the posh Indian food we were brought out that I completely failed to take any photos. What made it all the better was that we had tried to go the previous day and it was booked out, but today we went with George and Lois (the other onboard speaker and his wife), who knew a man and got us in. Result. It was curry, Cunard style!

Day 10 - Malaga

The weather in Malaga was a bit rainy so we stayed on the ship in the morning. However, when it cleared up and turned sunny later on we hopped on shore for a quick beer/coffee in a cafe.

Dinner tonight - semi-formal. We started it off in the Chart Room bar, I had the cocktail of the day "Berries Delight" - slightly dissapointing after the Martini's I have sampled previously.

Day 9 -AT SEA

A lie in! This cruise lark is quiet intense you know! I had visions of sitting for hours reading lots of books. In reality "Ship's time" passes seamlessly from one meal to the next with barely time to catch a talk, read a page or two or grab a swim before moving on to the next meal or snack location. Today has been pretty much just that!

Dinner this evening; Formal, started off with a martini (well, 2 actually ; watermelon followed by a pomegranate one. Neither quite as fabulous as the first raspberry martini I had earlier on the cruise) in the Commodore club with our cabin neighbours George and Lois.

Day 8 - La Goulette

My first experience of Africa. We went on a tour of Tunis, through La Kasbah markets and into a rug/carpet shop for local mint tea and a rug demonstration - before coming out with a nice new red rug!

When we got back on board, James needed to do some more work - so here we are, working hard!

After I grabbed a swim in the outdoor pool we dressed for this evening's semi-formal dinner, after joining our table for Gin and Tonic's in the bar before hand.

Day 7 - Valletta, Malta

Weather in Malta was very nice indeed. James and I got to wander around the streets for an hour or two before (yes you guessed it) having a beer/coffee in an open air cafe before heading back for lunch onboard.

Tonight's evening attire; Semi-formal.

 

Tonight was an extra special night for us as we booked into the posh restaurant (surchage required) for this evening's dinner for two. It was two years to the day since we were waiting for me to go into hospital for "lump overboard". We therefore splashed out on a bottle of champagne in the champagne bar (with strawberry nibbles). OMG, i didn't think it possible to feel full as continual grazing has stretched my stomach, but this was something else. I couldn't manage the chocolates with the coffee and had to take them home with me.

Day 6 - At Sea

Well, Today was fun!

Gale 12, 6m waves - reaching a peak while James was up on stage giving his second lecture. Everything was swaying so much, especially the stage curtain's. At one point there was such a tilit that James lost his footing and a lighting rig crashed to the ground behind him. The show must go on and continue he did.

He had a really big audience of around 400 people who all staggered out slightly green and holding on to whatever wall or pillar they could find.

Dinner this evening was a Semi-formal affair followed by a show (comedy piano duo) in the royal theatre (we chose a box tonight) and a night cap cocktail in the nightclub for Abba night (with a lot of dad dancing around us).

Getting used to this...

Day 5 - Wednesday - Dubrovnik.

Today we got off shore and went into the old town of Dubrovnik to walk along the town wall and through the red-roofed streets. Dubrovnik was very pretty even on the overcast day we have had today. After a quick beer/coffee we headed back to the ship for lunch (Puttanesca pasta made in front of your very eyes). And some more relaxing for the afternoon before James had to go off to be filmed for the ship's telly. (His first talk is already being looped on the Cunard Insights channel and people are starting to recognise him. What fun!).

So anyway, I have definitely got the hang of this whole cruise thing. It basically is just a big floating restaurant and the excitement is planning what meals you fancy partaking in today. The choices consist of;

Continental breakfast 4am-6:30am

Breakfast 6:30am-11am

Lunch 11am - 2pm

Afternoon Snack 2-6pm

Dinner 8:30 pm

Late snack 11pm-4am

add onto that the possibilities of getting a pub lunch or room service at any time of the day or night you can start to see why all my posts are revolving around food! Today I have just got back from afternoon tea of a nice cup of Earl Grey tea with chocolate cream eclairs and scones with jam and cream.

Day 4 - Tuesday - Katakolon, Greece.

Day 4 we arrive in Katakolon, Greece. A little tourist village on the coast. James and I decided to let the hoards go off to Olympia and relaxed on board in the Winter Garden with laptop (James) and a book (Dawn).

Just before lunch we went ashore to grab ourselves a Mythos beer before setting sail again mid afternoon. A late lunch meant I missed out the afternoon tea today (it requires so much will power), and to be especially good I attended a Salsa aerobics class so I could have the full 3 courses at this evenings semi-formal dinner. After dinner we caught the comedian giving a show in the theatre.

Tonight was semi-formal - am I getting good at this posing around ship for the camera or what?

We return every night to find our bed turned down and a pillow chocolate left for us.

Day 3

Out and about in sunny Sicily......

(yes despite having all the free food you could possibly desire on board, we still had to sample the Sicilian pizza's)

Formal night for dinner followed by Martini's in the commodore club.....

full photos at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=73249&l=1424f&id=532416061

Setting sail on the high seas.

Well where do I start? There is so much to explore and talk about after just a couple of days at sea that I think the best place to start is to base it around the main thing we have done since getting onboard..... and that is eat! 

Day 1

Our first night onboard was an Elegant Casual dining experience. Dinner was a lovely 3-4 course meal (depending on your hunger levels) which we finished off with cheese and coffee. We had made it successfully onboard in time to catch the late dinner sitting (delays on flights due to freezing fog had left us slightly uneasy about whether we, and more importantly, our bags, would make it onboard). Dinner was very lovely. Just as we were finishing off dinner the Captain made a special announcement, proclaiming that the weather was going to get a bit choppy on our departure and there was a high chance that the boat would list -  go secure things in your room! What an introduction to life on ship. The winds got up so much that try as it might, the ship could not move us off from the jetty. Several tugs and the rather big ship engines couldn't go against the gale force winds. We weren't going anywhere. So after a night cap it was off to bed not knowing whether we would wake up still in the port of Cittavecchia, Rome or in Naples. 

Day 2

At 8am the next morning we received a wake up phone call. We had made it to sea overnight, however due to rough weather we had aborted our trip to Naples and were heading straight to Messina, Sicily. It was to be a day at sea. Would James be able to do an extra talk at 10am? Yikes! Panic stations. However, he did it wonderfully and I was so proud. I even got in on the act as his "glamorous assistant" who grabbed a mike and made her way through the audience during the question session. Once that was over we headed up for breakfast and an exploration of the ship. 

My highlight of today (after James's talk of course) was discovering the afternoon tea! cucumber sandwiches (crusts removed of course), cookies, cakes, scones with jam and cream. This is the big advantage of having the late dinner sitting... you have room for an afternoon snack.

Evening attire this evening was changed to the Formal Black and White ball. And so we started the evening with champagne in the room (while learning to tie a proper bow tie), followed by the champagne welcome reception with the captain. 

The highlight of James's day was discovering the late night snack options, so after consuming brunch, afternoon tea and a 3 course dinner, the sheer delight on his face when he discovered the hot dogs cooked to order after we made our way back from the onboard night club was a sheer pleasure to witness! (I had to join in with cheese and biscuits of course) 

full photos at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=73249&l=1424f&id=532416061