rakkor

We've had two bottles of Contessa Spumanti in PG on this cruise, we got our second delivered on the first gala night.

Today is a first for me with both the island of Corsica and the city of Ajaccio. We had a nice walk around today before the sun got too hot, there's quite a lot of Napoleon here understandably. I've updated yesterday's blog with the evenings nonsense - https://blog.rakkor.uk to join us there

This morning's arrival in Ajaccio, Corsica

We're in Livorno today, no tours booked so we went for a bimble around town with the option of getting the train out to Pisa, but it turns out I'm too lazy to walk to Central Station as it isn't very central - We made do with some light sunbathing back on ship instead. I've updated last night's blog with a Jane Picture and some more content. https://blog.rakkor.uk - I shal post today, part one, fairly soon.

They are ready to be handed over to Lloyd, our sommelier , for safekeeping at lunch today

This is from the myvoyage app/webpage onboard and a pdf made of the stitched together screenshots Commodore _Club.pdf

I've uploaded the latest of today's nonsense to https://blog.rakkor.uk - All of a bit of a rush as I needed to get it done before be go out of range of 4G leaving Cannes, we're in Livorno tomorrow so will get 4G again there so no need to waste and OBC on the WIFI untilt the day after.

We are only getting it the once, if that changes though I'll let you know

Cannes was lovely this morning, what wasn't was some hydraulic pump running at full chat at 06:30. We're off on a tour to Old Antibes this morning so we needed to be up bright and early, just not in that manner. I've updated yesterday's blog entries with the evenings nonsense https://blog.takkor.uk

We don't have the nice brochures on QE at the moment just these flyers to select from Captain's Collection WHITE WINE Gavi di Gavi La Minaia, Nicola Bergaglio Chardonnay Block 1A, The Lane, Adelaide Hills Chardonnay, Cannonball Sauvignon Blanc, Framingham Pinot Grigio, La Tunella, Colli Orientali del Friuli Riesling Kung Fu Girl, Charles Smith Le Petit Broux Rosé, Les Celliers de Cérès, Centre Loire RED WINE Malbec Aruma, Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) and Nicolas Cater Pinot Noir Are you Fowles Wine (B) Valpolicella Classico Superiore, Terre di Cariano, Cecilia Beretta Reflets du Château Cissac, 2nd wine of Château Cissac Shiraz The Footbolt, d'Arenberg, McLaren Vale Old Vine Zinfandel, Maggio Family Vineyards, Lodi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Berton Vineyard, Coonawarra Red Bonterra Merlot California Organic 6 Bottles $310 12 Bottles $550 Commodores Collection SPARKLING WINE Platinum Jubilee special edition' English Sparkling wine WHITE WINE Wine Chardonnay Catena Alta, Argentina Châteauneuf du Pape Blanc, Chateau Fargueirol Riesling Grand Cru, Domaines Schlumberger, Saering Montagny 1er Cru Les Coères, Albert Sounit Pouilly-Fumé, Château de Tracy, Comtesse A. Astutt d'Assay, Loire, France Chardonnay, Buena Vista Winery, Carneros Reserva, Quinta dos Carvalhais RED WINE Chorey-les-Beaune, Domaine Maillard Père et Fils La Grola, Allegrini, Veronese, Veneto, Italy Psi, Peter Sisseck Château Barrail du Blanc, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru, France Shiraz, Brokenwood, Hunter Valley Zinfandel, Seghesio, Sonoma County, United States of America Shiraz Reunion, The Lane, Adelaide Hills Petit Verdot 'Chaski', Viña Perez Cruz 6 Bottles $445 12 Bottles $750

At anchor this morning in Cannes

Today we had this on QE in the Lido - Riviera

I was WFH last week and wandered into the lounge to find Jane boohooing on the sofa, that was down to Downton apparently.

I have had no complaints at all about the on board wifi today. I've used it everywhere I've been and not had any issues other than having to relogin a couple of times.

It's been lovely onboard today, not too hot with a slight breeze and a millpond smooth sea. One thing we've noticed is that after being hot outside, then coming indoors, it's quite chilly. There does seem to be a lot of sunbed hogging - I had a look down to the pool from the grills terrace and there were a lot of beds with towels and a book or hat reserving them. That doesn't seem to be an issue on the grills terrace, but a lot of lazy people can't be bothered throwing their towel in the bins provided when they've finished. Today's nonsense can be read at https://blog.rakkor.uk

I can report WiFi is also good in the PG restaurant as well as the Royal Court theatre upper on deck 3. I've just updated yesterday's blog post with some nonsense about dinner in PG - https://blog.rakkor.uk

This morning from our balcony

The ship's internet in room 4089 seems OK, a bit weak lying on my bed, but sat at the table it's OK. It's a lovely morning here on a millpond smooth Med, you couldn't have noticed we were at sea unless you opened the curtains. I think I'll sign up one day at a time to the plan as this cruise is port intensive and I should have access to mobile comms every other day at least.

In June last year we stopped in Soton on the way to the terminal as we had a 15:00 boarding time and had a very nice lunch at a specialist pie shop. Who doesn't like a pie ???? - https://www.piecaramba.co.uk/

It went surprisingly well, I'd booked a people carrier from ziptransfers as they had the cruise terminal as a destination and at 45 Euros way cheaper than our Taxi to LGW. Embarkation was far smoother that Ocean Terminal as well, but the volumes of pax boarding are way less. I did make a big mistake which I'm kicking myself for which was not booking business class with BA which with the extra luggage would have been about £150 cheaper than Easyjet with the option to fly from London City which is a much more pleasant experience. On my last two boys weekends away I'd done exactly this taking my Bike to Majorca as a second piece of luggage.

We're back on board QE for our fourth post Covid cruise. This time it's our first fly cruise, sailing out of Barcelona on a 14 night round trip in PG. This is also our first Grills cruise when the weather is pretty much guaranteed to be splendid for our whole holiday and Jane wants to take advantage of sunbathing on the Grills terrace. The Covid restrictions have been pretty much relaxed with only a couple of guests seen to be wearing masks, on the other hand all the staff are fully masked still. If interested my blog can be followed at https://blog.rakkor.uk but I shall post here as well answering any questions posed.

It's the Antibes Old Town tour - We'll keep our eyes open and take a stroll around Cannes on return to the port.

Get down to the Deck 2L corridor FWD and plonk yourself down with a book and sit and get your fix of the passing seas through the picture windows there. Also handy for the Future Cruise office to tempt you into another one.

I actually got it wrong, our first French stop is Cannes not Villefranche where we're off to Antibes.

I'll tell you Monday we've a 12 bottle Commodore's package booked for our Barcelona - Barcelona cruise - We need to top this up with a couple of bottles and was going to buy them when we arrived, but now I'm thinking of getting them when we dock in Villefranche - @D&N any recommendations for a good wine shop?