Host Hattie

Today's activities

I was woken up at dark o'clock by an announcement apologising for a previous announcement which was the result of a technical error. As I hadn't heard the previous announcement I didn't need the apology and Mr HH tried to convince me that I'd dreamt the whole thing ! When the Captain started his noon announcement by apologising again I realised I hadn't been dreaming. We had a light breakfast and a very lazy morning before a wonderful wine lunch in the Veranda restaurant.

We're currently on Queen Victoria in Britannia, there are 4 starters, 2 salads, 2 soups and 6 main courses on the dinner menus

Hope you don't have to wait too much longer and you enjoy your day ashore

We got ready for dinner and went to the Commodore Club, it was busy but we managed to get a table just in front of the piano so we could hear the music. Another nice dinner, we've been enjoying the food. The Royal Court theatre Orchestra were playing in the Golden Lion, we got there part way through the first set but it was packed in there so we moved to the Queens Room instead, Another warm evening and we watched the stars and a lightening storm in the distance, beautiful. Sea Day and the weather has arrived, nobody will be sitting in the sun today !

Stay safe everyone

Have you checked your spam folder ?

We only made it as far as the Lido for lunch, not too bad even for this buffet hater and Mr HH had more success getting the beer he prefers. Then to the Pavilion Pool for a swim/drift around in the pool. Mr HH tried out the Hot Tub briefly. We're just getting ready to leave, the Captain mentioned some possible bad weather tomorrow but wasn't very clear about when.

It looks beautiful there, have a lovely sea day

Thanks for the updates, I hope the changes aren't too disappointing.

Try to get a cabin under the spa area rather than the pool if you can

From Queen Victoria in Valencia this morning

Thanks for the lovely comments everyone. I forgot to mention that Mr HH asked for a thinner duvet on the board as he was getting warm during the night. It was done last night. Cabin temperature control is fine btw. We're in Valencia this morning and I am embarrassed to say we're still on the ship. It's beautiful on our balcony, we might get off later or maybe not !

Mr HH came second again, wine tasting was 3 wines from Italy, one from Spain from the cheaper end of the wine list. We watched passing cruise ships from the promenade deck for a while as the wifi works there and then the coast of Spain from our balcony. No wifi but beautiful sunshine and Cava. The Queens Room dance floor was busy with sequence dancers as we made our way to dinner. Our assistant waiter has a habit of serving sauces without waiting to hear whether you want them or not. I managed to create a dam with carrot batons to keep the horseradish sauce away from most of my sirloin steak but I'll be ready to say No before he gets to me in future! We have 3 courses, no coffee, we don't feel particularly rushed but we're usually out of dinner just after 9.30. We went to watch the comedy juggler, we've seen him several times but he still makes me laugh and there were a few new parts of his act. We stayed behind a little while to finish our drinks and as we came out of the theatre we heard the unmistakable sound of evenings in the Mediterranean, a cicada. It didn't seem likely but sure enough just outside the doors on Deck 3 was a lone cicada playing the song of his people. It was a beautiful warm night and we could see the lights of the coast of Spain and plenty of stars from our balcony. Glorious.

It's been British Isles the first few nights of the current cruise and Bamboo tonight. I don't have the menus but I'll see what I can find out

Perhaps someone on QM2 could check for you, there are cuddly ships if that helps !

They aren't weighed but it's for Health and Safety reasons as there is a lot more manual handling involved. There is no limit to the number of cases you can take.

Thanks, I am doing. Not ordering breakfast ended the way I knew it would, peppermint tea and a biscuit! We watched the 11am lecture on the cabin TV Sir Ivan Lawrence, he didn't keep to time so he was gate crashed by the noon announcement by the Officer of the Watch. We went to the Britannia restaurant for lunch, it's nice the way they fill the window tables. We decided to stick with water as it's wine tasting later. Post-lunch I found a steamer chair on the shaded side of the promenade deck to watch the coast of Spain while Mr HH went to investigate the Roulette Tournament.

Sold out, I didn't ask whether they were expecting more at any point but as my day job involves buying things, delivery times are very long at the moment so I'm not surprised.

There's one thing which could be a deal breaker - no Teddies in the shop 😱 We caused some consternation when we sat at our new table last night, who knew moving 6 inches could bring a new waiter and Head Waiter. Same Sommelier though, whether it was the fact that the high maintenance table of 5 next to us were late arriving, I'd signed up for the wine lunch the previous night or everything has settled down, but we had 2 bottles of wine opened by the time starters arrived ! Another nice dinner and out in plenty of time for a box at the variety show. Still not a massive fan of the singing and dancing (no disrespect to the performers) but the comedian was entertaining again. We called it a night (no afternoon nap today) and took a risk by not ordering breakfast.

We stayed on our balcony for the sail away exchanging waves with passengers on the Mein Schiff in port with us. We got away first time today ! We went for a pre-dinner drink in the Gin & Fizz bar, one day we'll order something other than a Sloe Ahead and The Mary Rose but not today. Sunset was 8.16, I just caught it on the way to dinner

Thank you for saving me a trip there 😊

Yes they have

The HoHo bus company have an app which tells you when the next bus is due at your stop, very handy except when it suddenly drops from 15 minutes to 3 and the next one is 36 minutes later 😱 Fortunately our sunbeds weren't far from the bus stop and there were a few other people waiting so we made it. We would have been fine on the later one as all aboard time was 5.30. The duty free shop in the terminal building said cheaper than Gibraltar and the crew certainly seemed to be stocking up !

They are really only little things and the cocktail was my own fault, we've not been out of the country since February 2020 and our last long cruise was September 2019 so it's very good to be back. I'm sorry if I'm making it sound as if we're not enjoying it.