FionaMG

Tonight's show was The Gift. I had somehow got the idea that it was one of the more traditional production shows so I was very surprised and interested to discover what it actually was. I thought the use of technology in the stage sets was fascinating even if the story line was a bit tenuous. For once we managed to get some decent seats with no pillars blocking our view, yay!

Back on board, tonight's dinner menu Crispy coconut shrimp. Love these but tonight's sauce was a bit spicier than I remember. Prime rib and lamb shank, regulars that have never disappointed us. Dark chocolate brownie and profiteroles. I cannot extol the virtues of the dark chocolate brownie highly enough. So chocolatey and yummy.

Well, we had a lovely afternoon in La Coruña. The approach was very pretty and we passed the Tower of Hercules on the way in. The weather was very pleasant so we were able to carry out our plan of walking along the seafront promenade to the Tower. It takes about half an hour. If you want to go into the tower you have to get your ticket before going up the ramp to the entrance. This is very important because they won't let you in without a ticket. Entrance is timed, every 30 minutes, in order to limit numbers inside, due to space constraints. It is not suitable for people who suffer from claustrophobia or reduced mobility. The stairs to the top (232; DH counted them!) are very steep and narrow. Tickets cost 3 euros per person except on Mondays when it's free. If you're able to do it, the view from the top justifies the effort. As you can see from the first pic below, the ramp up to the tower has large crazy paving stones and is quite steep, so would be very challenging for wheelchair users although I think it would probably be manageable for a baby buggy. These ones are taken from a different angle; I walked down to the wind rose for them. There are public toilets at the site. Since the seafront promenade wraps around the peninsula where tower is located we continued along it after our visit, giving us a view from another angle. There is more to the site than the tower itself so we would happily have spent more time here if we could. Continuing along the promenade we came to a lovely large beach which is actually only about a 10 minute walk from the cruise port. If you had a full day here you could definitely split the time between the beach and the tower. Sailaway was absolutely magnificent as we passed the tower again on the way out but this time with sun just starting to set behind. I don't have any pics of it unfortunately as I was on the treadmill in the gym!

I don't think there's any need to be concerned. We were informed back in June about the changes, which supposedly are due to routine engine maintenance. I'm not really sure I believe that; suspect it's more likely to be a fuel saving policy. I know the same itinerary back in June also had their port times cut but think (not 100 percent certain) that the cruise before ours, also identical itinerary, did not. I have certainly not seen or heard anything on board that would lead me to worry.

My pleasure. ☺️ The staff member at the door told me that you did need to book so I would say if you know you definitely want to go on a certain day or at a certain time you might as well do so. It's easy to do in the app. That said, if it's quiet and they have space I can't see them turning you away.

Thanks very much. ☺️ Looks like we're going to be lucky with the weather. We can see the coast from our balcony and it's a bit but hopefully it will burn off by midday. 🤞

Today we will be in La Coruña, our last port stop. This is another one where our time in port has been cut, although only by a little bit. We will be arriving at midday and all aboard is at 5 pm. The plan is to do the coastal walk to the Hercules lighthouse, which should take about half an hour each way. Entrance to the lighthouse is normally 3 euros but on Mondays it's free. Today's compass

Tonight's dinner menu We decided to skip the starters tonight and went straight to the main event. It was very tasty. 😋 As we were chatting to the couple at the table next to I forgot about our dessert pics until we were about half way through. Luckily, mine was the chocolate cake that I've already posted a pic of but DH had the baked Alaska, so we sort of rearranged it to try and disguise the missing bit! Oops. 🤭 After dinner we went to see the Beatles who were the headliner show in the main theatre tonight. We missed the first 15 minutes as it started at 9 rather than the more usual 10, which meant we had even worse seats than usual. Look at this stupid pillar. And there are lots and lots of them. Great design. 🙄 Well at least the show itself was good. Very lively and dynamic. They had the audience up dancing and clapping and singing along.

Thanks Graham. I'm gradually improving. ☺️

Diamond treats for later 😁 DH has been given strict instructions that the brownie is mine! 😂 I had one in the D lounge the other evening and it was sooo good.

Thanks. ☺️ It looked like everyone was having a lot of fun on them. There were some big crashes. 😂

Pic of the sea from our balcony. Definitely not the smoothest of rides today. They just had to close the flowrider because of the sideways movement of the ship.

Random ship photos from our photo tour Arcade Glass floor looking down The Via: Jamie's, Vintages and the two expensive shops that we daren't enter. Not many people buying this morning Guest Services. As you can see there is no queue. It has been this way the entire cruise! Sorrento's, the English pub and the offerings at La Patisserie. Diamond lounge for a coffee break. Although it's tucked away and you have to go looking for it, it's a very nice room with windows to the outside. The photo shop, Wonderland, the Schooner bar, the Music Hall and the casino. Not many people playing in the casino at this time of day. I think that might be a cultural thing too: I definitely remember the casino being busy at any time of day on our sea days in the Caribbean. Very interesting.

And some more

Some of the art on the midship stairs

With the exception of one night, we have been seated in Silk every evening, always in the same section and have also been very well looked after.

Today's compass We had a la carte breakfast this morning so I could try the breakfast burrito 🌯. It was very tasty although perhaps just a tad on the greasy side. After breakfast we stopped off at the Voom desk to get my free D day transferred to DH and from there we wandered into two70 to get some pics of the breakfast set up there. We are at sea today and although it's sunny, it's very windy out, with some parts of the upper decks closed off. There are a very few hardy (crazy?) souls on the loungers swathed in a dozen or so towels so as not to freeze to death. 😂 We have taken refuge on some comfy sofas in the seaplex, where the bumper cars are in full swing. Looks like today is going to be a good day to go around taking pics of the indoor areas of the ship.

You didn't. It's tonight. For some reason they didn't have it on the second formal night, which was yesterday. Talking of formal night, lots of folks dressed up. I think many Brits still adhere to the tradition.

The headliner show this evening was Jack Pack who were Britain's got talent finalists a few years ago. The theatre was packed and they were outstanding. Even DH, who generally falls asleep at the shows, stayed awake for the entire performance. Definitely recommend. We had seats in the balcony for this show (on this particular cruise, if you don't go and grab a seat at least 30 minutes beforehand your chances of getting a decent one are slim to none) so the pics aren't great.

Tonight's dinner menu Mushroom puff pastry, absolutely packed full of mushrooms Crispy crab cake. Not really what I'd call crispy but it was very nice and did have some real crab in it. Shrimp linguine which was DH's pick. He said it was good. Butter chicken. I really liked this and the mango chutney that came along with it was yummy. Royal cheesecake but this time we made a point of asking for strawberry sauce with it. Warm chocolate lava cake. A bit of a disappointment. I asked the waiter to make sure it was hot and he did, but even hot it was not molten in any way, shape or form. 😕 It tasted ok but I wanted it to spurt lava when I cut into it and it was completely solid. So, bit of a thumbs down for this one, I'm afraid.

Back on the ship we headed to the WJ for lunch and as we expected it was packed. However, we somehow managed to snag a table in the small outdoor seating area at the back, which turned out to be very lucky as we had a fabulous view for sailaway. I also found some more of the tomato and cheese rolls I mentioned in an earlier post, so I had to have one and this time I remembered to take a pic We had intended on finding a sunny spot after lunch but a strong wind had got up so we headed to the solarium instead and since most other people were still.on the outside deck, we somehow managed to get front row loungers. You can't really complain about a view like this, can you? 😁

What a pity our stop in Funchal was so short. It really is a lovely place. The MSC Meraviglia was also in port with us but they were staying longer, lucky things. We walked all the way along the seafront, then up to the farmers' market, where we had some Madeira bananas and took advantage of the public toilets (very clean and free to use). Then we headed back along the city centre streets that run parallel to the seafront until we reached a pretty little garden where we stopped for a rest on a bench. There was a taxi rank right next to it and we decided to hop in one to go back to ship. Cost just under 7 euros. The ship was offering a shuttle bus to the centre at a cost 10 dollars return per person, so the taxis are a better option unless you're travelling solo. Artwork on the seafront outside the CR7 Hotel and Museum. The piece is by Portuguese artist Bordalo II who specialises in making art from rubbish. View of the ship from the seafront promenade with us and a stupid bin in the foreground. Did not notice it until it was too late. 🙄 Bird of paradise flowers along the seafront Moving up off the seafront, the cathedral And the outside of the farmers' market Inside the farmers' market, every kind of fruit and veg imaginable Including Madeira bananas, much smaller and sweeter than the ones normally on offer in grocery shops. They need to be brownish on the outside to be ready to eat. The yellow ones aren't quite ripe. This is the fresh fish part of the market The long black fish in this pic are scabbardfish, a Madeiran speciality served with fried banana and the big chunk next to them is fresh tuna. The following pics are of the little garden we found as we were heading back towards the ship. There were some little handicraft stalls set up there.

I did try that on a previous cruise and found it too salty but perhaps I was just unlucky. I should probably give it another try. 🙂

We boarded Anthem this morning for this 12-night cruise calling at Vigo, Lisbon, Lanzarote, Gran Canária, Tenerife, Funchal and La Coruña. Fastest boarding ever. Fifteen minutes tops from getting out the taxi to stepping on board. For those wondering about the negative test, required for this sailing because of the length, I actually brought the test cartridges all the way from Portugal to Southampton 😂. The check in agent barely glanced at them; they could have been anybody's. I'm sailing with DH so will only be posting a couple of times a day (usually when he's napping or contributing to Royal's coffers in the casino). I will be happy to try and find the answers to any questions if anyone has any. There are no compasses available at guest services. Instead there is a QR code you can scan to get a digital pdf compass on your device. However it turned out our stateroom attendant had put one in our room for us and I told him we would like one every day. We are in an obstructed balcony cabin 6560 that is not very obstructed, only to the right hand side by the thingy that holds up the lifeboats and which I have totally forgotten what it's called. Senior moment. I will do cabin pics at some point when it's a bit brighter and the view is of something a bit prettier than the port structure. We did embarkation lunch in Jamie's, which was very nice but far too much food for us. However, it was great not to have to battle the crowds in the WJ. Meat plank Tagliatelle Bolognese and prawn linguine Amalfi lemon cheesecake and epic brownie Today's compass Sail away is in about 30 minutes and they're still calling out for some people who haven't done their muster drill. 🫤 Finally, I'm going to finish off this first post by tagging my blogging buddy @Rogueperson because he always tags me on his live reviews and he has one going right now. We are sailing at the same time but on different ships and in different parts of the world. Have fun, Rogue. 😊