Live from the Spirit: Barcelona to Bridgetown - Nov. 5

[NJBelle]

Oh, and we asked about how many were on the ship. It looks like there are about 440, but that is considered. " full ship", given all the single passengers and the empty third berths. There are quite a few entertainers, and even a bespoke cobbler on board (a first for me!).

[nowornever]

I'm eagerly following your posts since we'll board in January for the SA cruise. Can you tell me about the electrical outlets in your cabin - US or Euro & location? How are the standard selections for wine? Several different ones? As the cruise progresses, hope you'll post about the entertainment & lecturers. Thank you for taking the time to give us your thoughts & have a great cruise.

[jollyjones]

Electrical outlets are one each of Euro and US at both the desk and vanity. Nothing, as is usual in cruise ships, by the beds. Shaver socket in the bathroom both Euro and US, 120/230v.

[Camillus112]

Busy stroll along Cartagena's marble tiled pedestrian main street since there was the P&O Ventura docked right besides us. Cartagena was established in 227 BBC and has an interesting history aptly summarized in tiles attached to a wall at the entrance to the city. The Roman Theatre, Museum and Forum are worth visiting. Something I love about Spain in general, and provincial cities in particular, is the local daily life, which is spent mostly on the streets in cordial "tertulias"or gatherings. I cannot help but smile my way through the streets, and locals smile back and greet me with ease. This is the good life!

 

We had lovely meal at La Terraza yesterday evening, followed by the "Mind the Gap" show we had seen on our last sailing in the Spirit two years ago. We do not sail either SS or SB for their shows, but more variety would be nice. Tonight is Captain's formal reception and dinner; looking forward!

[NJBelle]

Greetings from Cartagena!

We are resting and reading on our veranda now, overlooking the beautiful marina (and BTW Larry Ellison's 288 foot motor yacht, Musashi). Fabulous weather here and a beautiful city. We did the "Culinary Stroll" which included a walking tour and then paella cookin demonstration (and eating as well) and wine tasting. Now, anticipating another wine tasting shipboard at 5 pm.

 

Forgot to thank those commenting earlier for their well wishes for this cruise. Wes, you and I narrowly missed each other years ago as well. Eric and I were on the maiden Spirit voyage from Barcelona to Lisbon and then you and Ida were on the maiden crossing, if I'm not mistaken. Craig and Wil were on both legs and we were quite jealous! This cruise kind of combines both of those cruises - we are really looking forward to those sea days!

 

About the wines - so far, they have been pretty good and quite varied. Champagnes available are Pommery and Heidsieck Monopole.

 

And I think someone mentioned that Moss is the CD.

 

Formal Night tonight and then Malaga tomorrow.

[spinnaker2]

Thanks Spins - do I hear that you might be on the Spirit next March / April doing this crossing in reverse? In which case, see you then.

 

David's tee shirt today was:

Ban shredded cheese. Make America grate again.

 

 

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Jolly,

Rumors are true. We will be aboard in the Spring, see you then. Our initial booking for fall crossing was on the Spirit but getting back home from Bridgetown was difficult and we just switched our reservation to the Wind.

Enjoy your time aboard. Please say hello to Frederick from us, the bar manager, he's very special. Lucky you also get to see Joy, another terrific crew member.

 

Sounds like all is going well, enjoy the trivia.

Ps I got censored when I wrote the trade name for the drug in my prior posting!

I should have written the chemical or generic name.

[WesW]

Janice, yes, both the Spirit maiden's were special cruises on a special Silversea ship made more magical with our fellow guests we were fortunate to share. We have sailed on another Spirit crossing with Craig and Wil on the Spirit a few years ago, and as u can imagine the wine flowed. Dougburns and Lynn who were also on the maiden cross with all of us are also (along with Spinnaker2) on the Wind with us next week.

 

Janice, Jolly next time you see EnglishUSA/David please pass along our warm regards.

 

And thanks again NJBelle and Jollyjones for taking us along on your crossing.

 

 

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[jollyjones]

Today's tee shirt report:

Under the classic 'Les Mis' logo - Les Deplorables

 

David and I are on the same trivia team; despite the fierce competition we were third yesterday, second today and hoping the trend keeps going tomorrow...

 

 

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[Camillus112]

Lovely reception and dinner last night, a good number of us in tuxes and long gowns. The vibe was very lively and the dinner did not disappoint. The portions may be small, but the preparation of my artichoke appetizer, and lobster entrée was very much to my liking. We chose the pistachio cake and ice cream and it was yummy! We had two delightful couples for dinner mates, one from Florida and another from Washington State.

 

After dinner, I preceded my DH to the theatre and was happily surprised that I sat next to NJBelle, who we had not met before. The artist for the show was a piano showman, whose name I can't recall, and who pieced together both classical, Broadway, and pop tunes with deft, flying fingers. At one point, he asked the audience to shout out song/tune names to piece together and our Belle, with clear voice, requested three. Unfortunately, he did not choose any of hers, preferring those he evidently expected to be shouted. All in all, it was an enjoyable show. Today is Málaga!!

[englishusa]

Jolly,

Rumors are true. We will be aboard in the Spring, see you then. Our initial booking for fall crossing was on the Spirit but getting back home from Bridgetown was difficult and we just switched our reservation to the Wind.

Enjoy your time aboard. Please say hello to Frederick from us, the bar manager, he's very special. Lucky you also get to see Joy, another terrific crew member.

 

Sounds like all is going well, enjoy the trivia.

Ps I got censored when I wrote the trade name for the drug in my prior posting!

I should have written the chemical or generic name.

 

I'm also on the X-ing in April. FLL-LIS-BCN.

I hate Barbados as a Embarkation port. Very difficult to fly in/out.

[spinnaker2]

I'm also on the X-ing in April. FLL-LIS-BCN.

I hate Barbados as a Embarkation port. Very difficult to fly in/out.

 

Hi David,

Looking forward to seeing you on the TA in the Spring. We also will continue on to BCN.

Enjoy the Spirit.

I can't open the photos you attached to your post. :-(

[englishusa]

Hi David,

Looking forward to seeing you on the TA in the Spring. We also will continue on to BCN.

Enjoy the Spirit.

I can't open the photos you attached to your post. :-(

The photos of my T shirts were removed, probably by administrators, as it caused some disagreements with other cruisers.

Really looking forward to seeing you and Larry in the spring!

I did get a Sony RX-10 and love it!

[spinnaker2]

David,

Looking forward to seeing some of your shutter work with the new camera!

Sorry about the tshirt censorship. They must have been really polarizing.

 

I am enjoying following along with the CC'ers. Thanks for taking the time to post.

[bsrkent]

The photos of my T shirts were removed, probably by administrators, as it caused some disagreements with other cruisers.

Really looking forward to seeing you and Larry in the spring!

I did get a Sony RX-10 and love it!

So what have you gotten yourself into now!! Isn't that the purpose of the shirts!

Miss the ol' gang and the crossing...

Best to all

[WesW]

Hi Steve & Barb, we (Doug, Lynn, Ida, I, Candy & Larry)will also miss y'all on our Wind crossing next week.

[Silver Spectre]

The photos of my T shirts were removed, probably by administrators, as it caused some disagreements with other cruisers.

Really looking forward to seeing you and Larry in the spring!

I did get a Sony RX-10 and love it!

 

Sorry they were taken down, they made me laugh and that can only be good. Censorship in any form is just not good. Hope you woke up happy today.

[englishusa]

 

Sorry NJBelle!

[Silver Spectre]

 

Sorry NJBelle!

 

Keep them coming David:D

[Camillus112]

Magic Málaga, especially at night! We had lunch in town with friends from Granada; a wonderful paella at Los Mellizos, which I highly recommend. Afterwards, the came with us to visit the Spirit ( permission had been pre-approved) and were highly impressed. After the visit, we decided to eat from room service and have to say that our butler, Hasheet, presented us with a wonderful dinner. Today is Gibraltar and we did a tour of the Rock. Rather disappointed, not much to write about, although St. Michael's Cave is noteworthy.

[jollyjones]

Cold Gib yesterday, cloudy Casablanca today; hopefully we'll be into warmth and sunshine soon although that's a lot to ask for in the Atlantic in November! Forecast for Agadir tomorrow is better.

 

Our trivia team is, alas, always the bridesmaid ... second again yesterday ...

 

However, trivia was followed by a very pleasant cocktail party hosted by NJBelle which helped mellow out feelings following the unexpected result from across the pond.

 

Then I went on to dinner in Hot Rocks (under the heat lamps!) with Chris Hamilton as my guest - he's the pianist mentioned a few posts ago - a very talented and interesting guy. He's performing again this evening, I'm looking forward to that.

 

Chris disembarks in Arrecife and I hear that we will be getting a magician for entertainment during the crossing ... hmm, not so sure about that but will give him the benefit of the doubt.

 

The enrichment lecturer for the crossing is Howard, the Queen Mother's florist - he's not a bad lecturer but I've heard all his lectures before on previous voyages so I guess for me it's going to be a lot of reading of books during the sea days.

 

P.S. I've not been posting about food and drink because there's nothing noteworthy to post - it's all just as excellent as it always is.

Edited November 10, 2016 by jollyjones

[Camillus112]

After a rather grim day yesterday, both literally and emotionally, we arrived in cloudy Casablanca today and toured the Hassan II Mosque, my personal only sight worth taking the tour for. The Mosque was splendid and interestingly built on the water; from a vantage point, you can see it floating on the sea. There was a market, of course, and I bought a caftan for my daughter...expensive. We were not supposed to bargain, since it was a government store, but the prices were not clearly marked and DH was able to reduce 15 euros from the price. I personally don't feel comfortable in these types of market, but... when in Rome... Temperature is warmer now, but it's still cloudy and the pool doesn't invite me. Hoping Agadir tomorrow will grant us the sun!

[NJBelle]

Glad others have been posting. I had to take a bit of time off to, shall we say, adjust. Still in the process, but we were happy to share some good times and excellent champagne with new friends (several from Cruise Critic) yesterday evening. Earlier in the day, we were in Gibraltar and I took it as a "sea day", since we had been there twice before. The day before, Malaga, was lovely. We had gone to The Alhambra previously, so we just made our own tour of this beautiful little city. There were other interesting excursions we could have done, but we were conserving our excursion strength. With 8 port days in a row, one must be careful!

 

Today was Casablanca. We had done a city tour on a previous visit, so chose the wine excursion. We went north, near Rabat, to a big winery and had a very extensive tour of the whole works. Then we enjoyed delicious wines and snacks on the beautiful veranda of the attached restaurant. We had a nice lunch by the pool and I have been loading pictures and editing on my iPad for part of the afternoon. Next going to try to finish my book. I usually read a great deal on cruises, but we have been so busy with so many fun things. The rest of the books will have to wait for the actual crossing.

[englishusa]

[englishusa]

[englishusa]