Too Much To Do - 27.6.17

I’ve never known a cruise like it! The entertainment on here is wonderful! I can’t fit it all in. I brought a load of work to do, but I don’t have any time to do it! Today started off with an enlightening talk about Tender embarkation for people with mobility problems (I have never known a cruise line to do this before), then it was off to the Port Talk on Cannes and Le Spezia. I’m really looking forward to Cannes, where I’ll have a look at the Yachts and maybe choose one for Campbell to buy for my birthday in 10 days. The talk on Le Spezia reminded me of when we landed in Livorno on Sea Princess a few years ago. Suddenly 10,000 people descended on Livorno and it was chaos! It was like being dropped into an enormous nightmare. Later, Livorno Department of Tourism said on one of my Cruise newsletters that they had a very successful day managing the 5 cruise ships in port. I was wondering if they ever took into account the passengers’ viewpoints. It felt like an episode of ‘I’m a passenger, get me out of here’.

After eating for Britain again (lunch) and a little nap, I realized that we had missed most of the Port Talk for Civitavecchia. Got in at the tail end, but was rewarded by another excellent lecture from our Guest Speaker Stuart St Paul. This time he was showing us how he did stunts for Seed of Chucky and a movie starring Richard Harris (I can’t remember it’s name) where RH was an Escapologist. I took mum along and she loved it! In fact, she keeps saying to me that she doesn’t want to miss any of his lectures (this is from someone who would only ever sit through one of mine and no one else’s!).

Hearing that there was a show at 7pm tonight, we had a very quick dinner in the main dining room, with a promise to mum that we will go to The Horizon Restaurant for sweets. The show was stunning! It was called Once Upon a Time, and it was all about fairytales. So we had Cinderella, Snow White, Aladdin and Alice in Wonderland. The costumes were spectacular. We even had 15 ft high bears on the stage!

Up to The Horizon, and I suddenly developed ‘eyes too big for stomach’ syndrome (yip, diet definitely gone out the window). Spare ribs, sweet and sour chicken in moderation, followed by sugarless crème brulee, a profiterole and mixed fruit. Oh dear!

Tomorrow we go down past Gibraltar into the Med. And again, it’s another extremely packed day. Mum and I have just had a difference of opinion on whether we will see the Rock of Gibraltar as we pass. I say we will because we’re on the left hand side of the ship (looking forward). Only time will tell! Ernesto, if you are reading this, we’ll give you a wave as we go past!!