THE SCOTTISH ADVENTURES OF A CRUISE SHIP ADDICT

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 ...

If shipboard life gets any busier then we’ll need to have a holiday when we return. I’ve never been on a ship with such amazing entertainment. In fact, I don’t think I have sat outside for the last three days! I have just been going from one talk/show to another. I can’t seem to fit everything in. After a visit to the Bridge, it was off to a Port Talk on Cartagena and Gibraltar, then a photo signing by Strictly Dancers Janette and Aljaz, lunch and another talk by Stuart St Paul, where he was talking about filming locations. He spoke about Sherlock (the film, not the TV series), then Angels and Demons. Mum and I with Strictly Come Dancing Stars, Aljaz Skorjanec and Janette Manrara When I spoke to Captain Pembridge this morning, he mentioned that Britannia would need to slow down around Gibraltar for whales, but no whales have really been seen. At lunch, the guy sitting next to me started shouting that he saw a dorsal fin rise out of the water just outside his window. A wh...

Friday 7 November - Gibraltar/At Sea Well, I finally managed to get into the Boardroom this morning for a few hours. I missed getting off the ship at Gibraltar because I had a lecture in the afternoon. As I haven't been lecturing much on ships this year, I needed the practice. It also didn't help that I hadn't performed the Queen Elizabeth lecture for a couple of years. We all met in the Mauretania Restaurant for lunch. Nana, Agnes and Evie went shopping, Campbell went booze shopping. Half the crew ended up in Morrisons supermarket. At 2pm QE2 slipped her moorings in Gibraltar and headed for the sea.  At 3pm I started my lecture about the original Queen Elizabeth liner (1938-1968(out of service)/1972(destroyed by fire). Parts of the original Queen Elizabeth are on board QE2, such as a 20ft high painting of the Queen Mother, a painting of our present Queen and Duke of Edinburgh when they were young, and bas-reliefs which were (I think) in the Cabin smoking room. The original...

From tomorrow, my blog will slightly change as I will be heading on board QE2 for her last proper cruise before she goes off to Dubai. I'm not sure whether posting this blog from QE2 will be easy or not, so it might be a little sporadic.  I am in port on these dates: 29 Oct   Lisbon (last time I was here it was so foggy I couldn't see the huge bridge across the Tagus! We were right under it!) 31 Oct   Sardinia  1 Nov   Naples (Pompeii)  2 Nov Sicily (its a Sunday - everything will be closed)  3 Nov Dubrovnik (gorgeous)  4 Nov Zakinthos (there's nothing there - I'll get to practice my Greek on the locals)  5 Nov Athens (The Acropolis)  8 Nov Gibraltar (Shopping - ye-hey!)  9 Nov Vigo (its a Sunday again - 4th time lucky, I'm hoping to finally get to visit this place!) 11 Nov Southampton (a big party!) We're taking two stowaways with us: Oscar, my daughter Evie's school teddy, and Rex, the rhinocerous from my aunty's work.