THE SCOTTISH ADVENTURES OF A CRUISE SHIP ADDICT

Busy wasn’t the word for it! Another whirlwind of events on the Britannia, which kick-started with Stuart St Paul’s hilarious talk about Status Quo filming in Fiji. Everything seemed to go wrong with the film, but it ended up ok in the end. From there we went to pick up ticket for Craig Revel-Horwood’s Question and Answer Session in a few days time, and then we went to go up to the Gym for a talk, but never made it and sat out in the sun instead. Now I’m covered in some rather strange red-blotches where my skin was exposed. After lunch, it was off for a Signing Session with Peter Andre. We only spent a few minutes with him but he was lovely. I told him I remembered him from Neighbours, and he was really surprised at this! He said that that was a LONG time ago. From there we went down to the Oasis Spa for a talk by Dr Craig Bryson on Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture. It was really interesting. I had an appointment with him straight after the talk for some acupuncture. It wa...

Landing in Alicante, we berthed alongside Oceania Cruises’ Riviera. I reckon Riviera is about 90,000 tons as she was just a little smaller than us. The shuttle buses into town picked us up outside the Cruise Terminal and whisked us into the centre of town, right next to the beach. I made my obligatory trip to the Pharmacy, where I picked up Biodramina, the best seasickness tablets in the world. I can only get them in Spain. Wandering into town, we got lost trying to find the shops, and asked a lady directions. Hilarity ensued as this Italian lady, who spoke ok English, tried to direct us, but couldn’t find the right words. Que me, who, in my best pigeon French went ‘Parlez-vous Francaise, s’il vous plait?’ then she went ‘Oui’ and we started having a conversation in pigeon French. I knew my French conversation classes would come in handy!! Although my French is still horrendous. Then we got lost again, with some ladies from the ship. The ladies went into a café and we...

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...

I’ve never had such a busy day at sea in my life! I almost feel like a hamster on a wheel, running from one place to another. We started off with a hearty breakfast – bang goes the diet already. Then went off to How to improve your metabolism talk. The speaker from the gym was really good, but the room was a bit hot and mum fell asleep. I was nearly asleep as well. We had to escape! After lunch, I ventured down to the Theatre to see what the Guest Lecturer was like. He was brilliant! Stuart was originally a stuntman, and then became a stunt co-ordinator, working on Emmerdale and Mrs Brown’s Boys (do you remember Mrs Brown falling down from the Christmas tree?). I was fascinated by his tales of how to make a stunt work. It’s given me a new perspective on filming. Later, we went to a Question and Answer session with Janette and Aljaz. They were so lovely. They were telling us they are getting married in 19 days’ time and how they met. We also found out that we are gettin...

Tomorrow will be the third time I've packed this case! My mother is NEVER booking a Strictly Come Dancing cruise with me again!

As a veteran of many cruises, including cold weather cruises and round the world cruises, I should be an expert at packing by now (and I'm not too bad). However, this latest cruise has left me stumped! A fortnight in the Med is fine, but add the dimension of a Strictly Come Dancing cruise (aka Dancing with the Stars), and it leaves me fraught with terror! I am a girl who is rarely out of comfy shoes now. Also first sign of sun, and I'm in shorts. I'm overweight and curvy. It's not easy to shop if you've left something at home.  And this spells disaster for a SCD cruise! For the first time in years, I'm having to find and pack high heels, fancy dresses and make up. Usually I can get away with one nice dress, a couple of pairs of trousers and nice Flyflots. But now I find myself packing moderate heels and fancy dresses. The trouble is when I last did serious cruising (4 cruises in one year, and at least two over many years), I had a wardrobe where I just pulled ...