rakkor

Our table in PG had Bananas Foster one night and the table next to us had something Flambeed on the last night, I know we just requested it at lunch, Jane was going to request Cherries Jubilee, but it turned out they were on the menu that night, so never bothered.

I'll attribute it to a mixup in communication, I am a Northener after all.

Possibly, but that doesn't explain the traffic chaos in the QE II Terminal, our booked Taxi just gave up trying to get to us and we ended up waiting for a ranked cab Blowers was OK, I preferred his initial chats about Arlott and Johnners, rather than his second outing, but I though Gower was better on our TA back in 2019, although he only gave a single talk plus a Q&A on that crossing. As has been said on the other reviews of this cruise, I do think Cunard are letting themselves down with the staffing levels, we noticed it on the Amsterdam Cruise in the bars, but really noticed it this cruise in the PG dining room where our waiters were severely overstretched, luckily we're rarely in a rush, but some times getting served seemed to take forever.

My final post is now online, obviously no daily programme but I have scanned the PG lunch and dinner menus, unfortunately They all got mixed up in packing, so I scanned them as a lunch page and a dinner page. https://blog.rakkor.uk Disembarkation was by far the worst I've experienced or possibly the second worst, the common denominator being the QE II terminal which is an awful place to disembark to. I don't blame Cunard for the chaos, but I do blame them for us being some of the last off the ship - being Grills and Diamond at one time meant priority disembarkation, this seems to be no longer the case.

I noticed that when accessing the Free Internet browsing connected to the ships Wi-fi there were links there for those sites. I never clicked them, but my assumption they are there so you have free access when aboard

We're well on the way home now, after a quick visit to Jane's Dad's house to pick up the car and raid M&S for some provisions, we're driving along a sunny M25

Just after I posted the first message, we ended queuing for well over an hour for a taxi, I had originally ordered an Uber but that gave up trying to get to us and after that I couldn't get one after that.

The QEII terminal was chaos with huge queues for planned pickups, taxis couldn't get through the mess to the taxi rank and no one seemed to know what was going on. This compares with the Amsterdam cruise which also used QEII and seemed way more efficient and everything went smoothly

We're still stuck on board and feeling a little miffed - As both Grills and Diamond, we'd have expected to have disembarked early, but our time is scheduled for 09:30 - Lots of announcements saying delays and don't hog the gangway

After the packing we headed up for lunch and it's turned out to be quite a glorious afternoon with sun on the deck and not too much of a breeze

Yesterday's Blog post and Daily Programme is now up at https://blog.rakkor.uk It's been a bit flat/boring the last two sea days, the weather closing in and it chucking it down hasn't helped. there's plenty to do but mustering up the enthusiasm to do it has been the problem apart from the Trivia Quizzes. And today the dreaded packing mat was on the bed when we returned from breakfast, so guess what we've spent the last hour doing? Last night was the first appearance of Canapes on this cruise for us. They no longer seem to appear before 6pm in the Commodore Club and since we don't really do pre-dinner cocktails we have been missing out One other thing missing from dinner in the PG Restaurant this time is we've not had any amuse-bouche served, they were available last September on QE but none on this cruise.

When we were in Naples last September on QE one of Royal Caribbean's Monstrosity of the Seas was also in so I'm assuming most will fit This was it in Rome the day before Naples, but you get the idea

Yesterday's rainy Lisbon post and today's Daily Programme have been posted https://blog.rakkor.uk It's been a lumpy night, over night and was very bouncy as we left the Tagus and entered the Atlantic. The PG restaurant was creaking merrily at dinner with a lot of turbulence through the ship.

It's a shame the weather has been so lousy in Lisbon, we were intending to go and have a Cataplana, Jane's favourite, for lunch and get a few chores out of the way including a haircut for myself, but every time we were about to get off the ship the heavens opened again. This is the first of many visits to Lisbon where it's rained. One highlight is we've won our second team trivia in a row, which given our abysmal showings on every other quiz is a miracle

We too have asked for cream with our coffee at breakfast instead of milk

Day 16's blog post updated as well as today's Daily Programme https://blog.rakkor.uk We've had our first bit of bad weather in a rainy Lisbon this morning, it's not too bad, 21C and showers, but after pretty much unbroken sun since leaving blighty it's a reminder we're heading back home. That and the dreaded baggage labels appearing yesterday.

Day 15 and the latest blog entry is now published. We've been having lots of internet issues the last couple of days, with my connection disconnecting and having t o reconnect all the time. When connected it's good, but the connection seems unstable https://blog.rakkor.uk

Lovely sunrise in the Western Mediterranean

Yesterday's Cagliari adventures and today's Daily Programme have been uploaded at https://blog.rakkor.uk

The WiFi has been spotty today, and myVoyage has been down all day only coming back to life at 8 pm which was a relief in downloading today's daily programme. It's also been very hot on board, Jane found the PG restaurant unbearable at dinner. I've uploaded the Daily programme to https://blog.rakkor.uk

I've not heard a a single plane, apparently Jane has, but I must have been in the shower and missed it, plus we've been out all morning which is why I'm a little late posting my latest excerpt - It there now https://blog.rakkor.uk but you'll have to wait a bit longer for the Daily Programme as myVoyage is down so can't access it at the moment

And the ceiling

This morning in Cagliari

Sailing into a sunset tonight

Yesterday's Cephalonia adventure and today's Daily Programme are now live at https://blog.rakkor.uk