Host Hattie

Stay safe everyone

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We only made it as far as the Lido for lunch, not too bad even for this buffet hater and Mr HH had more success getting the beer he prefers. Then to the Pavilion Pool for a swim/drift around in the pool. Mr HH tried out the Hot Tub briefly. We're just getting ready to leave, the Captain mentioned some possible bad weather tomorrow but wasn't very clear about when.

It looks beautiful there, have a lovely sea day

Thanks for the updates, I hope the changes aren't too disappointing.

Try to get a cabin under the spa area rather than the pool if you can

From Queen Victoria in Valencia this morning

Thanks for the lovely comments everyone. I forgot to mention that Mr HH asked for a thinner duvet on the board as he was getting warm during the night. It was done last night. Cabin temperature control is fine btw. We're in Valencia this morning and I am embarrassed to say we're still on the ship. It's beautiful on our balcony, we might get off later or maybe not !

Mr HH came second again, wine tasting was 3 wines from Italy, one from Spain from the cheaper end of the wine list. We watched passing cruise ships from the promenade deck for a while as the wifi works there and then the coast of Spain from our balcony. No wifi but beautiful sunshine and Cava. The Queens Room dance floor was busy with sequence dancers as we made our way to dinner. Our assistant waiter has a habit of serving sauces without waiting to hear whether you want them or not. I managed to create a dam with carrot batons to keep the horseradish sauce away from most of my sirloin steak but I'll be ready to say No before he gets to me in future! We have 3 courses, no coffee, we don't feel particularly rushed but we're usually out of dinner just after 9.30. We went to watch the comedy juggler, we've seen him several times but he still makes me laugh and there were a few new parts of his act. We stayed behind a little while to finish our drinks and as we came out of the theatre we heard the unmistakable sound of evenings in the Mediterranean, a cicada. It didn't seem likely but sure enough just outside the doors on Deck 3 was a lone cicada playing the song of his people. It was a beautiful warm night and we could see the lights of the coast of Spain and plenty of stars from our balcony. Glorious.

It's been British Isles the first few nights of the current cruise and Bamboo tonight. I don't have the menus but I'll see what I can find out

Perhaps someone on QM2 could check for you, there are cuddly ships if that helps !

They aren't weighed but it's for Health and Safety reasons as there is a lot more manual handling involved. There is no limit to the number of cases you can take.

Thanks, I am doing. Not ordering breakfast ended the way I knew it would, peppermint tea and a biscuit! We watched the 11am lecture on the cabin TV Sir Ivan Lawrence, he didn't keep to time so he was gate crashed by the noon announcement by the Officer of the Watch. We went to the Britannia restaurant for lunch, it's nice the way they fill the window tables. We decided to stick with water as it's wine tasting later. Post-lunch I found a steamer chair on the shaded side of the promenade deck to watch the coast of Spain while Mr HH went to investigate the Roulette Tournament.

Sold out, I didn't ask whether they were expecting more at any point but as my day job involves buying things, delivery times are very long at the moment so I'm not surprised.

There's one thing which could be a deal breaker - no Teddies in the shop 😱 We caused some consternation when we sat at our new table last night, who knew moving 6 inches could bring a new waiter and Head Waiter. Same Sommelier though, whether it was the fact that the high maintenance table of 5 next to us were late arriving, I'd signed up for the wine lunch the previous night or everything has settled down, but we had 2 bottles of wine opened by the time starters arrived ! Another nice dinner and out in plenty of time for a box at the variety show. Still not a massive fan of the singing and dancing (no disrespect to the performers) but the comedian was entertaining again. We called it a night (no afternoon nap today) and took a risk by not ordering breakfast.

We stayed on our balcony for the sail away exchanging waves with passengers on the Mein Schiff in port with us. We got away first time today ! We went for a pre-dinner drink in the Gin & Fizz bar, one day we'll order something other than a Sloe Ahead and The Mary Rose but not today. Sunset was 8.16, I just caught it on the way to dinner

Thank you for saving me a trip there 😊

Yes they have

The HoHo bus company have an app which tells you when the next bus is due at your stop, very handy except when it suddenly drops from 15 minutes to 3 and the next one is 36 minutes later 😱 Fortunately our sunbeds weren't far from the bus stop and there were a few other people waiting so we made it. We would have been fine on the later one as all aboard time was 5.30. The duty free shop in the terminal building said cheaper than Gibraltar and the crew certainly seemed to be stocking up !

They are really only little things and the cocktail was my own fault, we've not been out of the country since February 2020 and our last long cruise was September 2019 so it's very good to be back. I'm sorry if I'm making it sound as if we're not enjoying it.

In Cadiz

We'd ordered juice and milk from room service to try and make sure we were up in time for Britannia breakfast. As it was I was awake in time for beautiful skies over Cadiz. We were given the table underneath the globe, eggs Benedict was very nice, nobody bringing pastries round. I guess you have to ask but that would have been greedy! We got our belongings together and went to find the gangway. There was a crew exercise going on and only one gangway in use so there was a moderate amount of chaos. We sat in the Grand Lobby to wait for the worst of the queue to pass. It wasn't helped by having to stop every time someone decided to get back on the ship. Mr HH was muttering rude things but finally we were off and catching the HoHo bus. We got off at the beach and have had a lovely couple of hours in the sun and lunch.

I'd have to check when we're back on the ship. Thanks, we're having a lovely time

It got a bit chilly so we returned to our cabin for a siesta. We can hear rehearsals in the theatre but it's not unpleasant. Mr HH left off his tie tonight but there were still plenty of jackets and a few ties in the Commodore Club. Still no neighbours so we arranged with the Head Waiter in our section to move to their table. We're right next to the walkway and I could see us wearing dinner by the time the cruise was finished. We got our rose wine before our starters tonight. I wasn't very inspired by the starters so I ordered a salad described as Avocado. When it arrived I remembered the complaint here, it was fine but it was mostly apple and lettuce with avocado in the dressing. We both had lamb for main course. We finished in plenty of time to get a box for the Ida Girls show. The first number made my ears hurt but we enjoyed it by the end. Just time to catch the last few numbers from the husband and wife duo in the Golden Lion.

Sea Day We were woken up by breakfast arriving, I'd ordered slightly less this morning. We watched the repeated lecture from yesterday and then sat in the sun on the balcony. Mr HH went to enter the Blackjack tournament and we had lunch in the Golden Lion before the final. Our drinks order arrived completely wrong, I kept mine but Mr HH swapped his. One advantage of the app is that we could see the refund. He finished 2nd, no prize unfortunately and we found a couple of free steamer chairs and watched the waves