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Thanks Mr L. Don't laugh but we googled some youtube today for exercise with stretch bands which I did and now admit to having slightly tender Abs so we will aim get out with a three pack at least 😅.

Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts. @bonniegwe also enjoyed meeting you and your husband at TK. I am also glad to hear you are okay. Enjoy Barcelona and safe travels home. @marazul thank you for all your help with planning. We will return to the area and see what we didn't see this time. Next time for Sete we will aim to be here when they have their main jousting competitions. The two tour companies I had booked, Mallorca Private Tour Guides and Valencia Tours both were good about either refunding our money or not charging us a late cancellation fee when we told them we were in isolation. @SLSD stay safe in Dallas. Do I remember you saying you had a rural retreat, maybe a break there for a few weeks might be a good idea?

Thanks Lola, We had made the decision that if one tested positive and the other negative we would ask to stay together anyway. But in this case we didn't have to decide though Keith's positive line was very faint. I have started reading "The Widow Cliquot" by Tilar J. Mazzeo so I can learn something while here.

Apparently it was wonderful in the evening with the fireworks. Unfortunately we didn't see it. In Bandol when I had a mental health day and stayed in my room we did a test and we it was negative but the next day I woke with a cough so we tested again and were positive to Covid. We called the medical team straight away and they confirmed Covid. So we are now quarantined in our room till we hopefully test negative when we reach Cadiz. The crew have been truly wonderful. We have had calls from many senior people and we keep being told to ask for what we want. In fact I teased one recently they are call so often to check we are in the room. The food has been good though we are restricting ourselves to light meals since we can't get out to exercise. My husband walks up and back for 30 minutes twice a day and luckily I bought my exercise bands. They offered to send weights but I would prefer to just keep everything confined in our room. Just to be clear, when we checked in on the first day at 2.30pm we were one of the few passengers wearing a mask in the terminal and onboard. We wore a mask when on the tender and never went to any shows. Even on the tour of Nero's Palace the Saturday before we boarded we again wore masks even though it wasn't required. The only time we didn't was when outside or somewhere we were eating in restaurants or the Sky Bar the first afternoon. We could have got this in Rome from our hotel or just walking around. We have managed to avoid it until now so I take the attitude it must have been our time. We had our last booster a month before boarding so our symptoms are mild. I will repeat the crew have been wonderful and to be honest with an on call medical team and such caring crew we are very thankful. Julie

Yes to both questions. I am having a mental health day today as the time prior to the cruise for personal reasons and since arrival we have been busy. I just needed time. Room service I ordered from the main dining menu so it arrived at 7.25pm which was a tad earlier than expected. Keith was down at the Club enjoying the caviar we had ordered yesterday with people we had met the first night. Guest Services were very prompt passing on my message that dinner had arrived 🙂. I didn't order course by course, though you can. I did order wine with our meal and we enjoyed that and our first course on the balcony. Yes, our main course was cooler than some might like but in my mood tonight I was fine with that to just be able to relax together and enjoy our balcony and each other's company. This has been a stressful last few months and sometimes relaxation is the key. Room Service collected our trays within 15 minutes of me calling them so all is good and we continue to enjoy our wine on the balcony as the twilight settles and the sun sets. Julie

Cheeky devil, I enjoy Captain Hamish's company when we can chat and are just sad his good wife Gail isn't sailing with him. We had the Caesar Salad to share and the Roast Chicken. The Roast chicken was plump and juicy. It was cooked properly and seasoned correctly for my taste but I must admit it didn't wow me this time as it has in the past. The Caesar Salad was made table side and I enjoyed that. The sides of creamed spinach and glazed carrots were also delicious. Maybe I was just in a vegetarian frame of mind. 🙂

Some snippets from our sailing so far. We have dined twice in the MDR and enjoyed very good service both times. The first night was very busy but we were in no rush with dining. We in fact found the tempo was fine with a slight wait between courses which we prefer. Water and wine service was no problem either. We spoke to the Sommelier about organising a package and he gave us the Reserve list menu to check out. We ordered our wines on the next night. The second night in MDR was much quieter. We asked to stay in the same section and that wasn't a problem. The main meal was a madras chicken curry and since we had met the charming Indian head chef the night before we were confident it would be authentic and he didn't disappoint. It had a nice spicy bite and we enjoyed it. I am sorry to disappoint but we rarely do bread or dessert so I can't comment on those. They looked nice from what I saw was served to others. It was Portofino today and the tenders ran frequently. Wait time for the tenders was less than 10 minutes both times we used them. We took the tender in and then took a ferry to the Abbey at San Fruttuoso which was fascinating. We had lunch at a cafe perched on the hillside, and I do mean perched 😊. Once I get my iPhone and laptop synching again tomorrow I will post a photo. We had pasta with a creamy basil pesto sauce and clams. I had seen the cafe staff having it for lunch just prior to service and made the assumption if they were enjoying it we would as well, I wasn't wrong, it was delicious. Tonight is formal night and we are dining in Thomas Keller. We will still dress up as that is something we enjoy doing. It is the Captain's welcome night speech but we will skip it this time as there will be a few for us this cruise. Julie

Are you Sue? If so I do remember and we met a wonderful group of people on that cruise. We have only planned to visit the military museum there and Roman theatre which we will do in the morning. So we can easily meet for drinks and a catch up, especially since we are there until 11pm. Contact me on julie z marshall at icloud dot com Julie

Thanks Isklaar and Fletcher. We are onboard and it feels good to be here. We boarded at 2.15 as we stopped to explore Sacro Busco (Monster Park) and have lunch in a small town where we both enjoyed the Pappardelle with wild boar. I'm not sure I can post photos as the internet is glacial at the moment. Check-in and embarkation was very easy and quick, under 10 minutes.We met Nick the Hotel Manager and Hamish is Captain this cruise. It was nice to see them both again. Our room was clean and our luggage arrived quickly. Our stewardess brought us our welcome champagne about half an hour after we arrived in the room. There will be a sail away on deck soon. Still getting used to using Seabourn Source for information like menus but my husband took to it like a duck to water. Julie

Thanks texanaust for the reassurance re testing. Have a safe journey home with no luggage going missing and thank you for your wonderful trip report.

I would also recommend thin plastic over pants. Handy if doing a zodiac excursion to help with the cold especially if you get any splash on you. I used them a few times in Alaska and will use them again when we do Antarctica.

I have no idea about current scheduling but certainly when we did our kayaking in 2017 at "stupid o'clock as you call it" we were able to get breakfast prior to the excursion both from room service and either Seabourn Square or Colonnade, I can't remember which.

This is good news Saffron. Both with the numbers of passengers and hopefully no need for testing each segment. My TA warned me this testing may be required and though I accepted it as part of the current travel requirement I was not looking forward to 3-4 extra tests. I keep my fingers crossed for us both it is no longer required.

Thankfully no problems with our baggage when we arrived in Rome on Tuesday and efficient in baggage claim. Maybe because we flew Singapore Airlines from Perth-Singapore-Rome? @Lena11033 if you are arriving this Saturday just to let you know it is Salde (sale time) if you want to pick up something here 🙂.

As promised my review of places I dined when in Rome. Piccolo Aranci was a small but very busy place near our hotel. They had misplaced our booking the hotel had made, I expressed my disappointment politely. We were trying to decide what to do when the message was sent the owner had found us a table. As an apology we got served a Prosecco to start and limoncello to finish, and no they weren't on the the bill later. My classic trippa in tomato sauce was the best I have eaten, so tender. My husband had veal with shaved truffle and they were very generous with the truffle...it was white truffle. The side salad was lovely and fresh. I didn't post the trippa photo just in case someone can't stand offal.😊 Rinaldo Quirinale just 50metres form our hotel specialises in seafood. We had Scorpion fish served with two ways with a cream sauce and tomato. It was wonderful but expensive as charged by 100gm. We will go back tonight for our last night but will test their Vongole which is a reasonable price. Colline Emilliane was lovely but I wasn't wowed like I thought. My gnocchi was not as light as what was made in our cooking class. Maybe my expectation was too high? I had eaten too much pasta at other meals including our cooking class so skipped it this time. La Lanterne we went for lunch and had fried calamari and scampi to share to start and Saltimbocca Romano. The seafood was so sweet and fresh and our mains were good. The staff are young but very efficient and professional. Definitely would go again, maybe for dinner. Casa Bleve was in a lovely setting and definitely for a special meal. I had Vittello Tonnatto to start and it was great but a big portion so I couldn't finish. My husband and I both had the Umbrine with clams and fennel and it was amazing. Our best fish dish for a long while. Sorry about the upside down ones but I have tried various ways to correct with no luck. I think there is a trick with which way you take the photo with my iPhone. Any hints welcome.

I think the weather gods missed the memo about the temperatures cooling, though I suppose 38-39C is better than low 40s 😊. Thankfully our hotel air-conditioning works very well. The only minor niggle is there is no way to make coffee in the room and my husband just asked for some from room service at 6am and was told No as too early...sigh.😔 The last couple of days we have filled with a food walking tour in the Testaccio neighbourhood. A visit to Dorai Pamphilj which is a Palace with a massive private collection of famous artists both framed and frescoes on the ceiling. It was like visiting the Vatican museum but without the crowds. On a side note we went to a pharmacy our hotel had recommended and got our test done to board the ship. They emailed the result via a government website which was tricky to navigate so reception here sorted it out and printed out our negative certificates. We also completed our Seabourn health forms so we are good to board the ship tomorrow. Just a small tip if you do visit. You can hire audio but not with the ticket purchase. It is from a small podium in the first room after you go through the turnstile. I didn't realise till halfway through and used some information from the website via my phone. I think the audio would have been useful as there is so much to see.

So we arrived in Rome yesterday at 9am after travelling from home for ~31 hours. Thankfully we had booked a car service as we found they had an impromptu taxi strike for 48 hours. I'm so glad we didn't have to deal with that after travelling so long. Villa Spalletti is delightful and thank you @Sunviking for recommending it. We have the non-alcoholic mini bar included and we were given 1 bottle of wine complimentary. The owners have their own vineyard but unfortunately we won't have time to visit. Evening drinks are also included and we enjoyed our Prosecco in the garden. As we arrived early and our room wasn't ready they held our bags while we went to explore Trajan's Market. An amazing place built in the BC era and the engineering was astounding as it was built into the side of the hill and had to support the weight against earth movement. It was the equivalent of our modern day shopping mall for merchants. Today we did a cooking class at Mazzano a town 40 minutes outside of Rome. It was great but it was over 38C today so very hot. I needed an afternoon nap when we returned. It was good food but pasta heavy, which we made, so dinner was salad to start and fish for main.

Thanks for the kind thoughts. We made it to Singapore. The have redone the Business class KrisFlyer Lounge during Covid. It has a lot more light and you can actually see across to the tarmac to see the planes. It feels smaller in size though. I will take photos and post later. I had to edit. My husband found a whole other section on the other side from when you come in. This section is where all the food stations are. You can get noodle dishes a la minute as well as Western and other Asian food. It has a glimpse of the tarmac but not as expansive.

The European dinner schedule is usually more like 8.30-9pm or later. I'm usually awake between 5.30-6am and I don't eat dinner until around 7.30-8pm and I'm not European.

Well our journey has started. And I am waiting in the airport lounge in Perth waiting to board our flight to Rome via Singapore. We have a 13.5 hour transit in Singapore because of changed flight times. I have booked the transit hotel in Terminal 1 so we can rest and freshen up before boarding our Rome flight. We had a slight problem on arrival due to having to ticket our two flights separately due to our WA borders being closed for so long. I had spoken to Singapore yesterday and they assured me "no problem". It took over an hour to sort but I was very grateful the supervisor sorting it was so efficient and she was very grateful we had got there early to check in. Looking forward to Rome and boarding Sojourn.

And I am waiting in the airport lounge in Perth waiting to board our flight to Rome via Singapore. We have a 13.5 hour transit in Singapore because of changed flight times. I have booked the transit hotel in Terminal 1 so we can rest and freshen up before boarding our Rome flight. Looking forward to hearing from mysty and reading her first funny. No pressure though mysty 🙂. Julie

Thanks for all the postings and port information. It is making the anticipation for our upcoming cruise more acute. We enjoy Palamos and the people. I hope the fire was brought under control quickly without too much loss of property and no injuries. Unfortunately we in Australia as you know @texanaustare all too familiar with Summer fires. Great photos by the way.

The testing requirements and pre-boarding health questionnaire requirements are as below, copied and pasted from Seabourn's website. I just googled the question and it went to the source. And yes they are still required. Mandatory enhanced pre-embarkation health screenings, and completion of required documentation – including health questionnaires, Passage Contract, and COVID-19 Risk Acceptance – to be completed no later than 72 to 24 hours prior to sailing. Guest who do not complete the required documentation will not be permitted to board. All guests ages five and above will require a medically observed, negative viral COVID-19 test (PCR or antigen) result taken within three days of cruise embarkation for all European cruises except for embarkations in Greece which requires a two day medically observed antigen test or a 3-day PCR COVID-19 test. https://www.seabourn.com/en_US/health-safety/europe-travel-requirements.html https://www.seabourn.com/en_US/health-safety/guest-protocols.html

I think Sete is wonderful and Halles Market with the fresh oysters shucked in front of you, served with a glass of wine is something I am looking forward to. I'm just hoping they are open when we arrive on Bastille Day.

🤣Don't tell everyone.