Where Is Safarigal?
Well That Didn’t take Long
It normally takes me weeks to prepare for my cruises in general – getting all of the paperwork together, fighting with the internet to upload all of the necessary information, organizing my clothes and trying to limit the number of pairs of shoes I am taking,...
And Now for Something Completely Different
My mother did not like to fly, so we always travelled by ship if we could. I blame her for my insatiable desire to go on a cruise. When my parents moved to the Caribbean they usually sailed on the Geest banana boats to get them safe and sound back to the UK for...
Epilogue
We are back home now, almost everything is unpacked, and my jet lag is improving. I remain miffed that Queen Mary 2 was not available to return us home in style. Our time on Queen Victoria was wonderful despite some issues, and I am so glad...
Leaving Queen Victoria
Due to our coming to the assistance of the little sinking sailboat folks, our arrival in Southampton was delayed, and thus there was a delay in disembarkation. However, once we started leaving the ship, things ran quite smoothly. One new change that I like is that...
Final Sea Day
This is always the saddest day of any cruise. You come back from breakfast and your cabin steward has placed the protective cover on your bed. Yes, let the packing begin. As they don’t have a World Club party anymore, on the final Gala evening when you return to...
Gibraltar
I was awoken by my phone welcoming me to Morocco. That sounded very exotic. I looked out of the stateroom to see if I could spy that familiar rock formation. It wasn’t there – maybe we really were in Morocco. Brian pointed out that Gibraltar was probably on the...
Cartagena
After leaving Rome we sailed between Sardinia and Corsica overnight, and headed for Cartagena. The sea was totally flat, and a beautiful blue, there was minimal wind, and it was warm, not hot. A perfect summer sea day. Perfect for swimming and sunbathing, and...
Civitavecchia
Although I had decided that we should not do any further Cunard shore excursions. We had to issue of meeting my cousin in Rome for lunch. Normally we would go into Rome by train from Civitavecchia, but it seemed that every train we were on in the UK was...
La Spezia
We had handed in our list of what was missing from the suitcases, and yesterday asked if anything had been discarded or whether it would be returned to us in Southampton. Hopefully it can all be returned to us, especially my little bag of cruise essentials. Also my...
Barcelona
We have been to Barcelona several times, but each time we seem to be spending most of our time in the Sagrada Familia Cathedral. The first time we visited Barcelona was in 1998. It was on the Vistafjord, and a cold, blustery, November day. The kind when you really...
Cadiz
After 2 glorious sea days and a very calm Bay of Biscay our first stop was in Cadiz. The ship docks in the working cargo port, so there was no band or flamenco dancers there to welcome us, not even tents with eager folks trying to persuade one to buy a souvenir you...
Life on Board Queen Victoria
In a word, life on board Queen Victoria is great. Yes, we do not have our suitcases. As we had predicted, when we were sailing down the Solent, they were standing alone on the quayside at Ocean Terminal. I imagined that they were feeling much the same way as...
