Where to go for our last breakfast? We went back to The Quays and had a fried breakfast and then we went back up to the top deck, but this time we went to the adult pool at the front of the ship.
We sat in one of the wooden pods and played cards, but this time I was well and truly beaten, so hubby was the champion this holiday! We had a cup of the weakest Costa I have ever had and then decided it was time to go and buy some presents for the family.
We had a mooch around the shops and bought some perfume, gin and cuddly toys plus the Iona Toblerone. A stop off for fish and chips at The Quays, I wasn’t too keen on the mushy peas, but the curry sauce and the fish was wonderful.
Ice cream tea before…
…and after!
We had promised ourselves that we would try the Ice Cream Tea at Ripples, this had a surcharge of £11, but you only need to purchase one, it’s more than enough for two people. Hubby loves ice cream, but he had to admit defeat and leave some.
We had managed to book The Limelight Club for Sonia tonight, so we joined the queue and took our seats.
I was looking forward to this evening, but it also meant the end of the cruise, so it was mixed feelings. We were served up a three course meal while the Limelight Band, which was an all-female band, together with Laura, the singer, sang a few songs to us. She was very good, very relaxed on stage.
Sonia was very good, she sang some of her hits plus a couple of covers, together with a funny story about when she was in the Eurovision Song Contest made for an entertaining evening and we even got to meet her after the show!
A final Baileys and Jamesons at the Cocktail Bar in the Atrium and it was time to go to bed and set the alarm for an early start in the morning to get home.
Of all the views we took photographs of during our cruise, this is probably the one that we always remember!
We decided to skip breakfast today as we were eating at the Olive Grove at lunchtime today, so after our morning trek around Deck 8, we went to the shops. We ended up in a shop which sold watches, (hubby LOVES watches) where he bought an electronic Tag Heuer for him and then a jewellery shop where we purchased a white gold band with diamonds for me.
We then spent the rest of the morning in the Sky Dome, reading, swimming and having a few drinks, much need rest and relaxation.
Greek Mezze at the Olive Grove
We booked lunch via the My Holiday app, at the Olive Grove, we couldn’t get in for an evening meal. This was a lovely restaurant. Hubby decided to have a Chocolate Oreo Cookie milkshake and I had a Cool Sunset cocktail, which was wine, cranberry juice and lemonade, which was very nice. Hubby’s cocktail froze and he had trouble drinking it after that!
We shared a mezze starter (pictured) which was roasted vegetables, humous and tazeki with beetroot dressing and olives. I had carbonara for main course and hubby beef bucco. The carbonara was delicious, even better than Bella Italia’s version!
Hubby enjoyed his main dish and the waiter recommended Aspall Cider to go with it.
Pudding was a lemon creme brulee for me and had baklava. Both were delicious and we polished them off quite easily.
In the afternoon we searched out the infinity jacuzzies, we fond an empty one easily. They were lovely to just sit in and gaze out to sea, plus they were only for one to three people in the same bubble, so it was nice and personal.
Dinner was in the Aqua restaurant, it was smaller than the Coral Restaurant and the service was very slow in here, it took ages to get our main course. It seemed like the waiters didn’t know whose dinner was whose, plus the coffee was stone cold! I had a Malbec and hubby had a Pinot Grigio.
We went to Brodies and sat in on the 8 o’clock quiz, which we thought was quite hard and from there we went to the Headliners Theatre to watch the production, Centre Stage. This was better than Festival and some of the lighting effects were incredible.
After that we decided to call it a night, I think all the late nights were starting to catch up with us.
Today is our wedding anniversary: 36 years! Included in the Ultimate Celebration Package is breakfast in bed, which included a half bottle of champagne.
As you can see, it also included Danish pastries, fruit, pain au chocolat, yoghurt, orange juice and continental meats. We mixed the champagne and orange juice and had a Bucks Fizz.
Next it was time for our couple’s massage, another part to our UCP*, we had chosen to have a hot stone massage which was an extra £10 each but it was definitely worth it. It was really relaxing, and no, I didn’t fall asleep! One funny thing was that when we were in the treatment room and the two masseurs were explaining what was going to happen, hubby started stripping! I shouted to him to stop and wait until the ladies had left the room, they laughed and said, “He’s keen!”
The giant jacuzzi.
We had booked into the thermal suite for £25 each for two hours. This was sooo relaxing, it had a salt steam room, a steam room, sauna and an amazing shower, which lit up like a disco and you never knew where the water was gonna spray from or what temperature it would be! The thermal beds were heaven, that’s somewhere I could go to sleep.
Cumberland Sausage with bubble and squeak mash
Ploughman lunch
Honeyed IPA and Stormzy cocktail
After lunch at the Cow and Keel, joined the virtual queue and got straight in, we had a rum cocktail each and hubby had a Black Sheep ale, which was recommended by the waiter, Mary. We ordered the sharing dessert, not so much “sharing” as hubby always has more than half!
We then went to an area of the ship that we said we wouldn’t go to – the Art Gallery! We saw a picture (left) which caught our eye by Rebecca Lardner, of course and there is somewhere in our front room where it is meant for, so we bought it. The man who worked in the art gallery was called Alex and he was very knowledgeable, we had a lovely chat to him about all the artists we have bought art from. When he found out it was our anniversary he insisted that we came back in the evening to collect the paperwork and he would treat us to a cocktail!
It was celebration night tonight, so I wore my old faithful black and white dress (about eight years old now) and hubby wore his tuxedo. We had booked dinner at the Coral Restaurant at 6:00 PM.
As we walked into the restaurant it was lovely to see the ladies in their dresses and the men in their formal wear. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a man look bad in a tuxedo.
The menu was devised by Marco Pierre White, which consisted mainly of fish, so hubby was very happy. I had the chicken and we had a glass of Prosecco each and a glass of Malbec with our main course.
We made our way to the art gallery and met up with Alex, who true to his word, ordered us a cocktail. We spent the next half an hour chatting about art and drinking our cocktails.
Manuel Martinez
Then it was time for the Headliner Theatre to watch Manuel Martinez, magician and comedian, he was funny in places, but his accent seemed to drop a few times. Overall though, we enjoyed it.
We had seen that the band, Pulse, were performing a set of guilty pleasures in The Club House, so we went down there and actually found a seat! We ordered a Pina Colada for me and a Jamesons for hubby.
The atmosphere in The Club House was really fun, everyone was singing and waving their hands in the air, no dancing though. and the evening ended on a real high!
Gone midnight and we get back to the cabin, it was a wonderful anniversary!
Breakfast in The Quays this morning – waffles and pancakes! Lovely!
As the weather was overcast this morning we went back to the Sky Dome. I decided to buy a notebook so I could write down my diary entries, I didn’t take much notice of the price, which was a mistake as when I was in the lift I realised it cost £16.00! I got hubby a Costa to soften the blow about the price, but when I told him he nearly choked on his coffee!
As we enjoyed our breakfast at The Quays we had lunch there as well. I had fried chicken and chips from the American Grill, which as I’m a KFC fan, I was looking forward to and hubby had a Katsu curry from the Asian Kitchen. I’m pleased to say that the fried chicken exceeded my expectations. We washed it down with a bottle of Corona each.
As the weather still wasn’t wonderful we thought that a trip to the cinema was in order, the films being shown were A Quiet Place 2 and Blithe Spirit, and as we have seen Blithe Spirit, A Quiet Place 2 it was.
We had about an hour before it was time for the cinema, so we found a quiet place in the Atrium and started our card tournament. This is something we do on every cruise, we play Rummy and the points are carried forward throughout the holiday with the winner proclaimed at the end of the cruise! Not being one to brag, but I won by two points, first round to me!
The cinema wasn’t very large, it probably seated about 40 people, less due to the social distancing measures taken but strangely you could take off your masks here, but not in the theatre?
There was the obligatory person who thought the whole cinema should hear what he was saying which was quite annoying until their conversation went:
“Did you see the dolphins today?” “No I didn’t, but what I really wanna see is an orchid.” “Don’t you mean orca?” his friend questioned and I have to say a few people had a little titter to themselves.
The film was good, we enjoyed it and I have to say that Cillian Murphy played a great role!
We were eating at Sindhu in the evening, as we had ordered the Ultimate Celebration Package we chose the day and time for our meal. Whenever we cruise with P&O we always eat here and it never fails to disappoint.
I had the Parsee Lamb Cutlets for my starter followed by the Duck Tikka Malabari and hubby had the Kerala Nyannd Masala Tian with the Signature Thali Plate for his main course. We had a glass of Prosecco each with our starter and a glass of Beefsteak Malbec with our main courses.
Whilst we were waiting for our order a lady with two friends came in, I didn’t really pay much attention as she went into another part of the restaurant, but hubby said to me that he was sure it was Miriam Margolyes. I’m a huge fan of hers, I love it when she’s on a TV chat show, she’s so forthright and down to earth.
I was kicking myself for not paying attention to this lady and we spent a large part of the dinner discussing how we were going to check out if it was her or not.
Back to the meal, it tasted very good, but they seem to have diverted from the traditional Indian meal, to more of an Indian meat with vegetables. Over coffee we decided to go out onto Deck 8 and walk past the window to see if it was her for sure.
So plan in operation, we walked along the corridor to find the door which led to Deck 8, “Here it is, I think,” announced hubby and pushed open a big grey door. But to our horror, it didn’t lead to the outside deck, but straight back into Sindhu restaurant!! Hubby did a hasty retreat and we hurried down the corridor to find the correct door and were soon outside on Deck 8 laughing at our mistake, remembering the look of shock on the diner’s faces. “But was it her?” I asked him, “I don’t know, I was too busy backtracking out of the door,” he replied. We walked along Deck 8 and took a quick peek into the window and saw this person, hubby was still adamant it was her, but I still wasn’t sure.
It was time to go to the Headliner Theatre to watch Festival. The Headliner’s cast sang festival songs, it wasn’t great to be honest, the dancing seemed very rushed and so some were out of time. The songs were sung fast and loud!
We rushed to the 710 Club hoping to see the 9:30 PM showing and we arrived there at about 9:20 PM and was delighted to see there was no queue. We stood at the entrance of the club and soon there were people behind us forming a queue, somebody asked us, “Is this the queue for the 10:45 performance?”“No,” we replied, “The 9.30 show.” “Are you sure?” they asked, “People went in about 15 minutes earlier.”
9:30 PM came and the doors showed no sign of opening, the queue had grown to around 50 people, “I think we’ve got this wrong,” I whispered to hubby, “I think they’re about to start.” “I do too,” he replied, “Let’s leave quietly,” and so we quietly slipped out of the queue we had created. As we headed towards the stairs, I heard one lady say, “I just joined this queue, I’m not even sure what it’s for.”
After a walk around the ship, we decided to wait in the Atrium for the 10:45 PM session in the 710 club and we ordered a mojito each while we waited. It was entertaining watching everyone psyche each other out, waiting for the first couple to start the queue (which we’re good at apparently), and as soon as someone did, the rest quickly followed suite.
Inside the venue, I ordered a Raspberry Brulee cocktail and hubby had a pint of Fosters. The band was just as good as before and the guitarist, Alistair, sang some Beatles songs beautifully.
We went to the Club House afterwards, again it was full, but we stood at the back and listened to the adult version of his show, it was funny, but I preferred his family show.
By the time this had ended, it was 12:15 AM, “Happy Anniversary,” hubby whispered before we went to sleep.
A good day on board and the weather didn’t dampen our enthusiasm!
After a restless night, the cabin was far too hot and hubby was snoring, we woke up at around 6.30 AM and hubby did his morning ritual of going to the Horizon buffet and fetching a cup of coffee for himself and a green tea for me.
We had breakfast at the Horizon Restaurant where we both had a fried breakfast. We decided to go on a more detailed tour of the ship as we hadn’t really seen much of it the night before.
I have to say that the ship is very well sign posted and so it is fairly easy to navigate around. We took the stairs as much as possible: 1, to try and lose some of the pounds we will gain over the cruise and 2, the lifts are a bit of a faff. The maximum people allowed in a lift is four and there is a sign stating that you have to stand on the markers on the floor and no talking!
We stopped of at Vista for a Costa Coffee where I had an iced latte, which was just a cold coffee (urgh) and hubby had a Caramel Frostini which was very, very sweet. He has the sweetest tooth I know, but even he couldn’t finish it!
After picking up a few things from the cabin, we went up to the Sky Dome, it wasn’t very busy and we managed to get a couple of sunbeds next to the pool.
As I’ve mentioned in another blog (G131N Staycation Cruise) I love people watching and in particular which books people have chosen to read, but sitting at the side of the pool another kind of people watching was discovered: looking at people’s faces as they get into the pool, as it was VERY cold. When hubby got out he said, that it was so cold, everything got smaller!
Time to start reading our books….
My reading choice…
Hubby’s book of choice
As it was before midday I ordered a non-alcohol cocktail and hubby, who doesn’t let something like that get in the way, ordered a beer. The waiter service is a bit slower on Iona, but we never had to wait too long to be served, but we did notice people who accosted the waiters before they have even found somewhere to sit, ensuring they get a drink straight away.
Craig Stuart
Not being a huge gin fan, I decided to order a Pink Gin Spritzer cocktail, which was actually very nice and hubby had a Strawberry Mojito and then Busker, Craig Stuart started his set. A great singer who was also entertaining with his comments and who had amassed a couple of groupies with two women who hung on to his every word!
Lunch was at Taste 360, where I had a burger and chips and hubby had a hot dog and a slice of pizza, no make that two slices he thought it was so good!
Then I’m ashamed to say we went back to the cabin for a nap! When I woke up hubby was sat on the balcony reading his book, I’ve never known him to read so much, it must be good!
Earlier hubby had booked us into the Coral Restaurant, when he tried to book it for two there was no availability, but when he put in three people, it came up with availability? So he booked it!
On arrival at the restaurant we went straight through, but when we sat at the table we were questioned as to why there was only two of us. They were a bit taken aback when we said they couldn’t make it and it didn’t go down well with the waiting staff. After a few minutes of talk, we were moved from our table for three to a table of two, seated next to the window, so it worked out well for us!
I had tomato soup followed by sirloin steak and hubby had smoked mackerel pate and then the beef brisket. A special mention goes to the thick cut chips, they were wonderful! We had a glass of Prosecco each and dessert was lemon seed cake for me and cheese and biscuits for hubby together with a port.
We had about half an hour before we were due to go to the Headliner’s Theatre and went to the Club House and saw Tucker, the comedian. We didn’t have very high expectations with Tucker, but he was funny, his jokes about the internet package and the strength of the signal hit the nail on the head. Talking about the internet signal, I couldn’t log onto any of my computer equipment, so I had to resort to the old fashioned way of writing everything in a notebook! And so hence this being uploaded after the cruise.
Writing my diary the old fashioned way.
The act in the Headliner Theatre was Craig Lloyd, a soul singer. We aren’t fans of soul music but he was a great singer. He was also a name dropper, Simon Cowell, Sinitta and Gary Barlow. He was in the first series of the X Factor and made it to judge’s houses and became a vocal coach for The Voice.
A highlight was at the end when Andy, the Assistant Entertainment Manager, had to orchestrate everybody leaving the theatre row by row. his comments made everyone laugh as we exited safely within Covid guidelines! You have to keep your masks on in the theatre and there is no food or drink. This was pre-bookable on the Cruise Personaliser and people were being turned away who hadn’t booked.
We went back to the Sky Dome and watched Pulse’s Rock Show. The sound wasn’t great, I couldn’t make out what they were singing straight away for a few of the songs, but the lighting was fantastic. A Pina Colado for me and a Mojito for hubby while we were watching them.
I had heard a lot of things about the 710 club via Facebook before the cruise, the overwhelming comments were how good it was, but the main complaint was that people would enter at the beginning of the evening and stay there for the entire evening. I did notice in the Horizon newsletter that it requested people to vacate the club after they have watched the session. So we went down to Deck 6 and were pleased to be able to join the queue for the next session.
The 710 Club is an intimate venue with seating for 75 people. We found a good seat and ordered a Baileys (for me) and a Jamesons (for hubby) and settled down. All I can say is the hype is well and truly worth it. To say I was blown away is an understatement, the pianist and singer, Harrison was simply fantastic, his piano playing skills need to be seen to be believed. The guitarist and singer, lends a more soulful voice to a couple of the songs. We will definitely try to get in there again!
Totally enamoured by what we had just heard, we headed to the Crows Nest for our nightly nightcap of a Baileys and a Jamesons.
Again, past midnight and we went back to the cabin after a thoroughly enjoyable day!
When I was younger I kept a diary, it's not unusual, a lot of people did this, but about 40 years later I found it again and realised that this was from the age of 17, when I still at school, until aged 21 when I was then a married woman. A trip down memory lane for me and an insight into my life for you.
I will update daily, giving an update to each day in each year. Sometimes it's boring, we can't all lead exciting lives, sometimes it's quite poignant, sometimes funny. Be prepared for lots of 80s references, the TV programmes, films and especially the music. Hope you enjoy!
Making My Home A Haven is important to me. Sharing homemaking skills. Recipes and food. Bible Studies. This is a treasure chest of goodies. So take a seat. Have a glass of tea and enjoy. You will learn all about who I am and Our Neck Of The Woods.
It's Raining Cats and Blogs 