| Alex was on Juanita's tour again. You weren't allowed to take photos of the Bayeaux Tapestry but could buy smaller souvenir versions. Then they went to the American Cemetery in Colleville with a brief visit to the famous Omaha beach where part of the D-Day landings happened on the 6th June 1944. |
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| I ordered room service again, this time sirloin burger and french fries with the fruit punch. This was nice and came with a slice of tomato and onion on top of a piece of lettuce. Again my plans to explore the ship came to nought since I was still very tired. But my headache hadn't returned at any time I was in the cabin. Juanita returned from her tour at 5.15pm. She'd invited Alex to sit with us at dinner since she had bad table companions (Germans and a priest I think it was). Our departure was 6pm but it was pouring so I watched it a little from the cabin. We blasted three times then moved off slowly. Juanita and I went to the Martini Bar to meet Alex, the beginning of an addiction! |
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| We were back in the Silhouette and discovered 528 WAS our table all along, not that family of four. A Canadian couple, Kim and Andy, were at the one for two by the window. Andy told us they hadn't been the first couple of nights. Aferwards it was back to the Martini Bar for another chocolate martini. This is a wonderful bar with real ice along the bar. The barmen were great too. Brian from Canada, Togi our Turkish Delight, Peter from the Philipines and Nicky. Then we went to the show Limelight, which was supposed to be about Hollywood musicals. |
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| Well it was musicals all right, but not the sort you'd instantly think of. It was mainly modern ones with the odd thing thrown in from the 1950s. It certainly wasn't what we'd expected. I'd seen a bad one on Aurora but at least it covered more of the genre than this one. They were a very good and talented cast but need to change the repertoire so people would know what they were singing. |
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| Then we went to the Sky Lounge for karaoke! Not that either of us were going to take part, no matter how drunk we got! The drinks menu was pretty boring but the chilli peanuts went down a treat! I liked the way the table changed colour. The karaoke lasted two hours but hardly anyone bothered either so we would all end up singing, including Y.M.C.A. which was interesting. There were a group of young Americans who were brave after a few. One in particular (last one of the night) decided to sing Shout. He completely lost his way and we wondered if he only knew the chorus. Whenever he reached that part he was enthusiastic enough. |
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| Juanita went back to the cabin after that while I stayed a few minutes more. Well I had my latest jar of chilli nuts to finish! As I was about to leave, a couple of elderly ladies asked how I could eat them since they were very hot. Not to me they weren't. They were just right. Then I bumped in Nick Weir near the door so asked if he'd done Catchphrase (since I now remembered where I'd seen him - if I'd read the blurb about the main crew I'd have seen that!). He said he did, they want to bring it back and start filming in March. I wondered how he ended up on ships and he told me he wasn't even in the UK at that time. He'd been in the States doing corporate hospitality for years when the call came so he was surprised. He's very tall. Gave me a cricked neck almost! I returned to the cabin and Juanita had ordered tea. Once again the hot water jug smelt of coffee. Then it was time for bed after a little relaxing. The 10th was a sea day in the dreaded Bay of Evil!!!!! Although when we got up late, it was a gorgeous day and beautifully calm! We even saw what turned out to be the tail-end of some porpoises, but had been unable to snap any. They had been around a couple of hours apparently and swam alongside the ship. |
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| After lunch at the Oceanview, when it tried to rain a couple of times and had very low cloud, I went to the Captain's Club party at 1.30pm in the Sky Lounge. Unlike other ships, they listed the CC events in the daily programme. They were a little behind but when they let us in they handed out free drinks. Food was on offer but limited in choice. Sushi, crepes and fruit skewers. The captain gave a speech, the orchestra, Sound Decision and Inspirational Strings all played together while some members danced. I left before 3pm and returned to the cabin since there wasn't really anything going on and the music had stopped. |
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| We ended up having just a lazy afternoon. It was the first of two formal nights so we all got dressed up. No meeting the captain though. The weather was still reasonably good for the Bay of Evil. |
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| The Martini Bar after dinner for our usual then the theatre for the Captain's welcome at 8.30pm (he had another at 10.45pm). No meeting him like on other ships. They had a short film running on a loop. Spot the mistake! |
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| Yes, it's the WRONG ship! It's quite obviously Solstice. Even Juanita spotted the X wasn't the same as ours. They filmed Equinox, certainly arriving in Southampton once it was lighter at 5am. Couldn't they have used that footage instead? But then they did use video of Liberty of the Seas at the naming ceremony of Independence so I'm not surprised. That would have been harder to tell the difference. This is blatantly obvious. |
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| I left Juanita and Alex to the show since I wasn't that interested in Doug Cameron, whoever he was. I went back to the cabin to change my shoes since I was still having foot trouble. Then I went to the photo shop and ended up chatting to Oliver from I think Mexico who told me he'd come over from Solstice and would be going on Eclipse. He had also done all the videos which were being shown on the TV, and also the one you could buy about making a Solstice class. Then the Martini Bar!!!!! I waited for the girls. I ordered a Chocolate Martini. Togi asked if I wanted one of his specials. Okey doke. It was raspberry and chocolate. Yummy! |
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| Juanita decided to try something different so went for an Apple Martini. Togi promptly put a whole apple in a glass. Then he was serious and scooped three balls he put on a plastic cocktail stick. She loved it. |
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| We got chatting to some Americans at the bar. The first couple were from San Francisco and recognised many of the crew from Solstice. The other couple were from New York. After Juanita went back to the cabin, we ended up lamenting about the state of television today. He worked in the industry so had witnessed it going downhill first hand. Also, to my amazement, he mentioned how he loved The Goodies! We had to explain to his wife about the old BBC comedy series. He was delighted when I told him some were on DVD, saying he'd have to get a region free player. I called it a night at 1am and went to bed since we had an early start in Vigo. The alarm went off at 7am and I went out for our 8am arrival. Aurora was due the same time. It was very cold and windy as we neared the port, making it hard to take photos of Aurora coming in behind. |
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| Our excursion to Pontevedra & Combarro was at 9.15am. I went back to the cabin before the gorgeous one docked since I still needed to eat. I had a cold breakfast. Juanita told me it arrived just after I went out, but that was fine. When we left the ship we were handed a free sample of a liqueur. Our guide was Maria, who went on about Zara fashions being based in Vigo. I was sooooooooooooooo close to showing her my piece of expensive broken crap which masqueraded as my bag. |
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| I was getting deja vu of Saint Petersburg as we were route marched around Pontevedra. She wasn't even going to let anyone have a toilet stop and then agreed to just ten minutes. And we also discovered we DID have an escort after all. His name is Umish (and I probably spelt that wrong since I'm going by the spoken version rather than written) and I recognised him from my tour the day before but he never made it known he was the escort, just like he didn't this time. When anyone lagged behind, he was too busy minding his own business to make sure they caught up and didn't lose the rest of us. He, in fact, ended up keeping the rest of us waiting and never apologised once for the hold up. |
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| I'd chatted as we'd been dragged around to a Canadian woman with bright red hair. She was fed up too at not being able to see anything properly. Then it was onto Combarro. This, while a really nice place, was a ridiculous one to have plenty of time to kill in the scorching heat. Once we'd had the walk around, that was it. Yet here we were with half an hour of free time. To do what? Bugger all shops but plenty of cafes. She didn't even tell anyone where the toilets were. |
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| There wasn't even anywhere to sit apart from cafes so we made our way back to the car park to wait for the driver to open the coach. We found some shade opposite and sat on the kerb. The Canadian found us and sat down too. Finally we were let in. But typically we ended up waiting for a family of Americans with pushchairs. Why bring babies on a tour??? Then we drove back to the port. |
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| When I went to Bilbao on the QE2 in October 2008, we went through security in the port and then were allowed to reboard the ship. This lot made you go through the entire rigmarole all over again! Waste of time considering they missed so many people's freebie booze, including ours. I know of one woman they took it from ONLY because the silly cow took it out of her bag first. Not very bright these security guards, especially when the cruise lines are keen to confiscate - I mean, look after booze until the end of the cruise. Anyway we went back to the cabin and I couldn't help noticing how the port loves making sure you remember where you are. |
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| So where were we? Yep that's right - Malaga! Both of us were really tired so we had a snooze. I went on deck for our 5pm sailaway. Aurora was due the same time only when I went up the steps to the forward observation area, she was already well on her way! |
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| And we were off following Aurora out. Where were the celebrations to mark another maiden visit? Invisible! Either the port or RCCL couldn't be bothered. It's pretty bad when you get nothing, especially on a 'maiden voyage'. Anyone would think these ports didn't care they'd been chosen. |
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| So after six blasts that was it. Not even a flotilla of boats or a fire boat. I went back in and to the cabin. We had some excitement when two ferries went by. They parped and the passengers waved to us while we blasted in response as we headed out the way Aurora had come in that morning and down towards Lisbon. |
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| We were getting into a routine. Dinner followed by the Martini Bar! I did like these public toilets. Someone to open the door to let you out, plenty of room in the cubicle, nice sinks, small towels to dry your hands. |
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| We weren't going to see the show but, after passing the theatre during the first one and heard she could sing, we decided to go to the late one. Lindsay Hamilton, she was called, who had been in the West End. She was very funny too. One of the things she did was uncover a hand santitiser, saying she'd forgotten to do something, then proceeded to wipe her hands and splash a bit under her arms. |
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| Then it was back to the Martini Bar! There really wasn't any other bar we wanted to be. We often considered trying a liquid nitrogen drink a deck above in Galleria Tastings, but always ended up being entertained by Brian and Togi. Then it was bed since it was yet another early start. Juanita ordered the hot water and tea again and yet again the jug stank of coffee. I had a look out from the balcony and saw something rather odd. Was this a fog patch? Funnel(s) pumping out too much smoke? On fire? It was only that end. Forward was clear. |
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| The phone rang at 7am to let us know breakfast was on the way, which neither of us expected since it was never that early. It was a beautiful sunrise as we arrived in Lisbon. |
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| To our surprise we had a tug escort to the 25 de Abril bridge! Flags out, the big one pirouetting (or doing doughnuts, as Juanita called them), both parping away. What did we do? NOTHING! Okay so perhaps it was the time of day and there are laws but we were beginning to despair with this captain, hoping for better when we left. After all, this is the first port out of four to actually DO something for this brand new ship. It was now the 13th August and you really wouldn't know you were supposed to be on a maiden voyage. It was going unmarked so clearly not as important as they made out, making me wonder how they would have acted if there hadn't been the 'soft launch' cruise the week before ours. |
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