It was a bitterly cold morning when we set off on the short drive from New Milton to the Ocean Terminal to join the Queen Elizabeth for our 12 night Canaries cruise. It was very quiet when we arrived and 20 minutes later we were in the cabin. 4049 is a balcony cabin on deck 4, one of the nice ones with the massive balconies, and even better than of previous one 4030, it has a glass front to it rather than a metal one. The bags took much longer to arrive than we’d experienced previously so I ended up

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After the choir, we headed back to the room for a rest, Jane was still feeling a bit rough, in keeping with the sea state. It was looking like our final visit to the Commodore Club wasn’t going to happen. That Captain had promised that once in the English Channel, the sea would calm down. It didn’t seem to. So we rested until it was time to get ready for dinner. When I was all clean and shiney we went to meet Pat and Giana for one last trivia quiz in the Red Lion pub, stopping only to place all

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The skipper’s rush to beat the storm across the Bay of Biscay seems to have failed. We’re bouncing along merrily in the teeth of a gale. Winds of 60+ miles per hour, and 3 1/2 metre waves. All very exciting if you don’t suffer from motion sickness. Unfortunately Jane is not feeling top tippy, the wrist bands from yesterday’s shopping trip don’t seem to be having the desired effect. I was sent to breakfast alone in the Lido, with orders for a cup of tea and a toasted bacon bagel. I got up to deck 9 to find my route

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We only had the one drink in the Commodore Club before heading down to the stateroom to get ready for dinner. We were going to meet Pat and Giana in the Red Lion for the wipeout quiz at quarter to eight. We weren’t successful in our endeavours, getting eight out of twelve questions correct, the same as the eventual winners, but failing miserably on the  wipeout question. Our winning streak had com to an end. It was time for dinner and as is traditional on the final formal night, there was the parade of the chef’s, where all the catering

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Jane had a particularly bad night last night. Being a lady of a certain age, she’s been experiencing”power surges” which has been disrupting her sleep quite badly. This coupled with the lively seas means she’s very tired this morning. I was late getting up, my knackered Achilles, means no running and there’s no fencing today so I didn’t stir until after 9am. After a shower, I headed up to the Lido for breakfast, with orders of bring me something nice, and a cup of tea following me out of the door. I had a freshly made ham and mushroom omelette

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It’s Commodore o’clock, Red Apple Fizz for me and Jane’s new favourite, Breakfast Martini. The Captain, Aseem Hashmi, came over the tannoy to tell us everyone was on-board and that things were going to get a bit lumpy heading home with 2 1/2 meter seas. He also informed us that today is Trafalgar Day and we were about to pass the site of his historic victory over the French. We had one more drink, Jane having a Watermelon Martini, before heading down to the room to get ready for dinner. We’d arranged to meet up with Pat and Giana for

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A text message from Vodafone ES woke me at around 4am telling me their prices for calls, we must have transited the Straits of Gibraltar because the ship was moving around quite a bit. No alarm clock this morning, I’m crocked with my Achilles tendon giving me gyp so we had a lie in not making breakfast until 08.45. Once breakfast was over Jane popped along to the launderette to do a white wash while most people were off on their tours. Once that was done we went off the ship to have a stroll through Cadiz. We ended up

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We had arranged to meet up with Pat and Giana for the quiz again tonight in the Golden Lion pub. We had got ready very early, so ended up having a look at the sale items racked up outside the ladies boutique on deck 3. Jane saw a pair of trousers she liked, but at 195 USD they were a bit tasty for me. She the saw another set that she liked, and this time they were more to my liking at 42 USD, so she went to try them on. The boutique doesn’t have a changing room, so she

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