After a terrible nights sleep, plagued by indigestion which I blamed on a breakfast bagel, we were woken up by the screeching of the tenders being lowered ready for ferrying guests over to the port. We didn’t have any trips planned for today so it was a leisurely breakfast – no bagel for me today, We’d had a chat with the head waiter Vitali who suggested getting the train. So we discussed whether to go to Monaco as Jane hadn’t been there before so we got the tender over to Villefanche Gare where it was 12 Euros for a return

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We had to be out on our tour to Rome by 08:00 so we missed breakfast in the PG restaurant and ordered room service instead. I had a bagel, risky I know, and bacon and scrambled eggs. It was all very nice apart from the tea, the water in the pot was lukewarm, so I boiled a kettle and all was good again. We had expected the coach to take about two hours but it was just over one. We got off the coach near the Marcello’s Theatre and was looking to get a hop and stop tour bus, but

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Another day another tour, we were going to visit Pompeii this time. It was an early start, not as early as yesterday’s Rome trip, but we had to be at breakfast in the PG restaurant when it opened at 08:00. We had to to be out and in the Queen’s room for 08:30 so we had a quick breakfast of omelette and crispy bacon. Pompeii bans tour stickers so no yellow 10 badges for us and  we headed out to the coach ready for our trip. Yulia was our guide and on arrival in Pompeii she shepherded us to the

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We had nothing booked in Palma so had a lie in and a leisurely breakfast in the PG restaurant before heading down to the gangway on deck A to go ashore for a wander around the city. We got the shuttle bus which dropped us off near to the Cathedral. It was a short walk to the Cathedral itself for a few photos but being a Sunday and there being services on we decided it best not to go inside but to carry on our stroll around town. Walking through the medieval backstreets you could be forgiven for thinking you

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We’d bundled the pooch off to “Aunties” for his holidays on Thursday, so our alarm clock wasn’t around to get us up this morning, but no problems, I couldn’t sleep because of the pain in my mending pelvis, so I was up nice and early and ready for the drive down to Southampton as a passenger this time with Jane doing the driving duties. The journey was uneventful and we were at the testing centre at Mayflower well ahead of schedule. This part of the cruise is unchanged with the LFT testing going smoothly and us heading out and onto

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Last night’s dinner was much less stressful than the Black and White Gala night, mainly because I wore a pair of trousers that weren’t actively trying to chop me in half, that and I wasn’t wearing a tie your own bow tie. I’d forgotten to pack gloves, which is a bit of a schoolboy error on a trip above the Arctic circle, so after a hearty breakfast we headed into Alesund to do a little shopping and maybe a bit of sightseeing. We’d bearthed right in the centre of Alesund, so it was just a short hobble off the ship

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The Red and Gold Gala dinner was a roaring success for Jane as she looked wonderful in her new frock, and I didn’t look too shabby either, if I say so myself. We were looking so good we went in search of a photographer before dinner down on deck two only to be thwarted by the long queues. Not one for queuing for anything we decided to come back after we’d eaten, and try again. Dinner itself was very good, with Jane ordering Scallops, I nearly went for the wellington, but decided on the Langostine Ravioli from the a la

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It was another quiet sea day today, only two lectures again which is disappointing. Not the lectures themselves, but the fact that there are only two per day. First up was John Mclean and the mythology of Norse Astronomy followed by Stuart Musgrave’s talk on Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon Tiki and Rah II expeditions Because of this I’d missed out on the morning’s trivia and Jane was beside herself waiting to tell me that they had got 17/20 without me. After lunch we met up with the rest of the quizzers for the Music Intro’s quiz – 70’s intro’s

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My hip has been playing up for a while with a bit more pain than I have had recently so I had decided not to leave this ship today, we hadn’t had any excursions booked so it was going to be a quiet day on board for us. We went down for breakfast first thing before heading off to the Grills Lounge for a nice coffee. While I was sat there sipping my flat white Jane commented that I was sniffing a bit and I had noticed that I had a bit of a sore throat, so it was decided

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We arrived in Bergen at about 7am, not that it made any difference to our plans. We hadn’t any excursions booked for Bergen so had decided to stay in our room for the day. Being stuck in the room in quarantine, you end up getting into a bit of a routine. Mainly around ordering meals, the daily round of requesting new mugs and glasses but mainly meals. We ended up waiting 90 minutes for lunch as that had gone missing, but a chasing phone call brought about by rumbling stomachs resolved that.. We had a phone call from our erstwhile

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