My alarm went off at 06:45 as usual, but I woke up with a very scratchy throat, I reckon I’m coming down with Jane’s cold, so I rolled over and went back to sleep. The Cunard beds are probably the comfiest I’ve slept in, so it wasn’t hard to go back to sleep. I’ll go to the gym tomorrow 😀. I opened the curtains to see sun on the balcony, which was nice after the 3 gloomy days getting down here. After a lazy breakfast in the Britannia we headed out to the Pursers desk where we’d arranged to meet

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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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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 a really, really lazy evening. Jane was exhausted and full after the Taormina visit, so we’d decided to give the Commodore Club a miss tonight and watch a film instead. We watched Florence Foster Jenkins, very enjoyable, before getting ready for dinner. Dinner was, as usual, excellent with a chicken boudin starter and a chicken curry main. Dessert was a hazelnut parfait, heavier than I thought it should but very tasty. The petit fours were a mixture of lemon marshmallow and praline cakes. Germane our waiter left a plate full of them on the table after dinner was

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I had another lazy day today knowing I was going to be doing a lot of walking on our shore excursion. We were doubly lazy, not getting up until 08.30 and drifting down to breakfast in the MDR. Jane was feeling particularly antisocial so we ended up on a table for two and unusually, it was fairly isolated, so there was no-one near for me to chat to. I had figs and prunes followed by kippers and poached eggs.  We then made our way down to the dock side were our coach was waiting to transfer us to Taormina. This

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After the Commodore Club and a second Martini, breakfast variety, this time. We headed back to the room for a little rest, and then it as time for dinner. It was informal again, we don’t have a formal night until the Captain’s cocktail evening on the 19th. While we were getting ready, we took advantage of the 6pm lull and stuck on some laundry. The launderette is usually very quiet at that time. Dinner was very good, I had chicken and leek terrine followed by partridge, and since it was roast beef night I got a couple of Yorkshire’s thrown

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Yet another early start today. This time we are both on a shore excursion. At least the early start was softened by the clocks going back an hour last night when we moved from Greece to Albania. After the usual run, I headed back to the stateroom for a shower and to chivvie along Jane into going to the MDR for breakfast, I did this with the promise that we’d have a table for two rather than sharing. I ordered up figs and prunes as did Jane and followed that with smoked haddock and poached eggs. We went straight from

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Lunch was massive, we had ordered two Greek salads, a small fish platter and a small meat platter to share between the four of us. The small platters turned out to not be very small, so by the time we had finished we were all stuffed, with a lot of food left over. After posting the postcards, I waddled my way back to the ship, leaving Giana and Jane to look around the port shops. I headed to the stateroom for a little rest, I must have nodded off for a minute, because we ended up missing Commodore o’clock. So

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It was a slightly earlier start for me this morning, as I had a shore excursion booked. I was in the gym for 06.45 and did my morning run. I went straight from the gym to the Lido buffet to get some breakfast and a cup of tea, and the headed back to the room to eat it. Jane wasn’t coming on the excursion today so she had ordered breakfast from room service for 8am. When I got back to the room Jane was still in bed and decided to steal my cup of tea. I had arranged to meet

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