There has been much comment about the amount of hanging space available, so Jane has been getting stressed about how much she can pack, which dresses get left behind and don’t even get me started on how many pairs of shoes is too many for a 14 night cruise. Two days of packing, unpacking, repacking and closing the suitcases for the final time and the amount of luggage looks pretty much the same as all our previous cruises.  The pooch was dispatched to the sitter’s Friday and we set off early yesterday from Beckenham, heading down the Jane’s Dad’s place in the New Forest. The drive down was very good, two and a half hours, and we arrived in good time for brunch and a final shop to get bits and pieces we’d forgotten to pack.

We had a 12:30 embarkation time, and left New Milton at 11′:15 to allow for the Sunday shoppers in Southampton. We arrived at Ocean Terminal at about 12:15 and dropped our car with CPS, our bags at drop off #4 and were in Ocean Terminal at 12:30, There were queues outside which I assume were for people that had arrived earlier than their assigned boarding times, but as a Grills and Priority passenger we were ushered straight through and the registration was completed tout suite, then it all fell apart a bit – After booking in we were ushered into a holding area to wait for security. The boarding process is supposed to be Queens Grill, Princess Grill and then Club and then Diamond and Platinum loyalty, but this seemed to have been thrown out the window and it was a free for all with us boarding with Britannia passengers. It wasn’t a problem other than we were delayed by about 30 minutes boarding, then once past security there was quite a queue on the air bridge which was very slow in boarding as well. I’m not sure of the reason for the slowness because by the time  we arrived at the front it was a quick process to get our boarding cards scanned and be directed to our muster station to get checked in.

We headed to the rear of the ship to use the ‘C’ Elevators as I had heard that the mid-ship ones are very slow on embarkation day, this was a a good move as we were in our stateroom in no time. Our first proper disappointment for Queen Anne is the size and spaciousness of the Princess Grilll cabin. If I didn’t know better I would have though I was in a standard Britannia cabin. It’s not tiny, but it doesn’t reflect the extra cost of travelling in PG. The wardrobe space as expected is inadequate for anything more than a 2 week cruise, I don’t know how the World Cruise passangers are going to fare in January. There is some good news though Jane’s Air Wrap works as expected, so a hair disaster has been averted.

We went up to the PG dining room for lunch and discover our table, we are on a table for six, which is good, we had requested a table for eight but six will be OK. After that it was back to the room where I unpacked, then I was sent out to allow Jane to unpack. I headed up to the Grills Lounge to sort out an appointment for the future cruise booking office as you now need an appointment rather than just rocking up and waiting. It took a while as there’s an unending queue of the elderly trying to connect their Ipads to the WiFi – Appointment books and added a  booking for Fizz in the Bright Lights I headed back to the room to grab Jane and head off out for a look around the ship before heading up to the Commodore Club for Commodore O’Clock – It took a while to get served, there was a dearth of waiters at 5pm and Jane ended up heading to the bar to order. Doom Bar for me and the ubiquitous Cosmo for herself. She wasn’t happy as the menu doesn’t have the usual range of cocktails, and how is she supposed to decide what to have if she can’t browse the menu to see what tickles her fancy.

After that it was back to the room for a shower & get ready for dinner while watching England trounce The Republic of Ireland. We’d pre-booked Jane’s favourite meal from the A La Carte menu, rack of lamb, so dinner was something to look forward to. Crab, Crayfish and Caviar starter also from the A La Carte Menus  and the aforementioned lamb prepared tableside. And off to bed.

The first night’s sleep at sea can be a bit hit and miss, what with the movement, strange sounds and the thing that got me, the aircon. I don’t know if I was snoring but I woke an 4:30 with dry throat and sore nose, and struggled to get back off after that. I did, eventually and was woken properly by Jane announcing that, wardrobes aside she really likes the PG cabin. There are lots of good points to the new cabin, yes it is smaller than the Vistas and QM2, yes the wardrobe space is woefully inadequate, but the sitting area is bright and roomy. There are some excellent features in the room – the bathroom is small, but absolutely functional and the shower is a revelation, after the Vista PG state rooms, where the over bath shower is so low I’m lucky to wet my navel.  Also the USB ports and bedside power points are very useful for today’s connected lifestyle.

After a shower we headed to the PG restaurant for breakfast, a very slow affair with long gaps between ordering and receiving. I’m getting the feeling that there has been a major crew changeover as everything is a little slow at the moment. I had requested a scoop of ice cream at dinner with my dessert last night, the Bakewell tart was a bit dry as it came without custard and it took an age to arrive. It was the same this morning at breakfast, we had arrived quite early and had ordered straight away, but two of our table mates weren’t asked for their order until 20 minutes after sitting, and then still hadn’t received anything after another 20 minutes. It’s not too much of a  problem when you have nowhere to be, but tonight we’re booked into Noir at 9:30 so I hope it’s quicker tonight. 

The first of the insight’s lecture on this cruise is John Laverick, a Civil Engineer and Naval Historian – Todat it’s Fortress Gibraltar, tracing the military history of Gibraltar from the Moors to WWII 

The second of this morning’s Insights Lectures is Keith Appleyard’s “My Life as a Spook” Keith was a Cold War RAF Intelligence Officer.

After the lectures I headed back to the cabin to collect Jane and then Lunch in the PG Restaurant. It was a healthy-ish one for me today, salt and pepper squid appetiser and a tuna poke bowl main all very nice. It was another slow lunch, not as slow as breakfast, but still slow and I sat with a black coffee for ages waiting for milk and sugar. The service isn’t terrible it’s just not up to the usual Cunard standards.

After lunch we had an appointment booked with the Future Cruise sales team to sort out a cruise for 2026, we fancied a Caribbean cruise again after our previous one had been cancelled by the COVID outbreak in 2020. £1500 lighter we are now booked on QM2 departing Southampton November 10th returning December 6th in a Britannia Sheltered Balcony, I can’t afford the Grills on such a long and popular sailing. After that I was in need of a coffee and a  sit down so we headed up to the Grills Lounge only to find there were no staff around forgetting it was 15:00 and afternoon tea was being served in the PG restaurant. It took a bit of persuading before Jane eventually relented and I sat down to dainty sandwiches (Prawn and Lobster) and Scones with jam and clotted cream, lovely.

We had a lazy afternoon followed by a trip up to the Commodore Club, we were going to try the Grills Lounge for our early evening livener but it’s not that comfortable in there, there seems to be a severe lack of comfortable seats anywhere around the ship, it’s as if Cunard don’t want you sitting for any length of time – Doombar was the order of the day and for Jane a Ginger Cosmo as that was on the CC menu. The beer glasses are straight from the freezer so and nice and cold, I’m not sure it’s required on a chilly Monday in the Bay of Biscay, but it’ll be nice if the weather improves further South. 

It’s the first of the formal nights tonight, with a Black and White theme with the first of the Gala menus, this one created by Michel Roux, lots of fancy French words for seared tuna appetiser, saddle of lamb entree and a passion fruit souffle dessert. It was all very nice. We needed to be at the Bright Lights Society for 9:30 and Noir, but we needn’t have worried as the service was impeccable and we were in the queue for 9:15, who knew there’d be a queue, it was all very British. No spoilers, Noir is a murder mystery musical, absolute nonsense, but great fun and well worth the effort of booking.

I had a really good sleep last night, despite almost falling out of bed, god knows what happened there. We’d turned the aircon off, and although it was quite warm in the room, it was quiet and I wasn’t all dried out when I woke. The clocks went forward overnight so we were robbed of an hour’s sleep but I had remembered to set my alarm for 6:45 UK time just to check if I wasn’t dreaming and the clocks really had gone forward. Breakfast was in the Princess Grill restaurant, and the slow service seems to be a thing of the past. We were in and out in 40 minutes which was handy as there was a Morning Trivia in the Golden Lion at 10am, to be honest we should have stopped in bed, as usual we were woeful, being particularly poor at 50/50 guesses.

When we returned to our room we found a letter admonishing us for not attending the Muster Station on the first day or the briefing yesterday. This was odd as we’d been to muster station D and had our boarding passes scanned there. I can only assume this is another computer glitch, as a trip to the Pursers Desk on deck one said it was nothing to concern yourself with. The waiting staff have discarded their tablets and gone back to using pens and paper to take your order in the restaurant. I’m wondering how much of the problems we’ve had on the first two days are down to computer issues rather than the staff finding their feet.

After failing miserably in the quiz I headed off to the Royal Court Theatre for the morning insights lectures, the first of which was Darren Campbell, the British Olympic Sprinter. where he gave an inspiring lecture of how a council estate kid overcame all of the hurdles to become an Olympic Gold Medallist at the 2024 Athens Olympics. This was why I love Cunard’s Insights programme.

The second of the Insight’s lectures is Nancy Appleyard, a cultural anthropologist who gave a lecture on human language. A fascinating insight into the origins of language and how it’s adoption drove the human race to dominate the planet.

Lunch again was in the PG restaurant chicken satay and spaghetti bolognese, it was very good. Our waiters are back on their tablets, apparently all is working again. It was very efficient especially when compared to the start of the voyage. It wasn’t long before be had finished and decided to head up to the Grills Terrace as the weather has started to improve and the sun has started to appear.  It was a bit messy up on deck, not all sun loungers were out and those that were just scattered around so everything was a bit disorganised. It was nice to sit in the sun and the longers are comfortable, not QV/QE comfortable, but comfy enough.

We gave the Commodore Club a miss as Jane wanted to see if the Chart Room offered a better selection of cocktails, I’m not sure that it does, but they do offer the Zodiac Cocktail collection and she does like her Birthday cocktail, a mixture of Gin, and Bergamot liqueur that she really enjoyed. I tried the Cunard Gold draught lager, which at first I didn’t like but after a few mouthfuls it grew on me.

Dinner was smart casual pork fest in the PG restaurant, suckling pig croquette from the A La Carte menu, the nicest pork cutlet I’ve had in a long time for main and my first foray into the cheese trolley to end. After that it was an early night to prepare for Cadiz.  

Hello Cadiz! I’d not heard us arriving into the port of Cadiz, the sea state has been so calm it’s easy to forget you’re actually onboard a ship at sea. When I woke we had already docked and the great thing about arriving in Cadiz is we were right in the city. We had a walking tour booked for today, so we just had a light breakfast in the restaurant, I had bircher muesli and a strangely sticky croissant,  Jane, fruit and yoghourt and also one of the strangely sticky croissants.

The tour we had booked was the “Cadiz like a local” walking tour. We headed off the ship and through the port to meet our guide Jaun-Antonio. It was a small group of six Cunarders which is a nice number when walking around as we didn’t get in the way when stopped unlike larger groups. The tour itself was interesting and informative, lasting about 4 hours with lunch included. Lunch was a tasty selection of local delicacies, crispy pork belly, a creamy cold tomato soup, boiled prawns, and potatoes dressed with onion and olive oil, paella and a creme caramel like dessert. The guided part of the tour walked us through the old town ending up at the market, where we had an hour’s free time to browse, shop and grab refreshments. We did all of this, I love browsing a market especially a fish market and Cadiz’s is one of the best, where we bought some fat olives, some pimento and had a glass of sherry, after all “when in Cadiz…..”. After the tour it was time to waddle back to the ship for a lie down. We did intend to head up to the Grills Deck to get some sun but after 10 minutes I could hear a quiet huffing coming from Jane’s side of the bed.

Christmas is slowly arriving with more trees appearing daily and the ship is slowly getting a festive feel

After a bit of a snooze, Jane made the executive decision not to go to the Commodore Club for our usual afternoon tipple, but to try the Grills Lounge pre-dinner instead. The Grills Lounge is probably the most disappointing space on the whole ship. Being stuck between the two Grills restaurants it has no view out, the only natural light is a central skylight which makes the whole room very dark and it has the most uncomfortable seats of any area we’ve discovered so far a mixture of small upright and wide slippy with no support all of which are too low. We didn’t finish our pre-dinner drinks there opting instead to take them into the restaurant with us instead. Dinner was lovely though Duck a l’Orange prepared at the table.

I’d forgotten to turn off my 06:45 work alarm so was woken early and after a couple of minutes deciding whether to go back to sleep I decided to get up and open the curtains out to the balcony, it was still dark, and I could see lights I assume from the Spanish coast off in the distance, we’s passed Gibraltar at 4 am so that was behind us. What was the plan for today, It was nice and sunny so the intention was to get some time in the sun up on the Grills deck, then I noticed that the first of the Insights lectures was a 10:00, so my plans changed but Jane’s remained the same. After a shower she put on her cozzie and sun dress ready for some time on the loungers and we headed for breakfast.

The service was slow again today, it wasn’t terrible but I had a 10:00 appointment in the Royal Court Theatre, so it was noticeable, more so for our tablemates, who had ordered well before us and were presented with their breakfast after us. 

The first of my lectures was Keith Appleyard, the Spook, recanting his experiences as a RAF Signals Officer. This lecture was still rooted in the cold war, talking about his posting to RAF Digby and his dealing with GCHQ Cheltenham. A very interesting talk that passed very quickly. This was followed by a Q&A session with Olympic Gold Medallist and Team GB member Darren Campbell who kindly passed out his medals for the lucky attendees on the first few rows to have a look at and no doubt photograph with them around their necks. The final Insights Lecture was John Laverick who gave a presentation on Naval engagements in the Western Med focusing on our next port of call Cartagena.

I met Jane back in the stateroom when alll of these were over and went to hunt down lunch. The Wellness Cafe in the Pavillion Pool area on Deck 10  was one of Jane’s suggestions, but  that had quite a queue of people waiting to put together their health lunch bowls, we discounted the Pavillion Grill and it’s dogs and burgers as we’re trying to be good, so it was back to the PG Restaurant where the being good went out of the window and a Philly Cheese Steak was consumed.

After lunch we headed up to the Grills Deck as the sun was out, there were plenty of loungers available and we grabbed a couple but it turned out to be just a bit too fresh for me with the wind travelling over the deck. Jane on the other hand is made of sterner stuff than me and she stayed, albeit wrapped in towels while i headed back into the Pavillion pool area to grab a table in the sun and chill for a while. I hadn’t had dessert at lunch so now was the time to try a Gelateria Ice Cream, it was a delicious 2 scoop monster consisting of vanilla and pistachio, lovely. Jane came in from the Grills deck, complaining about the convoluted route to get from the Grills Terrace to the Upper Pavillion pool level, she isn’t wrong. It was too warm in the indoor sun for Jane, it’s very warm in the Pavillion pool when the roof is closed so we decided to head back to the room and do some laundry. There are no laundrettes on deck six but deck seven has one with two washing machines and deck eight has four in its laundrette.

After all of the laundry was completed it was time for a cocktail. The cocktail menus around the ship are very specialised, Commodore Club is Martinis, Chart Room, Zodiac cocktails, the Casino bar, Negronis. There isn’t an all encompassing menu for all of the cocktails so requesting off the menu becomes difficult and this is a shame. So we ended up in the Casino bar for a hibiscus margarita, which was a bit too floral for Jane, so then we ended up in the Commodore Club where she requested a Breakfast Martini, a standard martini on the other Queens, but it wasn’t available. She ended up with a Cool as a Cucumber.

 On the way back we attempted to go through the Pavillion Pool to get back to our stateroom, but our way was blocked because there was a private party, so we ended up being re-routed via deck eight past cabins. Jane was very miffed we hadn’t had an invite to whatever it was!

We took our time getting ready as our tablemates were starting early to catch the Pianist’s eight o’clock performance in the Royal Court Theatre. It was lamb cutlets on the menu, so that was Jane sorted and I opted for the Thai Prawn curry and asked the waiter for it to be spicy, it was spicy ish, but it could have done with a  bit more heat.

They had “The Who, Live from Hyde Park” playing in the Pavillion on the big screen so we headed over there to catch a bit of that and have a nightcap. It’s an excellent venue as both the picture and sound are excellent. After that it was time for bed.

We’ve arrived in our second port this morning, Cartagena, it’s a pretty little town/city where wed park up right in the city. So it’s a short walk from the ship to the shops and attractions. But before we head into town we need breakfast first, that is taken in the PG restaurant as usual, bircher muesli, yum! And since  we’ve been here many times we had decided to spend a little time lounging in the sun, so headed up to the Grills Terrace where we hoped to grab a sun lounger. As luck would have it there were plenty available, everybody was obviously off the ship.

Even though there were only a couple of people using the sun beds, someone had staked their claim on a couple in the prime position as there was a bag, and book left there, despite Cunard’s stated policy is don’t reserve sunbeds. These people never returned before we went to lunch at 12:30. We had a light-ish lunch of spaghetti carbonara before heading out. We walked down to Deck A where the gangway was today passing through the Atrium where Jane excitedly pointed out they now have the Xmas tree up in that area, and very nice it looks too.

We left the ship and had a pleasant stroll alongside the Marina and into town to have a look around and possibly grab a coffee, we’ve previously visited most of the attractions so today was more about just stretching our legs. We had a very nice coffee at Coffee Lab an artisan coffee place down one of the side streets. We then did a loop around the Roman Forum before heading back towards the ship and since I’d had a “light” lunch  I persuaded Jane to allow me to have an ice cream from the Gelateria, a single scoop this time because as nice as the double scoop was, it was a bit too much. I don’t know how anyone manages a triple scoop.

We went back up to the Grills Terrace to eat my ice cream and grab a lounger out of the sun this time, which was a good thing because most of the loungers in the sun were taken. Even out of the sun it was pleasantly warm. After which I went to the Grills Lounge to grab a cappuccino, but to my dismay there’s no barman on duty from Afternoon Tea at 15:00 until 17:30. I asked Eli the concierge if I could get a coffee and she asked the PG Maitre’d who dispatched a waiter to get me a cappuccino from somewhere and leaving me feeling guilty for putting them through so much trouble.

After all that excitement it was Commodore o’clock so we headed out via the Grills Terrace, Pavilion Pool and Sky Bar on the off chance it was warm enough to drink al fresco, the sun had just dipped behind the mountains so it was just slightly too fresh for Jane, so back down one deck and the Commodore Club for a Doombar and Dark ‘N Stormy.

Dinner was an uneventful affair, the food was excellent, Surf and Turf, and the cheese and biscuits was a little too generous with the cheese. We have a very pleasant trable of six and spent an age chatting before heading back to the room and bed.

I woke early again, it wasn’t even light, so I threaded my way past the coffee table, to open the balcony curtains and get my first view of Valencia on this trip. The sun was just rising and it was looking overcast. The chances of getting some sunbathing didn’t look too promising so we decided to pop into Valencia after breakfast. I has my first “full English” of the cruise, which was very nice, substituting the hash brown for an extra slice of black pudding.

Cunard supplied free shuttle buses into Valencia, but because of traffic restrictions in the centre, they were dropping off at the City of Arts and Sciences rather than the Old Town. This is 3km from the Old Town so quite a trek for the old dears that make up the majority of Cunard’s cruising demographic. We weren’t going to the old town though, we’ve been there a few times before, but never to the City of Arts and Sciences. We walked along the wide boulevard past the Science Museum to the Agora, an events venue and on to the Oceanographic Centre. This was a place filled with fishy fun and we spent an excellent 3 hours walking around looking at everything from fish to flamingos, birds to belugas and sea lions to sharks. After that we headed into the science museum. This was not as much fun, as the exhibits were orientated more for a younger audience, so there were no real surprises in there. We were also pretty bushed as there was a lot of walking involved so we headed back to the shuttle bus drop off point to head back to the ship for some lunch.

The bus was full and we managed to get the last two seats, albeit apart from each other. I was seated next to an old dear, a committed cruiser on her third this year. She was not impressed by Queen Anne and when asked why, it seems she hasn’t had a “hot” meal and her cabin is too small. She was traveling Britannia Club, so I can’t comment on the cabin sizes, but on the other queens they are the same as the Britannia Balcony cabins, so not small, circa 236 sqft on Anne compared with 248 sqft on QM2. If was was unhappy with the meal temperature, and it was consistently too cold I would be making a point of sending it w=back until they got it right, especially of I was paying a premium like she was in Club, it’s one of the basic things they need to get right and if you don’t tell them they will assume it is right.

When we arrived back at the ship we headed up to the Pavilion Grill for a burger for Jane and a Bratwurst for me. It was nice enough, the chips not so much so, but the onion rings were excellent. We hit the Gelateria again, a vanilla scoop for me and a mint and choc chip for Jane, who then moaned, all the way through eating it, that it was too much.

By now the sun was on the balcony so we just headed to the room where Jane grabbed the seat in the sun and I chilled with my kindle before heading inside to listen to the footie scores on the TV.  I’d had a chat with the Grills concierge, before heading out, to see if there were any places left for the behind the scenes ship’s tour. When we returned to the stateroom there was a letter stating I had a place on the 13:00 tour tomorrow.

We though we’d try the Sky Bar for out early evening cocktail, it has loads of promise but gets found out if the weather isn’t warm enough. I was happy enough though as I still had on my jumper from earlier so I settled down with a Doombar and Jane had a Cosmopolitan. That area has some strange features, the only toilet nearby is an accessible one, but I couldn’t see how someone in a wheelchair could access it. There must be a lift somewhere, but I couldn’t see it. Postscript, I found it, it’s on the starboard side heading forward. From there we went to the Commodore Club where Jane had a Mai Tai which she really enjoyed

Today was a sea day after leaving Valencia last night we are sailing on a pan flat sea heading back south towards Malaga. The sun is out and it’s going to be glorious. We took breakfast as usual in the PG restaurant, bircher muesli and a scrambled egg and crispy bacon bagel. The sun was out on Deck 11, the Grills Terrace where Jane grabbed a lounger in the sun for a couple of hours chilling. It was going to be a lazy day, or at least a lazy morning.

We had a lazy morning before heading down to the buffet “Artisan Food Hall” as I had the Behind the Scenes ship tour at 12:45, I fancied sushi and was hoping they had it on offer, but sadly I found none, so Pavilion Grill and a couple of bratwurst, sans buns would have to suffice.

I left Jane to her own devices and headed back to the room to make sure I was clean and had no illness as stipulated on the joining form then on to the Bright Lights where we met an were briefed on the upcoming tour. There were 16 of us in our party and there was another tour right behind us.

Our first port of call was the Theatre, very interesting and surprisingly technical as well as very compact, there’s not a lot of room off stage. From there we headed to the forward mooring station, big ropes and even bigger anchor chains where the First Officer gave a presentation on the technical aspects of mooring and a line throwing demonstration. The next sop was the Britannia Galley. As you’d expect it was a vast area of polished steel heat and noise, with loads of chefs and waiters going about their business. This was the kitchen area, where floor was finished and plated, the preparation areas were in the two decks below. We also went to the ships stores and had a look in the huger chilled rooms and freezers where all to food consumed on board is stored. 

After a small sweet sample of their wares the next stop was Engineering the the Chief Engineers control room. Walls covered with monitors showing the status of every area of the ship, engines and propulsion, desalination, ventilation and power. Fascinating stuff. From there we headed to the safety officers area where we saw the firefighting equipment available to the safety officers and the ships crew. Next was the laundry, as hot and steamy as you can imagined, huge washing machines that will take 160 kg linen at a time. Automatic pressing machines for flat linen and rows of steam presses for shirts, trousers and jackets. The final port of call was the Bridge where we were shown all the Navigation tools that the Bridge Officers have to hand to get us from port to port safely and efficiently.

Finally we ended the tour in the Commodore Club with a glass of champagne some savory and sweet treats and a chance to chat with the Captain, David Hudson, and Jaqueline Bott, the Hotel General Manager. It had been over three and a half hours climbing up and down stairs and I was exhausted.

Jane was back in the stateroom when I returned, so we caught up on our respective days and decided to save going out to pre-dinner drinks in the Chart Room and I promptly dozed off.

It was the second of our Gala nights, Masquerade, so it was on with the penguin suit and out for drinks. Jane had a Mai Tai again, and I fancied something non-alcoholic and refreshing so ordered on of the very expensive non-alcoholic cocktails thinking it might be a long glass. Nope a pink monstrosity arrived in a babycham glass totally destroying the macho Bond look I was trying to project.

Dinner was excellent I had the Pork en Croute which was very nice. Jane had ordered Bananas Foster, flambeed at the table for dessert, pointing out it was just for her as I don’t like rum. It must come as a set portion as I’ve no idea how she managed to finish it, it was huge, but she did and loved it.

We’d decided to have a leisurely breakfast this morning followed by some relaxing time on the Grills Terrace to let the hoards of day trippers vacate the ship. This was a good idea even though it was overcast early on the sun broke through soon enough and we has a toasty deck 11 all to ourselves. Jane even ventured into the Jacuzzi to get a good bubbling.

Once she’d dried off it was time for us to follow the rest of the ship into Malaga. We’d decided to eat off the ship, possibly tapas or paella depending on what took our fancy. We were off the ship ion after exiting through the gift shop we were down by the shuttle busses. We then had a discussion, walk or bus ? It was decided we’d walk, the chap on marshalling people onto the bus reckoned 30 minutes to walk, I seemed to remember it being less, but time would tell.  It all went wrong when I missed the left turn when we got to harbour entrance, heading instead straight ahead. We were then confronted by the castle rising up ahead of us, which way to go? You guessed it, straight over the top, it was only 70 metres of climbing, and still had some breath left as we descended the other side. 

Time for lunch, we found a little Tapas bar close to the castle and were seated at a table inside. The tapas itself was excellent, a plate of patat bravas, pimentos in salt and anchovies in vinegar followed by andalusian pork stew. washed down with a couple of glasses of rose and a beer for me.

We then took a stroll around the centre, browsing for christmas presents and just generally being tourists before heading back to the ship. We walked back alongside the marina, lined with mega yachts & gin palaces. Jane found the other side more interesting as the way was lined with various stalls selling tourist tat. She did manage to buy a couple of stocking fillers for Xmas presents. The walk back was easier and flatter but it was a fair way, strava reckoned about 3.5km. All of it good for the waistline.

We’d decided to head up to the Sky bar for drinks because the weather was looking Ok, it’s a lovely area but it needs good weather. I had a Doombar and Jane had a Zara which she enjoyed, a lot.

The choice of Entrees at dinner are very limited, there’s only 4 options on the main menu. These are usually one meat choice, a fish choice, a veggie choice and a vegan/plant based choice. There used to be 5 Entrees pre-covid and I usually had a dilemma in what to choose for dinner, now I invariably venture on to the A La Carte menu as I don’t fancy anything offered. It was Tournedos Rossini, which we would usually have, but we fancied a lighter meal so had the Dover Sole, delicious, but we wished we’d asked for extra steamed vegetables as there was a dearth of them. After dinner, we headed up to the Pavilion for the screening of Queen’s 2014 Summer Sonic concert. Jane really enjoyed it even though there were sound issues at the beginning.

It’s a long boring walk into Gibraltar from the port and doesn’t get interesting until your inside the walls at about one and a half kilometers in. Once there it’s then a shoppers paradise with shop after shop vying to be the one to fill your Xmas present list. Perfume shops, jewellers, gadget shops and booze shops lining both sides of Main Street interspersed with tat shops, designer clothes and the occasional cafe/pub.

Several hundred pounds lighter and an Xmas present list almost complete, we headed back to the ship where I was in desperate need of a lie down. It seemed like we’d been out for hours but we actually made it back just in time for lunch.

Lunch was very nice, pork pie to start, which was actually more of a gala pie without the egg, Followed by chicken pesto tagliatelle. After lunch we headed back to the room and caught the beginning of Mrs Doubtfire on the TV, a film Jane has never seen, so ended up wasting the afternoon watching that. After that we went to the Artisan’s Food Hall to get a cup of tea and then went to sit in the Pavilion and read for an hour or so.

After all that excitement we went to the pub as Jane hadn’t seen the latest Xmas decorations, a line of several trees, all bright and shining. They looked really nice. Then we just went for an explore, up to deck three where we looked in to the Britannia Club dining room, it looks so much nicer than the PG dining room, brighter with less of an old lady boudoir vibe to it. All of the table center pieces were the same. In PG it’s a mix of artificial candles but theirs were uniform. After that we went for a stroll around the promenade deck before heading back to the room to get changed for dinner

Dinner was excellent yet again, a mixture of good food and good chat.