First of six days at sea

Sunset  as we left St Maarten

It was lovely once the other two cruise ships had left St Maarten last night, leaving us the last to leave. If the truth be told, I wasn’t fussed about going out last night. We had been informed slightly late in the day that there was a change of schedule for our departure from St Maarten and we would be leaving 3 hours later than published. This was due to the issues with docking and re-berthing that the ship had to do and quite a lot of people had been stranded on the ship and were therefore late getting off. I thought it might be nice to simply reflect on an amazing day and get a simple room service in. Nope, Nick wanted to be entertained. So recognising that the key to a successful marriage is compromise, we did as Nick wanted! We’d checked out the dinner menu on our way back from our trip and felt it looked ok. And ok it was. This is now the fourth decent meal on the trot in the restaurant. What’s going on? Long may it last.

A day at sea and farewell to Captain Love

Enjoying a glass in the Glass House

Our exclusive invitation to the Library Suite was, as we suspected, a selling opportunity, although quite gentle. We arrived along with a gaggle of other people who had likewise been invited and who also were after the free glass of pop. Anything to get something out of P&O! It was the sail-away for us leaving Aruba port and we watched as the island rapidly slipped into the distance. We had already decided that we would be back there again at some point - great place.

An active sea day … and a mystery

Sunset over Cartagena as Aurora pivots for takeoff

It never ceases to amaze me how the ship is wielded in and out of port. Yesterday’s manoeuvre was not the most complex but still involved reversing the bulk of Aurora from its berth in Cartagena port, out into the open harbour, turning it sharply to the right as it backed up under the watchful eye of a large tug. Once clear of the jetty, the ship then pivoted around its centre using its side thrusters until it was aligned with the marker buoys that showed the way out to the open sea. At the same time as all this was going on we were rewarded with a beautiful sunset where the sun dropped rapidly behind the skyscrapers and lit the sky with fire. Magical!

Cartagena by land and sea

High speed skyline from the speedboat

Last night I noticed what an increase there was in people now going to The Glass House for drinks and meals. Earlier on in the trip, we were amazed at how few people there were, compared with the ratio of staff. I guess folks feel the need to utilise the areas they’ve already paid for in the price of the trip. However, from our point of view, if we’re frocking up and going out for a date-night Celebration meal, then we want it to be special, not just the usual restaurant where the food is mediocre at best.

Love is in the air

Flowers from a "mystery man"

And then the Captain’s announcement came. I hasten to add, at the point at which we should have been casting off and sailing into the sunset. We weren’t going anywhere. It sort of felt like rubbing even more salt into the wound. Think about it, (First World problems I realise) but here we were, in a country, able to look but not touch a small slice of it, but being told we had to hang on for several hours more. Having rocked up in Callao at 8ish yesterday morning, we had waited and waited all day for fuel only to be told it might arrive by 11pm with the hope we may leave by midnight. For those old enough, you’ll understand the phrase “at this point I must have lost my presence of mind”. 

Bridge privilege

The big girl pants moment

It was a Glass House type of evening last night. Well, we hadn’t had our fix of the lovely Janice for a few days and she’s always a delight to interact with. Then off to dinner in the restaurant where, yet again, there was a commotion on our arrival. Not due to what either of us was wearing, (on this occasion) but a fantastic display from 10 or so Commersons dolphins leaping around not far from the ship. No one cared that their dinner was going cold, we simply couldn’t miss this bit of nature. No evening entertainment interested us, so a “quiet” night in was planned. But before that, after a fairly bland meal (for me), we decided to give Raffles a go, as it has to be said, I rather fancied another glass whilst watching the night finally close in. Book reading and series-watching features when we’re not doing the late-night entertainment. If you haven’t seen it, we’ve now finished watching Bad Sisters. It’s dark humour and gleefully murderous. So our quiet nights in now are watching the series This is Going to Hurt.

Sea states, theatre treks and cruise ship living

Reading in the warm sunshine

As yesterday evening progressed, so the seas got more heavy and the weather closed in. The scheduled acrobats were postponed until this afternoon as the stage was deemed too unsafe for precarious balancing. We were not to be deterred though and Gabrielle, with trusty bands, braved the rigours of dinner really well. We were alarmed to see that nearly all staff have taken to wearing face masks and it’s evident that there are some cases of COVID-19 on board. This will come home more strongly if they decide that guests have to wear masks in the public spaces - here’s hoping that doesn’t happen. At the same time as all this, there was no internet since almost immediately after posting last night’s blog post, because the ship would not stay in the same orientation for more than five seconds at a time. 

Exciting news, albatrosses, lectures and upcoming Celebration Night

We begin today’s post with very exciting news to share: Captain Love has invited us to visit him on the bridge on 6 February at 11:30am. This means that we shall have a chance to see everything that goes on there and witness his 12pm “Captain Ting-Ting” message to the entire ship. Apart from the fact that he’s invited us, he’s a really very nice guy who has a warm and friendly manner. He’s from Sherborne in Dorset so we already have a connection.

Pictures from our Renewal of Vows ceremony on 24 January 2023

Here is a selection of the pics from our ceremony, all taken by the lovely Princess. We had an amazing day!

Today’s the day. Tonight’s the night!

This post is jointly written by Gabrielle and Nick. There will be another post tomorrow with all the pics!

The plan for last night was to go to The Glass House for a small pop and then go for dinner and have a glass of wine and an early night. You know when you have a plan and it goes out of the window? That was us last night. 

Certificates

It was a non-alcohol night last night. Yes, this is worthy of note. We were both really tired and just wanted to have our evening meal and collapse in a heap. Why so tired? We’d not exactly done much. OK, a workout (for me), walking the deck as usual and going on a trip which involved a fair amount of sitting on a coach. However, the humidity and heat of Recife were quite draining. The best we managed after dinner was a stroll on the top deck to catch the breeze. None of the evening entertainment particularly appealed.

We were warned

Captain Love (yes really, this is not the dodgy theatrical name for a Captain in a 70's cruise drama, but our actual Captain) did his fun facts announcement at midday. Now because I wasn't really prepared for it, I felt rather bombarded with information. 280 ish nautical miles already covered, 1200 ish to go to our first stop, we are suffering the dregs of a force 12 storm from Ireland, we are now 'enjoying' a force 8, our waves are 5 metres high and rising this evening. I think all of that is correct.