Roemin Aboat

We are on our last sea day cruising to Rome around the foot of Italy. Equinox made its way slowly  through the narrow Messina straights between Italy and Sicily where a pilot is needed. Then we passed quite close to the active volcanic island of Stromboli which managed a few small puffs of smoke and steam for the photo album. Ocean view cafe put on a excellent sea food buffet with mountains of prawns, mussels and salmon for our last lunch on board. We packed and put our cases out before dinner in MDR. We had a farewell talk with Carlos our waiter, Jean Paul his assistant and xxx the rather snooty sommelier.  Then a last coffee at Cafe Bacio with Ingrid who we chatted to most evenings.

This is the gateway to Ancient Olympia and we intended to do a  self guided tour. However it was the hottest day of the cruise and we were all too tired to make the effort. Instead we walked along the promenade until we found the very interesting Museum of Ancient Greek technology. Unfortunately it was just about to close but we had enough time to witness the water powered alarm clock and I bought myself  another birthday present of a Pythagoras Cup. It was invented to teach his students not to drink to excess. We had a fishy octopus and Greek dips lunch at a Greek Tavern before taking the tender back to Equinox. The staff in Cafe Bacio surprised and embarrassed me with a of plate of cakes and a rousing rendition of happy birthday. We finished the day with an outstanding birthday dinner at Murano, featuring the signature lobster for Mark and I and Dover Sole for Rosemary and Katie, prepared table side. Not to mention another birthday cake, with candle but without t...

Another warm, sunny day and another picture perfect Greek Island. We are just having a browse in town and a paddle in the Aegean day today. We found the iconic windmills for the photo album, had some mezze and beer the walked along the Little Venice sea wall back to the harbour. That's where we paddled. It was posh night with lobster.

This is our second visit to Santorini so we had a leisurely start to the day while Mark and Katie were up early to get one of the first tenders ashore. They took a taxi to Ioa, to beat the influencers, where they could see the iconic blue domes and have breakfast without the crowds. We took the cable car and joined them in Fira at lunch time for some nibbles and we were back on board by 3:30pm. Mark walked down the 508 steps, with the donkeys, while we took the cable car. We stayed on board to see the sunset from the ship with a bottle of fizz on the lawn deck. Meal in MDR and 20 mins of ABBA sing a long before bed.

It's Turkey today and the old fishing village of Kusadasi now transformed into a holiday and cruise ship destination. It's two main attractions are nearby Ephesus, the ancient city and fake merchandise. We all walked round to Pigeon Island and Mark and Katie went in the castle (too many steps for us). We avoided the genuine fake merchandise and went for a local Turkish style lunch of sea bass for the ladies and meat platter for the men, delicious but filling. We could not leave without picking up some Turkish delight and the ladies were gifted souvenir bracelets by our new Uncle Giuseppe (it's complicated !)

We are in Athens and took the HOHO bus to the Acropolis. We alighted at the terminus and walked down the hill beside the Parthenon to the Plaka district. We had an authentic lunch of meze, cheese pie and souvlaki then took the HOHO back to Piraeus by 4pm. Cocktails in sunset bar and caught the early show. We have a new captain onboard and are late leaving for some reason. Ship seemed to be going full speed most of the night to make up time.

It's another sea day on the way to Athens. The forecast was sunny but, after a red sunset leaving Malta, we awoke to a grey and at times, very wet and windy day. We went to learn a bit of Greek mythology from a visiting speaker but left even more confused. The senior officers party filled us up with fizz and canapes, before we joined a table top escape room team. We helped our team of 8 to win, but there were only 4 teams.

We moored by the walls of the old town of Valletta the capital of Malta. There is a lift 10 mins walk along the dock from our berth which takes passengers to the lower bastion gardens and salute battery. A cannon is fired at noon and 4 pm every day with appropriate ceremonials. From here there are walks taking in many of the historical and cultural sites. It was very busy so we only wandered a few hundred yards from the lift but there was enough to see in the 3 or 4 hours we had on shore. We found a bar to taste the local mushy pea and ricotta pie before going back to the ship. I went to the sailaway on the helicopter pad which was a bit of an anticlimax as it only took about 10mins.

It was a very warm sunny first sea day and ideal for recharging after 2 busy days. We attended the Captain's Club welcome party, the cocktails and canapes were in abundance as usual so we didn't need much lunch.  It's the first chic night tonight so we will dress up and catch the early show after the odd martini before dining later. I met our concierge, Sean, today. We mostly discussed the Foxes relegation to league 1 and arranged for our complimentary fizz delivery on Friday.

We had a good Innside breakfast, checked out around 11:00 and  we're boarded soon after 12:00. We found our cabins, 2 on deck 6 and ours on deck 9, to drop our carryon bags and went to the Concierge lunch. Mark and Katie posed as our carers to get in. We had our first round of cocktails while waiting for cases to be delivered to our cabin and met again for the sailaway at 5:00.  Sea day tomorrow so - hasta la vista Barcelona. We went to the 1st show staring Leanne Mitchell, the first ever Voice winner. She was very good. Then we had dinner in the self service Seaview cafe and finished the day with coffee at Cafe Bacio. I had a banana bread matcha with oat milk.

Everyone is checked in and ready to go. Flights from Birmingham and Luton will converge on Meliá hotel in Barcelona on Friday afternoon. Katie drove up on Thursday night so we were ready for the taxi at 8:30 on Friday morning. Arrived at Birmingham as bag drop opened so we were soon through security and had plenty of time for coffee and breakfast as snacks. Mark made it to Luton Airport Burger King for breakfast. We boarded a bit late and the captain announced there was no hot drinks (running water problem) so we had to make do with alcohol. We made up for lost time and should arrive on schedule.

We have just booked a cruise on Celebrity Equinox from Barcelona to Rome sailing on 12th September to 22nd September. The itinerary includes Malta, Athens and Katakolon (Greece), Kusadisi (Turkey) and Santorini and Mykanos (Greek islands). Equinox is the sister ship to Eclipse and we have a sunset balcony at the rear of the ship on deck 9 so almost bang in the middle of this photo. I hope to celebrate my 85th birthday at The Temple of Zeus on our last port stop.

  We have been on Infinity several times and visited all but one of the ports before, so there was little that was new or unusual to surprise us. However we really did enjoy the longer (13night) cruise and we will certainly be looking for longer cruises or 7 day 'back to backs' in future. It was also great to be out in shorts and tee shirts with some warm and sunny weather while it was cold and wet at home. The captain changed the itinery twice to avoid the Atlantic storms on our sea days so we did not have any really bad weather. We did 2 shore excursions to Cadiz/Jerez in Andalucia for sherry tasting and Malpalomas beach in Grand Canaria to the dunes nature reserve. Free shuttle buses were provided in all the ports except Gibraltar, so we just wandered around in Malaga, Gibraltar, Arriciffe, Santa Cruz, Tangier and Cassablanca. It was good to go back to El Pimpi tapas bar when we were in Malaga. The food was very good throughout in MDR and we enjoyed 3 speciality dinners. We ...

We are up at sunrise, disembarking today and flying home, but not until we have enjoyed another few hours of extended stay. We vacated our cabin at 8:30 and checked in at the rendezvous lounge to get lanyards which identified us as staying on board with premium drinks package. We had breakfast in the ocean view cafe then went to the sun deck to whileway a couple of hours with cocktails and light lunch before leaving to get our luggage and transfer to the airport at midday. We were both suffering from colds so it was a welcome relaxing and less stressful way to disembark at the end the cruise.  Usual cattle herding experience at Ryanair departure gate but the flight actually arrived early to a cold and wet night at  Birmingham airport. Our taxi was late due to an incident in Leicester in the evening so we had a Greggs coffee and steakbake while we waited. Arrived home just after 10:30 pm , its been a long day.

Last day at sea after leaving Tangier and the straits of Gibraltar, we are heading back to Barcelona.The wind is on our stern and the sun will be on our balcony later maybe. I went to the captains talk on 'navigation and planning' in the morning, then we both went to the Tuscany restaurant for a 4 course sea food lunch. The lobster bisque, cod and chips, seafood platter and ice-cream were all excellent. Packed ready for our 'stay on board' experience tomorrow. This allows us to stay on board with premium WiFi, premium drinks and access to restaurants until 12:30, instead of being thrown off at 9:00am. It costs extra but worth it to avoid 4 hours of hanging around and spending at the airport. We had a final chat with Farhan our waiter in MDR over dinner. We both have colds so an early night after a 15mins at the silent disco.

It's Sunday and the last port day, we are in Tangier and are taking the shuttle bus to a park near the Medina for a few hours 'souking' and a few hours chilling around the boat later in the afternoon sun. We were dropped by the the Grande Socco (main square) just outside the Medina (old town) where it was very busy. There were a lot of young football supporters literally hanging out of cars, we counted 8 in one car, going to a football stadium or sports bars. Morocco hosted the Africa cup of Nations a few weeks ago so there is still football buzz in the town. We wandered around in the medina and souk for a while without buying anything this time. It was interesting to see a union jack flying high above St Andrews church near the square and I had a coffee at a very modern coffee bar. We took the shuttle back to the ship by which time it had clouded over and the promised sun did not materialise on our balcony.

The captain managed to get us safely into Casablanca harbour, its challenging with a big winter swell, so we were able to spend a few hours  there. There was a shuttle bus from the busy largely industrial port to Europa Square. At first glance Morocco is very chaotic, with aggressive taxi drivers literally fighting for business,  but everyone else is friendly and polite. We started with a mint tea for me (which is compulsory) and cappuccino for Rosemary before visiting the old souk. Rosemary spotted a shopping bag she fancied and bargained the price down to €25 so she was happy. Before we caught the shuttle back we had another mint tea, fresh orange juice and Harash (a polenta pancake) all for €5. It's been a warm and mostly sunny day so time for a cocktail on the sun deck as we set sail for Tangier's. We dined in the Tuscan restaurant again on lobster rigatoni, sea bass and tuna, a better choice than our last meal but we missed the theatre show in the process.

We are hoping to visit Casablanca on Saturday, if the sea state allows, so today is a sea day. It's overcast with a gentle breeze but not sitting round the pool day. I am doing a cocktail making course later at the Martini bar.  There were only 3 of us making cocktails. The blue one, a Mediterranean Cobbler with Ouzo, was different but not very nice. I liked La Chica Loca (literaly 'the crazy lady') a long drink with tequila, ginger ale and jalapeno chilli, it is usually the mixologists favourite too! It was Senior officers party next at 5 o'clock so more cocktails and canapes. (Somebody has got to do it !!!) Followed by a chic night with lobster and beef wellington on the menu.

Last stop in the Canaries is at Santa Cruz, the capital of Tenerife. We had nothing planned for this stop so after breakfast we just walked into town to the Placa Espana and took some photos around the touristy square which is dominated by the Cruz. We found an interesting street cafe in the back streets and had a big cappuccino. We walked slowly back and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon on the sun deck. We have been averaging 10,000 paces so it was nice to chill out in the hot sunshine for a few hours today.