Roemin Aboat

We have cruised on to Gran Canaria the second stop in the Canaries and had booked a ships transfer to Maspalomas Beach. The 1 hour journey took us to the southern tip of the island to a spot where an old lighthouse, a nature reserve featuring natural sand dunes, surfers and sun bathers coexist. We walked past the lagoon on the edge of the dunes where Tilapia swim and heron and egrets fish, to the beach. We enjoyed a coffee while watching the surfers, then shopped in the trendy mall, for a belt for me, before walking back to the dunes. The dunes stretch for several square miles, so I only had time for a short walk to get a view before returning to the pickup point. We had skipped breakfast today so shared a pizza while we were waiting for the coach. We were back on board for 2pm, it was still a warm 21deg but not as sunny as forecast. Tonight we dined in Le Petite Chef restaurant which features an animated story, projected onto the table, about the fixed 4 course dinner. The...

We woke up in the port of Arricife, Lanzarote and decided to have the Elite continental buffet breakfast in Tuscan restaurant.  It was warm and sunny so after the very civilised breakfast we took the short shuttle to the port entrance and then strolled into town. It's the main town on the island rather than a tourist resort and a good selection of shops on its main street. We popped into the Ali Hop shop, had a coffee on the promenade and walked back to the shuttle round the old harbour, which still had some decorations left over from Christmas.  Back on board we had a late lunch and Rosemary had a hair do in the spa. An English comedian Dave Kristian was the entertainer and he was very good. Early night as we are up early to go on a coach to Maspalomas Beach on Gran Canaria tomorrow.

After a slightly bumpy night we awoke to sun on our balcony for our 2nd sea day. The clocks went back on hour so after breakfast I enjoyed a couple of hours of sunshine listening to music on my earphones and reading my IET  magazine.  It featured the 100yr anniversary of the first public TV demonstration - how things have changed. Rosemary had a free shoulder massage which worked wonders. Then we both went to the Food and Wine pairing activity and basically we found that we were not drinking enough pinot noir! It's chic night in the MDR again, followed by Adele tribute artist singing other stuff, then we dock in Lanzarote tomorrow morning. Happy days.

We arrived in Cadiz after a breezy cruise through the straits of Gibraltar and have been on a panoramic coach trip. We drove around the old costal town, which sits on a peninsular, in pouring rain then inland to Jerez de la Frontera. This is the home of sherry making and the historic border between Moors and Christians. We passed all the well known bodegas en route and had an interesting guided tour of Fundador, the home of Harvey's Bristol Cream and enjoyed some samples. I bought a small book with recipes for sherry based cocktails and 3 miniature bottles of Tio Pepe a favoutiie of mine.

We were promised showers but by the time we had breakfast the sun came out and we have had another dry sunny day. We walked the length of the main street past some familiar shops. I bought a cap from M&S as I had come out without my sunglasses. We had a look round a local craft fair in the Catholic church and had coffee at Costa We walked on as far as the old Trafalgar cemetery where two sailors from the battle of Trafalgar are buried before turning round and heading back to the ship using taxi shuttle service. Feet up now as we have already done 12,000 paces and we are dining in Tuscan restaurant tonight. Had an interesting meal in Tuscan, massive belly pork and cheesecake, they go for quantity more than quality. It wasnt busy.

After the change to the itinerary we are now in Málaga. It's a lovely sunny day for stroll around the attractive waterfront and the old town which has a castle, a big Greek ampitheatre and Picasso museum. Its quite a busy place and being the gateway to the Costa del Sol it atracts lots of tourists to its many tapas bars. We set off to find El Pimpo bodega where we celebrated Rosemary 80th birthday and enjoyed another nice lunch and glass of wine in Antoni Banderos famous establishment. Tonight was an Adele tribute act in the theatre. She was very bubbly and loud but put on a very entertaining show.

Our first day at sea started uneventful if a bit windy. Just chilled out, booked 3 dinners for later in the cruise and  started the blog. We went to the show a high energy, incomprehensible musical party with one or two talented performers and a great live band.The dinner in MDR was very good again and while we were eating the captain announced another change of plan so Gibraltar is back on, but Málaga and Cadiz are now in hour first stops instead of last. Its all going to be a bit confusing with the on board events being rescheduled as well.

We had a good night's sleep and a good breakfast before heading off to the port. Our taxi was booked 2 hours before our scheduled boarding time of 2:00 pm but we were allowed on without delay.  Nice cabin with big balcony which will be nice when the sun comes out. We had a coffee in Bacio and signed up for a discounted 3 dinner package within hours. We found that the itinerary had been changed to try and avoid a developing Atlantic storm so we were going to have two days at sea, missing Gibraltar and heading straight for the Canaries. After the Elite happy hour cocktails we changed our 10 seater dinner table in the Trellis dining room to a more intimate one on the balcony and enjoyed our first meal. The show this evening was by Tetiana a Ukrainian violin player.

Arrived at Birmingham airport so early that we could not check-in for 2 hours so we were stuck the wrong side of security/departures in a cafe Nero till we could drop our bags off. Eventually boarded on time and despite arriving 30mins ahead of schedule the taxi was waiting to take us to BAH hotel 5mins away.

 We are just packing to fly to Barcelona to join the Celebrity Infinity cruise to the Canary Islands via Gibraltar and then back again via Morocco and Southern Spain. We are away for 2 weeks in total so it will be our longest winter cruise holiday ever.

This was an amazing cruise from start to finish with every aspect turned up to 11. It started with an English garden party themed sailaway around the pool with an Olympic athletes display and Beatles tribute band. The president opened the proceedings, copious quantities of champagne, sparkling English wine and Pimms were provided, accompanied by canapes including dainty cones of fish and chips and towers of macrons. The party was whipped into a frenzy by two enthusiastic cruise directors and the warm sunny weather was perfect as we sailed away past the IOW towards Zeebruges. We had visited most of the destinations before, but the fjords never dissappoint whatever the weather and on this cruise we had everything from warm sunshine to wind and snow. The entertainment was better than average with speciality acts from Eagles tribute rock band to Las Vegas magician jetted in from the US for the occasion. The resident Celebrity cast entertained in the theatre, the club, Eden and the grande p...

After a smooth North sea crossing we docked and were up at 7:00 on our wedding anniversary. We all met in Bacio for a last coffee before disembarking and driving home via M&S foodhall at Coventry.  Mark and Christina were home about midday but we arrived home around 2:30 and will not be opening our cases until tomorrow.

It's a grey seaday today. Time for a lie in and partake in a bit of onboard shopping and activities. Katie and I went to an interesting talk about sea birds and missed the sea food extravaganza in ocean view cafe! The others didn't. We packed and put cases out for 8:30 departure. We met in the Martini bar for cocktails and we had our final dinner back in Normandie, said goodbye to Dewi, Ali and March our regular table attendants and had a speciality coffee before bed.

This is our last port of call in Norway and is another sunny day. After the Elite breakfast in Tuscany with Mark and Katie we are going to have a walk into the old town. The youngsters decided to go on a RIB safari along the fjord to Pulpit Rock and the nearby waterfalls. After they had put on dry suits and set off on the RIB we went to the cathedral which has been closed for some time being refurbished. It's not a particularly impressive place but we lit a couple of candles. Browsed around the popup market, had a coffee and met the others at the completion of their safari.  We all went to one of the harbour side restaurants and had an excellent light lunch of mussels, prawns and fish soup with a beer in the afternoon sun. Returned briefly to the market before rejoining the ship. It's another chic night with lobster on the menu. The traditional parade of the chefs does not happen any more since the main restaraunt has split into four but the restaurant chef came aro...

Today we cruised into Geiranger, passed the waterfalls on a much colder and wet morning. We walked up to the fjord information centre on the road, intending to walk back down beside the waterfall. Mark went ahead and told us it was very wet and slippery so we walked back on the road. We met Rosemary at the bottom of the hill (she was recovering from a swollen ankle aquired at Briksdal) and we went for local beer and Norweigen tapas before boarding Apex in the rain.  We met the bass player from the Eagles tribute band (The Long Run) in a lift and he insisted on having his photo taken with me. It's been almost freezing on shore and we could see the snow falling on the hills all around. We had a very close pass of the seven sisters waterfall during the sailaway. There were not many on the top deck for the sailaway party and we saw the waterfall from the warmth of our cabin. We were looking forward to a drone display just before midnight but unfortunately it was cancelled b...

It was just a short cruise overnight to Alesund and the morning started cool and wet. We decided to wait for the rain to stop and took the little blue train up to the top of the Aksla mountain by which time the skies had cleared. We had lovely view of the art nouveau town below in the sunshine followed by an interesting tour of the old part of the town with an entertaining commentary. We were back to Normandie restaurant tonite for an early dinner, then a show in the theatre featuring magician Adam Trent from his residency in Las Vegas. It was a rather underwealming performance involving a lot of audience participation and assisted by a young girl from the audience who got the biggest applause of the evening.

Today we are in Olden on a beautiful sunny morning with stunning scenery all around. Woke up early to enjoy the cruise down the fjord and after breakfast caught the Glacier express to Briksdal. We oldies took the troll car towards the glacier while the youngsters walked up to big waterfall under the troll route. None of us made it all the way to the lake at the foot of the glacier but we enjoyed what we did do and have plenty of photos to prove it. We swapped restaurant to Cosmopolitan and enjoyed yet another high quality meal. Managed to catch the last half of a good Eagles tribute band from California and we all had our first early night while Apex cruised into the sunset.

Our first seaday started with a sunrise from our porthole balcony on a calm sunny day. I went to the Podium presentation on Norway, which was mostly about whales, while Mark and Katie went to learn how to make Cerviche. They came back in chefs hats having made cerviche from prepared ingredients and accompanied by champagne. We had a snacking lunch of pies and prawns (it was English food day in self service) in the aft pizza station overlooking the wake, in the sun - perfect. Sun on the resort deck and musical bingo filled the rest of the afternoon. Early dinner and early night planned to wake up early for the first fjord cruise into Olden. But plans change! OMG they certainly cranked things up a notch. The 10pm World of Chocolate was amazing, with chocolate fountains, chocolate sculptures, macarons and fancy chocolates everywhere. There were even manikins wearing chocolate dresses in the grand plaza offering photo opportunities. Free chocolate cocktails and chocolates were ...

Zeebrugge is a stop for ships tours to Bruges. We had a late breakfast to recover from the embarkation day (too much sailaway booze) and stayed on board as we have seen Bruges before. It was a cool and grey day and the ship departs at 4pm, so we did a few onboard activities including watching the cooking competition in the theatre which was entertaining. Dined early in Normandie again then went to watch Crystallize, a show with acrobats, aerialists, singers, dancers and spectacualr video effects. The whole of the curved back wall of the theatre is a huge video screen. We followed that by going to the Club for a great Soul Band show and finished the night with the silent disco, before taking a Bacio coffee back to our room. We 

We are going to the Fjords again with the family on the beautiful Celebrity Apex from Southampton. Katie stopped over at ours on Friday night so we drove down together, had a McDonalds comfort break and bacon butty near Andover, arriving in ABP car park at the same time as Mark and Christina from Luton. We had a mega garden party themed sailaway with unlimited, fizz, Pimm's and canapes.  The British Olympic athletics gymnastics team and a Beatles tribute performed around the resort deck as Apex cruised up the Solent and by the IOW. The president of Celebrity Cruises is on board for her annual cruise so everything is cranked up a notch. We have booked 3 cabins aft on deck6 with a lovely quirky porthole shaped balcony.  It's been a warm sunny afternoon followed by a brilliant sunset as we cruised towards Zeebrugge. We chose to have dinner in Normandie restaurant after cocktails in Eden. The food was excellent and we went to bed just before midnight. So far so good.