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P&O CRUISES: VENTURA 10-DAY CRUISE TO SPAIN, PORTUGAL AND FRANCE

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DAY SIX: (13TH APRIL, 2026) DAY TWO AT LISBON

After breakfast at the buffet, we disembarked Ventura and went for a stroll around the streets of Lisbon. The first thing we noticed was the style of buildings, some had pastel facades and the others, which were my favourite, had azulejos tiles on the outside.

We also noticed the trams which were abundant in the streets. They looked old-fashioned but very quaint and we decided we’d like to travel on one, just for the experience.

As we were exploring the city, we came across a fantastic viewpoint which was called Santa Luzia View Point and from there, we could see our ship, Ventura and also the Majestic Princess. This is often dscribed as the best viewpoint and from here, you can see the historic district of Alfama.

A quick trip to the Tourist Information Centre and we had purchased tickets to go on the tram and visit a park just outside of the city. It seemed as though the whole of Lisbon was in a massive traffic jam and for about 20 minutes no cars moved by our bus stop, but eventually the tram arrived.

We travelled through the streets safe in the knowledge that our stop was the last one on the route, but luck wasn’t on our side and it stopped in a busy square and we were told that the tram wasn’t going any further due to roadworks, so we had to leave the tram at this point. We got off, a bit annoyed that we had spent 10 Euros each to travel for about ten minutes!

After a few minutes of walking, we managed to find the main street in Lisbon called Rua Augusta which has lots of shops, restaurants, cafes and souvenir shops. We had a couple of things to eat along this road, the first being a Codfish Cake, even though we weren’t too sure what it was when we ate it.

And we also purchased the tradidional Pastel De Nata in a shop and we had them hot with ice cream – delicious!

We then walked up to King Pedro IV Square with it’s impressive statue of King Pedro himself and some rather spectacular fountains.

A walk back down Rua Augusta took us under the Rua Augusta Arch and into the Praca do Cmercio, which was a huge square.

After exploring the square, we found our way back to Ventura, we didn’t have any lunch as we had eaten in Lisbon.

Leaving Lisbon, we sailed back under the bridge, which is just as exciting the second time!

We ate in the main dining room and then took part in a quickfire quiz challenge in Havana in which I did quite well in the beginning, but faded away halfway through!!

It was onto the the Arena Theatre next for a Headliners Theatre Company production of a musical called Paradise City. It was full of rock music and I have to say, it was very loud!! There were some good songs, even if the acting was a little wooden…

An end of evening coffee in Costa, before we headed back to the cabin and looking forward to a day in Porto.

Day Six is up on YouTube if you would like to watch it. Please consider subscribing, it is totally free and it would really help me to create more travel content.

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P&O CRUISES: VENTURA 10-DAY CRUISE TO SPAIN, PORTUGAL AND FRANCE

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DAY FIVE: (12TH APRIL, 2026) DAY ONE AT LISBON

We managed to get up early today, so that we could see Ventura sail underneath the 25 de Abril Bridge.

25 de Abril Bridge.

It was extremely windy and cold up on the top decks, but we stayed there until she had safely passed under this iconic bridge. You can get some amazing video footage of this, which is, of course, in my vlog of Day Five. Please consider subscribing, it is totally free and it would really help me to create more travel content.

After having eaten breakfast, we got ready to go on an excursion that we had booked through P&O which was to visit some underground caves. The blurb about this had me a little worried as I was reading it, as it stated there were about 200 steps to go down, and I thought, “So, there must be 200 to climb up!!” But thankfully I then read that there was an elevator to take you back up to ground level…

The caves were spectacular, it was mindblowing to hear how they were created. There was lots of steps, but they weren’t too steep and most of the time there was a handrail to hld on to. Obviously it wasn’t suitable for wheelchairs or pushchairs. It took about an hour to walk through as we stopped every so often to listen to our guide explain the geology of everything.

After the tour of the caves, we were taken to a restaurant for lunch. Just a word of warning here, if you struggle to walk up hills this may be a bit of a challenge as the walk was steep and long. But, the coach was at the top of it in the car park, so after your lunch it was there already.

Lunch was vegetable soup to start and then you had the choice of either pork or fish. I chose the pork and Phil had the fish. It was very tasty, especially when it was washed down with as much wine as you wanted. There was also orange juice available. I didn’t bother with dessert, but Phil loves his desserts and so he had pannacotta.

Fish
Pork

We had a little time to have a browse around the souvenir shop and we crossed the road to admire the stunning view.

There are cloakrooms there which you can use before you go down to the caves and also toilets in the restaurant. This is important for me as having a stoma, I need access to a toilet at a moment’s notice sometimes…

We then returned to the coach for our journey home. I’d just like to say that our tour guide was excellent. He sat with us during lunch and explained lots of Portugese customs and advised us where to go when we explored Lisbon the next day.

We had booked The Beach House for dinner which has a cover charge and there is also an additional cost on some of the menu items.

Phil chose Crab Tostadas for his starter and I had Crispy Bacon and Cheese Potato Skins and for mains, Phil had 10oz beef fillet on a lava rack and I had the Beach House Rib Combo. I was far to full for dessert, but Phil had a Banana and Strawberry Daiquiri Sizzler.

The whole meal was superb: the ribs were succulent and juicy, Phil’s steak was perfect and the side dishes were tasty. Our only minor complaint was that there wasn’t enough sauce in the pots, but that was quickly remedied by asking the waiters for some and they very quickly provided more.

We then went to the Arena Theatre where we watched juggler, Jon Udry. Juggling isn’t really our thing, but there was a lot of humour injected into his act and so we quite enjoyed it.

As we were still feeling pretty full, we decided to retire to our cabin, watch a bit of TV and then fall asleep. I think I fell asleep before I had watched any TV!!

Join us next time, when we’ll be exploring the beautiful city of Lisbon!

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P&O CRUISES: VENTURA 10-DAY CRUISE TO SPAIN, PORTUGAL AND FRANCE

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DAY FOUR: (11TH APRIL, 2026) A DAY AT SEA

As is our usual routine on a sea day, we had breakfast in the main dining room and I decided on a fried breakfast…

…and Phil had Bircher Museli, followed by some American Pancakes with maple syrup.

We then went to the Arena Theatre to listen to a very interesting talk all about AI by John Walker. It really is amazing what has been achieved in this field in such a short amount of time!

After this presentation, we had a wander around the ship, all the pools were closed off as it was a bit choppy today. The captain told us that the waves will get up to about 6 metres, and there were a lot of sick bags dotted around the ship. We played cards for a while, we have an ongoing Rummy competition which we have been playing since about seven cruises ago and both have topped the leaderboard and both have had enormous scores! If I remember correctly, Phil had a very good run of luck today and so we finished with him in the lead…

At 3pm, we went up to the Epicurean for our afternoon tea. We had this the last time we were on Ventura, about ten years ago and weren’t very impressed but because Phil loves a cream tea, we thought we would try again and boy, this time we weren’t disappointed!

Each portion of the afternoon tea was perfection and it was hard to decide on a favourite, but I thought that the Blueberry Yoghurt Cheesecake was the best and Phil enjoyed the Golden Chocolate Sphere the best.

There were lots of choices of tea as well, I chose the Mao Feng Green Tea and Phil had the Everyday Brew.

After we managed to eat most of the afternoon tea, we definitely were not hungry for a three course meal at 6.30pm. So, we went to a couple of shows: Made in London which was performed by the Headliners Theatre Company which was the best of British music.

Then it was back to the Arena Theatre to watch Dan Conroy, who was Maroon Live earlier in the week, sing his favourite songs and a lot of them were ours too!

By this time, we were starting to feel a bit peckish and so where do you go? To the Waterside buffet of course!! We both had a roast dinner which tasted surprisingly good at 9.30 in the evening…

The video of our day at sea is now available on YouTube. Please take a look and consider subscribing, it is totally free and it would really help me to create more travel content.

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P&O CRUISES: VENTURA 10 DAY CRUISE TO SPAIN, PORTUGAL AND FRANCE

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DAY THREE: (10TH APRIL, 2026): SANTANDER

We woke up in the port of Santander and as the captain had said in his announcement that as it was a bit windy and the clouds would soon disappear, we decided to have breakfast in Saffron Restaurant.

I chose the Eggs Benedict and Phil had smoked salmon with tomato and bacon, both of which were very tasty.

We hadn’t booked any excursions for this port and so we decided to take a stroll around the town and take in the sights.

We found the town hall and then as we were walking up a street we came upon a produce market. We entered and were immediately greeted by a bustling market with stalls of fresh fish, cockles, mussells, crabs and lobsters, in fact everything you can think of that lives in the sea! It was amazing to see the locals haggling and the noise was incredible.

Then we went upstairs and there was lots of stalls selling meat, cheese, fruit and vegetables. Everything looked much bigger than you get in Tesco’s!!

It was time to find Santander Bank, which we did fairly easily as there were a lot of people standing around it, taking photos pointing to the bank’s sign! So, of course, we had to do it.

Just across the road from the bank is the Cathedral Basilica, which was a Gothic-style cathedral. There is a lower church which is worth a visit as well as it houses the relics of saints. It cost two Euros each and it was money well spent as it gave you time to reflect and it is a place of solitude amongst the hustle and bustle of Santander.

After that, we decided to go back to the ship where we had some lunch and then as it was a sunny day, Phil decided to go swimming in the Oasis Pool and I laid on the sunlounger soaking up the sun.

Dinner was at the Sindhu restaurant and we made our way down to Deck 7 to indulge in truly amazing Indian cuisine. We always try and have a meal at Sindhu when we are on a P&O ship as we are fans of Atul Kochhar and have eaten at his London restaurant, Kanishka. I did write a blog about our experience at his restaurant, which you can read here.

Phil and I chose the same starter which was Goan Pork and Choris Chilli Fry. We should have taken note of the number 3 spice level indicator as it was quite spicy, but this didn’t detract from the taste, it was delicious!

For our main course I had Shahi Murgh Chicken Korma and Phil had Lamb Rogan Josh which we shared. The rice was exceptional, it was light and fluffy and very moreish. Both the curries tasted fantastic and we cleared all the dishes, which we don’t manage very often.

Phil had Chocolate Textures for dessert and I had Boondi Ladoo which is honey and rose yoghurt cheesecake and I have to say, this was probably one of the best desserts I have eaten on a cruise ship!!

After we couldn’t possibly eat any more, we went to the Havana club which was just down from Sindhu on the same deck where we watched Busker, Aiden O’Brien. He was very good and sung different genres of music and it was lovely to sit and relax with a drink and listen to him.

We took a walk along the promenade deck, where we watched the sun set on another wonderful day on board P&O’s Ventura.

The video of our day in Santander is now available on YouTube. Please take a look and consider subscribing, it is totally free and it would really help me to create more travel content.

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P&O CRUISES: VENTURA 10 DAY CRUISE TO SPAIN, PORTUGAL AND FRANCE

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DAY TWO (9th April, 2026): Day At Sea

It is a lovely feeling to wake up on the first morning of a cruise. It’s normally a sea day and so we have developed something of a tradition where we have breakfast in the main dining room. This morning I chose the P&O Cruise Breakfast and Phil went for Eggs Benedict.

It was very foggy up on the top decks and Ventura was frequently sounding her fog horn, which made me jump every time as it was very loud! Phil decided to go for a swim in the Oasis pool which is the adult only pool at the front of the ship. He said the water was lovely and warm, but it was quite cold when he got out. When the sun burned through the fog, it warmed up significantly.

We saw in the Horizon magazine that there was a quiz in The Exchange and it was about food and drink and because Phil qualified as a chef in his younger days and is now a catering manager, we thought we’d give it a go. We managed to get 14/20 , mostly getting the drinks questions wrong, so were happy with that!

Now it was time for lunch and again we decided to eat in the main dining room where we shared a table with eight people. You do meet all kinds of people when you share a table and today we met a lovely couple who we chatted to throughout the meal and it was her birthday, so the whole table sang Happy Birthday to her.

Phil chose a Tandoori Platter which consisted of Lamb Shish Kebab, Malai Tiger Prawns, Tandoori Chicken and Poppadoms. I enjoyed a Cheese and Mushroom Panini with Chunky Chips and Slaw. We both had a Peach Melba for dessert, which was very light and tasty.

Then it was time to sit in the atrium and play some cards and let our dinner go down. We watched the activites that took place in the atrium which included line dancing and ballroom dancing and we then took a stroll around the promenade deck, which is deck 7 on Ventura.

As it was a day at sea, it was Black Tie evening and so we dressed in our finest clothes (ha ha) and headed to the atrium to hear the Captain’s welcome. Unfortunately we arrived a little late and only caught the last part of his speech, but what we did hear was very funny and we came to understand through the Captain’s announcements that he likes to inject humour into his messages and some of the things he said did make us laugh.

As we made our way to the restaurant I noticed that a lot of people had made the effort and some of the dresses the ladies were wearing were absolutely gorgeous and of course the men looked very dapper in their dinner suits.

Phil had the Hand-cut Salmon Ceviche with Keta Caviar Pearls for his starter, followed by Herb-crusted Atlantic Halibut Fillet with a Velvety Savoury Jus and for dessert he chose Classic Apple Tart Tatin.

I opted for the Forest Mushroom and Blue Cheese Cannelloni with the Curried Corn-fed Chicken Kyiv in a Crispy Panko Crum to follow and then just a Cheese Plate for dessert.

Salmon Ceviche
Mushroom Cannelloni

We made our way to the Arena theatre and watched a tribute act called Maroon Live in which he obviously sang Maroon Five songs. He was very good and we were surprised at how many of the songs we knew.

Then we made our way to the Tamarind Club and watched the karoake where some of the passengers had incredible voices and there was even a girl of about ten who sang This Is Me beautifully. She had a lot of confidence to go up to a full club and sing and she got a standing ovation when she finished.

As it was heading towards midnight and the clocks were going forward at 2.00 AM, we headed to our cabin and I think I was asleep before me head hit the pillow.

To watch our day at sea on YouTube, please click below and if could please like and subscribe that would help my channel a lot.

Cruise Blog, Cruising, Diary, Walking Dead Poetry

P&O Cruises: VENTURA 10 Day Cruise to Spain, Portugal and France

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DAY ONE (8th April, 2026): Embarkation

I woke up on the morning of this cruise with the feeling of excitement and a slight apprehension that we hadn’t finished packing our suitcases. Our boarding time was 12;45, so we had some time to complete this and due to the fact that we live in a village just outside Southampton, we didn’t have to leave until about 12:15.

After some clearing up: emptying the dishwasher, taking the rubbish out to the bins and making sure the toilets were pristine (just in case a burglar needed a wee whilst robbing us blind!!), we booked an Uber and we were suddenly advised it would only be five minutes before he arrived! (We later discovered the time you put in is the drop off time and NOT the pick up time!!) We then realised that we would be about an hour early at the port, but it was too late to cancel the Uber now.

Our Uberdriver took us on a very strange route to Southampton Docks, but as we had plenty of time, we weren’t duly stressed.

On arrival, apparently the hour too early didn’t matter, we were told which bay to deposit our suitcases in and then we headed to the main terminal. Boarding was probably one of the easiet we have had in a long time and about 15 minutes later, we were on board Ventura.

We headed straight to the buffet and filled our plates with salads, chips, ham, anything that took our fancy and after a stroll around the upper decks, we were informed that our staterooms were ready.

We had booked an inside cabin on deck 15, which was midship and we found it with no trouble. The cabins are practical, consisting of beds, bedside cabinets, vanity dressing table, dressing area, space to hang clothes, cupboard which includes a safe and a bathroom with shower and unfortunately a shower curtain,

Then we decided to go back up to the sun deck to watch the Sailaway from Southampton as we love seeing our village from the ship, it makes a change from us watching the ships sail down Southampton Water from the beach.

We had purchased the alcohol-free package prior to boarding and received 1.7% discount on the total price because we are at Atlantic tier in the loyalty tier.

Non-alcohol package is approximately £26 to £29 per person, per day, depending on which tier you are on.

Drinks shown are Paradise Punch: Pineapple juice, cranberry juice, orange juice, lemonade and grenadine.

The sailaway was vibrant and loud, with lots of singing and dancing and thankfully the sun was shining throughout. The last time we left Southampton on board Regal Princess it absolutely poured down.

After sailing past the Royal Victoria Country Park in Netley, we went back to our stateroom to change for dinner.

We had booked an early sitting at 6.30 PM and had chosen to sit at a table of six. I need to eat early as I have a stoma bag as a result of having had bowel cancer. I have blogged about my experience – please click here to read about my fight against bowel cancer.

We found the restaurant, The Bay Tree, and then found our table, we were the first to arrive. Minutes later another couple arrived, a man around his mid-50’s and his wife, also mid 50’s. They introduced themsevles as John and Martha, (not their real names) and then two ladies arrived who told us their names were Caroline and Mandy (again, not their real names.) Caroline and Mandy were good friends and had gone on many cruises together.

We all chatted, informing each other where we came from and both couples said they came from the North. We ordered our meal, which was very nice, the only glitch was that the waiters forgot my dinner and by the time I had mine, the others had nearly finished their dinners. Dessert was good and we finished with a cup of coffee.

After dinner, we went for a walk around the Promendade on Ventura which is on deck seven. There are some stairs at the front of the ship, which were only open a couple of times during the whole cruise, so it wasn’t always possible to walk around the entire ship.

Screenshot

Then, because we had been awake since early this morning, we decided to go back to the cabin and watch a bit of television before we fell asleep.

Our video below is embarkation day….

Cruising, Diary, Holidaying

Friday, 17th September, 2021

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Where to go for our last breakfast? We went back to The Quays and had a fried breakfast and then we went back up to the top deck, but this time we went to the adult pool at the front of the ship.

We sat in one of the wooden pods and played cards, but this time I was well and truly beaten, so hubby was the champion this holiday! We had a cup of the weakest Costa I have ever had and then decided it was time to go and buy some presents for the family.

We had a mooch around the shops and bought some perfume, gin and cuddly toys plus the Iona Toblerone. A stop off for fish and chips at The Quays, I wasn’t too keen on the mushy peas, but the curry sauce and the fish was wonderful.

  • Ice cream tea before…
  • …and after!

We had promised ourselves that we would try the Ice Cream Tea at Ripples, this had a surcharge of £11, but you only need to purchase one, it’s more than enough for two people. Hubby loves ice cream, but he had to admit defeat and leave some.

We had managed to book The Limelight Club for Sonia tonight, so we joined the queue and took our seats.

I was looking forward to this evening, but it also meant the end of the cruise, so it was mixed feelings. We were served up a three course meal while the Limelight Band, which was an all-female band, together with Laura, the singer, sang a few songs to us. She was very good, very relaxed on stage.

Sonia was very good, she sang some of her hits plus a couple of covers, together with a funny story about when she was in the Eurovision Song Contest made for an entertaining evening and we even got to meet her after the show!

A final Baileys and Jamesons at the Cocktail Bar in the Atrium and it was time to go to bed and set the alarm for an early start in the morning to get home.

Of all the views we took photographs of during our cruise, this is probably the one that we always remember!

Cruising, Holidaying, Reviews

Thursday, 16th September, 2021

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We decided to spend today on the sun deck as we hadn’t been up there very much. So after a late breakfast, we ventured up on the top decks to find a couple of sunbeds. We found some on the shady side, which half an hour later turned into the sunny side!

We both finished our books, drank some mojitos, cider and strawberry daiquiri. Hubby went swimming in the infinity pool, we saw dolphins and a whale and generally had a relaxing morning.

We played cards in the Sky Dome, which again, I won. We had a salad from the Horizon buffet because we were going to the Epicurean Restaurant in the evening and didn’t want to fill up with food.

This meal was booked via the *UCP and it was absolutely divine. The food was amazing, as you can tell from the pictures.

Phil had the Alaskan Snow Crab, Langoustine and Salmon Caviar Cocktail – Pea and Chervil Custard, Parchment Bread and a Cucumber Mojito and I had the Chicken and Morel Mushroom Mousseline with Pistachio Crumble – Duck Liver Parfait, Sweet and Sour Pickled Vegetables and Spinach Anglais.

Our main courses were: hubby had Black Cod and Canadian Cold-water Lobster Tail with Avruga Caviar Gratin – Bouillabaisse Fondue and Bee Pollen Dressed House Salad and I had Maple-glazed Saddleback Pork T-Bone – Air Crackling and Scrumpy Jus – which I have to say that there was a LOT of pork, but it was sublime.

Dessert was Lemon Meringue Tart for me and hubby had the Belgian Chocolate Jaffa Cake.

We chatted to an older couple sat on the table next to us and we found out that they are going on the same cruise as us in March next year, on the Britannia, cruising around the Caribbean and then sailing back to Southampton!

We finished off the night at the 710 Club, where the band was as good as ever, but there was some trouble with people trying to get it, thinking that we had been sat in there all night. The waiting staff were very patient telling them that this was not the case, but all the time they queued up for the next show, we could hear them talking loudly outside. When we came outside after our performance, the queue started cheering.

After a quick cocktail at the Cow and Keel, the Honeyed IPA we then retired to our cabin.

The sunset as we ate at The Epicurean.

*UCP – Ultimate Celebration Package

Cruising, Diary, Holidaying

Wednesday, 15th September, 2021

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We decided to skip breakfast today as we were eating at the Olive Grove at lunchtime today, so after our morning trek around Deck 8, we went to the shops. We ended up in a shop which sold watches, (hubby LOVES watches) where he bought an electronic Tag Heuer for him and then a jewellery shop where we purchased a white gold band with diamonds for me.

We then spent the rest of the morning in the Sky Dome, reading, swimming and having a few drinks, much need rest and relaxation.

Greek Mezze at the Olive Grove

We booked lunch via the My Holiday app, at the Olive Grove, we couldn’t get in for an evening meal. This was a lovely restaurant. Hubby decided to have a Chocolate Oreo Cookie milkshake and I had a Cool Sunset cocktail, which was wine, cranberry juice and lemonade, which was very nice. Hubby’s cocktail froze and he had trouble drinking it after that!

We shared a mezze starter (pictured) which was roasted vegetables, humous and tazeki with beetroot dressing and olives. I had carbonara for main course and hubby beef bucco. The carbonara was delicious, even better than Bella Italia’s version!

Hubby enjoyed his main dish and the waiter recommended Aspall Cider to go with it.

Pudding was a lemon creme brulee for me and had baklava. Both were delicious and we polished them off quite easily.

In the afternoon we searched out the infinity jacuzzies, we fond an empty one easily. They were lovely to just sit in and gaze out to sea, plus they were only for one to three people in the same bubble, so it was nice and personal.

Dinner was in the Aqua restaurant, it was smaller than the Coral Restaurant and the service was very slow in here, it took ages to get our main course. It seemed like the waiters didn’t know whose dinner was whose, plus the coffee was stone cold! I had a Malbec and hubby had a Pinot Grigio.

We went to Brodies and sat in on the 8 o’clock quiz, which we thought was quite hard and from there we went to the Headliners Theatre to watch the production, Centre Stage. This was better than Festival and some of the lighting effects were incredible.

After that we decided to call it a night, I think all the late nights were starting to catch up with us.

Cruising, Diary, Holidaying

Monday, 13th September, 2021

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  • Breakfast in The Quays this morning – waffles and pancakes! Lovely!

As the weather was overcast this morning we went back to the Sky Dome. I decided to buy a notebook so I could write down my diary entries, I didn’t take much notice of the price, which was a mistake as when I was in the lift I realised it cost £16.00! I got hubby a Costa to soften the blow about the price, but when I told him he nearly choked on his coffee!

As we enjoyed our breakfast at The Quays we had lunch there as well. I had fried chicken and chips from the American Grill, which as I’m a KFC fan, I was looking forward to and hubby had a Katsu curry from the Asian Kitchen. I’m pleased to say that the fried chicken exceeded my expectations. We washed it down with a bottle of Corona each.

As the weather still wasn’t wonderful we thought that a trip to the cinema was in order, the films being shown were A Quiet Place 2 and Blithe Spirit, and as we have seen Blithe Spirit, A Quiet Place 2 it was.

We had about an hour before it was time for the cinema, so we found a quiet place in the Atrium and started our card tournament. This is something we do on every cruise, we play Rummy and the points are carried forward throughout the holiday with the winner proclaimed at the end of the cruise! Not being one to brag, but I won by two points, first round to me!

The cinema wasn’t very large, it probably seated about 40 people, less due to the social distancing measures taken but strangely you could take off your masks here, but not in the theatre?

There was the obligatory person who thought the whole cinema should hear what he was saying which was quite annoying until their conversation went:

“Did you see the dolphins today?”
“No I didn’t, but what I really wanna see is an orchid.”
“Don’t you mean orca?” his friend questioned and I have to say a few people had a little titter to themselves.

The film was good, we enjoyed it and I have to say that Cillian Murphy played a great role!

We were eating at Sindhu in the evening, as we had ordered the Ultimate Celebration Package we chose the day and time for our meal. Whenever we cruise with P&O we always eat here and it never fails to disappoint.

I had the Parsee Lamb Cutlets for my starter followed by the Duck Tikka Malabari and hubby had the Kerala Nyannd Masala Tian with the Signature Thali Plate for his main course. We had a glass of Prosecco each with our starter and a glass of Beefsteak Malbec with our main courses.

Whilst we were waiting for our order a lady with two friends came in, I didn’t really pay much attention as she went into another part of the restaurant, but hubby said to me that he was sure it was Miriam Margolyes. I’m a huge fan of hers, I love it when she’s on a TV chat show, she’s so forthright and down to earth.

I was kicking myself for not paying attention to this lady and we spent a large part of the dinner discussing how we were going to check out if it was her or not.

Back to the meal, it tasted very good, but they seem to have diverted from the traditional Indian meal, to more of an Indian meat with vegetables. Over coffee we decided to go out onto Deck 8 and walk past the window to see if it was her for sure.

So plan in operation, we walked along the corridor to find the door which led to Deck 8, “Here it is, I think,” announced hubby and pushed open a big grey door. But to our horror, it didn’t lead to the outside deck, but straight back into Sindhu restaurant!! Hubby did a hasty retreat and we hurried down the corridor to find the correct door and were soon outside on Deck 8 laughing at our mistake, remembering the look of shock on the diner’s faces. “But was it her?” I asked him, “I don’t know, I was too busy backtracking out of the door,” he replied. We walked along Deck 8 and took a quick peek into the window and saw this person, hubby was still adamant it was her, but I still wasn’t sure.

It was time to go to the Headliner Theatre to watch Festival. The Headliner’s cast sang festival songs, it wasn’t great to be honest, the dancing seemed very rushed and so some were out of time. The songs were sung fast and loud!

We rushed to the 710 Club hoping to see the 9:30 PM showing and we arrived there at about 9:20 PM and was delighted to see there was no queue. We stood at the entrance of the club and soon there were people behind us forming a queue, somebody asked us, “Is this the queue for the 10:45 performance?” “No,” we replied, “The 9.30 show.” “Are you sure?” they asked, “People went in about 15 minutes earlier.”

9:30 PM came and the doors showed no sign of opening, the queue had grown to around 50 people, “I think we’ve got this wrong,” I whispered to hubby, “I think they’re about to start.” “I do too,” he replied, “Let’s leave quietly,” and so we quietly slipped out of the queue we had created. As we headed towards the stairs, I heard one lady say, “I just joined this queue, I’m not even sure what it’s for.”

After a walk around the ship, we decided to wait in the Atrium for the 10:45 PM session in the 710 club and we ordered a mojito each while we waited. It was entertaining watching everyone psyche each other out, waiting for the first couple to start the queue (which we’re good at apparently), and as soon as someone did, the rest quickly followed suite.

Inside the venue, I ordered a Raspberry Brulee cocktail and hubby had a pint of Fosters. The band was just as good as before and the guitarist, Alistair, sang some Beatles songs beautifully.

We went to the Club House afterwards, again it was full, but we stood at the back and listened to the adult version of his show, it was funny, but I preferred his family show.

By the time this had ended, it was 12:15 AM, “Happy Anniversary,” hubby whispered before we went to sleep.

A good day on board and the weather didn’t dampen our enthusiasm!