Sea Days and the long goodbye to Ventura

The route taken by Ventura

Alan and I are home now after a fabulous trip to the Caribbean.  The funny thing was, when we booked this trip, I considered we were just going back to the same old, same old.  Been there, done that or so I thought.  Then on the first day and every day after, this experience was better and better than we could have ever imagined.  Who knew?  Now we can't wait to get back to this part of the world.

But, 2 sea days was just a step too far.  Like I said previously, I believe P&O scheduled this particular itinerary to coincide with the naming ceremony of their newest and largest ship - Britannia.  But I hope we never have 2 sea days at the end again.  (and I usually love sea days!)

Judith and me

Due to having a food allergy, I always have a head waiter that advises me on my dinner orders for the next day. What usually happens is the chef will make whatever I order without the offering Cumin so I can eat with confidence.  Only one menu item was banned for me to order since the sauce that came with it was ready made and they could not guarantee it was free of cumin.  I felt more of a connection with Judith this trip than the others. That could have been as a result of my illness in the middle of the trip. She gave me great advice, called our cabin to check up on me and was just a pleasure to see every night at dinner!


With me barely beginning to feel like myself, we still took these last days slowly but did manage to attend the shows.  And I must say, the whole evening entertainment this time around was not even close to what we experienced on the Azura a few years ago or the Ventura as recently as May 2014.  The choice was limited, sometimes there was only one show, not one in both the Arena and the Havana.  Just not what we have come to expect.  Of course, since we missed most of them anyway because I was not well, this was not an issue for us!  But it did seem like one of the many small cost cutting exercises we noticed throughout the cruise.

The Evidence!

Anyone who knows Alan and me, knows we really do not drink much. And on a cruise, we usually only have one drink a day on board.  But P&O also permits bottles to be brought on board and kept in your cabins.  So we purchased quite a variety of flavoured rum during these 2 weeks, and had to really work to drink these bottles!  I believe we met the challenge quite well though!

This was a magic and fantastic trip, even with the little disappointments along the way.  And it must have been wonderful to feel this way after my being ill at least 10 days of the 14.  I just forged through the days and slept like a baby at night!  (ok, I coughed all night most nights, but let's not be pedantic!) Not as bad as it could have been.

Alan and I found ourselves on the last night in the Atrium with absolutely no one around. With a ship holding almost 6000 people, including the crew, how was this possible?

My only big regret is that I was not able to swim with the turtles in Barbados.  The people we met the first night had done this on the first day in Barbados and I knew they intended to do it again before heading back to Scotland. I fully intended to go myself either with them or on our own incase they changed their minds.  But when the time came, I really did not think it was responsible for me to get wet and possibly make myself worse.  But since we intend to return, this is a definite bucket list activity!

We arrived back in Scotland yesterday morning leaving Barbados with a temperature of 82F.  When we left Glasgow Airport it was 42F.   And I have been freezing ever since!

Back to work tomorrow.    But what we really need is a holiday to recover!

Until next time, enjoy whatever you do!

Laughter is an instant vacation.

Milton Berle