Myself and Popeye the Sailorman (from now on known as PTSM) booked this cruise way back early 2014 and were really looking forward to it. We got the Intercruise coach from Preston and as on our previous cruise last August, the journey down was stress free and relaxing. We arrived at Mayflower at 13.30 and with no queues we were through security and soon walking down the quayside to board. Azura as you all know had mechanical problems and was in for repairs so Adonia was not on her original berth so you had to walk a fair way down the quayside (lucky for us the sun had come out, shame that MOB & Mrs MOB got wet when they disembarked). We were told to go up a particular gangplank by one of the security staff but were turned away by the chap at the top, because it was the crew gangplank. The security chap thought I was part of the theatre group and PTSM was the piano player (more about this later), due to the fact that we were alot younger than the other passengers boarding!!! I told him he should go to Specsavers, because even at 54 I'm way too old to be in the theatre group and I cant sing or dance! We had a right good old laugh.
Our cabin (C088 - Victoria Suite) was ready so we headed off and our suitcases turned up nearly immediately as did our butler, Satya, who looked after us in 2008, it was really great to see him and meet our cabin steward Ganesh who was a really lovely guy too. So we knew we were going to be well looked after.
We had booked a table of two for dinner which was so close to a table of four, it may as well have been a six but we got on okay with the four, so it was not a problem and we did get a table of two several times when the others went up to the Ocean Grill and Sorrento a number of times on different nights.
As some of you know I follow a vegan diet (no animal products) and due to a fairly recent intolerance to soya milk corresponded with a lady called Karen from shore side diet reservations who arranged for Alpro almond milk (my favourite) to be on board which was great. In the main I have had fantastic dining experiences with P&O but last year I had cause to give feedback to Mike Monahan, Carnival's Culinary Manager due to a good number of problems on several previous cruises. I'm not one to complain normally but when dining is such a big part of your holiday, I decided to contact him. I have also been contacted by several other forum members themselves with dietary requirements to ask for advice etc as I have done all my cruises as a vegan passenger so know what the procedure should be. However first night is still a problem and on Adonia was no different. To cut a long story short I was offered a main course of PLAIN BOILED VEGETABLES by the Head Waiter (ring any bells Gill W)....my face must have been a picture ......I was not happy .....the Head Waiter shot off back to the galley and I ended up with a very nice tempura of vegetables with chilli dipping sauce and stir fried rice. After that one incident, the food I had was brilliant, the diet chef Ezle made some of the best vegan food I have had the pleasure of eating on board a P&O ship....I was a happy vegan thereon in and I emailed Mike Monahan from the ship to let him know and met Ezle to thank him and give a tip to show my appreciation. It was only his second cruise as a diet chef and I was the first vegan he had come across but he was fully clued up as what I did and did not eat and his interpretation of dishes I asked to be veganised off the main menus was impressive like his “tofu” fish, chips and mushy peas which I posted a photo of on Facebook, an awesome dish.
The cruise was a Musical Festival at Sea cruise, which we did not know when we booked and although classical music is not really our thing, the events we went to were thoroughly enjoyable. The musical team included Nick Bailey (of Classic FM and Radio Caroline fame), Jean Kelly (Harp), John Wilson (Piano), Rebecca Caine (Soprano), Maria Jagusz (Mezzo- Soprano), Kevin Greenlaw (Baritone), Alexei Sarkissov (Cello), Kerenza Peacock (Violin). There was a piano master class by John Wilson and two passengers played in front of an audience, with John giving them advice and coaching...they both got a huge round of applause ....a pretty daunting experience.. I think they were very brave We did not go to all the events but they got rave reviews from other passengers we spoke to. We also had the pleasure of speaker Diane Simpson who gave various talks, one on hand-writing and another on serial killers....a grim topic but thoroughly interesting....we missed her last talk about Beethoven, which was all about hearing problems....but we heard it was excellent to. Nick Bailey hosted an excellent “Desert Island Discs” with Captain David Box which we really enjoyed. There were the usual quizzes each day and I don’t know who was creating the daily crossword but it was so hard even die hard “crossworders” were struggling to complete it. Some of the clues and answers did not make sense, so there was no chance of getting it right! Another pianist was Glenn Mone who played in Andersons and the Crows Nest, he was our favourite pre-dinner drink musician, just the right ambiance, good repertoire and a really nice chap who apparently people thought I was married to. A couple of times I had people coming up to me and saying “your husband is the pianist in Andersons isn’t he” !!! PTSM did have a resemblance, same height, similar build, same hair colour & style, similar ages, so we told Glenn who we had got to know over the course of the cruise and I think both he and PTSM decided to take it as a compliment. Another violinist was a chap called Craig Owen from Guisborough who did not play classical, but more modern tunes such as Queen, some of the die hard classical lovers were not impressed but we liked the more upbeat music he played and of course even though he’s a Yorkshire man and we’re from Lancashire we had to love him being a Northerner
Our first nights sleep was interrupted at 1.30 in the morning by the Officer of the Watch requesting that first responders went to the incinerator room.....there had been an incident and one of the staff had been burnt...Captain Box followed the Officer of the Watch with an apology to everyone..thankfully we had no more night interruptions.
And on to the ports:
Tangiers – we did not get off but stayed on the ship and enjoyed ourselves sat on our balcony reading....not sure we missed much!
Palmero - not the place I was expecting at all......so rundown and pretty dire to be honest, getting hassled by horse drawn carriage drivers at every turn, I was well chuffed as I managed to tell one chap to clear off in my best Italian....the traffic and trying to cross the road was like a death wish....step to cross when the green man is flashing and cars just carry on through the lights..... motorbikes came onto the pavement so they did not have to stop. The pavements were a Health and Safety hazard, I have never seen pavements as bad, obviously no investment has been made for years. So we did not stay long in Palermo but made our way back to Adonia....or as Christine Noble the Entertainments Manager would say the small ship with the big heart
Gaeta – a lovely port, we do not do tours so we had a good walk round, stopping for coffee and a beer and watch the world go by....the simple things are always the best and it was so peaceful after the frenetic Palermo
Civitavecchia – we have already been to Rome and we like Civi so we walked from the ship down to the town where lots of work has been done to the Castle and its surrounding grounds, with lovely gardens which you miss if you get the shuttle bus. We walked all the way down the Promenade, had a coffee and then stopped for a pizza at one of the restaurants on the front and watched the world go by.....we love people watching and its so
relaxing.
Portofino – sadly we missed this port due to 1.5m swells unsuitable for the tenders, P&O or should I say Carnival have really clamped down on tendering operations, due to a terrible tragedy on Cunard where a lady sadly lost her life during a tender operation, so I can understand Captain Box’s decision not to go to Portofino, where the port authorities had warned against it. So instead we headed to .........
Livorno - for an early arrival and an overnight in port which the crew were ecstatic about.....you could see them all walking off into town at midnight or later....the berth we got was literally 2 mins from the town centre. We had done some research and wanted to partake of a local delicacy “farinata” which is basically a pancake made from chickpea flour, water and olive oil. The pancake is sandwiched between two slices of bread (either focaccia or the Italian version of a French baguette) with or without chargrilled aubergine. This is called a “Cinque e Cinque” in Livorno which is something to do with how much it cost in the old days when the dish originated. The most famous place in Livorno is a place called Viva Gagarin which is renowned and well reviewed on Tripadvisor. However if you saw the place from the outside, you would avoid like the plague, a rough looking door way with a fly screen and the name of the place in red graffiti on the wall outside, so no signage from the outside as such. We went through the fly screen and the place was packed with locals getting either their takeaway or eat in C&C, we decided to eat in and so I ordered two C&C’s con melanzane (with aubergine). I have to say for the sum of 6 euros, it was an absolute bargain and SO DELICIOUS, such a simple dish...the place was heaving with people coming and going...if I’m ever in Livorno again, Viva Gagarin will be on the list to revisit.
Bonfacio – sadly another tender port that we were unable to visit due to the weather and so Captain took us to Ajaccio instead, where we have been several times before and again just mooched about, took a long walk up the promenade had a beer and a coffee and wandered back to the ship.
Lisbon – more research at home prior to the visit and we had two must places to visit, one was the Gulbenkian Museum which has a superb collection of artwork, Chinese ming vases, ancient rugs and loads of other artefacts but I wanted to see the display of Rene Lalique jewellery so unusual and modern in its time and still beautiful. The second place was lunch at a vegan restaurant, yes lots of places for me to eat in Lisbon and this one Princesa do Castelo was near the castle, we had a lovely lunch and will revisit if ever in Lisbon which is a beautiful once you leave the hustle and bustle where the shuttle bus drops you off, mind you we don’t tend to use the shuttle buses we always walk. We must have walked at least 10-12 km, it was 4 km each way just to get to the museum from the ship. Once back on board it was snooze time on the balcony, we were shattered especially as the top temperature of the day was 35 degrees.
Earlier in the cruise, we got a note to say that PTSM needed to go back to reception about his credit card!!! I forgot to inform American Express we were going on holiday and thought maybe there was a problem due to that. However when we got to reception this was not the case at all. Another member of the music team had boarded in Livorno with the same name as PTSM and reception decided to erase our credit card, input the credit card of the music guy and then showed him to our cabin....then they realised their mistake.....quite funny, shame we had to re-register our card really...!!!
We also had the pleasure of meeting Mr and Mrs Wolfie from this forum (aka Rosemary and Alan) for a drink a couple of times on board and met up a few times in between, one whilst trying to win one of the music quizzes in the Crows Nest, although we failed miserably
Alan and Rosemary it was lovely to meet you and we hope you had a safe journey home and maybe we will meet up on board again sometime.One thing I forgot to mention is my “chilli fetish”. At home I am known as Queen Naga, the Naga being one of the hottest chillis in the world and I am a fire-eater whether it be curry or chilli.....and due to chefs being a little hesitant to make curries as hot as I want I took a jar of “Queen Naga” chilli paste made in Cumbria to zap up any dishes I thought were lacking.....When I ordered my first curry with the Head Waiter and said could chef make it as hot as he wanted, he was very hesitant so I said I would bring my QN with me, just in case. So on the night, he said he wanted to try it....so took it away to the waiters station...put a little of the paste on a plate and disappeared into the galley.....when he came back to return the jar he was coughing and spluttering, looked rather flushed and said he did not know how I could eat it. The next time I ordered curry which I had about 4 times during the cruise he brought his own pickles brought from home for me to try but they were mild compared to QN. We went to Sorrento one night where they made a fabulous vegan herb gnocchi with tomato sauce dish for me, but the restaurant manager there asked did I want some chilli with it......how on earth did he know...well he shared a cabin with the Head Waiter....who had told him about his chilli eating vegan dietary passenger. I was in the Conservatory getting lunch earlier on in the cruise, when a young waiter called Edward who remembered me from our Aurora 2013 Christmas cruise came up to say hello...he recalled not only was I vegan but asked if I was still eating very spicy food and had told the Head Waiter I could eat raw chillis !!!
Our cabin steward Ganesh made the most fabulous towel animal ever (wish I could post the photo) it was a huge butterfly on the bed with the coloured toffees you get to give it colour.....so I decided to make him a towel animal and so Cyril the Octopus was born..... he looked rather good I thought, Ganesh obviously did as the next night I had a big frog sitting on the chair.....so I finished with Sydney the Anaconda snaking along the sofa with two huge teeth (ear-plugs) a huge green tongue made from the Horizon newspaper and big yellow eyes made from toffee paper. I went out to Ganesh and said we had a problem in the cabin so he came rushing in, I wish I had a video of his reaction......he laughed so much and was so surprised to see Sydney....his body and head made from a blue beach towel and a white hand towel....! Think I need to grow up....PTSM would agree!
One thing I have not mentioned is the weather....think we were suffering from the weather front affecting the UK, as the weather was not good as you would expect throughout the whole cruise, but saying that it was a damn site better than at home.....rain, rain and more rain....so even I came home with a bit of a tan.
Unlike Mr and Mrs MOB, we had a really quick disembarkation, should have been called at 8.50 but got called at 8.30, bags collected and on the very plush Intercruise coach homeward bound.
And so ends our cruise, until the next time....Arcadia in September
