We see spot land and we are going to stand on it…..

We made it!

St Maarten was our first stop in the sunny Caribbean, and our plan was to mooch around unaided by any official excursion. We’d already learnt our lesson in Tenerife, standing in the sun strong enough to burn our faces off while waiting for the hop-on hop-off bus. Never again.

So this time, we were going rogue. Independent. Adventurous. Making our mark.

Well… until we realised that “making our mark” is significantly more difficult when the Caribbean sun is actively trying to melt you. We ended up shuffling along the beachfront like four vampires looking for the world’s smallest patch of shade.

Luckily, salvation came in the form of bars. The first offered shade, local cheap beer and wifi (hello old friend, time to tell people we still exist back at home – that’s if they have missed us) . The next bar was serving local rum punch and loud music. Here, you could pay for a sun lounger and table service — very bougie. We, however, opted for the more budget-friendly plan: rum punch only, followed immediately by fleeing to the next bar that had actual shade, chairs, and, most importantly, that cheap cold local beer again. We also ordered chips, because even off the ship you can’t afford to stop eating. Carb-loading is a lifestyle afterall.

St Maarten was undeniably pretty and incredibly popular… but I couldn’t help noticing it had a slight “Caribbean Benidorm” vibe about it. Which is fine — just unexpected, and much farther to come to get it.

Life onboard….

Given I didn’t have my phone, there is almost no photographic evidence of our eight days at sea — which is honestly the best outcome for public safety and our reputations.

We settled into a gloriously lazy routine of getting up late enough to qualify as borderline medical concern. Every morning, D and I would nobly read through the list of activities we absolutely weren’t going to do. As D put it, they’re mainly designed for “all the people not getting drunk on a drinks package,” and I fear she’s right. Everything was so repetitive that if you missed shuffleboard today, you could confidently miss it tomorrow too… and we did. Consistently. Like champions.

We did buy a pack of playing cards though, which offered a shocking glimpse into NYB-F’s inner competitive demon. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen someone willing to cause a diplomatic incident over a game of Rummy.

People-watching quickly became our Olympic event. In the collage, you’ll see a photo of fellow passengers who perfected the art of “resting” — that beautiful cruise tradition of falling asleep between one meal and the next. The ship’s entertainment simply didn’t have the power to keep them conscious. Respect, honestly.

One day, we even went outside. Unfortunately, we chose a day with weather that can only be described as “North Sea in a mood.” We struggled to achieve our wildly ambitious step count target of 20. After I took the photo (bottom left), a 14-year-old wandered past us looking like they were on a springtime stroll. I maintain that teenagers should be banned from being smug in public.

NYB-P also graced karaoke night, which is normally a highlight. However, this time he waited an entire hour and then had to follow a five-year-old belting out Incy Wincy Spider. Note to self: “family-friendly cruise” translates to “there will be tiny people trying to steal your spotlight and you will be powerless to stop them.”

We luuuvvv our balcony….

No matter what she weather having a balcony is a game changer, at the moment we vow to never book a cruise without one again, lets see how much we stick to that vow…

So many views….

Even with or with out sound it’s amazing….. That’s if you can stand the heat….

Au naturale

With tunes, I should have had titanic song playing but hey it wasn’t planned.

Finding nivarna in Tenerife….

Our first few days at sea have been more than pleasurable although we have had a few medical emergencies on board, you kind of expect it with a ship this big, however what we didn’t expect was the sad news that the crew member had died. An even more sombre captain’s announcement updated us, during one of his evening addresses, pleading with the passengers not to put it all over Facebook (how times have changed, everyone is a journalist) and to let their family grieve or more than likely get informed first. (Just to note it’s been weeks since this happened, still raw for those concerned and our prayers were with them).

Our first planned disembarkment (cruise term) is Santa Cruz Tenerife. This seems harder than we first imagined. After being informed that the level on the ship for disembarkation was 3, we followed a line of people, towards what we thought was the exit, only to find they were heading in the wrong direction so we turned about and went back the other way. The line that was originally about 8 people was now around 12, only to find after we had followed the line again that we were still heading in the wrong direction. So a further change with an even longer line of people in tow, until we found our way out. NYB- F had commented that at one point he thought the long line was just us all randomly following some bloke back to his cabin. Who said we British like to queue, and to be honest this cruise from the start has been one big queue.

Finally hitting terifirmer we have booked onto the ‘hop on, hop off’ bus around the city. As it happens so did the other 4 cruise ships that have descended on this little place. Some unexpectedly as they have been rerouted (due to hurricane Melissa being in their path). Which meant a long queue while we waited for the bus, luckily this gave us a chance to meet Americans and others who had been rerouted!!

Tenerife is pretty and very popular, we just got a chance to see a bit of the coastline and a market. The highlight for one of our party was the discovery of a milkshake. Yes, I found a little cafe called Cafe Cafe with owner Honorio who told us he “loves England and trained with a well-known chef” of which I forgot as soon as he told me. He did offer us his finest, including his specialty sandwiches (which the Boys tried), the island’s special liquor coffee Barraquito, and (Nivarna) milkshake which D enjoyed!

Santa Cruz Tenerife – warm and welcoming.

Re-routing…..

This cruise turns out to be 20 years since our first ever cruise together (the Boys are now cruise masters with 27 under their holiday belt). One thing you realise pretty quickly is that you go where the captain says you go. So when he announces that we were rerouting to go near land to meet a medivac helicopter to take off a poorly passenger the very first day, it was no shock. That us until the 2am announcement the following morning into the cabins asking emergency personnel to the lifts. The announcement from the captain the next morning was another re-routing to drop off a member of the crew who had been hurt fixing the lifts (around 2am we can presume). After a quite sombre announcement that we would now have an unexpected day off board in La Coruna (northern Spain), we noticed the ship had sped up considerably, more than when it was the passenger we had noted.

It’s a first port of call and we prepare to have a look around, which basically means a short walk to the nearest coffee shop and people watching.

Commentary about the port is that it is very accessible and a nice walk along the harbour. Not very pretty but not docks either. It might be better in the summer. Today it was rather cold. That said while everyone else was bundled up with coats, our intrepid cruise buddies The Boyz were in shorts and shirt sleeves – well what else could we expect?

Back on board, we discover the fish and chips restaurant which was to become NYB-P’s spiritual home. D even tried to get a specialty ice cream without paying extra, only to be told by the rather cheeky server (there were a few on this cruise), “you are on a drinks package not food”). Needless to say D wasn’t happy, we vowed to find her a milkshake somewhere!!

We end the night experiencing one of the ship’s singing duos (pretty bad as it turns out) putting on a 70’s show, even the familiar tunes didn’t hit the mark with us.

P looking decidedly unhappy about quality and he should know, he can sing!

A room with a view…..

As this cruise will be longer and mostly on the ship, we agree on a rendezvous spot with the Boys: The Keel and Cow pub (obviously a bar). So we can do our own thing before meeting up for ‘together time’ (aka drinking). We also agreed to ring each other’s cabins and leave messages. My first attempt was good, except they insisted it didn’t show up (only to discover days later how to listen), and when testing leaving us a message, they rang the wrong cabin. Someone is going to feel slightly nervous with the deep-throated “it’s me” message.

Lady D and I enjoy our first experience of a cabin with a view, even in the North Atlantic Ocean this is a gift.

It wasn’t that hot, in fact just how we like it.

Loved that sound, we left the door open at night so we could go to sleep (well, until we got to the Caribbean)

Meeting up with the Boys, I noticed NYBF’s commitment to taking it slowly on the drinking…. They started with a latte at 12, quickly followed by an order of a small lager.

While D and I found the ideal sunbathing, ie there is no sun, so we have a sun-bed to ourselves and we have hot chocolate (Costa style), while we feel that North Atlantic breeze and odd sun ray.

We tried out the big diner, which is like a massive canteen where we can have choice after choice of different foods. All of which you try until you decide you don’t like free choice and appreciate just being served one thing at a time and stick to the restaurants.

All our anxiety from life at home, the pre-retirement reservations, family, and everything else we find time to worry about, seems to settle. It feels like another world when you can’t be contactable. No internet, no phones – no problems. In fact, it’s so chilled that Lady D, sees the shows (comedian tonight) are so relaxing she uses it to snooze or as she says ‘power nap’.

In fact, the only stress is to find her a milkshake and spend our ‘onboard credit’.

Alternative view from our beds to the balcony. Hypnotic.

Sail-away day…..

As this is a re-positioning cruise of a ‘big’ P&O ship we had the expectation it might be rather upscale and refined, it turned out to be neither. We came from the Premier Inn, where we spent the night (and half the first day) waiting to get on to the ship as they were a little behind. In fact, our 2pm boarding time was to turn into 5pm. After we arrived at the dock to were met by a huge queue, which we had to stand freezing until they could get us on. Here the people were chatty, a mix of young, older, and lots and lots of families. Apparently, we had gotten ourselves onto a ‘family-friendly’ cruise. A lesson in read the small print here.

Boys waiting in anticipation of getting onboard and ‘thawing out’

We finally get a balcony of our own. Southampton dock and a first sunset.

The ship was the Arvia and it was massive, with lots of restaurants, bars, and pools. We were to have our pick of many to experience the magic of life on board.