Cruising from Barcelona to Canne

Friday 17th August 2007 – Barcelona Boarding cruise ship for 1st night at sea.

Isaac born at 11:15am Sydney time weighing 8lb 1oz. (3:15am Barcelona time). After much phoning and texting to relatives and friends (and excitement as we are delighted that this new baby is a “blue” one), we eventually fell back to sleep and woke at 9ish, had a lovely breakfast, packed up, checked out and we are sipping champagne in the foyer of the hotel – just waiting for an hour or so before we get on board the “Millennium” for our Mediterranean cruise. Were shown to our beautiful room complete with balcony and state of the art decor. Very nice! Explored for a short while and then had a compulsory emergency drill with our lifejackets. I was happy to keep mine on for the whole trip but Dad/Paul objected! Set sail at 7pm after enjoying a lovely dinner with 4 Irish people (one who was celebrating her birthday – a Leo) and 4 Americans. Two from San Francisco and 2 from Dallas. Lovely people – the Irish are sometimes a little hard to understand but great fun. At 8pm went to the auditorium to see a sample of the live shows available, wandered through the shopping complex on board and was told by one of the assistants that she loved working on this cruise because she “enjoyed the old people”. I certainly won’t be buying anything from her!!!! It is now 5:30am in Sydney. Wonder how Alexa and Isaac are doing. Do hope Alexa has stopped being sick. Went onto the deck and watched the beautiful lights of Barcelona fade into the distance. Tomorrow we are still at sea all day and arrive the following morning at Cannes. I might just become a movie star! Tomorrow night is formal so Dad/Paul has to wear his dicky suit and I have to wear my new posh dress! Tonight was casual which meant dress or pants suit for ladies and long pants and shirt for the men. No shorts, thongs, crop tops etc allowed! We will be the in the same outfit for the whole 12 days at this rate.
We are travelling Concierge class which is the cruise equivalent of Business Class, and we have our own attendant (Milford) who attends to our needs.
Paul/Dad ordered his dinner suit over the net and Milford delivered it to our room a little while ago. We have decided to call Milford “Trek” as in Milford Track.

Saturday 18th August 2007 – At sea off the French coast of the Mediterranean

Today was our first full day at sea and our 2nd night. We awoke late to find a place to have breakfast. We have a choice of 3. Eventually settled on one and, as has become our custom, smoked salmon and an omelette for Pam and bircher for Paul with fruit and juice. Further explored the ship, had a lovely lunch at Aqua Spa Cafe which is the healthy one. Worked on the computer again – Had dinner at our table and watched a great show re Broadway. Our table is now reduced to 6 as the 2 from L.A. must have wanted a younger crowd. The mum was with her 16 year old daughter. Each afternoon at around 5pm we have 6 little nibbles bought to our room my Milford. Usually salmon and caviar, or prawns and caviar on little tiny toast squares. This happens every day and is such a special treat. Tonight the captain left a bottle if French bubbles in our room for us. The dinner process is as follows: 1st sitting (us because I get hungry) is at 6:15 consists of 5 courses. Appetiser, soup, salad, main meal (which is called entree!!) and dessert. When we go for dinner Milford comes in, turns down our bed, leaves little chocolates and fresh ice for us, closes our blinds, removes our big pillows, replaces any towels and leaves info re the next day. Dinner is usually completed by around 8pm and there is always a show starting at 9pm for us to see. Tonight we watched “Spectacle of Broadway” where they had singers and dancers performing a number of excerpts from Broadway shows and we heard one of the best renditions of Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera. Had a game of Blackjack – took a while to lose US$20:00. Each night they have specials in jewellery, watches, makeup and clothes on board so I usually have a look at this before retiring to our room where we watch a video of what is coming during the next few days so that we can book ay tours we may wish to go on. Off to bed.

Sunday 19th August 2007 – Cannes

In Cannes today at 7am and we anchored out from the shore and as launch called a tender took us from the boat onto the mainland. We had decided not to do any tours today and just make our own way to town when we felt like it. The view of Cannes from the ship was beautiful and we took a number of photos. We eventually made it into town around 11am, bought a Sunday paper (UK version) and tried to find an internet cafe to get the appropriate wireless drivers that we needed to get the computer up and running. Unfortunately as it was Sunday the internet cafe and a number of other shops and stores were closed leaving mainly tourist and food places open. Cannes is very beautiful, full of plenty of yachts and money – beaches very crowded and swimming area very small. Topless bathing! Great stuff to buy but far too expensive! Had a lovely coffee in the Sofitel Hotel after having lunch at a little cafe near the waterfront. This consisted of a nicoise salad and a der mer (seafood) salad with beer and sparkling mineral water. We took the opportunity of texting a number of friends re where we were, and most were enthusiastic with the exception of our dear friend Chris Kenny who’s solitary response “Wankers - ” made us laugh. Back to the boat around 4pm – rested till 5:30 then prepared for the evening routine. Tonight we did not go to a show but did some shopping downstairs and returned to our room where the captain had left another bottle of champagne and a beautiful box of chocolates. With no exercise, 5 course dinners, champagne and chocolates they might be rolling us down the gangway at the end of this cruise! Spoke with the children this morning which was lovely.