Having previously sailed across the Black Sea and been lucky enough to visit the site of the 1945 Yalta Conference and seen where the files were kept in Odessa, when we finally received notice that our cruise was no longer calling at these ports, Roisin and I took it in our stride and were looking forward to the replacement destinations. Hopefully the rescheduling would take us to somewhere new and equally exciting……Burgas and Volos: Well, they were c...

The day of disembarkation. The 'blurb' stated that all staterooms must be vacated by 8am. Now in normal circumstances we would comply but so far I have failed to mention anything specific about our cabin steward. He never properly introduced himself on day 1 so, for some reason, we decided to call him ‘Reg’. It seemed as good a name as any and, after all, his name DID begin with the letter ‘R’!! A good cabin steward will familiari...

This blog starts the way every blog seems to start…with the weather."It's raining again ma!"“Oh b*****! The Hodgsons must be on another bloody cruise! I wish they’d stop it just for a few months so we can get a bit of sunshine around the place!!”09:15am. Our first leg of the journey was a short half mile to Hough Green station. A simple task in itself but with the rain and the luggage and it seems a shame to take a taxi for such a shor...

2 years ago Roisin and I were lucky enough to cruise from Genoa in Italy to Abu Dhabi in the Arabian Gulf via the Suez Canal. From pirates to dish-dashers, the adventure was certainly a once in a lifetime experience. However, during a visit to some port or other, Roisin must have approached one of those 'rub its belly and you'll return to this place’ statues. Whilst I wasn’t looking she had a ‘go’ Roisin must have rubbed the stat...