Ocean Village Two

Ah yes! We've just had a week's break roaming the seas again.

This time we were aboard the Ocean Village Two cruise liner. All 70,000 tons of it (as weighed before they let the passengers on). We flew out to Heraklion in Crete on 30 April 2009 to join with the ship and that flight, (at least, though wait for the return...) was uneventful and quite pleasant. A four-hour flight though so enough time to get a little fed up unless you have something to do! The ship has 14 decks and we had booked for a cabin on deck 5 (somewhere just above bilge level) but were quite happily and unexpectedly upgraded to deck 11 (where every morning we could hear the sun loungers being dragged across our ceiling - there's always some compromise!)

The cabin was excellent though as can be seen from this photo - although there are curtains, there's a blank wall behind them because we were in an inside cabin. But that's fine. Cabins are only for sleeping and showering in (well, maybe something else, because they frown at that in more public areas of the ship).

Before I launch into the story of the holiday let's have a look at the ship itself. It has a 3-story atrium called the Village Square which occupies the centre of the ship from decks 5 to 7.

On Deck 5 are the Reception Desk and a cafe bar where you can buy both alcoholic drinks and some of the best milky latte I've ever had on board a ship.

There's a piano down there too and a bit of singing and entertainment goes on. You'll also have noticed that there's a bit of trapeze and similar equipment here and they get used a couple of times during the week also - very spectacular! On the balconies above, on Deck 6 there's not a lot besides seating and some display windows for the ship's shops (say that quick!) which are found on Deck 7 behind the balcony there.

The Village Square is also the setting for special events such as sale events from the onboard shops.

At the forward end (pointy bit) of Deck 7 is the Marquee theatre lounge, seen here from the balcony on Deck 8. There are plenty of opportunities to find entertainment onboard and lots of choice as to type as well.

Ice carving situated at the entrance to the Main Dining Room.

A cabaret bar and lounge mid ships.

Up on the Pool Deck is this strange piece of apparatus which acts as a setting for acrobatic acts when the trapeze artists swing a little too high in the atrium... We'll see them in a later article one cold and dark night!

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