19 September 2026. Good Heavens! Nearly up-to-date! [FANFARE] Yes we are once again ignoring all bodily conditions and with a costly set of tickets and travel insurance documents we stay up past 8:00pm with gay abandon waiting for a taxi to pick us up at 03:00am in the morning. Yes, I know that the "am" signified morning but I want you to be aware of just how much effort it takes! Never have so many Police Interceptors captured so many speeding motorists with no licence or insurance on our screens in one night...
But on the dot of 03:00am (was so sleepy I couldn't quite tell if it was the upper or lower dot...) the taxi comes and we are off to Manchester Airport to wrestle with Ryanair's ticketless check-in systems. I have the App and I have the sweats, but we eventually only have to ask for help half a dozen times and we are through. It may be the future but is it really necessary??? As far as I can see it does away with half a dozen check-in staff and requires four extremely busy and stressed helpers at the machines each of which has a long queue before it.
The plane drops us off at Valletta airport in Malta where we queue to use for the first time the new European automated smuggler catchers. Finally getting the hang of putting finger prints on the pad whilst turning awkwardly to gurn into the automated camera I am allowed through with the wondering thought - do I have to pull the same face in the future every time I wish to cross borders?
We get into a taxi and are taken to our hotel for the night, the 5-star Barcelo Fortina in Malta's Sliema district. It's right on the harbour but not the right bit of harbour for us as Valletta's harbour is absolutely huge. We will need another taxi tomorrow. Also it is throwing it down with rain. The hotel was very nice, good buffet meals and that evening the bar suddenly filled with people who broke into a samba flash dance!
But this is why we are here. This is the Oceania Sirena cruise ship and we are about to get on it if we can find out where to go to check onboard. Some Americans came out of one building and saw us with our cases: "Sirena this way" came a call and they seemed to then disappear into a cliff face. We found an opening in the cliff and then found ourselves in some sort of cave with rows of seats and some crew from the ship who got us aboard in no time at all.
Miss Franny waits for the old limping crotchetty man with the walking stick as we make our way to the ship.
We got onto the ship twenty minutes early which was good going and went up to the top deck to get a view of Valletta.
Oceania is a new company to us, but is a subsidiary of NCL who we sailed with in 2024. I had been wondering whether it was the old Costa Sirena but no, it first sailed in 1999 for Renaissance Cruises who went bankrupt in 2001 and the ship was seized by creditors. It then sailed with Pacific Cruises first as Tahitian Princess then renamed to a less specific Ocean Princess in 2009. It joined Oceania in 2016 and had a $40M refurb before being renamed Sirena.
The ancient walls and buildings of Valletta. It is a strange mix of Italian and British, you can still find the odd red telephone kiosk knocking about yet the language they spreak is Italian in the main. But Malta is an island with a strong sense of pride and a George Cross from King George VI - the only one awarded to an entire population for bravery against the German forces in World War Two.
Sirena had a bar facing the bow and it was even called Horizons like the Marella ships Celebration and Spirit that we so loved and on Celebration sailed many times with our entertainer friends Tomas and Maris.
Speaking of whom - look who are onboard! I had hidden from them and then came out to say to Maris, "Hey! Give us a cuddle!"
She turned and said "Oh John..." then realised it was indeed me and not her imagination then "John! John!" and came to hug me and burst into tears. They were not far from my eyes too if I'm honest. Four and half years since being diagnosed with cancer - every meeting with them is a bonus and a joy.
So we'll finish with Maris's own photo of our surprise meeting! It was nice to see and wave to both Robert (Maris's husband) and Arlene (Tomas's wife) whilst they sang with their phones on face-to-face.
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