Gran Canaria

Monday 21 March 2005. We dock into Gran Canaria for our last day of cruising and take a coach excursion out for the morning.

Mogan is a gorgeous colourful village set around a harbour. Buildings are whitewashed but with touches of colour, there is lots of purple bougainvillea draped over alleyways and buildings and plenty of palm trees.

In the harbour are colourful boats and tropical fish of various colours whilst every now and then you catch sight of a razor-toothed barracuda. It was hot and the signs for fresh strawberries with cream and ice cream along with a tall glass of something cold and refreshing was just too much and we succumbed thankfully, sinking into seats at a table and letting ourselves be pampered.

The afternoon was spent lazing on the Pool Deck with waiters waiting and more temptations to tempt us. Ah, it's a hard life, but someone has to do it... Once we had had afternoon tea, more ice creams and an evening meal though, I stirred myself, shook myself, added a twist of lemon and trotted back off the ship to take a few photos after dark.

Although dark, it was still very warm and we walked all the way back to the entrance to the port and the small shopping precinct. Admittedly we weren't rushing but it took us a good five or ten minutes good hard strolling...

This would be our last night onboard the Carousel. She had been built as the Nordic Prince in 1971 for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, sold to Sun Cruises and renamed Carousel in 1995 and spent ten years with them. Although she had been sold to Louis Cruise Lines in 2004, she had been chartered back to Sun Cruises, her last cruise for them being in the May of 2005. She underwent another five name changes until, as the Pacific, she was decommissioned in 2014 and sent to India for ship breaking in 2015.

She was our introduction to cruising and this was our second trip on her. At time of writing (March 2023) we have taken 27 cruise holidays and loved every single one. With a new place to see and explore every day, it's an experience hard to beat.

The pool deck is practically deserted at night apart from the odd person walking off their meal. It's around 10:00pm.

Miss Franny wants a final go on the slot machines in the casino. I buy a fiver's worth of tokens and mainly watch as she gets through them. She gives me a handful and I wait for a machine to become empty and almost immediately win 70 pounds causing the woman who had just vacated it to stare venomously at me as tokens tinkle down into the tray. I cash them in smartish...

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Gran Canaria Sunshine

Saturday 5 April 2014. The Thomson Celebration docks in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria and we have a lazy start, trotting down the gangplank mid morning to go for a walk along the beach at Playa de Las Canteras on the opposite side of the short peninsular.

The walk takes us past lots of busy people setting up for some sort of fair or festival. Signs tell us that it is a Festival of the Sea and there are some snazzy looking boats being displayed. We'll take a closer look on our way back once the festival is properly up and running.

Having reached the beach around halfway along it, we turn right and walk slowly up almost to the end of the Promenade, taking in some of the strange and bewildering sights along the way. Not that there's anything strange and bewildering about Playa de Las Canteras - it's a great sandy beach with a few palm trees, a clean sea, lots of deck chairs and bars and shops all along the sea front.

It was more the antics of the "keep-fit" brigade who seem to haunt this stretch of beach that had us in stitches at times. Even if we ignore the blokes in lycra who jog desultorily along the Prom until they spot a good-looking girl on the beach and then stop opposite her to place one foot or hands against the sea railings and proceed to pretend they are stretching muscles, there were some really weird exercises going on...

One chap caught my attention by racing sideways along the beach near the sea's edge, doing starfish impersonations. He would do two side-steps facing the sea and then turn and do two side steps facing the Promenade, waving his arms up and down like a crab doing star jumps. He certainly was shifting though!

You could also tell where there was a topless sunbather by the small gatherings of blokes old enough to know better who congregated against the railings "looking out to sea"...

"God, she's not bothered, is she?" said Fran as one well-endowed girl bent over at right angles, to dry her hair after coming out of the sea, whilst at the same time doing a good impression of a four legged animal... By heck... time to move on and head back!

We stopped for a drink and I remembered that the Spanish word for orange is naranja, but they hadn't any anyway. They did have something that looked as though it was loaded with a few thousand E numbers, but it had mango and a few other ingredients. Miss Franny approved of it thankfully and I settled for a small beer.

We were going to walk all the way down the Promenade to the opposite end, but this was the first time I had worn sandals since last year and I could tell that my right foot was starting to rebel. We had passed the point where we joined the beach from the ship, but by then I had a blister and we decided to head back over the peninsular, getting slightly lost in the process but eventually coming out to somewhere recognisable.

By now the Festival of the Sea was in full swing and we stopped for a quick look. There were lots of sales people willing to tell you everything about their inflatables (ooh-er...) and rigid bottoms (even more ooh-er...) but a look at the price tags even allowing for the fact they were in Euros not sterling, made me decide quickly that a purchase was not feasible. Besides I'm not sure I could have convinced the Captain of Thomson Celebration to tow any purchase behind us for the week...

Meanwhile in the harbour there was even more activity going on. Small yachts were sailing to and fro and in the motor boat on the left a group of men with radio control sets were racing even smaller yachts around a set of bouys.

A crowd of enthusiastic youngsters were paddling kayaks up and down the harbour side, watched and cheered on by a few groups of onlookers, most of whom had no idea (like me) what they were doing. Just visible at the top of the photo is a small Spanish Naval gunboat that was open to visitors.

Several holidaymakers were joining the ship that day so it was late by the time we set sail again. We spent the afternoon enjoying our balcony and reading and then found Manny in the restaurant for our evening meal. Then we spent time in Horizons bar listening to Tom and Maris and chatting with them between sets.

Then we wrapped up a bit and went back on the balcony to watch as the officers on the bridge got ready to guide the ship away from the dock and out of the harbour to head overnight for our next destination, La Isla Bonita - La Palma.

Colourful Coasts Cruise Index

Last Stop Gran Canaria!

8 March 2004. Today is our last day on the MV Carousel as she sails on the Atlantic Isles cruise around the Canary Islands. Today we are visiting Gran Canaria.

We dock in the large port of the island's capital, Las Palmas. Then we are on a morning excursion today so we get onto a coach which takes us for a look at the Sahara-like dunes at Maspalomas - or as we say; just like St Annes near Blackpool!

Then we have some free time at a wonderfully picturesque little resort called Mogan. It's an absolute delight with a colourful harbour, whitewashed buildings but with colours running in vertical and horizontal lines over their architectural features. The harbour is ringed with bars and restaurants and colorful tropical fish are playing over the rocks on the bed of the harbour.

This is one of the most beautiful resorts in Europe I think and all this without a great heritage of grand buildings to bring people to it. We were reluctant to get back on the coach at the end of our 45 minutes there.

We arrived back at Las Palmas to find an older two-funnel cruise ship moored in front of the Carousel.

We had lunch onboard and then decided to get off the ship again for the afternoon and walk into Las Palmas.

Las Palmas forms a peninsula and so by walking in a straight line from the port, in fifteen minutes we crossed from one coast to the other and found ourselves at this beach - Playa de las Canteras. We found a couple of people from our dinner table and spent a while chatting. A signpost was reading the temperature - 34 degrees! It was warm and we needed a drink. I could count up to five in Spanish and say "please" and "thank you" (and thanks to John Wayne "Where is the booty?"...) so we wandered into a shop and I asked for "Dos Coca-Cola por favor?" feeling ridiculously pleased with myself until a stream of unintelligable Spanish came back at me. We were in a Burger King and Coke came in three sizes...

The Carousel was our first taste of cruising and we were undoubtedly hooked! Since that first cruise in 2004 we have cruised every year, looking on it as a great way to wake up in a different place every day, have a choice of going looking at places or relaxing on the ship and with all food free of charge, it's not as expensive an option as many think.

Return to Atlantic Islands Cruise 2004 Index