A Night in Valetta and a Day Onboard

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.

Index to come...

Mykonos and Athens for a Flight Home

It's Tuesday 27 August 2024. The ship anchors off Mykonos and the sore leg that has been plaguing me all week is inflamed and angry (angry? It's livid!) and we decide reluctantly not to go ashore. Seldom have we spent so many days on a ship with so few days' outings but we have to fly home tomorrow and then it will be off to the doctor's for me to have it looked at.

At least we have a good view of the town from where we are anchored. NCL Pearl is sending people ashore via tender boat and with other ships sending their boats to the more central pier, it would leave us having to walk that bit further to get into town.

Sadly the prospect of a drink sitting outside Zorbas bar will have to wait for a future visit. But there's an opportunity for the sketchpad to come out again, though the scene with the many white flat-roofed buildings presents its own challenges. There's the row of "mop-haired" windmills and the slope that goes up past Zorbas into the shopping streets. And further towards the left, off the side of this view, the beach area with its line of other bars, at one of which I learned my Greek word for "thank you". And there's the street where my mate walked in the middle of the road oblivious to the delivery van behind him trying to get past... Illnesses and injuries willing, we'll be back!

Then a last night for this cruise with Tom and Maris, lots of hugs and kisses as we say goodbye. The bar staff shouted out their goodbyes too - we had become known to them as "the coffee couple" due to our daily visits to the Starbucks counter in the atrium!

And so the cruise ends on Wednesday 28 August as we board a coach at Piraeus, the port for Athens and are taken to the airport. The photo shows us with Tom and Maris one night as we had a meal together.

The journey to the airport is easy and efficient but as we get our boarding passes we are told that our second flight from Munich to Manchester is overbooked and we are on standby and not guaranteed to be on it. "Once you get there, go to the gate as soon as possible and they will be able to tell you if they can give you seats." Otherwise it will be a case of waiting for a later flight.

So we get to Munich and bearing in mind the nightmare of the outward journey when we found ourselves having gone the wrong way and had to go through security a second time, we asked for and followed directions which involved going on a train between terminals. Thankfully we were in the right place. Despite breakfast having been at the UK equivalent of 4:00am we had to dash past all of the main food outlets to get to the departure gate where we were subject to the added stress of the chap's computer taking forever to log him in. Then with relief we were allocated seats. I would be on the emergency door row and Fran seated behind me.

By now there wasn't time to go back to the food outlets but there was a W H Smiths nearby so feasting on a tub of Pringles, we got on the plane where I was told that because I used a walking stick I couldn't sit on the emergency door row and ended up sitting next to Fran instead. This meant someone else came along thinking I'd nicked their seat of course but the stewardess had stayed nearby to sort this out and there was another single passenger willing to move so the other couple got to sit together as well.

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Hidden Gems Cruise - Final Night and Maris's Birthday

Monday 23 September 2019. A busy afternoon onboard the Marella Dream, packing all our stuff into suitcases ready for the trip home tomorrow. We still had a final evening to look forward to.

It was Maris's birthday. So we were treating her and Tomas to dinner in the ship's Mistrals restaurant. One of three speciality restaurants, there is a small cover charge for the food but it is well worth the price as the food and service are both wonderful.

But first there's time to get settled and pull funny faces...

Or slightly more serious faces... The meal started with an aperitif - "What do you mean, waiter? I've still got most of my own..." This was a cauliflower tempura, a small cauliflower floret encased in batter and served with a sprinkling of chopped chives.

Starters included a prawn cocktail with mini lobster-type thing on top. Maris said it was just a big prawn...

...and then tried to make things up in case she had hurt its feelings...

Massive chunk of steak topped with dressed crab meat and hollandaise sauce with small salad on the side and side dishes of fries and mushrooms. Yum!

Maris went for full-grown lobster. Tomas mixed lobster and salmon fillet. Miss Franny also had steak but without the trimmings - she doesn't do vegetables or anything remotely green...

Maris received an extra dessert! Everybody in the restaurant all sang Happy Birthday to her, which was a nice moment.

Fran and I had a sampler dessert, with small portions of three different scrumptious sweetie stuffs!

A quick coffee and then its time for Tomas and Maris to go to work, singing in Tides Bar.

My backing vocalists were trying out their choreography tonight! After a week onboard I was struggling with the air-con drying out my throat which limits my range. I sang Doo-Wah-Diddy-Diddy which meant I could leave several lines to the audience!

As my last song of the cruise I sang Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire which has no high notes for me to struggle with! And it went down very well too!

We ended the night as always with a late night (early morning!) coffee in the Lido restaurant with Tomas and Maris and then the sad business of saying goodbye to these two lovely people until the next time we meet.

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Hidden Gems Cruise - Tides Bar, Water's Edge and Palamos

A short one this time starting with our evening on Saturday , 21 September 2019.

We spent the night (as we always do when 2 Intense are onboard) in Tides Bar, listening to Tomas and Maris do their thing. They knock the socks off any other act I've ever seen on a ship.

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With a friendship going back nine years now, I usually get invited to do a couple of songs a night. I don't take this for granted and it's a privilege to be able to do it. Tonight my two numbers are an instrumental: Wonderful Land, originally by The Shadows and Roy Orbison's Penny Arcade

Sunday, 22 September 2019. We were due to be in Sète in France today, but Captain Steve has been keeping an eye on some bad weather and as it is hovering around Sète and added to the fact that there are limited tugs available in Sète in terms of both numbers and power, we are diverted to Palamos in Spain.

We have been to Palamos before and it has a small centre with shops and a great beach. But it is Sunday so most of the shops are closed except for those catering to the cruise and tourism trade. We have a long walk up the sea front and there are several of these old cannon set in a framework of curved white walls. We sat on a bench and I sketched as best I could, whilst people stood in front of the gun and kids climbed on it. From the state of them I'd hazard a guess that they have been lifted from the sea bed at some considerable time since they fell there! It's our sixth day out of seven on the cruise and we are both ready to fall asleep... We made our way back to the ship and spent the afternoon doing just that for a couple of hours! Going on holiday should be restful? What a strange thing to contemplate, ha ha!

Anyway we are back up, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for another night in Tides. My two for tonight are another Shads tune Shindig and then Gerry Rafferty's Stuck In The Middle With You.

Tomas and Maris finish their set and we head for the Water's Edge bar where Tri-Vibe persuade Maris to do a number.

Tomas, meanwhile, is showing off his new handbag...

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Barcelona

Monday, 20 May 2019. Our last port of call for this Mediterranean Medley cruise is Barcelona. Marella Dream docks away from our usual spot opposite the statue of Columbus and we will need to take a shuttle bus to that area before we can have a wander.

We've done Las Ramblas, we've done the outside of La Familia Sagrada, we've done the Gaudi park and houses and we've done the aquarium. We've even done the bike ride (just the once!) so this time we are going to walk round the harbour over the swing bridge and just take things easy.

There's enough going on to keep us amused and there's a variety of ships and boats for us to look at. This is a training ship. It looked as though they were taking on a new crew as we walked past it.

An outdoor restaurant and bar at the side of the training ship. It soothes the nerves of the instructors after a voyage...

The obligatory arty-farty photo of the cruise. A bit of a stench was building up. Ah... it's the refuse truck come to empty the bins!

There were a few large yachts amongst the private craft in the harbour area. No doubt some were biding time before heading off to Monte-Carlo for the Monaco Grand Prix the following weekend. I would have been too, but I'd told the gardener to take the yacht home...

We went all the way round the harbour to find the far end full of fake goods sales people. Notices on poles warned that you could be fined for buying from them. There's no way for the police to stop this trade other than that. They have lookouts and there are so many of them that you'd need hundreds of men to be able to contain them and then what would you do with them? They just gather their goods up in the blankets on which they are displayed and dodge round corners until any police have gone past.

We stopped for a slush drink each from a cafe. Miss Franny had strawberry and I had lemon. It was very warm and pleasant sitting outside drinking it. Whilst we were there a bright green parakeet flew just over our heads and sat in a tree behind us for a few minutes before making us duck again as it came back and disappeared off in the distance.

We came back to our starting point and I made myself sit near the swing bridge and draw the sailing ship seen at the top of this page. A French family came to sit next to us on the bench. They had cooked meats and breadsticks which they shared round with each other and a growing collection of seagulls which made me a bit wary. I kept my cap pulled down...

Then it was back to the bus for the return trip to the ship. There were a lot of Italians at the bus stop and it was a bit before I realised that the buses served more than one ship. Ours would be the third of four stops along the dock. As we passed over the bridge onto the dock the Volcan de Tinamar, a Ro-Ro ferry was just leaving port. From what I can gather she usually sails for Armas between the islands of the Canaries. She was built in 2011.

We spent the afternoon packing - otherwise known as "throwing stuff in the suitcases". It would be a late night as we spent our last evening with Tomas and Maris, Bob and Anne and Eric and Jean. A glance out of the window showed that there was a fittingly superb sunset for our last night onboard Marella Dream.

For my last song of the cruise I played Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow. "Will you?" I asked cheekily with a grin at Maris. She nodded. "All tomorrow..." she confirmed. And seeing as we had to leave the ship first thing in the morning, she knew she was on safe ground...

Anne's photo of us all from the previous night. We'll be back on Marella Dream and with Tomas and Maris later on in the year.

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Venetian Vistas Cruise Final Night

Wednesday 26 September 2018. It is the final night of our cruise and, having come on an early flight, our return flight is also early. We have to be off the ship by 07:15.

We have a full evening planned - dinner with Tomas and Maris and then singing in Horizons, so the afternoon is spent packing as (sob!). Off the ship for 07:15...? Yikes, will we have got to bed by then?

But we are packed apart from the clothes we are wearing (and a few for tomorrow!) when it comes time to head to the Kora La speciality restaurant for our celebration dinner with Tomas and Maris.

This restaurant provides both Indian and Chinese styles of cooking and we are in for a treat.

A small pot of tiny cubed melon and pineapple serves as a mouth freshener.

Miss Franny nods off for a while... I think she was just in ecstasy at the food, of course!

Ah yes... I was there too! Some exotic flavours and a lovely meal to celebrate Maris's birthday and our friendship which has so far spanned nine years.

Then there's a few last songs to sing - tonight's repertoire includes Billy Fury's Wondrous Place and my sing-a-long for the evening is Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.

Then a late night catch up with King in the Lido as we have to say goodbye until our next cruise with these talented people. King gives Miss Franny a hug, "Goodbye Mommy!" he jokes. Bye for now folks. Catch you again as soon as we can!

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