Back in the Med!

Hello Everyone,

It is great to be back in the Mediterranean after our two one week cruises. I love two week cruises as they have a particular rhythm to them – passengers get into a very relaxed mode from day one, with two sea days on the way to Gibraltar to explore the ship and rest up and be ready to enjoy their ports of call.

The weather has been with us once AGAIN – and we are grateful for that, in fact it has been just as good if not better than in the high summer – unbelievable. I did go for a walk in Gibraltar which was not too crowded as we were the only ship in port.

In Cartagena I was ashore for lunch with Dee Taylor, Deputy Cruise Director and International Comedian and Singer Mike Doyle – what a great time we enjoyed and on the way back to the ship we gathered up many more friends and enjoyed a coffee on the dock side before boarding OCEANA.

Civitavecchia and Livorno was very busy for us with the usual high number of passengers on tour to Rome and Florence and surrounding areas. In Civi we had the ARCADIA berthed in beside us so it was good to catch up with friends and colleagues. We arranged a football team from each ship and I can report that OCEANA TEAM won 5 – 4 with the last goal scored in the last minute of the game.

Monte Carlo was a boating port as usual - when we are at anchor and use the ship's tenders. The sea was smooth and very comfortable transfers for our passengers. Again another beautiful day and the more our passengers hear about the weather back in the UK the more they love it here – can’t blame them really.

At Barcelona Carol Marlow arrived on board – Carol was to be here earlier in the year however her flight was delayed. Carol sailed to Cadiz with us and spent a lot of time talking to passengers and ship’s company alike. Carol also did a presentation in the Footlights Theatre and spoke at the Portunus Cocktail parties. We had some special day visitors also; Philip Price, Head of Brand Marketing; Stuart Greenfield, Head of Marine Services; and Denise Robinson Assistant Product Manager, Food & Beverage and Hotel. Denise used to be a Food and Beverage Manager at sea with us. In the afternoon we had more excitement with our celebrity Chef Marco Pierre White and Mike Monahan – Culinary Manager arriving on board. Marco and Mike will be with us until Southampton.

Yesterday in Cadiz it was another scorcher of a day! I have met some fantastic passengers and many blog readers! You would be surprised when and where people read the blog!!! I was in the deck 5 Galley around 1130 yesterday morning and Marco was cooking – trying out some new recipes – I felt as if I was on a TV set – all good fun and I will get some photographs and post them on this blog.

Another couple of days at sea and we will once again be back in our home port of Southampton. The weeks are flying past and every day I say when things quieten down we will do this or that – but I have a wonderful team to work with on board OCEANA and we enjoy what we do. In this day and age I am very privileged to be doing a job that I love.

Best wishes,
James.


Every single day great things are done by ordinary people.