Good Day Everyone

I flew to Barbados on the 25 November to join Aurora 26 November and I will be on board until Honolulu on the 1 February 2012. Aurora is currently 13 nights into her 36 Night Caribbean and Panama Canal Cruise from Southampton - it's longer than a leg of the Round World Cruise! Our big sister ship Azura was also in port and as I had never been on board this was a great opportunity to visit my good friend and colleague Executive Purser Kathy Jones. Bless Kathy, even thought it was a turnaround day for Azura Kathy insisted  in giving me a tour of the whole ship - it took us two hours non stop and we covered all passenger and crew areas of the ship! Azura is beautiful - big but in a nice way and it will be a great ship to do the 2013 Round World Cruise on - especially for those of you who are still working  would like to be more adventurous, doing  a fly cruise  leg of the Round World Cruise and see some new and fascinating far flung places! I can now say I have been in Brodies, The Glass House, Seventeen, Sindu and all the other places that our passengers keep raving to me about when they talk about Azura - I can now say I have been there!

I was most impressed with the Glass House on Azura provides a warm and welcoming space in which to relax a while. Divine dishes such as Hampshire Lamb with Rosemary, Homemade Sausages with Grain Mustard Mash, and Prime North Atlantic Cod Fillet in Cider Batter will satisfy the gastronome in us, while the wine menus, complete with tasting notes compiled by wine expert Olly Smith, will appeal to the connoisseurs and quaffers alike. Olly surfed the world to pick out 32 unique wines for Azura's Glass House.

Kathy and James enjoy a glass of Peller! Canadian Sparking Wine....

The last part of anything good and happy is always tinged with sadness, not because you want to keep it going but because of the happiness and joy created, shared and memories that will last a lifetime! It has been a great challenge for me to write the first blog for P&O Cruises and I would like to thank Philip Price our Marketing Director for entrusting me to do so at the time - some three years ago when I was Executive Purser on board Arcadia. Since then there have been some great blog posting and for me the greatest pleasure was sharing the magical moments of P&O Cruising with you and capturing the 'unforgettable moments' of travel and milestones in people's lives - both passengers and ship's company. I have leaned so much more about the ports of call and the countries we have visited, hopping on shuttle buses, waving down taxis, taking shore excursions, walking on foot - you name it we were there! . I enjoyed capturing the atmosphere and architecture of many places with my digital camera, following by the task of sifting through them to get the best ones, resize them and get them loaded up via the internet onto the blog, getting them positioned correctly and in some sort of reasonable order - this is not a fast process! Finding the words was never difficult for me and they just roll off my mind as I type at my office computer. It is great to know that so many of you loved the passion for cruising that came through in my reports and in this world of gloomy news reports I always endeavoured to keep the blog 'light' and lively. I enjoyed reading you messages and even replying to them! 

As will most of us in the work place there are more demands on our time than ever and after three years I realised that I could not keep on giving the blog the same amount of time that it really needed from me, as in my exciting role of Executive Purser you just never know what the day will bring that will put extra demands on my time. Many of my colleague EP's marvelled that I could do it at all! Of course I could not have done it without the support of my colleagues and in particular people like Port Presenter Graham Howell, and Eileen Mann who were my roving reporters on the Round World Cruises and Grand Voyages - we had great camaraderie as we gather the information to write the blog posts. I never thought of myself as a travel writer before! Where would we be without our loyal followers and regular comments from Elaine ( Aururabore), Geoff Witts in Perth WA, Allan Gebbie ( whom I bumped into on board Azura!! - hello to all the Gebbie Clan in Troon) and Mary K to name and............the list is endless....! My thanks also to all the other people who filled in along the way, Nigel, Jo and Graham to name a few.....

Good bye www.jamescusick.co.uk - it's been fun. Looking forward to the new style blog for P&O Cruises at www.discoverpocruises.co.uk. Here everyone both ship and shore will be contributing to postings, telling you their own stories, and sharing special moments with you to keep up your excitement, and keep you booking a P&O Cruises Holiday! I know you all like to know about the inside view of life at sea on board our ships  and 'behind the scenes' in our shoreside office. Good Luck www.discoverpocruises.co.uk.

Best wishes,

James

'Everything you do can be done better from a place of relaxation'

Thursday 27th October 2011 – Palermo

Hello from the island of Sicily and in particular the city of Palermo once regarded as Europe’s most dazzling and grandest city.

On a whistle stop tour of the centre of the city any visitor should not miss seeing the Corso Vittorio Emanuele and the huge cathedral or Duomo. Although it has been modified many times over the years, but is still a good example of Sicily’s unique Arab-Norman style.

Dragging yourself away we walk onto to see the elegant Piazza Pretoria, home to the beautifully ornate Pretoria Fountain. This fountain was created by Florentine sculptors in the 16th century and was nick named the Fountain of Shame because of the nude statues.

Recently the fountain has undergone an extensive restoration which is now complete and the whole ensemble is wonderful to see and photograph.

In the Piazza Bellini can be found Palermo’s favourite wedding venue, the fabulous church of La Martorana. Probably one of the most interesting features of the building is the bell tower.

I decided to escort one of our organised tours to the Corvo Winery that is around 50 minutes from Palermo. The winery is situated in the village of Casteldaccia.

Among the best of all the wines on the island are from Corvo and this winery dates back to 1824. The guided tour of the winery included a visit to the little museum that has plenty of traditional Sicilian agricultural items alongside photographs. Continuing with the visit to the winery itself we saw the Slovenian and French oak barrels that were full of the glorious wines that were maturing.

Of course after the visit enjoyed tasting two of the labels of wine and a Marsala wine together with delicious snacks of Sicilian origin.

These are fine wines and the passengers certainly enjoyed their tastings and many then bought some of the wines from the shop.

Whilst out and about the streets of Palermo some of the passengers found other items of Sicilian interest to buy such as the puppets which even today are a Sicilian speciality, beautifully hand crafted and modelled on an original collection of 300 built at the turn of the century by a local craftsman.

I really enjoyed the day here in Palermo and the sun shone for us which added to the overall charm of the place and the people.

We now look forward to calm seas for our sail back towards our home port of Southampton. In many ways to cruise to the Mediterranean at this time of year is a prospect that some will reject as the sun has lost some of its power but on the other hand with less crowds and superb sunsets to enjoy it may be just the sort of tonic we all need before the winter months.

Graham Howell