Sailing to Malta

A day at Sea!

Pool Deck

Last evening we pulled out from Ibiza followed by the pilot boat, who would take the pilot off the ship once we were out in open waters. This was the start of our 661 nautical mile journey to our next stop, Malta. This will take over 36 hours at sea. Our private veranda has been great as we were able to stand out there and watch as we left. It was 11 pm but the city was full of lights. As we had mentioned the sky became pretty overcast in the afternoon and by this time there was a spectacular lightning storm with lots of activity over the island. As soon as we got around the cement breakwater at the dock the rough seas hit us. Didn’t bother us too much as we were getting into bed anyway. During the night you could feel some definite rocking. The captain had issued a warning about watching your step, etc. in the heavy seas. Apparently this is pretty common on this stretch of waters.

Before we headed on the cruise we had heard from one “cruiser” how boring it was and how tired they were of waiting for the elevators. We are now into our third day and have not used the elevator yet. If we keep walking the stairs it may help with all the lovely meals not all going straight to our waists! As for activities, every evening when Freddy, our cabin steward turns down the bed  - complete with chocolate on our pillows –he leave a US and Canadian newspapers (he knows we are Canadian and has added this to his duties) he also leave a four page paper entitled “The Current”. In this there are pages of activities you can take part in – mini golf, driving range, crochet, shuffleboard, table tennis, paddle tennis, guest lectures, photography lessons, sewing lessons, fashion shows and the list goes on. There are also 24 hour movies on your stateroom TV if you find you just want to veg out. We seem to be missing a lot of it as we just can’t fit is all in. No boredom here for us. We have barely found time to just sit on the veranda and watch the sea and birds. No sign of other ships at all today.

Relaxing on our veranda

Around noon there was a message from the captain that the seas have now settled to 8 foot swells. Wonder what it was earlier as we rocked away in our beds? Indeed there were some green-gilled individuals in the halls this morning. The bed is very comfortable and we are sleeping well. It could be the 1000 count linens contributing.

This afternoon we attended our pasta cooking class in the Culinary Center. We had to don hats and aprons and proceeded to make our own pasta from scratch and a walnut/sage sauce as well as pasta salad all under the direction of the two chefs on board. After sampling all our makings we decided on a late dinner – the class ended at 5 pm. 

Pasta class

This was followed by the Captain’s cocktail party where we were introduced to Captain Resso, a diminutive Italian - maybe 5’2” or so. Please no jokes about Italian cruise ship captains! This evening we took in “Groovin”: an oldies live stage show with many of the tunes of our childhood (OK teenage years. . . OKAY young adulthood!). Most (90%?) of our fellow passengers are around our age. There is some sort of entertainment every evening, often by members of the crew and we plan to take it all in.

We have been going to the Grand Dining Room every evening as the serving size is perfect versus the buffet where you keep thinking you should sample it all. The food is phenomenal though Doug still keeps raving about the pasta he had our first night being the best meal so far.

Grand Staircase