Friday 14 June 2013

PO Artemis Final Cruise April 2011

Artemis P102 The Final Final Chapter of Arty with P&O ( The Little Ship With a Big Heart ) 

The Ship 
Artemis, is now a Senior Lady, in ships terms, and is showing her age, but still has a welcoming atmosphere. I know she has lots and lots of fans in P&O passengers, as was showed, by this cruise selling out in under 20 minutes.  But as with all things in life, nothing stands still, and change is inevitable, and I'm sure Adonia will some become as popular as Artemis.  

The Crew 
As always, P&O's biggest asset, I think there were even more smiles, as it is the end of contract for a  lot of the staff, so they were looking forward to going home. I was also surprised by the number of staff that recognised us from the Christmas Cruise.  
WELL DONE TO ALL.  

Food 
We ate exclusively in the Coral Dining room on 1st sitting with a table of 8. I have read so many examples of people having, how shall we say, not too pleasant dining companions, but once again I can say we had an excellent table, with lots of laughter every evening. The food itself, has been the normal  P&O fayre, but with special note to the roast beef, it was excellent.  

Entertainment 

Liz Dawn & Sherrie Hewson, we did not go to see them, so cannot comment.  

Lionel Blair 
Well, we have just left Lionel's "Chat and Tap" show, and I think the best way to describe the show, was that there were several standing ovations at the end.  
Lionel talked about his life and who he had worked with, interspersed  with a bit of song and dance. Good old fashioned variety. Well worth seeing it if you get a chance.  
Well Lionel must have made an impression, as here we are on Sunday morning waiting for his interview with the Cruise Director. I'll update afterwards. 
Have now seen the show, still very entertaining, but I preferred the chat and tap.  


Kenneth Vard, only went to see him the once with his Titanic talk, but thought he was excellent.  
Have had to change this part, as we are now sitting waiting for a presentation by Ken, A tribute to Royal Princess - Artemis 1984 - 2011, so more to follow.   
And yes I do write these blogs on the go, and it's all down to my iPad, which is so portable, I carry it around all the time when on board. 
Well, that was a moving presentation by Ken, covering the early years of the Royal Princess, and then the years that Ken has been onboard Artemis as a presenter , having done the Maiden, and now the farewell cruise, and many more in between. Ken is a consummate presenter, and worth seeing whatever the subject.   

Sunshine Band ( Duo ) 
Excellent duo, very easy listening 

Headliners 
I have been very impressed, that even after a one year contract, their shows are still fresh and full of energy, even though we saw most of these shows at Chistmas, it was well worth seeing again, and for me have been the highlight of the evening entertainment.  
As an add on, the Headliners performed the Old Bull and Bush last night (Saturday ) was a show we had not seen before, and we thought is was excellent. It was such a pity that some members of the audience thought it was fine to disturb the performance, by getting up and leaving before the end, so that they could get a "prime" seat for the show in Starlights.  

Quizzes  
We do like quizzes, with the exception of the Syndicate quiz, which we find too laborious.  
Three wins for us, was a very good result, and the quizzes have been varied in their subject matter, so a big tick, to the organisers of the quizzes.  
We did the Music quiz last night ( Saturday ), but the least said about that the better, as we did not fare well at all.  

Musical Festival at Sea 
When we booked the cruise, we did not know it was a Musical Festival at Sea. This would not have stopped us booking, but it held no "pull" for us, so after the first show, we did not attend any more. That said, those of the passengers that like that style of music, and attended the shows, spoke very highly of the performances.  

Ports of call 
We had been to all of the ports before, with the exception of Sorrento, which in itself was a pleasant surprise, and Alicante, where we enjoyed  a walk along the prom . I suppose the only disappointment was Barcelona, and that was only due to the weather.  

Conclusion  
Well, have we enjoyed the cruise, Oh yes, did P&O make it "special" as it was a farewell cruise ? Well if they did, it must have passed me by.  Am I glad I did the final cruise, yes. Would I have taken the offer from P&O that lots of passengers were talking about to give up their ticket OH YES. 

So, thank you all for joining Sue and myself on this cruise, and for reading the blogs, for those of you that have not read it, you don't know what you missed :-) 

A big thank you also to Sue, who has been my Editor in Chief, reviewing blog before I posted it to remove my typos and spelling mistooks ( she missed that one )  

As an aside it's now Sunday morning, and you can tell we are in the bay as overnight it has been VERY lumpy, with lots of banging and crashing. With still a bit of a swell today, and lots of people hanging on as they walk around the ship. And "the bags" are out.  

If I have not bored you too much, I will be blogging again in October as Sue and I take our first trip to the Caribbean on Arcadia  

And so, it's the end for Atremis in P&O colours.  

Artemis is dead, long live Adonia

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