Why we Cruise

Whilst I was posting yesterdays blog, it reminded of the following blog.

P&O used to have James Cusick, Executive Purser of Arcadia (in those days) write a blog for P&O ( and very good he was to), they sometime had "guests", Carol Marlow contributed to the blog.

At the end of 2010 P&O ask for passengers to write a blog and "guest" on James's blog

Well, mine got accepted, and I think it went live either Christmas day or Boxing day, whilst we was on the Artemis cruise you read about yesterday.

So here it is.............

Well I made it, but how do I stand in the shoes of such greats as James, Nigel and Carol, well the answer is I can’t, but I will try my best, so here goes….

Sue and I started cruising in 1998, and as a lot of folk say “It’s a one off holiday of a lifetime, we will never do it again", but we did.

Yes, we were well and truly bitten. We missed 2000 due to a family bereavement, but by 2001, we were back in the saddle, and this time with the old Arcadia (aka Ocean Village as was) to the Western Med with Captain Hamish Reid, one of the best Captains I have sailed with, such humour, and a real gent.

From then, barring 2004 to 2006 (the dreaded redundancy) we have managed to have at least one cruise per year, and have been lucky enough to sail on all of the current P&O Cruises fleet.

Our last P&O Cruises holiday was on the maiden cruise of Azura, a first for us as we had never “done” a maiden before. Now I’m not overly keen on the larger ships, I much prefer the medium size ships (Oriana is my favourite). But I have to say we had a wonderful time, even when Malaga was closed due to the weather, although a great alternative was found the next day at Palma. A fuller insight for those not having “done” a maiden can be found at my blog on the community site - and my photos are below.

I think many of colleagues at work think I’m obsessed with cruising, as it's one of my main topics of conversation. “What’s so good about a cruise ?” they ask.

My answer is always, a cruise is whatever you want it to be, it can be very busy, or you can just sit on the deck and watch the world go by, and everything in between.

You can dress for dinner if you want, or go on a more informal cruise, there really is a cruise destination, and cruise ship for ALL tastes out there.

Well, did I make it to the blog ? if you are reading this, then we will be at sea on Artemis for her Christmas cruise. Thinking about that statement, even if you’re not reading this, we will still be on the cruise.

So if I have not bored you too much, I will be blogging from Artemis, as we have never been away before at Christmas, so even after all these years, there are still “firsts” to have.

I do feel privileged to have been able to cruise and see such wonderful sights, from the Arctic circle and Russia to the wonders of Greece and the Acropolis, and Ephesus in Turkey and everything in between. These are sights that I am sure I would have never seen on any land based holiday. We have also met some great people, some of which after many years we still keep in touch with.

Thank you all for joining me in this blog, and….

Happy Cruising

Ray & Sue

PS and a special thanks to James for allowing me to “share his space”, and for all his blogs that I, and I am sure many others, read with great joy.