Catching up with last year!! The Cruise Part I.

Looking back, we seem to have had such a busy year in 2013, with so many days literally sailing by without a post! I want to return now to those days and catch up first with the fantastic cruise that we enjoyed in May. I apologise for the fact that the next few posts will have little to do with the Charente, but I promise that we will return there before long! I hope that meanwhile you enjoy the break as much as we did.

Our May holiday began in Carcassonne and the surrounding area with friends, and then we went on to Barcelona, where we  met up with our very good friend Gunter, who had arranged the cruise for us.  He had sent us an email earlier in the year, to say that the ship he was working on as Hotel Director (second in command only to the captain!), would be based in Barcelona during the summer months and would we like to join him??!!  Now, how could we possibly say "no" to an offer like that!?  To cut a long story short, he met us at the dockside on Sunday morning 19 May, where we found ourselves quickly taken through the customs and security procedures and whisked upwards by lift to our magnificent top deck double deluxe stateroom (with balcony!)  on the Royal Caribbean liner, Liberty of the Seas.

A few facts about the ship that may interest some of you :-

Registry: Bahamas

Built: Kvaerner Masa-Yards, Turku Finland 

Maiden Voyage: May 19, 2007 

Gross Tonnage: 154,407 GRT Length: 1,112 feet Width: 185 feet Draft: 28 feet Speed: 21.6 knots cruising speed

No of Decks: 15 passenger decks  No of Elevators: 14 passenger elevators  Guest Capacity: 3,634 guests (double occupancy)  Guest Capacity: 4,375 guests (total)  No of Crew: 1,360 crew

All in all, those statistics spell massive!!; we had never experienced anything like it. The guest capacity represents the equivalent of 10 large European hotels!

A view of the liner taken from a ferry, when we stopped off a few days later in Villefranche.

Below are some photos of our suite.

Our bedroom

The lounge

En suite with full bath and shower!

Our private balcony.

A large bowl of fruit and a bottle of bubbly greeted us as we walked through the door!

Rainstorms over Barcelona as we set sail from the quayside.

and also out at sea!

The Blue bridge - well mostly blue, but at times it changed to all the colours of the rainbow.

The main dining room.

The main reception desk. To describe the décor as lavish is an understatement!

The Royal Promenade.

Leaving port in the late afternoon that day, we sailed overnight, to find on waking up on our second day, we were docked at Toulon on the south coast of France, near Marseilles! We did not leave the liner here as we felt this was a place close enough that we could drive to when we wanted; also because the weather was quite cool for May, we decided to spend the day exploring the ship, and great excitement that night of dinner at the captain's table.  Watch this space to see  part II of the cruise.