Well we`re back, and well and truly exhausted! The cruise was lovely - although pretty tiring with the kids. We went on the mv Athena - a newly refurbished ship recently purchased by Travelscope. Its a beautiful ship - small and very modern, although it actuall 60 years old and has had many different names.
Anyway, we got off to quite a bad start - Mum forgot the passports and I had to make a mad dash home to get them at 2.45 in the morning. Luckily, we got on the coach just on time. The journey down to Falmouth was horrendous and took eleven and a half hours - loads of pickups on the way, so we were shattered when we got onbooard about two thirty the next afternoon.
We had two cabins between us - me Tony and Evie in one and Mum, Phil and Ellie in the other. The cabins were gorgeous, nice and spacious with good bathrooms and plenty of warbrobe space. After a rest, we unpacked and settled in and went for evening meal and braced ourselves for going through the Bay of Biscay. Suprisingly, it wasnt too bad, although we had a bit of choppy weather on the way home.
Christmas was fantastic - the night before, there was a carol service and midnight mass, and on christmas morning we got loads of champagne while we watched Father christmas give presents to all the kids - even the teenagers like Phil. - much to his mortification. The we all sang christmas songs and had a good laugh.
After lunch, we moored in Gibralta, and had an afternoon there, browsing round the shops, although a lot of the shops were closed cos it was christmas day. The whole day was lovely - as was New Year.
New Years Eve we were in beautiful Maderia - I think this was the best port of all - and we had a lovely afternoon here. So hot too. Then later, after evening meal and
the nightly show, we all went onto the deck with endless glasses of champagne and watched the most incredible firework display. Apparently, its going in next years guiness book of records as the biggest firework diplay ever - costing over 1 and a half million. I`ve never seen anything like it. As the fireworks went off, we sang Auld Lange Syne and we all cheered and hugged and kissed each other. Even the Captain came round to chat with all the passengers and the atmosphere was fantastic. Then there was a disco till the early hours - although we didnt stay up too late cos of the kids.
We also went to Casablanca (quite scary) Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Lanzerote and Vigo. Vigo wasnt so warm but the canaries were lovely and warm - around 29 degrees, although we only spent one day on the beach as there was so much else to do. The kids had a great time and the girls got a fuss made of them. There wasnt many kids and teens of the ship, being mostly older people, but the staff were lovely and made sure they had a great time. There was only around a ten teens on the ship and less little ones. Phil moaned a bit, but disappeared every night with the other teeneagers who all got friendly, and he`s keeping in touch with some lads he met on the ship. Oh, and the specail guest on the ship was Norman Wisdom who is now nearly 92, but what a lovely man. We all got our photos took with him and he`s still as lively and funny as ever.
Theres so much more to say about the holiday, but I dont want to ramble too much more, but I will post some photos later hopefully.
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