COSTA DIADEMA 1st November 2014, Part 7

Part 7

Wednesday 5th November 2014
We arrived at 8 a.m. in Valletta, Malta G.C., under a glorious blue sky with warm sunshine, so I disembarked quickly and enjoyed walking along the quayside in both directions enjoying the views of this bay and city skyline.

Costa Diadema in Valletta

Ocean Princess nearby

Another interesting sight

Three bows and one little stern

Stern view

Nautical Tide was in


Again, we are only in port for a few hours so I was happy to get back on board and sit under the open roof of the Magrodome Lido area up on Deck 10 and enjoy the peace and quiet.

The open Magrodome and Lido seen from the depths of an extremely comfortable sofa


At 11 a.m. it was Quiz time in the Card room and we felt there should be English representation! We three probably made up a quarter of the competitors for the event but one of my companions managed to win the Geography Quiz prize – hooray. We have become so used to being shouted at by the female Cruise Director at shows to “APPLAUD” that we looked around to check if she was there. She wasn’t of course but everyone present clapped and congratulated the winner as he was handed his prize.

After an early lunch it was time to watch departure from Valletta and the Grand Harbour. I always enjoy seeing the upper Gardens and of course the huge Bell Tower and the Operation Pedestal Memorial for the 1940-43 siege of Malta commemorating the relief of the island (see my blog piece ‘Horizon Part 5, July 2012’, for more details).

Ocean Princess, Santa Maria (bunker) and a local gondola

Karol Wojtyla and the man painting the top of the pole

Bell Tower

Goodbye Valletta


The afternoon was spent on our favourite aft Deck 5 seating, enjoying the temperature and the light, and the newly established Bar Service.

Dinner was good and then it was time for this evening’s show of ‘Kings and Queens of Pop’. It was spectacular and so loud that the sound engineer must have been a very happy man. I think the Freddie Mercury number ‘We are the Champions’ was the hit of the evening as we all sang along and loved it. I did wonder why they didn’t make that the closing number and end on a high. The applause for that number and all of the show was tremendous and well-deserved, but still the female Cruise Director shouted at us all to applaud as she returned to the stage at the end. Can’t she hear us?

Ships seen: Ocean Princess, Costa Diadema, Santa Maria (bunkering), Karol Wojtyla, Grand Celebration


To be continued...

HORIZON 27th May 2012 Part 2

HORIZON - Part 2

Tuesday 29th May 2012
Today’s port is Civitavecchia, in Italy, and again it was hot and a fascinating city to visit.

Sunrise on the Horizon on the horizon

Itinerary

Tutti Frutti cruise

QUEEN ELIZABETH was also in port, so I wore my Hard Rock Café, Hamburg, T-shirt which I bought in January as a memento of my visit there whilst on the QE.

Queen Elizabeth

Aida Vita was also in port

The pool looked inviting but...

Le Cafe Moka

Horizon at the quayside

Grimaldi's Eurocar

My diary note tells me that we enjoyed ice-cream, seeing other ships, and hearing about an overseas friend’s recent holiday trip to Japan, sailing on various ships there with several friends. In port also was the AMERIGO VESPUCCI and I was interested to see this well-known 3 masted ship for the first time.

Amerigo Vespucci

A friend suggested I visit a particular statue that was worth seeing, and I imagined the sort of thing often found in the UK, with stone plinth and man on a horse or similar, and that was what I was looking out for. I wasn’t quite prepared for what I found along one promenade – it was a tall statue of a uniformed sailor kissing a female nurse in white dress and shoes, in quite an abandoned pose.

Unconditional Surrender

Small boy beside the statue

It was called ‘Unconditional Surrender’ by Seward Johnson. The original 25 feet high sculptures were done in 2005, and said by Mr Johnson to represent a lesser-known photograph by Victor Jorgensen of the same scene as Eisenstaedt’s ‘V-J Day in Times Square, New York’. Copies were first exhibited in the United States, but I would be interested to know why this fibreglass statue is here – other than to attract visitors of course, and it certainly intrigued me.

I enjoyed seeing this mosaic work on board

Mediterranean water in the pool

Raffaele Rubattino

Cruise Roma

Dimonios, Adventure of the Seas, Aida Vita, Queen Elizabeth

Adventure of the Seas

Dinner that evening was better organised in the Restaurant, and several of us enjoyed Beef Cheek as the main course – a dish that was new to me and really delicious.

Sunset at sea


Ships seen: Aida Vita, Queen Elizabeth, Raffaele Rubattino, Adventure of the Seas, Saremar’s Dimonios, Amerigo Vespucci (the Italian naval training ship, launched in February 1931, full rigged, steel masted, at 4,146 tons, with 26 sails, and still sailing), Cruise Roma, Grimaldi's Eurocar


To be continued....

HORIZON with the Ocean Liner Society 27th May 2012

HORIZON with the Ocean Liner Society
27th May 2012

I’ve been a member of the London-based Ocean Liner Society for many years, and enjoy the monthly lectures in the little Farringdon hothouse that currently serves as the meeting place. An added bonus is the quarterly magazine ‘Sea Lines’. A few years ago the Committee decided that it would be a good idea to try and arrange a group cruise, on a date and at a cost that would suit members, so I was very pleased to book and join the 2012 cruise on board HORIZON of Croisieres de France.

I first saw the ship on 10th May 2003, berthed at one of New York’s finger piers. I had been out walking with the maritime author and friend Mr Theodore (Ted) Scull, and a mutual friend from New Zealand, and we had all climbed the 243 steps up from the Weehawken ferry terminal; we stood at one end of the Palisades over on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River, admiring the ships at the ‘finger’ piers in the Port of New York. We could see QUEEN ELIZABETH 2, HORIZON, ZENITH, NORWEGIAN SEA and ADONIA, and so I took a photograph. I carried a print of it with me for this second sighting of HORIZON, and decided my diary notes just had to be called “Broadening my Horizons….”

Queen Elizabeth 2, Horizon, Zenith, Norwegian Sea, Adonia
in New York, May 2003

Saturday 26th May 2012
I flew from the UK to Marseille in the south of France, and the welcoming warmth was so lovely, after the endless rain at home, despite the constant noise of road works and impatient drivers. I met some of my travelling companions for dinner in the Old Port, and we were all looking forward to joining the ship tomorrow.

HORIZON was built in 1990 for Celebrity Cruises, as was ZENITH in 1992, for the New York to Bermuda run. Celebrity was formed in April 1988 by Chandris Line, but in turn was bought by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. in 1997, and HORIZON at 46,811 tons was soon the smallest ship in their growing fleet. In 2005 HORIZON became ISLAND STAR in Island Cruises which was a joint venture with TUI, but when Royal Caribbean pulled out of Island Cruises, she rejoined ZENITH at Pullmantur Cruises in Spain and was renamed PACIFIC DREAM. Royal Caribbean then decided to place her with Pullmantur Cruises in France (Croisieres de France) this Spring (2012) and she is now back under her original name, with the ‘all inclusive’ cruises that Pullmantur offer.

Ships seen: several local ferries for Chateau D’If and other nearby islands

Ships not seen, but known to be in port: Norwegian Epic, MSC Fantasia, Hamburg, MSC Divina, Costa Serena

Sunday 27th May 2012
Another blue sky warm day, so breakfast was followed by a brisk walk to look inside two local churches, and then a taxi ride to the Cruise Port for embarkation on Croisieres de France’s HORIZON. Nearby was MSC’s newest ship DIVINA, which had been named by the Italian film star Sophia Loren. We were soon on board and I located my cabin 9051; it was said to have a restricted view because of lifeboats but luckily I was between two of them and could enjoy the view.

Cabin 9051

Horizon deck plan

Horizon deck plan

We had lifeboat drill, then sailed out of the port and started to enjoy our all-inclusive drinks package.

Atlantic Star

Horizon Officers

Lacydon at speed

FS Camille

Registered in Malta

Ark Forwarder, registered in London

Paglia Orba and Jean Nicoli

Art work on deck

Deck 11 looking forward

Deck 11 art work

Deck 11 looking aft

Our group was allocated 4 tables for dinner in the Restaurant Le Splendide, so we enjoyed our first meal on board and then Disco Night.

Ships seen: Napoleon Bonaparte, Paglia Orba, MSC Divina, Piana, Calliste, Scandola, Jean Nicoli, Atlantic Star (yes, still there), M.N. Eclipse, Ark Forwarder (registered in London), Gaschem Werra, Janina, Hansa Catalina, FS Camille

Monday 28th May 2012

I woke soon after 5 a.m. and pulled my heavy curtains and then the voile ones aside slightly to peep out of the window at the early morning sky and sea. Within moments the glass was covered in a gentle shower of water drops, from a Deck Hand on the deck below mine who was washing everything down with a hosepipe. I had to laugh, and waved at him, and he was surprised but waved back quickly as he continued with his work. I went back to sleep, probably with a smile on my face.

At a more civilised hour I met friends for breakfast, and we enjoyed the thought of another hot day – what a treat – and a 9 a.m. arrival in the bay of Santa Margherita, Italy. Excursion passengers took the first tenders ashore, and then it was our turn.

Misty mountains

Comfy seating with lavender

More art work

Le Grand Theatre door handle

View from the tender

Horizon from the tender

We enjoyed walking and sightseeing around the town, which is where Guglielmo Marconi came in 1931 on his laboratory boat to start working on micro-waves.

Museum

Marconi plaque on the wall

Horizon on the horizon

Over the next few years he frequently anchored his boat off Santa Margherita, to continue his experiments with radio and telegraphic signals. Land beacons were built in the hills above, and finally in November 1936 he was able to have a telephone conversation between his ship Elettra, the city of New York and two planes flying over New York itself. Santa Margherita is proud of Mr Marconi and his connection with their town, and there is a wall plaque and road named after him, so we were pleased to see those, and other buildings of interest, before returning to the ship and enjoying the facilities on board.

Still in use

Still in use

Forward view

Azamara Quest (Azamara Club Cruises)and Club Med 2

The evening’s dress code and entertainment was Tropical Night so I wore part of my Diamond Jubilee celebration outfit, including some rather unusual shoes.

My Diamond Jubilee shoes

I also enjoyed talking with another OLS friend who mentioned that his great-grandfather was a Castle Line captain. The Captain’s young daughter often went with him so had tales to tell in later life to her grandson. I don’t often meet someone with pre-1900 Union-Castle Line connections (when Union Line and Castle Line amalgamated) so that was an interesting chat.

Ships seen: Azamara Quest (Azamara Club Cruises), Club Med 2 with her five masts, Mein Schiff 2 at a distance, Grimaldi Euro Cargo.

To be continued....