Wednesday 20^th May – Dun Laoghaire, for Dublin.

We arrived as planned at anchor. It was windy and the sea was a bit rough. A few of the tenders were lowered but it was obviously too choppy for the mile and a half trip, so the decision was taken not to tender passengers ashore until the wind dropped.

Jo – the Entertainments Director – and the tours team were therefore left frantically trying to arrange on-board entertainment and to rearrange the morning’s tours.

Eventually at around midday, the Captain said the tenders could start. We looked at the first few bouncing around and decided to give it a miss! We had, after all, seen Dublin before…

Instead, we went to a pub quiz (we were rubbish again) and to an intermediate bridge lesson.

In the evening we had cheese and biscuits in our room before heading off to Illuminations to watch “The Second Best Marigold Hotel” This was very funny and better than most sequels we’ve seen.

We gave Roy Walker a miss – as we didn’t think he was very funny on the last leg of the world voyage and we assumed he would do a similar act.

Anfisa came up trumps - as when we got back to the cabin we had received an invite to dine with the Senior Engineer on Saturday. This will mean that we’ve got drinks in the Art Gallery viewing at 2-30pm, a wine-tasting at 3pm, the Captain’s cocktail party at 7-45pm and the senior officers meal (with free wine) at 8-30pm. AA for us when we get back?

Greenock tomorrow – wonder how well it will work out trying to meet up with Gary & the girls, Uncle Alan and Rob & Jenny?

 

Thursday 21^st May 2015 – Greenock.

Nesta was up at 5-30am to see our entry into the Clyde – passing Millport and Largs – and it brought a tear to her eye.

We docked safely to be met by a pipe band and “Hamish” (a bouncy Mr Blobby type character in a kilt!) We went ashore to suss out the pub situation for our guests today. Greenock has seen better days – the main street is full of betting shops, pound-land shops and pawn shops but we eventually found the “James Watt” – a Wetherspoons next to the station. (Ideal for Alan!)

We got a text from Jenny to say they were at the port and had met Gary’s uncle Barney and his wife Christine. They joined us at the pub (along with Becky, James and Fiona from the ship’s crew) where we all enjoyed a pint and the obligatory Scottish breakfast (tattie scones, lorne sausage etc.) Alan joined us at about 1pm – so we had to have another drink!

Just before 2pm, Gary et all headed off back to the ship for their champagne afternoon tea and we walked slowly back with Alan so that he could see how big the ship is.

Nesta popped on board to let Ryan and Mohammed (bar manager) know that Gary & the girls could use our on-board credit (because otherwise they couldn’t buy a drink). Aren’t we nice? Other visitors had to leave by 5-15pm but the three amigos managed to extend their stay until 8-30pm (Guess that’s all our on-board credit wiped out then!!)

Alan and the two of us found a licensed café where we had a cup of tea followed by a bottle of wine! Rob phoned at about 5-30pm to say he and Jenny were on their way. When they arrived, we had a meal and then walked down to the ship where the security guard let us in the gates and took a photo of us all in front of the QM2.

We said our goodbyes and walked back to the terminal where we met the inebriated three amigos who had to wait there as Cunard had “misplaced” their passports!

We went to the back of the ship for the sail away. A massed pipe band and dancers (plus two “Hamishs” this time) were on the quay, Vibz played on the back of deck 8, a fantastic fireworks display and hundreds of people lining the banks to wave us off. Even the Waverley was there (sailing down the Clyde with us).

When we got back to our cabin, we saw that the kids (Gary, Jenny and Dianne) had left some lovely chocolate cup-cakes for us…aaah!

We also found an invite for yet another cocktail party hosted by the Captain, Deputy Captain and Hotel Manager to take place on Monday. We seem to be very popular!

 

Friday 22^nd May 2015 – Oban.

Nesta woke up at 4-30am as the ship was “jiggling” a bit. Even though it was beginning to get light, she couldn’t see anything as it was so foggy. The foghorn was sounding but when we looked at the TV we saw that we were travelling at 23.8 knots. We thought this was a bit fast in poor visibility (although we suppose it’s all done by radar etc. now!)

We were 30 minutes late anchoring off Oban and the Captain had the cheek to say that it was because we had to slow down due to the fog!!

We tendered ashore and went to Wetherspoons for another Scottish Breakfast (and a pint) then wandered around the town until Gary and the girls arrived from Greenock. We went back into the pub but the girls were only drinking soft drinks as they were still suffering from the excesses of the previous afternoon!

They gave us one of the presents they had received at their reception (a nice “coffee table” book about Cunard) which we’ll get the Captain to sign tomorrow!

They also paid us back for the use of our on-board credit and told us one of the bar staff (Wilber) was really worried every time they said it was alright to put the drinks on our account…so, of course, when we had said our goodbyes and returned to the ship we went down to the pub and asked to speak to Wilber. We asked him how $89 could have been charged to our account when we were actually ashore in Greenock. He looked petrified until we started laughing and told him it was ok (we can be quite cruel!) He is now going to wind up Gary on Facebook saying he is facing disciplinary action!

After our drink in the pub, we went into the Winter Gardens to see Ryan. As we were going to have so much free alcohol on Saturday we decided to have a light day – only four pints each – which is still probably more than the daily recommended amount!

From there we went down to The Queens Room for the party night with Vibz. Lewanne would have liked it as they still were playing all her favourite songs (not!)

We were thinking about having a bop when Imogen (the Social Hostess) decided to improve (?) the party atmosphere by stopping the band and begin teaching the passengers the line dancing steps to “Achy Breaky Heart”!

Our time to leave…