Starting back now

Saturday in Malaga was warm and wonderful – about 22 degrees. Again we opted to wander by ourselves. The city is nearly ½ million population, and dripping with history just like everywhere else on the Med. Picasso was born here. Good shopping, and Meg treated herself to a BK chicken sandwich, and brought out a beer for Dad. Yes, both BK and McD have beer on tap here. A few other places also have beer, of course…

We sailed from our last port as the sun was setting, and passed Gibraltor about 9:45 PM. We also set the clocks back an hour overnight, and will do so each day until arriving in New York. An extra hour of partying available each day…

Let me describe our stateroom briefly. It is about 9’ by 18’, and the balcony is the full width and about 4’ deep, with a floor-to-ceiling patio door. Inside staterooms are slightly smaller – about 8’ by 16’. The beds are the same in both – very comfy single beds – in our room they are put together as a king. We have a very nice bathroom, but the toilet deserves special mention. All the toilets on board use a vacuum-action flush. And the action is far from subtle – I’m afraid it will suck in the towels if they are too close. NCL thinks of everything – this could be a one-touch cure for constipation!

Food, entertainment, service and décor could all take up a lot of time describing, but I won’t bore you with that. Suffice to say it is about the best I could imagine. Nobody could say they were bored on this cruise – there is a huge variety of things to see, hear and do. Meg and her fellow Host/Hostesses are kept very busy running activities and stirring up the action, especially on sea days.

Weather has been very kind to us for late November. Today (23 Nov) on the open Atlantic is clear, about 16 degrees, with a 20 knot wind. This causes a few whitecaps and water about 8-10 feet from trough to crest. This big ship handles the seas very well – we do get some swaying, so the handrails are always useful.