A couple of years ago, Val and I were lucky enough to go on
the shakedown cruise of P&O’s then newest ship, Iona. For the
uninitiated, shakedowns are short cruises to test the functionality of the
vessel with a full complement of passengers, although the passengers are
usually all staff, ex-staff, and their family and friends.
It has to be said that Iona’s shakedown was not
trouble-free, but to a degree, that’s the point of a shakedown, identifying
areas that need fixing. In Iona’s case, the online restaurant booking
function didn’t work, and some of the staff in the restaurants and elsewhere
looked a little bewildered. Our two-day trip took us from Southampton to the
Isle of Wight, Poole Harbour, and back again (we didn’t go ashore at either
location), and I rather suspect that some of the teething problems we
experienced had not been ironed out before the ship’s maiden voyage just a few
days later.
While Covid precautions were still very much uppermost in
most people’s minds when we did the shakedown – without a negative Lateral Flow
Test no one was getting on board Iona in August 2021, and washing hands
was compulsory before entering restaurants - they had largely been consigned to
history by the time we boarded Azura last week for a seven-night cruise
through the Mediterranean and Adriatic.
While Iona is the largest cruise ship I’ve been on
(184,000 tons and 5,200 passengers), Azura is no lightweight, coming in
at 116,000 tons and carrying 3,100 passengers. Despite its size, and the fact
that it was full for the cruise we were on, Azura has a remarkably
intimate feel, and although it is now thirteen years old, the amenities are as
luxurious as you could wish for.
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| Azura as we boarded in Valletta |
Our cruise started in Valletta. We flew to Malta from Gatwick, having originally been able only to book the cruise with flights from Birmingham; fortunately, London flights became available a week before we sailed. Landing at 6pm and embarking the ship at 7pm left no time to see Malta, and the same was true of the journey home. After dinner in the Meridian Restaurant, it was time to unpack some of the contents of my suitcase more vulnerable to creasing (suit and shirts mainly) and take a relatively early night.
From Malta, a day at sea and an opportunity to acclimatise to
the ship and find our way around before docking at Taranto in Italy. Throughout
the holiday, the weather was nicer than the forecast had suggested before we
left England, but Taranto was a little overcast, but pleasant enough. There’s an
old town and a not so old town, separated by a bridge; the old town is more
picturesque and we had a lovely gelato there, but on the whole, it isn’t the
sort of place I’d go out of my way to revisit.
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| Taranto |
Italy I’ve been to before, but never yet Greece, so landing
in Corfu Town on the Sunday was somewhere new. Val was quite keen to find a
beach for a swim, but the weather wasn’t entirely in our favour and the nearest
sandy beach was probably too much of a hike to reach comfortably, so we
contented ourselves with a wander round town where – it being Sunday – the
churches were busy, as were the cafes, but only the smaller shops were open.
After a lovely lunch overlooking the sea, we strolled back to the ship rather
than get the shuttle bus.
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| Corfu |
Entertainment on board ships these days is a lot more
professional and varied than it once was, and on Sunday evening we watched some
live music from The Bluejays, whose speciality is 1950s and 1960s rock
and roll. Not especially my favourite genre, it has to be said, but I like
nothing more than seeing a live band who can play well, and The Bluejays
were certainly that. So much so that we saw them again a couple of nights
later, when their setlist was quite different and still excellent, even if the
lead guitarist was hampered by a broken string. I’d thoroughly recommend The
Bluejays if you like 1950s/60s rock ‘n’ roll. Actually, I’d recommend them even
if you don’t.
Food on board was plentiful and delicious, as it always is
on cruises, and Azura has a variety of restaurants. We opted for the
buffet for breakfast and lunch, or just grabbed a slice or two of pizza from
the poolside, but ate in the Meridian or Peninsular Restaurants in the evenings.
The menus are always varied, with choices for adventurous dinners and more conservative
ones alike.
Our third port was Split. Croatia’s tourism industry has had
to recover from both the war of the 1990s, and covid in more recent years. In
1990, tourist arrivals stood at 8.4 million, but fell to 2 million a year later
when war broke out. They have now recovered to the extent that 18.9 million
tourists arrived in 2022. The TV series Game of Thrones, much of which
was filmed in Split, has had a beneficial impact on tourism, and a large number
of visitors to our last port of call, Dubrovnik, were there to take in the
sights they had seen on screen.
In Split we opted for a tour to the Krka National Park in Lozovac,
which is about an hour’s drive from the port. Unseasonally heavy rains that had
affected parts of Croatia in the week or so leading up to our arrival had led
to parts of the park being closed right up until the day we visited. The
waterfalls are magnificent (okay, perhaps not on a par with Niagara or
Victoria, but impressive enough), and for a change from walking round town, the
tour was worth the effort (and the money: Shore excursions can be expensive,
but this was actually quite reasonable).
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| Krka National Park |
Our final port of call was Dubrovnik. It was the hottest day
of the holiday and under a clear blue sky we wandered the walled city, famous as
a location for Game of Thrones - in particular, Cersei Lannister's Walk
of Shame - packed with tourists, including those from both Azura and a
Viking Cruise lines ship that was also docked there. We had a lovely walk
around town, a pit-stop at a pavement café, a delicious ice cream, and then
back to the ship.
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| Dubrovnik |
One day at sea cruising back to Malta, during which I walked
about seven miles round prom deck, and then it was off to the airport to fly
home. Getting to the gate at Valletta’s airport proved to be a bit of a bun
fight with passengers from two cruise ships descending on the terminal, the queues
at passport control were long and slow moving.
In complete contrast, I cannot ever recall as quick an
experience after landing at Gatwick as this one. No queues at the e-Passport
gates, which – for once – recognised Val’s passport, and we were back in the car
and away from the airport in nearly record time.
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Cruising has long since lost its image of being expensive and elitist and is now as affordable as any other type of holiday and a generally informal, although it is nice to have the opportunity to dress up a bit on the formal nights.
This cruise and this ship were perhaps the best I’ve been on and
make me keen to do it again.
