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It certainly seemed to be full, perhaps one of the others who were on will know the figure. There were two sittings for dinner! CarolQUOTE:
It certainly seemed to be full, perhaps one of the others who were on will know the figure. There were two sittings for dinner! Carol
Hi Marie. Hope you are feeling better. Sorry, I advised Margaret that your name was Carol.There are quite a few Carols on this forum. I'm sure you will hear from Celebrity soon. Boarding time is from 11.30 a.m. Looking forward to meeting you, Joe and the others.
Jill
Lieutenant
Member
Malta is lucky that the Knights of Malta were here for so long. Practically all the must sees in Malta are related to them !!!
I suppose the medieval capital Mdina is one of the few not directly linked to them.
The sights the British left behind all seem to be barracks, airports and plain defence buildings. They just took over the palaces left by the Knights and didn't build anything which wasn't strictly linked to Malta's defence.,
St Johns Cathedral is a marvellous building. We always visit the Cathedrals wherever we go and always comment on this.
There is an audio guide which has been praised and , of course, the Museum.
I used to live in the UK as a child then returned to Malta and lived in Valletta so used to go to St Johns regularly. I remember being told that the side chapels belonged to the different nationalities of the Knights - with the most important countries having their chapel nearer to the main alter. Also the gold gates leading to a chapel were painted black to prevent the French stealing them by hiding their value. Apparently the French stole many treasures which are on display at the Louvre and others at the bottom of the sea when their ship sank.
The Cathedral is often the centre of polemic here. Last year they managed to get millions of euro from the EU to build an extension of the museum under the square in front to be able to host all the treasures for which there is no room in the museum. Also to display the huge tapestries which are put on display for St John's Feast Day. They are so big that there is no room anywhere else to hang the. The Enviromental Groups were up in arms and there was fear that the excavation could damage the foundations and it was dropped.
Some years ago the St Jerome by Caravaggio was stolen - back in the days when the paintings were displayed with no security whatsoever. The story of its eventual recovery is an unbelievable tale.
The Beheading is the only one in the world actually signed by the artist.
If someone only has a short time in Valletta, apart from the Cathedral the other must see is the Barakka Gardens overlooking the Grand Harbour (and your ship). Again this garden was built by the Knights !!!! From there it's a downhill walk back to the Port.
Anyway if you ever come to Malta let me know and we'll meet.
[QUOTE=M, Alloa;41668]I wish we would hear from Cornish Girl who still hadn't received confirmation at the weekend. I know she sent an email to Sukie and undoubtedly Sukie will have checked it out with Celebrity. I am sure all will be OK but I know I was a wreck when I hadn't heard from them! I think I was more worried about telling people that we weren't going after all than anything else! Undoubtedly people would have made some choice comments becauser I have been guilty of telling every man woman and child about the trip"!Perhaps CG is having a nice little break somewhere - I hope so. I wonder if there are indeed more of us? Wasn't it about 30 on MSC Magnifica? Perhaps Bill has some information on how many there were on Equinox last year?
There were 1,600 guests on Equinox the security person I spoke to thought there could have been upward of 200 no shows which I found hard to believe. Approx 200 press the rest were guests of the cruise line or various travel agents. A few had never cruised before, some never with Celebrity and a few were travel journalists, a motley lot. There was a souvenir programme; we got to keep the special dinner menu for the night of the naming ceremony. Despite the fact everything was free most were drinking sensibly my only regret was no rum other than Bacardi which I don't like so I stuck with champagne, it was a hard life although having done it once not sure I would repeat it.
Cockpit Mate
Member
Hi Marie. Sorry you've had the dreaded 'bug' and I hope you are recovering well. Please let us know when you get your confirmation, we are all a little concerned for you. My husband wouldn't let me tell his parents until we got the confirmation. We are travelling from Leicestershire but driving down on Friday, if my husband ever gets round to booking a hotel! See you there. Judith
Hi Judith, Having agreed that we would travel down on 23rd, I didn't wait for OH to book a hotel, I booked it. You could always surprise him. Jill;)
Cockpit Mate
Member
I could, but he does b***er all else, so I'll delegate. He'll get round to it eventually. I really want the details now, I've looked at the deck plans until I nearly know them by heart.:o
Judith
Ship's Cook
Member
Oh you poor thing! I too experienced that a couple of week ago and it wasn't pleasant at all. I am sure we are all delighted to see you up and about again and I too am equally sure Sukie will sort out the invitation problem. Don't worry about it!
Boarding I believe starts at 11.30am and I fully intend to be ready and waiting at that time! Perhaps we will all board very quickly because most of the other invitees are people from the industry and press and I rather suspect that they wont be just as eager as we all are - but of course I could be wrong about that!
Welcome back Marie!
Ship's Cook
Member
[QUOTE=Bill Blyth, Dundee;41889]Thank you Bill, as ever a veritable font of information. No Red Rum on board? (and no, I don't mean the horse!) How extraordinary! Thankfully rum is not my drink of choice because I overdid it on one occasion in my youth and said red spirit has never touched my lips since! That's probably how you now feel about champagne now Bill! The only points you haven't covered are whether or not there were two sittings for dinner, and what was boarding like? (Last time I left from that berth I would say we were on board and in our cabins within 30 minutes of entering the building! Because of that speed, we never noticed whether there was a coffee shop or bar, just in case they are working on reduced staffing!)
Oh, did the Casino open at all? Not that it is important to me but I would like John to see it in action!
Ship's Cook
Member
At present our plans are to leave on Thursday and drive down to Northants (about 7 hours) then carry on the Christchurh, Hampshire on Friday night and just a 30 mile drive to Southampton on Saturday morning and then to travel back on Monday staying in South Wales and then home (again around 7 hours I think!) Our original intention was to journey down via Yorkshire but invitations overwhelmed us so the long trek each way is how it will be! I am really fine about it and so looking forward to visiting friends! I may not feel exactly like that for the homeward journey because usually when I wake up on the last day of a holiday I simply want to be at home! (I do not mean any disrespect to our friends - of course we will be delighted to stay with them!) We would never be forgiven if people discovered we had travelled south without breaking our journey! Nor would we want to miss seeing our friends. We are so lucky that we have so many dotted around all over the place!I shouldn't worry about Carol as I'm sure her invitation is valid.
The hotel in Bournemouth sounds like a good deal. We have already booked in at a Holiday Inn at Eastleigh, which is only a few miles north of Soton. We are only a couple of hours from home anyway but thought it would be nice to make a long weekend of it and maybe use our NT & EH membership cards. How long will your journey take?
Jill
Has anyone else feen following the price for the 3 nighter following our cruise? It was still at £399 last time I looked.
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