Category: Food (Page 2 of 8)

Life On Board Part 1

22 December 2025 / Juliet Stratton

We’ve learned some interesting facts whilst living on board the Celebrity Millenium Cruise Ship mainly about the ship and its staff so we’d like to share this with you!

THE SHIP

Cruises are planned and routes booked at least 3 years in advance. Planning includes consideration of weather, currents, marine traffic and marine protected areas.

Just over 1000 staff, from numerous nationalities, are employed for 7 months on a contract, they have 2 months leave, then are allocated to the same or another ship for another 7 months. If a ship docks in their home town, they are given a few hours shore leave, shifts permitting.

The Captain and First Officers work 3 months on, 3 months off but during their 3 months leave, Captains still train by practising manoeuvres in simulators. Captains still use star locations to assist in determining the ship’s location, primarily using GPS and terrestrial navigation (landmarks on the coast) to ensure the ship location is correct to within 10cm! Hurricane and typhoon forecasts can be navigated around 5 days in advance.

The Sunset Bar crew, Ram, Anorak, Luana, Robinson

In their contract period, general staff (waiting staff, bar staff, cleaners, kitchen staff) have no days off unless the ship is empty of guests which happens occasionally as one cruise ends and another starts. Executive staff are allowed to disembark in ports if not on a working shift.

All staff are very smartly dressed, wear name badges and all seem to have perfect manners. Every one smiles at every opportunity, they ask how your day has been, can they get you anything, or wish you an enjoyable evening.

This particular ship carries 2600 people and travels back to back on this particular route around Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand but will continue onto China and Japan next year, coming back to Indonesia towards the end of next year.

ENTERTAINMENT

Entertainment is provided from 7am to 1am most days, this takes the form of exercise classes (all charged at extra $$$s), quizzes, team games in the pools, evening shows twice a night in the theatre, art auctions, meet the crew sessions and several live music sessions at various bars. Some nights they hold mass karaoke sessions, “sing along to ABBA, Queen or Rock Music” and silent discos – these nights are very popular!!

There are speciality bars, martini, vodka or cocktails, as well as the usual shops selling so called duty free items, spirits, cigarettes and clothing, jewellery or handbags, none of which is cheap to us, however it may be to the Americans or Chinese.

Despite being “all inclusive” there are many ways that the company help you to increase your spending, most exercise classes are chargeable; bingo is extra; Jack Daniels at the bar is an extra $5, or £3, (so I have Jim Beam instead, which is included); official photographs with the on board photographer; the spa is so stupidly expensive so we’ve steered clear of that!

COCKTAILS

These featured highly in the evenings, well, certainly for the ladies! There’s a great selection. We’ve also tried several Baileys concoctions at the end of the nights and slept very well!

Food, Glorious Food!

22 December 2025 / Juliet Stratton

This post is self explanatory! The food on board the ship has been exemplary and the dessert displays every other night were quite simply “a work of Art” . Every part of the display was edible!!! Be prepared to salivate!

Kerala Day 5 & 6 – Daybreaks

9 February 2024 / Juliet Stratton / 0 Comments

The last two days of our trip around Kerala started with very early mornings! Day five began when the river taxis woke us at daybreak but it was surprisingly a pleasure to be awake at that hour! We watched egrets picking bugs off the water lilies, rover taxis picking up workers, ladies out washing their laundry on stones beside the river. men either having a wash in the river or fishing and children heading off to school on their bikes. All before 7am!!

Graham was allowed, albeit briefly, to take over the helm as Captain, whilst the river was quiet. It made his day!!

After another sumptuous meal (breakfast), we headed back to base and disembarked, sad to leave the houseboat and promising that if we ever returned to Kerala, we’d stay longer and explore more.

Feast big enough for a King, Prince and the two wives!

Our next and final stop was Cochin, in the magnificent Crowne Plaza Hotel overlooking the Thevara Canal. We were on the 9th floor so had amazing views over the city as well as being able to watch the wheeling Kites that were right outside our window!

After checking in, David and Graham were taken by Jo our driver to look at Chinese style fishing nets and a quick tour of the local area.

Diane and I were far more interested in a decent coffee and slice of cake, followed by an invigorating massage in the hotel’s spa, both amazingly good! Suitably chilled and relaxed, we all headed to the Hotel’s rooftop bar for drinks and dinner before a 3am wakeup call!

Dinner was lovely, continental meals without spices!

The only downside to Kerala was the fact that food was Extra Spicy compared to Goa, even “no spice” was full of garlic and ginger so one or two of us suffered a little with digestive issues 😀. Drinks were pricey when you could purchase them. As it’s primarily a dry state, little or no alcohol is sold in local restaurants and there are no bars but a limited amount can be purchased from Government outlets, or in restaurants catering for Westerners.

Our 3.30am alarms went off, we dragged ourselves out of bed, checked out and collected our “breakfast takeaway bags” – fruit juice, an apple and a coleslaw sandwich, all promptly went in a bin!! An hour later we were deposited at the airport, said our goodbyes to our funny driver Jo, snoozed on the comfortable chairs for two hours before boarding our flight back to Goa. By midday, we’d returned to our apartments, offloaded bags, been out for breakfast and were heading back to bed for a few hours sleep – tired, happy, relaxed and in total awe of the sights and sounds of beautiful Kerala! 😍

Manic Republic Day

27 January 2024 / Juliet Stratton / 3 Comments

Yesterday, unbeknown to us, was India’s Republic Day, a celebration of the adoption of the Constitution of India, and the country’s transition to a republic which came into effect on 26 January 1950.

A neighbour invited me to come to our resort’s Reception and watch “a ceremony to raise the flag”, little did I realise that it was the start of a huge celebratory day in the whole country……well, it was 8am in the morning and pre-coffee!!

We had already decided to take a drive out to the North of the state, to look at the beaches and resorts, which we have found in the past, were known as the equivalent to Blackpool or Benidorm’s Strip. During our time here in lockdown, of course, that was very different, the resorts were totally empty and shut down so we wanted to see things in full swing again.

We stopped off at a viewpoint called Mormugao and looked down onto a beach called “Grandmother’s Hole”. The beautiful beach was a long way down from the car park and as it was another hot day, we headed back to the aircon in the car and headed up the coast again to Calangute and Candolim.

Once again, Di and myself were stopped and asked if people could take selfies with us, we could get used to this “celebrity status” ☺️

Lunch was a quick snack at a beachside cafe in Calengute, where we shared a table with two very interesting lads on holiday from Leeds!

Traffic was diabolical so we headed to the areas main tourist attraction Aguada Fort, thinking that as its a holiday, people will either be with families at home or at the beach……but no! Half the population of Goa was at Aguada Fort!!!

A few images from the back seat of the car whilst in traffic….

Next to a Police box, what else would you expect to find but a mother and baby feeding station, on the side of a very busy junction!

Unusual roundabout decorations and the Obligatory kitty picture 😁

So we arrived at the Fort, the rare white man in a sea of coloured faces, dresses and shirts, only to find that the Fort is simply the walls, and a water tank and a few explanatory boards. For your info…

Yes, it was HOT there!!!

We arrived back at base sweaty and tired after what should have been a relatively easy trip but it turned into a chaotic nightmare, due to the traffic and chaos on the roads – simply manic!!! A quick shower and off to our reserved beach side table where yet another massive seabass was waiting, along with kitty and her baby who got fed the remains of my chicken dinner.

Week 2 – Dining and Discovering

25 January 2024 / Juliet Stratton / 0 Comments

A few long days out exploring and being a tourist have been balanced against chilled and relaxing days around the pool and down at the beach.

One morning we drove into our nearest town Margao to visit the Market, we’ve had a rodent visitor and was hoping to find a mouse trap, no such luck. Instead we found a truly authentic cafe for lunch, 4 samosas, 4 potato patties and a few dips, 2 banana cakes, several drinks and bottles of water later = a whopping bill of £2.60!!!! Graham was sooo pleased, it was his turn to pay!!! 😁😁

Explanation = 10 rupees = 10p, 100 rupees is about a £, so 150R = £1.50 etc.

We’ve eaten in a few restaurants around us, mostly intercontinental foods on offer (Indian, goan, Chinese, Italian and steak dishes) and we are still amazed at the prices, 2 or 3 course dinner for 4 is usually about £20, unless the boys order a kilo of giant prawns (costing approx £30), or a massive seabass (£20) 😁. We’ve also stayed in and cooked, enjoying 650ml bottles of Kingfisher beer for £1 and gin or vodka at £3 a bottle!

On Sunday we took advantage of a Sunday brunch offer at the local Novotel, 3 hours of all you can eat food and drinks plus lazing about by their pool, all for £15. Graham enjoyed more giant bbq’d prawns!

Whilst at the Novotel, a very loud but colourful Indian wedding was taking place, we sneaked a peek…..

Fresh bread is delivered by men on bicycles, fruit and veg are bought off fruit and veg stalls and taste how “real food” should and are so cheap. Rather than give you small change, you are given another piece of fruit, or some lemons, or in a supermarket, you are given a boiled sweet as change. No one bothers, no one argues, we just enjoy the way of life.

Crossroads are a sight to see, the rule is whoever gets there first has right of way and it doesn’t matter if people pull in front of you or drive the wrong way up a road or even just lay down on the road, in the shade, for a snooze, you just drive round them!!!

Out in the villages or at tourist spots, we (the white european) are often asked for selfies!!! Indian people want photos taken with us, so we must be amazingly good looking 😉😁. We’ve also had so many genuine invites to the homes of Indian people we’ve met, offers made after we’ve danced with them or simply chatted. The inclusive culture here is simply heart warming and very old fashioned.

Category: Food (Page 2 of 8)

Life On Board Part 1

Food, Glorious Food!

Kerala Day 5 & 6 – Daybreaks

Manic Republic Day

Week 2 – Dining and Discovering

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