Hard Rock in Valletta
By now it was past lunchtime after more window shopping down the busy streets we returned to the dock via the lift. Outside the secure area and the small marina was a row of cafés and houses. In one of these buildings was Valletta’s Hard Rock Café.
To avoid the on and off rain we went into the restaurant for our lunch. A party of P&O staff were there saying “goodbye” to departing staff members. HRC’s do have fast Wi-Fi and I was soon connected and downloading emails.
Our lunch was the HRC loaded nachos washed down by some beer – all excellent.
Lazy afternoon onboard Oceana
Back on board Oceana we went to our cabin for a rest and to have some quiet time except for the cleaning of the windows!
Looking out over the harbour we watched another rain storm and go.
The noisy cherry pickers finally stopped working on Oceana.
Across the harbour we could see a cruise ship in dry dock and the crane nearby was painted to look like a giraffe.
Being so close to the HRC we could still use their wi-fi – very handy!
Evening
Unusually we were not called for the ship’s safety drills and this gave us an extra hour’s rest. Later we had a frustrating 45 minute wait for dinner and did miss the 9 pm show in the theatre.
For dinner I had the prawn cocktail, tomato soup, gammon steak followed by my favourite of honey and ginger ice cream.
From the Cruise Log
Thursday 4 April Valletta, Malta
Temperature 17°C
Wind Southerly Force 5 Overcast
Weather ShowersOceana made final preparations for her arrival back to the summer home port of Valletta. The local Pilot was boarded close to the fairway buoy before headings were set to pass through the breakwaters. Once into the harbour Oceana was swung bow to port before being thrusted alongside port side to the quay making fast with 18 mooring lines. All shell doors and gangways were rigged to commence baggage operations for 05:00.
Oceana opened her doors, with a warm welcome to embarking Guests for the upcoming Adriatic Sea cruise. All of our embarking Guests were on board for the emergency drill at 20:15.
At 20:57 Oceana let go all of her lines and proceeded to sea through the Valletta Grand Harbour making two tight turns to pass the breakwaters and out into the Mediterranean Sea. North-easterly courses were set towards the first port call of Dubrovnik, Croatia.