9th November 2009

Today is a day at sea having gone to bed very late we got up very late as well and went for breakfast at about 10. After breakfast we got changed and sunbathed on the deck the temperature being about 30 degrees but actually felt a bit cooler as we were at sea, sailing to Melbourne. After I had spent an hour in the sun I left Rosalyn comatose in the sun and I went and spent an hour in the gym, the view from the windows here is a lot better than in Manchester. We then spent the rest of the morning idling by the pool in the sun. You have guessed how we occupied ourselves in the afternoon, by the pool.

Late in the afternoon many people spotted a pod of whales near the ship, there seemed to be about five every few seconds one of them would breech and we could see the water from them spouting.

A little about the ship. She is not as big as some of the Royal Caribbean ships as she has no flow-rider or ice rink for example as you see on the ads. She does have a rock climbing wall which neither of us will be attempting. She is carrying 1900 passengers from 21 different countries and her crew of nearly 1,000 come from 55 different countries. Food is available literally 24 hours a day. Tea, coffee, iced tea, and lemonade are freely available as is ice cream. Water is also available. There is a large theatre which also doubles as a cinema. Activities that take place are the inevitable games of bingo, quizzes, talks on the ports of call, arts & crafts sessions, I could go on much longer. There are several places to head for in an evening if you want to dance the night away. A library is available if you run out of books to read and if you want pampering there is a spa and hairdressers. You can also try and work off some of the excess calories by going to a fully equipped gym.