Docking at Southampton

Cold and wet Southampton docks

Well, here we are at Southampton – and a grey day it is too.  Wet and cold, although it was amazing how quickly we became acclimatised.

We had to have our bags packed the night before, so most of the morning and half the afternoon was spent sorting clothes and bits and pieces, returning books to the library and saying farewell to new friends.

Lunch with Anne and Ted

Our former table mates Anne and Ted from Yorkshire had invited us to have lunch with them in the Britannia – the formal restaurant – on Saturday.  Very pleasant company, we shall miss them.  Unfortunately, Anne and Ted are going to their house in Spain and don’t get home to Yorkshire until the day after we leave for New York.

The Cunard choir

Anne was in the passenger’s choir, so after lunch we watched the choir sing its repertoire.

John and Fred

We shared meals with Fred and Jenny from Brisbane, finding out that the latter has a PhD in physiotherapy; Fred is a hydraulics engineer with his own company, and it was great to hear that he makes a habit of employing other wheelchair users.  We also said farewell to Eileen and Gerald who hail from Aberdeen in Scotland.  This is their third world voyage in about six years.

Gerald and Eileen from Aberdeen

Ingrid was great fun, and very hard working

And of course we couldn’t forget Ingrid, our exceedingly hard-working and excitable stewardess.  She was a lot of fun.  On the last night, she left me four times as many chocolates as she should have.  I wasn’t about to give them back!

Ingrid is from Argentina, so John insisted on teaching her some Aussie phrases – “Gidday mate, how ya going? Alright?” and Hooroo.

At the Southampton terminal

Disembarking was very easy.  Our large bags were available for us in the terminal building, and we easily secured a helpful porter who carried them the rest of the way to the terminal entrance and transferred them to a trolley whilst we waited for Ange to pick us up.   We didn’t have any hand luggage checked, and I presume our large bags had already been x-rayed.

Ange is my fourth cousin and has become a great friend ever since we made contact in about 2007 and first met in 2008.  She has a wheelchair accessible car because her husband Paul has been a wheelchair user for nearly as long as John.

My cousin Ange with John

So she was able to pick us up; help us drop our bags at the hotel (Holiday Inn Express); help us find a Wifi solution – even using her own bank account since they don’t do pre-pay; and purchase rail tickets for London.  We are taking a slow train – across country – to London Victoria since the difference in price is £20 compared with £73.  Who cares if it takes over twice as long to get there.

Today (Tuesday), Ange drove us down to Portsmouth to check on the car – a Fiat Doblo – we are having delivered to our London hotel the day we leave there (7^th May).  I was worried it would be too small for John and our luggage, but no problem.  It looks much easier to drive than the large van we hired in 2008.

At the One Pound shop in Totton

After that, we messed around with suitcases trying to find a way to make it easier for us to carry it all to London on the train.  Our pull apart shower chair is very heavy and having it all in the one case made it impossible for me to manoeuvre without damaging my hip – agony last night.

A pub in Totton

Tomorrow night we will be settled in at the Premier Inn at London City (Tower Hill) for seven nights before heading north.

Madeira – a magic place

Madeira

Despite being warned about morning showers, we sailed into Funchal, capital of the Portuguese island of Madeira with it bathed in sunlight.  The city rises very steeply on all sides, with many villages clinging precariously to the side of very steep hills.

A coach for six

By 9:15am we were ready to board our wheelchair accessible mini coach for a three hour tour “the Scenes of Madeira”. 

Jane, Fred, Marg, John, Jenny, Richard

Fred and Jenny had booked this tour and so had another couple, Jane (a wheelchair user) and Richard from Hampshire who we’d already met on the ship.  So we were a very jolly group of tourists, as you can see from our photos.

Louisa, our guide

Our guide Louisa had a South African accent and had been born there.  She had been brought “home” to Madeira by her parents when she was 15 and had never left.  She had plenty of work leading mountain climbing and coach tours.

Cars and trucks in Madeira need very strong engines since they get an amazing workout on the steep and winding roads which were built only in the early 20^th century.  Prior to that, the locals were reliant on foot and donkey to travel anywhere on the island.  In the past 20 years, a network of tunnels and motorway flyovers has been created.  The airport has also been vastly extended using EU loans which they are having difficulty paying back.  There is much unemployment due to the GST which has hit Madeira hard.  It reminded us of the stories of Ireland with its large injection of EU loans prior to the downturn in its economy.

Although much nearer Africa than Portugal, Madeira did not have an indigenous population prior to it being claimed by Portugal in the late 1400s.  The population speaks Portuguese with a distinct accent and is 95% Catholic.  There are many saints recognised.

Sheep being herd by a shepherd, sans dog.

The coach took us way up the hills through Monte and a number of remote villages through forested areas which included a great number of blue gums.  Hydrangeas grow along the roadsides like weeds, as do many other flowering plants from places near and far.  Jacarandas in full flower, coral trees, cedars etc.

A plot of land much larger than most

Most homes have a small plot of land beside or in front, wherever can be made into a flat piece of land, often terraced, and grow vegetables for domestic consumption.

We saw villages full of old properties where it used to be customary for the English suffering from respiratory diseases to stay.  Altogether a magical place.

In Fuchal, outside the Ritz

The coach delivered us back to the port at 1 pm, and after lunch and John cooling down, having got far too hot on the coach, we caught the shuttle bus into Funchal and took heaps of photos.  There were two cruise liners in town yesterday and the locals were certainly playing up to the tourists as some of the photos show. 

Playing up to the tourists

The streets are mainly cobbled but not too rough and John said that his new wheelchair handled the cobblestones very well indeed.

The temperature was only 17C but I still managed to get slightly sun-burned, probably as we walked back to the ship at 4.30pm.  We are now on GMT +1, so equivalent to English summer time, making us 9 hours behind Sydney if I’m correct.

A lane in the old part of Funchal - made for donkeys

I thought I’d brought some euros with me from Sydney but darned if I could find them.  So we spent no money at all apart from the tour, which we’d paid for in ship currency (American dollars).  On the ship, no cash changes hands. Our ship ID card records all expenditure and at the end of each cruise leg – ie San Francisco, Fort Lauderdale and Southampton, a deduction is made from our preferred account.  This to me is a very civilized arrangement.  One can ask for a statement at any time.

Everyone was back on board by the required time of 5.30pm and we set sail shortly afterwards.  But at 7.15pm the Commodore announced that we were returning to port to disembark a seriously ill passenger.  So I suppose we are running shortly behind schedule, but the Commodore stated that it would not affect our estimated time of arrival in Southampton.

Less than three days to go now, and we’ve already passed through immigration.  There are two immigration officers on board and we were invited to go through this procedure anytime this afternoon.  With us both chorusing “five weeks” when we were asked how long we were staying in the UK, we sounded genuine enough.

I now need to start packing for the first time in over seven weeks.  That will be interesting … a few more bits and pieces of clothing and a couple of coffee mugs to carry home.  But decreasing amounts of medical supplies to compensate.

Fort Lauderdale and the flu

John on our coach in Fort Lauderdale

Well, it had to happen sooner or later.  Since we left Fort Lauderdale on April 16, both of us have been very unwell.  By Good Friday we were both down and out with chest infections, so we’ve been staying away from our fellow passengers as much as possible and basically doing nothing except medicating, sleeping, reading and eating – in that order.  Much better today for the first time this week, but a sudden coughing fit can still leave us feeling debilitated for quite some time.

Enough!

On the canals

Last Wednesday we visited Fort Lauderdale, ending the second leg of our half-world voyage.  The highlight of our visit was meeting Judi Moxon Zakka, a member of the Moxon Society and Facebook friend.  We arranged to meet us at the Galleria Mall, a shopping centre to which the ship was running shuttle services for passengers.  This worked out well for us since our booked tour stopped there on our way back to the ship, and I was able to have my hair cut prior to meeting Judi for lunch.

John and Judi - both Moxons

Lunch was a delight, with Judi filling us in on her (to us) exotic life.  Although born in the UK, she’d spent her childhood in Jamaica, then in the UK and New York prior to living in Florida.  Although she too is a Moxon (by birth) there appears to be no relationship between her family tree and John’s ancestry.  However, she can claim one Charles Moxon, royal decorator amongst hers!

Before meeting Judi, we had a three hour

On the New River

city tour which included a one hour boat trip, the highlight of the tour really.  I wasn’t much impressed by the city; it reminded me of Queensland’s Gold Coast, full of houses built on canals – for those who could afford it – and boutiques.  We rushed passed the beach strip in the bus without stopping and were then given an hour to wander along some strip shopping, supposedly to encourage us to spend money.  We did have a very enjoyable coffee and muffin break with fellow passengers Jenny and Fred, and it was impossible for the waitress to understand what a “skinny (or skim) flat white” was.  I received a cup of hot milk.  I explained I wanted coffee, so the milk was returned with a dollop of coffee.  Sigh.  I should have asked for a cappuccino, obviously.

Since then, we’ve spent seven days at sea.  It’s been wonderfully smooth – very little swell, and it’s only now that the weather is becoming a bit colder.  We are being influenced by a cyclone in Greenland apparently.

Hopefully we will both be well enough for Madeira, a Portuguese island off the African mainland.  We spend the day there tomorrow (Thursday) and I’m really looking forward to a taste of Europe.  Fingers crossed.

Grand Cayman

The Queen at Anchor

This is the first port where the ship – and all other cruise ships – had to be at anchor rather than alongside.  On Monday, we were one of four ships visiting George Town, the capital of Grand Cayman, the largest in the Cayman Island group.

The Cayman Islands are famous of course

One of many grand houses

for being a favourite “off-shore” banking facility for millionaires and international companies, much to the disgust of the Australian Taxation Office.

The two major industries in the Caymans are tourism and banking.  No less than 600 banks and investment companies are represented here.  Consequently the residents pay no income tax.  Nor are there any forms of gambling here (apart from investment companies of course) including casinos and horse-racing.  This is in contrast to Aruba where there are about 15 casinos.

George Town

George Town is very disappointing – made up of many modern cement rendered malls featuring watches and jewellery.  Not a supermarket in sight.  And few old houses.

There are 55,000 permanent residents mostly on Grand Cayman itself, and about 25,000 people with work permits.  And thousands of cruise passengers in the season which extends from November to April.  However, the temperature doesn’t vary much all year round, being between 80-90 with high humidity.  65F is a very cold day.  Oh dear!

Seven Mile Beach with cruise ships in distand

Most tourists would be attracted by the beautiful warm clean water, aqua coloured, great sand and the opportunity for scuba diving.  Apparently ship crew – assuming they have enough daylight hours off – head straight for the beach.

John knew well in advance that he couldn’t get off the ship, and it really was no great loss.  Probably the most disappointing port we’ve visited.  I did go on a $20 tour, which I booked on shore

Swimming with dolphins

and it was good value for money.  We saw a bit of wildlife, went to Hell, watched kids swimming with dolphins, stopped at the beach and had a taste of rum cake.

Iguana

We left Grand Cayman at 4.30pm, bound for Fort Lauderdale in Florida.

In the Port of Aruba

After a day at sea in the Caribbean, we arrived in Oranjestad, capital of the small island of Aruba at 8am on Saturday.  Aruba is surprisingly a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.  Like Australia, the governor is appointed by the monarch.  The island has only three small hills and attracts no more than 20 inches of rain per year, so its plant life is much like that of Arizona – cacti.

The island is very close to the Venezuelan coast and has only recently restricted foreign workers to a three year residency – there had been a substantial increase in migration from neighbouring America and South American nationals.

Fragments of earliest known Americinds date back to 1000 AD.  Due to various Spanish and Dutch conquests, trade and settlements over the centuries the language is a mixture of local Indian, Spanish, Dutch and English.  The island’s motto is One Happy Island since so many nationalities have settled there.

It certainly is an interesting place.  John was able to disembark very easily, after the difficulties encountered at San Francisco and later at Costa Rica[i].

It was a very colourful place and a photographer’s delight.  It was also very clean and apparently the buildings have been recently painted, restored or rebuilt.  There is much civil construction going on at the moment in the city.  The island has a circumference of about 70 miles so is not very large at all.

Oranjestad, capital of Aruba

We didn’t find any wheelchair accessible taxis or buses so were content to simply wander around the town.  We were not tempted by the many jewellers’ brochures thrust into our hands, but did buy some useful bits of clothing – T-shirt, hat and bag.

John, Marg, Ted and Anne

We bumped into Anne and Ted on the wharf near the Carpe Diem (Seize the Day) hotel so joined them for a coffee and cool drink.  We continued walking around, then found our way to the National Archaelogical Museum which was wheelchair accessible apart from the locals not knowing how to operate the elevator.

There is an interesting feature in the local casino (one of many on the island) – a canal ends at a roundabout in the casino arcade and a power boat taxi picks up and drops people who knows where.

Negotiating footpaths was extremely tricky.  The town seems to be only just learning to put in kerb ramps and there are not many yet, with gutters at some pedestrian crossings.  Lots of building ramps but all 1 in 12.  Additionally the widespread roadworks caused a few hazards.

An Indian abode at the Archaelogical Museum

But an enjoyable morning just the same.  The weather was very humid with the temperature at 30C.  We rejoined the ship for lunch; John lay down for the afternoon and I went out only briefly, returning to do some laundry whilst the hordes were elsewhere!

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[i] I was ill with a virus for two days when we arrived at Costa Rica, and John set off for an arranged four hour taxi booking on his own.  However within 30 minutes he was back – fuming – after encountering two sets of stairs from the ship.  He received a very unsatisfactory explanation and response from the Head of Security, to the discomfort of the Assistant Purser, and since then has heard four different stories from Cunard as to why this situation arose.  So Costa Rica was a no go zone for us (a pity since the tours in this environmentally aware and very stable country seemed quite enticing).

Panama Canal

A lock opening

The most anticipated event on this voyage, at least for John, was the Panama Canal.

Not only is it an engineering feat rivalled by nothing else, it also has a political history worthy of a movie.

Contrary to most people's assumptions, the canal does not run west to east, as one might suppose it would to link the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea, but south to north.

We arrived at the Pacific Ocean entry point early in the morning but we managed to miss sailing under the Bridge of the Americas due to our alarm not going off. It looks quite similar to Sydney Harbour Bridge, minus the pylons.

The canal has two channels, but they seem not to be used for contra flowing vessels, but, at least when we were there, for vessels travelling in the same direction, side by side as it were.

The building of the canal was commenced by the French in the 1880s. After about 10 years and some 22,000 deaths mostly due to malaria and yellow fever, the French abandoned the project. The United States purchased the rights to the construction and began their planning.  At some stage the Americans assisted a regime change and then negotiated with the ambassador to the US to sign an agreement giving the US rights to all income from the canal in perpetuity.  $11 million dollars changed hands but was never received by Panama.  No paper work has ever been found to clarify this.

As you would be aware, we have an inside cabin, so it was very nice to receive an invitation from Fred and Jenny, who have a balcony, to join them for part of the day.

There are three locks on the southern end of the canal and two at the other end.  An artificial lake was created between the two sets of locks by damning the Chagres River.  The lake is 85 feet above sea level.

No pumps are used to move water into and out of the locks – it's all down to gravity, using the water from the lake – 53 million gallons per ship.

The Queen Victoria is known as a “Panamaxi” - i.e. as big a ship as can fit in the locks.

In fact, there was only 100mm clearance each side of our ship – and, yes, we bumped the side a couple of times.

Ships are kept aligned by the locomotives which run on tracks either side of the ship and which are attached by ropes.  We had three of these on each side.  The locomotives do not tow the ship – the ship uses its own power for propulsion – but simply keep it from the sides of the lock.

The transit took all day – from 8am til about 6pm.  To increase capacity, another set of locks is being constructed.  It was due to be completed this year, but is now scheduled for 2016.

Reaching the Atlantic Ocean at Colon

A day at sea with Marg & John

Fred, Marg and Jenny on their balcony at Panama

I thought I’d fill you in on what a day at sea is like for us.  Others on board have a completely different day.

Today we set the alarm for 8am, had an early morning cuppa (we bought a kettle in Dunedin), got up at 9am and were at breakfast upstairs in the Lido – the bistro – by 11 am.  Don’t sound so surprised, it takes 2 hours to get going for the day…  We often get up earlier, and will be doing so tomorrow.

In a week’s time we will be visiting Fort Lauderdale (reaching the end of our second “leg”) so today’s  Cunard tour office presentation was about that city and the various tours we can choose (well  not us, since we are rather limited depending on accessibility).  It sounds much like the Gold Coast writ large, but doubtless it has its own curiosities.

So that filled up 45 minutes at 12:15-1.00pm, with the large theatre about one third full. 

John in the lido - we spend a lot of time there

These presentations can also be watched in our suites on TV.  Then it was time for lunch, sandwich and salad, but I couldn’t resist a bowl of vanilla ice cream – very popular with most of the guests.

Today we sat with a very pleasant English couple who flew to San Francisco to join the cruise back to Southampton, but often we are on our own.

Today we are preparing for tomorrow’s passage through the Panama Canal,  so a second feature was a 45 minute presentation by guest presenter Captain Larry Rudner.  The theatre was absolutely packed and I and many other seniors had to sit on the stairs.  Larry has passed through the Canal over 70 times so is a bit of an expert!  We saw him and his wife later and mentioned how much we enjoyed his talk.

Then it was back to the cabin to collect the dirty clothes on the off-chance one of the washing machines on our deck (6) was free.  I had to queue for about 45 minutes but eventually I was lucky enough to obtain both a washing machine and a dryer.  Success indeed. 

The ship will do laundry and ironing for us, but it costs $40 for 20 items, so I’d rather spend the money elsewhere.

We have been making great use of the library, so at 4.30pm, we took our books up to the Lido, rather than to the Winter Gardens where I find the lounge chairs so comfortable because it was exceedingly hot and humid.  We stayed there till tea time, and the power failed, probably because of the excessive heat.  The emergency lights came on and it was not yet dark, but it took about 30 minutes to fix the power.  The ship practically stopped  - hardly a ripple in the ocean – presumably to save power whilst the technicians were restoring the lighting and other power.  The evening meal was affected because it was about 20 minutes late.

Some of you will be wondering why we spend so much time in the bistro.  We have permanent seats in the dining room but we’ve been going less and less.  John gave up altogether about 10 days ago, and I occasionally go to the Britannia dining room on informal nights but never on a formal night – I simply don’t have the clothes.  John finds the service excessive (as do I) and he prefers a good honest meat and veg so we find the Lido far more accommodating and quicker if we want to go to bed and read, which is our preference most nights.  I always promise myself to go to the shows (a 45 minute variety type show at 8:15pm) but so far have gone only once.  We do get through a lot of books.

When we return to our "state room" - no balcony alas - the daily programme for the next day - generally 6 pages - is awaiting us together with a ship newspaper - we get the Australian version and each nationality seems to have their own - UK, America, France, Germany as far as I am aware.

I log on to the Internet 2-3 times per day, to download the Sydney Morning Herald and quickly read emails and Facebook, but watch the time because it is so expensive on board.  John worked out it is 350 times more expensive than at home.  No surfing the web for ancestors or looking up words or places or learning new web design skills – we have to constantly be on guard to save precious internet minutes.

Our stewardess Ingrid – a very hard working Argentinian with heaps of personality – comes in twice a day to do our room.  We often tell her not to bother in the evening, as long as I get my chocolates – she knows how partial I am to them.

None of the crew get a day off whilst they are on the ship, they all work split shifts too.  They say they get used to snatching sleeps when they can get them.  I did much the same in my 20s whilst travelling, but looking at them from my 60s, I wonder how they do it.  The room stewards in particularly work extremely hard, much more so that the wait staff who are often bored silly – and admit it.

So that’s our typical day at sea – watching the water, including sightings of land, ships, birds and dolphins;  eating a great variety of healthy food, trying hard not to be tempted by the cakes and puddings; drinking heaps of tea - the free coffee is dreadful;  and reading books and the Sydney Morning Herald on my tablet.

Other passengers would have an entirely different day – there are so many options to choose from – playing darts or trivia in the “English Pub”, sunbaking insensibly on the outdoor decks, engaging in tennis table competitions or dancing the night away. 

Such is life.  We are about 2/3 of the way through our 55 day voyage.  There are large numbers of passengers who are doing the whole world cruise from Southampton to Southampton via South America and Fiji to Sydney and back via NZ, San Francisco and Panama, and a not insubstantial number who are on their 4,5 or 9th world voyage.  I can't see us joining them!

Not so sunny San Francisco

John at Pier 39

Last time I was in San Francisco (2012) the weather was beautiful, but no so this time and it did more than make us wet!  In fact the ship broke its moorings, resulting in both the ramps breaking and falling down.  More of that later.

Caroline and baby Kent

Months ago, I got in touch with my cousin Caroline (a second cousin twice removed) whom I had stayed with two years ago.  She’s now had an addition to the family, a 13 month old named Kent after his father, and second name Nolan after his great grandfather, the apostle I’d met in Florida in 2009.  He’s the first boy in this generation which now numbers four great grandchildren for my cousin Shirley in Florida.  So John and I met them (Caroline and baby Kent) for lunch at the Hard Rock Café on Pier 39.  It was so nice to catch up with her and meet her toddler who appeared most bemused by this old couple from the other side of the world.

John and Marg at the Hard Rock cafe

Sea Lions

The weather was getting worse and worse so after finding and photographing the sea lions which have decided to make Pier 39 their home, we headed back to the ship.  We bumped into our American friends from Oregon who told us that no one could get on or off the ship.  We thought they were kidding us, but no.  We were sodden by then, despite the Hard Rock Café ponchos we purchased, and arrived at Pier 35 to find many passengers banked up – all with the same idea, to get back on board out of the rain as quickly as possible.  In fact it took another 90 minutes to do so.

One of my friends, Maxine described today what had happened.  During the early afternoon storm a strong gust of wind hit the ship and the bollards or whatever you call them holding some of the ropes bent, the ropes and the ship moved away from the dock.  This resulted in the ramps falling to the ground – luckily no one was on them at the time.  Maxine said it was quite frightening to watch. It made the local papers.

We were able to get on board after considerable queuing, with John having no problems.  One of the ramps was not a stepped stairway.  But later, having gone out again, I noted that that ramp had been replaced with a stepped stairway.

And the following morning, when John and I both attempted to disembark, only stepped stairways were available.  There were quite a number of wheelchair users on board, and they were mostly carried off in their wheelchairs if they couldn’t walk, but of course that was no use to John.  His wheelchair weighs 102 kg.  He was extremely cross and disappointed.  We couldn’t understand why they didn’t leave the ramp they used the day before to get everyone on.  We hope they don’t make a habit of this, or John won’t be able to get off anywhere!

Cable car

John had particularly wanted to go on a one hour ferry trip around the harbour and to see the cable car, even if he couldn’t ride it.

China Town Gates

But he said don’t let it spoil your day, so despite the dreadful weather – very heavy driving rain in patches of 30 minutes or so for most of the day – I caught the bus downtown.  They should call it uptown, it is so hilly.  The fare is just 75 cents and the same ticket can be used for about three hours.  I travelled through China Town and Union Square to Market and Powell Streets which is where the most popular cable car goes.  I found a Subway with half decent coffee (they don’t sell it after 11 am), found a very up market Westfields with a Bloomingdales department store, and then walked down to Macys where I had some Nut Pumpkin soup in a Boudin roll. Very nice.

Boudin roll and pumpkin soup at Macys

  I took advantage of the marvellous range of clothing and purchased three tops.  Tip: if you are in town from o/s they give you a 10% discount on top of any sale discounts.  I reluctantly bypassed their handbags this time after purchasing two in 2012.

Bookshop at New Beach

After this, despite the miserable weather I walked through the financial district and up to New Beach which is a student/hippy area and found a marvellous bookshop.  Not being satisfied with just one bookshop, I walked back to another bookshop in 2^nd Avenue.  Despite what many people kept telling me, there ARE still bookshops in San Francisco.  But the chain bookstores like Borders have certainly all closed down – too much competition from Amazon.

We had been hoping to meet up with another Moxon (well she was originally one), Dani from Paradise about two hours north, but the weather was too unpredictable, and in any case John was stuck on the ship.  And I couldn’t use the Internet – it turned out that everyone had trouble; Cunard’s server was down for some reason.

I used Macy’s free wi-fi whilst I was having lunch to catch up with my emails and the Sydney Morning Herald, but otherwise we were off-line for 36 hours.

Macys

American poverty is certainly on display in San Francisco – lots of obviously poor people in wheelchairs, some quite out of it, and others begging on the streets – not just black people either – all races.  On the other hand I did not see any indication of American wealth – too wet for the pampered classes to be out and about.

Over half the passengers (at least 1000) disembarked in San Francisco – lots of Americans of course but also Australians and Kiwis planning tours of the USA, and English flying home to the UK.  Many more people embarked of course, and this time a younger cohort.  The ship never seems crowded except in the lifts, there are so many places for people to entertain themselves or be entertained.

At 7.30pm we said goodbye to San Francisco and are now on our way to Costa Rica, and getting warmer every day.