Day 89 9th April 2011

Our drinks party went well with a full cabin. We had many people sitting on the bed since there was not enough room to be anywhere else. We were lucky that it was very calm if the ship had been moving it might have made things difficult. We had asked room service for ice and lemon slices but they did not arrive so not everything works on the ship.

We started today with queuing to be seen by British immigration. The process only took a few minutes but queuing took far longer. They always carry out these operations in the Alexandria restaurant which is probably the least accessible space on the ship so we have to queue then take a lift, enter the restaurant through the door everyone else is leaving and then rejoin the queue. This is the first time on a cruise we have had to go through UK immigration on the ship. We can only assume the rules have changed or they treat longer voyages differently. Anyway we can now enter the UK.

We gained another hour at 12am so we are now at GMT-1 or two hours behind British summer time. It is another warm day with little breeze and a calm sea. We felt compelled to start packing so one suitcase is now done. Chris went to see the film Black Swan which she described as a load of old twaddle while I watched the live broadcast of the Manchester United versus Fulham game.

It is another formal night and I cannot escape the view that they are trying to pack as many of them in as possible. We have one more day at sea tomorrow before we arrive in Ponta Delgada on Monday.