| As I had an excursion in the afternoon, I had to find somewhere to buy a camera card in the morning. The weather was glorious after the start of the cruise. I took a picture of the forward bow cabins and mine's on the left. |
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| I decided to take the shuttlebus into Funchal which dropped us off at a stop opposite the marina and was told there was a photo shop a short walk away. I got chatting to an Irish woman who had flown in the day before to see the fireworks and said it was her first time. She was just off to explore but had left the camera in the hotel room. After buying the card I walked back so I could get photos of the area and ships. The weather certainly began to warm up and I found I'd forgotten my water. The tender from Albatros docked nearby as I was photographing. |
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| I saw we had been joined by Athena and wondered if anyone else had arrived as I photographed the glorious shippies! |
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| Anyone wanting to get back to Aurora, AIDAdiva or The World had to go through the fair which had absolutely no directions. Those for Thomson Destiny were right there. I made my way through and eventually came to a small gate. Then I had to go to the other side of the road before recrossing to the side I'd come from after asking some crew from The World if I was going the right way. When I reached the entrance the guard was on the road so I held up my onboard card and he waved me through even though I was quite some way from him. Not that I was complaining. Certainly saved time. |
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| I asked a couple of Germans from Diva to take a photo. My German is limited, having forgotten most of it since leaving school, but I did remember schiff was ship. What I actually wanted was a photo with all three in but they got the following. |
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| I bumped into Arthur and Jean who were coming the other way, having also seen Eric a little earlier, and Jean took the following couple of photos of me with the ships behind. They have shops along the quayside selling all sorts. As my mum's birthday was the day after we returned I was looking for a present but she's hard to buy for. In the end I settled on Madeira sweets and a honey cake. |
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| I stopped by Diva, fascinated by the man and woman in sailor suits their passengers have their photo taken with when they get off the ship. Much better than ours. We just had the gangway and looking at the photos in the gallery, how they let some through I have no idea. I asked if I could take a picture of them and they agreed. Then I got chatting to Vanessa, one of Diva's photographers. There were some really foul men on the balconies. One was over 50, fat, on the phone and stuck his hand down his trunks! Vanessa said often they don't realise we can see them. I asked if she got fed up going to the same places all the time. She said she did but was looking forward to moving across to AIDAbella. She was explaining to me about what looks like a cage on the top and how it's three decks of the theatre and said AIDA has a wonderful atmosphere onboard. This was also her first visit to Madeira and she was looking forward to tonight's festivities as well. She took a photo of me with the ship behind then I let her get on with her job but she was really nice to talk to. |
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| I went on deck to see Athena and what else was there as Black Watch was imminent and there she was anchored near her former Royal Viking sister! I was getting further and further into shippy heaven as I've always had a soft spot for them. All that was needed to make it perfect was Boudicca but she wasn't coming. |
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| I went to the observation deck before heading out for the Leisurely Madeira excursion to see if any other ships had arrived and saw Athena had now been joined by the equally adorable Princess Danae! The tender from Black Watch passed our bow. |
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| I got my sticker and headed for the coach where I met up with Betty again and sat together. Our guide was called Paula and Portuguese. Our first stop was the viewing point up the mountain where there were a couple of musicans as well as stalls set out which Betty got tempted by. What a wonderful place to see the ships! |
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| We all got back on the coach and Paula discovered two people had got on ours by mistake. I think they were from Black Watch. We headed up the mountain to a hotel in Eira do Serrado for something to eat. We would be here an hour. There was a shop which Betty didn't get tempted by. |
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| There was a narrow balcony overlooking a village below. It's very high but I braved it and felt quite pleased with myself. Then we had our coffee and meal. There was an elderly couple in their 80s at my table who had been married a year. She said her new husband had introduced her to cruising and she loved it. |
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| Afterwards we returned to the coach. It was pretty cold and as many of us had left the restaurant, the driver let us back into the coach to wait for the rest. We drove back down the mountain, stopping next to a church so we could get pictures from the coach, then back up the other side of the mountain to Monte to look at a monument. |
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| As we headed up the mountain, I saw Saga Ruby was arriving. We had a ten minute stop so after a quick shot of the monument, I walked back down the road to get photos of Ruby before reboarding. I hadn't quite been alone. A middle-aged woman joined me as the ships were more interesting to her too. |
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| As we headed back to the ship, the driver made a brief illegal stop so we could get a picture of the ships below, again from the inside of the coach, before we continued our descent and returned to the port at 5pm, where I took photos of Paula as well as Betty Parkinson. |
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| The deck 5 entrance had a massive queue so they opened up deck 4 for us to go through. This is the crew deck and they had a couple of plaques down there from first calls as well as official information about the ship, including her new registry details. |
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| Too many people wanted to use the lift so I went up the stairs. It was a bloody long way to get to deck 13 for photos of Ruby and see if Van Gogh had arrived but turned out to be quicker than using the lifts. |
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| I took the lift back down to deck 5 and returned to the cabin to make a start getting ready for dinner. It was formal night and I'd told Rowan I would wear the new dress she'd bought me for Christmas when I stayed with her in Plymouth back in July. Just before 6.15pm an announcement came that The World was moving from her berth to anchor and Black Watch would take her place. I shoved the Olympus in the bag as it was still daylight, dashed up to the Sun Deck trying to stop myself falling out of the dress and the shoe catching on my dress, failing at both miserably. As The World passed us, her passengers were shouting, "Happy New Year!" so we returned the gesture. Then the battery conked out and the spares were in my handbag so I was forced to use the new one and couldn't find how to turn the flash off so as she emerged the photos came out darker. |
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| I went back in and down and had my formal photo taken in front of the atrium before going up a deck to the Medina. Everyone seemed to be in the party mood and the restaurant, while still containing many empty seats, was busier than normal. I saw Black Watch moving but only managed to get her on video from my table as she passed. |
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| The menus had a Scottish theme but thankfully haggis was optional. Then we had the poem to the haggis by Robbie Burns. A woman blocking my view was complaining about someone blocking hers which I thought was two-faced. I didn't fancy the show so went to the cabin to phone home in case I didn't get a chance later. |
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| Time for the Syndicate Quiz, which would be fifteen questions tonight instead of twenty. Bumped into Eric on the stairs and gladly made my escape to the sanctuary of Karen and her parents. Isobel and Tommy joined us and a lot of regulars were absent. Apparently some people went on deck early to grab a place. Well much to our surprise, we won! I think it helped the swots not being there. We had twelve points and were into a tie-break with table 1 (Karen liked us being table 8) about when MOTs were introduced and were just a year out whereas they'd said sometime in the 1950s. Isobel and Tommy left before we got our prize. The usual bottle of wine was on offer but I'm not keen on that so we got champagne with Jon, the deputy cruise director who hosted the quiz, telling us to talk to him the next day so Isobel and Tommy received theirs. Alice spotted Eric talking to the entertainment team so told me to hide. There's a wall by the door so I hid there before realising if he didn't see me, he'd go after Karen so her mum told her to hide too. Hammy had the forethought to steer Eric to the door so he wouldn't pass and find us and when Eric asked where we were, Alice told him we'd gone to do our own thing. We got a shock when Jon suddenly appeared wanting to get to the cupboard we were blocking. His face was a picture as we put our fingers to our lips, trying to stifle the giggles, hoping he wouldn't give us away. He was a star and once Eric had gone said his girls are like that. So we got our bubbly, had pics taken, then went up on deck. |
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