Patrick turned up for his set ten minutes late and we laughed about Fay's lime accident before he began.  There was a quiz at 8pm.  They were doing this now, rather than the piano player working until people left for second sitting, which completely ruined the atmosphere.  Since the refit when they removed seats, it makes it harder to get one when first sitting explode into the pub for the quiz.  Then we went for dinner and I skipped dessert.  I was delighted to find outside the cabin my Platinum World Club status notification - woo!!!!!!!  My friend John was right when he told me a few months ago it would be delivered on the final night.  Next cruise I get priority embarkation and four hours free internet!  Well the internet's always handy, especially at those prices.  I'm still baffled how Voyages of Discovery can offer the exact same service but you get twelve hours for a mere £21.  Anyway, never having had a Gold card (still have my Silver one), I was even more thrilled to find a Platinum one inside the envelope.  The bars were annoyingly full when people should be in bed due to travelling home in the morning so we wandered around.  With even the Chart Room a bit rowdy, we decided to have an early night since it would be home before we knew it, despite putting the clocks back an hour.  But then we changed our minds, strolled around the very windy Prom deck (Observation was closed off, as was forward on the bow) then had a late snackette in Kings Court, which had a better selection than at lunch time!

And so after a fantastic cruise, Fay caught the 9.45am Red Jet home while I got the Hythe ferry with my dad (who had brought over some stuff for her).  Even before we left she was talking about doing something longer, maybe a back to back transat.  A few hygiene matters were cause for concern.  Back in 2011, the ship had a major outbreak of norovirus during my cruise (which thankfully I didn't catch though those in surrounding cabins did).  I mentioned in my review how you barely saw a cleaner until we arrived in Madeira.  Well here we were, a little over twelve months on and there were barely any sanitisers (most weren't using what was actually full) while tables were NOT wiped down when cleared in bars and the Kings Court.  That was about it really.  My dietary requirement was handled perfectly so I hope it will be each subsequent time I'm aboard and (at the time of writing) I have two forthcoming cruises (December 2012 and July 2013).  The main problem is they do not have an option for NO salt, only LO, which probably explains why my feet continued ballooning.  Other cruise lines manage it, even P&O, so why can't they when there are numerous people who have to have none due to health?  Mary is beginning to have the same effect on me Lizzie had and it's feeling like coming home whenever I sail on her now, just like 2006-2008 when I went on Lizzie.  Mary is a nightmare to navigate around when you're a first timer and it really needs a long cruise to suss out all her nooks and crannies, but she's wonderful.  Roll on December!!!!!

To see more photos of Celebrity Constellation in the English Channel, click on the here, while those of Balmoral and Oriana sailing with us can be found here.