Friday March 16 sail away 

We cab it to Freemantle and check in. Very efficient, my worst fears not eventuating: "Sorry, Mr McLeod, we don't seem to have a valid booking under your name"

"But, we were offered a refund if we gave up our special cabin and took a smaller one!"

"I can see that you did have a special cabin, but that was cancelled.... Sorry."

Anyway, all went to plan and we are given cabin A002 - the forward-most cabin on the port side, good balcony, plenty of room, fridge, TV, lounge, all the good stuff.

After unpacking all our stuff (Still too much!!), we head off to explore the ship, and later, we go to dinner to meet our new dinner companions. Two nice British couples, one of whom had flown from UK to Perth just yesterday to catch the boat back to Southhampton.

Saturday March 17th - at sea

Bands. Not much to say really... the one duo I've seen so far - guy on synthesizer with electronic backing, woman singing, is of the usual ship standard: awful. 'Nuff said.

Three times around Deck 3 (Promenade deck) is one mile. I manage 9 laps this morning.

Sunday March 18th - at sea


A very good theatre on the boat - plush seats, steeply raked, for good viewing.
Good PA system. Look forward to seeing some shows here.
Promenade laps today: 6 + 85 steps back up to our cabin up on Deck 8.

Monday March 19th 2012 - at sea
Laps:6 Steps:85

Spend the day getting lost on the boat in two of the three dimensions. Up and down the decks, bow to aft is confusing (I have to keep looking out the windows at the water to see which way we are going) - but port to starboard seems to be OK.

Tuesday March 20th 2012 - Bali
Laps:0 Steps:0

We anchor about 20 minutes from the Bali dock. Impressive! P&O have tendered 1200 people from ship to shore by 11:00 am. Very fast. I remenber the Princess took 8 hours to get 1500 passengers from the ship to the Port Arthur dock a couple of years ago. Seems to be quite well organised this boat!

Su decides she doesn't want to go ashore. I grab the tender from the ship to the local port. The free shuttle bus takes us passengers straight past the army of local Bali vendors desperate to prise my money away from me ("Foiled! Ha Ha!") and, after a 20 minute drive, the bus dumps us about two blocks from the beach. It drizzels. After a quick walk along the beach, I return to the shuttle bus and head back to the ship.
Bali - crumbling infrastructure, waterways clogged with rubbish, rotting piles of garbage piled up in tottering pyramids, mad traffic, a few mangy dogs, skinny or ugly enought to have avoided the local delicacies menu.... Not my favourite place in the world.

Wednesday March 21st 2012 - at sea
Laps:6 Steps:85

We check out the bands... there's a very good piano based trio which provides all the strict tempo ballroom music during the day and then lets-off steam at nights up on deck.  

Thursday March 22nd 2012 - at sea
Laps:6 Steps:85

Go and watch the "Killer Queen" show, "Spectacular" Music completely studio produced into some kind of musical - OK if you like that sort of thing. Some lead vocals live, but all the Queen multichorus vocals are pre-recorded. A big disappointment. Why did I expect anything else??

Friday March 23rd 2012 - Singapore
Laps:6 Steps:85

Having discounted our fares so heavily, P&O can only afford to pay for a berth at the remote Singapore container port, so we get bussed into a local shopping centre from there....

Managed to buy a few essentials (tonic water, handwash) Didn't find an internet cafe, went back on board fairly promptly. Sigh! Getting bored with visiting Singapore...


Saturday March 24th 2012 - Kuala Lumpur (Hapy Birthday, Olive)
Laps:6 Steps:85
Sigh! Getting bored with visiting Malaysia... we stay on board and read our Kindle Apps.

Sunday March 25th 2012 - Langkawie
Laps:6 Steps:85

Got off today in Langkawie to see if I could find my camera I left two years go in a little bar.

A little bit early for the bars to be open, so we amused ourselves pretend shopping in all the craft shops and then ate a tolerably good pizza, rolled out to the thinnest specifications I have ever seen!

Returned to the bar and told the sorry story of leaving my camera behind two years ago. Surprisingly, they said they didn't have it! The two barmen turned to look at each other, slapped their thighs and even laughed out loud, when I suggested it might be up on a shelf behind them somewhere! Left a very small tip!

Langkawie is a real change from Bali - neat, clean and pretty cheap. Enjoyed the short time here.

Monday March 26th 2012 - at sea
Laps:5 Steps:85 (Deck partially closed off)

Went to the "Live - Swing Music Spectacular" in the theatre, not expecting too much. Surprise! A live swing band - trumpet, trom, tenor and alto sax, bass, drums, piano. Only a little electronic backing in some songs and a good, tight, driving sound.

The singers and dancers performed solidly, but the singers particularly, were on a hiding to nothing. Trying to emulate the singing persona's of the best vocalists of the 20th century - Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jn - was bound to invoke unfavourable comparison. After all, they are really dancers, not singers.

Tuesday March 27th 20121 - at sea
Laps:6 Steps:85

We've decided that we need to get to wherever in Europe we are going to settle, as soon as possible. After all, if we are based in Italy, there are few locations that are more that an hour or two by air.

So, rather than carting 70kgs of luggage around Africa, we can just pack a small case and spend a week or ten days travelling light. So, today was spent looking for a way to get from Capetown to Europe. Managed to find a cruise that leaves Capetown on May 6th and ends at Dover. As our safaris finish on May 1st, this seems ideal. The ship is with the cruise line we all love to hate - Princess line.

As both P&O and Princess cruiselines are owned by Carnaval, I thought that, ever the optomist, it might be possible to book the Princess cruise through P&O. After an hour of trying to link into Princess' system, the Future Sales officer gave up. She did manage to find out that the cruise was fully booked and the waitlist was about 60 people long, but she couldn't add my name to the list, because she could not get the computer past the question "What size dining table would you like to sit at? 2, 4, 6 or 8 people?"

I decided not to bother persuing this line of action. Undaunted, I went on line and booked a balcony cabin direct through www.VacationsToGo.com

Saw the "Merseys" tonight, comprising the lead singers from "The Merseybeats" and the "Rockin Berries" in a nostalgic 1960's concert. Pretty good.

Wednesday March 28th 20121 - at sea
Laps:6 Steps:85

Formal dining dress code this evening. This means we don't go to the dining room as I didn't pack my tuxedo....