2026 - Week 30 Wrap Up: On the Sea Again!

Well, I’m back! Seems odd that I took a “vacation” from blogging while at home and continuing to blog when I get back to vacation, but it is what it is. So, come along with me for the next few months as I travel around Europe!

Schedule

• Pre-Cruise Adventures

• Sunday, August 2: Embarkation Day!

• Monday, August 3: Portland, UK

• Tuesday, August 4: Falmouth, UK

• Wednesday, August 5: Dingle, Ireland

  
  

Pre-Cruise Adventures

Ugh, travel days tend to be the worst! With all good intentions, I tried my best to start adjusting to London time zone, but that just resulted in very little sleep the day before my flights. Oh well, hopefully that means that I’ll sleep longer on the Red Eye.

Arriving at the Detroit airport, I dropped my checked luggage and was in through security within 15 minutes, meaning I had time to waste before my flight actually boarded. So I did what normal people do, I went and found a chair, listened to a book, and played a game on my phone. For 3 hours.

When it was time to board, I was on and settled quickly, so back to my book and game. Since I purposefully did not sleep on the first flight, I think I made it to level 300 on a new game called Meowdoku. It’s like Sudoku, but with cats… As weird as that sounds, it’s actually pretty addicting. Anyway, landed in Charlotte, North Carolina for my layover. When I initially booked this trip, knowing how critical it was to make my connecting flight, I decided to go for the 5 hour layover vs a 2-hour layover, especially since I have lounge access. Because all flight things went to plan, I had the full 5 hours to spend in Charlotte. If I would have known things would go so smoothly, I would have lined up lunch with friends in the area, but alas, it was back to my book and game as I waited.

At last it was time to go find my gate to start my trip across the pond. One thing I made sure to do this flight was to watch for any special deals to upgrade to Business Class for the lay-down seats. When one came available, I booked it so I had a chance to get a good few hours of sleep before landing in London. Woo hoo!

After boarding, I tried all the different buttons and levers on the seat. It was great! I felt like a kid on an amusement ride! Next, I went through all of the little goodie bags that included a toothbrush kit, some lotions, eye masks, socks, and other stuff. Plus they provided noise-cancelling headphones that plugged into their entertainment system. I reviewed all of the movies they had available, which was quite a range to select from, but since it was already 8pm and I was hoping to be asleep for most to the flight, I decided to watch the flight information channel instead. It shows you where the plane was in the world, plus how many hours to go to the destination. There was other information, but that’s all I really paid attention to.

They served dinner. I chose the chicken with potatoes. It was as good as you are likely imagining airplane food to be. Once they cleared all the dishes, they turned down the lights, so I went to use the cute little toothbrush kit and get ready for some sleep! After settling in the flat seat, I could not figure out how to get comfortable, so I continued to listen to my book in hopes of eventually just falling asleep. That was a success as apparently I forgot to set the timer to pause the audio and woke up to have finished the book.

Waking up and having to rewind a bit of the book, I realized that I still had quite a few hours to go before we landed. Unfortunately, that meant that I only got about 3-4 hours of sleep. It was going to be a long day.

After landing and clearing customs, I grabbed my checked luggage. For this trip, knowing that I’ll need to hop on trains and walk through European cities for a month at some point, I packed “light”. By that, I mean I had one big bag, with everything in it. Yeah… it weighs like 45 lbs, but it converts into a backpack, which was nice, until I had to heft the bag onto my back with my smaller day pack on my front. I will be very strong by the end of this trip if I don’t find a way to lighten the load before the train portion starts…

To add to the adventure, the Underground happened to be closed for maintenance, so the route I had planned needed to be adjusted. Instead I would have to take a bus for about an hour to the nearest train station that connected to Southampton, which is where the cruise would leave from. Assuming I needed to go the bus station, I trudged along with over 50 pounds of luggage strapped on.

When I got to the station, I asked an attendant where to find the RailBus. Turns out, it departed from the terminal that I had just left. So I had to U-turn and go back to where I started. Eventually, I found the right spot, but was a bit concerned because the bus was scheduled to leave at 9:45am, but there was no one in site to load the bus nor were there any other passengers looking to get on. Shortly after, another bus showed up, but it was the one going to another train station. That driver was not helpful, saying he had no idea why the bus didn’t leave on time and he wasn’t going to call anyone. About 10 minutes later, someone showed up to drive the bus and we were off! I had the whole bus to myself, at least until the first stop where some others started to load.

The ride itself was uneventful and we made it to the train station without any further delays. However, the train to Southampton was running a few minutes late, which actually helped me because it gave me just enough time to buy my ticket and get to the right platform. Unfortunately for me, the platform was on the other side of the tracks from where I was standing, which meant that I needed to haul myself and my stuff up the stairs and across the bridge, down to the other platform. But I made it!

(Yes, at some point I did look to see how much it would cost just to Uber to my hotel in Southampton, but it would cost almost $200, so I kept going with the luggage.)

The train ride, like the bus ride, was uneventful. Best thing when traveling, but once I got to the Southampton station, I did decide to Uber since it was about a mile to the hotel. With everyone else that disembarked at the moment with tons of luggage, it took a while to get a car. Southampton is a major cruise port, so on the day I arrived, there was 4 ships embarking with 5 ships loading the following day, so there were people everywhere trying to get either to the port directly or get checked into their hotels.

Finally, I got a car! However, I didn’t realize there were two hotels with the same name in Southampton and I had picked the wrong one. Thankfully, it must be a common occurrence because the first thing the driver asked me was to confirm which location I wanted to go to. After fixing the drop point, we were on the way.

My hope was that even though it was just past noon, my room would be ready and I could get a nap before going to explore the city. That seemed to be the hopes of lots of other people and there were no rooms ready since lots of others were just checking out to get to the ships. After checking my luggage with the concierge, I headed out to find lunch.

Since we had just been to Southampton on the world cruise, I kind of knew where I was heading, but as I wandered, I suddenly saw the Duke of Wellington, which I recalled was notable for their Fish and Chips.

Once settled there, the two nearest tables turned out to be cruise passengers as well, with one table going to be embarking on the Vista as well! We got to chatting for a bit, but parted ways after lunch since their room was ready and I was still needing to spend another hour or so venturing.

Finally, it was time to check into my room and nap! Trying not to completely ruin my sleep schedule, I only allowed myself to sleep for an hour or so, which meant that I needed to go walk more to stay awake. My goal was to make it until 8pm London time, which seemed very odd since that was only 3pm Eastern time. However, I passed out very quickly shortly after 8pm and did not stir until the next morning.

Sunday, August 2: Embarkation Day!

Whew! Two very long days to even get to Embarkation Day! But I made it!

Once at the port, check-in was simple. We dropped bags with the porters and headed to get our passports checked. I had my room key in hand and was through security within 10 minutes of arrival. Very different experience than the Miami check-in for the World Cruise, which took about 3-hours.

Typically, cabins aren’t available until after 3pm for the same reason as hotels, the cabin stewards are working as quickly as possible to clean them all after the prior passengers disembarked, so I headed to get my standard lunch order at Waves grill. (For those reading this to prepare for your next cruise, keep this in mind and pack whatever you want for day one, like a bathing suit, in your carry-on bag to the ship since you may not get your checked back for a while after boarding.)

Not really knowing how many of the crew would be the same as when I disembarked in Miami about a month earlier, I was not too surprised that there were quite a few still onboard. It was fun to feel the warm welcome back by lots of familiar faces! Plus, I had a Coke Zero delivered almost as soon as I sat down!

After lunch, it was pool time. Having a warm sunny day in England is very unusual, so I was going to take full advantage of it! That and because my cabin wasn’t ready yet. I had started   another audio book, while enjoying the sunshine. These books are a two part series with the first called The Irish Boarding House followed by Return to the Irish Boarding House. Whenever I’m traveling, I try to find books that are based in the areas that we’ll be visiting. As you may be able to guess, these books were set just outside of Dublin, Ireland, which will be a stop on this cruise.

My phone dinged with a text alert. One of the best parts of the first segment of this cruise is the guest entertainers are some of my favorites from the World Cruise! If you’ve kept up with this blog for the past 6 months, you may recall the Magician (J. Alexander) from the African segment and Just John and Paul from the European segment. I had known they would be on as well, so we had planned to meet up once onboard. The text was from one of them, letting me know they were checking in.

Once we all had a chance to catch up, we headed our separate ways to get settled in. I had booked a French Veranda guaranteed room, which means that I don’t get to pick my cabin, but I’ll at least be assigned a room of that category or above. A week or so prior to embarking, I saw that my cabin had been assigned. Turns out, they gave me a room on the 8th deck with a full balcony! Although, with this port heavy itinerary, I’m a bit doubtful that I’ll take advantage of it for the next week or so. For those wondering what the benefit of a guaranteed room is, other than possibly getting a significant upgrade for free is that it’s typically much cheaper and generally results in the less desirable rooms. However, my cabin is very nice!

The only issue with the cabin is it’s exactly the same as the one I had for the world cruise, but it’s 100% mirrored. So light switches are on the opposite side that I’m used to. The closet is on the right side instead of the left. The couch faces opposite the direction of travel, etc. I’m sure I’ll get used to it eventually, but the immediate reaction is constant confusion.

After a quick unpack and shower, I headed to dinner! One thing most people don’t know is to book a specialty restaurant on embarkation day. Normally it is less busy and you’re able to get an earlier reservation. With that, I headed to my favorite restaurants onboard - Jacques!

Even though I had selected a shared table, the Maitre D knows that often I prefer to eat alone as it’s much quicker most times. With the restaurant not being too busy, he was able to grant this and I was able to get my three course dinner from start to finish in about 45 minutes. (Yes, this is considered quick on the ship.) At Jacques, my favorites are to start with the crab cake, followed by the escargots served in a garlic butter sauce, which I use to dip their amazing rustic sourdough bread in. For the main course, I typically get the Filet Mignon, but am known to change it up from time to time. However, today, I stuck with my favorite.

Following dinner, I went to meet up with the other world cruisers who are still on the ship. They were required to disembark in Miami like everyone else, but they rejoined in New York and will be on until Southampton, like me. After catching up with them, I headed to the evening entertainment.

I will admit that while I was off the ship, the evening entertainment was probably one of the top things that I missed. It is really nice to have such variety of shows each night, even though I have seen all the shows that will be performed on this segment already. Tonight’s show is called Stage Door Dreams, which is the Broadway songs performed by the Production Singers.

After the show, I headed to Horizons lounge on Deck 14 to listen to the new party band and then went to bed waaaay to late.

Monday, August 3: Portland, UK

Coming into Portland, I woke up extra early to see the Portland Bull lighthouse, which means that I’m starting off the day sleep deprived. However, I think it was worth it! And it gave me a chance to get a coffee at Baristas before the day could really get started!

Today, we were thankfully docked instead of anchored, requiring the use of tenders, so I was able to get ready and go as soon as I wanted. Also, there was a free shuttle offered to take us to Weymouth city center. After reviewing the options near the port, I decided this was the best option for the morning and headed out.

The bus dropped us off around 8:30am, well before any of the shops opened, but it was near a beach, so I started to just walk the path along the waters edge. And then I kept walking and walking, eventually crossing through neighborhoods and exploring less populated areas. This city is so friendly and pretty! There were also quite a few arcades along the beach, but I didn’t actually play anything. Yes, I’m as surprised as you are! However, I didn’t have the proper coins to play this time around.

Eventually, I found my way to Nothe Fort, which was built in 1872 and was active through the Cold War, acting as a nuclear bunker, if needed. While the fort is very similar to most other forts, one of the exhibits explained how they used lifts to move the 800-pound cannon bullets from the lower level to the gun level. It was interesting to learn how they used a pulley system to load the bullets since a single person could not lift it. Also, these were the biggest cannons that I’ve ever seen!

Back at the marina, I met up with the others for a pint or two at a local pub. One thing England is known for is Cask Beer. I’ve learned that some people have never heard of this, but it’s typically unfiltered, uncarbonated, and served “warm". However, warm is just relative to typical Draft beer because it’s actually served at Cellar temperatures, which are cool, but not as cold as refrigeration. At the bar we were at, I tried both the cask IPA and lager. Both were very tasty!

The weather turned out to be perfect. The sun was shining. The air was in the 70s (maybe 80s). We sat outside, enjoying the atmosphere, which included a lot of people and dog watching. Eventually, we realized it was time to grab the last shuttle to the ship and headed back.

After a bit of a nap, I went to my second favorite restaurant on the ship, the Pizzeria! Here, I was about to eat alone again, but just as I was ordering, the Future Cruise Consultant who I got to know on the world cruise walked in with his sister. Joining them, we had a fun time catching up. Seems a bit odd to be “catching up”  with so many people as I was only off the ship for about 3 weeks, but a lot happened in those weeks!

Next up was the evening show - Headliners, which is a Production show with the Singers and Dancers. Once again, I was front row, taking photos, just like ol’ times. And once again, I ended the night in Horizons, staying up past my normal bedtime, continuing my sleep deprivation.

Tuesday, August 4: Falmouth, UK

Tendering day… We were told that the bulk of the excursions would be starting after 8am, so if you were an independent traveler, best to get there closer to 7am to beat the rush. Dutifully, I was in the theater with about 8 others. We were still there about 30 minutes later, waiting to be sent to the first boat. Once on the tender, it was held for another 15 minutes or so before departing. I had a nice little window seat (actually lots of people get window seats on the tenders, so not special…) but it allowed me to watch as the castle that I thought I could walk to from the pier get further and further away. Just then, over the radio, we heard the following conversation:

“Ship to Tender #”,

“Go ahead for Tender #”,

“YOU ARE GOING THE WRONG WAY!”

Full stop. Bobbing in the water as they figured out where exactly they were supposed to be heading. Turns out, we docked within walking distance to the castle after all.

With all the delays, we arrived to the pier a bit after 8am. The castle didn’t open until 10am, but I had planned to walk the trails near the cliffs and possibly find a coffee shop as there were three noted on Google Maps on my route. After trekking for about an hour, I still had yet to find coffee. Google also noted the restaurant on the castle grounds opens at 9am, so I wandered around to find it. Turns out, it’s inside the castle walls, which doesn’t open until 10am. Sigh…

With another hour to wait, I decided to take the “Moat Walk”, which is exactly as you think: a full loop around the castle walls along the moat. However, the moat is no longer full of water, so it’s like a big ditch.

Once back at the main gate, a line (or queue) was starting. Today, a Jousting Festival was starting and lots of people were coming early to get a good spot. I was hurried because by this point I needed a restroom and coffee. Inside the gate, the restroom was the first stop, but then instead of coffee, I headed to explore the main castle building, assuming it would get busy once everyone settled their blankets and chairs.

The inside was like many castles, dark and stoney. However, at the cannon level, they had one pointing directly at our cruise ship! I took the obligatory photos and videos, shared on my social media, and then went to get coffee!

Okay, coffee was postponed again because there was a guy eating fire. Yes. He lit a special stick on fire and then put it in his mouth, extinguishing the flame. Obviously, this took priority over caffeine. Eventually the show started to slow down, so once again, picked up the coffee mission. Being second in line, I thought it would be a quick stop. BUT their register was not working correctly and they were working to restart and troubleshoot the issue. Not being one to wait in lines, I left to head back to town, in search of coffee.

There was this giant ferris wheel in the harbor! (Yes, sometimes I’m easily distracted and amused.) It got me wondering again about why Toronto, Ontario does not have a permanent ferris wheel. They always bring one in for the CNE festival, but then take it down again. Seems like a great city to install one, similar to Montreal and London. I digress…

Back to the coffee! Success was almost immediate as I turned the corner to find a cute little shop. Woo hoo! Time for lunch…

Lunch was much easier to obtain as there was a bakery next door that sold Pasty’s which are well known to the Cornish region. I asked for a recommendation as there were far too many to choose from. The helpful attendant suggested Creamy Chicken and he did not steer me wrong! It was fantastic! To add to the experience, I got to eat it from the bag, sitting on some steps by the harbor, staring down the gulls to ensure they didn’t attack my face. Yep, still fantastic!

Naturally, after coffee and lunch, a pint was on the menu. I continued down the harbor front until the rain started. With it pouring down, my decision on where to stop was Made as I ducked into the closest pub, which happened to have a nice comfortable bench to plop onto as I had been a bit exhausted by that point. Apparently the coffee had yet to kick in.

Eventually, one of the entertainment guys joined me and once the rain stopped, we headed for a stroll through the cute little town. There were lots of clothing shops and antique alleyways, but the best part were little flag streamers that zigzagged above the streets, like a festival was coming to town.

Getting back to the tenders to make it to the ship, we grabbed a quick dinner at Terrace and headed to see the other guys (aka The Beatles) perform! I wish I could say that bed followed at this point, but alas, peer pressure kicked in and I headed to Horizons to finish up the night; way too late once again…

Wednesday, August 5: Dingle, Ireland

Thankfully, we didn’t anchor until 11am, giving me a chance to sleep in! While I still woke up at 6am, I dozed on and off until about 9, when I finally convinced myself to get up and go get some breakfast since the excursion meet time was before lunch would be served.

My favorite omelet guy was working the grill. (Yes, I have a favorite omelet guy. Doesn’t everyone?!?) And one of my favorite waiters was working the section I sat in, so needless to say, I had fantastic service! And a lot of coffee…

Realizing that I hadn’t even started writing this blog yet, I went back to my cabin to try to catch up, but I had barely finished the first entry before it was time to pack up and head to the theater to get my tender number assigned. (Yes, I had planned to continue to publish on Wednesday, but this port forward itinerary is proving it to be difficult to keep up with daily updates to be ready to post on time.)

Once in the theater, it was very obvious that they were behind schedule for the tendering process as it was packed! They had only announced Group 1 to go and I was given Group 10. In addition to the excursions, they also hand out color tickets for those not on an Oceania excursion. They had yet to release any independent guests either. So I found a seat and started playing a game. For those of you who haven’t quite caught on, my favorite way to pass time is playing silly games on my phone.

While I was sitting there, someone came up from behind, calling my name. It was another passenger from the world cruise! He and his wife were on the first two months around South America, so once again, I found myself catching up with old friends.

Time continued to tick, ever so slowly, on. As they called, groups 2 & 3. Then a few colors. Then groups 4 & 5. Then a few colors. Then groups 6, 7 and 9. Yes, 9 because there really isn’t a 9, but many people have gotten confused between 6 and 9, so they just call both at the same time. Then 8 and a few colors. And finally, group 10! Only an hour or so later than planned…

While we were waiting to get called, there was a Code Mike over the PA system, which means medical alert. This becomes important because after my group loaded onto the tender, we were held for a bit longer. Turned out that we got to act as the ambulance for the unfortunate lady who was injured enough to have to be taken to shore for further medical evaluation.

Benefit of not being the first tender out was that the pilot knew where to go today… however, it was a bit of a long ride to shore. I was not facing forward, so the nice lady across from me kept giving me updates on the fact that she could not see a dock anywhere. The ride took about 40 minutes to complete.

At shore, once the patient was offloaded from the tender, the rest of us headed up the dock to the awaiting buses. We climbed up and found our seats quickly, anxious to get the day started (just a few hours late). However, the real ambulance was blocking the bus lane and we continued to wait. As we sat there, I continued to calculate if I should stay put since I was expected at dinner at 7pm. Given it was already after 2pm by this point, with a 4-hour excursion, and a 40-minute tender ride, the math was not looking in my favor, especially if I wanted to get a shower in beforehand. I almost just called it and got off the bus, but decided the sheepdogs were worth it. The excursion description had the sheepdogs before the museum, so I figured, worst case, I could grab a taxi back to the pier after the sheepdog demonstration.

Finally, the path was cleared and we were off! As we drove, the guide described the itinerary for the day, including that we were actually starting at the museum and then the sheepdog demonstration. Worry started creeping in more as there went my option to grab a taxi back earlier. Added to that, she also said that the road that the demonstration and the museum were on is a one-way circle road and since we were doing the museum first, we’d end up having to go around twice… meaning added time.

After a bit of time on the circle road, the bus pulled over for a photo op. Only about a quarter of the bus decided to get off to take a photo. Once they were back on, the guide announced that we were actually at the demonstration stop, so we should all get off since it made more sense to complete this task first. (Yay for logic!) We crossed the road and headed through the gate, but then everyone started turning back. We actually were not at the sheepdog stop. We had passed it just a kilometer or so before. With a one-way road, we could not go backwards and reloaded on the bus to continue on to the museum.

Without another photo stop, we made it to the museum, which is actually called the Blasket Centre. It’s focused on the Blasket Islands, which have been uninhabited since 1953. While I didn’t quite catch all the details, what I found interesting was why they are now uninhabited. It has nothing to do with what you may think, like weather or natural disaster. Basically, as people  moved away, often times to America, they would send photos and letters home, describing how great their lives were, which lead to more and more of the younger generations moving away. Over time, the average age of the population increased to a point where they could no longer sustain life as there was not enough people to maintain farms or fishing boats. Sadly, that meant that the remaining inhabitants had to make the impossible decision of moving from the only home they’d ever known or die of hunger. As you may have guessed, they packed up and moved to the mainland, leaving many structures and belongings behind.

Other than the museum itself, they offered a nice walking path down to the cliffs where you could get a good view of the islands and of the shoreline in general. As this was our first stop in Ireland, it gave us a beautiful view of the dramatic, green cliffs that dropped right into the aqua blue water below.

Back on the bus, I continued my calculations about how long it would take to get back to the pier as we were headed away from the sheepdogs on the one-way road. Still not quite coming up with the same time that the guide gave us, but at this point, I’m having to rely on them, while also constantly checking the clock.

When houses and landmarks started looking familiar again, I got excited as that meant that we were at least past the initial starting point on the circle road. Sure enough, it wasn’t too much longer before the bus pulled off into a very, very small parking lot. He continued to maneuver the large coach until he was told that there was a better parking lot down the road, so off we were, back onto the circle road. I could really think about was what happens if he misses the stop? Would we need to go all the way around again?? But he did not pass the stop, so we offloaded with me bringing up the rear.

Since I was the last off the bus, I didn’t get to hear what was said and just followed the crowd up a pretty steep hill. At the top of the hill was an old house. I do not know the significance of this house, but it was obviously old. It also had these very creepy mannequins staged around the property. The one in the upper attic window startled me the most, but the old lady near the fire takes the prize for scariest.

Turns out, the sheepdogs were down at the bottom of the hill, with the baby lambs and goats. Once we were all back down, they lead us over to another pasture where a herd of sheep were waiting. The farmer explained that he uses two dogs, but teaches one Irish and the other English. That way when he yells his commands, only one of the two react. This way he can control them to move the herd as he sees fit. The dog that understood English (Rosa) was only 1.5 years old. Typically it takes about 3 years to fully train a dog, but this one was ahead of the curve. The only issue was she only chose to listen some of the time, often running after the herd while the farmer yelled for it to SIT!

Watching the sheep run from the dogs was entertaining as it seemed that they naturally lined up in a grid, charging forward. At one point, when Rosa wasn’t quite listening, she drove the group directly towards the humans. I was one of the ones in the direct line of fire, so I dodged a bit to get out of the way.

After the demonstration, we loaded back on the bus, so that I could again start the calculations of what time I might be able to get to dinner. The nice guides told us not to worry because they extended the tenders by another hour. While I know they were trying to be helpful, that did not alleviate my concerns of a 7pm reservation. I also continued to feel a bit snobbish as I tried to explain that my reservation was at a Special Specialty restaurant, not just the normal Specialty restaurants. Oh goodness, I can’t imagine how I sounded to all the others who weren’t familiar with the Privée onboard.

The driver went the wrong way down the circle-road, saving us about 30 minutes of driving. Turns out the one way thing is kind of a guideline and not a requirement. That or it’s just not enforced. Either way, we were back at the pier by 6pm! Meaning I got on the first available tender and back on the boat by 6:40p. Dashing up the stairs (yes, I decided 4 flights of stairs would be faster than the elevator), I got to my cabin, jumped into the shower, and was ready to dash to dinner almost exactly at 7pm!

Oh, I forgot to mention that as the bus pulled into the pier area, I saw two of the other dinner guests still out at a pub, which immediately did two things - One: took the pressure off of me rushing and Two: got me worried that the reservation had been changed. The reservation was not changed, they just were not as afflicted by schedule pressure as I am. Not surprisingly though, I beat them to the restaurant! Although, it was only by just a few minutes.

Dinner itself was amazing! At the Privée, you get to choose from the Polo Grill and Toscana menus, including the option to mix and match from both. Since I’m not a huge fan of Italian food, most of my meal came from Polo, but I was a little jealous when I saw the Future Cruise Consultant had picked my favorite Pesto Gnocchi.

The company was also phenomenal! Along with the Future Cruise Consultant, the party consisted of his sister, the Magician, the Beatles Brothers, and another couple from the World Cruise. The FCC and I may have been planning this since I booked the cruise a month or so ago. I cannot imagine how loud we were as the laughter must have escaped into the other rooms even though we were in a private room at the back of the ship.

The meal wrapped up shortly after 9pm, giving us enough time to sneak into the Anchor Inn show, which is my favorite of the production crew shows. Once again, with a bit of peer pressure, I headed back to Horizons to finish the evening.

And that's it for this update. Yes, I realize that it was very long, which is why I decided to publish just through the 5th, even though it's already the 9th. Well, that and because I'm just finishing writing it...