More on board pictures.

Library and adjacent shop, forward on Deck 8 Canyon Ranch Spa at Sea. Part of the Canyon Ranch Spa, forward on Deck 7. My intention is to make use of some of the facilities on offer during the next 17 sea days. Exiting the Canyon Ranch Spa complex, the adjacent Carinthia Lounge offers a ship-wide comfortable and stylish area to relax and enjoy light snacks as well as the usual drinks from the bar and speciality coffees. Live music, usually at around 5pm adds to the pleasure of spending time here, possibly engrossed in a novel. Keep moving further along and enjoy the “everybody everywhere” bustle of the Kings Court. From the early hours to 2am the following morning, the widest selection of excellent cuisine is available at early and late breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, snacks in between, dinner, and even a hot and cold range available to when most people are fast asleep. There are still guests and personnel around at that time, justifying staying open until the early hours. Night staff ensure all is ready for reopening in just a few hours. The Kings Court during lunch. These recent blogs were a belated effort to describe more effectively what it has been like travelling by ship to and from Australia and New Zealand. Throughout the voyage, I have enjoyed the convivial company at dinner of Martin and Jan, Nick and Geraldine, Wilf, who, like me was travelling alone as far as Sydney, and latterly, Joe and Joyce, two “fun” ladies who joined our table around 10 days ago, also on the complete world voyage. Generally, during the day, we “do our own thing”; after dinner we sometimes meet at the nightly show, or a movie, but rarely, all seven of us. On this 83rd day, being on here for so long has turned this voyage into a kind of temporary way of life, far removed from the more familiar two or three weeks’ holiday each year. When the brief but inevitable spells of cabin fever manifest themselves, I remind myself of my unbelievably great fortune to be cruising the “pages of a National Geographic magazine”, rather than wrestling with the abject discomforts of what has possibly been the worst winter since 1963. In the scheme of things, few people have it so good. Again, many thanks for reading. Best wishes, David.