Madeira to the Caribbean

After two days at sea, relaxing and unwinding and familiarizing ourselves with the ship, we were invited to the Captains Welcome Cocktail Party, where the Captain introduced himself and his team and pointed out that this unique cruise is the first P & O cruise to Alaska for 40 years.

After a good trip from Southampton, including the Bay of Biscay, (calm), we arrived in Madeira at 12.00 noon, where we went ashore and walked through the town, towards the hotel Porto Santa Maria (where we stayed two years ago) and had afternoon tea in the gardens. We then walked through the Old Town to the Market Square, being quite busy because it was Friday, where we tasted many exotic fruits, prior to buying some to take back to our cabin. Half way to the cruise ship we went into panic mode – we were not quite sure whether we would be allowed to take them on board. We also bought a beautiful bunch of orchids, anthuriums and proteas for the cabin. On the way back to the ship we stopped off in the main square for refreshments and to people watch.

After returning to the ship with all our purchases (which thankfully we were allowed to take on board), we decided to get changed and went into the Old Town to have dinner at one of our favourite Funchal Restaurants (the Portao). The owner made us very welcome and we had an extremely enjoyable meal, with many complimentary glasses of madeira Wine and Brandy following which we caught a taxi back to the ship to enjoy the sail away party on deck.

After leaving Madeira we were faced with five days at sea, so we are glad we have joined the Art class and Craft class. This makes the morning go quicker. Not sure if our painting skills are improving, but at least we are enjoying it.

Needless to say Doreen is enjoying the evening meals, where she can dress up in one of her “many” outfits she has brought with her.

We are now on our third formal evening, which was themed a “Black and White” and included a another Portunus Club cocktail party (free drinks all round), where we joined our friends Tom and Jackie (who we met on our last year’s Caribbean Cruise) and had a good evening.

We have now finished our Atlantic crossing and are looking forward to four hectic days ashore in Antigua/St. Maarten/St. Lucia and Barbados, which we will cover on a future blog.