9 May, 2018 Greetings from the English Channel! Today is the last day of the 2018 Full World Cruise. It is a sad day, because we have loved our experience on the Queen Elizabeth! When we boarded on 20 of January in Ft. Lauderdale, the length of the World Cruise stretched in front of us and seemed to be so long. I can tell you that the time went extremely quickly, and all of us are shocked that the cruise is coming to an end. We've done so many amazing things on this cruise and visited amazing ports, but, best of all, made such wonderful friends:

Lin and Brian

Ann

Yumi-san and Kumi-san

Pam and Peggy

Pat and Michael

Paul and Andy

Edwina

Louise

Alan

Isabel and Jim

Old Bryan

Vincent and Rosita

and many more great folks with whom we have spent time.

A highlight was when our dear friend, Chuck, met us in Osaka and sailed with us to Singapore. We love him like a brother! We also had the opportunity to spend quality time with old friends Randall and Bobby, who will be doing the crossing with us on the Queen Mary 2.

San Francisco was special because dear friends Brian and Gary spent the weekend with us in the city and came onboard, and Chuck flew up from Palm Springs to see us and out son, Ben, came to spend time with us from Los Angeles.

We snorkeled in Bora Bora, walked on suspension bridges in a national park in Australia with good friends Terry and Kerry, drank wonderful wine in New Zealand, ate sushi and tempura in Osaka, survived a Tuk-Tuk tour in Sri Lanka, enjoyed the beaches of the Seychelles, Mauritius, and Reunion,came up close and personal with elephants on a safari in South Africa, and completed a bucket list activity by doing the toboggan run Funchal, Madeira. Incredible times and experiences!

I suppose I should take you back to the first of 8 sea days that began on the 29^th of April. Please understand that the sea days flow into one another. I can tell you that we did view lectures, chatted with friends in a variety of venues including the World Cruise Lounge, read, played cards, stitched and had a relaxing time. Certain things stand out:

Shook our heads at magician, Mark Shortland, who guessed the shape of a drawing with incredible accuracy without seeing the drawing.

Cheered 4 Crossing the Equator Ceremonies

Watched two amazing crew talent shows. Cunard has some very talented crew, and the awe inspiring thing is that they have so little free time to rehearse. We saw a precision dance team of 12 employees who put the Cunard dancers to shame!

Laughed with comedian Roy Walker, who, evidently, is a familiar face among the British guests onboard, but who was new to us.

Read some engrossing books, and in total, I have read well over 20 books on this cruise.

Friday 4 May, was the World Voyage Charity County Fayre, with games including a “Dunk the Officer” game, a white elephant stall, a book stall, yummy food, hand writing analysis, and an auction where a ship's chart went for over $7000. Our friends Paul and Andy bid and won the ability to blow the ship's horn at noon. Lots of fun, and I came away with a $1 suitcase which came in very handy while packing.

5 May, found us in the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. This was a new port for us, and it is the largest and most populated island of the 7 Canary Islands (by the way, a popular trivia question is: The Canary Islands are named for what animal?” Hint—it is not canaries. The answer is dog, and we got it right!). Tenerife is part of Macronesia, and about 5 million tourists visit it annually, especially British tourists. It is a volcanic island and lots of jewelry for sale on craft tables was made from lava. This day was a great day for walking, we did over 12,000 steps! We initially took the shuttle from the ship to downtown, and walked all over the old part of the city. Eventually we found the African Market that has been a market for locals to buy produce, poultry, meat, fish, seafood, baked goods and gorgeous flowers for many, many years. The flowers were gorgeous and the produce looked terrific! It was a festival day, and children were getting their faces painted and given balloon animals. There was a gigantic cake that was being cut and passed out to visitors, and a huge cross made of flowers and vegetables. We went into a supermarket in the lower level and found some treats to take home to our grandsons and soap, wine and zip lock bags. We walked from the market down to the waterfront and walked back to the ship instead of taking the shuttle. On the way, we passed a loud and vigorous demonstration in one of the squares that had something to do with pensions. It was a beautiful sailaway from Santa Cruz, and we passed dramatic mountainous landscape with homes built up the side of the mountains. We noticed that it is daylight so much longer when we joined our friends for drinks in the Commodore Club.

6 May, Mother's Day in the port of Funchal, Madeira. We have been to Funchal about 3 or 4 times, and luckily have seen the Flower Festival. Unfortunately, this was the last day of the festival, so most of the amazing carpets of flowers were gone. Luckily, for those who have never seen the Flower Festival, there were a few examples. This Portuguese island is located in the mid-Atlantic close to Africa, and is a popular tourist destination year round. It is known for its production of Madeira wine and Madeira cake. The city of Funchal is built on a series of hills, some quite steep, but it is the gorgeous flowers and vegetation that catch your eyes. Every home seems to have climbing vines and flowering plants, and the park in the center of town is beautiful with many species of plants and trees. This day was Mother's Day in Funchal, and, although it threatened rain, we were able to be up and off the ship early to avoid it. We planned the day with our dear friends, Randall and Bobby, from Sarasota. Modestly, we are the reason they booked this World Cruise. We had been to dinner with them and told us of our plans, and a few weeks later, they surprised us by booking it, too! We negotiated a taxi to take us to the top of one of the hills for the iconic toboggan ride down the hill. This was something we had thought about doing on other visits, but I was too chicken. This time I decided to try it. The toboggan's are sleds made of rattan and guided by two men, one on each side, who alternatively redirect the path of the toboggan, slow it down, speed it up, or pull it by ropes on level areas. The ride is about 10 minutes, although it seemed faster, and goes down a fairly steep hill for 2 kilometers. The cost is 25 euros for two people per toboggan. Midway down, someone snaps a photo and it is waiting for you when you reach the bottom. It was pretty thrilling and I'm glad we did it! We went back down to the city by taxi and David was able to buy his Pastis de Belem, the famous custard tart. Although they are known to have started in the Belem area of Lisbon, David pronounced it very good. By now, clouds were thickening and rain was threatening, so we headed back to the ship by shuttle.

After leaving Funchal, we were faced with the reality that there was only 3 more days to this cruise. I was concerned about packing, because we are continuing this journey on the Queen Mary 2, so decisions had to be made about what we needed onboard our new ship. We have 3 formal nights, and, of course, no ports. We now have 10 bags, far less than many of our friends, and far more than others. I wanted to get the bulk of the packing done quickly so that I would be able to enjoy time with our friends rather than being stuck in our cabin.

Last night was Cunard's version of Dancing with the Stars, and our friends, Louise and Paul came in first. They had to do a cha cha, a jive dance and a waltz. What a great end to the cruise for them!

Everyone we meet asks “Have you packed, yet?” We aren't ready for the voyage to end.

Just in case you are interested, here are some of the items that have been consumed on board during our World Cruise/Voyage, beginning in Southampton on 7 January, 2018:

Fuel: Heavy fuel oil=13680 M. T Marine Gas Oil=560 MT

Water: 78000000 litres (225 litres per person per day

Toilet rolls: 77160 rolls

Milk: 82040 litres

Eggs: 351900

Tea bags: 472000

Coffee ground and beans: 7000 kg

Bacon: 9300 kg

Scones: 84000

Beer: 70000 cans and bottles

Wine & Champagne: 46000 bottles

We finished the packing yesterday, with the exception of what we will wear tonight and tomorrow. We will only have one large case, 2 roll-ons and a hanging bag “required on voyage” as Paddington Bear's luggage tag says. The rest of the luggage will go into the hold on the QM2.

The plan for tomorrow is for those joining the Queen Mary 2 to be the last off the ship at 10:30 am. Our luggage is tagged with the notation that it will be going to the Queen Mary 2 and it has our new cabin number. As Diamond guests, we have a special area to wait until disembarking, with newspapers tea, coffee and pastries. Upon disembarking, we are to claim our luggage and go through customs (we've gone through immigration on the ship two days ago.) and then take it to a special holding area for the QM2 luggage. A coach is provided for our transfer, and we are able to check in immediately. Our luggage will appear (hopefully) in our cabin.

I thank you, dear reader, for traveling along on this marvelous journey, and I hope you will continue traveling with us on the Queen Mary 2. I will continue this blog at the same address. Until then