Hello from Madeira!
We arrived first thing this morning and are due to sail for our home port of Southampton this afternoon. Madeira is one of my favourite ports of call in the world; it is so lovely I have even been here on holiday with my wife Mandy and son Bradley. We were here for New Years Eve a few years ago and they always have a firework display to see the old year out and the new year in, it is fantastic, something everyone should see once in their life. This year on New Year’s Eve the lucky passengers and ship's company will get to see the fireworks display in Madeira as Oriana is going to be on an eleven night cruise departing Southampton on 28th December, and is scheduled to spend the day and evening in Madeira on 31st December.
We arrived first thing this morning and are due to sail for our home port of Southampton this afternoon. Madeira is one of my favourite ports of call in the world; it is so lovely I have even been here on holiday with my wife Mandy and son Bradley. We were here for New Years Eve a few years ago and they always have a firework display to see the old year out and the new year in, it is fantastic, something everyone should see once in their life. This year on New Year’s Eve the lucky passengers and ship's company will get to see the fireworks display in Madeira as Oriana is going to be on an eleven night cruise departing Southampton on 28th December, and is scheduled to spend the day and evening in Madeira on 31st December.
Our passengers adore Madeira, there is just so much to do and so many diverse tours to choose, you can go on the Famous Toboggan Ride, have Tea at the Reid’s Palace Hotel or even go out on the Whale and Dolphin Watching Tour; in all we have fifteen tours available in this port!
After I have ‘cleared my desk’ this morning I intend to get off for a walk, this is what I tend to do in the ports of call if I have the time. I am a keen walker and even bring my walking boots away with me so if I do get an hour or two off I can get out and about and stretch my legs.
A little bit today about all the staff who keep this mighty ship operating. The ship’s company numbers 821 and is made up of 25 nationalities with people from all over the world, with different cultures and religions who all tolerate each other harmoniously, if only the world was like any one of our ships! We are a mini United Nations without their Security Council!
The Passenger/Music Festival at Sea production of The Mikado last evening was wonderfully received by both the 8.30pm and 10.30pm houses in the Theatre Royal, Captain Julian Burgess was an excellent ‘coolie’, if he was not a Sea Captain I am sure he would be ‘treading the boards’! I was the narrator, and our Musical Director Robert Dean and our classically trained singers performed superbly but the real stars of the show were the 96 passengers taking part.
Oriana sailing in to Madeira.
I will be off for now, but will be back tomorrow!
Nigel
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1 comments:
Hi Nigel
Nice to see that someone is keeping up James's blog, which came as a nice surprise! I totally agree with you about Madeira, what a stunning island it is, especially when viewed from the ship, all those twinkling lights, beautiful! Now that I know you are "blogging" I shall keep an avid eye out, I expect many people think it's lying dormant until James returns from leave.
Kind regards
Marina
PS I remember Julian Burgess when he was safety officer, cool dude!
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