We’re now truly on our way home and have officially left the Caribbean for the Atlantic. The sun was out early on in the day so we headed up to the. Broadwalk to catch the last of the sun before returning to more wintery climes. At the 12 o’clock announcement the captain said we had some unsettled weather approaching with squalls coming in from the port quarter and true to his word the heavens opened and it chucked it down. We made a dash for the Pavilion Pool and bagged a sunbed there for the rest of the day. Commodore

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Today is probably the last chance for some sunshine today, now that we’ve left the Caribbean, it’s a bit cooler, and the wind has changed to a north westerly so it’s a bit breezier than yesterday. We spent the morning, post breakfast, upstairs in the Pavilion Pool which was nice and warm with the sun on it. After lunch Jane went down to the pool on deck six and found a sunbed that was out of the wind. I went back up to twelve to sit by the pool there. Too soon it was Commodore o’clock where I had a

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It’s our final day on the ship today, and we are definitely getting nearer New York. We have a grey sky and squally showers passing and the temperature has now dropped a fair bit overnight. We went to the Pursers office to get some more luggage tags for disembarkation and query the fact that I’m seeing some charges from Cunard on my credit card. Normally I wouldn’t see anything until the final total comes out, but apparently these are some pre-auth charges, my new card is obviously more dynamic than the previous one I used. That done Jane headed back

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Our last day at sea turned up a bit grey and miserable, but it was warm enough and the sea was flat as a pancake. It was the calmest Biscay crossing that we’ve probably ever had, a markedly different experience from the sail out from Southampton. There were three of the Cunard Insights lectures this morning, Stuart St Paul was up first explaining the technicalities of location shooting. He was followed by Col Tim Collins who carried on from the previous day. Disappointingly we never did find out why he was accused of war crimes. The final and best lecture

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It was a glorious morning, we woke to clear skies and a calm sea. As it was a sea day I had three lectures to attend in the morning, so it was a bit of a rush to get ready and off to breakfast before my 10am start. The first lecture was the astronomer Paul Fellows. His talks have got better and more interesting with every day. Today’s lecture was about volcanic activity within the Solar system. He was followed by a new speaker Colonel Tim Collins, a motivational speaker recounting his experience with the Royal Irish Regiment and SAS.

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I’m getting very good at lying in in the morning and very poor at going to the gym, but I’m not going to beat myself up about it, it’s far too bumpy to use the one available treadmill. We had a bit of a rush to get to breakfast, even through it finished at 9:30, as I wanted to get to Paul Fellows lecture on meteors and comets. I enjoyed this one better than his introduction to the Solar System on the first sea day. Jane joined me for Stuart St Paul’s second presentation which was more of the same.

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The first sea day was a quiet one. The clocks went forward so I didn’t wake until 8am, that and the lumpy sea put me off going for a run, so after a shower we went for breakfast. I had planned to attend both lectures in the morning, but before that we went to the voyage sales office to see about booking next years cruise. I waited in line while Jane popped into the Queens room to watch the Zumba lesson. M938A booked I went to the theatre to see Simon Fellows lecture on the night sky, and Jane went

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We had another day at sea today, heading for our final port of call Lisbon. The day didn’t start particularly well, I somehow missed my alarm at 06:45 and missed getting up for the gym. I was so late I nearly missed getting to breakfast before fencing classes at 08:45. The fencing is getting more intense now and we had some actual bouts, fighting with each other, putting into practice the moves we bad learned so far. Once that was over I headed back to the cabin for a shower and onto the first lecture of the day. Jeff Tall’s

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After our drinks in the Commodore Club we headed back to the room to get changed for dinner. Tonight is our first formal night of the cruise, so I was decked out in my DJ and Jane was looking lovely in a long black and white gown. I ended up dithering between wearing my white or black jacket, ending up on wearing the black. It was captains drinks in the Queen’s room before dinner, and while we usually don’t bother, we popped in for a glass of fizz chatting with Ken, June and Katy from our table. Dinner was very

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It was the same routine today, up at 06:45, into the gym to cycle. I did a HIIT workout today to change it up again. A bit more intense today, 30 mins @ 198 watts average After my shower we went to the Britannia for breakfast for the first time. I had a fry-up with Bury black pudding yum! Jane had a cheese omelette. Satisfied, I headed off to my fencing class, it’s hard work, especially when you are my size. It’s made even harder when you are partnered up with an enthusiastic Asian chap who hadn’t done it before,

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