Thursday 15 December - at sea

I'm having a real 'nothing' day today, and Paul is too:

I went to a talk this morning about the disembarkation procedure - because they'd promised something funny afterwards.  And it sort of was - a little funny song and dance from some of the crew.

Later I put $20 into a poker machine, got it up to $170 and played it down to $116, then went to another one, put $20 in, got it up to $50 then lost it.  So, I've still got a bit of poker machine money for tomorrow.
Other than that though, my main plan for these last two days of the cruise - to do as little as possible - is coming together nicely.

I did think about finally having a swim on a cruise ship today, but I left it too late - the weather has turned a bit nasty this afternoon - it's cloudy and quite rough, and I expect the pools will have been closed.  I did wander around and take a few photos though:

A view of the Atrium

Another view of the atrium

The reason they call it the Bengal Bar

Entrance to the main dining room

The MIX cocktail bar

Part of the Promenade Deck

Another reason to have a minisuite arrived while I was typing this - a complimentary tray of canapes - we had already had some earlier in the cruise and we weren't expecting another lot, but we weren't going to complain.  Unfortunately for Paul the main contents were two gigantic prawns.  However, we managed to chop the 'prawn-touched' pieces off the melon and proscuitto which he then ate, while I got the lettuce and prawns.  Yum.  All up I think we had four separate canape trays and a couple of fruit bowls 'on the house'.   However, if I had my time over I think I'd have either saved the money and gone for a normal balcony cabin,or splashed out even more and had a full-size suite - they're much  bigger, have more amenities, and aren't right under the elephants that live on the pool deck just above us!

Later:  formal night tonight, we had a group photo taken:

Adam yet again didn't have dessert; I'm more and more convinced he's a pod person, but first we'll see what happens when we get back to Canberra  :-)
At dinner tonight the ship's security showed up and started talking to the group of young men at the next table.  It was discreet enough that we couldn't hear what was said, but one guy was taken away and the rest got a good talking to at the least.  We're presuming under-age drinking, which P&O would never tolerate (they'd be in enormous amounts of trouble!)
The seas have become really rough tonight compared to the rest of the trip.  Seasickness bags are hanging from all the stair rails and we've seen evidence of them being used (eerk).
I just went out on the balcony to look at the waves - such that you can see when it's dark outside - and realised that the person on the next balcony is smoking.  Not only is this completely against the P&O rules, it's incredibly dangerous with this wind around - the ash or even the whole cigarette could go anywhere and fire is so dangerous on board a ship.
And it looks like the movement from the rough seas has almost completely removed all the new grouting they've so carefully installed around the broken tiles in our bathroom.  However, at least the toilet is working ok, so there's no more nasty leaks.
Some more towel animals have made an appearance too - the penguin vanished somewhere along the way but now we have a dog, an elephant, and two swans: