World Cruise 2025 – THREE SEA DAYS TO MADEIRA.

The HORIZON is an information leaflet that gets delivered to your cabin each evening with all you need to know about the next day. Restaurant, bar and shop opening and closing times. Activities, shows, talks, cinema showings and so much more.

Andy has decided to go to the beginners bridge sessions. I thought the beginners Spanish lessons would be good. On the first day so did many others and over 100 people turned up and the venue wasn’t big enough. The session was cancelled until the next day when they split the group in half and did the same session both am and pm.We have our eye on things like deck quoits and shuffleboard or walking football and cricket.

There’s also Baggo. A game where you throw weighted bean bags at a target. It’s definitely fun.

Then there’s the gym! Well we aren’t ones for big gym sessions but when at sea it will be great to use the treadmills that sit at the front of the ship with wonderful sea views and get those steps done. It is well equipped and so friendly too. There are cycles and rowing machines that I may have a go at one day.

Having lunch one day on a shared table for 8 we got chatting to someone who mentioned that he had a cruise booked for August 2026 and that it took in the solar eclipse happening in Iceland at that time.

We were already looking at ways to see it and here we found the perfect way. So the very next day we booked it. So exciting.

The ship was definitely rocking and rolling with the wind and sea swells but it was okay for us.

The ship has a Theatre Company on board called Headliners and on the first night they performed On The Horizon, a show of song and dance.

The following evening in the Palladium theatre was Neil Lockwood, the former lead singer of ELO Part 2 His show and vocals were both excellent.

After a tour of the spa on board we decided to purchase a pass for the thermal spa for the whole cruise. The photos will show you how wonderful it is and I’m sure we will continue enjoying and using this area for our 100 days on board.

On Sunday 5th the HORIZON notified us that tonight’s dress code is to be Black tie. It’s going to be the captains welcome on board cocktail party out by the Neptune pool. The sun roof is on so all is well. It turns out Captain Matthew Nicholls is a Sheffield boy and supports Sheffield Wednesday!! But he’s going on holiday (Back home to see family) and returning at a later date in the cruise.

So the bridge is going well. Andy is getting the hang of it. Well that’s what he tells me. I’ve actually dropped the Spanish. I just found the young Mexican girl teaching was a little confusing as she was saying how Mexicans pronounce words and Spanish pronunciation was different but teaching a mixture of both.

But there’s plenty more to do. We enjoy a game of Baggo for fun in an afternoon. All our meals breakfast, lunch and dinner have been gorgeous so far. Maybe I will be rolling off this ship 😂😂

Our first port of the cruise, Madeira was here on Tuesday 7th January. We walked from the ship into town. On the way we had a look in the CR7 museum (Christiano Ronaldo). We had tastings at Blandys Madeira Wine distillery and bought a bottle of 15 year old to take home. It’s sat in our cabin and very tempting it is 😂😂

We visited the beautiful cathedral there, so peaceful the moment you stepped inside. Walking along browsing in shops and we came across a statue of BP. We find him everywhere. The nativity scene in the central square was lovely to see.