Friday 11th November

Today was a lovely day in Madeira. After 3 full sea days we were ready for land and some sunshine.  Having holidayed in Funchal a few times we decided to head for a coastal walk to Camara De Lobos. We throughly enjoyed it. We left the ship at 10am and at the end of the dock road took a left when everyone else was heading right along the road to Funchal town.  We walked passed Reid's hotel and noted the cost of afternoon tea was €34 pp whereas the ship tour was $199 for two which included return transfer to the ship.  Unless it was a helicopter transfer I think it was quite overpriced.

We continued our walk to the Lido area and noted quite a transformation from our previous trip 2 years ago when it was being renovated. We continued on before eventually stopping for a drink half way at a lovely bar called Doca Do Cavacas. 2 x 33cl glasses of local beer a bargain at €2 each.   We walked through the cave and reached Camara in time for lunch at about 12.45pm.



I had spaghetti bolognese and David had a ham and cheese roll - washed down with another glass of beer.



We headed back to Funchal on the public bus which ran about every 20 minutes and cost €2.20 pp - tickets were purchased from a little booth opposite the bus stop. A good 20 minutes or so later we were back in Funchal. We walked along the newly renovated sea front to the far end of town and walked back through the old town. Had a quick look in the market and found a little bar with wifi for another drink.

Back onboard for sail away at 5.30 ish - in total walked a approx 23k steps and spent less than €30.  Temperatures were lovely and Madeira is a beautiful place and hope to return many times in the future.

Dinner was great again and everyone is really getting on well at the table - we feel very lucky with our fellow guests - but then again we've rarely had any other experience. However, I always seem to have an issue with Sommeliers losing my bottle of wine at some stage during a cruise and this was no exception. I only have a small glass of white at dinner so the bottle often lasts 5 nights.  David drinks red so we always have our own bottles. David was ready for a new bottle as he'd finished his the previous evening - he duly ordered a new one - after a while i realised that I had not been offered any so David spoke to the sommelier to request my glass to be filled to be told I had finished mine the previous night.  Anyway after a brief discussion the sommelier went in search and duly came back with my bottle which had been put in the wrong ice bucket by mistake.  It was quite timely as I had only just had the conversation with a fellow guest about my misfortune with wine in the past.

We had 45 minutes sequence dancing before dinner and went to the show after dinner to see the dancing and singing from the Cunard Troupe.  Apparently it was their first performance on board.  They performed a very energetic show but we would prefer it if everything was calmed down a little with perhaps some narration or quieter singing between sections.  You have to admire the effort they put in though. We finished the evening dancing to Changez performing popular music in the Queens Room.

Tonight's dress