This vast swimming pool area is under a sliding roof and is air conditioned. Amazing.

Sunday 26 October:  Up at 7am. Jan went and did 50 minutes of hard, vigorous walking around the Promenade deck and came back sweating and panting. I did one circuit mid morning. That’s about 0,5Km, not bad for me. Jan’s determined to push me to go further each day. It’s a good idea in theory …

There’s a big group of walkers among the passengers, nearly all elderly people. It’s good to see. I’m not elderly, of course. But all of them walk faster than me. I cannot walk as fast as even elderly people.

I shot some vision of a couple of Thai fishing boats coming at full speed for the ship’s wake. I assume they’re looking for fish in the turbulence, which stretches for many kilometres back over the horizon in a dead straight line.

There’s a bigger mixture of old and young on this ship compared with the Arcadia in March. Not many young people, but some, including one incredibly shapely woman in a bikini. It was enough to stir the juices. Wow. Later I saw another even more beautiful body. This is a bit better than the March cruise.

I’d been struck by the similarities to the Arcadia, of the P&O line. Dammit – Princess Cruises is a subsidiary of P&O. I’d vowed I wouldn’t travel P&O again because of their restrictive dress code policy and a cabin fridge which is not a fridge, but the same things apply on this ship! Damn. I do have long trousers and shoes and socks, but I hate to wear them. Getting my socks on is a difficult process.

Lunch, and the restaurant was crowded. We could only get a table around 70m from the servery by a winding path. Good exercise I suppose, and it was quiet where we were.

The food is good, much better than the Arcadia. That was stodge. This is freshly cooked, and nicely presented. I was much happier eating in the main dining area this time.