Day 49 - Gibraltar - a taste of England July 12th

No pill last night but a good sleep, so good, that although we are normally awake any time after about 6:30, a ‘clang’ outside from another ship putting down its gangplank woke us at – 9am!!!  This was the massive Independence that had sailed from the UK and was on its first port. (More of that later.)  A quick snack (fruit again...) and we ambled off the ship into the tiny country of Gibraltar.  It is a five to ten minute walk to town which really consists of a rock and a main street. The main street shops varied from souvenirs to jewellery, Marks and Spencers to Morrisons, and strangely enough, for the  first time, shops selling cameras AND the accessories.  As a duty free port, there was rather a lot of booze being purchased and the chain smokers were in their element.  Strange how in NZ & Australia, we have now got so used to most public areas being smoke free, that this was almost a social step back in time.  Yeuk.  Apart from a newspaper and one top, a very cheap stop.

The fun started when we got back to the ship(s) as both were due to leave at 4pm.

The DJ on the “Independence of The Seas” started about 3pm with their deck party. He had their passengers on the railings facing us and tried to get the Dawn Princess passengers going as well.  Needless to say, I poked Birdie out of our balcony and it was spotted by the DJ almost immediately and people weed waving back, so we went up on deck.   He carried on picking out DP passengers -  “wave to the guy in the pink shirt and the big hat”...  Their recorded music was quite loud and he tried to get our lot to respond to it by dancing on deck – which some did of course.  Then he told his mob that we were all Australians doing a round the world cruise and we had all paid £100,000 and were old, so he thought he’d play some suitable music – Glenn Miller...  Then they spotted our bridge crew in the ‘wing’ and threw a bit to them so they responded with a blast from the ship’s hooter.

Then our captain came on our tannoy and said that we would be departing just after “the iceberg”.  Boos from the DP.   A lot of fun.  Our own Cruise Director claimed later that we were classier because we had a live band...  In this instance, the DP entertainment staff could have and should have responded a lot better at the time.  The passengers were fired up and ready!  A missed opportunity – maybe Bex would have been ideal for this?

With an early sailaway (not an exciting one visually) we ate in the main dining room, but at this point, my shoulder really gave me some problems so I left early to walk around.  We then at in the Atrium and on a two seater couch with a high back, with my arm supported, I finally found a bit of comfort.
One tablet tonight I think and once again the clocks go back 1 hour, so we are then on UK time – but I think France is one hour ahead, so we will have to change again before Dover, then back again.

Lisbon tomorrow and just two more sea days for this leg.