23 April
Monday
Today we passed through the Straights of Gibraltar.  The ship didn’t seem to be moving as quickly during the day as the captain promised we would go through during daylight, starting about 6:30 pm.

We had a late lunch and went up on deck 18 to watch the passage and do some sun bathing.  We thought of going up to the small deck 19 but then realized it was the “adult” deck where everything hangs out, literally.

The weather was warm when out of the wind and we really enjoyed it.  As we approached the straights we met more and more ships coming from the Mediterranean.  At one point I could see 10.  It was interesting to note that the town of Gibraltar was some distance from the ‘Rock’.  We took a lot of photos from both sides of the ship but will wait to really cull them until we get home and have a better screen and lighting.

After passing the rock we went below and had dinner in the ‘Taste’ dining room about 8:30 pm.

Tonight was also the night of the ‘White Hot Party’.  We changed to white and went up to the H2O club at the stern to find that due to weather, very cool and windy, it had been moved to the ‘Bliss’ Lounge.  They were a little late getting started and very very loud.  After about 20 minutes, they were still on the first piece of music, we decided that was enough.  We returned to our cabin and read until we went to bed.

24 April
Tuesday
Today is day 11, the last day of the cruise.  Not much we were interested in during the morning.  At noon I (Dick), failed miserably in the paper aeroplane competition.  (It worked fine on deck 6 but when I threw it for the competition from deck 6 to deck 5, it did a nose dive.

While Eva took a nap I went and watched a show in the theatre, 4 men singing acapella..  They were very good.  Later Eva joined me for a presentation by talented crew members.  At the end several of the 1700 crew filed on stage to say goodby, including the captain, 1'st officer, chief engineer, some 25 chefs etc.

In the evening we watched the duelling pianos, ‘Howling At The Moon’ whom we have enjoyed previously.  Then back to the cabin for an early evening and early departure from the ship.