Sunday 22^nd February 2015 – Hong Kong.

We had a quiet morning and did our laundry! Then it was back on the ship’s shuttle to the Ocean Terminal in order to explore a bit of Kowloon.

We walked to the Avenue of Stars. It was packed with Chinese tourists so we turned back and ended up at the 1881 Heritage site. It was previously the headquarters of the maritime police and is very interesting. We saw the actual 12 o’clock gun and the “ball drop” which occurred every day at 1pm and was used by all the ships in the harbour to set their chronometers - and thus be able to navigate successfully.

We found a nice little cafe in a tranquil area where we ordered coffee and a sandwich and watched the crowds queueing to get into designer shops! After that it was back to the ship for our next lifeboat drill and prepare for the evening.

Gary and Jenny are renewing their wedding vows tomorrow – so there had to be a hen and stag night tonight!

The “hens” met for pre-lash cocktails and then went for a meal in the Chef’s Galley area. The crew had done them proud and their table was set beautifully in an alcove looking out over Hong Kong harbour. There then followed a pub crawl to the nightclub G32, the casino and the Commodore club before breaking the ship’s rules by having a cigarette in the Churchill rooms (which is specifically for pipe and cigar smokers.) The little Hitler in charge kept telling them that it was not allowed to smoke cigarettes and actually went to get his supervisor! Common sense prevailed and they moved on to deck 8 aft before returning to G32 where they met up with the “stags” and some raucous dancing and singing then commenced to the music of Vibz…

The “stags” didn’t bother with food and just did a pub crawl. The starting place was the Commodore club followed by the swimming pool bar on deck 12, the Chart room and the Golden Lion pub before joining the hens in G32. The hens called it a night sometime around midnight but the stags went on to the casino. Even though the ship was relatively stable, both Colin and Gary fell down, at different times, some of the stairs leading to the casino… What are the chances of that? Thankfully they were both unhurt!

Oh yes – forgot to mention that the hens were wearing fluffy crowns and the stags all had on very large, colourful bow-ties which were very much admired/looked at by the other guests as we wandered around the ship!

All in all a good night – although there may be some sore heads in the morning!