Funchal - Day 2

Wednesday 22 October

We headed down for breakfast in the hotel and were relieved to spot Funchal in the distance heading for her berth! As the wind had dropped and rain ceased for the present, after breakfast we went for a walk along the waterfront of Liverpool. We first went to see the ship and take a few photos of her.

 

She did indeed look very small but has lovely lines – like a miniature QE2 in my mind. We then headed up towards the Museum of Liverpool, Beatles Experience and finally the Maritime Museum where we just had time for a quick look around before heading back to the hotel for a coffee and to find out what was happening.

 

There was no news however regarding the promised revised itinerary until we were boarding the coaches to take us to the ship around midday. We had accepted the loss of two ports but had hoped for longer calls at Tenerife and Lanzarote as they were quite short – half a day in one case, and afternoon and evening in the other, and even possibly an extra new port nearer to the others. It was not to be however and when we got our letters the itinerary remained the same as we had been told in Bristol.  This meant we faced four straight sea days down the Irish Sea and Bay of Biscay before arriving in Tenerife.

The coaches dropped us off at the terminal where we quickly checked in and walked across the road, down a covered walkway to a pontoon against which the ship was berthed; then up a rather rickety stepped gangway and onto the ship. Once inside a steward took both our cabin cases and led us up two flights of spiral stairs to Navigator Deck and our cabin 102. This was a six-level upgrade from our original booked cabin on the lowest Estoril Deck. Maybe not such a good idea I thought in view of the weather but on later seeing the stairs down to our original deck, I think I may have felt very claustrophobic down there.

 

There were two single beds at right angles to each other (so my feet were in Caryll’s face!) and a third upper berth folded up against the wall. There was a separate fridge, dresser with four very small drawers, a small single wardrobe with interior drawer at the bottom and another double version of the same, with a safe in one side. That was all the storage there was. The, obviously refitted, bathroom had a wall-hung basin and toilet, both of which gave a little as you put any weight on them – rather alarming in the case of the loo!!! It was effectively a wet room with the shower in one corner with a slightly recessed floor level and a curtain. The biggest problem with the bathroom was the total lack of storage anywhere- not a shelf or cupboard to be found, meaning we had to live out of our spongebags the whole cruise.

 

The other problem we discovered later was a shortage of grab-rails – just one small one in the shower, which meant a couple or more days when we dare not even risk showering in the rough seas. There was a small elongated porthole with one-way glass out onto the upper promenade deck, plenty of continental style sockets and excellent reading lights on flexible stalks.  The position was great – straight out of our door and onto the prom deck and right next to the port bridge wing.

Our cases soon arrived and we unpacked and set off to explore the ship from top to bottom with our cameras as is our norm for a new vessel, until it was time for muster drill at 5pm. We had to wear our life jackets and sit through the usual routine and three different-sounding alarms, before being led out to our boat station and counted.

Finally at 6.30pm - we set sail at last as a stunning sunset bathed Liverpool in a golden glow. 

We were on table no 11 for 8, second sitting (8pm). It appeared we had to keep to our table for lunch as well as dinner. However due to the low number of passengers, this was soon changed to a single 7pm sitting. The problem was that for our new 7pm table allocation we had to queue to see the Maitre d’ and make our requests – this time we were allocated table no 28. A nice group of people but with whom we had little in common. When we mentioned this in passing to the Social Hostess, she found us a new table the following day – No.6. – but because we didn’t have a card for this table, we asked where it was at lunchtime but were directed to table 5! This caused the maitre d’ to nearly have a heart attack as we were messing up his detailed numbered table plans. Clearly this was an issue between CMV staff doing something without reference to the Portuscale crew.  It was all finally sorted and we stayed at table 6 for dinner (lunches became open seating|) with a couple from South Africa and a lady on her own from Bristol.

After dinner we went to the Welcome show – there was a very good team of dancers plus the three CMV entertainment officers and CD who sang as well.