Last cruise

“Old and young we are all on our last cruise”- R.L.Stevenson

The woman at the next table said at breakfast:
“I’ve got a heart condition. I could go at any time. So I thought what the hell…I might as well go out in style.”

The delicate subject of health and age is one that I have been reluctant to bring up.
.
First of all it’s the average age of passengers- 60 –though I suspect it could be considerably higher.
Secondly, mobility and health. There were so many walking sticks, and frail elderly along with the occasional Zimmer and wheelchair that at times I thought I might have accidentally signed myself into a floating residential home.

Don’t get me wrong, there were a lot of very healthy people on board, in fact one of the fittest was an 80 year old who could be seen most mornings marching around the deck before breakfast.

Last year the Marco Polo returning from a cruise up the Amazon hit a freak storm in the English Channel and an 86 year old passenger eating his dinner next to a window met a most untimely end. A wave crashed through and took him out.

So I was somewhat alarmed on boarding this ship to find myself with an ocean view.
The waiter assured me it was a different window.

( Yesterday we learnt a male passenger had passed away. Natural causes.)