It's the last of our sea-days today. This morning I gave my penultimate workshop, which nearly didn't happen because, firstly, the door to the Arts & Crafts Room was stll locked with 15 minutes to go and passengers arriving for the session, and no sign of anyone from the Entertainments Department. When finally a kindly porter showed me an alternative, back way into the room , I was horrified to discover that there were only 3 tables (and I've been using 7). After another frantic dash to the Entertainments room, where staff had now turned up, a few phone calls to try and locate the tables resulted in an assurance that they'd be found and delivered back to the room asap. So the day didn't start too well. The workshop went okay though; despite the slow start (and the tables arrived about 10 minutes into the session), I had them painting the sea and boats, which seemed to go down well. However, it looks like this is the first cruise I've been on where an exhibition of students' work seems very unlikely!

Tomorrow, we arrive in Key West, Florida, which means the start of all the fun and games. Before any excursions are allowed to take place, or indeed before anyone is allowed off the ship, US immigration officals will be boarding the vessel to personally interview every single person, which is probably going to take upwards of two hours or more. Every passenger has been given two forms to fill out, the same two I had to complete ready for arrival in Miami just over a week ago, a green entry visa form and a customs declaration. Needless to say this has caused a certain amount of consternation amongst the passengers, resulting in long queues at Reception with queries about how to fill the damn things in. Many are furious that the one-to-one immigration procedures are going to have to take place, and that it is going to take up so much valuable time out of what, to all intent and purposes, will be the last proper day of their holiday. Apparently, when the ship arrived in Miami last week, the ship had to be completely emptied of passengers - they all had to stand around on the quayside for an hour and a half while officials went on board and scoured the ship.

It feels odd that it's almost over; I don't know where the time has gone, and I'm not looking forward to Monday at all. Disembarkation at Miami will take place in the morning, the last people off the ship being at around 11am. From then on, I'll be dumped from a shuttle-bus at Miami Airport with my rucksack and two large suitcases with almost 11 hours of mind-bending boredom to look forward to, since my Virgin Atlantic flight to Heathrow won't be leaving until 21:55! I've been told at Reception that there are no facilities for leaving luggage until checking-in time so that I could take a look at Miami itself, which is highly disappointing. From then onwards, I'll have a 9-hour flight to cope with, taking me through until the early hours of Tuesday morning - except it won't be the early hours because 5 hours then have to be added on, taking me up to 12 noon (assuming the flight's on time) and only an hour and a half to pick up luggage and leg it over to Terminal 3 (from Terminal 5) for the final leg to Manchester, leaving at 1:15pm. This all just sounds like some sort of nightmare to me.

So, its now lunchtime, so I'm off for a quick bite to eat before heading off back to the Arts and Crafts Room for the last workshop.

Tonight is also the last Formal Night (there's actually only been one other), where the dinner jacket and dickie-bow will come out for the last time before being packed away. Dress codes have been slightly different this time around, with the most common one being 'Casual', intermingled with the occasional 'Smart-Casual', which pretty much means everyone wearing the same as a Casual night but with an extra button done up. No 'Informal' Nights, which has been a bit of a disappointment because it means I haven't had a chance to wear my white jacket!