We arrived about 45 minutes later than scheduled as the authorities boarded the pilot late. The weather was cold, showery and windy. It has been the first port day with unpleasant weather.

The excursion first went to the observation point on the 88th floor of the Jinmao Hyatt Building. Because of the conditions we couldn't see as much as we'd hoped, but the views of Shanghai we had were stunning. We then went to the Yu Yuan Gardens in the old town. It was very cold. The gardens consisted mostly of lakes and buildings with a few trees, not many flowers, unlike the rest of downtown Shanghai.

Lunch was in the Sky Ballroom of the Shanghai Grand Theatre. It was nice, more meat and less vegetables than the meal in Beijing. Then it was off to the Shanghai Museum. We had a vote on the bus and agreed to 2 1/2 hours of free time, rather than 3. I was with Barbara, Rob and Linda and we decided to find a Starbucks for a coffee and Internet. It was a real palaver getting on line, but eventually I managed to send and receive emails and eventually managed to upload some blogs too. I still have three that didn't go, so they'll have to wait until Hong Kong.

Carl, Hannah and Keo rejoined the ship today. It was great to see them all again.

Back on board, during the Masquerade Challenge (another bottle of wine won), the captain announced that because of the sea conditions, the fuel bunkers hadn't managed to come alongside and refuel us. Consequently, we won't leave until 4am and will only sail for about 1/2 hour before stopping and then the bunkers will come alongside and refuel us. We have to leave the berth as the Queen Victoria is due in tomorrow. We won't set sail for Hong Kong until about midday tomorrow, but we should still arrive on time. We'll see.

I much preferred Shanghai to Beijing.