Today we experienced Indian bureaucracy at it's most irritating. Officials insisted on repeating the immigration process we did on the way to Mumbai, but this time on the day we arrived in Cochin. Not just those getting off the ship but all 1800 of us had to have our shore passes stamped in our presence by one of 6 immigration officers on board. This resulted in a queue from one end of the ship to the other and back again on the Promenade deck - which could have ...

Our arrival in Mumbai was delayed by 2 hours because of the dodgy engine - now fixed, hopefully. A lot of the crew are of Indian origin and were eagerly awaiting family ashore, many of whom had travelled by train from Goa, and who they had not seen for up to 6 months. A number of passengers asked that the crew be allowed off the ship first so they could spend as much time with their families as possible - the new Captain(since Dubai) all 38 years of him, and a Jo...