My final day in the Pacific Ocean was spent mostly hiding from it. The clocks went forward and the only ship activity I wanted to join was at 9am so I headed to the theatre with just four hours sleep, found out that we’re getting just three hours in Cartagena once you allow for rush hour traffic. That’s fine, I didn’t have great plans for Colombia.

Much of the rest of the day I spent in my room, the ‘Privacy please’ note on the door, as close to solitude as you can manage on a cruise ship. I did emerge mid afternoon, found the burger counter, ordered a large lunch, enough to last the whole day. The ship was gliding through a blue sea, nothing on the horizon. Nobody mentioned sea birds, drunk or otherwise.

Finally a call from Guest Services. The cruise line apparently feel that a week’s ruined holiday is worth $50 of onboard credit. Given they’ll give you $200 of onboard credit just for booking a cruise I made it clear that I didn’t consider the matter closed and said I’d be pursuing my options with the travel agent, using UK consumer legislation.

As a result I didn’t even get the $50. Then again their tardy response means that withholding the service charge has reduced my ship bill by $130 anyway. Now that they’ve replied – even though it’s a terrible response – I’ll resume paying the daily gratuity.

My body clock still somewhere mid-Pacific but the ship on US Eastern time I go to bed at what feels like 8pm but is nearer 11. We reach Panama at 6.30, I’d like to see a bit of the country as we float through it.