When we were told that there was something special planned for the 4^th of July, we could never have expected the day that we have just had. What we thought would be an American style soiree or a diner style meal turned out to be a full-blown cruise experience.

Our cinema room became a cruise ship lounge, and we were ushered in to take our seats as the adventures began. We spent some time enjoying an interesting conversation about the culture and history of America, sharing stories of our travels and experiences. It was wonderful to reminisce, and to hear each other’s tales of adventure. Throughout our journey we were served doughnuts and American ice-cream sodas, they were delicious.

On arrival at our destination, we were greeted by a familiar face, a face synonymous with the USA, Mickey Mouse. We had so much fun posing for photographs with Mickey, he was very entertaining.

On the journey back we took part in a fun quiz to test our knowledge of all things American, we were quite proud of how well we all did.

What a day! We are still talking about it now. We do some wonderful things here and take part in some very enjoyable activities and we thought we’d seen it all, but the team really surprised us with this one. We have it on good authority that we will be boarding the HMS Hazel End again very soon, I for one cannot wait to find out where we will be travelling to next.