Shanghai

The morning started with one final mission before boarding the cruise: shopping.

No visit to Shanghai is complete without a walk down Nanjing Road, one of the busiest shopping streets in the world. Fortunately for the kids, this wasn't just another high street. Between TOP TOY, POP MART and every other shop selling things they absolutely needed, I had already accepted that some suitcase rearranging would be required before flying home.

After one last proper Chinese lunch, it was finally time to head to the cruise terminal.

I've always imagined cruises to be something you do when you've run out of places to visit. Spectrum of the Seas quickly proved me wrong. Calling it a ship feels unfair. It's more like someone built a luxury shopping centre, added restaurants, theatres, swimming pools, bumper cars, robot bartenders and a few thousand bedrooms... then decided to attach an engine to it.

The first few hours disappeared surprisingly quickly. We explored deck after deck, trying to figure out where everything was before the kids spotted yet another activity they'd somehow missed five minutes earlier. Every corridor seemed to lead somewhere unexpected.

The sail-away from Shanghai was the perfect ending to the city. As the skyline slowly disappeared into the distance, it finally felt like the holiday had properly begun.

Dinner was followed by our first theatre show, The Silk Road, a spectacular production combining acrobatics, dancers and giant robotic screens in one of the most impressive theatres I've seen anywhere, never mind on a ship. It's easy to forget you're actually floating while watching something like this.

Tomorrow is our first day at sea.

Normally, a day where you don't go anywhere would sound a little boring.

On a ship with twenty restaurants, a robot bar, bumper cars, surfing, skydiving and enough food to keep me happily occupied for a week... I wasn't too worried.