At sea

There is something to be said for balcony cabins! It is an unbelievable treat to be able to wake up and sit on the balcony, and watch the ocean go by, sipping a mimosa. I do miss the windowsill and seeing the water right outside the window, but the fresh air and view of the ocean is something special.

We went to the Cruise Critic meet and greet in the Commodore Club. It is always great to finally meet those people whose posts you have enjoyed reading over the years. We were a small but lively bunch – everyone is so well traveled I loved talking to them about their trips. I had brought some fridge magnets along to give to everyone as a thank you for all of the help their posts had been both on the roll call and the general forum. Thanks for Marguerite for setting this up!

Next it was laundry time. Doing the laundry on the first sea day after a major embarkation is never wise; today was no exception. It looked like a competition to see how many women you could squeeze in to the small space of the launderette without someone getting burned by the person ironing. It is usually standing room only due to the lack of chairs, but it was so crowded I considered putting my pop up laundry basket on my head, as there was no room on the floor for it. However due to my short stature, that would not have worked well as it would have been in the other ladies’ faces. Eventually a washing machine became available, and I was able to unload the basket. This was not easy as it was nigh impossible to open the door of the machine with all the people in there. Still they were a friendly bunch. There were a couple of really frail older women among us, and another woman and I ended up doing their laundry too. At the end I offered to take one woman’s laundry back to her cabin, but alas she couldn’t remember her cabin number. Luckily her room steward recognized her, and we able to guide her and her nice clean clothes safely to her cabin.

Well that seemed to take most of the day. When I had left for the launderette Brian had set about the task of organizing things in the cabin. When I returned he was still doing it. He was most put out that there seemed to be a lot more stuff than we had had previously. I decided that it would not be diplomatic to mention the 10 shopping bags of newly purchased items we had brought on board with us yesterday.

The Queen Victoria vocalists will be performing again this segment. However I decided I would not be with them. Rehearsals take up a lot of time.

Tonight there was a cocktail reception for members of the Virtuoso Voyager Club; apparently we are members through our travel agent Sue. It was in Hemispheres, which is a great place for a small party. I was very impressed that Captain Philpott (and his fiancée) were there, along with the senior officers. Lots of good food and drink, and interesting people. A good start to our evening.

After the party we went to dinner. We are now on deck 3 in the dining room. We are at a table for 6. The other 2 couples are both English – one from Manchester and the other from Worcestershire. They seem to be OK. The men both played Rugby League (or was it Union, I always get to 2 confused), so there was much talk about rugby, which mostly went right over my head. Still, I think they will be OK.

The show tonight was a rather bad comedian – John Evans. He did tell some good jokes, and had a lot of energy. He just wasn’t very funny.

When we got back to our cabin there was the magic envelope. No not an invitation to dine with the captain – my personal dream which has only ever happened once when we were on Queen Elizabeth – but a good consolation. We are to dine with the chief medical officer tomorrow night! Like Hyacinth said – yes we will be dining with the staff.