Despite the Commodore’s prediction that the good weather was over, today dawned bright and sunny so the major decision of the day was Lido vs. Pavilion Pool. We decided on the Pavilion as it was quite windy and we found a really great sheltered spot there. The added attraction of the Pavilion Pool these days is that the toddler on board has his inflatable paddling pool set up there, so we can watch him splashing away and totally having the best time ever in the water. He really is a very contented chap – but who wouldn’t be on the QV with 1812 guests making a fuss over you.

There was another Senior Officers’ Party this morning to which the Platinum and Diamond members get invited. Yet again we were not invited. I know that the current rule is that you only get to go to one during your whole voyage, not one per segment – but we have been on the ship for 2 months, and maybe having the policy of passengers attending one party a month would make people happier. I know one person who would be happier. I hate missing a party, especially this one which usually has good food, and is a great source of shipboard gossip. Excellent material for my blog.

We decided that it was high time that we held a soiree, Kim will be leaving the ship in Auckland tomorrow, and will be gone for several days, and so it seemed appropriate to give him a proper send off. Now when we did this when we were in Queens Grill all we had to do was give our butler, Lourdes, a list of my desires, and she made it happen, and more. Our cabin steward, Rick, has actually been great in getting us extra glasses and beer, and will hopefully appear with an ice bucket for the bubbly, but the food is a problem. The room service menu has a selection of international cheeses with crackers, nuts, chutney, and grapes for $15. I thought a couple of these might be plenty for the food, so ordered one in the afternoon to see what it contained so I could work out how many we would need. Well, it was extremely disappointing. It looked like a smaller version of the cheese plate you get for dessert in Britannia. No grapes, but there were prunes instead (????). 3 small pieces of processed cheese, 3 nuts, red jelly, and 6 crackers. Not exactly tremendous value. I had been hoping to avoid getting food from the Lido – but it didn’t seem to make sense to buy several more of these plates, so I headed up there to put together my own cheese platter.

Armed with samosas, cheese, crackers, dried fruit, and olives from the Lido I was able to put together an acceptable selection of snacks, and we were all prepared to accept guests.

I think the soiree went well – the Veuve was chilled to perfection, and it turned out that Kim was a Laphroaig fan too, so we were able to be good hosts. We spent so much time talking that we realized we had missed dinner, so we headed up to the Lido Pool, and were able to talk them into letting us have the tapas meal, even though they were really done for the night.

Roscoe joined us later. As always, he looked very dapper, and stylish. He updated us on the latest gossip from around the ship. I must admit that I would be a totally ineffective reporter – I love to know what is going on around me, but never seem to have the information. Both Roscoe and Deidre are always on top of things.

It was a wonderful evening with wonderful people, a wonderful day, I do love being on this ship.