Thursday, February 20^th, 2020

At Sea

Yes, we are back at sea again. It was a cloudy stormy day, so no sunbathing or swimming, most of the day was spent going to talks, and reading in the Commodore Club. I have no complaints.

The best talk of the day was one on happiness, and how to be happy. Everyone emerged with a smile on their face, so it must’ve worked.

In the afternoon there was the Cruise Critic meeting to welcome those members who embarked in Fremantle. Usually we have to communicate via email, which is a challenge with limited internet time. So now we have our own notice board where we can post messages about sharing tours, playing Scrabble, organizing a table tennis tournament. The usual things that have been very helpful.

So it made sense to post the time and the place of the next meeting. It didn’t take long for someone to mistake our meeting for one where they could criticize the cruise, and the rumors flew around the ship. The meeting was in Connexions 3, and by the time I arrived there wasn’t a seat to be found. I was very impressed by the turnout. Then I realized I only recognized a few people in the room.

Our meeting had been taken over by a very vociferous bunch of people who had a lot of complaints. I wasn’t sure that this really was the right venue for this, but there was no stopping them, and for the next hour it really was a Cunard Critic session.

To summarize it, people were understanding of the need for the itinerary change, but they didn’t feel that the $250 OBC we received was sufficient compensation (I actually didn’t think it was meant as compensation). They demanded that the port charges be refunded today. They demanded either their money back for the cruise, or a future cruise credit (that would be nice), but what seemed to have really been at the bottom of this anger was the fact that their tablemates who came on board in Fremantle had paid significantly less than they had.

I had heard about the last minute cruise deals, which were very good. However, not for one minute was I angry about that. Yes, we paid significantly more than the current deals when we booked 2 years ago, but that’s the way it goes. We have taken advantage of last minute deals ourselves in the past, but would never think of telling our tablemates about them.

I really think that everyone was all fired up because of the last minute deals. I very much doubt that Cunard will now offer us all a discount so that we all pay the same. That would be a very poor way to do business. The effect of the happiness lecture seemed to have dissipated.

At the end of the meeting the vociferous group planned another meeting, and we worked on rescheduling our Cruise Critic meeting. Hopefully it will just be us next time.

Tonight was a formal night – the Cunard Ball and the Captain’s Welcome on Board Cocktail Party.

Having been on board for 19 nights already I would not usually have been entitled to attend the cocktail party, but as the ship seemed to think I had disembarked and flown back to Phoenix, I was now welcomed on board.

As we were waiting to go in to the Queens Room for the party a German lady came up to me asking if she could take a picture of my dress. I felt quite flattered, I love the dress, and it was nice to see that someone else liked it too.

Captain Hashmi made a short amusing speech, and introduced the senior officers. I noted that everyone at the party was appropriately dressed in formal wear. It was a lovely elegant affair.

Dinner was fun, and again we decided to miss the ball and the show so Brian could catch up with work, and missed sleep.