At Sea

April 13^th, 2023

Many of the whole world voyage guests were unhappy about the slow immigration issue in Singapore, and the world voyage gala. On April 11^th the whole world voyage folks received a letter from Sture Myrmell, the President of Carnival UK. He apologized for the issues, and tried to justify what happened. However, he did point out that Sir Bob Geldhof had been invited to participate in the exclusive World Voyage cocktail party, and that Alfie Boe will be giving one performance in the Royal Court Theater on April 21^st. These 2 events seem to be aimed at making up for the disappointment of the Singapore issues. However, I have a sneaky suspicion that both of these prominent people must have been booked to be on Queen Mary 2 before Singapore. However, time will tell whether the upset guests will be appeased by this gesture.

I love Alfie Boe so this is good news. However, with the ship sailing at capacity I wonder how they are going to fit everyone into the Royal Court theater at one time. Maybe only the whole world voyage people will be able to attend, and the rest of us will have to watch him later in our staterooms. I do hope to see him again in person. We had heard him at the Festival of Remembrance a few years ago, and that was a great experience. We will know what the plans are soon enough 

No painting today – just as I arrived at the craft group more appropriately dressed than yesterday. Today we made little ring thingies to put on your wine glass stem so you don’t drink someone else’s wine at your next party. I made 8 of them, although I’m not sure how useful they will be as we use our stemless wine glasses at most parties. Still, they were fun to make, and I learned the difference between needle nosed and bull nosed pliers, something that may come in useful one day.

At his noon announcement Captain Hall said that we had recently crossed the prime meridian and we were now in the western hemisphere.

As we are just south of the equator that means we can’t be far from Null Island. I was upset that he didn’t mention it as I am fascinated by the concept of Null Island.

What is Null Island you may ask.? Well first of all it is not an island at all. It is marked by a weather buoy called Soul buoy, after the music.

It is where inaccurate geocoding data goes to die, and has inspired numerous conspiracy theories. People have even drawn flags for the nonexistent island. What fun to be close by to this strange place.

We certainly are in tropical weather. It is hot and humid outside, and I am glad that we have air conditioning inside. Sitting by the pool really wasn’t that pleasant, and even on the balcony it was very humid. It was definitely a day to sit inside and read.

Tonight was the masquerade ball. Time for people to wear masks that mask their nose and eye, rather than their nose and mouth.

Which made me think about COVID mask wearing on the ship. A very few guests are wearing masks around the ship, and probably about a quarter of the staff are wearing masks. Although I have heard that there are guests on board who are in isolation with COVID, gone are the closed off corridors with specific stateroom for gusts with COVID, gone are the mask mandates, and social distancing is a thing of the past. Illuminations is packed to the gills with almost every speaker. It really is beginning to feel just like old times. Just as I was beginning to feel that cruising is getting back to normal, I read a post on Facebook that there is a new highly infectious strain in India, that is being found in the UK now. Maybe we will really never get back to old times again.

But back to the masquerade gala evening. I went to the Commodore Club for drinks before dinner, and the room was totally packed, not an empty seat in sight, and the waiters were running around like crazy trying to keep the inhabitants hydrated. Everyone there was in formal dress, and quite a few were clutching beautiful masks. It was a lovely sight.

I do love formal nights. I think at the moment Cunard has a really good balance between formal, or should I say gala, and non-formal nights. I think having every night as a formal night, which is the way it was when I started cruising, would be way too much, I like the current schedule. There maybe fewer gala nights than previously, but it is still sufficient to keep me happy. I get a chance to wear all of my long dresses – one of which is longer than it should be. I must get around to hemming it soon.