At Sea

May 4^th, 2024

There was a time change over night. The daily program said that the clocks would go forward, but entertainment director Neil Kelly at the end of the late show said that clocks would go back.

When we returned to our cabin there was no note from our room steward reminding us of the change, and there was nothing on the TV to alert us. Fortunately as we going to Spain it made sense that the clocks would go forward.

Well, this morning there was much confusion on the ship. Some passengers followed the daily program advice, some follower Neil’s information, and having not seen or heard the reminders at all, some remained on the same time. Thus there were 3 different interpretations of what the time was. To make it more complicated several of the ship’s clocks didn’t change.

When I arrived at Zumba at 9:00 there were very few people there, which I thought was a bit odd. Still, that did mean there was more space around me, and that I was less likely to give the person standing next to me a black eye when I failed to negotiate the next move.

Neil was teaching the class in the Queens Room. The dance floor is not very large, so I was grateful for the poor turnout. It was actually a great class and I was very happy to be doing Zumba again, even though I still have trouble following what moves I am supposed to make. I just like the music, and tend to improvise every now and then when I have totally lost track of what I should be doing.

After Zumba I met up with Brian and we went to Chris Frame’s talk on Transatlantic Liners. He did a fabulous talk, but I was surprised that it was so poorly attended.

I went up to the Commodore Club to get some work done, and that’s where I discovered the time change mix up. Yay, Brian and I were in the right time zone, but it appeared that there was a significant proportion of the rest of the ship, passengers and crew, who were not. Everything else that is not perfection is being blamed on the fact that this is the maiden voyage, however, you can’t lay the blame there for this mix up. However, I do think that not having a message on your TV when you return to you cabin to go to bed is a mistake. Little cards announcing the time change  are probably a waste of paper, but I still have one from QE2 advising me that the clocks would be retarded by one hour overnight. Who could fail to change your clock with that sort of message?

I stopped by to speak with Chris, one of the future cruise people, and I must say I was very impressed with their office space. It was very bright and airy, unlike on the other ships.

It also has a nice waiting area, which is shared with the shore excursion desk.

This all works very well, and is a great improvement.

Having not made it to dinner last night, and having plans to eat with friends tonight, we thought we should go to the Princess Grill dining room at lunch time to check out our table, and let the wait staff know that we would not be there tonight for dinner.

The dining room is really lovely and elegant. My photos don’t do it justice, I will have to take some more.

We had a delicious meal, with delightful and very efficient wait staff. There had been grumblings about the slow service and quality of the food at dinner last night. Friends of ours decided to leave to go to the late show at 10:00, and hadn’t even received their appetizer, but lunch was totally on track.

In the afternoon there was the first rehearsal for the guest choir. There was quite a good turn out, presumably people are back on track again after the time change. I had hoped that we might be doing some stirring British music, I want to sing Jerusalem, but we are doing the usual selection of songs from various musicals. Still they are easy to sing, and even at the first rehearsal I think we sounded very good. But then I am biased.

After choir I passed by the Queens Room on my way back to our cabin. I looked over the balcony, and afternoon tea was in full swing. The string trio were playing

but service seemed slow – most people were sitting around waiting for food to happen.

Looking down on the room from the deck 3 balcony it is clearly evident that the room is woefully small for everyone to get tea there. I understand that they thought may be that they simply don’t need such a large venue for a ballroom, but it seems like a pity. I wonder where they will hold the cocktail parties? Which made me think – where was our invitation to the captain’s welcome on board cocktail party which surely must be tonight?

When Brian had walked through the Queens Room on the lower level this morning, he hadn’t realized that he had walked through it. It is that uninspiring. And the furniture looks like it came from a cafeteria. Just not like the Queen’s Rooms that we know and love. Still it has a staircase from the lower level to the balcony level which is very reminiscent of the Queens Room on QE2, and the shops all around on the balcony level are also similar. But the merchandise in the shops is very different – not a Queen Anne scarf in sight – not even a Queen Anne teddy bear or tea towel. All very disappointing.

However, things looked up when I walked by the Carinthia lounge. There was a display case of goodies just waiting to be consumed. They are not hidden away so you have to go in search of them, they are right there out in the open in the corridor next to the lounge.

The main seating for the lounge is separated from the corridor,

but there is overflow seating in the corridor.

Tonight was the first formal night, black and white. So out came my  white jacket, that is still spreading sparkles everywhere.

The hairdryer is in a drawer in the desk/dressing table. But luckily it isn’t attached to the drawer and is actually quite powerful. It may not be a Dyson alas, but it was certainly very efficient and I was quite happy with it. It was such a pleasure not to have to fight with the drawer.

We had pre dinner drinks in the Commodore Club with friends we had met last year on the QM2. It was really great to spend time with them again. You really do meet the best people on ships! David was wearing his kilt, as were many other gentlemen. Kilts on formal nights always look so wonderful, and just make the evening that much more special.

The Commodore Club is growing on me. It is a big space, but does not feel hollow. The color scheme is soothing, and the windows give you great views. The seating is well designed so that there is plenty of seating for 2 or 4 people, but there are also many areas where you can easily sit  6 or 8 people without dragging chairs around the room. It was pretty full, but not too noisy and the piano in the background did not interfere with conversation. I was certainly in my happy place.

We met up with Deirdre and Kim, and Jackie at 8:00 and went to the upper level of the Britannia dining room for dinner. There was a long queue of people waiting to get in, and the staff seemed to be very perplexed as to how to deal with the situation.

We were lucky that Deirdre is well known, and we were shown to a table quite soon after our arrival. However, it took about an hour before the table was set and we were able to place our orders.

The menu tonight was up to the usually gala night standards.

Great food choices, but our waiter got several of our orders wrong, service was slow, and the food was cold.

However, there was a pistachio souffle for dessert. I love Cunard souffles so I was very happy and this one was totally amazing. I felt so happy to be back on a Cunard ship again.

We finished dinner at 11:00, and when we left the dining room we could see that most of the tables on deck 2 were still full. It had definitely been a slow evening.

I wanted to see the play “Brief Encounter”, but of course we had missed the late show. Hopefully we will get to see it on our next segment.

When we returned to our cabin there were 2 gifts and 4 chocolate truffles waiting for us. The gifts are a Queen Anne notebook and folder. A nice surprise.

It had been a great day and I was happy to sit and relax for a few minutes and think about the cruise so far.

I certainly love our cabin. The storage space could be bigger, but I have managed to hang up 7 day time dresses, 7 smart frocks, 3 formal gowns, a puffy jacket, a fleece and 3 cardigans in my side of the closet. Brian has had no trouble with his jackets, fleece, trousers, and day and evening shirts in his side. Yes, more space would be nice, especially for shoes, but it is manageable.

The bathroom is small, but it is beautiful. I love the shower, the showerhead is large with great water pressure, and there is a hand held shower as well. The lighting is bright, the mirror is great, and with 2 shelves under the sink, and 3 upper shelves, we have found space for everything. There is even enough shelving in the shower for all of our various soaps, shampoos, and conditioners. We didn’t even have to use our shower caddy.

It is certainly a one person at a time bathroom, but that’s not really a problem.

So yes, a Princess Grill cabin isn’t as big as on the other Queens, but it is certainly a lovely room. I am very happy we went ahead and splurged!