A busy day today so we got up at 9am and had breakfast in the King’s Court buffet before we both went to the lecture on Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. They were both young, naive, inexperienced teenagers when they got together and Louis was indecisive and weak so, with a country with no parliament and an absolute ruler, it was never going to end well when the going got tough for the country. There is apparently no evidence of the saying “let them eat cake” but lots of evidence of Marie Antonette’s excessive spending and gambling during a time when the country was struggling. A united French populus, supported by the media of the day, led to the inevitable outcome. It seems President Macron is lucky times have changed and there is no guillotine today as the same fate may have been on the cards based on what we see on the news!
Pam popped off for a cappuccino in the Carinthia lounge whilst Mark stayed in Illuminations for the talk on sending signals into space and life on other planets. It was very thought provoking. It appears that we sent the first radio wave signals into space around a hundred years ago so they would have traveled about 100 light years. Lots of statistics suggest the nearest life planet could be 433 light years away (and that could be wildly out). Even if it were 100 light years away the quality would be so poor it would be missed. Over the recent decades technology has improved so we could send signals and messages if we wanted to but we have no idea where to aim them and even if we should. Mark’s view is that he agrees that the odds are there must be some other life out there but as we have not be contacted it must mean that there is some galaxy rule preventing our contact until we are less primitive OR the Big Bang created the universe outwards from the centre and no-one else that exists has been around so much longer than us to develop the technology to reach us yet. Mark hopes it’s the former because if it is the latter than sooner or later we could easily become food to an alien species!
Pam switched with Mark as she attended the next lecture which was the crime one by Diane Janes on Arsenic and old lies. She first started with a myth that was portrayed in the film “Arsenic and old lace” that arsenic was a simple and painless way to kill someone. This is not the truth as symptoms of arsenic poisoning include diarrhoea and vomiting. Not a nice way to go. Also in the late 19th and early 20th century Arsenic was put in lots of things from weed killer; concoctions given by your GP; and even in paint and wallpaper to get a very distinctive green colour.
She then went through past cases where the accused were found guilty on fabricated evidence by “expert” witnesses and that the test for arsenic was very flimsy and not very well controlled as there could be cross contamination all the time. There were also some cases where a body was exhumed from an area with high concentrations of arsenic in the soil so this could convict an innocent person too. Arsenic was also mistaken a lot due to it looking like flour or salt - especially in households that had servants or household cooks.
When her talk had finished she bumped into Janet and said hi before heading outside to find Mark on the Promenade Deck. He was sound asleep.
She left him there for a while until we met up at the Terrace Pool for the crossing of the equator event with King Neptune. We had seen this one on Arcadia, when we crossed north to south.
The comparison, of the two events, sums up the difference between the two lines perfectly. Cunard’s was all laid out and well prepared and organised - P&O’s chaotic. P&O’s was much livelier and more camp with Cunard’s more reserved and wordy. P&O’s was in a bigger area but not arranged well whereas here, the Grills Terrace has their own view and some suite cabins had excellent views whilst the rest had to find space in the areas which had been setup for us. The usual 2 tier level approach of Cunard. Cunard involved the passengers in the event which was nice whilst P&O made it look like it was a crew party that guests were invited to watch. The main difference was the ceremony itself for the first time crossers. They had to kiss a real, large, dead fish here (a plastic inflatable on Arcadia). They were then covered in spaghetti, fish guts and other stuff here before being thrown in the pool (they had the ice bucket challenge on Arcadia before jumping in). Like most things we enjoyed different aspects from both ships. If we could have had the venue on Arcadia, with their outlandish pantomime acting by Neptune, his Queen and the ceremony host combined with everything else on QM2 then it would have been spot on.
As we are at the Terrace Pool area we will make the ship tour section the pools area at the aft (rear) end of the ship. We will jump down a couple of decks to deck six and before you go outside there is the indoor kids zone. Obviously, we cannot go in there but here are a couple of pics for those with kids and an interest.
Just outside is a small play area and then the deck 6 pool area with a paddling pool, a shallow pool and lounge areas.
Up the stairs (with child lock gates) to deck 7 which has no pool but tables and loungers.
There are many ways to go up to deck 8 but the quickest are the stairs on the deck. Deck 8, as you saw during the King Neptune event, is the main outdoor pool with bar and smoking area and terraced area. Music is sometimes played out here too.
The next couple of decks are for access to the Grills terrace on Deck 11 but you can see this a bit from the kennels poop deck (not currently in use) on deck 12.
And that’s it for today’s tour.
We moved quickly from the crossing the equator event to the theatre for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s show called Boundless at Sea. The five performers joined the ship in Cape Town apparently and will do a number of events for our final days. The story was set on a cruise ship called Queen Mary where Benedict and his ex wife unexpectedly join the ship at the same time. Then there are sisters Juliet and Helena who join the ship together and who fall in love with
the bell hop boy called Romeo. It was great mixture of known story lines and poetry spoken plus songs from various decades weaved it. It was very enjoyable and we cannot wait for the next show. Our daughter Katherine would have loved it so we are sure she will look to come back to Cunard soon.
We then headed to the Queens room for afternoon tea with the harpist Magdalena Reising.
A beautiful meal consisting of tea, delicious finger sandwiches and rolls plus yummy cakes and scones with jam and clotted cream. We were also joined, mid-way, by Janet.
After afternoon tea was afternoon nap in our cabin. This was very enjoyable and needed.
We decided this evening to have dinner in the chefs galley. This is a place Mark knew nothing about even after 30+ days on this ship. This restaurant is separate from the kings court buffet and kings court area where you pay extra. During the day, this area has burgers and hot dogs but in the evening it is waiter service venue, with menus etc… and reminded us a little like ASK or Pizza Express but with less choice. Pam had penne bolognaise and Mark had a Caesar salad with anchovies plus cheese ravioli carbonara.
We retired to our usual haunt of the Carinthia lounge where we played Rummikub before listening to the Ocean Drive Duo and pianist Blake again. The waiters Giovanni, Guilson & Violeta know us well now so our drinks always come with crisps and in this case crisps and nuts. We ended our evening with the trivia quiz but with no Diane, who is a little under the weather, but with Janet and her friend Ann. We did OK though we don’t know how Janet managed to stay up so late past her normal bedtime!
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