We are making our way across the Atlantic and the seas have calmed back down to a fun house level this morning.
It has been a strange start to a cruise in that the ship has 11 passenger decks and Mark had not yet been past deck 9 yet and has only briefly been on deck 9 for the fireworks at sail away and the buffet. Normally we are in a rush to see all the ship as we only have up to a week onboard a cruise but this is definitely a more laid back attitude.
We have a few more sea days before we reach the Bahamas so we thought we would show you around the ship a bit each day. We apparently have 1734 passengers onboard and 820 crew so it is not full and a bit understaffed. Today we will focus on the main Atrium area.
As you can see the Atrium is rather small compared to most ships and the staircase is functional not glamorous but the ceiling is the focal point and amazing.
As for us, today was a very relaxing day. Pamela went off and did another craft session - this time she made a lanyard to go with the dozens she already owns!!! She insists it is different as it is an evening one. Who knew there were different categories!
We did the jukebox music quiz at lunchtime. Quizzes onboard cruise ships can often lead to heated debates with the quiz master (which we love to witness as people watchers) and so it was today. The intro in question was the song that has the lyrics “going loco down in Acapulco” - you know the one and are all humming it now. It is either by the Four Tops or Phil Collins depending on the version. Anyway, our quiz master insisted it was called Love in Acapulco by the Four Tops and that did not go down well as people were insisting it was Loco not Love. I so wanted the next song intro to be “I predict a riot” but it wasn’t to be. We did OK with 30/40 and enjoyed people continuously haggling over points.
We also tried a ballroom dance lesson - something called a Mayfair Quickstep. It was more like a Regent’s Street shopping scrum due to the huge numbers attending with many men having too many left feet and spinning the wrong way and getting berated by their wives. I (Mark) was not berated much but Pamela was definitely leading as I was apparently incapable. I think we will try fitsteps tomorrow instead - need to keep the waistline in check somehow.
News from the bridge was that the Captain has taken a detour in order to avoid the worse of an Atlantic storm heading to the UK/Europe. Instead of a direct route the ship has gone south before it turns west. This puts us behind schedule but he believes he will make up the time later.
Light eating, reading, tv watching, napping and relaxing was the way that the rest of the day was spent until Gala Evening which we spent on a shared table of 8. We have something called freedom dining so we can choose our time slot and you usually get seated quickly unless you want a table for two and that can lead to being given a pager and having to wait. Our table companions were all retired (we are probably the youngest passengers onboard at present) and interesting stories were exchanged about who were doing whole cruises or segments and general life stories. Amongst today’s table companions were a lovely Welsh lady who was on the aborted world cruise in 2020 plus a lady who is Michael Caine’s 2nd cousin and another lady who was born in the same London town as Mark (20 years earlier though) and went to the school in the road Mark used to live in - small world. The meal was 5 courses but nothing particularly special but that is probably because we have seen the menu so many times before on other cruises and the complimentary Prosecco or Elderflower fizz does not really do much for us but the food we had was cooked well and it was a very enjoyable meal.
We did another brain teaser quiz in the Spinnaker bar and teamed up with a couple who used to run a Pub and organised pub quizzes. Came 2nd 😆. Will look out for them again!!!
We ended the evening with the 10:30 show in the theatre which was a comedian magician called Manuel Martinez who is Cuban but kept slipping into an Italian accent which was slightly commented on by Giovanni who is our Italian Cruise Entertainment Manager. No doubt before the end of the cruise we will discover both come from somewhere like Essex. Pamela thought the comedian was funny and that the tricks were simple but very clever and the interaction with the audience was hilarious. Mark’s verdict was that it was OK and best described as Tommy Cooper meets Cuba’s Borat but he doesn’t really like Borat.
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