We had another long sleep but the clocks went back another hour so we didn’t miss breakfast. Mark had a small breakfast of poached egg on toast plus a bowl of melon in the Carinthia lounge which offers small tapas type food for breakfast, lunch & tea. Pam grabbed a bigger breakfast from the buffet and joined him.
We briefly sat outside, on the promenade deck, on the comfy steamer chairs but we felt we were getting burnt, and had had enough of that on this holiday thank you very much, so retired gracefully.
We booked a shore excursion for Namibia and then had to get a statement spending account from the pursers office - the app and IT on here is abysmal and even worse than Arcadia - I know, how is that possible you say! It’s a good job they have lots of staff doing things we could do for ourselves but it shouldn’t be that way. I suppose the majority of Cunarders won’t use a phone for anything anyway so they feel why try to make IT work for the few that do. Grrrr.
We then split up. Pam went to the theatre to meet Janet and attend the port talk about Reunion Island. We have a tour booked here for a few hours so it was useful to know how we could spend the rest of our time around the place on our own.
Meanwhile Mark attended two lectures. The first by an Australian doctor/scientist/philosopher on how to stay forever young and how to combat aging and if old age could be reversed. He was very deadpan in his delivery style and basically there are are lots of promising options to long life and immortality but we are nowhere close at present and so are basically stuffed so enjoy the life you have while you can.
The second was a chat on comedy but it turned out to be Australian comedy which was still funny but obviously far more enjoyable and nostalgic if you are Australian.
We met up again in the Golden Lion pub for lunch. This venue also does food but only at lunchtime. Janet joined us as her and Pam had been nattering over coffee since the port talk, we were also joined by a new friend of Janet’s (Jenny) from Sydney. Pam had fish & chips and mushy peas (she’s not northern so left the peas on principle) followed by fruit crumble and custard.
Mark had a ploughman’s lunch followed by fencing. No, it is not a dessert - he didn’t have time for that, he had a fencing class to attend. One for all and all for one. en garde and all that.
This was held in the queens room on a first come first served basis where it turned out 12 lucky people would get dressed up in full fencing kit and poke each other for about 20 minutes in between dancing forwards and backwards. We had to sign a waiver first (Cunard aren’t fools) and then were taught the basics for about 15mins. Got dressed for about 10mins - those helmets are heavy and the protective vest needs more protection! We were trained in how to hold the foil sword and then let at it in a semi organised way. There is how you are meant to do it - which we all practiced first by allowing ourselves to be poked/stabbed/hit by our partners and then the reality of don’t bloody poke me, I will defend by all means possible when left our our own devices. At the end we were changing partners (my original partner and I were very polite and were more lungeing and less poking whilst others had some inner issues they were obviously trying to resolve on the floor).
Pam meanwhile spent the same hour eating, drinking and showing Janet pictures of Australia - she’s no fool.
Afternoon time so Mark had a nap for 3 hours and Pam watched TV and read and then gave up waiting for sleeping beauty to awake so went shopping buying a keyring, some proper Cadbury’s chocolate and razors from the port shop.
We are both awake at a decent time for dinner. So shower time and get ready for dinner and, as this is Cunard, pre-dinner drinks, which we had today in The Commodore Club with the harpist playing - and singing and even, at one stage, harping and playing piano at the same time. The Commodore club, like most venues here, give free nibbles (peanuts and olives today) and even free canapés. A nice way to start your evening.
One of the big differences between P&O and Cunard is that P&O forces you to be more socialable. At dinner, and events like afternoon tea, P&O will edge you towards shared tables with very few tables for two whilst on Cunard it is the opposite with mainly small tables though they can be close together. Likewise, bars on Cunard are set up with tables for 2s and 4s - these also exist on P&O but there are also bigger couches and space is at a premium so you are forced to share and interact. We found ourselves in a lovely window table for two but after 15mins we were in a section of the restaurant all by ourselves which was excellent for service but eerie nonetheless.
For dinner, Pam had Duck terrine, cock-a-leekie soup, breaded chicken with carrots and mashed potato followed by vanilla cheesecake with strawberries Mark the same soup followed by pork wellington (which he felt was just a very expensive sausage roll) and veg followed by a rich chocolate dessert and panna cota.
We moved the short distance to the golden lion pub where they did a landslide quiz (in which every team that gives the same answer win plus a bonus point for novelty answers). Not really our thing. This was followed by a man on guitar and lady singer called Ocean Drive. These were very good though we didn’t stay long as we went to the theatre for the late night comedy show with an old Irish Comedian called William Caulfield. He was OK, and definitely non controversial, and very funny in places - basically standard fare comedy.
We will end the day with the theatre as our ship tour area. It is on decks 2 & 3 and by stairway c lifts.
We are not great fans of this theatre. There are lots of seats but many with poor or restricted views on both levels. The stage comes out into the audience which causes two big issues in such a small venue: limits views and impacts sound system as it can lead to some areas being very loud.
These are the royal court actors and dancers. Some of you that have sailed on here before may recognise some of them.
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