The clocks went back again overnight so we are now only 2hrs ahead of the UK. Pam got up at but left Mark, who was sleeping like a baby and finally awoke after 11:30 (now 10:30am).
Pam had breakfast and attended a port talk on Cape Town which included a bit more information on our forthcoming tour excursion of Cape Point and Boulders Bay.
Then Pam attempted to get a cappuccino from Sir Samuels. All the empty tables had dirty cups and bowls on them, so she sat at the least dirty table and held up a menu and waited and waited and waited. The staff ignored her and were more interested in the officer that turned up. So she left and got a cappuccino in the Carinthia Lounge which was so quick. Violeta the waitress was so quick to spot her and so friendly. She will definitely get her coffee there again. Mark later said she should have just flagged someone down.
Meanwhile Mark finally departed the room around 11:15 to allow our cabin steward Ray, to service our room. He read and wrote on the promenade deck before going up onto the top deck for lunch, for a burger, from the boardwalk cafe.
Pam headed back to the room and relaxed on the bed watching the TV movie (Elvis starring Tom Hanks). She was still watching it when Mark got back and we headed upstairs to the Carinthia lounge for our Music quiz at 2pm and to get some lunch on the way. As Mark had already eaten a lot in the cafe he had nibbles but Pam got herself Mac and Cheese. They both then had tiramisu mousse pots. We do love the light dishes in the Carinthia Lounge.
The quiz went well and we won - with the help of our amazing quiz partners Diane and Andrew. So we finally have stickers. We got 3 which was probably a mistake but as we felt cheated with the earlier scavenger hunt we didn’t complain. We had booked into the next Planetarium offering to see a different show called Infinity Express. This one was different from Dynamic Earth. This show was about our solar system, galaxies and the photos from Mars. Explaining how much bigger our universe is than they ever imagined and how the different planets in our solar system developed over time. It was very fascinating and another show Mark stayed awake for.
We hadn’t seen or heard from Janet all day so we rang her cabin. She had been suffering with with lower back pain and was resting so we went to her cabin for a visit and tea and biscuits. On the way back to our room we noticed that the laundrette was free so we stuck on some washing - we are lucky it’s only 5 doors away from us. While the machines did their jobs we spent the time getting prepared for tonight’s 1920s Gala night.
With our washing done, and put away, we headed up to the Commodore Club, on deck 9, for pre-dinner drinks and nibbles with the harpist in the background. Then it was off to dinner in the main Britannia restaurant.
As it is a sea day let’s make this our ship tour section for the day - especially as it is next door to the Golden Lion pub which we covered last time. The Britannia restaurant covers decks 2 and 3 and is the free, full waiter service option, for most passengers. There are passengers in suites that have their own table, in a different restaurant on a different deck, where they can have all their meals if they want. There is also a smallish dining area behind the main Britannia restaurant for a group of passengers in Balcony Club class. This class is a level between the regular balcony cabins and the grill suites. Again, they have their own dedicated table, for all their meals if they wish, though the choice, and probably quality, of the food is less than that of the grill suites.
Anyway, back to us. The Britannia restaurant has 2 levels. Deck 2 is used for breakfast and lunch (of course, as you have seen, there are loads of other venues for these meals onboard but this venue has full waiter service). In the evening, this level 2 area is used for fixed dining at 6pm and 8:30pm. This means that you have the same dedicated table all the time (with the same fellow passengers if you share) and the table only has one other group using it - for the other sitting time. You normally have the same wait staff too. On level 3 is flexible dining - which we have. You can turn up anytime between between 6-9pm and they will find you a table somewhere or give you a pager and call you when a table is ready. The menu is the same for both levels. We prefer flexible dining as we are not sure what we are doing each day plus we never know when we will be hungry (and cannot afford the flexible dining times in club class or the suites). The downside for us is that you are often seated all over the restaurant during your cruise so never build a rapport with any of the restaurant crew.
The restaurant is beautiful, as we hope these bad pictures will show, and although it is in the middle of the ship, you can see out of the windows each side on both decks 2 & 3 - we will explain how that is achieved in another blog after Durban.
Back to our gala night. Here is the menu - you may need to copy and zoom in to see the detail.
We are just rubbish at remembering to take pics during sea days as we are too engrossed in what we are doing. Here is Mark’s stater (prawn and shrimp croquettes) and he remembered to take the pic just after he started.
Pam had the pate for starter and he is the most appalling pic taken of her with her main (lamb dish) but it is the only one we have of her in her 1920s outfit.
And here is Mark in his Bond outfit with his beef tenderloin meal.
We both had the white chocolate mousse for dessert but no pics taken - we said we were rubbish but we were talking to people. Two couples sat down near us when we started our main meal - they were lovely. One couple were from Ireland and the other from Australia (Mark thinks they were actually cousins and the lady was from the UK). It was a shame we did not have much time to talk to them, as we finished before them and had to go our next venue.
After dinner we went along the corridor to the Chart room to listen to the jazz with the Mark Hodgson Trio. We hadn’t seen these before and they were very good.
We brought our evening to a close by attending the late theatre show was called The Four Harps. This was four lads from Ireland singing traditional Irish songs as well as their on take on modern songs like Sam Smith’s “stay with me” merged with James Bays “ hold back the river”. They also sang “ nothing compares to u” made famous by sinead O’Connor. The biggest surprise was their rendition of “This is me“ from the greatest showman. It was a brilliant and lively show as they ended on their slightly over the top impersonation of Westlife singing “you raise me up”.
After the show, before going to bed, we popped into the Queens room before bed to have a look at the decorations for Roaring 20s gala evening. We were underwhelmed but at least an effort was made which was more than many passengers tonight.
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