Another fine day, so just one wet day out of the 12 so far, which is a pretty good percentage when you are on holiday in this part of the world. We managed to catch John and Glenys Honore at breakfast time, almost the first time we have seen them since Ghent!
Straight after the losing 10am trivia, Bob and I headed for the Wheelhouse Bar where there was a meeting for Classic and Sports car enthusiasts. About a dozen and a mix of English, Canadian, Australian and Welsh. One of the Welsh enthusiasts I’d met earlier as he was proudly wearing a Gilbern jacket. For those not into cars, Gilbern cars were manufactured in Wales and like Marcos, a small volume manufacturer.
Bob and I left a bit early as the ship was due to pas under the long Danish linking Denmark to Sweden I believe. Paula and I sat out on our balcony for a while, enjoying the calm seas and pleasant sunshine, before the usual late lunch. With admirable restraint I thought, I limited myself to a chunk of salmon, a slice of pork and a small spoonful of pasta and a glass of water. As you now have to ask for the lemon squash, rather than help yourself, I can’t be bothered.
For afternoon trivia, Robert (not Bob!) Paula and I were last to arrive, so we joined another couple, competing directly against the others of our team, Bob, Elaine, Alan, Sheila, Judy and John. We beat them with our best score to date of 17/20. Not enough to win – again.
It was formal night again, but as we’d missed Taffy Spencer’s first show, we stood at the back of the Explorer’s lounge until it was time for the Captain’s cocktail party for the 40 most travelled passengers.
A complementary photograph with the captain, Justin Lawes (from Wales…) a cider and a chat with Environmental Officer, Chelsea, and 4 others, 2 from Australia and 2 from NZ (the 3rd most travelled). Incidentally, they rated Barbara as the best Captain’s Circle host they had ever had. When the captain came round again for a chat to our little group, he went up in my estimation when he told us that when he met his now wife, he had a silver birch coloured, Aston Martin DB5! (That is the original James Bond Aston Martin model and colour, and I bet he wishes he’d never sold it! He now has aV12 E Type Jaguar.
We were fed with some amazing hors d’oeuvres, and even small desserts, but we couldn’t really do them justice as we hadn’t eaten and we had to leave space for the beef Wellington. I did manage a Strongbow cider on the house.
Down to dinner at 8pm and yet another nice meal, but some grump on the adjacent table claimed he was a pastry chef and the pastry on the beef Wellington wasn’t much cop! He wasn’t wrong, but doing a decent Wellington in bulk just isn’t the same. Whilst our waiter Stanford was dealing with that, he overlooked making up the mustard for Alan, or forgot to pass on the message, so by the time Socorro had mixed up a portion (from the powder), we’d all eaten ours and Alan’s was just about cold.
We then headed for the Explorer’s lounge, where they were just finishing off a ‘Sherlock Holmes Musical Murder Mystery’, led by CD Duke (also from Wales).
A major grizzle for us as this too was scheduled for 9:15pm, which is a bit too early for late sitting diners and as they only did it the once, as with other popular game shows, we missed out.
We were under the impression that these ‘Murder Mysteries’ were written by Alan Cooper (from Alan & Alana) of our earlier cruises, so it will be interesting to see if that is the case and whether or not there is a copyright issue, or whether or not Princess hold the copyright. Must drop Alan an email to find out, just to satisfy my own curiosity.
The lounge was packed and is nowhere big enough to cope. We stood along with many other from second sitting, waiting to grab a seat and I spotted Bob & Elaine so headed towards them, and they were just leaving so I grabbed their seats and the couple opposite them weren’t staying either, so space for Alan and Sheila.
Someone else tried to grab the other two and he wasn’t too pleased when I said they were taken!
Taffy’s Spencer’s show (this would be his second of course, as we missed the first), was very similar to Mike McClean’s, with way more comedy than magic and again a very good show.
We celebrated the evening with a port – our first – and crashed about 11:40.
Just another sea day now and most people will be concentrating on their packing, whereas we just need to throw all the loose stuff into our cases and can leave the shirts and tops on hangers, to be transported up a deck and across. This will be the first time we have been as high as deck 14 – Riviera deck.
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