It was a solo breakfast for me first thing, it usually is, what with the excitement of the cruise, half a bottle of Pol Acker, Commodore cocktails and shared a bottle of Montagnes 1er Cru at dinner plus port with her cheese, Jane was a little jaded and had already had the foresight to order room service. My first and only lecture for the day was at 09:15, Gloria Barnett’s chat on the weird and wonderful behaviour of sea creatures, that part was excellent. The second part on pollution at sea felt a bit more preachy even though everything she said was true and the aims laudable, there seemed to be a bit of hypocrisy in telling people on a fly cruise to lower their carbon footprint. The second lecture was to be by Phil Holt on Donald Campbell and Bluebird, but as I’ve already seen that twice before I wasn’t sure I fancied a third helping
I had arranged to meet Jane post lecture to go and hunt down a new cap, the Cunard ones are nice but $28 is a bit steep, so I think I’ll wait until tomorrow and Cannes to see what’s available there.
After our failed shopping experience we decided to head up to the Grills Terrace for some more sunbathing. We managed to bag a couple of beds, mine in the shade and Jane was in full sun. At 11am we were brought some lovely chilled fruit kebabs to snack on. It was quite warm on deck even in the shade so I headed into the lounge to read while Jane finished off.
Lunch in the PG restaurant was very nice again. I had a mackerel orzo salad followed by seafood kebabs and banoffee pie. Jane had a very fresh melon salad to start followed by the same main as me.
After lunch we went down to the Queen’s room where they were performing Cunard Street, an oratory originally written by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. It was very interesting indeed. After that we went up to the promenade deck to lounge on a steamer chair. They’ve all been refurbished and look very smart all clean and royal blue.
Jane wanted to get a little more sunbathing in so it was back up to the Grills Terrace to grab a bed. I wasn’t complaining because there would be ice creams at 15:00. When we got there, there were a lot of free beds but covered in towels. I’m not sure if people are just too lazy to throw them in the towel bin or too entitled and feel that someone can clear up after them.
We had cocktails in the Grills Lounge rather than the Commodore Club. Jane wanted to see if her issue with yesterday’s drinks were a barman problem or a recipe change. The Cosmopolitan in the tonight were much better, much more of a citrus vibe to them and the ginger Cosmopolitan she had as her second drink was lovely apparently.
I’m happy to report that canapes are in full attendance, we were served them in the Commodore Club yesterday and again tonight, but whoever thought breaded tofu made an acceptable canapé need shooting! They only redeemed themselves by also serving a really delicious veg samosa along side it.
It was the first of our formal nights, with the red and gold Cunard theme. Lots of red dresses on show as well as a smattering red bow ties and cummerbunds. Dinner only gets a good from me, I had the tempura jumbo shrimp off the A la Carte menu and though they were delicious, the tempura batter was papery rather than crisp. A technical point but they’ve always been brilliant previously, I didn’t want to complain as our waiter Anuraj is a bit of a feeder and I know I’d have ended up with a second helping, and as much as I’d have been happy to have them, my waistband wouldn’t. Main was chateaubriand which was perfectly cooked, but a small portion, again I could have asked for more and Raj did offer more, I knew it was for the best not to have it.