Today’s Daily Programme Can Be Found Here
Today was a sea day after leaving Valencia last night we are sailing on a pan flat sea heading back south towards Malaga. The sun is out and it’s going to be glorious. We took breakfast as usual in the PG restaurant, bircher muesli and a scrambled egg and crispy bacon bagel. The sun was out on Deck 11, the Grills Terrace where Jane grabbed a lounger in the sun for a couple of hours chilling. It was going to be a lazy day, or at least a lazy morning.
We had a lazy morning before heading down to the buffet “Artisan Food Hall” as I had the Behind the Scenes ship tour at 12:45, I fancied sushi and was hoping they had it on offer, but sadly I found none, so Pavilion Grill and a couple of bratwurst, sans buns would have to suffice.
I left Jane to her own devices and headed back to the room to make sure I was clean and had no illness as stipulated on the joining form then on to the Bright Lights where we met an were briefed on the upcoming tour. There were 16 of us in our party and there was another tour right behind us.
Our first port of call was the Theatre, very interesting and surprisingly technical as well as very compact, there’s not a lot of room off stage. From there we headed to the forward mooring station, big ropes and even bigger anchor chains where the First Officer gave a presentation on the technical aspects of mooring and a line throwing demonstration. The next sop was the Britannia Galley. As you’d expect it was a vast area of polished steel heat and noise, with loads of chefs and waiters going about their business. This was the kitchen area, where floor was finished and plated, the preparation areas were in the two decks below. We also went to the ships stores and had a look in the huger chilled rooms and freezers where all to food consumed on board is stored.
After a small sweet sample of their wares the next stop was Engineering the the Chief Engineers control room. Walls covered with monitors showing the status of every area of the ship, engines and propulsion, desalination, ventilation and power. Fascinating stuff. From there we headed to the safety officers area where we saw the firefighting equipment available to the safety officers and the ships crew. Next was the laundry, as hot and steamy as you can imagined, huge washing machines that will take 160 kg linen at a time. Automatic pressing machines for flat linen and rows of steam presses for shirts, trousers and jackets. The final port of call was the Bridge where we were shown all the Navigation tools that the Bridge Officers have to hand to get us from port to port safely and efficiently.
Finally we ended the tour in the Commodore Club with a glass of champagne some savory and sweet treats and a chance to chat with the Captain, David Hudson, and Jaqueline Bott, the Hotel General Manager. It had been over three and a half hours climbing up and down stairs and I was exhausted.
Jane was back in the stateroom when I returned, so we caught up on our respective days and decided to save going out to pre-dinner drinks in the Chart Room and I promptly dozed off.
It was the second of our Gala nights, Masquerade, so it was on with the penguin suit and out for drinks. Jane had a Mai Tai again, and I fancied something non-alcoholic and refreshing so ordered on of the very expensive non-alcoholic cocktails thinking it might be a long glass. Nope a pink monstrosity arrived in a babycham glass totally destroying the macho Bond look I was trying to project.
Dinner was excellent I had the Pork en Croute which was very nice. Jane had ordered Bananas Foster, flambeed at the table for dessert, pointing out it was just for her as I don’t like rum. It must come as a set portion as I’ve no idea how she managed to finish it, it was huge, but she did and loved it.