The first night’s sleep at sea can be a bit hit and miss, what with the movement, strange sounds and the thing that got me, the aircon. I don’t know if I was snoring but I woke an 4:30 with dry throat and sore nose, and struggled to get back off after that. I did, eventually and was woken properly by Jane announcing that, wardrobes aside she really likes the PG cabin. There are lots of good points to the new cabin, yes it is smaller than the Vistas and QM2, yes the wardrobe space is woefully inadequate, but the sitting area is bright and roomy. There are some excellent features in the room – the bathroom is small, but absolutely functional and the shower is a revelation, after the Vista PG state rooms, where the over bath shower is so low I’m lucky to wet my navel. Also the USB ports and bedside power points are very useful for today’s connected lifestyle.
After a shower we headed to the PG restaurant for breakfast, a very slow affair with long gaps between ordering and receiving. I’m getting the feeling that there has been a major crew changeover as everything is a little slow at the moment. I had requested a scoop of ice cream at dinner with my dessert last night, the Bakewell tart was a bit dry as it came without custard and it took an age to arrive. It was the same this morning at breakfast, we had arrived quite early and had ordered straight away, but two of our table mates weren’t asked for their order until 20 minutes after sitting, and then still hadn’t received anything after another 20 minutes. It’s not too much of a problem when you have nowhere to be, but tonight we’re booked into Noir at 9:30 so I hope it’s quicker tonight.
The first of the insight’s lecture on this cruise is John Laverick, a Civil Engineer and Naval Historian – Todat it’s Fortress Gibraltar, tracing the military history of Gibraltar from the Moors to WWII
The second of this morning’s Insights Lectures is Keith Appleyard’s “My Life as a Spook” Keith was a Cold War RAF Intelligence Officer.
After the lectures I headed back to the cabin to collect Jane and then Lunch in the PG Restaurant. It was a healthy-ish one for me today, salt and pepper squid appetiser and a tuna poke bowl main all very nice. It was another slow lunch, not as slow as breakfast, but still slow and I sat with a black coffee for ages waiting for milk and sugar. The service isn’t terrible it’s just not up to the usual Cunard standards.
After lunch we had an appointment booked with the Future Cruise sales team to sort out a cruise for 2026, we fancied a Caribbean cruise again after our previous one had been cancelled by the COVID outbreak in 2020. £1500 lighter we are now booked on QM2 departing Southampton November 10th returning December 6th in a Britannia Sheltered Balcony, I can’t afford the Grills on such a long and popular sailing. After that I was in need of a coffee and a sit down so we headed up to the Grills Lounge only to find there were no staff around forgetting it was 15:00 and afternoon tea was being served in the PG restaurant. It took a bit of persuading before Jane eventually relented and I sat down to dainty sandwiches (Prawn and Lobster) and Scones with jam and clotted cream, lovely.
We had a lazy afternoon followed by a trip up to the Commodore Club, we were going to try the Grills Lounge for our early evening livener but it’s not that comfortable in there, there seems to be a severe lack of comfortable seats anywhere around the ship, it’s as if Cunard don’t want you sitting for any length of time – Doombar was the order of the day and for Jane a Ginger Cosmo as that was on the CC menu. The beer glasses are straight from the freezer so and nice and cold, I’m not sure it’s required on a chilly Monday in the Bay of Biscay, but it’ll be nice if the weather improves further South.
It’s the first of the formal nights tonight, with a Black and White theme with the first of the Gala menus, this one created by Michel Roux, lots of fancy French words for seared tuna appetiser, saddle of lamb entree and a passion fruit souffle dessert. It was all very nice. We needed to be at the Bright Lights Society for 9:30 and Noir, but we needn’t have worried as the service was impeccable and we were in the queue for 9:15, who knew there’d be a queue, it was all very British. No spoilers, Noir is a murder mystery musical, absolute nonsense, but great fun and well worth the effort of booking.