Days 23 and 24 - At Sea

Saturday - Another beautiful day.  I spent the morning at the pool.  I had a cheeseburger at the Lido Grill for lunch.  The first one I had in almost a month.  It was very tasty (not your normal tasteless frozen patty) but it could not compete with Riverbound/Marty's burgers!  At 2:30 there was the Great Boat Building Competition.  Teams built boats out of things found around the ship.  They were very nice looking but some were not "sea worthy" (they could not make it back and forth across the pool).  Went to the needlework/knitting group again.  Did some reading afterwards and chatted with a Cruise Critic friend.

After another beautiful sunset from my balcony, I got ready for dinner.  All ten of us were there tonight, which is unusual.  Three of our group are leaving in San Francisco.  I left dinner early to see the "Chocolate and Ice Culinary Event" which had beautiful ice sculptures and magnificent chocolate confections.  Unfortunately, it was set up poorly and people were coming in from all different directions so it was difficult to get good pictures.

Then it was off to the show entitled "Sing" featuring the Royal Cunard Singers and 19 of the musicians onboard.  They sang many popular hits including songs from Petula Clark, the Bee Gees, the Commodores, and Barry Manilow.  Met up with Gloria and John and Andrea and John (from Cruise Critic) at the end and talked for awhile as the crew took down the set in the theatre.

I try to go out on my balcony every evening before bed to look at the stars.  Tonight was much cooler than it has been for the last two weeks as we head north to San Francisco.

Sunday - Groundhog Day and Superbowl Sunday

I have gotten in the habit of staying in bed for about 15 minutes after I wake up to watch the sea go by.  An amazing view!

This morning we had another lecture by Bill Miller, this one entitled "Sailing to the Sun:  Cruising History and Folklore".  He talked about the popularity of cruising and how the cruise lines have enticed new cruisers over the years (during Prohibition there were $10 one-night "booze cruises" out of New York City so people could drink legally).

We were about five miles off the coast of Mexico midday.  The Captain announced that there were whales in the area.  I went out on deck 9 to look.  About two people away from me a couple kept saying, "There's one", "Look, another", "Over there", etc. The lady next to me and I looked at each other and just shook our heads.  Couldn't see anything!

At 2:00 the "Singers at Sea" performed.  This is a group of the passengers who have been practicing since Fort Lauderdale.  They were really good and received a standing ovation.

I mentioned that I was given a voucher for the Champagne Tea (costs $29.99 each) for two.  I invited my Cruise Critic friend, Pat, who drove me to the ship in Southampton.  There was a choice of Veuve Cliquot champagne (NV or Rose), a pot of tea (four choices - I had the Jasmine) and more food than two people could eat (starting with a small strawberry parfait, then six finger sandwiches, six scones [with jam and cream] and six desserts).  A string quartet played while we ate and talked.  It was all quite posh.

The temperature is definitely getting cooler - I needed a jacket in the afternoon to sit on my balcony.  After watching another gorgeous sunset, I got ready for dinner.  I listened to the Big Band music in the Queens Room after dinner.

The internet has been amazingly slow for the past two days.  My third attempt to upload pictures is still not working so I am going to publish this without pictures and edit it when the internet is more cooperative!

Two of the boats from the boat building competition (the second one did quite well)

Chocolate and Ice

Nationalities onboard (as of 28 January)
American - 566
Australian - 47
Austrian - 3
Belgian - 3
Brazilian - 1
British - 903
British Virgin Islands -1
Canadian - 112
Croatian - 1
Danish - 7
Dutch - 22
French - 9
German - 110
Greek - 1
Iceland -3
Indian - 1
Irish - 15
Italian - 1
Japanese - 42
Kazakhstan - 3
Luxembourg - 4
Mexican - 1
New Zealander - 5
Norwegian - 9
Romanian - 1
Russian - 1
South African - 2
Spanish - 4
Swedish - 13
Swiss - 15
Ukraine - 1

Total 1907

The crew represents over 50 nationalities.

Smooth sailing until next time!