SAFARIGAL IS ON THE MOVE AGAIN!

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Prologue

 

With enough effort you can justify anything.

When retirement was looking like a possibility, and not just something to dream about in the distant future, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. We would go on a world cruise on Queen Mary 2. Every year when her world cruise itinerary would be published I would study every port and imagine us visiting those exotic places.

When retirement finally did arrive, we examined the cost of the Queen Mary 2 World Voyage in Princess Grill, and declared it to not be compatible with our projected finances. Disappointment set in. However Brian came to the rescue as always. He was looking at a previous Queen Mary 2 World Voyage brochure (they populate our house), and suggested that we do the segment of the world cruise that involves going around the Horn. We have done 3 world cruise segments before –Dubai to Hong Kong on Queen Mary 2 in 2010, the maiden transatlantic crossing on Queen Elizabeth in 2011, and Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale on Queen Victoria in 2012. I was able to convince myself that we really didn’t want to be away from home for months on end, and we would do the world voyage, but over several years in segments.

The next problem was that Queen Mary 2 was not going around the Horn in 2017. Queen Victoria was going as far as the Straits of Magellan, but in the spirit of compromise I emailed our wonderful travel agent Sue, and asked her to book us a Princess Grill cabin on the Fort Lauderdale to Valparaiso segment of Queen Victoria’s world voyage. By later that afternoon we had our booking confirmation and cabin number. It may not be a world voyage, but it was a fantastic itinerary on a beautiful ship so all was well with the world.

Starting in Fort Lauderdale meant we could fly in early and stay with friends in Miami for a couple of days so we didn’t have to do a transatlantic flight in the middle of winter, and risk missing the boat because Heathrow had been closed due to 2 inches of snow. We could also stock up on provisions for the trip in Miami, and avoid a bit of the Idaho winter. Although we were a bit disappointed that we were not going around the Horn as such, the Straights of Magellan were good enough for me, and we would get to see the penguins in Punta Arenas. The itinerary also included a trip up the Amazon to Manaus, something I have always wanted to do, and the possibility of Sue booking us an overland trip to Iguassu Falls. I am a huge waterfall fan and had been enchanted by the Falls on a previous trip to Buenos Aires. I wanted Brian to see them too. So that was that, we were all set to go on our perfect world cruise segment in the perfect cabin.

The Brian took another look at the Queen Victoria world voyage itinerary, and started muttering about down grading our cabin and staying on the ship until Sydney. I checked the prices out on line, and sure enough we could book a Britannia grade cabin for the Fort Lauderdale to Sydney section for the same cost of the Princess Grill suite. It was a no brainer and I was about to email Sue when I studied the itinerary further.

We could stay on until Los Angeles, and get to see New Zealand for a significant extra cost. However when you factored in the expense of airfares home from Sydney, and the additional cost of doing a cruise around New Zealand at a later date, all of a sudden the extra time on board made fiscal sense. Brian was not that easy to convince, but the thought of avoiding a long haul flight form Sydney to Idaho, and 2 days snorkeling in Hawaii convinced him, and so off went the email to Sue. She replied right back that she had secured a guarantee balcony cabin for us. That meant that we definitely had a cabin, but we could not chose which specific one. We would only find out closer to sailing which one had been allocated to us. A risk we were willing to take – we were now going to be on board for 80 days. Across the world in 80 days!!!!!!!!!!!

The rationalization didn’t end there. I had been looking at the Cunard web site to see if there was information about the enrichment speakers for our voyage, and noticed an extremely reasonable price for the Southampton to Fort Lauderdale segment of the world voyage. In no time I had convinced myself that it would be cheaper than staying home (not true), that we could use frequent flyer miles to London, we could use our Expedia discount at a hotel in Southampton, there would be less snow this winter, and that the flight from Idaho to London really wasn’t that awful. This didn’t convince Brian, plus he also wanted to factor in the reality that he had agreed to work part time for the first 2 weeks of January, and that there would therefore also be a loss of income.

Brian is a very good man. A few days later he acknowledged that I had had a very difficult time over the past few months dealing with my mother’s death and sorting out her estate in Scotland, and he knew I really, really, really wanted to do a whole world cruise, so he told me to email Sue again and book the extra segment. This meant that I could no longer really call my blog “Across the World in 80 Days”, as it would now be 91 days, but it meant that we would be on board for more than 89 days, Cunard’s definition of the Queen Victoria 2017 World Cruise. So now we really are going on our post retirement world cruise. What fun!

I decided not to change the title of the blog to “Across the World in 91 Days”, because that just doesn’t sound right. Besides, the music is already stuck in my head. I hope people understand the need for poetic license.

The Inspiration

 A long time ago in a land far away

In 1962 my parents took the year off from work so we could travel around the world. This was not a world cruise but a series of adventures on planes, trains, automobiles, busses, cable cars, and boats. After our plane ran off the end of the runway into the sea in Mogadishu, and my father nearly being stabbed by an enraged restaurant owner in Aden, where we staying before catching the P&O Cathay to Japan, things went quite smoothly on our odyssey. We sailed from Japan to the US on the P&O Iberia where we met several passengers who were doing the whole world cruise on her. I was intrigued by the notion that you could stay on the ship for several months, and avoid getting lost in the mountains of Japan, dragging the large suitcase of my mother’s designer gowns on and off trains, or as I later experienced, sleeping on Greyhound busses because there was no money for a motel that night. At the age of 8 I decided that this was something to be added to my equivalent of a bucket list. Then we sailed from New York to Southampton on the original Queen Elizabeth. It was the highlight of a very wonderful year, and the start of my addiction to Cunard ships.

The Preparation

 

It started as a very normal 30 day cruise. No worries there – we felt we could ask our very wonderful neighbors to pick up our mail, and clear our driveway from the inevitable snow.

Now it’s going to be 91 days; that changes everything.

I started reading world cruise blogs and books, how did people cope with being away from their homes for up to 3 months over winter. I had previously read Maggie Thorpe’s book, Ships, Shoes & Maggiemou, for light entertainment. Now I had to read it again for tips on world cruising, and to find out what she and Mr. MM had done in each port.

Next there were the bills. I went on line and changed all of our bills to electronic bills, making sure that we could pay everything through online banking while we were away. I changed our bank and investment statements to online, as well as medical journals we subscribed to. We receive several catalogs a day, and I was able to find a service that stopped these coming. We plan to have our mail forwarded to our son in Illinois, and he has graciously agreed to look over it, and scan anything that looks like it needs immediate attention to us.

The Implementation

So it is now 2 days before we fly to London. I am getting quite anxious that there is something major we have forgotten to do. However, this is the boring, but practical part:

We have found a very nice man who will stop by and check on the house every week. In the past our neighbors have kindly done this for us, but over 3 months really seemed like too much of an imposition. He can make sure the heating is still working, and the pipes are not frozen. He can also keep an eye on the snow level on the deck and clear it if we have another major snowfall.

I was able to do the temporary change of address for our mail online, so come January 3^rd our son can expect to be getting our mail. He will open important looking letters and scan them to us. Hopefully this will not be too much of a burden for him.

Brian has visited our accountant to start to get our taxes in order. We get back on the 6^th of April, and there would not be time to start working on our taxes then. He has also visited an estate-planning lawyer. We wrote our wills in the early 90s, but thought it would be a good idea to update them. The likelihood of the ship sinking is minimal, but you can never be too careful.

I went to our pharmacy and requested an extra 90 days supply of my medications. They called our insurance company who were very obliging and allowed them to dispense this, and did not even ask for a copy of our itinerary. As we are going to the Amazon, which is a malaria area, I had also asked our PCP to prescribe Malarone for us to take when we are there. Brazil requires proof of yellow fever vaccination, and in the small print in our Cunard documentation it states that we would not be able to board without proof of vaccination. Luckily I was able to locate our certificates, which we required on a trip to Tanzania some years ago.

I made an appointment at the dentist to get a check up and cleaning before we set sail, and of course will get my hair cut and colored before we leave, but I may need to see the hair dressers on board if things get out of control. I have forgone a pedicure before I leave, although our local spa does the best pedicures, as there is simply not enough time to get this done after work, but I know I can get a good pedicure on board.

I went to the bank and gave them a copy of our itinerary. In the past we have had problems using our ATM cards in foreign countries, so I wanted to be sure they knew where we were at all times. I will also alert our credit card company that we are off on an adventure.

Next came the visas. We travel on US passports, and the only visas we need are for Australia and Brazil. Australia was easy. It could be done on line, took about 10 minutes, and cost less that $20. So next was Brazil. Brazilian visas cost $160, and can only be processed by handing them in to the nearest Brazilian consulate by hand. We used the visa agency Visa Central to obtain Brain’s one, and it took about 3 weeks. However, I left it too late to use them for mine, and ended up having to take a day off work to fly to Los Angeles to hand in my application in person, and then had to ask my wonderful brother in law in California to take time off work to go back to the consulate and pick up my passport when the visa was ready.

Having got most of the boring stuff out of the way, it was time to let the packing begin! I have read several blogs that say you always end up packing too much stuff, but limiting what you take is a huge challenge. We are going to limit ourselves to 4 suitcases – this is what Delta will allow us, and also what will fit under the beds. However, we now seem to have 5 suitcases, 2 large roller boards, Brian’s camera backpack and my large handbag. I know that there will be limited storage space in our cabin, so I am quite expecting that a couple of the cases will be needed for storage purposes.

The challenge is the wide range of temperatures we are going to experience. The sail away from Southampton, transatlantic crossing, and going around through the Straits of Magellan are going to be very cold; Tahiti and Hawaii are going to be nice and warm. We always bring rain to everywhere we visit. So you have to plan for all eventualities.

Itinerary

Date	Port
Thursday, January 5	London (Southampton), England
Friday, January 6	At Sea
Saturday, January 7	At Sea
Sunday, January 8	At Sea
Monday, January 9	At Sea
Tuesday, January 10	At Sea
Wednesday, January 11	At Sea
Thursday, January 12	Hamilton, Bermuda
Friday, January 13	At Sea
Saturday, January 14	At Sea
Sunday, January 15	Fort Lauderdale, FL
Monday, January 16	Fort Lauderdale, FL
Tuesday, January 17	At Sea
Wednesday, January 18	At Sea
Thursday, January 19	At Sea
Friday, January 20	Barbados
Saturday, January 21	At Sea
Sunday, January 22	At Sea
Monday, January 23	Macapa, Brazil (Cruising)
Tuesday, January 24	At Sea
Wednesday, January 25	Manaus, Brazil
Thursday, January 26	At Sea
Friday, January 27	Santarem, Brazil
Saturday, January 28	Macapa, Brazil (Cruising)
Sunday, January 29	At Sea
Monday, January 30	At Sea
Tuesday, January 31	At Sea
Wednesday, February 1	At Sea
Thursday, February 2	At Sea
Friday, February 3	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Saturday, February 4	At Sea
Sunday, February 5	At Sea
Monday, February 6	Montevideo, Uruguay
Tuesday, February 7	Buenos Aires, Argentina
Wednesday, February 8	At Sea
Thursday, February 9	At Sea
Friday, February 10	Strait of Magellan (Cruising)
Saturday, February 11	Punta Arenas, Chile
Sunday, February 12	Amalia Glacier, Chile
Monday, February 13	PIO X Glacier, Chile
Tuesday, February 14	At Sea
Wednesday, February 15	At Sea
Thursday, February 16	Santiago (Valparaiso), Chile
Friday, February 17	At Sea
Saturday, February 18	At Sea
Sunday, February 19	At Sea
Monday, February 20	Easter Island, Chilean dependency (Cruising)
Tuesday, February 21	At Sea
Wednesday, February 22	At Sea
Thursday, February 23	Pitcairn Island, UK Territory (Cruising)
Friday, February 24	At Sea
Saturday, February 25	At Sea
Sunday, February 26	Papeete, Tahiti, Society Islands
Monday, February 27	Bora Bora, Society Islands
Tuesday, February 28	Cross International Dateline (Cruising)
Thursday, March 2	At Sea
Friday, March 3	Nuku’alofa, Tonga
Saturday, March 4	At Sea
Sunday, March 5	At Sea
Monday, March 6	Auckland, New Zealand
Tuesday, March 7	Bay of Islands, New Zealand
Wednesday, March 8	At Sea
Thursday, March 9	At Sea
Friday, March 10	Sydney, Australia
Saturday, March 11	Sydney, Australia
Sunday, March 12	Wilsons Promontory, Australia
Monday, March 13	Melbourne, Australia
Tuesday, March 14	At Sea
Wednesday, March 15	At Sea
Thursday, March 16	Milford Sound, New Zealand (Cruising)
Thursday, March 16	Doubtful Sound, New Zealand (Cruising)
Thursday, March 16	Dusky Sound, New Zealand (Cruising)
Friday, March 17	Dunedin (Port Chalmers), New Zealand
Saturday, March 18	Akaroa, New Zealand
Sunday, March 19	Wellington, New Zealand
Monday, March 20	At Sea
Tuesday, March 21	At Sea
Wednesday, March 22	At Sea
Thursday, March 23	At Sea
Friday, March 24	Apia, Samoa
Friday, March 24	Cross International Dateline (Cruising)
Saturday, March 25	At Sea
Sunday, March 26	At Sea
Monday, March 27	At Sea
Tuesday, March 28	Honolulu, Oahu, HI
Wednesday, March 29	Hilo, Hawaii, HI
Thursday, March 30	At Sea
Friday, March 31	At Sea
Saturday, April 1	At Sea
Sunday, April 2	At Sea
Monday, April 3	San Francisco, CA
Tuesday, April 4	San Francisco, CA
Wednesday, April 5	At Sea
Thursday, April 6	Los Angeles (San Pedro), CA

Southampton

We left home on a snowy Monday morning. Our neighbors gave us a lift to the airport so off we set with the 5 suitcases, 2 roller boards, one backpack containing camera equipment, and my large handbag in the back of their truck, plus 3 bags of garbage that we dropped off at the dumpsters on the way.

We had to pay $285 for the extra bag, so we were quite distressed when we changed planes in Seattle to discover that Delta could not find our luggage, and refused to let us on the plane. Just as they were about to close the door they let us know they had found the bags, and finally issued our boarding passes, and off we went. The distress about the loss of luggage was however surmounted by the fact that the power supply to Brian’s computer chose to die at the same moment as we arrived in Seattle and he was unable to do any work during our lay over.

The flight to Heathrow was uneventful, and it was a sunny day for once, so we got to see the Thames from the plane as we were landing. All of our luggage arrived intact, and we collected it and headed off to Southampton with Smiths for Airports. We checked in to the Grand Harbor Hotel, they kindly allowed us to leave the luggage in storage so we didn’t have to take it to our room, and headed off to Curry’s to buy a new power supply. We then took the train to Waterloo, had dinner with a friend at a great restaurant near to the station, and took the train back to Southampton, arriving there after midnight. It was a long day.

We spent Wednesday buying yet more stuff to squeeze in to the cabin. We went to Asda (actually that was very important in terms of chocolate purchases – you need a lot for 3 months), Majestic Liquors (you can buy VC by the case there), Boots, and M&S. All very conveniently located within walking distance of the hotel. Mind you lugging all of the stuff back there in the freezing cold was quite the challenge.

That night we met up for a lovely evening with some other Cruise Critic members at the Jury’s Inn.

When we got back to our hotel, I couldn’t sleep even though I was totally exhausted. It was hard to believe that after all the months of planning and counting down the days, we were finally going to board QV.

 

WE ARE ON BOARD!!!!!

Day 1

January 5th

We had ordered our taxi for 11:30, and sure enough he was there and we loaded up all of the stuff into his van and headed to Ocean Terminal, getting there at 11:45. We filled out the health forms and went up the escalator. We were given purple passes and headed straight into the check in line. We were soon at the front of the line and got our cabin cards. Then after a brief wait it was off through security, who didn’t seem to mind all of our goodies, and by 12:30 we were in our cabin. Three of our bags were waiting for us, so I quickly set about unpacking.

The QV Britannia cabins really don’t have much storage space, but after reading blogs about world cruises, we had come prepared. Out went the wooden Cunard hangers (clearly Gabriel our room steward had seen this before), and in went the narrow velvet ones. We adjusted the hanging rods in the cupboard closest to the door so we had more space, and low and behold, we were able to hang everything up! Unpacking is so much more fun than packing and in no time everything was in place and we headed up to the lido for lunch.

On our return to the cabin the 2 missing suitcases were still not there, however we had heard of people whose cases had arrived after sail away so we weren’t perturbed at all.

We then headed off to the Queen’s Room to watch a performance by the British Imperial Military band. It was rather a small space for a marching band, but they did a great job, and we all got Union Jacks to wave, so I was happy. Next it was the lifeboat drill, sorry Guest Emergency Drill, and then the sail away. It was a cold, but clear night and I bet we looked like a beautiful sight sailing away. There was a great, but short fireworks display, and then we slipped away into the night, saying goodbye to England’s green and pleasant land for a while.

There was still no sign of the 2 missing bags, so I finally decided it was time to visit the pursers’ office. Sure enough one bag was quietly sitting there. The luggage label had come off so it was basically homeless. I arranged for it to be delivered to our cabin, but there was no sign of the other bag. My enquiry was met by a look of extreme suspicion, as if we were up to no good. I thought they may be holding it hostage until we returned the liquids we had brought on board in our hand luggage, but luckily that was not the case. The security officer had seen a “suspicious” object on the X-ray so we had to go to Connexions 1 and open the bag in front of him. The offending object was not the magnets, hooks, duct tape or screwdrivers, but some kind of tool the Brian has that has a small blade to cut our favorite South African food, biltong. This was promptly confiscated and will be returned to us at the end of the voyage. So the issue is – how on earth are we going to slice our biltong now?

We got over the annoyance due to the joy of meeting up with our bags and we rapidly emptied them into every nook and cranny in the cabin, stuffed the smaller bags inside the big ones, which we then put under the bed.

We used our magnets to hang up the scratch world map our daughter had given us – it will be fun to scratch off all the countries we visit as we sail across the world.

As is our tradition we placed our flags in a glass on the desk, and consumed the dreaded Pol Acker unpacking juice, while listening to our sail away play list of great British music, and got ready for dinner.

We were the first people at our table for 6, and as the evening wore on it was becoming evident that we were going to be the only people at our table for 6. As much as we like each other’s company, one of the things we love about cruising is meeting interesting people, and this was clearly not going to be the case for this segment. Finally a rather dapper gentleman was lead to our table. He had peeked around a column to check out his assigned table and had rejected them, but clearly had seen our lonely table and took pity on us. He turned out to be another ex pat, living in California, and very personable, so although he was only one person we were happy for his company.

The meal was excellent and the service was great. I was one very happy little person.

After dinner we went to the Commodore Club for a nightcap. As they don’t make Milky Way Martinis any more, I had to settle for a Chocolate Affair, which is an adequate substitute but I miss the stick of chocolate in the Milky Ways.

Then it was time to head to our cabin and be gently rocked to sleep. Our first world cruise perk was awaiting us – a potted plant. I hope it will survive the journey. I can hardly believe that we have another 90 days to go. What total perfection!

 

 

Day 2 – January 6th

We slept with the curtains open, so I awoke to see the sea outside. The best view ever.

Now a bit about our accommodations. We are currently in an ocean view cabin on deck 1. I can highly recommend this cabin. It is very convenient for most things on the ship. However, it is inconvenient for the Lido and Commodore Club as this involves a fair bit of stair climbing, but then the exercise is good. I love being so close to the water, and I can sit on the window ledge drinking my VC and reading my book (currently “Five Go Gluten Free” – which is a grown up version of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five. The book is one of a series lent to me by my friend in London, Gill. The books are totally ridiculous, but I am loving them. I couldn’t get enough of Enid Blyton when I was young – say what you want about her, but she did turn me into a life long book addict.), sipping away at the VC. The world perks plant usually lives on the windowsill, but has to move when I am using it.

The bathroom is small. There is no other way of looking at it. We will have to buy a shower caddy in Fort Lauderdale, as all of my shower stuff has nowhere to live, there is no space to put them in the shower. Despite this deficiency, things are actually OK in the bathroom – what doesn’t fit on the 2 glass shelves, and the countertop, lives on the shelf under the sink.

Everything has fitted into the closet and the shelves, although the extra toiletries that we will need later in the voyage are under the bed in a suitcase. The case of VC fits nicely in the draw at the foot of my bed. For those who are interested in such things there is an HDMI input (? output) on the TV so Brian can use the TV as an extra computer monitor when he is working.

The ship itself is lovely, although rather brown. Yesterday it seemed to be quite small – but I am trying very hard to tell myself she is not QM2, and I simply have to stop with the comparisons, it’s ridiculous. I do miss the grand lobby on QM2. When you board QV you think, “oh, this is a rather nice ship”, but you are not wowed in the same way as when you board QM2. Also the Britannia dining room is just not as grand. I miss the stairs at the entrance. Even though we are inevitably seated on deck 2 on QM2, I always make an entrance by coming down the stairs from deck three. I have only fallen down the stairs once, so in general I think I make a fine grand entrance. You simply can’t do that on this ship.

Then there is the problem that they are going to convert the Chart Room into the Britannia Club dining room after the upcoming refit. This is simply not acceptable, not that anyone is listening to me. The Chart Room is very elegant, and perfectly situated for pre dinner drinks. They are making a horrible mistake.

While we still have the Chart Room among us, the first thing we did this morning was go there, as it is where the World Cruise concierge is. Our itinerary has changed, and instead of having an overnight in Fort Lauderdale, we are now going to Port Canaveral instead. Normally I would be excited – and head off to Disneyworld – but we have arranged to stay with friends in Miami overnight. Our new plan is to hire a car in Port Canaveral and drive to Miami to meet up with them. So we wanted to check that the ship would be OK with us getting off in Port Canaveral and getting back on in Fort Lauderdale. The concierge didn’t think it would be an issue, I expect we will find out when we try to board again in Fort Lauderdale.

We had a great day on board. We couldn’t get a seat at the first talk we wanted to go to, but otherwise all went well. We attended the Cruise Critic meet and greet, and it was fun to put faces to the people whose posts I have enjoyed over the years. I had my ploughman’s and a Strongbow in the pub for lunch. I signed up for the on board choir, and I also joined the bead making class, and make a rather nice necklace which I wore to dinner instead of my pearls.

Again, it looked like we were going to be the only 2 people at our table for 6, but we were joined shortly by a lady whose table was also lacking in customers, and then another lady joined us, and finally the gentleman from last night, so now we are 5, quite a respectable number. The husband of one of the lady’s had died while they were on a QM2 trip 15 months ago, which made me feel very sad. She had made the sensible choice to carry on cruising, for which I admire her.

DAY 3 – January 7th

 

At Sea

We went to the 3 morning lectures, then to lunch in the dining room. Next I went to another beading class in Hemispheres. I ended up having to buy a beading mat because my beads kept on ending up on the floor, plus I somehow lost my needle. I could not find the beads and needle again, and was fearful that someone would have a mishap dancing on the floor at ABBA night.

The day was way too busy and I missed the showing of the film “Around the World in 80 days”, hopefully it will be shown on the telly.

Tonight was our first formal night – the black and white ball. We met up with friends for a drink in the Chart Room before the Captain’s Welcome on Board party. We decided to arrive a little bit late for the party to avoid the crush, but even halfway through it, when we arrived there was a long queue. We finally got in and found a small space to stand. It is in situations like these that I wish I were taller or able to be graceful in high heels – I couldn’t see a thing that was going on. The Captain gave his usual introductory speech, but I couldn’t hear it because of everyone still talking around us. Hopefully things will be quieter on the next segment. Just about all the passengers were dressed appropriately. I did observe several men in white dinner jackets, I was originally a bit surprised as we are in the North Atlantic in the middle of winter, but then I surmised that this was in keeping with the black and white theme, so no need to get my fashion police radar out. Most of the women were in long dresses or cocktail dresses, and everyone looked great. There were even a few kilts around; I do love a man in a kilt.

When we got to our table for dinner there was another lady there, so now we are 6. She is quite quiet, and the rest of us were talking so much she hardly got a word in, but seemed pleased to have joined us. We are all VERY concerned about the proposed change to the Chart Room, and are thinking of starting an “occupy the Chart Room” movement on board. If there are enough of us occupying the Chart Room I figure they can’t throw all of us off the ship. Now all we have to do is round up more rabble-rousers.

Dinner was excellent again – and there was lemon soufflé for dessert that was delicious. We watched the show, danced the night away at ABBA night, and then headed back to the cabin, too tired for a nightcap tonight.

 

DAY 4 – January 8th

 

The ocean is still very calm, there have been a couple of pitches and rolls here or there to let you know you are on a ship, but nothing exciting at all.

I decided that I have had enough education for a while, and even though the talks looked interesting, I gave them a miss and headed for the Commodore Club to spend the morning reading. An extremely good plan. It was also very convenient for the choir practice in Hemispheres at noon.

The choir seems to have grown in number, and alas I thought we sounded better at our previous rehearsal. The good news is that we are going to give our performance in the Queen’s Room rather than the lobby. A much better venue. It won’t be the same as singing “Jerusalem” on stage in the theatre on QM2 (one of the highlights of my existence), but to sing in the Queen’s Room does sound OK.

After lunch I thought I should try out the launderette. A word of warning to other prospective deck 1 people, the closest launderette is on deck 4 so you have to carry your laundry from your cabin up the stairs or in the lift to another deck. I carried my pop up laundry basket to deck 4, and fortunately no one even gave me a second glance. There are 3 washer/dryers and 2 were available so I was in good shape, and sat reading until the laundry was done. Not an unpleasant way to spend a cold windy afternoon, especially knowing that there is afternoon tea at the end of the folding.

We met with friends for pre-dinner drinks at the Commodore Club. The current pianist is great, and I really enjoy his playing. Dinner was delicious again, it is getting more and more difficult to say no to dessert when there are so many great choices. I am really enjoying the company of our table companions, even though I fear our newest addition tends to get left out despite my efforts to include her. Then it was time for the show – a comedian who was quite funny, and off to bed. All of this fun is quite exhausting!