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Published: January 13th 2023
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Well the day has finally arrived. The house is cleaned, cases packed and dog staying with Anna, Ian’s daughter.
We load seven cases into Ian’s brother camper van the only vehicle big enough to accommodate us and our baggage as we travel to Southampton.
We arrive early and as seasoned travellers with Cunard we have priority boarding so are swiftly through check in and security.
We go to our cabin, home for the next three and a half months and wait for our luggage.
The luggage arrives too late for us to dress for dinner so after unpacking and managing to find a home for everything we go to Kings Court, the buffet restaurant and grab some food which I find disappointing but Ian enjoys. (Ian - Thai veg curry, very nice.)
Then it’s off to the theatre to watch a violinist. She used to play for Michael Flatley in ‘Lord of the Dance’ . She plays a mixture of Irish, American and English tunes. The quality of the playing and that of the ship’s support band is fantastic. Still she did two World tours with Michael Flatley so she has to be good. On the
way out of the venue we meet the Entertainment Director Neil Kelly, who we’ve meet twice before on Queen Victoria. He sees us, immediately exclaims and gives me a big hug. He remembers us. It is lovely seeing a familiar face. He tells us while Covid was devastating the world and stopping cruises he went back to his previous job and taught year 4 at a primary school, he really enjoyed that but the call of the sea was stronger and he was back doing what he loves. After a quiz in the Golden Lion Pub we retire to our cabin as we are both tired,
The weather had deteriorated since leaving home and travelling to Southampton and this continued on our journey Southwards towards Lisbon. The winds were howling and the sea was classified as ’severe storm force 9’ with winds well in excess of 40mph before the speed of the ship itself is taken into account. It means the winds across the deck are 70+ mph and the ship is pitching nicely, so no one is allowed out on the external decks. In bed it felt like we were in a washing machine. There is a particularly
nasty moment each pitch when the ship reaches the top of the swell, pauses for a fraction and then crashes down the rear of the wave, there is an instant when you feel gravity decline and you seem to move towards the ceiling before normality takes over again. Looking out of windows the seascape is really quite spectacular. We can track the ship’s progress on the maritime chart displayed on one of the TV channels, I for one did not find the fact that the location of the wreck of RMS Titanic is indicated, reassuring.
This continued the following day and I was nervous to go far as I’m unsteady on my feet the best of times! Ian went off to listen to a lecturer talking about Egypt and all things Egyptian. He wasn’t too impressed by the speaker. (Ian - She made a number of elementary mistakes)
After a lazy day in which the most strenuous thing I did was to attend the on board spa for a full massage, we dress for the first Gala night. The theme is black and white, I wear a long black dress (Ian - looking gorgeously sexy and without doubt the belle of the ball) and Ian wears a black shirt white bow tie and whiter dinner jacket. We on a table for 2 although we have approached the Maitre d‘ to join a table of 6 or 8 to meet people more easily.
After watching the ship’s company of players we retire to the Golden Lion where we meet Sue and Jeremy, two English ex pats living in Connecticut USA. We fail to win that quiz but retire to the Carinthia Lounge (Ian - the vessel is overrun with lounges, bars, clubs etc, general dens of temptation !) where we win our first quiz of the trip and a bottle of wine.
Waking up the following morning the storm has virtually abated and Ian takes himself off to the gym, I manage a leisurely breakfast in our cabin courtesy of room service. On Ian’s return it is off for a proper breakfast of pancakes before the main activities commence.
The morning is lectures for Ian ( astronomy this time) and his first trip to the laundry. I go necklace making in the craft session. The afternoon sees us walking the deck several times and meeting up with our new friends for a quiz. We win again! A mixture of UK & USA knowledge together with Ian’s ability to work out Queens Victoria was on the throne for approx 23,000 days (Ian - easy, ascended 1837, died January 1901, equals approx 63 years x 365) is triumphant.
The evenping entertainment are the MacDonald Brothers who came 4th in X Factor. 2006. The year Leona Lewis won. They are very good getting the audience singing and clapping (no mean feat when the average age is mid 80’s!). We meet up with our fiends and another couple to do the evening trivia and just miss out in the tiebreak.
Tomorrow we arrive at our first destination Lisbon.
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Leanne Barabash
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Sea Sick?
You didn’t get sea sick? Lol. The storm sounds frightening! X