Sunday 18^th January – Day at Sea (continued)

 

As evening approached we dolled ourselves up for the World Voyage cocktail party. We were allowed to shake the Captain’s hand this time – so we must be out of quarantine! Our new friends Gary, Margaret and Diane have cultivated a tame waitress so we had largely unlimited supplies of champagne. The Captain decided he would spend 15 minutes with the five of us sharing jokes and anecdotes (must have exceptionally good taste, this Captain!) The chefs have produced a large cake with a map of the whole cruise on it including all the ports of call and dates etc. but the logo WV looks more like Volkswagen than Cunard!

 

Because of the free drinks, we were a little late into the restaurant for dinner but did find a nice Australian Shiraz on the wine list which is about $10 cheaper than the Malbec – so this is now our new favourite!

 

After our meal we headed for the G32 nightclub and even had a few dances (not a pretty sight) before deciding to call it a night.

 

 

Monday 19^th January – Day at Sea.

 

We have been given World Voyage badges!!! Not planning on wearing them very often!

 

This morning there was an advertised talk on Petra and Wadi Rum so as the trip to Petra is one of the highlights of the voyage we decided to go along. The theatre was full, with people sitting in the stairways and standing room only available at the back. Unfortunately it turned into a port lecture about Aqaba so we left early (as did many others).

 

It turns out that as we have a balcony cabin we will have new rules during times of increased security (like when we are travelling to the Middle East for example). We are not allowed to put on our balcony light and we must keep our curtains closed after dusk. (It reminds us of travelling up the Amazon, but that time it was to guard against insects!)

 

Our “safe area” is the corridor outside our cabin – so when there was a drill this morning, we spent half an hour sitting outside our cabin along with all the other guests on Deck 4. At least Nesta had taken a cushion off our sofa to sit on – so she was ok!

 

In the afternoon, we decided to give the trivia quiz another go… (Ok, we decided to go to the pub!) We were rubbish – again!

 

In the early evening we went to a “live planetarium show” where the astronomy experts on board talked us through some of the main constellations and stars. The planetarium has a computer which can exactly replicate the night sky (no, it’s not a window!) and the show was much better than the pre-recorded show we’d seen.

 

No time to eat before we went to the “cinema” and watched Judy Dench and Steve Coogan in “Philomena”. We thought it was an excellent film and were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the cinema even though we are constantly amazed at peoples’ rudeness. The show was about 15 minutes late in starting and some of the boorish passengers started slow handclapping. For goodness sake – you’re on holiday. It’s not as if it’s like there’s a train to catch!

 

It was a bit late to have a meal when the film finished, so we settled for cheese and biscuits before bed.