After an excellent night’s sleep, I was up just a few minutes after the sun this morning, and I went out onto the balcony and looked aft along the length of Queen Anne, getting a photo of the great golden ball in an orange sky crossed with jet vapour trails as we greeted the new day. There was a nippy little wind blowing, and the temperature was cooler than we expected, but at least we could expect some more sunshine.
Looking to my right, I could see the bridge wing several decks below us, and the blue Atlantic ocean was calm and serene. We would be crossing the Bay of Biscay later on today, and we hoped the benign sea state would continue. 🙂
Going back to bed for a couple of hours, we got up again at eight o’clock and, after getting washed and dressed, decided to go to the rather grandly-named Artisans’ Foodhall, as the buffet on board Queen Anne is known. I enjoyed a delicious full English washed down with orange juice and good hot coffee.
While we were there, we looked at the Daily Programme of events on the MyVoyage app, and saw that there were a couple of really interesting-sounding presentations in the Royal Court Theatre, the first of which was at 10.00am.
The talk was called “Licenced to Thrill” and was all about work and play in the early 1980s Soviet Union. The presenter, Keith Muras, formerly worked in the British Embassy in Moscow for three years and he gave an absolutely fascinating – and not a little disconcerting – talk about living in Russia during the Cold War. It was an excellent 45 minutes, and we looked forward to hearing more from Keith later on in the cruise.
We remained in the theatre for the next presentation, which was called “Engineering our World” and was all about volcanic archipelagos and tectonic plates and how the continents were formed. Once again the presenter, Andrew Roberts, was an interesting and engaging speaker, and didn’t use too many technical terms in his talk, allowing the lay person to understand and appreciate it.
By the time that talk was finished, we decided that one and a half hours below decks was enough and it was time to go up top and explore the Queen Anne’s lovely outdoor spaces before lunch.
We took the crowded lift up to Deck 14 and went outside. It was still more windy than we would have liked, exaggerated by the fact that Queen Anne was sailing along at a fair rate of knots. We strolled the decks, finding lots of interesting little nooks and crannies containing sun loungers, deck chairs and tables; somewhere pleasant to enjoy unimpeded sea views or read a good paperback novel. Or just to sit and enjoy the sounds of the ocean and take a little time out of life.
Passing the huge, iconic red funnel with the words “QUEEN ANNE” emblazoned below it in stern black capital letters, we couldn’t resist stopping and taking a photo.
As we descended to the Pavilion Pool, the large indoor pool and hot tub area beneath a retractable roof, we found a Wellness Café serving a series of delicious and healthy salads and protein bars as well as kombucha drinks (if that is your thing). One of the salads sounded scrumptious; crunchy raw vegetables and baby spinach leaves in a satay sauce, so I ordered one of those. Trevor ordered the same, but he also opted for pulled chicken as an extra. We didn’t want to eat too much as we knew we’d be having dinner at 5.30pm, and tonight was the first Formal Evening, with a black and white theme.
After lunch, I enjoyed a crisp White Zinfandel and we decided to go and relax at the Panorma Pool Club, a smaller pool, sunbathing area and bar at the stern of the ship. We found a sunny spot and sat on the edge of the pool.
At 2.30pm they started with a music quiz; the usual type of thing where you had to name the song as well as the artiste(s). The music was not from a particular era or even a specific genre – it was a proper mishmash. We only scored 28/40 while the winners scored an impressive 37.
Afterwards, we returned to 11046 for an afternoon power nap. It was then time to start getting ready for dinner. We do find 5.30pm far too early for dinner, as it feels more like tea-time; on week days I am barely in from work at that time! On the other hand, we find 8.30pm a little late; it doesn’t really give your dinner time to go down. We could, of course, eat in the buffet at whatever time we wanted, but as we enjoy the camaraderie of our table mates on table #349, we didn’t really want to miss out, especially as we’d all be dressed in our glad rags tonight. 🙂
I took my time getting ready. Trevor was just putting on his white dress shirt, black dinner suit and black bow-tie and cummerbund (like every other man on the ship!) but I wore a floor length dress with a black and white swirly pattern with straps that crossed over at the front. I teamed it with a black sequinned wrap and sky-high black heels, as well as a white, shoulder length wig. They wanted black and white, so they were getting black and white! 🙂
Thus attired, we made our way to the Britannia Restaurant, where there were several other similiarly-dressed passengers. As we took our seats, a waiter came around with glasses of fizz. Well, when I say “glasses”, I actually mean about a third of a glass. I think Cunard were trying to achieve 12 glasses of fizz per bottle of cheap sparkling wine. It was pathetic really; there is no more Captain’s Cocktail Party with all its accompanying glitz and glamour. If you have ever read my blog outlining our cruise on Queen Victoria in November 2022, you’ll know that I wrote of all the cutbacks we have noticed Cunard have made since pre-pandemic days. They really are a shadow of their former selves; the only thing left for this Carnivalised company is living off the former famous Cunard brand.
After finishing the free fizz in a two mouthfuls, we turned our attention to the menu. “Surf & Turf” was advertised and I licked my lips at the anticipation of juicy steak and fresh lobster, but in another display of cost-cutting the lobster had been replaced by three king prawns. 🙁 The steak was tasty though, and cooked perfectly.
We enjoyed excellent and lively conversation with our table mates Andy, Margaret, Eric and Christina, and soon the waiters starting dropping hints that they needed us to leave the restaurant so they could prepare for second-sitting at 8.30pm.
In fact, we were late into the theatre and the show had already started as we hurriedly took our seats. Tonight’s featured performer was a talented clarinet player who was also excellent with the ukelele and alto saxophone. He was accompanied by the superb ship’s orchestra, some of whom did their own solo performances, and altogether it was a fantastic show. We really enjoyed it a lot.
Afterward, we hot footed it along to the Golden Lion pub for the quiz. There was no sign of the couple who had joined us last night, so it was just Trevor and me. The theme tonight was Black and White, so all the questions were based around either one of both of these colours. We only scored 13/20 tonight – the winners got full marks.
We stayed for another drink in the Golden Lion. I wanted to try the pina colada to see if it was as good as those we had enjoyed on Celebrity Edge in March, but I should have known that they would not be a patch on the best pina coladas ever, and indeed there was simply no comparison. Celebrity knock spots off Cunard where their cocktails are concerned. 🙂
We decided to finish off the evening up in the Commodore Club on Deck 12 as we hadn’t been there yet. It was a plush, lavishly furnished and decorated room with large windows overlooking the bow. A pianist sat tinkling the ivories in the cosy, dimly-lit room as we selected a table in the corner adjacent to a long banquette which allowed me to kick off my shoes and put my feet up.
I enjoyed a whisky and ginger with ice, and it was about midnight when we returned to 11046. We had another sea day to look forward to tomorrow, and once again we slept very well.