SUNRISE: 10:09 SUNSET: 14:33
What a lovely day we had today; there was so much friendliness and fun. 🙂
We got up, as usual, at 8.00am and looked out of our portholes into the darkness. There was a bit of a drizzle, but the sea was fairly calm and the temperature, at 9°C, was amazingly mild for the time of year, considering we were heading further north all the time.
I dressed in a pair of white trousers with a colourful Christmas jumper, and wore my Irregular Choice ballet flat shoes featuring a family of polar bears.
As it was Christmas Day and tonight was formal attire, so the gratis bottles of cava were set out next to the breakfast fruit juices to allow you to make yourself a Buck’s Fizz. We each indulged in a couple of glasses to wash down our bacon and eggs.
We then spent the time pottering around the ship and looking in the shops to see if there were any bargains. I bought another one of those lovely velvet clutch bags by Elizabeth Scarlett; this one featured an embroidered pod of dolphins. 🙂
We were pleased to see that we had a signal on our phones; a Norwegian company called Telenor. This meant we would be able to video-call home later on today (they were an hour behind us) without paying the expensive 12 quid a day to use the ship’s Wi-Fi. 🙂
In the meantime, a quick look at the Daily Times told us there was a game of “Santa’s Bag Toss” in the Lido Bar, which we figured was Baggo. We made our way up there (in the wake of yesterday’s win) and all the regulars were there, all wearing their Christmas jumpers and/or Santa Hats. There was a lot of high-spirits as we joined in the game, hosted by the inimitable Hubert Greaves. Trevor and I got knocked our fairly early on; our shots were rubbish.
We then decided to watch the rest of the game before making our way to the Neptune Lounge where they were holding Reindeer Racing featuring Captain Steffan and his senior officers. As we were a little late arriving after the baggo, the Neptune Lounge was absolutely packed and the only vacant seats were some bar stools, right at the back of the lounge. We could only just see what was going on. As it was Christmas, there was copious quantities of free fizz and mulled wine. 🙂
Afterwards, it was nearly time for lunch, but we weren’t really very hungry and we wanted to ensure we were good and hungry for our dinner tonight, so we just went along to the Morning Light and enjoyed a cocktail each, while partaking of some peanuts and Twiglets. In any case, there would be another Captain’s Cocktail party later on with even more free drinks and canapés. Sometimes life on a cruise ship seems to be nothing but eating and drinking! 🙂
After lunch we felt as if we could use an afternoon nap (that’s the trouble with drinking during the day!!) so we returned to 5007 and settled down for an hour. We made sure to leave a light on because it was dark by 2.30pm! 🙂
We then spent some time pottering around in our cabin for a bit, before wandering around the ship and making our way up to the Lido Lounge, where no events were on, and sitting ourselves in front of the huge Christmas Tree before making a WhatsApp video call back home, so we could speak to our family back home and wish everyone a Merry Christmas. It was 3.20pm on the Balmoral, which meant it was 2.20pm back home. We also tried to contact our friends John and Linda Thornton who were currently cruising on sister ship Bolette, but there was no reply and we (correctly) guessed that they didn’t sign up to the ship’s Wi-Fi either.
It was then time to hot-foot it to the Neptune Lounge and bagsy our regular front-row seats so we could watch the King’s Speech at 4.00pm local time. Quite a few people were in there, and the technicians were busy setting up the laptop and projecting it onto the large screen so it could be live-streamed.
A few minutes before 4.00pm, the National Anthem blasted out of the loudspeakers and we all stood up as one. Then we all sat and watched while King Charles’ face filled the screen and he gave the nation his Christmas Message. 🙂
I then had just over an hour to get washed and primped and preened for the cocktail party at 5.15pm. Tonight’s theme was “a hint of red and gold” so I dressed in a knee-length gold sequinned dress, red tights and some amazing red and gold sequinned Irregular Choice shoes, called “Looks like Reindeer”.
As we went up to the Neptune Lounge, everyone was stopping me and photographing my shoes, asking questions about them etc. Then we arrived and walked past the line of senior officers and into the Lounge, then down to our usual seats. Soon a waiter arrived with a laden tray of drinks, and we partook of yet more fizz, accompanied by some tasty little hot and cold canapés. 🙂
Presently Simon, the cruise director, appeared on the stage dressed in his dinner suit which was incongruously topped by a Santa hat. He then informed us that Santa had indeed arrived on the Balmoral some time ago to give presents to the children, and he appeared on the stage! We could see through the disguise that it was, in fact, George underneath. 🙂
Captain Steffan was then clapped onto the stage, and he wished everyone a Merry Christmas and thanked us for cruising with Fred Olsen Cruise Lines. Meanwhile, the ever-attentive waiting staff kept our glasses of fizz topped up as the band played on. 🙂
Soon it was time to go to dinner (eating again!) so we proceeded to the Ballindalloch and took our seats along with Alex and Diane, Tom and Chris, all looking good in their sartorial splendour. We had high hopes for the Christmas menu, and in this aspect we were not disappointed.
Of course, there was all the traditional Christmas food; soup, a full turkey dinner, Christmas pud, mince pies etc, but I tend to get sick to death of the traditional grub at Christmas, so I started with a tasty melt-in-the-mouth smooth paté, followed by a delicious roasted halibut for my main course. I then finished off with a cheeseboard and some petit fours. The scrumptious meal was accompanied by chilled rosé wine and finished off with a glass of Taylor’s ruby port to go with my cheese.
Leaving the table fit to burst, we waited in the Morning Light for the Neptune Lounge doors to open; they were a bit later tonight because of the second sitting cocktail party. Then we all filed in and Trevor hurried down to the front; it took me longer because everyone was stopping me to look at my shoes! 🙂
Tonight’s entertainment featured a superb violinist called Ralph Allin. He played on an electric violin anything from classical to jazz to rollicking Celtic fiddle tunes to gypsy vibes, accompanied by witty asides. He was excellent and we really enjoyed his show; something a bit different.
We had to hurry up to the Lido Lounge afterwards for the Christmas Quiz. Rosie, one of the entertainments team, was hosting the quiz and was dressed up as an elf. In fact, she was the Elf, from the film of the same name, Elf. Trevor and I have never seen this film, which meant that we did very badly in the quiz as Rosie had set most of the questions based on the film. So we only scored an appalling 7/15.
Afterwards, members of the Balmoral Show Company put on an exuberant show of catchy Christmas and other songs, ensuring a packed dance floor, as everyone boogied on into the wee small hours.
What a fantastic Christmas we had had on Balmoral. We couldn’t help comparing it to our 2022 Christmas spent on board P&O Arcadia, which had been one of the biggest let-downs and anti-climaxes going. There is absolutely no doubt we will cruise with Fred again at Christmas.
It was after 1.00am when we returned to 5007, got undressed and washed and into our ‘jamas to settle down for the night. Tomorrow we would arrive in our first port of call, Mo I Rana, in Norway and we went to sleep looking forward to what Boxing Day would bring. 🙂
