Didn’t sleep too well last night; I had a disturbing dream in which we’d missed our flight and various other unpleasant things; one of those nightmares when you wake up and realise, with a sigh of relief, that it was just a dream. Slept intermittently and then awoke late – 09:10 hours this morning; very late for us when we are on holiday.
Slugglishly dragged myself out of bed, feeling a bit under the weather. Oh please, not another cold! I had a cold during our last two holidays, and I certainly didn’t want to go for the hat-trick. So I took a couple of paracetamol with a glass of water, and decided not to go for breakfast, preferring instead to take advantage of the tea and coffee making facilities thoughtfully provided in our stateroom.
By the time Trevor returned from breakfast, I was washed and dressed, and ready to go along to the talk by former BBC man Johnny Beerling in the Royal Court Theatre at 10.00am. This time the title was “Hey, Mr DJ” and gave a brief history of the role of the disc jockey in radio, from some of the early ones to the well-loved DJs such as Tony Blackburn, John Peel and Noel Edmunds. It was a most enjoyable interlude, and by the time it was finished I was feeling more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. 😊
We decided to do a few laps around the deck, mainly to take in the fresh sea air but also to get some exercise. Standing at the stern of the Queen Victoria, looking down at where her propellors churned the blue sea to white, leaving a long wake behind her almost like a bridal train, was hypnotising. Every now and again we would pass other vessels in the distance, but all around us as far as the eye could see was the blue of the Adriatic Sea as we headed to our next port of call in Split, Croatia. Breathing in a huge lungful of the salty air and looking at the glittering, sparking water under a sunny sky just made us feel glad to be alive. 😊
After a couple of laps, we decided to go inside and have a cup of coffee, then it was time to make our way to the Queen’s Room for the second of our dance classes – this time the social foxtrot. Again, this was one we had been practising in our dance lessons at home, so it wasn’t completely unfamiliar to us. The dancing was enjoyable, but it would have been more so if there were fewer couples on the dance floor. As it was, the floor was packed, and most of the time was spent avoiding bumping into other couples. Obviously the dance lessons are very popular.
This brought us nicely to lunchtime and (after taking another couple of paracetamol to keep the lurgy at bay), we went along to the Golden Lion for a pub lunch. I had the Ploughman’s again, washed down with a bottle of Samuel Adams beer. Then we wandered back to our stateroom and sat out on our balcony for a short while, before returning to our stateroom to get our swimming things. We then went up to the pool deck midships, bagged ourselves a sunlounger each, then took to the warm waters of the pool. After lazily swimming a few lengths we went into the Jacuzzi for 10 minutes, before getting out and drying ourselves off. Then I enjoyed an ice cold caipirinha cocktail and relaxed until it was time to get showered and glammed up for the second of our formal nights.
Tonight the Gala Evening theme was based around the Roaring Twenties, and passengers were encouraged to dress up accordingly. I therefore donned a straight, sleeveless silver beaded dress with a fluted hemline, black and white heels, a black feather boa, long black evening gloves, a long rope of pearls and a platinum blonde wig cut in a short bob. I also carried a long, black cigarette holder. My outfit elicited quite a few comments from other passengers, a number of whom were similarly attired.
Dinner was a grand affair again; we enjoyed a delicious Surf ‘n’ Turf (lobster and steak) washed down with chilled wine and finished off with Baked Alaska in Trevor’s case and a selection of cheeses in mine. Coffee and petits fours completed the meal, and we passed the time in pleasant conversation with Guy and Tessa, who had put in an appearance this evening.
After dinner, at 7.45pm, we made our way along to the Queen’s Room, where they were holding the Cunard World Club cocktail party. This is the loyalty club for Cunard passengers and you are graded according to how many voyages of six days or more you have cruised on a Cunard ship. We are Platinum members with nine voyages (including this one). We have to complete 15 before we go into the top grade of Diamond.
We enjoyed four glasses of the free fizz as we stood and people-watched and admired some of the other 20s outfits. Then Captain Connery came on and gave a speech thanking us all for sailing with Cunard; he made a presentation to the passengers who were the most travelled Cunard sailors; one couple had spent over 1000 nights on board Cunard ships and had another 15 cruises already booked!! 😊
The end of the cocktail party took us up to show time, so we went along to the Royal Court Theatre and got seats in the front row for tonight’s show by the Royal Court Theatre Company, called One Way Or Another and featuring that song, plus many more foot-tappers, in a colourful show of song and dance. It was a great show and we were sorry when it was over.
Afterwards, we returned to the Queen’s Room where the Roaring Twenties ball was in full swing, and we got up to do the dances we know, such as the rumba and cha cha cha. One of the dance hosts taught everyone to get up and Charleston, but Trevor and I sat that one out, preferring to watch instead.
Around 11 o’clock we returned to our stateroom and enjoyed a nightcap on our balcony. The weather felt quite cool but the sea was beautifully calm; all we could hear was the gorgeous shhhhh shhhhh of it washing against the side of the Queen Victoria as we gazed out into the blackness of the night.
We then settled down in bed for the evening; I was glad that the cold symptoms I’d experienced this morning seemed to have gone, and I slept very well, looking forward to our arrival in Split, Croatia, tomorrow.