At some point during the night we had woken up to see that the Arcadia was on the move again, making her way back along the North Sea canal. It was a pity we weren’t in Amsterdam again today, but we had a nice relaxing day at sea to look forward to instead. 🙂
In fact, we didn’t really do much at all. We had a look at the quickly-revised Horizon events programme, but there wasn’t anything to float my boat, as it were. While Trevor went to the Belvedere buffet for breakfast, I just decided to stay in the cabin and make the most of the tea and coffee making facilities. Looking outside on our balcony, both the sea and the sky were a turbulent grey colour, and we could hear the wind howling and whistling outside.
I spent the morning reading, playing games on my laptop and doing some of this blog. Then we wandered around the Arcadia, had a look in the shops and enjoyed a drink in the Rising Sun. Soon lunchtime was upon us, and we decided to go to the Neptune pool bar and grill for something to eat and drink. I thought I’d have a cheeseburger and the full works because I hadn’t had any breakfast and I was pretty hungry by now.
We ordered our burgers and each enjoyed a pint of John Smith’s beer while people watching. Some were brave enough to sit in the hot tubs; one woman had even brought a paperback book in there to read! Others were filming the hypnotic, choppy waves sloshing about from one end to the other in the swimming pool; understandably no-one was in it. I bet those in the hot tub felt the cold on the mad dash to their lounger for their towel and clothes!
As Captain Sharples had informed us, earlier on in the cruise, that they had done the traditional thing this time of year and tied a Christmas tree to the foremast, we decided to go out on deck and brave the elements to have a look.
In December 2006, we remembered flying out to Acapulco to join the Arcadia for a New Year cruise around Mexico, the Panama Canal and the Caribbea. We boarded he ship on 30th December and we remembered seeing a Christmas tree tied to the mast then, but in the tropical heat it had become a brown, shrivelled shadow of its former self. 🙂 That had been a wonderful cruise; we had many happy memories of that one.
Back in our cabin we looked at the programme once again, and noticed that the dress code, which should have been formal this evening and for which I had brought a long dress, had now been changed to Evening Casual. Why had they ditched the formal evening? There was no explanation at all. We wondered whether we had been mistaken in thinking there were three ‘celebration nights’ (as P&O calls them), but when we asked John and Linda they confirmed that tonight was supposed to have been formal.
We then went up to the Crow’s Nest and sat for a while at the bow, watching as the Arcadia ploughed her way through the North Sea. Several times we passed other ships on the horizon, and we also saw lots of oil rigs, lights ablaze against the early evening skies.
At one point, Captain Sharples’ voice blared out over the PA again regarding our planned visit to Zeebrugge tomorrow; he said we may need to abort this port of call (a collective groan went up from the passengers around us) due to the high winds and the intricacies of piloting the Arcadia into the port. He would let us know what was happening later on.
We ate dinner in the Meridian Restaurant tonight. Only seven of us at were the table; Vic was missing, and Marlene advised us he had been confined to their cabin with the stomach bug that was going around the ship; she was OK. The menu repeated several of the dishes that had been available earlier in the cruise, but there was a new addition this time – lobster en feuilleté (which meant it was encased in flaky pastry). Nevertheless, lobster was lobster, and there were chunks of the succulent white meat in a delicious seafood sauce encased in the pastry. At least we had now had lobster this cruise, which was more than we saw on Queen Victoria last month! 🙂
We also had one glass of wine with our meal as no-one came to ask if we wanted another drink. A far cry from Fred.Olsen ships where, if you are on the all-inclusive package, they constantly come around and top up your glass until you have to put your hand over it to stop them! On the Arcadia, if you were on the all-inclusive package they were never in a hurry to serve you; after all, they already had your money any way.
Tonight in the Palladium the featured entertainer was an Irish comedian called William Caulfield. He was really funny and we enjoyed his show immensely. Afterwards we spotted him in the Rising Sun and went over to have a chat with him, telling him how much we enjoyed his show. Then we took a seat and enjoyed a pint or so while exchanging pleasantries with some of the other ‘regulars’ in the Rising Sun.
While we were in there, the Captain made another announcement (not entirely unexpected) to say that we were going to have to abort our visit into Zeebrugge tomorrow, as Force 11 winds (‘violent storm’) on the Beaufort Scale were expected. Instead, we’d have another day in a choppy North Sea!
Later on, at the Syndicate Quiz with John and Linda, we fell flat on our faces. The person asking the questions had decided to change the format a little; instead of 20 general knowledge questions she was asking five questions in each of four categories. One of them was movies (which we hardly know anything about as we are no way movie buffs) and another of them was The Muppet Show. We didn’t do well at all, only scoring about 12/20.
We finished off the evening in the Crow’s Nest, where they still hadn’t repaired the leaks and the buckets were still outside in the corridor, the drips plinking and plonking into them. I wonder how many times a day they have to empty those buckets? At least the toilets appeared to be working though.
We had a couple of drinks and enjoyed the company and the conversation. Lots of people around us were complaining about the cancelled port calls, but no-one can control the weather, and we have been on many cruises where they have had to change the itinerary at short notice. You just have to make the best of it; at least we were on holiday doing something different, rather than sitting around at home. 🙂
Back in cabin E26 we settled down and slept very well. Tomorrow would be the last day of this cruise before the long coach journey home, and we determined to make the most of it. 🙂