After waking up at 5.00am following an excellent night’s sleep, I briefly went out on the balcony hoping to catch the sunrise, but our port side cabin was on the wrong side of the ship! The weather, however, was cool and dry, and we could expect some sunshine later on. We had a full sea day to look forward to today.
Going back to bed, I soon fell asleep again until the alarm woke us at 7.30am, and we decided to get up and go up to the Artisan’s Foodhall (as the self-service buffet is somewhat ostentatiously named) for some breakfast.
I enjoyed a bowl of hot porridge with dried fruit and nuts, washed down with orange juice and coffee, while we sat at a window seat and enjoyed the sight of the North Sea gliding past us from our Deck 9 viewpoint. Watching the sea is quite mesmerising, and is a sight that we never tire of.
Back in 4066, we had a look at the Daily Programme of events that had a packed itinerary for us today. We noticed that under “social sports” a game of shuffleboard was listed for nine o’clock, and as we like the interaction with our fellow passengers that comes with playing shipboard games, we decided to go up to Deck 14 to have a go. We spotted one of the entertainment staff carrying the long “pushers” that you need to send the pucks up the shuffleboard rink, so we followed her. When we arrived, only one other bloke was waiting. Where was everyone?
We waited for a bit, and in the meantime the staff member showed us how the game is played and we had a go (I was rubbish, and didn’t even get my puck into the scoring area). Then, when no-one else turned up, the staff member disappeared, leaving only Trevor and this other bloke to have a half-hearted game. What a difference from the Fred Olsen ships, where shipboard games are very popular and are played amidst much competition, laughter, banter and encouragement. 🙂
We then made our way to the Royal Court Theatre, where a WW2 historian called Michael Kushner was giving a presentation about Bletchley Park. As Trevor and I have both visited this historic and important landmark, we found the talk extremely interesting.
We stayed in our seats for the following talk at 11 o’clock, by former Chief Yeoman Warder of the Tower of London. Channel 5 on British television had made several documentary series’ called Inside the Tower of London, featuring Peter McGowran, or “Peter the Beefeater”, and here was the very man himself who had come to speak to us today. 🙂
Peter spoke about his life in the RAF as well as how he became a Yeoman Warder at the famous tower. The talk was very interesting as well as humorous, and Peter was very engaging and showed lots of photos and video clips. What an excellent presentation; we looked forward to attending more of his talks.
It was now 11.45am and there was another presentation we wanted to see at quarter past, so we decided to go up to the self-service once again for an early lunch, as it opens at 11.30am. I just enjoyed a plate of cold meats and salad, washed down with cold water.
After lunch we hotfooted it once again to the theatre, this time to listen to a presentation about the history of Cunard, by maritime historian Eric Flounders. Cunard, founded in 1840, is celebrating 185 years of history this year, and must be one of the most well-known brands in shipping, with such world-famous vessels such as the Mauretania, Lusitania, Carpathia and, of course, the Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) as well as the current Queen Mary 2, which is the only ocean liner in the world.
For Trevor and me, this cruise on Queen Anne is our 12th cruise with Cunard, and we already have another booked for next April on Queen Elizabeth. We like Cunard, although they’re not as good as they used to be. Like everywhere else post-pandemic, cutbacks are in evidence. Nonetheless, we were on a cruise on a very nice ship indeed, and we knew we would enjoy it.
People often ask why we would choose a cruise around Britain, when there are so many amazing places further afield to explore. It’s too easy to take our own green and pleasant land for granted and we have found that when you cruise around Britain, you end up visiting lots of interesting and picturesque little places you would not have normally been able to visit, or thought of visiting. Even though we had already been to all of the places listed on the itinerary for this cruise, we could be sure that we’d see something new. 🙂
We spent the rest of the afternoon pottering around the ship and strolling around the spacious decks. While the weather was fair, a brisk wind was blowing because the ship was moving along. When we did find a sheltered spot though, it was very pleasant.
At three o’clock, we invited Billy and Carole, next door in stateroom 4064, to our cabin to share a chilled bottle of Bollinger with us, to celebrate our 70th cruise. It really went down a treat. 🙂
Because tonight was the first formal evening, we had to start getting ready at 4.30pm for dinner an hour later – far too early to be dressed up in our glamorous evening wear! Second sitting, however, is not until 8.30pm, and sometimes you don’t get out of the restaurant until after half-past ten, which really doesn’t give enough time for your dinner to go down before bed.
Trevor wore his customary black dinner suite, with a crisp white shirt and black bow-tie and matching cummerbund, and I put on a full-length black dress with a mesh insert at the front, which was decorated with seed pearls and diamante. A simple, but elegant, dress which I wore with a pair of gold sequinned Irregular Choice shoes. 🙂
When we arrived at table #393 and took our seats, our waiter came over to us with a tray of flutes, each one just over half-full of sparkling wine. “With the compliments of Captain Hudson” said the waiter. Big deal! This is what they now do instead of the traditional Captain’s Cocktail Party – as previously mentioned, one of the many cutbacks we’ve noticed on Cunard ships since the pandemic.
Dinner was delicious as usual; the food has been very good so far. We enjoyed the usual five-course meal washed down with a crisp house rosé wine and cold water, and finished off with coffee and an Amaretto in my case and a Benedictine in Trevor’s and Billy’s case – Carole declined.
It was around 7.45pm when we left the restaurant, but I wanted to go to the Royal Court Theatre and bagsy our seat straight away, even though the evening’s entertainment was not due to start until 8.30pm. The reason was that the talented show company were putting on their performance of Noël Coward’s Brief Encounter, from which the famous film starring Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson was adapted. We had seen it last year when we were on Queen Anne and it was excellent; I couldn’t wait to see it again.
When we arrived at the theatre, all of the front row seats had already been taken, so we had to content ourselves with a seat in the second row. While we waited for the show to start, I read my Kindle. I am reading Riders, that 1985 Jilly Cooper bestseller, which I had never read before. Whilst an enjoyable holiday read, it certainly is a book of its time, with some pretty outdated attitudes.
We thoroughly enjoyed Brief Encounter once again. It was clever how the stage was adapted to represent different scenes in the film, which is mainly set in the waiting room of the train station at the fictional Milford Junction. A really excellent show, very well acted.
Afterwards, we went up to the Commodore Club and enjoyed a few more drinks in the elegant, dimly-lit room with its large windows overlooking the ship’s bow. Billy and Carole left around 10.30pm which they said was late for them, so Trevor and I finished our drinks and went down to the Golden Lion for a nightcap, and enjoyed the music of Aileen and Sticks, an Irish husband-and-wife music duo.
It was around 11.30pm when we returned to 4066. After opening the curtains and leaving the balcony door propped open a little to enjoy the fresh sea air (I really hate the drying effects of air conditioning), we settled down in our big, comfortable bed.
Tomorrow we were due to drop anchor at Newhaven, Scotland, which would be our gateway to Edinburgh. Once again, we slept well.