Got up around 8.20 this morning and decided not to go up for breakfast, instead enjoying a cup of coffee and some of the fresh fruit in our cabin. Although tonight was another formal night, the free fizz on offer with breakfast was not enough to tempt me to get up earlier; when you’re travelling all-inclusive it’s all “free” anyway, so the thrill has diminished somewhat. 😊
Going out onto our balcony, we noticed that Borealis was gliding along at a good old rate of knots and we stood for a while, watching and listening to the wake; it’s something we never tire of.
At 9.30am Trevor went down to the Neptune Lounge to listen to a talk about the 1960s, but I decided to take a shower and wash and blow-dry my hair instead, ready for formal evening, but also because it was the Oceans Club cocktail party at quarter past eleven and I always like to dress up a little more smartly for any cocktail party.
Once I was ready, I spent some time tidying up the cabin a bit and charging my phone and watch as well as doing some of this blog. Then Trevor returned and I changed into a sparkly top and some sequinned high heels before we made our way to the Neptune Lounge for the Oceans Club party. The Oceans is Fred Olsen Cruise Lines’ loyalty programme; you get a point for each night spent on board an FOCL ship and you then progress through five tiers, from Bronze to Diamond. Trevor and I are currently Gold and we’ll have 224 points after this cruise; once we have over 250 nights we’ll move up to Platinum – that will happen in July next year.
As we entered the Neptune Lounge we were greeted by the Captain and some of his officers and the entertainment team, and we accepted a glass of fizz as we made our way to our ‘usual’ seats. There were some long tables just in front of the stage, containing magnificent ice and fruit sculptures.
We enjoyed some more fizz as well as a selection of hot and cold canapés. Then some of the Future Cruises and Oceans Club staff came onto the stage and thanked everyone for their loyalty to FOCL. As the Neptune Lounge was nearly full, it would seem that most passengers on this cruise were repeat guests; in fact Fred Olsen has more repeat guests that any other cruise line, so they must be doing something right. 😊
After watching a presentation about some of the upcoming cruises in 2024 and 2025, it was time for the awards. These are given out to the passengers on board with the most points. One gentleman and his partner were clapped onto the stage and given a large glass trophy, a bottle of champagne, and flowers for their incredible milestone of 2,500 days on board a Fred Olsen ship. 2,500 days !!! That’s nearly seven years on board!! Wow. Another lady was awarded for over 800 nights on board.
The party lasted for about 45 minutes and brought us nicely up to lunch time, which we enjoyed in the Borealis Restaurant, sitting at a table right next to the window at the stern. It made a nice change to have waiter service instead of having to join the queue for the buffet.
Incidentally, we’d noticed that in the buffet they no longer have trays for you to put your plates/drinking vessels on. I’d overheard someone ask why, and they were told that it was to prevent people grabbing plates and piling them high, then ending up leaving the food and wasting it. This way, you can only carry one plate of food and if you need more you have to go back; it might make people think twice about eating too much. There is a certain logic to that! 😊
We spent the afternoon just pottering around the ship and looking in the shops, where I tried some of the perfume samples. Then we decided to go and do the afternoon trivia in the Morning Light pub.
On the way to the pub, we passed through the library where there is a resident artist on board, the talented Scottish wildlife painter Michael Gahagan. During the cruise, we had seen some of his complete pieces as well as works in progress. One such work was that of a brown hare, and as we passed Michael’s easel, there was a sign printed in block letters that advised that someone had removed the almost-finished painting from the easel! It was incredible, but it looked as if someone on board had nicked the painting! Who on earth would do that?
As we took our seats in the lively Morning Light pub, we were joined by Richard and June for the quiz; there was no sign of Colin or Angie. We enjoyed a cocktail of the day each but didn’t win the quiz once again.
Afterwards, we had some time to relax in our cabin before it was time to start getting ready for dinner, as tonight it wasn’t just Formal Evening, there would also be a Masquerade Ball later on, and we’d brought our masks with us. We didn’t wear them to dinner as (a) I wouldn’t be able to eat or drink with my full-face mask and (b) there was nowhere to put the mask if I wasn’t wearing it. We therefore decided to leave our masks and wear them when it was time for the Evening Trivia. 😊
Once again it was a very pleasant meal on table #222. The food really is very good; I always have a starter, a salad, the main course, then (usually) the cheeseboard, washed down with chilled house wine and finished off with a liqueur. There was no shortage of anecdotes and other conversation, and soon the restaurant staff were hinting at us that they needed to start getting ready for the second-sitting passengers. 😊
The show didn’t start until 9.00pm for some reason, but we went into the Morning Light to enjoy a drink beforehand. While we were there, a couple sitting at the adjacent table looked at me and said “oh, it’s the Shoe Lady”! Like several other passengers, she remembered me from a previous cruise because of all my fantastic shoes. What I also found unusual this time was that it wasn’t just the female passengers who always came over to see what I was wearing, but quite a few blokes too! However, I won’t be able to take a whole suitcase full of shoes for our next cruise as it involves a long-haul return flight, so I’ll have to stick to the luggage allowance! ☹
The featured entertainment in the Neptune Lounge tonight was the husband-and-wife magic act “Tensai”, and once again we enjoyed their illusions, music, costumes and patter. It was a decent show.
Then Trevor and I returned to 6227, where Pranee, our cabin stewardess, had already turned down the beds, dimmed the lights and left a chocolate on our pillows as well as tomorrows Daily Times activities programme and a special programme outlining all the events that we could expect in Madeira tomorrow when the three FOCL ships, Borealis, Bolette and Balmoral all got together for the “Fleet in Funchal 2023” reunion. We were really looking forward to it!
We donned our masks; mine was a typical hand-painted mask that I bought in Venice in October 2018 and Trevor’s was the half-face white Phantom of the Opera mask which he teamed with a black hat. Then we proceeded to the Morning Light pub, where our masks attracted a lot of attention. While there were a number of masks on sale on board for those who’d forgotten to bring one (or, like on our table, claimed not to know that there was going to be a Masked Ball), they were all pretty much the same, so ours stood out as being that bit different. 😊
The quiz went to the tie-breaker once again; this was our third time in the tie-breaker and we were still yet to win; the trend continued tonight. Afterwards we sat and enjoyed a few more drinks then, and 10.30pm, Trevor and I said we were going to the Masked Ball for the live music and dancing; the others from table #222 were giving it a miss as they hadn’t brought any masks and weren’t really dressed appropriately.
When we arrived at the Neptune Lounge it was packed! The only available seats we could find were near the back! The resident band Nelson and Friends were playing some great music and the small dance floor at the front was full. Trevor didn’t want to dance but I gingerly picked my way down to the dance floor; there were several things affecting my progress, not least wearing my 5” heeled shoes with a long dress on a fairly lively moving vessel and wearing a full-face mask which meant I had no peripheral vision. I only got up to dance once and, after half an hour or so, we thought we’d go up to the Observatory where it wasn’t as crowded. In any case, we didn’t want to go to bed too late as we knew we had a long and exciting day ahead of us tomorrow. 😊 We enjoyed a couple of drinks in the dimly-lit observatory and listened to the Jukebox Sounds. It was about 11.45pm when we returned to 6227 and settled down. The sea seemed a bit calmer by now, and we slept very well.