Masquerade! Every face a different shade.
From ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ – Andrew Lloyd Webber
Masquerade! Turn around, there’s another mask behind you.
Got up early this morning, hoping to catch the sunrise at 7.06am. The morning was cloudy and there were still patches of blue sky, and I did manage to get a moody photo of a sleepy sun as it rose above the horizon, heralding the start of another day. 🙂
After going back to bed for another half hour or so, we got up once again and got washed and dressed before eating breakfast as usual in the self-service buffet. We didn’t have much time; the first of today’s interesting presentations (or ‘Cunard Insights’) was at 9.00am in the theatre.
Today’s talk was by natural historian Dr. Sandie Sowler, and the topic was entitled “Wild Cats and Macaques of the Iberian Peninsula”. The presentation was accompanied by lots of interesting photographs, and we found it to be very informative and educational.
We stayed in our front-row seats for the next presentation at 10 o’clock; this time it featured Keith Muras, the guy who had worked for the British Embassy in Moscow for three years. Once again, the talk was all about the KGB and the Soviet Union during the Cold War years, and we found it fascinating. Keith will certainly have many stories to tell about his time in Russia.
By now, we’d spent a couple of hours in the theatre and decided it was enough; time to stroll the decks and get some fresh air. Outside, the weather was still cloudy but pleasantly warm. Because the ship was moving along, it meant there was that ever-present breeze which made the temperature seem cooler than it was. In fact, we have to say for this time of year we had actually expected the weather to be much hotter. When we were in Madeira’s six months ago, it was actually warmer in November than it was this time in May.
Lunchtime came, but I wasn’t particularly hungry as I had had a good breakfast. Skipping lunch would certainly do me no harm at all, if my ever-snug waistbands were any indication. 🙂
We returned to the cabin and sat out on the balcony for a short while, before I went inside and did some of this blog. Then we just relaxed and pottered around the ship before getting smartened up a little bit for some complimentary wine tasting in the Britannia Restaurant, for which we had received an invitation at the beginning of the cruise.
There were four different wines to taste; two whites and two reds. You literally did only get a taste, a couple of tiny mouthfuls. The sommelier would advise us on which ‘notes’ we could discern as well as which type of grape was used and which country each wine came from. Obviously, the idea was to get you to purchase one or more bottles of the wine.
There were also some cocktails sticks containing cubes of cheese to try with the red wines. I decided I liked the Pinot Grigio best of the whites, and a Chilean variety best of the reds. The whole wine-tasting event was over within half an hour.
It was then time to start getting primped and preened for dinner, as tonight was a themed formal night once again. This time, it was a masquerade ball.
I wore a full-length off the shoulder floaty gothic dress and my mask was a full-face Jester style mask I had bought it Venice in 2018. Trevor wore his usual dinner suit, but wore a white embellished ‘Phantom’ mask along with a black hat.
As we descended in the lift (“The lift is going down”) and walked along the corridor to the Britannia Restaurant, our masks elicited lots of comments.
Arriving at table #349, we admired the masks of our fellow table-mates, but we had to remove them in order to eat and drink. Luckily, there was a handy windowsill behind our table, and we lined the masks up there. 🙂
Dinner was a grand affair as usual, with everyone dressed up. I do love the formal evenings. Many cruise lines have relaxed the dress codes and in some cases abandoned them altogether, but I think that is a shame. Part of the glamour of cruising is dressing up in the evenings and I am pleased that Cunard and Fred Olsen cruises still maintain a dress code. I have so many gorgeous evening dresses and shoes I would hardly get the chance to wear them except for our cruising.
Once we’d finished our meals, we asked the waiter if he could take a photograph of all the diners at table #349, with us all wearing our masks. 🙂
We wanted to be out of the restaurant in good time tonight, because at eight o’clock the show company were putting on a performance of the classic love story weepy Brief Encounter, by Noel Coward. I absolutely adore the black and white film Brief Encounter starring Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson, so I didn’t want to miss the stage version; it would be interesting to see how it was adapted.
Even though I arrived in the theatre a good half hour before the performance started, the best seats I could procure were in the third row. At least I didn’t have anyone tall sitting in front of me. 🙂
The play was very good, and made good use of film backdrops to re-create the old steam trains pulling into “Milford Junction” station. As much of the play is set in the station waiting room and café, this was the main set. An element of humour was also injected into the story by the interaction of the station staff with the staff in the café. The one thing I wasn’t keen on in the adaptation was their turning parts of it into a musical, cast members bursting into song on occasion.
All in all, the play was extremely well done and the lead actors were very professional and credible. However, it couldn’t match up to the wonderful film, and I didn’t expect it to.
Afterwards we went along to the Golden Lion for the trivia; this time the theme was “Behind the Mask” and you had to guess which celebrity was hidden behind an oversized PhotoShopped mask. As we don’t know who most ‘celebrities’ are without their masks, we didn’t do very well in the quiz at all.
We decided to finish the evening off by going up to the Commodore Club, the elegant, dimly-lit room at the top of the Queen Anne. The resident pianist was tinkling the ivories and everyone sat around in their sartorial splendour, sipping cocktails. It was a very civilised and pleasant atmosphere.
Trevor and I then shook our heads in disbelief as a guy wearing chinos, trainers, a polo shirt and baseball cap strolled into the Commodore Club. This was formal night! Did he have no respect for his fellow passengers?
He didn’t get far, however, before a barman approached him and had a few tactful words in his ear, whereupon the man turned around and left. We have been on several cruises where they do have a dress code, but then don’t enforce it. It was good to see that the dress code was being enforced in this case and the standard maintained. 🙂
We remained in the Commodore Club until around 11.30pm, then returned to 11046. We were due to arrived in Arrecife, Lanzarote tomorrow, so we wanted to get a good night’s sleep. After propping open our balcony door once again, we settled down for the night.