Today was another sea day — effectively a holiday from the holiday. I was awake just before 7am and couldn’t resist immediately checking my phone for the result from Carrow Road. I was very happy to see a victory over the league leaders and pleased for our boys, who would no doubt have gone home happy. That’s now three wins out of three since I’ve been away. Perhaps that’s telling me something.
At a leisurely pace we headed up to the Lido and secured a table outside for breakfast. We then didn’t move from that table for several hours.
I fetched myself some Eggs Benedict and then settled in to do some blogging and reading. Karen, meanwhile, wanted to finish watching The Traitors. She managed to get through the penultimate episode before the buffering became too bad for the final one. This made her very grumpy and, apparently, it was entirely my fault.
I did suggest she could pay for the full streaming service at £30 per day, but that “wasn’t the point”. So, for the next three and a half hours I sat there multitasking, trying to get the flipping final episode of a series which is, in truth, largely pointless drivel, to download onto the iPad. Twice I got tantalisingly close before it failed near the end. Worse still, while it was attempting this, Karen became grumpy again because I had the iPad logged in as her, meaning she couldn’t connect her phone. This was also, somehow, my fault.
After a few non-alcoholic cold drinks, we had lunch at the very same table. One of the offerings today was white pizza, which was surprisingly acceptable.
The outside pool area was busy all day, with people coming and going. For the first time, we noticed that some people appeared to have “reserved” sunbeds. We decided they must all be German.
The weather was scorching when the sun broke through after a short cloudy patch, which had briefly produced a light rain shower. This sent those on sunbeds scurrying for cover. Sitting at our table, half under cover and in the shade, meant we were entirely unbothered.
My reading for the day was the new Richard Osman murder series, which I’m enjoying so far. It’s clearly designed for the masses and isn’t exactly weighty literature, but it’s perfect when there’s lots going on around you — especially when every five minutes I was having to check on the iPad download.
At around 3pm we finally left our table and ventured down to the third floor for a walk around the lower deck outside. It was quite windy down there. Three circuits of the ship on that deck apparently equate to a mile walked. We almost managed one full lap before retreating to the Crow’s Nest for a hot drink.
Karen managed to bag some prime chairs overlooking the sea while I fetched the drinks. We sat contentedly for over an hour before agreeing that we needed some bubbles to finish the afternoon off properly.
We’ve now been onboard for ten days, yet we still keep seeing people we’ve never noticed before — which surprises us, as we’re sure we’d have remembered some of their more obvious peculiarities. Meanwhile, other people we do recognise we keep bumping into repeatedly, even though we never speak to them. It’s a funny old existence being on a cruise, and I’m still not entirely sure how much I like it.
Our “cupboard” is almost a safe space, yet we barely spend any time in it other than sleeping or getting ready. Having had a balcony before, we’ve found it makes little difference to us — either it’s too sunny, too shady, or we want a drink and there are far better places to sit and enjoy one. The ship is so big that you can always find a quiet spot if that’s what you’re after.
Despite vague intentions of trying some on board activities, we haven’t found anything at times that suited us. We also haven’t been to the gym — more because of Karen’s hip problem than anything else, and woe betide me if I suggested going on my own.
Tonight was our special dinner reservation at the posh Pinnacle restaurant. Karen wore a lovely dress and even I made an effort, donning a clean shirt I had saved for the occasion. We arrived dead on 7pm and were shown to a lovely table immediately.
Although the service was quite slow (possibly deliberately so we didn’t feel rushed), the food was absolutely first class. We both had the Jumbo Lump Crab Cake, followed by the Filet Mignon, which was to die for. I had mine with a red wine reduction.
For dessert, Karen eschewed the Baked Alaska and went for the Key Lime Pie. I had a fantastic Chocolate Soufflé, which Delia herself would have been proud of. It was also the first time we’d been asked if we wanted two drinks each time, which we reluctantly agreed to. This did mean it looked as though we each had a bucketful of Sauvignon Blanc in front of us.
Anyone can book a table here for a supplement of $52 each, which feels quite a lot considering there are perfectly good free meals available elsewhere. If we were onboard for longer than 14 days, we’d probably pay for another visit, but having this one included as part of our package was a very nice bonus.
We decided to forgo our hot drinks afterwards as we were keen to see the show that evening, starring Angie Narayan, who has spent the last seven years touring the world as the lead in Respect — The Aretha Franklin Story. She had an outstanding voice and was also quite amusing, talking about her Australian upbringing with an Indian father and a Fijian mother.
The show ended at 9.45pm and we headed straight back to our cupboard, as tomorrow involved a long excursion and another very early start in the port of Da Nang.
