Day 9 at Sea - Wednesday 27 February 2013

Today is our last of five days at sea before arriving in Papeete, Tahiti tomorrow morning.  Since leaving Wellington we have travelled 2300 nautical miles. I must say the days seem to be flying by.

We were pleased with our score at Trivia this morning in the Pub, the questions were quite difficult but we managed 13 1/2.  They only gave us half a mark for our answer ‘bat’ they said we should have answered ‘fruit bat’…. Oh well… we’re not playing for the Town Hall Clock….. Our team mates from New York are lovely and we spend ages after Trivia chatting, next thing we know it’s lunch time.

The weather today is gorgeous, very warm and sunny and as Captain Chris Wells said in his midday report “the sky is decorated with the odd fluffy cloud here and there”.

We thoroughly enjoyed the Variety show in the Royal Court Theatre this evening. The entertainment on board has been excellent, and the Cunard dancers are absolutely first class.  Afterward it was off for a few dances before bed, hopefully to burn off a few calories.  So glad we don’t have a set of scales in our bathroom. J

Early to bed tonight because tomorrow we arrive early into Papeete and we want to be up early to watch our arrival. We’ve ordered breakfast to be brought to our cabin so we can enjoy it all from our balcony. Our departure from Papeete isn’t until 9.30pm so we’ve got a nice full day there.

Sending this from Papeete this morning so photos are to follow this... :)

 

Day 8 at sea our second Tuesday 26 February crossed the dateline

Bit of a sleep in this morning, late breakfast and no lunch for us today because we’re going to enjoy the traditional afternoon tea in the Queens room this afternoon. The weather is beautiful today, calm seas, warm ocean breeze and lots of sunshine. We’re feeling very tropical.

Thought I must tell you a bit about the accommodation on board.  We are extremely happy with our cabin; we would not hesitate to book it again.  There is plenty of cupboards and draw space; we even have two large draws under the end of the bed. Our cabin has a glass fronted balcony; we are toward the aft of the ship on deck 4. The balconies have an opening door not sliding door. If you book a forward balcony from 4001 – 4042 you would get a metal closed in balcony, so you would only see the view if you were standing up on the balcony.  This is necessary for the forward cabins due to certain weather affecting the forward area of the ship. 

Our bathroom is compact but is well appointed with a high pressure shower.  I have found that there isn’t enough room on the shelving in the shower itself so I bought one of those suction containers and it now holds the shampoo and conditioner nicely.

The safe in our cabin is very large with enough room for a laptop and/or iPad plus the normal bits and pieces.  You could even put a handbag in there. The refrigerator is a good size and works very well keeping everything well chilled. I read someone’s review saying that there is no control for the temperature in the cabin…..that isn’t correct… there is a temperature control and it works very well to keep the cabin at the temperature you prefer. Room service is complimentary up until midnight then there is a minimal charge between that time and 6.00am.

This ship does not have an interactive TV to access your account information. The girls reading this will be pleased because they can now happily shop without wondering if dear husband isn’t lying on the bed with the ‘Account page’ up on the TV screen watching what you spend….lol.

Love the Promenade deck.  We walked right around this morning. It even gives you a view right over and down the back of the ship from Deck 3.  I will take a pic next time we do that walk. Would love to be putting photos up on here whilst at sea but it is way too slow to upload a photo.  The internet itself hasn’t been too slow as long as I pick my time to go online.

We do like the radio at sea program they have on board every afternoon from 5.00pm, called Live@five. They take requests and have competitions for all guests on board. There have been some great requests of all types of music from the decades. Perfect to put in a request to Mark, turn the TV up loud, sit out on the balcony listening to our requested song watching the sun set over the ocean with a nice glass of Sav Blanc in hand before getting ready to go down for another pre-dinner drink and dance then off to the restaurant at 8.30pm.

No housework, no driving, no supermarket shopping, no cooking, no cleaning, no making the bed...ah bliss… J Can you tell I’m feeling very relaxed and in holiday mode now… J

I picked up the 2014 brochures today and see that Cunard have some great itineraries for next year from Australia and New Zealand for all three Cunard ships so there’s a good choice of both itinerary and the three ships. I’m beginning to sound like a Travel Agent now….lol.

P.S. What a surprise, I’ve won todays competition on Live@five and now have a nice Cunard bag and some other goodies. J

Day 7 at Sea Tuesday 26 February first day crossing the dateline

What an achievement, we managed to get organised early enough to go down to the Britannia dining room for breakfast. There are quite a few things on the menu that are not available up in the Lido Restaurant.  Roy had his favourite salmon and then Eggs Benedict and I had my usual cereal and Buttermilk Pancakes with Maple syrup. We were seated at a nice table right at the back of the restaurant with a view overlooking the aft of the ship. The sea was quite choppy this morning so much so that one large wave caused our coffee to splash out of the cups on to the table. It only happened once after that it was a bit like driving on a bumpy road for a while. Also a few showers passed but then the sun came out and the temperature is now much warmer than yesterday and the sea has calmed down again.

A bird has been following us since we left Wellington.  We don’t think it’s an Albatross although it does have a long wingspan. Anyway every now and then when it needs a bit of a rest it lands on the ship and has a sleep then when it is refreshed off it goes again. It seems to love gliding  along the rear of the ship and swooping up and down every now and then. I’ve been trying to take a photo but it’s too quick for me. We wonder if it will follow us all the way to Papeete.  I hope it knows how to speak French. J

On the dot of 10.00am we’re always ready and waiting in the Golden Lion Pub for the morning Trivia.  We teamed up with a couple from the UK and a couple from the USA. Having an international team meant we all could contribute to the answers and were all very pleased of our score of 16 out of 20. Not good enough to win though, the winners had 19 out of 20…was that an iPad we saw tucked under their table?  J

In the Royal Court theatre there was an interesting lecture this morning from a  retired Airline Pilot. He flew with the RAF, British Airways, Gulf Air and finally Singapore Airlines. We like anything to do with aeroplanes so enjoyed his talk very much.  His topics within the airline industry were interesting as was he, as he added some airline humour to it all which went down well with everyone. Photos of aircraft both old and new and interesting footage of passenger and military aircraft were quite fascinating.  He will be doing another talk tomorrow. The theatre was packed so guess it’s a topic that many are interested to learn about.

Lunch time seems to come around quickly and we have our phrase of the day to each other which is “just because it looks nice we don’t need to eat it”….. Unfortunately, we seem to be forgetting that phrase once we see food.  We didn’t venture near the Pub for lunch instead enjoyed lunch up in the Lido Restaurant. I’m getting a bit too used to eating lovely desserts at lunch and dinner. I’m under strict button and zip watching…. J

Tonight is our second Formal night.  The theme is the London Ball with a suggestion in the daily program of wearing red, white or blue….. I wish they had told us this earlier as I’ve already worn my blue evening dress…  Instead I’ll wear my black dress remembering the London smog of the early 60’s. J

It’s nice to have delivered daily to our cabin the Australian newspaper headlines.  We see there has been a lot of rain and more floods, do hope everyone is OK and we don’t have repeat floods of only a few weeks ago.

Overheard outside the restaurant yesterday…. “Darling I do wish these people didn’t speak like they do with those nasty accents…. You would think they would practice to speak like us, wouldn’t you?”  I turned around expecting to see Richard and Hyacinth Bouquet standing behind me. J

NEWSFLASH…. Wandered passed a slot machine on the way back from the theatre played $6.00 and won US$338.00…. yay…. J J

Cheers…..from somewhere on the Pacific Ocean.

Day 6 at Sea

The weather is beginning to warm up although today there are a few clouds in the sky and a strong breeze.  White caps to be seen but they aren’t having any effect on the ship.  Maybe because this ship is new there is no feeling of moving, it’s more like gliding through the water.  Today the sea is a very deep blue sapphire colour.

There was a reported sighting of whales yesterday, we didn’t see them and nor did most people so we’re guessing someone is catching up on the old Moby Dick story and having nightmares....lol

Our first formal evening was last night.  The Captains Welcome party for those of us who boarded in Auckland was most enjoyable.  Plenty of champagne, red and white wine or orange juice was flowing. Also some delicious little nibbles were served. A nice touch was for everyone to be introduced individually to Captain Christopher Wells and have their photograph taken with him before entering the Queens room. He seems a very friendly and approachable Captain, cracking jokes and having a laugh with everyone.

Dinner was lovely as usual. We’ve had a great choice of menu every night including the usual Beef, Pork, Chicken plus Duck and also Pheasant and seafood, and that’s in the Britannia Restaurant. Alex, Ana and Aija are looking after us like royalty. We joke that those in Suites who eat at the Queens Grill are probably thoroughly enjoying their horse meat. J

Roy noticed up at the Lido Restaurant at midnight last night when he went to get a cup of tea on our way home, there were fresh Mussels in their shell available. He just couldn’t eat them at that time of night though. Those with broken zips and popped buttons were up there enjoying the selection.J The Lido is open 24 hours a day.

If you like to dance then Queen Elizabeth is definitely for you.  Everyone dances no matter which band or what type of music is playing. The Queens room, one of the many venues is midship on Deck 2 and we pass it to get from one end of the ship to the other so we always stop, as does everyone else, and have a few dances before and after dinner. Every sea day there are dancing lessons from the two professional dancers on board.  They are teaching new steps and new dances.  They make it all look easy, they don’t have two left feet…lol. They gave us all a demonstration last night in the Queens room, how wonderful it was to see them dance so beautifully.

The entertainment in the Royal Court theatre was a comedian, and Irish guy who has lived in the USA for the past 25 years but he still had a strong Irish accent. He was hilarious, only wish I could remember some of the jokes…. I’m no good at re-telling jokes.

Oh, I must mention how we went in the Trivia this morning…ummmm..… no I won’t….lol.

A little quote that can be seen around the ship: “I am easily satisfied with the very best.”..…Winston Churchill.

 

Day 5 at Sea

What a lovely sleep in we had this morning, woken up by our Tea being delivered to our cabin. Then it was off for a leisurely breakfast up at the Lido Restaurant again.  One day we’ll get up early enough to have breakfast in the main dining room. The hours for breakfast there are 7.30 to 9.00am whereas the Lido is 6.30 to 11.30am for the lazy lot like us.

We decided to join the Trivia this morning in the Golden Lion Pub.  We got there at the last minute so didn’t join a team so it was just ‘Team JillnRoy’.  Much to our amazement we came third equal with 14 out of 20. They must have had the easy questions ready when they saw us coming.

Roy has gone to have a look at the gym this morning.  I hope he is doing more than ‘having a look’; his mission is to attend the gym for a workout on every sea day. I declined to join him as I get enough exercise running up and down the stairs.

Last night’s show by the Royal Cunard singers and dancers was good covering the years from the 1920’s through to the 1970’s including jazz, blues and rock and roll.

Afterward had a little visit to the Casino which is quite small on this ship but has all the facilities of the larger Casinos we’ve seen on other ships, just not so many of them. A great idea is that you can use your room card in the slot machine and take money out of your on board account to play with and then put your winnings back into your account again.  Great if you’re winning.  I’m in front by US$5.00 so far. I’ll let you know when they pay me the jackpot into my on board account…lol.

We are enjoying our dinner in the Britannia Restaurant at 8.30pm. We have a table of six but there is only Roy and I on it as they others were waitlisted for the early sitting at 6.00pm and moved when they checked in at Auckland….. 6.00pm is too early for us.  We’re quite happy actually because we are getting the most excellent service from our two Waiters and the Sommelier. I’m sure if we just sat there with our mouths open they would spoon feed us…..lol.

Oh and I reported in yesterday’s blog that we were on our way to Bora Bora, I was wrong Papeete is our next stop then Bora Bora.

Out on the huge Lido Pool deck at the back of the ship people love to sunbathe in the comfy lounges during the day and I must say some are getting lovely tans.  Many are a darker brown than my toast the other morning. J

I know Queen Elizabeth has a webcam you can view online 24 hours a day but we also have an aft camera looking out over the stern. Both can be viewed via the TV in our cabin. Must say I haven’t seen the stern webcam when looking online but maybe you can see that too if you know where to find it.

More tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

Day 4 in Wellington

As we sailed into Wellington we were accompanied by about 20 jet skis. They must have been out on their Saturday morning run and decided to escort us in.  We stood  out on our balcony in our Cunard dressing gowns and slippers taking photos of them as they took photos of us….we were not a pretty sight first thing in the morning…lol.

As always we enjoyed our visit to Wellington.  As the day went on the wind turned to a breeze which was much more pleasant, no complaints because the sun was shining.

Once again the shuttle from the ship into the centre of the city and return was complimentary. A quick stop at the Library for an internet update then off we went for a wander around the shops.  The clothes are very classy here but so are the prices in some of the shops.  I did buy myself a Merino and Possum fur wrap/poncho which is really nice. Yes you read correctly Possum fur, didn’t even know they made things from Possum fur. I know I won’t be feeling the cold this winter… J

The highlight of our day was a visit and tour of Parliament House.  This is something I’ve always wanted to do.  Because it was Saturday we were able to visit just about every room including the Lower Chamber. I was going to sit in John Key’s seat but he had spilt a glass of water and it was still wet…. ;) We learnt more about Parliament on our tour today than I ever remember from school…. Maybe it's because I’m now more interested in the ins and outs of Parliament than I was back then. Very interesting to be taken to the basement of the Parliament buildings and see the amazing job they’ve done to protect the buildings should there be an earthquake.  They’ve inserted 400 large rubber bearings. The aim of this base isolation is to reduce the transfer of earthquake forces from the foundations to the buildings above. Very clever thinking, but an extremely expensive exercise but worth it on a building as important as that, I would think.

The sun is now very hot on our balcony this afternoon.  In fact we’ve found the sun to be much more intense here than it is in Australia.

This mornings' giggle was at the Lido Buffet up on Deck 9. We’ve been going there for Breakfast because we’ve not been up early enough to go to the main dining room, but will try that on our next few days at sea en-route to Bora Bora. Anyway, I noticed there wasn’t any brown toast left so asked the Waiter serving if he could get me some. “Yes Madam, no problem at all” was his cheerful answer and off he went.  About 5 minutes later he appeared with not one but two pieces of toast for me. The trouble was what he had done was toasted white bread so it was very very brown….what could I say….. I think he was new. J

It’s quite handy having self-service Laundries and an ironing board. I think there’s one on every floor and is free of charge. You just have to remember to go and pick it up when it’s finished.  Someone hasn’t and there is a basket full of washing that has been sitting there waiting to be picked up for about two weeks, so we were told by a crew member.

Now that we have a few days at sea coming up I think we’ll get to explore the ship a little more.  I know they have a band on board that we love called Synergy. They were on Voyager of the Seas. They’re playing in the Queens Room tonight so we’ll be there. 

As I am posting this at sea I won't add any photos because the internet is not fast enough to upload them. 

Thank you to all those who have left comments, sorry I can't reply to them easily but I do read every one of them and it's nice to know you're following my blog and enjoying my ramblings... :)