Craig's Travel Journal Day 4: Wednesday, May 18

Wednesday, May 18

I awoke before 7 am to the slight oscillation of the ship’s engines, getting up to sneak a peek through the darkened curtains to see…what did I expect? It’s an Atlantic crossing. I’m going to see ocean. Period. I was not surprised. The ocean was still and flat and the ocean liner (not a “cruise ship”! don’t make that mistake and call it that) cut a smooth ride through the sea.

Before long, Laura was awakened by my movement and the two of us set about to getting ready for breakfast and reviewing the program of events outlined for the day—everything from watercolor painting classes to lectures to dance lessons. We made our way to the Princess Grill Dining Room and had breakfast at our table of six, alone. The morning staff was different than at lunch and dinner, so Laura was worried about the lovely pastries that came our way. We asked the morning Head Waiter about the allergies and he pleasantly (and with a great spring in his step) set off to find the answer to our high fructose corn syrup conundrum. He came back with a grin on his face and said, “Do you want the short answer or the long answer, because I have good news!” We asked for the long, which included him calling the kitchen and speaking to four different people before being put on with the Executive Chef who happened to be in the kitchen at the time. The chef informed the Head Waiter that they didn’t use HFCS at all in the kitchen, let alone in the pastries. Laura chose a Danish with peaches in the middle.

Later, as we were finishing breakfast, the Head Waiter came back and told us that he had seen the pastry Laura had selected and chose to call down to the kitchen again to confirm the ingredients in the canned peaches they used in the Danish. He was pleased to report there was no HFCS in the canned peaches, either. We were both impressed.

We went back to our room for a bit and, looking at at sea, saw some dark shapes and motion on the sea. Soon we could tell there were pods of dolphins, porpoises, and whales! The sea felt overpopulated with the creatures. Groupings of porpoises, dozens of them, jumping or chasing the ocean liner, were all along side. We could see multiple waterspouts from whales and see the dark crests of their backs. We saw an occasional jumping dolphin or porpoise. I think I saw an orca. It was astounding to see so much life in the sea all at once. There must have been hundreds of them over the course of a few miles as we watched.

We wandered the ship some more after that, going for a walk on the “track” on Deck 7 filled with walkers and joggers. It takes 3.1 laps around the track to make one mile. In the wind it was cold, even with our jackets on, though if you were out of the wind and in the sun it was quite pleasant. In the one spot on deck that featured such a condition there were people huddled on deck chairs. Pretty much the rest of the chairs were empty.

We went and looked at the pools on the back of the ship which stair step from deck to deck down, a total of three separate pools and on the upper most deck a Jacuzzi. We 

walked the farthest point at the front of the ship, discovering in a horseshoe hallway near the bow a small QM2/Cunard “museum” of sorts, loaded with informational panels, awards, and even an interactive touchscreen kiosk. We found the “planetarium”—really another theater with a dome screen in the ceiling.

We ended up back in the dining room for lunch. At exactly noon the ship’s whistles blew and the Captain came on to tell us we had crossed into another time zone and we had to set our clocks ahead one hour, making it 1 pm. Having a 2:30 pm appointment for a couples massage in the Canyon Ranch Spa, we had lunch so we could get on our way to the massages.

Lying side by side face down on massage tables, the lights dim and classical music playing, an Eastern European woman pumped warm oil on my skin while a South African woman did the same for Laura. Evidently at one point I snored. The massages were delightful and we went back to our locker rooms to shower and change.

Laura took a nap back in our cabin suite while I hunted down the tuxedo jacket and slacks I’d rented aboard ship. (Why pack one when you can hire?) The slacks were way too long, so I found a sewing kit in the sundries shop and came back to the room. 

Laura hemmed my pants and we proceeded to get ready for the first formal night aboard ship, with a black and white theme. She wore a beautiful floor-length black formal dress and heels, forcing me to maintain a good posture.

Dressed to the nines (what does that even mean?) we headed to a private cocktail party reserved for Queens Grill and Princess Grill passengers with the Captain in the ballroom. We met a few lovely couples, sitting down and chatting with two lawyers (he and she both public defenders but she moving to divorce law when they had kids) who lived in Seattle.

The Captain’s speeches over, we went to the dining room to have dinner at a full table. The meal was excellent. We enjoy the couple from Newport Beach.

Dinner: 

My Steak Diane (right) with black pudding. 

Laura’s entree (left) and desserts. 

Laura’s crepes suzette. 

After dinner we found that they were taking portraits of couples in their formal wear and we grabbed a few photos together. We ended up in the pub and, believe it or not, both ended up on stage singing karaoke to the crowded bar. Our first selection was the “his and hers” retro hit “Don’t You Want Me Baby” by the Human League. We followed that up with a duet of “The River” by Garth Brooks. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I was proud of Laura for getting up on stage and belting those songs out. Definitely out of her comfort zone, but later she told me she knew I wanted her to do it, so she did. I knew she had fun, so that’s all that mattered. We shut the pub down, heading back to our cabin around 11:30 and crashing.