Terrific Thursday!

We heard the doorbell this morning and we were both sound asleep. Prakasan was here with our breakfast, but we thought it was an hour early. Shortly we realized we had failed to set our watches forward so we were behind the times. We enjoyed our breakfast and had planned to get ready for a fairly busy day of activities, however, we ended up watching The Bourne Ultimatum. Mom had not seen this movie and seemed to be interested, so we stayed in our room to watch it.

The next event was going through the Strait of Gibraltar, but we had to wait to hear from the Commodore as to when we would pass through it. Today turned out to be as good as yesterday was bad. The skies had cleared and the temperature was so much warmer. We watched the “weather log” on the TV and it said it was 329 degrees Fahrenheit! Well as you can guess it wasn’t quite that warm, only in the 60s, but it felt so much warmer due to the fact that we’ve come from such cold weather. Just after noon it was time for dance lessons and today was the Rhumba. There was a large group for today’s dance. We had a different dance instructor, so learning the steps was a little different. I ended up dancing with one of the dance hosts who was really a good instructor and by the end of the hour I about had the steps.

I think Mom even enjoyed watching the spectacle! The lesson finished about 1:30 and we were approaching the actual Strait and the Rock of Gibraltar. The Strait is only 7 ½ miles wide at the narrowest point and is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. The Rock of Gibraltar was much larger than either one of us expected. We could see Spain to the North and Morocco to the South, specifically the city of Tangier. The seas had also changed color – the video shows it best. We enjoyed the views from our verandah until it the Rock was out of sight. At this point we went down to listen to a classical piano concert, this time the gentleman was more of a “classically trained” pianist.

The concert was just short of an hour which allowed us to make it to the beginning of tea time. Since we hadn’t eaten since breakfast (shocking I know), the sandwiches and scones tasted especially good today. I think the gorgeous weather also had an effect. The sun has begun to set much later, so this tends to throw us off when trying to get ready for the evening as it seems much earlier. Tonight was the first formal night of this ‘segment’ and the Commodore’s Reception. We dressed and went down to the Queen’s Room for the event.

We sat with a lovely couple from San Francisco who are going from NY to Hong Kong on the QM2. They were great company for the cocktail hour. The Commodore informed us that we took on 2020 passengers in Southampton. There are less than 400 Americans on board with the majority being from the UK and also Germany. About 750 will disembark in Dubai while almost 800 are here for the entire world voyage. We then went up to dinner. Erdal had called our room earlier to make sure we were doing okay since he hadn’t seen us at dinner for two nights in a row. We had surf and turf for our entrée, but had to skip dessert because we were too full. We went down for the Black and White Ball and were in fact quite early. However, we’ve discovered that if you don’t get there about 15-20 minutes ahead of time you’ll have difficulty finding a seat.

We enjoyed a lot of music and dancing and I was able to get out and even try some new dances! I think I still like the Jive the best. It is now about 12:30 am and it is time for us to retire. We shouldn’t lost any more sleep for at least a few days. Tomorrow is at sea and by Saturday we will be in Civitavecchia (Rome). Good night for now…