Wednesday - At Sea

Today was the first morning where we have lost an hour, so 8:30 came even earlier. We have a standing order with our butler to deliver coffee/hot tea at 8:30, so each morning that we lose an hour it is even earlier for us. We didn’t order breakfast since we thought we would hit the dining room. Needless to say, that didn’t happen. I finally got up and Mom had fallen back asleep. I had an apple and wandered down to the concierge lounge so I could get online and talk to Hunter. I noticed that they had some yummy looking pastries, so I brought a couple back to the room. I also brought the order form for the excursions in the ports that are coming up. Much to my surprise, several of them were already sold out. I had a bit of a panic attack since I couldn’t imagine missing out on Egypt. Fortunately, I went ahead and marked the ones we wanted and gave it to our butler who took care of things. After getting dressed we made our way up to the Britannia Restaurant where we had to go through UK Immigration. It was about the easiest process one could imagine and we both now have another stamp in our passport. We wandered over to the shops since lunch didn’t open until 12:30. We also went outside since it was a balmy 59 degrees out. It was a gorgeous day. We ran into Barbara and Jane and had a little chat. We then went down and had a very nice and relaxed lunch. We went back up to the room so that Mom could put a patch on her knee for the pain. We managed to fall asleep for a few minutes and then it was time to go down to the Royal Court for a classical music concert. It was an hour of beautiful music consisting of Vivaldi, Strauss, and Mozart. By this time it was 3:30 pm and time for tea. Today was the first day that we made it to the Queens Grill Lounge for tea. I can honestly say it was better than I had remembered. We had absolutely fabulous sandwiches and of course scones with clotted cream and jam. We each had three cups of Ceylon tea, trying to get some caffeine to keep us awake. We went back to the suite and again took a little nap when our butler arrived with some more wonderful canapés. We had the reception with the Commodore tonight, so we had to get ready at an earlier hour. The sun set at 4:00, so once again it seemed later than it was. Tonight was again formal, so we dressed for the occasion and went down to the Queen’s Room for the cocktail reception. We had the opportunity to meet the Commodore and then were seated in the VIP section (for those with mobility issues). We enjoyed some wonderful champagne and more canapés. We were joined by a couple from the UK who have been on the ship for a number of weeks with the Caribbean trip and are now sailing home. We had a prime seat for “people watching” and this is certainly a great trip for it. By 7:45 it was time to dine. We made our way up to the dining room where we were escorted to dinner by Osman, the Maitre D. We had pre-ordered the steamed lobster, which was phenomenal. Mom started with the escargot and I had the goat cheese soufflé. We both had the Cos salad with blue cheese and bacon followed by the lobster and steamed spinach. We finished the meal with bananas foster which was prepared tableside. Our tablemates Jane and Barbara were also at dinner, so that made for wonderful conversation. As we departed we were met by Osman and Erdal and were given a rose as we left the dining room. We are going to call it an “early” evening since we again lose an hour overnight. We did learn that at about 9:30 tonight we passed 14 miles north of where the Titanic rests at the bottom of the ocean. That really gave us a "goose bump" moment.

Hopefully we will have a better time getting up in the morning. Thank you to everyone who has written comments – it really makes our day!