6th January, 2023 – We are on our way!

6th January, 2023

Or should that be ‘on our weigh’? Not only anchors, but more importantly ourselves. Anyhoo, as my late, great Auntie Babs, used to say, I am writing this from our cabin (4146, should you be interested enough to get a deck plan of our home, the Balmoral, for the next two and a half months) having settled in nicely. Nicely is really an understatement, considering the amount of luggage we had (or dunnage in nautical speak, I believe). As mentioned before, the cabins are an example to all designers of hotel bedrooms and bathrooms of how to organise space, in this case relatively limited space. There is an amazing amount of storage – 4 wardrobes, endless drawers and plenty of shelves, so all is now stowed away shipshape and Bristol fashion. Not sure what that means, but it sounds right. Our only problem is trying to remember which wardrobe, drawer or shelf we left anything in or on.

The ship is not the largest with, usually, a mere 1,300 guests and about 850 crew, though this time I believe the former is only about 900. Compared to P&O’s Arcadia (our last cruise) at 3,500 guests, it is much smaller, which is good as it means it is quicker to walk from one end to the other and you get to know people more easily.

We have already met the maitre d’ and the Head Chef who have organised for Val to have an Asian breakfast delivered to our cabin at 0700 every morning. If the first morning was anything to go by, this will be a roaring success as the congee (a kind of Oriental rice porridge) was excellent. Val gave it the thumbs up and we are looking forward to what appears tomorrow.

We spent yesterday boarding, which went very quickly, but then we had to wait for our luggage, which came as we were having dinner. This gave us an opportunity to find our way around the ship. Most importantly we found the table tennis table, which is indoors, which is an improvement on previous voyages where you not only have to battle the roll of the ship, but also sometimes quite a strong breeze. We have already made a few friends who also play, so we are off and running.

As is usual for these types of ships, there is formal dining, cafes, buffets and speciality dining as well as lots of bars. We are down for formal dinner in the Ballindalloch Restaurant at a table for 6. Our fellow diners seem very jolly and one is even Malaysian, though she has lived in the UK since 1968. The food was excellent! And we have found the gym…..

We had a bit of a preview of what is on offer in the theatre with the usual singing and dancing from the resident band and theatre company. Lots of other things to do if you wish from drama to ukulele to Spanish, making your own gin, choir, arts and crafts, games and quizzes as well as bridge and cookery lessons. Or you can settle down with a good book (there is a small library on board too).

7th January, 2023 – Having a Swell Time!!

As Val has mentioned, she did not enjoy the pretty heavy Atlantic sell that we were now heading into, indeed, I believe a force 7 gale, which had the ship rolling about quite dramatically. The Captain has even closed the decks. It certainly looks very dramatic out of the window of our cabin as we are fairly close to the water line. I have tried to capture it on video, but I fear I have not done it justice, so here is a rather smudgy photo…

This did not stop us coming runners up in the table tennis and getting our cabin organised. And there is the blog to do, trips to plan and book, books to read, Yahtzee to play and sleep to catch up on. The latter has been at a bit of a premium as with the ship rolling back and forth and our beds at right angles to the side of the ship, you find yourself sliding first down the bed and then up it again. It will pass…

Poor Val succumbed to the dreaded nausea, though only to the extent that she just felt rather queasy. It’s an odd thing that you can be fine for ages and then you casually glance out of the window and that’s it – groan! I seem largely fine, which is good as we cannot afford to have both of us down and out of action.

I have been busy, runner up in the darts (no one more surprised than me!) and runner up again in the table tennis. Always a bridesmaid, etc….

8th January, 2023 – Confined to Cabin!

Oh dear, just as Val was feeling a bit better, the ship lurched and over she went. It was all very dramatic, though in the end nothing worse than a couple of grazed legs and a sore neck and shoulder, but the doctor has told her to take it easy for the day. This is not Val’s natural state, so it was a matter of keeping ourselves busy with UNO, reading and blogging as well as a bit of sleeping. Still pretty dramatic on the high seas with lots of fairly ancient passengers tottering about more than usual.

Our dinner companions are two other couples, one Welsh, living in Pembrokeshire and the other couple being a retired GP and nurse from Rochester in Kent. I can already give a pretty full account of them from their jobs to offspring, pets, how long they have been married, how they met, where they honeymooned, what they have in their gardens and what cruises they have been on. As ever, the questions coming back the other way seem few and far between, but it is a long cruise and previous experience (is there any other kind?) tells me to wait about a week and then they will ask. We shall see.

Sadly, due to the weather, we will not be on schedule to get to our first stop, Porta Delgado in the Azores, on time, so that has been cancelled. We are still on target for Horta on 10th January, though. The good news is that I won the table tennis!! And I finished my book, which I can recommend, ‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’. The author portrays the world of Hollywood in the ‘50’s and onwards well and the twist at the end is well hidden and satisfyingly convincing. I am now on to a Frederick Forsyth, ‘The Fox’, which in the first few pages is very typical of his usual fare and thus difficult to put down.

9th January, 2023 – A Lot Calmer

Ok, the sun is out, the sky is not quite blue, but it is not grey and it is not raining and we are even allowed out on deck, so everyone seems to have more of a spring in their step. Nothing much else to report. We have played some table tennis and indoor shuffleboard, Val has had some lunch and we will post this tomorrow from Horta.

So, so far, despite the ups and downs, literally, we are having a good time and looking forward to more.