Wednesday - January 26, 2005
Life at Sea, Part Five: A Day in the Life
It is quite a task to have to entertain about 1800 people with varying interests for 108 days straight. But from 7:30 in the morning until about 1 am, the Cruise Director and his staff do an incredible job of organizing about 50 different activities and entertainments every day and evening. As Mike likes to say, we have nothing to do and not enough time to do it in!
You might wonder what the hell one does with oneself for 2 to 5 days at sea at a time. How does one keep from going stir crazy? Actually, it is not really all that difficult. We have found that we have fallen into a routine that guides our days at sea. Before we know it, one day is over and we are looking forward to the next.
A typical day starts with us getting up around 8:30 am. (Strangely enough, it is almost always Mike who is awake and up first. Yes, the same Mike who normally goes to bed around 3 to 4 am at home and leaps out of bed around the crack of noon.) One reads the newspaper that came under the door during the night while the other one showers, then we are off to breakfast at the Lido Grill. We could have breakfast in our dining room, but it seems too formal to me and we always get more food than we really want. So the buffet at the Lido, with it huge windows looking out to the water, suits us. One can have anything from waffles and omelets made to order to oatmeal or beans on toast (remember, this is a British ship), but we usually limit ourselves to fresh fruit, toast, juice, and tea and coffee. (A lot of people order breakfast to their cabins, but we prefer to get up and out.)
At 10, there is usually a lecture we want to hear or a presentation on an upcoming port. Then I might have a manicure booked, or there's a cooking class I want to attend, or maybe a fitness class. Noon is time for the Trivia quiz where we team up with four other people against about a dozen other teams - we are the Dolphins! That runs until about 12:30 in the Golden Lion Pub, and then we might stick around to hear the jazz session with the QE2 Allstars, a subset of musicians from the two bands that play on board each night. Wow, where has the morning gone!
Now its time for lunch, so back we go to the Lido for a sandwich made to order, a really tasty pasta, or a bit of grilled fish and salad. The afternoon might include another lecture, or maybe a painting class or some time practicing my Italian, a wine or whiskey tasting seminar, or a trip to the thalosso therapy pool. Then, by gosh, its tea time for most of the ship, but we have only indulged in that twice so far. Instead, we have been putting on our sneakers and trying to walk 5 laps around the deck, which is just over a mile.
By now, it is almost 5:30 pm and that means it's a good time to try to grab a washer in the laundry room while the early crowd gets ready for dinner. Or a good time to get that deck chair in the sun to read for an hour before sunset. Or to get into the outdoor pool or one of the hot tubs. And before you know it, it's time to get showered and dressed for a wonderful dinner in our Princess Grill dining room. Here, we have the opportunity to order 5 different courses, and some people do, but we're trying to show some restraint on this long haul, so we usually have a starter, a main course, and a dessert. We have now been on the ship for almost a month, and I have yet to see the same menu twice. The variety is endless and the quality is consistently excellent.
After dinner, we head out onto the deck for some fresh air, maybe have an after dinner drink in one of the lounges as we listen to a pianist or harpist, or go to a classical concert by a guest artist. Then the late evening show in the Grand Lounge starts at 10:30 pm. The shows are different every night and they vary in quality. We have seen some excellent acts and we have seen some stinkers, although they have, thankfully, been rare. The revues with the QE2 Singers and Dancers are really very good and are always packed. The other performers range from musicians, to magicians, to singers, to comedians, to local performers from some of the ports. Instead of attending the stage show, we could also just go to the late movie shown in the theatre, but so far we haven't done that.
After the show, we could head for the midnight buffet, but we have yet to darken that door. Normally, we head back to our cabin to look over the daily programme for the next day or to read or we go for a sip of something in a lounge if we haven't had one earlier and feel like it. And then it's lights out cause we need our zzzzzz's if we're going to get up and start all over again the next day!