Day 61 and 62 Life At Sea

The days are still busy doing nothing! We have got into a habit of getting up late, something we will have to change as we approach USA. We had a lunch booked today. so had breakfast and lunch within an hour! Are we gaining weight? What do you think!! I managed to read for a couple of hours, on a lounger in the sun. George and Roy played dominoes, I think they both missed Barry. Tonight is formal night, and free cocktails. The chef mixed up the menu so tonight was just normal food and tomorrow in the formal menu. The cocktails didn't have any alcohol and tasted more like cordial, oh well they were free so not complaining. The Captain did his usual 5 second talk and made some lame excuse for missing Dublin, its still a sore point amongst the passengers.

We have noticed a few changes since Southampton (heading towards America and with many Americans onboard), however they are very minor. We apparently have a HAPPY HOUR tonight, however nobody knows time or any other details!! Very confusing, we will arrive at the bar and will be told it is all finished!! Its something that has been missing on the cruise so it will be interesting to see what transpires. We had a CC meeting today and a couple we had not met turned up. It seems to have dried up now or maybe we have all met enough friends to keep us going till the end. Who knows!! We will keep having our meeting after each new embarkation. There was a sea plane competition by the pool today...great laugh! Oh I nearly forgot to mention...great excitement today as the Canadian Air force flew a submariner aircraft over the ship 200 feet above sea level along close to the ship. It was part of their coast guard operations. It was a scene out of "Fantasy Island" as all I heard was "the plane, the plane". We have booked a pizza for dinner tonight, and off to bed early as we have an immigration check with USA authority at 7 a.m. Then off to Boston and onto land, yippee.

Day 60 sea day

We had a talk on the Titanic today as we will sail over her tonight! It will be quite eerie as the last 2 nights have been very foggy and still.

We had THE best entertainment on the cruise tonight. The Beatles Tribute band played for 2 hours non stop on the open deck tonight. I think almost every passenger was there and the bar did a roaring trade...I would guess their best takings so far! The theme was White Hot Party so most people wore white. It was brilliant was dancing and singing all the songs...we knew all the words. As I have said before that the entertainment has been the biggest let down and it just proved tonight that people just want to have fun and be entertained. I hope the Cruise staff got that. Those 4 young guys from Liverpool  (remember they missed getting off at Dublin) are so talented.

Around midnight we passed over the final resting place of The Titanic, there was a full moon and fog rolling in over the ship. It was a poignant moment and George and I threw a coin overboard (hope it didn't hit anyone on the lower decks). I seem to remember that being the thing to do at the site.

Anyway another day at sea tomorrow but getting closer to Boston now!! The weather is becoming warmer.

Day 60 continued

What was on offer for dinner FROG LEGS....mmmmmm

Day 60 more pics

Carol and Sandra talking to their families

Day 59 sea day;

Just relaxed today, we  played shuffle board, Had a cocktail with Kim and Maureen from Perth.

The fog horn is blowing every 5 minutes as the weather is like our dinner tonight........ Pea soup

Day 58 Rocking Day at Sea

On our way to Boston! We are crossing the Atlantic Ocean and its rocking and rolling seas now. Its not good being in the cabin as its very rocky there so we spent s lot of time on Deck 5 having coffee. A lovely couple recognised us from our blog, it was Holiday Maker from the CC group. Royma and John from Adelaide have been following our blog since Sydney and they just embarked in Southampton. It was really great to met them and "hello" to their friends also following our blog...glad you are enjoying it too. The photo is of Royma and John having coffee in the Patisserie. I have been feeling a bit woozy with the rocky ship but I find the wrist bands do help....the other day I took 1 travacalm and 1 Avomine and I was out cold for 16 hours so that's not something I want to repeat. We had our first Afternoon Tea experience and it was lovely. Very posh and the food just kept on coming. The staff were very attentive. The decks are deserted as its blustery and cold but we braved the cold and had an ice cream...see pic. Tonight The Beatles band are doing a whole new show,(a bonus for us as they couldn't get off in Dublin).

Day 57 sea day

Well the rumour mill is working overtime regarding our missed port of Dublin!! The Captain said it was due to strong winds but that was a bit difficult to accept as it was quite calm outside. We were supposed to have 15 hours there so everyone is wondering why we could not have "hung around" for a couple of hours to see if the weather improved. The latest theory is that Princess had forgot to book a berth at the dock!! Anyway the hard luck stories are really sad....one couple on their honeymoon, the guy hopped off at Southampton to visit family then was flying to Dublin to catch the ship!!!..another poor lady boarded in Southampton and her sister was meeting her at Dublin with all the luggage...no clothes till Boston so I gave her some clothes to wear till then....we had The Beatles Celebration group who were due to leave us in Dublin...they are still on  hurrah as they are great but they were due at various functions and many many more people are in the same predicament. So our Captain is not a popular man at the moment. There will be no compensation on this missed port as it was due to a "safety" reason. However we are just moving on and not letting it get to us. We now have USA to look forward to. The weather is lousy too but every day should get a little better we hope.

Today we had a game of table tennis, and watched a couple of movies.

Day 56 Dublin Cancelled

Dublin Cancelled

The captain has told us due to safety reasons.

Day 55 sea day

Some photographs of sail away with Paul and Susan, Paul and Kim.

It was very cold and raining today, all day. As we hit the Irish sea the seas became very rough. This morning we noticed the staff had put sick bags around the decks....not a good thing to see. George went out and braved the gale force winds and he was the only person outside. We passed the day reading and taking it easy. Tonight was formal night, again!! Our last formal was only a few days ago so we gave it a miss and George had pizza. I did not bring enough dressy clothes for this amount of formals so rather than buy more I will just skip a few along the way.

Tomorrow we visit Dublin, this should be a good day too. I love listening to the Irish accent.

Day 54 London

First thing this morning was a face to face immigration check: a fiasco with long queues which caused us to be last on the tour bus and late! It seemed a waste of time. It was a one and a half hour drive from Southampton to London, then we had approx 5 hours on our own to explore the sights. It was a bit on the cool side but a nice change for us. This was our first visit to London so we headed off to The London Eye, we passed Big Ben and Hyde Park. The queue there was very long but we bought a Fast Track pass which cost 10 pounds extra but we went straight on basically. The cost for this and a Thames cruise was 72 pounds for both of us. Well worth it. The capsules on the Eye hold 12 people with plenty of space to move around. I still have my height fear but I forced myself as I don't want to regret not doing it. Wow is the appropriate word. It takes around 30 minutes and its an amazing sight. The River Thames ride was good too and we sailed under the London Bridge. The sky was turning blacker by the minute, we just made it back onto land before it rained. London is a busy, noisy and vibrant city. We walked around the sights, saw all the famous streets as on the Monopoly board. It was a very enjoyable day.

The bus ride home took 4 hours.....we struck heavy traffic. However our lovely bus driver made the most of it for us and took us through Windsor. It was a beautiful place and we glimpsed the castle and Royal Ascot.

Sail away was cold and very blustery. We have had 2 very long days so tomorrow's sea day will be relaxing I hope. Lots of new faces onboard, 840 we have heard. The rumour going around was that heading toward USA would bring changes in a lot of onboard things such as food, activities etc. We will be keeping an eye our for this and last night we certainly had more paper info for coming events than when we actually embarked in Sydney.