A day in the life at sea

A typical day consists of getting up and going off for breakfast, (if you haven't ordered room service breakfast) then maybe going to a lecture if the subject seems interesting or a class of some sort like the camera club. There is trivia or bingo if you like that sort of thing, check out what's on special around the shops area or watch people learning how to dance or fence in the Queens room, always entertaining. Maybe Take a few strolls around the promanard deck before going up to lunch.  After lunch you may want to sit out on the deck and listen to the band whilst drinking a cold cocktail and contemplate going for a swim or maybe do something a little more vigorous like visit the gym which has a wide range of equipment and right at the front of the boat so you can walk on a machine and gaze out to sea. There are classes to attend to learn how to increase your metabolism or how to burn fat or find out how acupuncture can change your life. Maybe you want to have coffee with the singles club, play bridge or do some needlework & knitting. The choices are endless. There are a couple of activities that always seem to appear on all the voyages we have done but we never knew what they were. They are friends of Dorothy LGBT and another one called friends of Bill W. Now excuse my ignorance but I had no idea that they were to do with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people for the first one and alcoholics for the second one. I was going to attend one of them but don't think I will now!

We also have a highlight at 3.30pm every afternoon and that is high tea. Waiters in white gloves come around in the Queens room carrying trays of cucumber sandwiches, scones, jam & cream and other delightful little morsels to nibble on whilst you sip your cup of tea. Of course you need to dress appropriately for this as you do for any other part of the ship.

You simply cannot walk around in your swimmers or bathrobe in any other part of the ship apart from the pool area and after 6pm it is definitely not appropriate to wear shorts or jeans or sleeveless shirts anywhere on the ship. Informal nights you must wear for gents a dinner jacket but tie is optional and ladies a cocktail dress or stylish separates. Formal nights is dinner jacket, tuxedo or dark suit with tie for gents and cocktail dress or evening dress for ladies. As you can see there is not too much of a difference for ladies or men for that matter. If you want to dress more casually you can go up to the buffet but don't go to any other part of the ship where civilised folk may see you.

After dinner there is always a show and on the QV they have all been very good to excellent. There have been a variety of artists from flute players to comedians to ribbon acrobatics to singers and dancers and more. The other night we had a band called The Rewind Project who played a lot of the Hollies, Moodie Blues and 10cc songs. We thought here we go, another tribute band but no, it turned out that they were actually from all those bands. The singer was the lead singer from 10cc, the Drummer played in the Moodie Blues for 25 years and the keyboard guy was from the Hollies. No wonder they were good. The QV also have music in different areas of the boat, maybe a harpist in the champagne lounge, a pianist in the chart room or maybe a string quartet in the grand lobby area.

There is another site which can be of great entertainment and that is in the laundry room. On this ship they have one on about 4-5 levels with 3 washers & 3 dryers in each one and are free to use. Even the washing powder is free. They are always very busy and can be the cause of major disputes. We witnessed one such dispute when a woman wanted to take out the washing from a finished machine and the owner wasn't around. Another woman highly objected to this (she had nothing to do with said washing) and thought it was extremely rude of the first woman to do such a thing. Heated words were spoken but on this occasion nothing more was done. We have, however, been told stories of more volatile  incidences like when a dispute erupted over whose turn it was to use the dryer. The woman who lost came back a short while later while the victor was out and put some chocolate in the dryer with her clothes. Quite a neat trick I thought. Another was a woman had been ironing for about half an hour when she got in an argument with another woman so second woman pulled all the newly ironed clothes off the hanger and threw them on the floor. The classic one I liked was when a woman's dress was stolen from the laundry and later on she saw the thief wearing said dress! When she confronted her the thief said well prove it then. As the woman had already reported it to security and had photos of it, she had no trouble proving it and thief was ejected from the ship. What fun.

Today we had some excitement and that was pirate training. We are about to sail into pirate waters so we had to have a training exercise in case pirates attacked our ship. It was a major exercise as it involved the United Kingdom Maritme Trade Organisation in Dubai and we have a navy liaison officer onboard as our link to the Coalition Maritme force. At 10am a siren sounded and warnings of security threat came over the loud speakers. Those of us who have Windows or balconies weren't allowed in the cabins, instead we had to line up in the corridors and stay away from our cabin door and those with inside cabins had to stay in there. The engines were revved up to full capacity so we were steaming along at full speed, which is about 24 knots and we took an evasive course of direction away from the Pirates. Headquarters were alerted and our special security force, who are on board just for this pirate sector, were ready for action.

After just seeing the Tom Hanks film Captain Philips, I certainly hope that all these security procedures will work if those nasty little pirates do decide to attack. Whilst we are sailing in these waters the ship will go into stealth mode at night, so all the deck lights will be switched off except important ones, we are not allowed to have our curtains open or outside lights on and the promenade deck will be closed over night to even the crew. They will announce every night for 3 nights that we are in these waters to 'darken ship'. Seems a bit extreme but quite exciting all the same. Almost hope we do see a pirate.