The first morning on board has to be a full English Breakfast; toast, eggs, bacon, tomato, sausage, hash brown..... yummy! we were almost tempted to finish with a danish pastry with our tea but thought that was a little over the top - we had our waist-lines to consider after all! lol! (although if you'd seen the amount we'd just polished off you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise)
After we finished we went back to the cabin and grabbed our copy of the cruise excursion guides that we'd been given and headed to the Broadway Show lounge for the Port Showcase. On previous cruises we'd have been off ship on the first full day and so we'd have made our choices soley from the descriptions in the guides, and although we already had some idea of which trips we wanted to book on to, as they were available to see and book months ago online, we thought we'd actually go and listen to the excursion team, just in case something cropped up that we hadn't considered before. As it turned out, the showcase didn't sway our choices, but what we were grateful for was not having booked the St Petersburg excursions we originally wanted prior to sailing as it turned out that the 2 we were looking at, clashed. Thankfully, the second day in the city had a trip almost identical to the one which we weren't going to be able to do so it didn't turn out too badly. Being somewhat history mad, architectural mad and basically culture fiends we settled on lots of trips that took in lots of museums, cathedrals, palaces and many walking tours........ again!
We handed in our booking form and headed out to the deck with a cup of tea to be greeted by a warm, sunny day. We took up residence on a couple of chairs and read for an hour or so before going back into the Broadway for a fascinating lecture on Faberge and the Tsar's by the on board guest speaker Mr Robert Ochodnicky. Faberge has to be one of the greatest jewellers of all time (my opinion only), but he was also an engineering genius! (seriously, it's enough to make you jealous). I've grown up hearing stories about the Tsar eggs, their hidden 'gifts' and his eye for detail from my late grandmother - who used many of his smaller designs and reoccurring symbols, such as the lili of the valley flower, as inspiration for some of the chain's of office that she designed whilst working in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter. Her passion for the man behind the masterpieces was contagious and so I was delighted to hear someone, who clearly loves him as much as my grandmother did, speak. The hour long lecture flew by and its end we both felt more enlightened and, in my case, even more obsessed with Faberge and the eggs than we had when we sat down.
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The decision then came whether or not to stay in the show lounge for the afternoon Cabaret, dedicated to Simon and Garfunkel and performed by two of the show team - Daniel and Craig. Why we ever pretend that we aren't going to stay for these performances and ask each other, are you sure? is beyond me! Claire and I love music, love theatre and generally love listing to people sing (well, people who can sing exceptionally well sing, anyway). And so we moved to better seats and sat back to enjoy a pleasant half hour or more listening to the guys perform some absolute classics including, the Boxer, Cecilia and, of course, Bridge over Troubled Water. It was only after this that we thought it might be an idea to find some lunch and we finally headed to the Lido Restaurant for food followed by a spot more reading.
Reading, however, rapidly went out the window as a wall of heat enveloped us as we stepped back out on deck. Not only were we having a calm crossing, we were actually going to be able to get some sunbathing in too! who would have thought it - sunbathing on the north sea! seriously, I'd have looked at you sideways and asked if you'd taken your little pink pills if you'd suggested that to me before I left England. Not that I was about to complain, oh no! Sun is my friend and I was happy to embrace its beautiful rays and soak up some much need Vitamin D. We claimed some sunbeds on deck 7 and took it in turns to run back to the cabin to get changed and lotion up. There is nothing like some sun to make you feel less like a member of the living dead and halfway human again and so we decided to forgo any of our afternoon plans and make the most of the strange orange globe in the sky. We lazed about til gone 5 before making a move back to the cabin to shower and change for dinner and the night ahead and whilst we didn't look any browner, we felt a whole lot healthier!
Dinner was a quieter affair then the night before, but to be honest, it would be difficult to top the musical serenade. Once again, we ate too much, although instead of ordering dessert we asked for a slice of the remaining cake..... only they didn't quite understand that we didn't want to finish the cake, simply eat some of it, and so they cut - what could have easily been enough for 4- into half. The sugar, cream and general excessiveness of the cake would probably have put me into a sugar coma for the rest of the night if we hadn't moved, forcing my metabolism to attempt to break down the glucose overload.
We didn't, however, move very far and from the restaurant we walked upstairs to the show lounge for that nights performance; a Blast of Broadway. This show was very similar to one we had seen on the Destiny in 2010 - although they were all totally different Broadway shows and hit songs. The team were sleek, funny and utterly charming. It was also suitably loud enough that my brain couldn't shut down - there was only way one I could foresee getting over the sugar overload.... time for more wine! lol! It actually works too - now, cocktails would have been a bad plan and anything with a mixer of carbonated drinks is also a no go, but wine - wine is the perfect counterbalance.
As we moved onwards and upwards from the show lounge to High Spirits we stopped off to take a look at the embarkation photos from the day before. It wasn't totally horrific, certainly the best of the 3 to date, but still bad enough that we wouldn't be purchasing it for the collection. A quick giggle at everyone elses photos - it's a must! and we went to find some seats for the night's final act - Spotlight Cabaret.
Much like the night before, the cabaret was half an hour of songs performed by a member of the entertainment team. Monday night was Alistair's turn. He performed a range of songs across a number of musical genres including some of his favourites from Michael Buble, The Script and The Killers. I could be being entirely biased...... what am I saying, I am being entirely biased, but Alistair nailed every song, in some cases he sang a little too well (but that's another story!) - he's got such a versatile singing voice and it was lovely to see him performing again.
His cabaret over and the night still calm and warm, we headed out onto deck to finish our drinks and our night out there. It was such an incredibly clear, dark night - the kind you normally only get in the middle of the countryside in England, but it was so quiet too - nothing but the sound of the waves gently lapping against the side of the ship. It's that kind of calm that you very rarely get to experience in life and always want to take away with you, even though you know you can't! If I could experience nights like that every time I cruised it would be enough, without everything else, to keep me cruising for the rest of my life.
Ok, philosophical smush over.
As we sat enjoying the peace, various members of staff came out for a nightcap before heading down to crew quarters and with them came Alistair, who once again asked if he could join us. As I said, it became a nightly thing - but it took him nearly a week to stop asking. We chatted about his choice of songs, the birthday celebrations that were to take place in the staff mess after curfew and our plans for the following day - our first port of call; Kalundborg, Denmark - transfer for Copenhagen. We talked about what little we had done with our day and told him about our sugar overload episode at dinner and he mentioned that as crew they don't get to eat in the Compass Rose unless invited by visiting friends and family - so we promptly invited him! As the night, or should I say morning, drew closer to 1am we parted company; he to drinking games in the crew bar and us to our beds to be properly rested for the following day.
oh I feel like I was with you keep it coming
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