Saturday 10 September 2011

Day Four - 25 December 2010 - Christmas Day at Sea, crossing the Bass Strait

Weather - Cloudy skies 16°, slight to moderate seas, seemed calm!

Don’t believe a word of what they tell you about Bass Strait - it was as calm as a millpond and although it was overcast it was a perfect day at sea!

We again had breakfast in the International Dining Room, as I felt uncomfortable in the Horizon Court Buffet, as people did not appreciate a wheelchair impeding their quest for food.   I must say later in the cruise I got over that, and with the staff assistance it was a doodle.  However silver service in the Dining Room for breakfast is luxurious with the staff around at your beck and call!   The menu was ‘standard’ with 2 specials each day.  The portions were perfect, so for those that wanted to eat and eat The Horizon is the place to go.

At 9am Santa arrived in the Atrium to the thrill of all the kids, small and big!   It did become a somewhat drawn out process, so we didn’t watch for too long.  As Santa has visited Pete before we even boarded (2 new suits and shoes), we did a bit of shopping for diamonds, for me as an early 50 present, but as the prices where way out of our reach, it was window shopping and annoying the assistant by trying on earrings etc that there was no way we could afford to purchase.  We don’t have a spare USD2000! Even if it is 40-50% off! (+ add 60 % to take in tax and currency to that)

We thought we should try the Afternoon Tea, which was very popular and we shared a table with a lovely couple from London.  They were in their late 80’s but certainly didn’t look it!  Actually there is a huge range of ages on board, large family groups, a real mixture.

Christmas night was the first of our formal nights, so everyone.  People were queuing all over the place for formal portraits, so the dining room was nice and quiet.  We booked for 6.20pm to ensure we had a table and did not have to wait.   We did try booking Sabatini’s but the first table available was 9pm, and we do not like eating so late.    It was perfect, and of course we had a bottle of bubbles (Asti Spurmante) with dinner.   Once we had finished we made our way to the Princess Theatre for the Christmas Pantomime - Red Hot Cinders.   What a laugh!!!  Most people appreciated the performance, such is pantomime, but you always get someone who doesn’t approve of the sloppy take-off of Cinderella.   It was actually done very well.  The Princess Theatre has access for the disabled on the second level – it took us a while to work it out!!! (On all the other levels this area was a door to Crew Only Areas!)  Between the main stairwells was a small corridor, which was ramped and then split to go up to both sides as of the upper level.   The back row on each side had three spaces for wheelchairs, with a chair next to each for a caregiver/partner.   The next three rows in front were reserved for those with mobility difficulties.  As this was often ignored the staff eventually put signs on each of the pull out drink tables, saying “Reserved” – but many still did not take any notice!

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