Day 7 Monday 12/1/2015 Drinks and Meal dates with the Captain

We have heard about people getting special invitations to meet the captain, have a drink with him, dine at his table, but thought it was only for the regulars or people who own their own cabin.  Then yesterday we started receiving invitations to have a drink with the captain - tonight - and have lunch with him tomorrow. It would seem that people who are on the world cruise get two lunches with the captain, one at the beginning (this one) and one sometime nearer the end.  And everyone gets a turn to have a drink with him before a gala dinner.  There are 521 of us going right round the world, the poor man is going to be exhausted!

Well here we are doing the long crossing of the Atlantic to St Maarten.  Sea is calm, very little wind,  sun is warming us up daily and people have started wearing shorts, bagging sunbeds and slapping on the SPF. 17C today, 20C promised tomorrow. No sign of sea life, no flying fish, no dolphins or whales, yet.  But the sun shining on the deepest blue sea, and the sky, and the clouds never fail to impress, and are a symbol of an unhurried lifestyle we very soon managed to slip into.  

We were up and about so early today with the clocks going back again last night, so we made outstanding use of the free launderette (it’s been a week!), took an early breakfast and were able to make it to the early morning art class.  Here we did our first human portrait, and then I had a go at a watercolour portrait of Khachik.  (I am posting these into the blog after the cruise

Khachik's left, mine right

In between our gourmet delights we have also squeezed in a cha cha cha lesson, a 4 lap deck walk and a yoga class. The one thing we haven’t done again is the evening cabaret, but tomorrow there’s a jazz/blues singer – a bit more inviting, so we will give that a whirl.

A lovely young man called Ajay looks after our cabin and makes us feel really special. Amongst all the chores he does “turn down” when we are out at dinner. We come back every night to chocolates on the pillows, towels in the shapes of animals and birds, and tonight some interesting gifts from P&O – a carved wooden chess set, all sorts of wine drinking accessories and a box of chocolates.

Finally I don’t think I’ve mentioned that there’s another couple from our home town on the ship, the man Khachik knows from his exercise classes. They are going as far as Sydney then flying back. We have only seen them once, which is not unusual. There are 2000 passengers all together.

Signing off for now. Bye until tomorrow