Life Onboard the Queen Victoria

First of all, an apology to Liz. You have been asking for more pictures, so here they are. This has involved 10 emails to Liz with photos attached to go with this. I am trying to send a lot, but this will be a huge job for her. I bought the new Adobe Photoshop Elements 6, but haven't figured out how to move my pictures over yet so have to send the combinations in an odd way.

Liz, Ellen and Ellen's friend Amy are busy this weekend shopping for bridesmaids' dresses for Ellen's wedding. I hope they had good luck today! (Note from Liz: We did!)

Many of you were worried that we would be bored with so many sea days. We love them. There are so many activities going on, it is unbelievable.

As I mentioned earlier, Jeff took fencing lessons. He was shocked at how tiring it is. He really enjoyed it and may continue later in the voyage. Curses! Foiled again! He and Don can now protect Chapel By the Sea if necessary, now that they are both experienced fencers.

I loved my book club, although the book was just OK. It was fun to be discussing a book with women from so many countries. We will discuss it before Sydney because that is the end of the next segment. There were about 25 women in the discussion. We did some discussing with the whole group and some in small groups of neighboring women. Our next book is Relentless by Simon Kernick.
The pub serves lunch each day. They have a set menu and one special each day. No charge for the food, just the beer or Guinness. The pictures were taken when the pub first opened. Usually it is full. The first time we went we asked the difference between the Cottage Pie and the Steak and Mushroom pie. We had an Irish girl as our server. She came back and said that the Cottage Pie was ground meat with mashed potatoes on top and the Steak Pie had pasta on top. We couldn't figure that one out, but I ordered it. When they brought it, it had puff pastry on top and it was delicious. Jeff was sorry he hadn't ordered it.

Here is a steak pie and the special which they called a minute steak sandwich.

The ship is full of flowers and music. Everywhere you look you see flowers. Music will be going on in 3 or 4 places at a time. They also have a lot of guest musicians.

One fun class I took was on how to make Martinis. I went with two of my Cruise Critic friends, Denise and Stirling. We learned and tasted (large tastes!) these recipes: Classic dry martinis, Chocolate Martinis, Appletinis and Ginger Cosmos.

We also celebrated with A Ceremonial Address to the Haggis on Robert Burns Day. The piper led the chef in carrying the haggis. The rest of the ceremony with toasts and dancing followed. This was a huge hit with the passengers.

We get some perks for doing the Full World Cruise. One of them is a special section of the Commodore Club which is a beautiful room in the front of the ship on Deck 10 with a 180 degree view. It is beautiful. A special section is set aside for us that has fruit and rolls etc along with coffee and tea in the morning from 9 to 12. You can also order cappuccinos and lattes for free there. The same drinks are available there in the afternoon along with tea sandwiches and cookies. It is a beautiful place to sit and read etc. There is also a full bar there.

They also had a beautiful Full World Cruisers party. It was fabulous! I have a few pictures, but got distracted. They had great drinks and absolutely wonderful very fancy appetizers including caviar, huge shrimp, sushi, beautiful salmon they sliced for you etc. This was held in the Queens Room which is really a beautiful room.

Today I met for tea with Lesley and Kazzie, two friends from Cruise Critic. Tea is held each day in the Queen's Room between 3:30 and 4:30. It is quite a lovely affair. Sandwiches, desserts (cakes) and scones with cream and jam as well as tea are served. (Note from Liz: I believe the woman below is Kazzie.)

We had a great time with a lot of girl talk and advice giving (my specialty :-) )! They wanted me to show my scone prepared and then Lesley added hers so you could see the before and after. They had to show the American the proper way to do it although the last time there was some discussion whether the cream or jam goes on first.

We stay up late and get up late if you can believe it. The days of me roaming the house at 4 AM are over for the next few months. Today we slept until 8:45. We love the cave! The cabin continues to be perfect for us and we keep it very neat. A place for everything and everything in its place, which is what 13 suitcases drives you to. We feel like we have plenty of room.