Sunday 25 May

Next day, we had breakfast in the main dining room.  We were with two other couples, one on their first cruise and the other couple who had done a few but only with P&O.  This was the same at afternoon tea – we met some from a party of 18 people and they were on their second P&O cruise – as was their previous one.  That was courtesy of the grandparents who paid for them to all go away in May each year.

Late that afternoon we finally met the officer who would unlock our safe.  We had been given the wrong set of instructions and had managed to lock ourselves out.  It was some time before we were able to get it unlocked again!  He was very busy all morning and never showed up as first promised.  We had a stranger knock on our cabin door by mistake who said she was waiting for her safe to be unlocked!  It was very reassuring to be told by our steward that he had no access to it and that the officer we finally met who unlocked it was the only one on the ship who could do that.  He had a work bag full of clusters of labelled keys.  Some were for one safe only while others were for a group of several.

Sunday was our first formal night – a standard black tie evening.  We went to Anderson’s Bar for pre-drinks but it was already busy.  It was also the night of the Captain’s Welcome.  The ship was split into two groups for that – as we dined in the Alexandria Restaurant, we were asked to go to Carmen’s, the dance venue.  The others were hosted in the Crow’s Nest bar.  We got into conversation with an elderly couple there who were yet another example of the enormous brand loyalty which P&O enjoy from many Brits.  They were on cruise number 16 – and had only ever travelled with P&O.

What we’ve also noticed on this cruise is that canapés have disappeared from the P&O scene.  There were none, either in Anderson’s or at the welcome party.

We also got into conversation with the group of 6 on the adjoining table at dinner.  The lady nearest to us said that she had been with Royal Caribbean, but wasn’t overjoyed by the experience.  She had also been on Princess which she seemed to think was OK, so we suggested she might like Celebrity cruises.  The standard of dressing up on this first formal night was very high and I saw at least two cream tuxedos.  As usual there was the one obligatory man in a kilt!  There were even a good number of small children in their ‘Sunday best’!

The main entertainment was a one-hour show from comedian Roy Walker – you know, famous as the compere on Catch Phrayyyyyyyze!  You know “It’s gud, but it’s not right.”  He was enormously entertaining and told joke after joke, apparently without any cue cards or prompts.  He tells us he will be doing a second totally different show later in the week.  To be honest, I would happily go to see the same show again – he was so funny, e.g. “I come from a small Irish village called - Belfast.  We aren’t twinned with anywhere, but we do have a suicide pact with Beirut.”

After the 10.30pm show, we went back to Carmen’s for ballroom dancing and manage a fairly respectable waltz, cha-cha-cha, rumba and rock ‘n’ roll/jive.  After that finished for the night we went to the disco.  Would you believe it – they played ‘Light My Fire’ – after Mum had requested it, of course!