Day 8, Sailing toward New York City

Continuing on with Fashion Week events, at 11 am today in the Royal Court Theatre, Zandra Rhodes and Colin McDowell sat on the stage and discussed a variety of related topics from the fashion latest trends, to her meeting the Queen when she was appointed as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, the female equivalent to Knighthood. She described the ceremony where she met the Queen and how she was supposed to follow a strict protocol which included the precise number of steps and the fact that the Queen would ask her two questions before she was expected to move on. She couldn’t remember what the two questions were as she was very nervous.

We went to the King’s Court for lunch where we discovered that it was decorated with ice sculptures and numerous cakes, chocolates and other sweets and delicacies. Once per crossing they prepare what they call a “Chocolate Extravaganza” and today was the day on for this event on this crossing. There were a couple of chocolate fondues with strawberries, pineapples and puff pastries on skewers available for dipping in the liquid chocolate. The amount of delicious treats was overwhelming and was something to see – don’t miss it! The daily program didn’t advertise this event so keep an eye out for it or I am sure if you asked around you would find out which date they have planned.

As mentioned earlier, the QM2 has over 30 musicians onboard. The daily program lists where they are playing throughout the day. We had a special treat during lunchtime today as the Carinthia Lounge had a small ensemble playing Dixieland Jazz music.

The Charity Chart Auction was this afternoon. They auctioned off a specially prepared nautical chart depicting our route across the Atlantic. The chart was fairly large, maybe 3 feet across or so, and since they use electronic charts, this one was prepared for the sole purpose of the auction. It was marked with our course, along with the location of the RMS Titanic and then signed by all the ships watch officers. Before the auction started, I guessed that it would sell for $450, Judy guessed $1000. We should have averaged our numbers as the final price was $800 with only 2 people really in the bidding. There may have been a third person at one point, but it was hard to tell. The bidding opened at $500.

Immediately following the Charity Chart Auction the guest talent show began. A small note in the Daily Program announced that rehearsals for the guest talent show would be this morning at 9:30 with the show being held at 5:00 PM in the Queens Room. This event wasn’t publicized during the Entertainment Directors morning TV show and I didn’t hear it mentioned during any other discussion of future activities, so I was a little curious as to how many people would participate. I thought there would be at least 10, but was surprised to find that only 4 people signed up. Two would be reading poetry (one original), one person played the piano and the other played the harmonica. Everyone was very good, but if I had to pick the best, it would be the piano player.

Tonight was our third and final formal night. There would also be a Roaring Twenties Theme party in the Queens Room starting at 10 pm. Unlike the Black and White Ball, which had a very high participation rate, there were far fewer people wearing clothing with a Roaring Twenties theme. We spotted only a handful of women wearing flapper dresses and I really couldn’t find any men wearing something I would call unique to a Roaring Twenties theme.

Dinner tonight was Steak and Lobster, which was very good. Judy is not a big fan of lobster and ordered the Haddock, but the waiter thought she said that she wanted the Haddock and Lobster. He told her that it was not possible to get the Haddock and Lobster, only the Steak and Lobster. I thought that was a little weird, but Judy told him that she only wanted the Haddock so it wasn’t an issue. I suspect she could have ordered two entrees, Haddock and Steak and Lobster but they probably didn’t want to deal with taking off a steak and putting a haddock onto the same plate.

Toward the end of dinner, the dining room came to life with the Chef’s Parade. It looked much like the old Baked Alaska Parade with the diners waving napkins and the Chefs parading through the dining room with commentary by the Entertainment Director Jo Haley.

We enjoyed a visit by “Bell Boy” of the Cruise Critic forums who stopped by to mention that he has been enjoying my blog for this crossing.

Tonight’s entertainment was the production show by the Royal Cunard Singers and Dancers called “Rhythm of the Night” which was a journey through the sights and sounds of Latin America. Colorful and high energy, the show was delightful and outstanding. As part of the remastering, they installed a huge LED screen on the stage which completely covers the back of stage from left to right and floor to ceiling. They would display various scenes that complimented the show and was quite effective.

After the show we stopped to get our picture taken with the Noon Bell. The Noon Bell is no longer permanently displayed but was rolled out as a photo backdrop. We were in the Grand Lobby a few times and never saw the bell or heard it ring at noon. We asked around and never got a clear answer if the noon bell would make an appearance or if the ringing ceremony was no longer performed, but no one rang the bell on the three days I stopped by the lobby at noon.

Judy completed the shawl shown below that she started August 19^th – see her Ravelry page HERE for more details. It was straight knitting, making it easy to knit in public. This project began in the middle and was knit in the round. To accommodate all the stitches (almost 1,000 on the bind-off round), she ended up buying a second circular needle in Bergen and then two more in Oslo.

Judy will be the Craft Cruise Instructor for the 2018 World Cruise on the Amsterdam.   Her lessons are included as part of the Craft Cruise World Cruise Experience and only available to Craft Cruise Clients.   More details HERE.  I will be the Craft Cruise Host for this cruise

 

Here is a youtube link to Noon Bell Ceremony from another voyage.

 

 

This entry was posted in 2016 Queen Mary 2 Crossing, Sea Day