At Coral Sea

Day 2 October 1^st At Sea (Sunny intervals and 25C)

Up late for us especially as we lost another hour to be 2 hours ahead of BST. Time for a quick swim in the not very warm pool before listening an interesting port presentation on Istanbul. Then a quick coffee before another port presentation on Odessa. Both talks were very interesting and will help us when we go ashore in a few days time.

Today is our Coral wedding (35 years) anniversary so we saved our boarding champagne to drink after lunch and finish off before dinner. Its also our pearl (30^th) anniversary as on that day in 2007 Alan was in St Marys on the island having a naughty lump removed from his thyroid! Now it's five years ago we do not have to declare this on our travel insurance! It is also Pat's 60th birthday so many happies Pat and welcome to free prescriptions and not a lot else!

Walk off champagne around ship and make sure we have explored everywhere on the ship. Then afternoon tea in the ballroom and a swim before our first formal dinner and the show is Vanity Fair in the theatre. We have nice dinner companions and Alan has not been told off too often for eating too fast or talking too often and too loud!

Our cabin – just the right size and very comfortable – plenty of cupboard space

We like Queen Elizabeth, which is very similar to Victoria. Its cabins, theatre, dining room, buffet, and public rooms are up there with the best. However we miss a covered pool and even the open ones just do not have the feel of Celebrity, Queen Mary 2 or even P and O ships.

Royal Court Theatre – could be the best afloat!

Now using Cunard internet which is free for 4 hours ( 2 hours for each of us) as we are now GOLD Cruisers. We had our gold lapel badges delivered to our cabin yesterday – not a lot of gold on them! Needs to be free as it is soooo s l o w!

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