Day 74 - At Sea

Day 74 – Tuesday 25^th March 2014 – At Sea

The gym and sauna session was grand this morning and shortly after relaxing with a cup of tea at 10.30, the ship’s hooter started and blasted out every two minutes, as we were into fog, and it is the International signal to let other shipping know, we are about.

We did our final choir rehearsal at 13.00, then led down to the theatre to be given a health and safety briefing before being allowed on stage. 

This time there were only forty of us in the choir, with a lot missing from the ladies section. The theatre was about half full when our choir master, Tommi, made his entrance and began his solo from ‘Les Misearables’, ‘Master of the House’ before we were allowed to sing our parts.  Followed by the full choir singing, ‘Razzle Dazzle’ from the musical ‘Chicago’.  Followed by our problem song ‘Impossible Dream’, and once it was out of the way, we got into ‘Jerusalem’ and unaccompanied by Shane on the piano, sang ‘The Drunken Sailor’.

Grand Staircase

    

Our choir medley went done well and our favourite, a combination of ‘The Rose’ and ‘Moon River’ ended the show.  We did have an encore up our sleeves and again from ‘Les Miserables’, sang ‘Do You Hear the People Sing’.  It was all over and the very kind audience gave us a standing ovation.

We left the stage and assembled at the Grand Lobby staircase for the photo shoot, then into the Golden Lion for an earned Speckled Hen.

It is a formal night and today’s promotion cocktail was not to our liking and we stuck to the rum and coke before going to dinner consisting of snails/salad/lobster/baked Alaska and beautiful.

Chef's Parade

It is the last formal night of this section of the voyage, the Chefs who have been looking after us, leave the galley, to parade around the tables in the Britannia Restaurant, to the clapping and cheering of the guests.

Britannia Restaurant Staircase

They assemble on the Restaurant staircase and Amanda our Entertainments Manager introduces the main participants in the Catering Department.  It is a wonderful scene and a chance for the guests, to thank the real people, who have been supervising our wonderful meals.

It is also the Masquerade Ball tonight, and there are some strange disguises, but we steered clear of those and marched into the Golden Lion for the karaoke.

Not too many takers tonight, but we were royally entertained by Tommi, our choir master and trained Shakespearian actor, and Wayne, once a member of Buzz Fizz.

It was a long day, both varied and enjoyable; very happy when it came to an end, looking forward to a new Chinese port tomorrow.