Yesterday morning the Captain warned us that we were heading into a storm, but it was still sunny and lovely at 6 pm so I thought maybe he was wrong. But I was wrong to doubt our Captain. We were awakened in the middle of the night by the rolling and pitching of the ship. It was a lot of movement and we both went back to sleep but at 6:30 were awake for good. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned that we’ve been turning our clocks back an hour every morning. It is supposed to happen at 2 am but I wait until I am awake and then magically give us another hour, so now we were awake at 5:30 am. Mary was worried about getting seasick and headed up to the King’s Court Buffet to get a couple of bagels since eating actually helps with seasickness. It was so early, though, that they only had a few things out for continental breakfast. No bagels but she brought me back a couple of rolls and I ate them both and then went back to sleep until about 8. Then I showered and we went to breakfast. There is a grab bar in the shower and I had to use it a few times, but I managed not to kill myself while showering.

Before breakfast we walked down to the Computer area, called ConneXions, so I could get a planetarium ticket. This ship has a fabulous planetarium theater and three different shows that they run during the cruise. The tickets are handed out at 9 am each morning and the shows are usually sometime in the afternoon. Last time we were on this ship I loved the planetarium shows but you had to get tickets exactly at 9 am or they would be all gone and then there were long lines to get into the show with some people pushing and shoving. I didn’t even have any plans to go to the planetarium this time around, but this morning, experiencing the high swells, I figured most people would be too seasick to go to the show so I might as well give it a shot. I guess I was right because there were plenty of tickets available for all three shows, so I picked the latest one at 2 pm.

The seaswells were 8 to 9 meters, and the tv described the sea as Very Rough and said the winds were gale force. The area near where I got my planetarium ticket was on the 2nd floor and there are big windows there where you can sit and watch the sea. We are on the 5th floor and those 3 floors made a big difference. From our balcony the waves seemed big but not as big as they felt. From the 2nd floor, though, the waves were huge, with big cresting whitecaps. Walking was a bit of a challenge and a couple of times I was lifted off my feet for just a split-second, which I thought was actually kind of fun. Walking up or down stairs was quite difficult – I felt a little like an astronaut as my feet were not always on the ground.

By the time we got to breakfast I realized that I was very hungry and the movement of the ship, combined with my hunger, was making me feel a little bit ill. Mary and I both have seabands which we wear at the beginning of a cruise. They go around your wrists and there is a little button that presses against an acupressure point that combats nausea. They work really well, but are also fairly uncomfortable, and when Mary woke up this morning her right hand was completely swollen from the seaband. She took the seaband off that wrist, and now, 12 hours later, most of the edema is gone, but it was a little freaky and it frightened me a little. (I’m always convinced that something has gone terribly wrong when anything happens to either one of us.) So, this morning, when I began to feel a little odd, I had my seabands on but I knew I needed food quickly. I made my way to the Chef’s Galley, where they had promised me yesterday there would be Greek Yogurt for me. I asked for my specially hidden yogurt and the man behind the counter produced a bowl with about three teaspoons of Greek Yogurt in it. Oh well, at least I got some. It’s funny, because yesterday when I asked for some soy milk and said I just needed a tiny bit for my tea, I was brought a huge glass of soy milk, which I brought back to the room and put in our little refrigerator and then worried in the middle of the night that it must have spilled with all the turbulence. (It did not.)

After breakfast we came back to our room and stood out on the balcony and watched the swells for awhile. There were rainbows in the swells, something I’ve never seen before. I thought about trying to get a picture but was worried I might drop my phone in the water. But the swells were just so amazing that I finally did take a movie, gripping the phone very strongly, and in the movie you can actually see the rainbows. I won’t be able to post it until we are off the ship, but then I will put a link in here.

I’ve only been seasick once, but it wasn’t fun and I’d rather not repeat it. So I was a little worried about reading, which is all I want to do on this crossing. Mary suggested we watch a movie on tv, but I wasn’t really in the mood so I attempted reading and found out I was fine. I read and Mary listened to podcasts until lunchtime. Then we went to lunch and then I went with Mary to the casino and watched her play blackjack until it was time for my planetarium show. (Note from Mary: no $1 tables today, and after about an hour at the $3 dollar tables, I am down six dollars.) I had wondered if they would have new shows since it was seven years ago that we were on this ship, but it was a show that I had already seen, narrated by Tom Hanks. It didn’t matter that I had already seen it. It was just as fabulous as I remembered. We all reclined our seats and then watched as Tom took us on a voyage through the universe. The effect of the planetarium dome really makes you feel like you are in outer space – that along with the rocking of the ship. It also made me very sleepy. The show lasted only 20 minutes and then I went back to the room and collapsed onto my twin bed.

You may recall that I asked our room steward to put our beds together into a King. All the cruise ships I have ever been on have twin beds in the rooms and to turn them into a King they push the beds together, put a mattress topper on top, and use King sheets. Albert did push the two twins together but he didn’t turn them into a King. This irritated me as there is a big crack between the two beds, but Mary prefers it, probably because I woke her up in the middle of the night our last night in London by pinching her. In my defense, I was having a bad dream and thought I was fighting off an attacker. I will admit that it is kind of nice that we each have our own duvet so there is no fighting over the covers. I also asked Albert for one extra bath towel yesterday and his response to that was to take all the bath towels away. In the evening I mentioned that we didn’t seem to have any towels and he said, “Oh yeah, I forgot to give you towels.” Then he did leave towels but only two, so I have decided that two towels will be just fine.

In general, the staff on this ship do not do well with any requests that are out of the ordinary. They are easily thrown and since most of what we do is out of the ordinary, we are constantly throwing them. At meals, for example, we do not always order an appetizer. And, though I have requested non-dairy meals, I will often take a Dairy Digest pill and have a dessert. We have learned, though, that I have to sneak the dairy because the waiters get so alarmed. Last night Mary ordered some sort of souffle for dessert and I wanted to have a bite. I thought I was sneaking it, but the waiter came as I was holding it on my fork and practically shouted, “Madam! You are non-dairy!” He was so worried I’m surprised he didn’t knock the fork out of my hand. I tried to explain that I had pills I could take and I even showed him the pills, but he still seemed quite concerned. They come around with little petits fours after dinner and hold the tray and ask us to choose. Two nights in a row the waiter has asked me to choose and then said, “Madam! You are non-dairy!” so I’m a little confused about why he is asking me to choose, since I’m not allowed to actually eat them.

But I digress. Let’s go back to our stateroom after the planetarium show, when I was so sleepy and ready for a nap. Mary suggested that I nap for 30 minutes and then we go take our walk on the promenade deck. Earlier in the day the swells had been so high that all outdoor areas had been closed but the swells had receded to 5 to 6 meters and the seas were merely Rough, so the promenade deck was open again. I was so sleepy but we went out onto the deck and walked our mile. It took us 37 minutes to walk one mile due to the wind and the swells. I could see why they had closed the decks when the swells were bigger. It seemed like it would not have been that hard to be thrown off the ship. After a walk in the cold wind the best thing to do is to go inside and have a nice cream tea so that is what we did next. Then we went back to the room where I read and Mary listened to podcasts until dinner time. Both last night and tonight were formal nights and we basically traded clothes so the dress I wore tonight, Mary wore last night. Sandra (travel agent extraordinaire) had requested a table for two for us, because we really don’t enjoy being at a table full of people we don’t know and having to make conversation with them every night. We got a table for two – yay! – but it is right next to another table for two, with perhaps two inches between the two tables. Last night there was only a man seated at the table next to us and he talked with us a bit, mainly complaining about the food. He has what Mary calls a “supposed wife” but the wife stayed in the stateroom last night, and tonight we were happy to see that neither the man nor his supposed wife were present so we really got to talk only to each other. We don’t even do that much talking to each other. Last night we were given commerative menus to celebrate the 175th anniversary of Cunard and the menus contained about two and a half pages of the history of Cunard. We were both so happy to have something to read and we each read our menus thoroughly, though we did also discuss them so we’re not entirely unsocial.

For dinner tonight we both ordered Chateaubriande which was described as coming with a mushroom tart. The waiter asked how we would like our meat cooked and we both said medium rare. Last night Mary said medium and I said medium rare and we both got medium rare. Tonight when the dishes came out Mary got a beautiful medium rare chatebriande and I got something very well done that suspiciously resembled and tasted like pot roast. Fortunately, Mary had more meat than she could eat so I ate half of hers. I also surrepticiously ate half of her mushroom tart since I didn’t get one. We knew better than to put a little bit of it on my plate as that would be very alarming to the waiter. I was disappointed in my pot roast masquerading as Chateaubriande, but I will say my vegetables were very delicious. Note from Mary: the actual medium rare Chateaubriande was also very delicious.

Today at the casino there was some sort of promotion where if your first two cards in blackjack contained certain numbers you would get a raffle ticket. Mary got two raffle tickets. The winning ticket(s) will be chosen this evening at 10:15 in the casino so we are going to put our formal wear back on at 10:00ish and head to the casino to see if Mary is a winner. Stay tuned…
Update – we won nada.