All Aboard 7th April

Today was embarkation day. Of course, that didn’t happen until the middle of the day. So we started off by eating too much (naturally) at the buffet. Then we tried to walk it off by going for a stroll along the waterfront. We wandered past the trees and volleyball players and back, but didn’t have a lot of energy because we’d eaten too much. So we rested, and finished packing, and checked out just before midday.

Very short taxi ride to the cruise ship terminal, which was staffed by great numbers of people all pointing where we should go. It all ran efficiently and we were on the ship by the time we were meant to be embarking.
A short note on Cunard – it is a company that prides itself on what is essentially a class system. Your privileges depend upon which restaurant you are allocated. When we booked, it was only because the cruise was on special and we got a fairly cheap, basic room because that was all that was available. But a month or two later, when prompted, we put in a bid for a better room and restaurant – like upgrading to business class, they sell them at a discount if they have vacancies or a booking cancels. So we got an upgrade to a swanky Queens Grill room. Which, when we found it, is on the port aft corner of the boat, so our window looks out the stern and the balcony stretches in an L shape around the side of the ship. This also means it’s a fairly large, square room with loads of storage.
In the afternoon we went and explored the ship. This included a kind of accidental lunch, because we stumbled on the buffet. Then came back around the time our bags arrived, so lots of time was spent unpacking and working out what would go in which drawer. When this was done we went down to the desks to book a tour and to queue with a hundred other people to cancel the automatic tips that get added to your account.
This evening we will go to the restaurant for dinner. Standards have dropped in the 22 years since our last Cunard cruise – I am sure that then you needed a jacket for dinner and it was a tuxedo on all sea days. That meant a whole second wardrobe and lots of getting changed. Now you just need a collared shirt most nights and the tuxedo is only required once or twice for ‘gala nights’.
Not much worthy of a photo today. But I’m hurrying to finish this post before we set off. Because then we’re at sea for two days and in Taiwan for two days and I won’t have internet access until we’re back in Japan, as I have a Japanese sim card.
Wel that didn’t work. For some reason, I couldn’t connect the laptop through my phone – I think the cell signal was just too poor. And we don’t have internet access on the ship, because Cunard charge exorbitant prices for that (as they do for alcohol – it is one of the reasons that the base cruises are less expensive). So this will have to wait. Then upstairs for dinner. The courses all look very small, but somehow by the end I have eaten far too much.

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