Day 13-Christmas Day at Sea

Santa arrived on the ship around 5pm on Christmas Eve much to the joy of all the children, young and old, on board.

We went to the Atrium at 7pm for the Christmas carols. The atmosphere was fabulous. All the kids and their families were on the floor of the Atrium and above all the bars were packed and people were leaning over the bannisters, even the stairs were lined with people.

The kids choir started and oh my goodness, they were wonderful. Then the ships crew choir took over and they were extremely good. The little show finished with the Captain reading a Christmas story. If we hadn’t felt Christmassy before, this certainly kick started the Christmas feeling. It was lovely to see so many people enjoying Christmas Eve together.

We went to Sindhu for dinner. Once again it was very good, maybe not quite as good as we remembered from last year, but perhaps we had built it up in our minds or maybe it just wasn’t as good, who knows. But whatever, we enjoyed it.

We had the decided that we wanted to make it to the Headliners Theatre for our one and only visit this trip, but the show didn’t start until 10.15 so we had to find a way of staying awake. Exxile were on at the Lido but their set started at 9.00 so would probably be over by the time we got there, so we decided to go and see Pulse at the Live Lounge again. We had a drink but really, they aren’t very good. Clube Nau on a Sunday afternoon beats them every time.

However it kept us awake long enough to make it to the theatre. We took seats at the back in case we needed to slip out. And to be honest they weren’t that great either. The show was Deck the Halls, so a variety of Christmassy songs with dancing. But we stayed to the end and actually stayed up until well gone 11.00.

We slept well and went to Oriental for breakfast. No queues but we ended up sharing. A treat breakfast with smoked salmon, bacon and poached eggs for Steve and avocado and poached  eggs for me.

We then went to the Excursion Desk as we had decided to change the excursion we had booked for Friday (booked after yet another one was cancelled) as we have to pack and put our cases out by 6pm so we were worried about drying wet gear from the snorkelling before packing. We are now going on a tour of Barbados - very tame by our standards but I’m sure it will be interesting. Helen, the excursion manager, has been brilliant in trying to help us. It certainly isn’t her fault we’ve had so many trip’s cancelled.

We then headed to the  Headliners Theatre for carols and readings with the Captain and crew. The readings were fine but many of the carols were a disaster. The pianist decided to play the alternative versions of 3 of the carols. By the time we got to number 3 absolutely no one knew that version so no singing at all and both the Captain and the Entertainments Manager called a halt after verse 2. The rest weren’t too bad but it was pretty much of a damp squib - a shame really.

We then spent the day chilling, reading on deck in the shade, lunch in Horizon and a bit of time in the cabin. There were a few things going on such as a panto and more carols but we decided to give them a miss.

However we did decide to go to the show which was on at 7.00.  This was The Privateers, a folk rock band, best known for its sea shanties. They were excellent. They did a very slow and very emotive version of Midnight Train to Georgia which we loved, as well as several folk songs and shanties.

Dinner on Christmas Day was all pre-assigned over two sittings. Ours was at 8.30 so after the show we still had a little time to wait. We headed to the bar by the Glass House in the Atrium for a drink and to watch the festive carols. That was another wonderful sight. All of the balconies and the spiral staircase were again lined with people all so beautifully dressed waiting for the carols. It really was quite magical. The carols were lovely and a million miles better than the morning. The resident artists from Headliners were leading the carols but quite a number of people joined in - very enjoyable. And they finished just in time for dinner 😀.

Our table was in the Peninsular and was supposed to be for 6. But by 8.45 only 4 of us had turned up so the waiters went ahead and served us. We had quite a choice of starters and then for mains it was basically turkey, steak, fish or vegetarian. Guess what we had 😂. And then again there was a choice of several puddings or cheese.

The other two on our table were from the cabin next door to us although we hadn’t really spoken before, and were very pleasant. We had a lovely evening. It was just a shame that as we looked round there were quite a few tables where people hadn’t turned up. In particular the table behind us which was set for 8 but only one couple turned up. We asked the staff if they could join us but it seems it was too complicated. Shame.

We had wine on the table with our meal and hadn’t finished it when we left the table so the other couple suggested we took the remainder of the bottle of red which surprise surprise we did. 😂

We sat on our balcony and Steve had another glass and then we headed to bed.