{"id":552,"date":"2016-08-21T22:00:20","date_gmt":"2016-08-21T22:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karenandjon.co.uk\/blog\/?p=552"},"modified":"2024-09-29T21:13:29","modified_gmt":"2024-09-29T20:13:29","slug":"day-6-sea-day-and-jons-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/?p=552","title":{"rendered":"Day 6: Sea Day and Jon’s Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>4 Minute, 38 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>

Sunday 21st August (Jon’s Birthday!)<\/b><\/h2>\n

Weather:<\/b> Clear
\nSea Conditions:<\/b> pretty flat but quite breezy!<\/p>\n

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Today is Jon’s Birthday – Happy Birthday!! \u00a0Awake about 6am this morning .. and I dived out for coffee again this morning to bring back to the cabin. \u00a0Princess had very kindly informed everyone in the surrounding cabins that someone in our cabin was celebrating their birthday. \u00a0Balloons and a poster had appeared on our door! \u00a0Today was our last sea day before three days of ports.<\/p>\n

[easy-image-collage id=1176]<\/p>\n

We headed down for breakfast and Callum and I both tried out the Omelettes (very good) and Jon the Smoked Salmon Bagel with Scrambled Eggs. \u00a0Back to the cabin to collect jackets and we decided to walk around the Prom Deck. \u00a0It was breezy outside but the sun was out and if it wasn’t for the wind, it would have been quite warm. \u00a0You can walk all the way around the Prom Deck, but you need to climb a set of stairs to go around the bow. \u00a0That was really windy – the rest of the Prom Deck was pretty sheltered in comparison. \u00a0Three laps of the Prom Deck is the equivalent to a mile.<\/p>\n

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[easy-image-collage id=1177]<\/p>\n

Callum once again wanted to join us for the morning Trivia Quiz so we dropped him up at Kids Club for an hour. We listened to Dr Greg Wheeler lecture once again – this time it was on the Argonauts, forty-niners and the Klondike – how gold is formed and the Alaskan Gold Rush. \u00a0Again, all very interesting.<\/p>\n

Next stop, Quiz in the Vista Lounge and Butch and Jane joined us once again. \u00a0Much harder questions and we got 13 out of 20 (winners scored 16).<\/p>\n

We’d missed the table tennis tournament but did make it for the Aviator challenge in the Piazza – fold your own paper airplane then see how far it can fly from the first balcony in the Atrium. \u00a0Callum won a prize for the worst paper airplane … his and Jon’s barely made it over the banister!<\/p>\n

[easy-image-collage id=1178]<\/p>\n

We grabbed a bite to eat once more from the International Cafe. \u00a0I had a salad mix whilst Callum and Jon had a sandwich. \u00a0Afterwards it was kids club for Callum as Jon and I were going wine tasting. \u00a0We’d done them previously on P&O before and there was never more than 10 people taking part. \u00a0This wine tasting was in the Bottocelli Dining Room and they were queuing up the stairs! \u00a0There must have been 150+ people taking part so the wine waiters had their work cut out. \u00a0We were on a table with three other couples. \u00a0One were from the San Bernadino area (chap originally from Trinidad & Tobago), another couple from Yosemite area and another couple kept themselves to themselves. \u00a0Not smiling, not joining in the conversations and they disappeared as soon as they could! \u00a0We tried six wines and three wine waiters talked us through them. \u00a0Two were from Italy and Alejandro from Mexico. \u00a01 sparkling wine, 2 whites and 3 reds. \u00a0The last red we tried was a Chilean number blended from four grape types … and nobody on our table liked even though it was the most expensive at $99 a bottle.<\/p>\n

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Wine tasting complete and we went to pick Callum up from Kids Club. \u00a0We wandered back to the cabin via shuffleboard and table tennis. \u00a0Whilst the boys were in the conservatory playing table tennis, I went out on deck and spotted a couple of whales. \u00a0Not a lot of them … the back of one close to the ship … and saw another couple blowing in the distance.<\/p>\n

[easy-image-collage id=1179]<\/p>\n

Back to the cabin to get ready for dinner. \u00a0Callum wanted to go to the Pizza and Pasta evening with kids club so Jon and I went to the formal night in the Main Dining Room on our own. \u00a0We had to wait about half an hour for a table for two but timings worked well as the Captains Welcome Aboard party was in full swing – sparkling wine and non-alcoholic drinks on offer along with canapes. \u00a0Downstairs in the Piazza you could hardly move for the photo opportunities – champagne fountains and another three photo locations. \u00a0Staircase out of use and the lifts difficult to access as there were photos being taken in front of them. \u00a0First intro the captain made was the Employee of the month – a 2nd plumber, followed by the all the heads of department.<\/p>\n

[easy-image-collage id=1180]<\/p>\n

Buzzer sounded and our table was ready. \u00a0Food was lovely. \u00a0I had smoked duck and Jon the Crab quiche. \u00a0French onion soup followed by Shrimp for Jon and Barrimundi for me. \u00a0Our waitress Fatima, recommended the Chocolate Pudding or the flambeed bananas for dessert. \u00a0I opted for the chocolate whilst Jon went for cheese and biscuits. \u00a0Fatima apologised when she brought he desserts over as she had “accidentally” picked up a flambeed banana pud for us to try. \u00a0Not usually Jon’s thing, but he really liked it.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, we collected Callum from Kids Club and went to watch Jeff Peterson, the Comedian\/Magician in the Vista Lounge (bar area at the back of the ship). \u00a0He was pretty good (Callum even got some of the jokes!) but he was fading fast so back to the cabin as we would have an early start in the morning. \u00a0We were losing another hour (so now 9 hours behind the UK), so no doubt we’d be awake even earlier!<\/p>\n

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Sunday 21st August (Jon’s Birthday!) Weather: Clear Sea Conditions: pretty flat but quite breezy! Today is Jon’s Birthday – Happy Birthday!! \u00a0Awake about 6am this morning .. and I dived out for coffee again this morning to bring back to the cabin. \u00a0Princess had very kindly informed everyone in the surrounding cabins that someone in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[285,292,293],"class_list":["post-552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cruise","tag-grand-princess","tag-jeff-peterson","tag-wine-tasting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=552"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11932,"href":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions\/11932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}