Monday 29 April

The clocks went back one hour last night so we were awake and raring to go by 6.30. We went for breakfast in the main dining room and so it seemed did the whole ship!

The queue was massive but moved quickly and we found ourselves on a table next to a couple from Wales who we chatted to about cruising and Warner breaks.

Service was extremely slow but we got through in time to go to a line dancing class in the beautiful Queen's Room. Line dancing was fun but not so easy on a slightly rocking ship and with an ageing brain and body!

It was then time for a hot drink in Sir Samuels.  We then explored the ship starting with The Golden Lion pub where we were pleased to see that the menu was the same as 10 years ago in spite of rumours we'd heard about Michel Roux changing the menu.

We had a wander through the buffet - King's Court - with no intention of eating but of course saw lots of tasty morsels and ended up having some lunch.

Then it was choir time. We were handed the lyrics to Any Dream Will Do (as if E didn't know it off by heart already!).  We were told we will be doing a performance later in the week - eek! - so it looks as if there will be daily practice. The leaders were singers from the entertainments team - more subdued than Tom but did some of the same vocal warm ups.

Next on the agenda was more food - afternoon tea in the beautiful Queen's Room.

After a cup of tea and scone it was back to the cabin to get ready for our first gala night - the black and white ball. This was very well adhered to and 99% of passengers had made the effort to comply with the theme.

Caviar!

Dinner included a complimentary glass of bubbly but, again, service was quite slow so we missed the show. After dinner we headed straight to the Queen's Room where we bravely got on the dance floor even though we haven't done ballroom dancing for a long time.

We like to sit at the back if we can. Two advantages: we can drop off without being noticed and we can sneak out early if it's not very good

We went to the late performance of the show 'Be our guest' which was very good. However by now the 'old folks' were tired and went to bed.