Day 13 Panama & Carribean Cruise

Day 13 At Sea

Only two more days on this wonderful ship; we slept late and trawled through the buffet for breakfast – on sea days the buffets can get quite busy, don’t these people know I’m hungry?

After breakfast we took a few turns around the deck, winds were up to force 4 (14 knots) and the temperature was down in the seventies. We headed indoors and Sandra did some trinket shopping at the onboard shops (coffee mugs 2 for 1, woo hoo!).

Dozed for a bit (we are on vacation after all), had lunch then headed to the Spa – ah what a life! By now I have my spa routine down; 10 minutes in the herbal hot room (apparently this detoxifies you, I think that’s a load of **** - it’s just a nice warm room), 10 minutes in the really hot aromatherapy steam room (I can’t figure out if this pleasure or pain, but I’m told it’s good for you), 10 minutes in the Finnish dry sauna (this is the one that smells of Cedar) then off to the indoor aqua therapy pool.

The pool was quite busy with about 8 people in it, mostly older men – around these guys I feel quite young and slim (hard to believe I know). The sea must have turned a bit rougher since we were out on the deck because the water in the pool was being sloshed from one end to the other – it was a strange experience. Following the pool I lay in a lounger to dry off and read a bit of my book. I then retired to the relaxation room which is a kind of long glass enclosed conservatory with a line of really comfortable loungers; this is also where those who are getting spa treatments hang out before or after. The one-way glass in this area affords the spa customer privacy from those walking the promenade deck just outside the windows. Here I lay for about an hour and read my book and people watched.

People watching on the QM2 is a fantastic pass-time the previously mentioned deck lounger wars is one great example of what folks get up to. Another is what I call the “cruise ship bragging game”; invariably when strangers meet on cruise ships the first topic of conversation, often even before “where are you from?” and “what do you do?” is “how many cruises have you been on?”. This then flows into a spiral of ever-escalating cruising one-up-man-ship. Mostly I try to avoid conversation with strangers; after all I’m not too keen on conversation with friends – but the next time I am engaged in this fun game I intend to just invent a completely fake story about how I’ve sailed the seven seas since I was a boy, fought off Moby-Dick, accompanied Jonah and showed Ferdinand Magellan the way to go.

After the spa it was time to get dressed for dinner, the final formal night – I’ll be packing my penguin away before the night is out! Tonight we had made reservations for the final of the four deck 7 restaurants; the Chef’s Galley. This is a really small restaurant, sitting maybe 20 people. The idea is that the chef demonstrates the dinner by cooking each course before it is served; the place is small enough that everyone gets a good view and the chef has a microphone headset so you get to hear his explanations. It’s a good concept and they rotate the menu each night to a different food style; for our visit the focus was on Pan Asian. I have to say that this was the worst meal I’ve had on the QM2; I found the hot and sour soup to be bland and the vegetables uncooked, the Korean BBQ beef was practically raw and the Thai green curry was a sad excuse. The fish cake and the cabbage wrap were just OK and the dessert seemed to be a simple scoop of ice cream from the machine in the buffet next door. The previous night it was “steak night” – hopefully it was better. We consoled ourselves with the knowledge that we had booked at the Todd English restaurant for our last night on the ship.

And so it was on to the Grand Masquerade Ball, the final ball of this cruise. We found a table and began the people watching and drinking. The idea of this ball is for everyone to wear some form of elaborate mask – which was a lot of fun. Sandra procured a couple of masks for us from the sales desk at the entryway to the ballroom; mine was a simple Dick Turpin affair ($2) but Sandra’s was a more elaborate half-face feathered and jeweled thingy ($15). The obligatory silly photos were taken – then it was off to the show.


The show tonight was called A Passionata; a high energy singing and dancing extravaganza – very well executed by the resident team. A word of warning to those who plan to attend the shows on cruise ships – get there early if you want a good seat, typically half an hour is required. On the QM2 arriving early was OK because the waitress drink service was excellent.

After the show we found a Christmas tree and took turns taking pictures of each other. Since we did not eat a lot at dinner, a trip through the midnight buffet was an essential stop before turning in for the night.