Feel slightly guilty about today…. Well, not really…. But it does go against the grain of our normal practice…. We didn’t get off the ship! It was a fabulous day here in Zeebrugge: cloudless sky and really warm.
The day started at 730 when there was a knock on our cabin door and the steward arrived with coffee for me and tea and a glass of tomato juice for Bob. On British ships you get tea and coffee making in the room but American ships never have that. I like a drink as soon as I wake up so we get it from room service. We had a quick breakfast in the buffet and then came down onto the aft terrace pool deck and pegged out on the loungers. There was hardly anyone there which was lovely. People always ask us if it gets claustrophobic on a cruise ship “being trapped with all the people”. The answer is no it doesn’t because there are always places on the ship, whether inside or on the open decks where you can go and be totally on your own. There’s a lot of space no matter how many people are aboard.
It was really quite hot. I had put on a t shirt with sleeves and I went and changed it for a camisole style one and doused myself in sunscreen which I didn’t expect to have to do yet. Had a strong 4g signal on deck so I managed to Facetime with Daisy and get all my internet stuff done. We stayed out there, reading, till about 430.
Tonight we went down to the lounge for Elite Status and Suite passengers for the daily free hors d’oevres buffet. Every night between 5 and 7, there is a different spread. We didn’t go last night because it was Nachos and Salsa and I can’t eat that. Tonight it was a jumbo shrimp mountain. Had a nice little plateful – very juicy. Washed down with….. water….. ☹
We had a mooch around the shopping area after that. The centre of the ship is a four storey atrium with glass elevators and lots of shops. Quite a few jewellers. It was all very nice but seemed expensive to me. Dinner was a lot of fun with two ladies – sisters – from Canada and another couple – a brother and a sister – also Canadian, from Winnipeg. The brother and sister were of Hong Kong extraction and a bit of a hoot. They’d travelled quite a bit but revealed that food was never spicey enough for them so they had a bottle of hot sauce along and they liberally doused most of their dishes with that. We enjoyed sharing travelling stories with all of them. Dinner tonight for me was a starter of scallops and shrimp followed by lamb shank (no veg). Bob also had the scallops but then had a pork chop with trimmings followed by two puddings!!!! The absolute dog! He had a cheesecake and a bowl of chocolate ice cream. I bet he won’t have put on any weight tomorrow either.
After dinner we went to the show which was a woman singer. She is apparently one of the regulars on Strictly. Absolutely amazingly powerful voice. She did a great 45 minute show including a stand out performance of “I will always love you” and “Purple Rain”.
Tomorrow night there is a ventriloquist which does not fill me with joy so we might go and see “The Mummy” at the open air cinema instead. Although Bob is keen on the ventriloquist, so maybe we’ll do both. We dock in Le Havre at 730 so looking forward to visiting there and hopefully we can get to Honfleur.  The pictures at the top of this post were of our movie night as we sailed out of Southampton btw.  Too lazy today to even snap the camera!