13 nights. 312 hours. 18,720 minutes. We sailed from Hamburg to Fort Lauderdale on Cunard’s Queen Victoria in January. We kept busy, even though the weather precluded outside activities. This was our 16th Cunard voyage. We know the ships and the routine. Still, there’s lots of stuff we didn’t manage to fit in.
Here’s a list of 25 activities that hopefully will fit into our next voyage.
Dining:
- Choose the first dinner seating. At home, we have dinner around 6:00 or 7:00 PM. Why wait until 8:30 PM while on vacation? Let’s stick to our familiar routine.
- Dine in the lido restaurant on a theme night. We tend to always dine in the Britannia dining room. I forget the Lido does themes like German night, focusing on regional dishes.
- Dine in an alternative restaurant. We’ve tried the Verandah (steak house) a few times. We haven’t tried the Indian or Italian theme “pop up” restaurants elsewhere on the Lido Deck. Our dining room tablemates told us it was excellent.
- Order room service. We have breakfast delivered daily. What a great way to wake up. There’s a menu in the binder inside the desk drawer. Lots of selections. We’ve never ordered a lunch or dinner to enjoy in our cabin.
Education and Enrichment:
- Attend more lectures. There’s at least one celebrity lecturer, but often there are four featured lecturers. This often includes an astronomer, a historian and perhaps another scientist.
- Learn how my SLR camera works. It’s a service the photo shop offers. It’s in the program. Bring your camera. (In this case, the one I gave my wife for her birthday.) They will teach you how to use it.
- Attend one of the gem lectures. The jewelry shop staff have several talks during the voyage about stones you know (diamonds) and those you don’t (alexandrite).
Exercise and Cardio:
- Spin class. I go twice a week at home. Why am I not keeping up my routine while at sea for 13 nights?
- Take Zumba. There’s a Battle of the Bulge going on between me and the Britannia dining room. Even with daily gym visits, my pants are still getting tight. Maybe more aerobics will help.
- Try fencing. I might regret saying this.
- Jog on deck. It’s been said the Germans bundle up and do it a lot. The British are enthusiastic walkers. You have a headwind in one direction and the wind at your back in the other.
Pampering:
- Massage in the spa. Is there anything more relaxing than a full body massage? I assume they know how to do those deep tissue massages.
- Time in the hydro pool. The spa also has a filed pool resembling a large, four-foot deep hot tub. It’s within the spa section, so it isn’t crowded. It’s indoors. Loungers are nearby.
Entertainment:
- Dance at one of the gala balls. This likely requires sleeping later in the morning. Second seating dinner lets out about 10:00 PM. I’m too pooped to dance. Maybe an afternoon nap will help.
- Get a photo taken. How often are we going to get dressed up when there’s a professional background and professional lighting available?
- Attend the gin tasting. I attended the Scotch tasting. It was great. It looks like the gin tasting features both cocktails and different styles of gin.
- Attend a show. Like the galas, they are late in the evening. However, there’s usually an early performance for first seating diners. I think we’ll try first seating next time.
Touring:
- Take the ship’s tour. It would be great to go “behind the scenes” and see the facilities for about 1,000 crew, the engine room and other hidden sections.
- Take the galley tour. The ship serves 12,000 meals a day. 18,000? How do they do it? Seeing one of the really big kitchens would be eye opening.
- Take the Bermuda land tour. We explored on our own. We took the ferry over to Hamilton and back. I think we wasted a lot of time waiting when we could have been on an organized tour instead.
- Attend a port talk. OK, we’ve been to Bermuda before. It was 25 years ago. It can’t have changed that much. Wrong.
Keeping my mind active:
- Join in pub quizzes. This trip, I swore off quizzes to spend more time enjoying other activities the ship offers. I think I’m going into withdrawal. There’s an urban legend the celebrity speakers join quiz teams, just like us regular people.
- Complete the daily crossword. My wife picks it up every morning. We work together, but always have two or three words that are impossible to figure out.
- Finish the daily library quiz just once. Either my wife or I collect it in the morning. If there are 25 questions, I can get maybe three. One day, I’ll explore the reference section of the library to try and find the other answers.
- Attend a class about my iPhone and iPad. Our phones do more and more. I know less and less about the features. Here’s someone who can teach me.
As you can tell, we are already looking forward to our next voyage.
Cover photo: Queen Victoria at Bermuda, credit Bryce Sanders
Editor’s Notes:
For more information and to book a Queen Victoria sailing, click here https://www.cruisecompete.com/ships/queen_victoria_cruises.html
For more information about Cunard Line and Cunard ships Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria, click here https://www.cruisecompete.com/lines/cunard_cruises.html
To see Bryce’s daily posts from this Queen Victoria voyage, please see his blog link below.
CruiseCompete links you to third-party shore excursion providers, giving you access to higher quality cruise shore excursions at substantially lower prices than the cruise lines … and guaranteed return to your cruise ship!
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Heidi, Editor-In-Chief
