Meet and Greet

Tuesday 1^st October

A cruise is a great place for meeting new people. I met a few on my table the first night – and saw Mary from a previous cruise sitting at the next table. Through Cruise Critic (internet group), some of us had arranged to meet at 11am. I turned up at about 11:05 just as one couple was leaving for a concert. We arranged to meet instead at afternoon tea. I waited around in the hope of meeting the other two couples but gave up and must have left just as one couple walked in. (We caught up with them the next day.) I went along to the Solo Travellers Meeting, which is a champagne reception on the first day. Apart from my skirt brushing over a glass of champagne, it went well!

At the dancing class I met up with a few people from previous cruises. It’s amazing how we end up in the same place! Even the professional dancers were the same as on my last cruise – Dan and Olena who taught me how to do the Viennese Waltz. They greeted me with a big hug.

Lunch was crowded, as many activities finished at 1pm and everyone went straight to eat afterwards. The only seat available turned out to be with Linda and Allen (the Cruise Critic couple I’d met earlier). We therefore talked all through lunch and later all through afternoon tea. On later days we managed to meet up with Michelle and John as well, and afternoon tea together became a regular occurrence.

I planned to go to dinner. In fact I was showered and half dressed. Then I made the mistake of lying down and found my head felt so much better! I was in bed at 6pm and I dozed for 3 hours before getting up for room service meal. Was it sea sickness? Well, it was rather choppy but I’ve danced through rougher seas with no ill effects. Was it exhaustion? I don’t know. However, bed seemed by far the best place for me.