Morning was cold and grey, so spent most of the day inside.
Had our first Trivia of the cruise but did not do too well. In our defence, it was quite hard – who would know the highest mountain in Vietnam, or Pol Pot’s real name. It seems that we have professionals aboard again, as someone knew the answers – looks like the Cunard T shirt is a long way off.
Moved on to the ballroom, where the Line Dancing class was in full swing, with some tights clad, slightly wizened, afficionadas, galloping furiously toward their last roundup.
Zumba came next and we decided to have a go, despite the fact that the instructor turned up dressed in shorts and T shirt, with a towel around his neck.
The class was good but as we were wearing in normal clothing, we dropped out as they moved on to the sweaty stuff. Probably try it again but will wear shorts and my Bjorn Borg sweatband.
Ballroom dancing class was next. The instructor was the same member of the entertainment staff who gave the classes in the first weeks of the last cruise. This time, he had a female partner, rather than the previous, snake hipped, male dancer – perhaps Cunard is becoming less Woke.
Think he is probably Polish and had quite a strong accent, very similar to the meerkat Sergei in the TV advertisement.
We started with the basic Waltz, which we have done many times before – Forward, Side, Close, Backward, Side, Close. The class begins with the men standing on one side of the ballroom and women on the other, with the instructor in the centre, demonstrating the steps – another change, as last time, we were referred to as “Leaders” and “Followers”, rather than “Men” and “Women”.
Each side tries the steps, before joining their partners and attempting to dance together.
That was where the problem began. I am not the most talented dancer but I can remember the rules – the man (leader😂) begins by stepping forward with his left foot, as the woman steps backward with her right. Some teachers emphasise this by saying “the woman is always right”. Unfortunately, my knowledge and leadership authority were called into question, as Lynne insisted and starting by stepping forward with her right foot.
We stayed on to practice the spin turn – no problem here – but decided to take an early lunch and resume tomorrow with the basic cha-cha. I have no idea which foot goes first here, so should not be a problem.
Had dinner in the specialty ($35 surcharge) Indian restaurant with friends we had made on our last cruise. The food was good and (unsurprisingly) the restaurant was empty. The Captain called at our table, to say hello but refused my offer to share an onion bahji.
We returned to our cabin, where there was an invitation to attend a cocktail party tomorrow – seems that our Gold status has benefits and can’t wait to see what riches our forthcoming upgrade to Platinum brings.