Day 3 Sunday 21st October at sea
The weather had changed overnight and at 5.40 am it was chilly and overcast. I could hear praying again from a balcony above us. This morning the sound of the wind and the sea nearly drowned out their chanting.
Breakfast, our walk and some reading
Breakfast was once again in the Oriental restaurant. Our table was chatty and we enjoyed listening to everyone’s stories about cruise experiences.
Our three mile walk was chilly as we walked backwards and forwards around the Promenade Deck. We were fascinated to see crew members painting chairs. Then we realised that they were trying to get rid of the white paint already splashed on the chairs. They were doing this with what look like white spirit.
After our three miles we checked back to our cabin and picked up our books and planned to head up to the Planet Bar to read them. Our room had yet to be cleaned despite the lateness of the morning.
The Planet Bar was very busy as no one wanted to be outside. We sat and read for a while before deciding it was time for lunch.
The health hazard in our cabin
By then our cabin had been cleaned but one of our mugs were still the same as the night before. It was also still tannin stained inside.
I explained the issue to the receptionist. However, the receptionist decided that I was complaining about a ‘dirty mug’. This was clearly not a big deal to him. I was refused a meeting with the hotel manager. I was promised that the ‘dirty mug’ would be logged as an incident.
Back at the cabin a supervisor was waiting outside of the cabin door having had the call about the ‘dirty mug’. It took several attempts to explain to her about what we were actually complaining about. The officer explained that there clearly was a training issue with the new member of staff. She then took away the mugs, the spoons and all our glasses from the cabin.
Upon her return with fresh crockery, we then had yet a longer ‘lecture’ on the importance of training. This ‘lecture’ included a promise of better supervision of staff on this deck.
We noted that nowhere in all these ‘lectures’ was there an apology. I did ask the officer if she was going to change all the other mugs and glasses in our steward’s cabins but she declined to answer.
Lunch in the Peninsular
After all the hassle it was a relief to go for lunch to the Peninsular restaurant. I chose again sharing platter. This time it was for lamb dupazzia. This came without any of the usual additions of chutney, onions etc. It was nevertheless very tasty. A bowl of ice cream rounded off an excellent lunch.
I finished off my second library book and after surfing the films on offer we settled on ‘Oceans Eight’. The small TV up on the unit was difficult to watch from the bed as the viewing angle was wrong. I had the volume up at max but the movie was so quiet as to be almost impossible to hear. Watching the whole movie did make us late getting ready for the first formal evening of the cruise.
Another query about a ‘dirty mug’
Then we had a phone call from yet another supervisor enquiring about our ‘dirty mug’ issue. After a brief conversation she too understood the nature of the complaint was not about a ‘dirty mug’ (doesn’t anyone communicate on Azura?). Her only comment was that that this should not happen and again no apology.
Captain’s Cocktail Party
We arrived at the Captain’s cocktail party at 8.05 pm and we must have missed the first three or four rounds of drinks from all the glasses on the tables in the Blue bar. A glass of red wine was a welcome reminder that we were on holiday.
We chatted to a couple who we had had breakfast with a day or so before. We stood and watched the melee around the bar in front of us. After 8.25 pm when the Captain was speaking the drinks stopped. We were so far back from the Atrium that the proceedings below us were completely out of sight. We gave up and walked back along the ship and went down to dinner.
Marco’s menu for dinner
The menu was a Marco Pierre White special menu. As usual I mixed up his menu with the main menu. I started with goats cheese, then had a sorbet and the beef Wellington.
After dinner, we sat and chatted to Graham Hampsheir outside of the Malabar rather than going to the theatre. Back in a cabin we had yet more forms to fill in. This time it was for the upcoming Peninsular Club lunch.
We even had an early cruise feedback form for our early impressions of the cruise. Needless to say I complained about having all our crockery in the cabin being cleaned in our bathroom rather than being replaced.
The ships clocks went back overnight.
From the Captain’s Log:
At Sea (Noon Posn: 45° 13.6’N, 014° 14.9’W)
Our second sea day began with our speed increasing to 18 knots as we continued on our south westerly course. For the first half of the day conditions remained much the same as the day before. However by noon there was a clear freshening of the winds as they picked up to Force 6 on the Beaufort scale. The combination of the increasing winds and developing Northerly swell resulted in the decision being made to extend Azura’s stabiliser fins at 10:47.
The fins pre-empt the movement of the vessel and change their pitch to compensate for any rolling motion. With the fins deployed Azura proceeded to roll quite gently as she steamed ever further into the North Atlantic.
Weather: Sunny with developing cloud, dry conditions
Temperature: 18°C
Wind: North Easterly, Force 6