Orient Ball / sea day

Monday, March 9, 2009 – in the China Sea
I went to see the doctor again and he charges less for a return visit! How exciting. He gave me different antibiotics and dry cough syrup for $96. But I am feeling much better and I can speak almost non-stop without having to cough!

Did a lot of paperwork and cleaned up the stateroom. Lunch with friends and found out she also went to Katharine Gibbs, his mother is in a nursing home on Walker Road in Dover and they lived in London for 7 years while he was working for Exxon!

I went shopping in the boutique area and received two raffle tickets for a large hamper they would give away later this afternoon. Read my book on the balcony (GLORIOUS!!) and went to the gym and rowed for 30 minutes. Alas, I did not win the hamper of Cunard goodies…

There were many fishing vessels and freights around us all day. And we passed many floating markers and were told these are the ends of the fishing nets and they can be up to 20 miles long!!!

Tonight is the Orient Ball. We attended the formal Captain’s reception in the Queens Room, and enjoyed dinner and an entertainment by the Royal Cunard Dancers and Singers. This was their last performance as they leave the ship in Hong Kong, having been onboard since September. The Queens Room was incredibly decorated. A beautiful gate greeted us and ice carvings and dragons in the air…they put a lot of time and money in to the decorations. They usually have a “group” dance for everyone to learn and then the onboard professional dance hosts perform. Tonight they danced the samba and the sexy costumes on the female dancer is enough to entice anyone to watch!
The orchestra takes over from there and dancing continues until….