Day 14 Cornerbrook, Newfoundland - not…….

Day 14 we were to dock at Cornerbrook, Newfoundland but the evening before………..

"This is your Captain speaking from the Bridge",

 announced that the port authorities at Cornerbrook were not allowing any ships to dock because of the 70 knot winds that were expected.  There is a large weather system developing around Quebec and moving in a north-east direction that we would collide with if we stayed on our current course. So, no Newfoundland for us.

This was a disappointment but it is what it is, and we made the most of our additional day at sea.  I might add here that out of our 83 day cruise, we only have 12 days at sea.  That is not many so any extra days at sea, that we always enjoy, are gratefully accepted.

My friend Jane asked "how do you fill in a day at sea".  Basically, for us, it is to go from meal to meal to yet another meal!  Regardless of what day it is we rise at 6am to the sound of the doorbell ringing as our butler delivers us our pot of French press coffee.  The ships newsletter arrives with the coffee so we discuss and highlight the events we want to do for the day.  After digesting the coffee we head to the gym for around half an hour exercise (that is the amount of time we allowed on the machines).  Then it's back to the suite for a change of clothes and breakfast.  The majority of time breakfast is in Compass Rose - that main restaurant - that is "a la carte".  The other breakfast venue choices are buffet, that I am not a great fan of.

After our late breakfast we head to the Constellation theatre to listen to today's speaker  We have been fortunate enough to have on board Judge Michael Bishay who has given us insight into various court cases that he has overseen.  He is very entertaining with a lot of audience participation.

Once the lecture is over it is time to head to lunch in either La Veranda or Compass Rose.  Today it was La Veranda for a supposedly "Light lunch".  As I mentioned, I dislike buffet because you almost always add way too much to your plate and my light lunch turned out to be quite the meal!

Time to head back to the suite for a few hours of rest.  I visited the library and picked up a good book so my rest time was spent reading on the verandah. It is quite a warm sunny day and I did doze for a little while.  

Around 4pm we head downstairs to the Horizon Lounge for afternoon tea.  We always looked forward to this on our last cruise and it doesn't disappoint on this cruise.  There is  a variety of sweet and savoury that is hard to resist but restraint is needed. You are not restricted to drinking tea as I see a lot of G & T's being delivered to the tables. There is a musician strumming a guitar softly in the background so the ambience is very relaxing.

We only have enough time after afternoon tea to come back to the suite and change for the evenings entertainment in the theatre.  Tonight we were entertained by a very talented pianist who combined humour with her music.  I wish I could think of her name…..

Our dinner reservation at one of the speciality restaurants - Prime 7 - is not for another hour so we head to the Mariner Bar to enjoy a pre-dinner cocktails.  Margherita for me and Aperol for Philip.  We like to sit at the bar where you can chat with the barmen and tonight one of the barmen was working his way along the length of the bar taking photos. 

Prime 7 restaurant is always a treat.  The menu doesn't change very much from year to year, and their specialty is their steaks.  Of course the menu has many other choices but I couldn't resist the Turf and Surf that is a small fillet steak topped with lobster.  The essential butter sauce for the lobster and bearnaise for the steak is included on the plate.  Philip chose the Strip Loin with a couple of interesting sides.  Both our steaks were cooked to perfection.  The lobster shell is only for presentation as the waiter removes the meat from the shell for you.  Heaven forbid you doing that yourself 😂

It was around 9.30 pm when we arrived back at our suite with a reminder on our turned down bed that we had to move our clocks forward one hour.  As tomorrow and the next are days at sea, we weren't too perturbed.