Our third sea day we transit across the Aegean heading towards Turkey for the next two days. The weather is gorgeous and it feels for the first time like there’s a deck-chair war today. We watch with amusement as people circle their chosen chair, check the sun’s direction and then pounce, marking their territory with as many towels as they can carry, clips, handbags, iPads and Kindles. We also watch some stupid person drag their chair right across the passageway on deck ten where the door opens, obvious to the chaos they have caused.
After lunch the wonderful Cruise Director Joe performs a new to us set poolside, it’s all about connections eg Genesis then Sting, Commodores then Lionel Richie etc. Great stuff. Quite late in the afternoon we are told our port tomorrow is changed because of bad weather, winds too strong to reliably anchor and tender.
Later we are dressed for our last formal dinner, stop for a photo-call on the staircase before heading to MDR, which is exceptionally busy tonight, clearly everyone wants to dress properly and join in the spectacle.
We start with hamachi, tuna and crab salad which is lovely, it doesn’t need the granite. Next is salsify and truffle veloute which is delightful. Confit duck spring roll and pork belly is gorgeous, it could easily be a main course on a different day. The pear and rosemary sorbet is an inspired combination which just works. The boring beef main is complimented by halibut, except it tastes and feels more like cod, but either way it is very good and the “Viennoise” style is to be recommended. Pudding consists of an assiette of tastes – the raspberries and macaron are lovely but the opera cake is spongy and has an unfortunate artificial texture.
The show is a new one, and it’s introduced by the company’s head of entertainment Handré who is onboard for a couple of weeks whilst the new company and shows are being staged. This one is all about skyscapes, so Chicago and Sinatra, Manhattan and Joel, Rio and Jobim, London and Elton etc. It’s a very nice collection, entitled Skyline.
