Monte Carlo

Monday 10th

We woke about 10am and had a leisurely breakfast and got ready. The sky was overcast and it was not very warm. It was also a little choppy. When we went to the Queen’s Room for a tender ticket we were told that it would be about an hour and a quarter’s wait for the tender. The situation was rather tricky. The crew had to keep brushing water off the deck. Also the waves made boarding difficult. In the end it was about 1½ hours before our group was called and we waited downstairs for another half hour while two tender loads disembarked. Boarding was slow. Each person had to wait during several waves until the relative heights of the ship and the tender were just right. There must have only been about 30 people on each tender. There were loads of empty spaces. I’m not sure what safety precaution had them sending off the tenders only quarter full.

We did not have long in Monte Carlo. First we had to find our way out of the port. We followed a line of people but soon discovered they were boarding a HAL ship that was docked at the quay! However, that brought us to an information desk and a friendly woman marked on a map exactly where we needed to go. Between the two of us, we managed to follow the map to a supermarket for wine and vodka. That was quite simple. (Those who don't associate David with maps, look at the second photo where he is waving a map over his shoulder.)

Next we found a bar and sat in it with a bottle of wine and a bottle of water and enjoyed the ambience. 

Unfortunately that bar did not have wifi. We wanted to check in on Facebook. How could we miss out on a special place such as Monte Carlo? We found another bar on the way back to the ship and David forced himself to have another glass of wine just so we could use the wifi. Such sacrifice!

The last tender was at 4:30 but we managed to get to the quay by 4pm and were the last ones on a tender that was waiting. It was so good to have no queues! However, the tender was absolutely packed.

Dinner that night was formal again. David wore his black Armani suit, along with a scarf (you can see the scarf on the bed). Although he had no shirt or tie, the waiters accepted it as being acceptable according to the dress code. After all, they could not see if there was a shirt or tie underneath the mandarin collar and the scarf. (We took the photo on time release, putting my camera on a cupboard shelf. This photo also shows how much space we had in our stateroom.)

The show that night was Dance Passion – probably the best show of the cruise. Afterwards we went dancing. The later part of the evening was rather spoilt for me by a few young children who were allowed to dance all around the floor. I thought it was so dangerous! Only two couples were prepared to get up for the Viennese Waltz because of the fear that the children might dart into the line of dance and cause an accident. Eventually Cordelia found the parents to speak to them, and the children were corralled into one corner of the ballroom floor near the band - but one of them darted over to the next corner during a fast quickstep. This continued until one couple actually bumped into a child while dancing. The parents then controlled them more closely but they still stayed until after 11:30pm.