April 26 we woke up quite late, with the wonderful feeling of not having to rush, and enjoyed a nice breakfast buffet at the Lido restaurant.

After breakfast we took a walk around the ship, exploring the different venues, from the card room to the library. It is definitely not a “flashy” ship, with the decor being elegantly subtle and conservative. Perhaps the weakest point, as with so many cruise ships, being the artwork, and the most interesting one being the Cunardia (the first Cunard museum at sea) celebrating 175 years of history.

In the afternoon, while my wife took a nap, I caught up with some newspaper and magazine articles I had saved for the cruise, while enjoying the view of the Atlantic Ocean outside the balcony; then we went to enjoy the famous afternoon tea at the Queen’s room, served by waiters wearing white gloves, with delicious little canapés, sweets, and scones.

After some work (grading papers for my students in the Telemedicine masters degree program at the Open University of Catalonia), we went to have dinner at our private table at the Britannia restaurant, which turned out to be much better than expected.

The day ended with a pretty weak musical performance called String Idols, at the Royal Court Theater.