On Thursday, April 30, we made a resolution to get up early (7am is early even if you are not on a Transatlantic crossing!) so we could have breakfast at 8am and join the fencing class at 9am. There is something wonderfully stylish and timeless about fencing in the ballroom of Cunard’s Queen Victoria.

After the fencing class we went back to the stateroom to shower, and then straight to a Galley Tour, where we inspected the cooking areas. Here are some very interesting statistics we learned:

The catering team is composed of:

• 9 officers

• 10 storekeepers

• 60 bar staff

• 139 chefs

• 70 gallery cleaners

• 188 restaurant staff

• 23 wine staff

On a 14 voyage 90,000 meals are served, and a million pieces of china and glassware are cleaned.

What’s consumed on those meals?

• 70 tons of fruit and vegetables

• 18 tons of meat

• 12 tons of poultry

• 20 tons of fish and seafood

• 30 tons of cheese and dairy

• 3 tons of sugar

• 67,850 pints of milk

• 4,666 dozen eggs

• 8 tons of flour

• 3 tons of rice

• 1,680 pizzas

• 11,200 scones

• 70,000 cups of tea

• 4,000 pints of beer

• 8,750 bottles of beer/cider

• 1,400 bottles of wine

• 530 bottles of champagne

After the interesting galley tour, at 11am, we attended an interview with Commodore Rynd (Commodore of the whole Cunard fleet), with many very interesting questions from the passengers regarding his life, career, ships, and the cruising industry.

The interview was promptly followed by a lecture on airplane hijackings, and the personal experience and role Simon Dinsdale had in the Afghan hijack at Stansted airport in February 2000, with some incredible anecdotes like a passenger being mistakenly identified as a hijacker and how the mistake was discovered 5 days later, or how not only the hijackers never went to jail, but one of them is a security guard at Heathrow airport today!

After the interesting lecture we had a delicious lunch, followed by the movie “The Theory of Everything” in the Royal Court Theater, and the afternoon tea.

Instead of a nap, we decided to walk around the deck, since the temperature was so nice. We walked for over 10 km., and took several pictures of the deck and outdoors swimming pool (where there was actually a man swimming).

At 7pm, before dinner, to wrap up quite an active day, we enjoyed a magic show by Brett Sherwood.