Mary wrote: We awoke late at 0900 and the seas were lower, and I felt OK, so we got up for breakfast in the Ballindalloch. I had a fruit platter followed by a tomato and mushroom omelette. We made it to the Neptune Lounge for a tour presentation on St Johns, Sydney and Halifax. The ship is now scheduled to be 8 hours late because of the bad weather, so we need to check our tickets for the St John's shore tour on the first day, as we will arrive too late to do it. I then went to the drama workshop with Susan Deakin, which I enjoyed. Tomorrow, I have to pretend to be Trica, who I was paired with today! I met up with Mel at lunchtime who had done 4 nearly complete walks around the ship . The bow is out of bounds because of the weather. He also met one of the dance host teachers and found a lot of shared interest in telecommunications. We went for lunch in The Palms but they were full and sent us to the Ballindalloch instead. I had a soup and roll followed by a panini with crisps and salad, and then went to the Neptune Lounge for a talk by Emma Neave Web of Ocean Wildlife Encounters called “There She Blows” a guide to watching marine wildlife at sea. Emma was an excellent enthusiastic speaker, and her husband is also on the ship, on deck, watching for wildlife. They have been out on deck despite the terrible weather. I have started my knitting as we'll have an extra day at sea, as we are now 12 hours behind. The captain is going to give a presentation to us tomorrow. We have had our shore tour moved back by a day.
I am writing this in the Oriental Tea Room, which is new since we last sailed on Balmoral. It is very fresh and bright with lots of blue sofas which are very comfortable. The writing is very bad because of the ship's rolling.