Day 2 - At Sea

Our first whole day at sea allowed us to spend some quality time getting to know our ship.  A continental breakfast of pastries, toast, cheese, ham, muesli and fruit juice was delivered to the cabin around 0830. Breakfast to the cabin can be arranged for any day by placing your order outside the cabin door the night before.

 

After breakfast, we were somewhat surprised by the mild temperatures and it was actually possible to spend a few hours on the balcony enjoying some late summer sun.  On the journey to Ponta Delgada, our balcony is south facing meaning we get sun for most of the day.

 

Towards lunchtime, we took the opportunity to visit Deck 17 and 'The Reef' children's club.  There is an outside Adventure Zone with water features, children's climbing frame and slide , and some other toys.  The area is secure but unsupervised and it is the responsibility of the parents to look after their children at all times.  We sat in the adjacent seating area whilst our daughter made use of the facilities.    Inside the club, the activities are supervised and parents leave their children in the care of the qualified staff.  There are four specific zones for different age groups and a nursery for under 2s.  Whilst we appreciate the excellent facilities, our daughter is just a little too young to be left alone and so we'll likely spend our leisure time split between the Adventure Zone and the outdoor pools.

 

Later in the day, Britannia headed further into the Atlantic Ocean and as evening approached, we were approximately half-way between Southampton and our first port of call, Ponta Delgada, where we will arrive at 1300 on Monday.

 

Dinner was in the Peninsular restaurant on Deck 6 mid-ships.  This is the main restaurant for 'Freedom' Dining which we'd opted for at the time of booking.  This allows us to dine at any time between 1830 and 2100.  The other main dining option is 'Club' Dining which offers a more traditional form of dining with allocated tables, sitting next to the same fellow passengers, at the same time each evening. On previous cruises, we never have felt like being constrained to a particular time for dining, and this is even more so the case now with a small child.  For the main course, we both opted for grilled salmon with Hollandaise sauce.  Unfortunately, the salmon was slightly over cooked and the sauce was a little lacking in flavour. But apart from that, the meal was well presented and the service was excellent.

 

Tomorrow, it's another full day at sea and temperatures should become a little warmer as move to more southerly latitudes, and further towards the Azores.