Day 5 and another sea day. After our usual routine of the gym followed by a buffet breakfast, we went up to the sun deck near to the ‘adults only’ pool for a spot of sunbathing and reading. A dip in the pool was very refreshing as they haven’t quite warmed up yet but, with plenty of sunny weather forecast, we’re hoping they’re going to get more and more pleasant.

Today we actually skipped lunch – although this was because I had booked the Eric Lanlard Afternoon Tea for us all in the Epicurian specialty restaurant. This is only served on sea days and there is only one sitting at 3:30pm. The cost is £15pp and it was well worth it as an indulgent treat. We each enjoyed a selection of 3 different types of savoury bites followed by 4 sweet options and 2 scones each. This was accompanied by a choice of a range of Teapigs teas. I went for ‘Chocolate Flake’ and ‘Up Beet’. Both were very flavoursome and enjoyable but the chocolate flake was my favourite and I’ll be looking out for it when I go shopping at home. All of the food was delicious but if I absolutely had to choose a favourite, the savoury would be the Pancetta & Porcini Éclair which was rich yet light, and the sweet would be the West Indies Dark Chocolate Tart because, y’know, chocolate!

The only slight criticism I would have about the experience is that we had to wait quite a long time for our tea to be brought out. The ladies sat at the table next to ours remarked on this as well.

Feeling absolutely stuffed, we went for a wander around the atrium where there was a sale of purses, watches, flip-flops, bags etc for £10 each and a 5-for-4 offer. MIL stocked up on souvenirs but nothing really took my fancy.

We then headed up to the pool deck to introduce MIL to shuffleboard. She picked it up much quicker than I did when I first started playing and so far, we have all won one game each.

Although it was past 6pm by this point, the sun was still really hot and the shuffleboard court (pitch? board? – If anyone knows the correct terminology, please let me know!) had no shade at all so we headed inside for a drink. Mr FFF was wearing tailored shorts and a polo shirt as the dress code for afternoon tea was casual. We originally went to the Planet bar for a drink but were advised that shorts are not allowed in this venue after 6pm (P&O’s dress code, even on casual nights, requires men to wear long trousers or jeans) but that we could go to the bars on deck 7. So off we went to the Glass House where we played cards for an hour or so until it was time to go to our first theatre show of this cruise. It would seem that Mr FFF’s shorts were ok in the theatre too – he wasn’t turned away by the entertainments staff, who were greeting people at the door, anyway.

We weren’t sure what to expect of the show having experienced (and sometimes suffered through) performances of varying quality on previous cruises. Tonight’s show was performed by the ship’s singers and dancers and had a ‘boogie’ theme. Overall, we felt the show was very good quality. The singing wasn’t the very best I’ve heard but it was still good and the dances, costumes and sets were all excellent. We were also really impressed by the appearance of an acrobat who climbed, dangled from and threw herself around on what looked like flimsy, silk scarves suspended from the ceiling. We will definitely take a look at another show in the theatre later on in the cruise.

After the show, we headed to the buffet for a quick small(ish) dinner before calling it a night as we’ve got a busy day of sightseeing ahead of us in Barcelona tomorrow.

Thanks for reading,

FFF