And the news just gets better....

Our phone in the stateroom rang this morning just after nine o'clock and Arnold answered. The voice at the other end said that it was Joanne from the future cruise desk calling. Thinking that it was our friend Joanne putting on a phony accent and having a joke at our expense, he went along with it as she explained that our guaranteed stateroom had been allocated and we would have a mini-suite to Brisbane!!!  After listening for  while, I heard him say, 'yes, and this is the city morgue too!'

Embarrassment followed when he finally realised that it was a ‘real’ Canadian accent and was the 'real' Joanne from future cruises ..... as you can imagine .. we have been smiling and doing the happy dance all morning. Since it will be our only chance to experience life in a mini-suite, I think we may spend the complete 40 hours enjoying the facilities of the cabin ... it has a full sized bath (and you may remember from my exploits in Paris how much I love a bath) and of course, we will have the complimentary mini-bar to deal with!!

Arnold and Garry have a tradition of looking in each port for hats to wear to dinner, however because we have five sea days in a row, obviously they haven't been able to find any new ones. Inspired by the cooking demonstration,  they asked our junior waiter if it was possible to get a couple of chefs hat - which were immediately supplied by the chefs in the kitchen. We had received a couple of Princess chef’s jackets on the Ultimate ship’s tour, so they wore the hats and jackets to the dining room.

Raspberry Creme Brulee from the cooking demonstration - love the plate garnished with jelly..

The looks on the faces of the Maitre’d Rui, our head waiter, Maurizio, and the other passengers was priceless as they walked through the dining room to our table in full regalia. Slipping easily into their roles, they even stopped at other tables giving recommendations from the menu. As they left, they received many ‘compliments to the chefs’ about the evening meal which they graciously accepted and smiled. Garry even had one lady convinced that they were short staffed in the kitchen so they were asked to help out with the cooking for the evening!! 

Happy days...... cheers.