Evening Entertainment on the Virtual Cruise

The clock is ticking and I needed to to plan our evening activities on my virtual cruise on the Queen Mary 2 to England! Sunday night we will be settling in and Monday night is our Red and Gold Gala. I don't own red clothes, but my table will shine! Last night I hand washed and dried some of my grandmother's wedding crystal! 

In searching for other evening activities, I have a list of cruise movies. This is my list and my choices! When I googled the titles, there is a drop down that shows where you can view different titles.  Most are available for a small cost, some are free, on various services such as Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube or HBO Max. There may even be some titles on your local cable service.  My list of titles new to me, along with old favorites is: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Out to Sea, Like Father, Romance on the High Sea (1948), Shall We Dance?, Royal Wedding, Bon Voyage, Table for Five, and High Seas. 

For my crew, I am recommending Alvin and the Chipmunks- Chip Wrecked and The Parent Trap remake.  Here are some of my crew members on this sunny morning waiting for their school bus. 

Afternoon Tea

Today I finally made it to the grocery store! I am purchasing from my list for the lovely dinners I have planned for my imaginary cruise with author Susan Branch on the Queen Mary 2! (Susan is actually traveling with her husband and about 100 Girlfriends on the real life Queen Mary 2 from New York to Southampton). 

The QM2 offers a traditional and elegant afternoon tea each afternoon from 3:30 to 4:30 where waiters in white gloves serve tea sandwiches, scones and lovely desserts in the Queens Room as part of your ticket price. We definitely don't want to leave out this very special experience from our cruise! 

I have found some great inexpensive trays at Dollar Tree and plan to make a variety of fillings for our crust less sandwiches. With time slipping away from me I will be purchasing scones and pastries. I did score a box of frozen Macaroons at Aldi. 

Me and my little captains will be moving tea time to 11:30 a.m. and enjoying our repast during episodes of Paw Patrol. 

I did discover that Kroger sells trays of tea sandwiches (order 24 hours in advance). However the nearest Kroger is two towns away and that store is not large enough to offer this service.  The Kroger nearest to my daughter's house which is one hour and 45 minutes one way does offer them, but I think it will be easier to just make the sandwiches myself! 

Shipboard Activities

I am gathering items to keep busy aboard my imaginary ship as I pretend to cruise on the Queen Mary 2 to England! I do wish I had started sooner but gosh knows how much more I might have spent if I did! 

I decided I needed a jigsaw puzzle. The one in my head was, of course, the actual Queen Mary 2. And to make it even more interesting, I was hoping that it was a cross section of the ship, sort of like peeking in a dollhouse! We would see the chefs in the kitchen, the lovely lounges and dining rooms, the decks and outdoor areas, the service areas with women getting hair styles and men doing whatever they do. And peeking inside the staterooms with all kinds of vignettes. 

This puzzle does not exist. But wouldn't it have been great? Does anyone know a puzzle maker? Well, too late now. I looked over several with an "English" theme since there was nothing in the "Cruise Ship" theme.  This is what I finally ended up with. 

*UPDATE* - later tonight I just happened to search cruise ship puzzles on Amazon and I think I might have found a puzzle similar to what I was looking for. But it is too late. I am sticking with what I got. Darn. 

I have to be honest about this book I found on Ebay. I plan to read the recipes and look at the lovely photos while i am sipping tea. 

I love "cozy" mysteries and I need to check, I might even have more coming from Ebay. I have never read any of the tv-based Jessica Fletcher books, so I will let you know how it goes. The middle book is more espionage so I will save it for last. I do have a couple other titles by Laura Levine and they are really cute and funny. I am looking forward to this one. 

I have been sick since last Friday with a stomach thing my grandkids were passing around. I finally feel better today, but I am so fair behind on decorating and everything else I planned. I did think I might try to go to the grocery store tomorrow; I was a little dizzy today since I hadn't eaten in a few days and most people will tell you I am dizzy already. But Mr. Merry has it now and also seems to be working on a monster cold. It making me a little nervous. None of the kids has had any respiratory symptoms and he has not left the house or been around anyone in weeks. So I might wait another day, we will see. I think I have enough bread and milk to squeeze out one more day.  

And I haven't made my elaborate grocery list yet either. I don't want to wait until the last minute since SS checks start depositing on Friday. I live in a town small enough that this does cause a rush at the grocery store. My original plan was to do basic shopping this past Sunday and make a run on Thursday to get any special items. I think my theme this week is the more forward the week goes, the more behinder I get.  

Decorating for the Cruise

The joy of being able to help care for your grandchildren is that you are able to share so many things.  This included germs. Now that the older ones have returned to elementary school, we are bring back all the old pre-covid favorites. This past week we have been sharing a stomach virus.  Since Friday, when our snow turned to sunshine and up to 80 degrees - the victim was me. 

This has slowed preparations for the virtual cruise from my living room. 

We did received a few shipments from Amazon and Oriental Trading. 

And here is a banner my third grade grandson is working on for me.