At sea, en route to Tallinn, Estonia. 7 June 2014, Saturday

Carrying our own jar of Vegemite to breakfast is as good as waving an Australian flag.  We get recognised by other Aussies, while others, such as well-travelled Americans and certainly New Zealanders, react to the distinctive yellow, red and black label.  And so it is on this cruise.  We were advised to put it in the safe in our room, because other Australians might steal it!.

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The menu for extras here (i.e., alcohol, hairdressing and other services not covered by the fare), says “for your convenience, a 15% gratuity will be included in your bill”.

For our convenience??!?!??

This is in addition to the $12 a day per person gratuity charged to your room account, to be settled at the end of the cruise. I much prefer the Australian system of paying workers a proper wage to start with, and including that in the up front price to customers.

That said, we think we’ll still tip our room steward a bit extra at the end – first of all, his name is “Geoffrey”! That’s a good start. And secondly, he’s given pretty good service. Dave was talking to him yesterday, and found that he doesn’t get any full days off! Just afternoons – but he works seven days a week, mornings and evenings, for the nine months of his contract. Then he will have a few months off. The few months (unpaid) holiday at the end wouldn’t be bad, but…….

Today has been an "at sea" day. No port of call until Tallinn tomorrow morning.  So, nothing to do but relax.  For us that took the form of a sleep-in, and an afternoon wine tasting of some wines from Tuscany, which, on the restaurant menus on board Royal Princess, range in price from about$A25 to $A250. 

Combined with some rather good food offerings, it was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

Other passengers were far more energetic, some even going so far as to swim in what we regard as near frigid conditions.  It was funny to see some people on the pool deck wearing bikinis, while others walked around in hoodies and fleece jackets.

While the sun was out, it was quite warm, but when the clouds switch off the sun and the wind came from the North Pole, it's chilly - and that's an understatement.   But I did enjoy a little timeout on the balcony of our room for a while - until it got too hot!! 

Next: the very Olde Worlde town of Tallinn Estonia