Day Five of my Review of our P&O cruise abroad the Oriana.

The fifth day aboard P&O's cruise liner the Oriana was spent at sea.

Photo courtesy of jaywood_uk

Having left Ireland the night before we were cruising down through the Bay of Biscay towards our next destination Bilbao, Spain a distance of 545 nautical miles.

As we knew that today was to be spent at sea we decided to have a lie in and went for breakfast in the Conservatory restaurant at 09:15am.

Having checked out the 'horizon' mag the night before Mel and I had chosen different activities to partake in this morning. Mel went off to practice her dancing in Harlequins. First Line dancing followed by a bit of waltzing.

I had surprisingly chosen to do a Digital Photo editing course in the deck 13 Medina room. The course was a little basic but I did learn a few new tricks and short-cuts. It also gave me the chance to play about with photos, a bit of a passion for me as you may have guessed.

After meeting Mel up again with Mel in the Crows nest for a drink we decided to go for a stroll around the deck before going to the formal dining 'Peninsular restaurant' for lunch.

The acclaimed speaker Harvey Mann, famous for being only one of a few people that has been allowed to live with the 700 mountain gorillas in the Virunga mountains of Rwanda gave a talk in the Pacific lounge following lunch.

Maybe the highlight of the day (some may even say the cruise) was also held this afternoon. It was the famous 'Chocoholics Buffet'.

The Oriental resteraunt was transformed into a sea of chocolate. There was huge carved chocolate eagles and Unicorns.

Chocolate fountains with marshmellows and fruit. Every type of chocolate cake imaginable.

Buffet photos are stills from my ipod nano video capture.

The carvings were all done by the head chef and were very exquisitely detailed.

There was also an opportunity to take a look behind the scenes in the ships galley. The galley serves more than 12,000 meals every day. An enormous undertaking in an enormous galley.

After our buffet we took the opportunity to rest beside the pool on deck 11. Oriana heats their pools to a lovely 30 degrees centigrade. You can see the steam rising off it in the mornings.

The evenings meal in the Oriental restaurant was a semi-formal attired venue. This meant a smart shirt and trousers, with jacket for the gentlemen and smart separates or an elegant dress for the ladies. The ship sets dress codes for each evening with attire ranging from smart casual to semi-formal to formal.

Following dinner we decided to go to the Charlie Chaplin Cinema and watch the film 'Avatar' (this time with no interruptions by announcements). A great film.

After the film Mel went to the Harlequin lounge to put her dancing instruction to good use in the 'Hoedown' and I went to the Theatre Royal to watch the comedian Paul Boardman. He was good but he seemed to run out of material before the end of his set and therefore resorted to quick one liner jokes.

We met up again in the Crows Nest for our late evening Mocktails accompanied by live music by the group 'High Life' before retiring to our cabin.

Today we had been at sea all day, but the amount of options for entertainment available had been extensive. There had been lots of other options for things to do around the ship but not enough time to be everywhere at once.

A very good day none the less.

Join us tomorrow as we move onto Bilbao in Spain.