berry22192

Many flights from Rio to the States do not leave until 10 p.m. or so, though we'll probably disembark from Sirena in February 2019 by around 9 a.m. What would be the ideal solution for us: find a qualified Rio tour guide who could pick us up from the ship (with all our luggage) and then deliver us later around 7 p.m. to the airport. Suggestions and advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I've just been looking at an old VHS tape "The Great World Cruise of the QE2." Although the content was copyright in 1989, the 85-minute program appears to be made of the QE2's 1982 80-day World Cruise [which began on 17 January from NY]. Captain Peter Jackson is shown as the Master and he retired in January 1983. All passengers in the video appear to be on board for the entire 80 days.

If the program was made in 1982, it would have been right before the QE2 was requisitioned by the British government [in May of 1982] for use in the Falklands War--and may explain why the program was not published right away. The tape does include scenes on the bridge and engine room and scenes of Miami, Martinique, Barbados, Salvador, Rio, Cape Town, Mauritius, Kandy [sri Lanka], Taj Mahal, Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Bankok, Hong Kong, Korea, Tokyo, Honolulu, Acapulco, Panama Canal, Cartagena and Curacoa.

For those planning trips on the QE2, or for the just plain QE2 aficionados, I recommend you try and view this tape - it is how the Lady was 24 years ago and 12 years before her 1994 refit.

I should warn you however that the commentary on the video is atrocious: so bad that it is laughable. [Why do some cameramen believe that just because they can do one thing well, they also have the ability to write and narrate well?]

I found my copy of the tape [a Doug Jones Travelog] on an on-line auction site.

Chris