First cruise

[Cruising Ken]

Bon Voyage Grifval5

 

Have a super time, I will be keeping an eye on european port cams for the old girl.

 

Enjoy every moment

 

Ken.

[grifval5]

Many thanks Ken. We will raise a glass to you all!

Sweep, hope to see you on board. Glad you caught up with everything!

 

Must go, I've got a 'boat' to catch !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Grifval

[sweep]

We have had a great cruise. Everything was wonderful and the sun came out. Thanks to everyone for their help and advice before the cruise, it really helped.

 

Grifval, hope you had a good time. We looked out for you but didn't spot anyone called Griff or Val!

 

Sweep

[grifval5]

Hi Sweep,

We had a truly memorable time. We felt we chose the right cruise liner for our first experience at sea. We did try to hear your name, but no luck. I think we were in different restaurants, too. Glad you enjoyed it,

Grifval.

[guernseyguy]

Sweep, Grifval5,

 

Delighted to hear you had a great time on the QE2...her younger sister gets so much of the publicity these days.....care to post a few thoughts on your experience?

 

Peter

[grifval5]

Hi Guernseyguy,

 

Yes, I will be delighted to do that. I will settle down to it just as soon as I have worked my way through my mountain of luggage to unpack. I am still on cloud9 at the moment. The QE2 was so enjoyable, you were right about her. We drank a toast to you all in the Chart Room.

 

grifval5

[Cruising Ken]

Welcome home!:(

[sweep]

We were really pleased with our cabin. :) Some folk on another site had suggested we try to upgrade but we were pleased with our initial choice. Cabin 4171 was narrow with the beds at the port hole end but more spacious than many cabins we've had before. There was masses of storage space. Rushed around booking tours, hair appointments etc. Checked our table in the caronia restaurant. We'd asked for a table for two but weren't really expecting that so were pleased with our table for nine. Found we were on the doctor's table.

 

We hadn't been on the QE2 since 1993 so we weren't too sure what it would be like. However we were delighted with what we found. In 1993 it was just before a major refit and she looked tired but this time she looked great. It was very noisy at night with lots of creaking and swaying but she is getting on. No doubt this is the source of imagined ghostly noises in other threads.;)

 

The food and service were really good and our company at dinner was interesting to chat to. Our cabin steward Pat was excellent. Having an officer at our table meant we had loads of free wine.:cool:

 

The weather was much better than we had anticipated and I was able to spend quite a bit of time sitting in the sun. Thanks for the tip about the sunbeds aft of the funnel, it really was a sun trap and I was generally first there in the morning so had lots of choice. In fact it never got too crowded and there were always beds available. Jimmy Savile was also on this cruise and he could be found on the sun deck most days we were at sea.

 

We took two ship's tours and did our own thing at the other ports of call.

One tour was to Lucca and Pisa. We really liked Lucca but it was far too rushed, we had nowhere near enough time. Pisa was overcommercialised but at least I can now say I've seen it. The other tour was just the ship's transfer to Rome and then we did our own thing. We only had 5 hours though and were back on the ship by 4.30 even though it wasn't due to sail until 10pm. It would have been much better to have given us a couple more hours.

 

Took the advice of someone on these boards and took the hydrofoil from Naples to Sorrento. We really enjoyed this and could do some serious shopping!:)

 

Not many negatives, I'm pleased to say. One was the cost of the tours which were way overpriced. Another was the cost and quality of the ship's photographers. We had fully intended buying a QE2 album and a fair number of photos to put in it. However from the embarkation photo onwards we were disappointed at the fact they took no time to compose the photo. The couple behind us and the couple behind them were in it too! In the end we bought one solitary photo for $24.95 so didn't need to buy the album at all.:(

 

Any advice as to how to recover from post cruise blues? It's back to work on Monday.

 

Sweep

[Cruising Ken]

Only advice I can give is BOOK ANOTHER CRUISE:) :)

[rjms74]

Sweep,

 

Glad to hear you had a good Med cruise on QE2 - friends of mine were also on board and said that Liz Dawn was also on board from Coronation Street (Vera Duckworth). I know Jimmy Saville has been travelling on Cunard ships for decades were both JS & Liz Dawn in the Queens Grill - am just curious - I know that Jimmy Saville is usually in the in the QG Rest also were they both on board as guest lecturers or giving their own show in the Grand Lounge or indeed just as passengers?

 

Having travelled this time last year were there calm seas throughout the trip as this time last year when I was on board we encountered force 9/10 gales and had some very rough weather!?

 

I agree with the previous post, to beat post QE2 blues book another cruise - I am on QM2 in 3 weeks for the Nov w/bound crossing and back on QE2 for 3 weeks next September in 2006.

 

Kind Regards,

 

RJMS74

[sweep]

Glad to hear you had a good Med cruise on QE2 - friends of mine were also on board and said that Liz Dawn was also on board from Coronation Street (Vera Duckworth). I know Jimmy Saville has been travelling on Cunard ships for decades were both JS & Liz Dawn in the Queens Grill - am just curious - I know that Jimmy Saville is usually in the in the QG Rest also were they both on board as guest lecturers or giving their own show in the Grand Lounge or indeed just as passengers?

 

They were on board as passengers but i don't know which restaurant they were in. Have never heard of Vera Duckworth before but she was pointed out to me by other pass and she and JS obviously knew one another.

 

[i[Having travelled this time last year were there calm seas throughout the trip as this time last year when I was on board we encountered force 9/10 gales and had some very rough weather!?[/i]

 

The seas were very calm for this time of year.

 

Haven't got time for another cruise for a while but when we do we might try QM2.

 

Sweep