Queen Mary 2 Finally on Her Way Home

[Solent Richard]

17 hours ago, Cruise NH said:

 

Well I don't know how rigorous it turned out to be.  This was the process that I went through...first you had to inform the pursers office of your request for medical dispensation. 

 

Around noon on the 15th (everyone had to leave on the 16th remember) someone delivered the medical waiver to your cabin for you to fill out.  This waiver released Cunard from any legal obligation should you get sick or injured on the trip home.  It required your signature and the doctors/medical professional's as well.  You had to present yourself to the medical unit between 3-6 that afternoon for evaluation.

 

We went down around 2:40 and it was already packed with people.  I don't remember what time I was actually called in, maybe 5ish or so.  I had to meet with a nurse first.  With her you explained your situation (severe anxiety in my case, I hadn't flown in 30 years) and she bluntly told us what it was going to be like on the ship should we stay.  The nurse flat out told us they couldn't force us to leave.  In the end I agreed to see the doctor, but my impression was that if I said okay, I understand the situation but I want to stay then I would have been allowed to.  Of course I didn't test that.  

 

After another wait I went into see the doctor who again went over the conditions on the ship after Fremantle.  She was actually pretty good in bucking me up for flying and in the end she gave me a  prescription for anti-anxiety medication (and the pills) and I left.

 

When we walked out of her office we saw no one was there.  It was after 6PM and everyone else had been told to leave and they would get a call.  There must have been hundreds more people waiting because I know some people were up in the Royal Court Theater waiting their turn.

 

Were all those people called?  I have no idea, I suspect many of them are the people currently on board.  The medical unit could have been seeing people the next morning but I have no knowledge of that.  It would have been cutting it pretty close.  As it was I didn't get our flight request in until 7pm on the 15th but I had all our flights reserved by noon the next day (16th) and we were off the ship by 3pm.

 

It was a very stressful couple of days!

 

 

 

 

Good morning NH.

 

Thank you for that comprehensive detail which is totally in line with comments made on fb groups  by members also remaining onboard.

[Solent Richard]

2 hours ago, Trevor33 said:

If there are coronavirus cases on board when QM2 arrives on 14th April at Southampton is there a possibility that the ship will be quarantined in Southampton and those on board not able to travel onwards as has been the case with the Princess ships etc. QM2 is not due to go anywhere soon. I understand the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in New York is to be turned into a hospital facility.

I see no reason to quarantine the ship for any length of time.

 

We have procedures already in place similar to the repatriation of Diamond Princess passengers.

 

Their  plane landed at Ministry of Defence base Boscombe Down, near Salisbury,  and passengers were taken by road to Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral for 14 days of quarantine to protect against the spread of the illness should any of them be infected.

Edited April 7, 2020 by Solent Richard

[BklynBoy8]

7 hours ago, Trevor33 said:

 I understand the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in New York is to be turned into a hospital facility.

Yes Trevor33,

Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Redhook has been converted in a Temporary Field Hospital.

 

It's been upgraded from 1000 beds to 1500 beds.

 

Some of the area around the neighborhood is also secured leading to the pier entrance.

 

Yes, it's going to be awhile...

[milamber]

12 hours ago, Trevor33 said:

If there are coronavirus cases on board when QM2 arrives on 14th April at Southampton is there a possibility that the ship will be quarantined in Southampton and those on board not able to travel onwards as has been the case with the Princess ships etc. QM2 is not due to go anywhere soon. I understand the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in New York is to be turned into a hospital facility.

 

By the time she arrives in Southampton they will have been at sea the best part of a month with no one having joined it from anywhere else on the way. There is no possibility whatsoever of the virus being on board.

[Solent Richard]

We are still getting updates via the Cunard fb Group that I administer, the day before yesterday was a 'ship's position' indicating Queen Mary 2 was now in the Northern Hemisphere...

 

 

...and making 24.5 knots.

 

While Deck 8 aft is apparently spotless after considerable maintenance and paint. No real requirement for 'social distancing' either but with so many sun beds for so few passengers...

 

[Roger88]

isnt Queen Marry 2 the biggest cruiser ever made? I was in San Diego about 7 years ago and we were visiting the first Queen Marry at the docks. It was amazing. My wife wanted me to book a cruise in Queen Marry 2 but we couldnt find a good time for it. As far as I know its like one of those classical cruisers. Classy cabins, service and other amenities. I dont expect it to be any fancier than that but still it will be a very memorable cruise. Where can I book it?

[Solent Richard]

2 hours ago, Roger88 said:

isnt Queen Marry 2 the biggest cruiser ever made? I was in San Diego about 7 years ago and we were visiting the first Queen Marry at the docks. It was amazing. My wife wanted me to book a cruise in Queen Marry 2 but we couldnt find a good time for it. As far as I know its like one of those classical cruisers. Classy cabins, service and other amenities. I dont expect it to be any fancier than that but still it will be a very memorable cruise. Where can I book it?

Did you mean Los Angeles Roger?

 

That was where the Queen Mary was when I visited her...

 

 

We even dined on her during a later visit and stay...

 

 

[Guest SilverHengroen]

4 hours ago, Solent Richard said:

We are still getting updates via the Cunard fb Group that I administer, the day before yesterday was a 'ship's position' indicating Queen Mary 2 was now in the Northern Hemisphere...

 

 

...and making 24.5 knots.

 

While Deck 8 aft is apparently spotless after considerable maintenance and paint. No real requirement for 'social distancing' either but with so many sun beds for so few passengers...

 

One thing that sticks out to me is the in cabin display gives QM2's breadth as 131' (3xm) - just about every other source I've seen (including Stephen Payne's book) states ~135' (41.00m) at the waterline  - odd they'd get this wrong on board of all places! 

 

4 hours ago, Roger88 said:

isnt Queen Marry 2 the biggest cruiser ever made? I was in San Diego about 7 years ago and we were visiting the first Queen Marry at the docks. It was amazing. My wife wanted me to book a cruise in Queen Marry 2 but we couldnt find a good time for it. As far as I know its like one of those classical cruisers. Classy cabins, service and other amenities. I dont expect it to be any fancier than that but still it will be a very memorable cruise. Where can I book it?

Queen Mary 2 was the largest passenger ship in the world from 2004-2006, but has since been surpassed many times (I think she's currently something like ~20th if you take whole classes of ships as one position! Sure there's a source for this online somewhere). She is the largest ocean liner (one specific type of passenger ship) still to this day, though.

 

Unfortunately the current situation has left bookings for the whole of this year in doubt. We won't know for certain when her sailings will resume for quite a while yet. Hopefully a firm announcement will be forthcoming when Cunard themselves can be certain. 

Edited April 10, 2020 by SilverHengroen
correction of misunderstanding!

[Host Hattie]

4 minutes ago, SilverHengroen said:

Carnival Cruises (a stablemate of Cunard) have cancelled all sailings out to 1 November,

Do you have a source for this ? The announcement I had seen was only for 2 of their ships, not the whole fleet.

[Guest SilverHengroen]

Just now, Host Hattie said:

Do you have a source for this ? The announcement I had seen was only for 2 of their ships, not the whole fleet.

Was it? My mistake, then! I was going by what I read in the cancellations etc thread on this site. 

[Host Hattie]

This article might help

When are Cruise lines expected to resume service ?

[Guest SilverHengroen]

15 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

This article might help

When are Cruise lines expected to resume service ?

Hopefully as the page is updated things will become clearer, but for now, those dates seem implausibly optimistic to me. There's not even a set date for lifting the UK wide quarantine and ban on nonessential travel as yet! As advice, to @Roger88 I would just say be cautious about initiating any new booking until it's all but certain sailings are going to have resumed by your chosen date. 

[Trevor33]

Seems unusual that cruise lines are still advertising so many cruises for sale that are departing in the not too distant future. Whilst we all have our opinion and judgements about this, one can assume that you could in reality book them and pay your deposit. What happens after who knows?

[bluemarble]

I see a report on facebook that QM2 will be making a stop at Tenerife this evening to disembark guests who reside there. Will be watching for that. If that happens, it should be around 10-11pm local time or so.

Edited April 11, 2020 by bluemarble

[bluemarble]

While watching QM2 approach Tenerife on marinetraffic, I notice there are three TUI Cruises ships in the area. They each have some interesting destinations as reported by AIS.

 

Mein Schiff 1 says "DRIFTING".

Mein Schiff 2 says "DRIFTING FOR ORDERS".

But the best one is Mein Schiff 3 whose destination is "WEWILLBEBACK".

[CorkSerene]

I notice AIDAmira is doing circuits up there as well.

[Pennbank]

On 4/10/2020 at 1:56 PM, Trevor33 said:

Seems unusual that cruise lines are still advertising so many cruises for sale that are departing in the not too distant future. Whilst we all have our opinion and judgements about this, one can assume that you could in reality book them and pay your deposit. What happens after who knows?

They take your deposit, then you have to pay the final payment, they cancel the trip  24hrs before and issue you with a FCC.   Just playing poker with your finances to get cash.

Edited April 11, 2020 by Pennbank

[Trevor33]

Perhaps we should all be booking on the next advertised cruise and when it is cancelled claim a 125% FCC. A risky venture but you could see by keep doing it whether you could get a Q1 two floor duplex for the price of a balcony or such ! Crazy times??

[Pennbank]

4 hours ago, Pennbank said:

They take your deposit, then you have to pay the final payment, they cancel the trip  24hrs before and issue you with a FCC.   Just playing poker with your finances to get cash.

Although Presently Cunard have deleted all possible cruises up to Aug 2020 

[bluemarble]

QM2 back underway now after a short stop offshore Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

 

[Solent Richard]

Ive just been catching up through fb group with my contact onboard.

 

They are making good progress and are off Morocco South West of Casablanca.

 

However, the photograph that had the most significance was from last Thursday evening: the ringing of the Ship's Bell at 8.00 pm to show support for the NHS...

 

 

 

[milamber]

ETA at Southampton is now the 15th according to our friends on board

[Solent Richard]

I've received another update from my friend onboard...

 

"Two Spanish Guest left the ship last night in Tenerife in their own Charter Boat at 11.00.. Captain slowed the ship down so they could jump ship"

 

This was followed by a second...

 

"Then at 1.45am the Captain woke us all up and told us we had had to turn back to Tenerife to enable a seriously ill passenger to be air lifted of the Ship... so another MediVac ".

[bluemarble]

Updated track also showing QM2's later jog back toward Tenerife for the medivac. Hopefully next stop Southampton.

 

[navybankerteacher]

On 4/7/2020 at 5:01 PM, milamber said:

 

By the time she arrives in Southampton they will have been at sea the best part of a month with no one having joined it from anywhere else on the way. There is no possibility whatsoever of the virus being on board.

There is not yet sufficiently clear knowledge to make that claim.  An asymptomatic person could be a carrier.