My return to Cunard, QM2, July 1-8, 2022

[LibraryLaura]

Hope you have a lovely time. We're on just after, and so excited.

[Oahucruiser]

We took our family on this same cruise a few years ago and loved it.  In Boston, on the 4th of July, the top deck of the QM2 was filled with people at midnight when a wonderful recording of the Boston Pops playing the 1812 Overture was played and we could easily see the fabulous fireworks.   Spectacular memory. ~ Enjoy!!

[Victoria2]

7 hours ago, Oahucruiser said:

We took our family on this same cruise a few years ago and loved it.  In Boston, on the 4th of July, the top deck of the QM2 was filled with people at midnight when a wonderful recording of the Boston Pops playing the 1812 Overture was played and we could easily see the fabulous fireworks.   Spectacular memory. ~ Enjoy!!

Having arrived very early with friends to claim a pitch at the Hatch Shell many years ago, I agree with you. I think this cruise will be a wonderful way to listen to, and watch the celebrations, especially this year after its absence.

[rafinmd]

Day 0, Thursday, June 30, 2022, New York, New York(Part 2)

 

Since I’m posting this on July 1 I’ll start with a wish for a happy Canada Day for those who celebrate it

.

Dinner was pizza from a place called Little Italy pretty much across the street from the hotel.  I was able to eat it at a table out on the sidewalk.

 

My plan for the evening was for my 11th and probably last viewing of Come From Away.  Last because the final curtain on Broadway is probably October 2.  I have a strong history of combining Come From Away with Queen Mary 2, twice in London in 2019 and then in Melbourne just before things went haywire in March 22.  I guess my familiarity with the show is more obvious than I realized as the couple next to me mentioned it at the end of the show.  They did fortunately say they enjoyed sitting next to me.  This was the final performance where masks were required as the requirement is lifted July 1.

 

It was a very low key evening in the hotel after the show.  My room looks out on Broadway and it feels like 24-hour daylight so I needed to sleep with the room darkening drapes closed.  I woke about 5AM and took a 30-minute walk towards the East River.  I never was able to see the sun come up but did find a little bit of color at my easternmost point.  It was already pretty steamy when I finished my walk, and I made firm my decision not to use the subway to get to the ship.

The Renaissance has a $30 facility fee that can be applied to the restaurants.  The breakfast buffet is also $30.  My breakfast included “rainbow” potatoes, chicken sausage, bacon, and raisin toast.

 

My parting shot will be a note of caution.  While we have made great progress, the disease that had me removed from Queen Mary 2 is still with us.  That became poignant when one of the members of my Queen Mary 2 Cruise Critic roll call tested positive yesterday and will not be joining us.  Sadly, there is also covid on the ship with some people in quarantine cabins and masks required for this voyage.  While I would have been masked indoors much of the time anyway the freedom to drop it when there was nobody near me early in the morning would have been nice.  Overall, I consider it a small price to pay for my safety.  Best wishes to Cruise Critic member oatbagg1's husband for a quick recovery.

 

Roy

[travelwide]

Looking forward to reading about your cruise. Curious how many passengers are onboard. Also curious as to how many cancelled after receiving the covid email. 🥂

[rafinmd]

33 minutes ago, travelwide said:

Looking forward to reading about your cruise. Curious how many passengers are onboard. Also curious as to how many cancelled after receiving the covid email. 🥂

Not sure that information will be available.  99% packed, leaving the hotel in about an hour.  Down to just my IPAD for internet.

 

Roy

[Host Hattie]

We've heard some horror stories about embarkation in Brooklyn recently, I hope it doesn't take too long.

[spirit rev]

54 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

Not sure that information will be available.  99% packed, leaving the hotel in about an hour.  Down to just my IPAD for internet.

 

Roy

We're packed up and heading to the pier From B'way and 54th in about 25 minutes for our 12:30 boarding time. Looking forward to getting through the formalities and being on board. 

Edited July 1, 2022 by spirit rev

[elmsliebev]

6 hours ago, rafinmd said:

Day 0, Thursday, June 30, 2022, New York, New York(Part 2)

 

Since I’m posting this on July 1 I’ll start with a wish for a happy Canada Day for those who celebrate it

.

Dinner was pizza from a place called Little Italy pretty much across the street from the hotel.  I was able to eat it at a table out on the sidewalk.

 

My plan for the evening was for my 11th and probably last viewing of Come From Away.  Last because the final curtain on Broadway is probably October 2.  I have a strong history of combining Come From Away with Queen Mary 2, twice in London in 2019 and then in Melbourne just before things went haywire in March 22.  I guess my familiarity with the show is more obvious than I realized as the couple next to me mentioned it at the end of the show.  They did fortunately say they enjoyed sitting next to me.  This was the final performance where masks were required as the requirement is lifted July 1.

 

It was a very low key evening in the hotel after the show.  My room looks out on Broadway and it feels like 24-hour daylight so I needed to sleep with the room darkening drapes closed.  I woke about 5AM and took a 30-minute walk towards the East River.  I never was able to see the sun come up but did find a little bit of color at my easternmost point.  It was already pretty steamy when I finished my walk, and I made firm my decision not to use the subway to get to the ship.

The Renaissance has a $30 facility fee that can be applied to the restaurants.  The breakfast buffet is also $30.  My breakfast included “rainbow” potatoes, chicken sausage, bacon, and raisin toast.

 

My parting shot will be a note of caution.  While we have made great progress, the disease that had me removed from Queen Mary 2 is still with us.  That became poignant when one of the members of my Queen Mary 2 Cruise Critic roll call tested positive yesterday and will not be joining us.  Sadly, there is also covid on the ship with some people in quarantine cabins and masks required for this voyage.  While I would have been masked indoors much of the time anyway the freedom to drop it when there was nobody near me early in the morning would have been nice.  Overall, I consider it a small price to pay for my safety.  Best wishes to Cruise Critic member oatbagg1's husband for a quick recovery.

 

Roy

I found out today that Come From Away ends its London run early 2023. Such a wonderful prodction. Hope you get boarded quickly. 

Edited July 1, 2022 by elmsliebev

[D&N]

@rafinmd Hope you don't mind a few photos. Just today. May have a couple later when I transfer from the zoom camera.

 Just 2 daft folk at The Statue of Liberty trying to photobomb the Queen Mary 2's portraits!

And Bon Voyage!

[rafinmd]

On board and exhausted.  No stress getting to the ship but checkin was something of a nightmare.  Trying to unpack as I hope my energy levels will rebound.

 

Not sure about table size yet as I am likely to be on deck until the Bridge.  I will try to stop down at 6 and introduce myself and perhaps join them for coffee and desert.  Is anyone familiar with table 302 on deck 2?

 

Roy

[57eric]

Aren't tables in the 200 and 300 series on Deck 3?

[DeeniEncinitas]

2 hours ago, rafinmd said:

On board and exhausted.  No stress getting to the ship but checkin was something of a nightmare.  Trying to unpack as I hope my energy levels will rebound.

 

Not sure about table size yet as I am likely to be on deck until the Bridge.  I will try to stop down at 6 and introduce myself and perhaps join them for coffee and desert.  Is anyone familiar with table 302 on deck 2?

 

Roy

🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺Dear Roy!

finally back from our home in Maui. Arrived yesterday with no problems with flights. Good to be back in Encinitas and happy to see my friend back cruising and will love as I always do your journeys and beautiful pictures!! 
Happy Belated Birthday my dear friend! Trying to catch up with our fleet and daily as well as your wonderful cruise! Stay well and so enjoy!

Mahalo, Sincerley

Denise🙂

[D&N]

Didn't get the clearest of photos this afternoon at the Statue of Liberty. The air wasn't very clear. Unlike the morning of 5th June when I got some crystal clear pics of the statue from deck 13.

Here's the best one I took.

From a tourism point of view, we enjoyed a USTA Tennis Centre tour late this morning then straight to Battery Park for ferry to the statue. We slapped sunscreen on before joining lines to board boat. It was very hot in the sun but I think we've avoided any sunburn.

Very jealous of anyone who can get an Illy Americano from Sir Samuels. I've not found anywhere making them in the 'slow pour' fashion here so far.

Hope everyone enjoys their crossing.

Edited July 1, 2022 by D&N

[Oahucruiser]

3 hours ago, rafinmd said:

On board and exhausted.  No stress getting to the ship but checkin was something of a nightmare.  Trying to unpack as I hope my energy levels will rebound.

 

Not sure about table size yet as I am likely to be on deck until the Bridge.  I will try to stop down at 6 and introduce myself and perhaps join them for coffee and desert.  Is anyone familiar with table 302 on deck 2?

 

Roy

Why was check-in a nightmare?  Have read several reports about the difficulties and wasted time doing that.

 

[rafinmd]

Finally left the dock about 7:15PM.  Table 302 is a 6-top on deck 2, near the port, aft corner, but there were only 2 of us tonight.

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

OK, I have not fallen off the face of the earth and have much rebounded from the disaster that was embarkation (I felt like @frankp01 just hit the tip of the iceburg), but not to the point of staying up past my planned bed time (in about 10 minutes),  I have processed my photos but have not written anything.

 

@Host Hattie would you be so kind as to take the "Imminent" out of the thread title.  It sounded good 2 days ago but not so much now.  Thanks

 

Roy

[Host Hattie]

So sorry to hear that embarkation was so terrible again, I hope you have recovered enough to enjoy your sea day.

[grapau27]

On 6/30/2022 at 12:17 AM, rafinmd said:

I'm in final preparation stage with several things already done

 

My big bag sitting in Luggage Forward's Red Hook office.

E -ticket, Cunard Health Questionnaire, and ArriveCan Code

Proctored Covid test printout

Amtrak Pre-travel health check completed

And advance checkin to my hotel

 

I hope to be on the road early, on my train before 10, and in New York before noon.

 

This will be my first time on Cunard since I was thrown off QM2 in Perth 2+ years ago and I hope everything is ready.

 

The itinerary:

Embark July 1

Bar Harbor July 3

Boston July 4

Halifax July 6

Back home July 8.

 

In addition to this thread I'll have daily updates on my companion blog:

 

https://morethangetaways.wordpress.com/

 

and will also try to publish Daily Programmes to the blog.

 

Getting close

 

Roy

Following along Roy.

Wishing you an amazing cruise.

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us, I hope it's wonderful.

Have a good rest and enjoy.

[kazu]

Oh dear on your embarkation, Roy 😔 

Hope this is the only rough spot and the rest of the cruise is fantastic 🤞 Enjoy!!

[rafinmd]

Day 1, Friday, July 1, 2022, Board Queen Mary 2, Red  Hook, New York

 

I left the Renaissance about 10:45 and caught a taxi to Pier 11 Wall Street, arriving about 11:15.  Buying a ferry ticket was easy and from Slip C I joined a queue of people waiting for the South Brooklyn ferry, shaded and grabbing a bench in the boarding area.  My first view of QM2 in the distance was a bit hazy but lovely indeed.

 

https://morethangetaways.files.wordpress.com/2022/07/1stookqm2.jpg

 

My first cruise was on something a bit more modest, and once boarding started the crew was quite serious about mask wearing, holding some patrons who arrived without one until some were secured from the vessel.

 

 

We made one stop at Pier 6 which some other ferry passengers told me had a waterpark (I would think some passengers making New York a port call might enjoy) before arriving at Red Hook just a stone’s throw from the ship.   On the way to the ship I paused for a photo of the forward end of the ship and located my cabin just forward of the C of Cunard.

 

My energy level was fairly normal when I arrived at the terminal but that changed over the course of the next hour plus.  While some people have reported standing in the sun I was lucky that the line started in the shade.  The line to enter the terminal ran 3 passes between the terminal entrance and the customs exit.  At noon+ there were still a LOT of people leaving the ship and trying to get on their way.  I wonder if some of that might have been delays by some people who were disembarking after being quarantined (not people booked for 21 days but some who had booked a simple transatlantic).  

I think this was supposed to be the basic process:
Step 1: Preliminary review of documents.
Step 2: Security
Step 3: Health check
Step 4: Traditional check in
Step 5: On to the ship

For step 1 there were 3 lines for regular passengers and 2 more for people reserving wheelchairs.  I was directed to the one on the right and I thought I had everything in order.  The line moved EXTREMELY slowly, with most of the delays seemingly caused by people searching for documents on their phones.  One person in particular must have spent at least 10 minutes on her phone trying different login credentials before apparently finally pulling up her document.  There should be a way to let such people stand aside while they do the search and start on the next person.   

When I FINALLY got there I had 2 double sided sheets of paper (a) My e-ticket, (b)Arrive-Can printout, (c) Negative Covid Test, and (d) “Cleared” online health declaration.  The guy looked at all of the papers except the online health declaration, my passport.  He also wanted to see my vax card which I thought had already been uploaded, no problem there.  What he wanted to see that I didn’t have was a boarding pass with a bar code.  I looked at that several times in the online check-in and could never get to it, and the E-ticket indicated it was all that was needed, so I hadn’t worried about it.  He refused to go any further but passed me off to the wheelchair line, which had little printers.  That moved as slowly as the first line but when I finally got there the gal rechecked everything the first guy did and printed out the boarding pass, a little receipt type slip of paper smaller than my hand.  By this time between the wait outside the terminal and inside I had been standing with almost 30 pounds on my back for about an hour, having accomplished barely 2 minutes getting something done but I finally had a green sticker on my boarding pass.

 

Step 2 was the standard security screening which went reasonably normally.

 

Step 3 was the health check where a gal had a little phone type device and recorded my answers to the same questions Cunard had insisted I answer on my own from home but nobody looked at.  Fortunately, that was also quick.

 

Finally, on to the traditional check-in line and another 10-minute wait.  By this time my legs were close to collapse.  When I finally got there and she entered my data and the computer wouldn’t let her go any further and I had to wait for at least one other party at the next station for a different agent.  I am pretty sure when I sailed Adventure of the Seas to Halifax, Royal had gotten a confirmation directly from Canada about approvals but this had not happened for me and I had to show my printout for a third time.  She also recorded the approval code on a list on a clipboard.  Cunard had also rejected my photo so that was retaken.  FINALLY, I was ready to board almost 90 minutes after arriving at the terminal.

 

I thought it would be easy to get to my room but not quite.  I boarded at stairway C.  My cabin is all the way forward before stairway A.  I took the elevator to deck 6 and started walking forward.  My path was blocked at stairway B as the area between A and B on deck 6 (both sides) is the quarantine zone so I had to go down to deck 5, forward to A, and back up to 6 and arrived at my cabin about 2:10, plopping my bags down on the bed, exhausted.

 

I was hungry and needed lunch but needed a bit of rest even more.  I finally summoned the strength to go up to Kings Court about 2:30 for an eclectic lunch of skim milk, fruit salad and soft ice cream.  Self service is suspended in Kings Court and all food is dished out by the crew.  Not a big deal and probably a good thing in general but Cunard does not normally do this so it places a burden on the crew and makes them less available for other things. As I got to the elevator on deck 7 I was stopped by a crew member who asked about my muster station and since it was station A (the gym) he scanned my card indicating I had been to the muster station.

 

https://morethangetaways.files.wordpress.com/2022/07/lunch01.jpg

 

It was about 3 when I returned to my room and my big bag that had been sent by Luggage Forward was sitting outside.  I wrestled it up onto the bed and started the slow process of unpacking.  My email from Luggage Forwarded said it was delivered at 2:01 so Cunard got it up to my room quite quickly.  Unpacking was a slow process.

 

Normally, all aboard is 5:30 and sailaway at 6.  At 5:30 the emergency signal (7 short and 1 long blast on the horns and bells) was sounded and we had Captain Andrew Hall’s safety message.  Shortly after 6 Captain Hall came back on the PA and told us we would be we would be delayed by some late arriving passengers (not surprising considering the current turmoil in the airline industry, and our departure would be around 7.  While I had planned to check in with my table and introduce myself and then get dinner in Kings Court until we passed the Verrazano bridge I instead headed down to dinner.  I am at table 302 on deck 2, a 6-top near the port side entrance.  There was just one other person at dinner, a lady from the New York suburbs.  My choices were beef consume, roast turkey breast, and apple strudel.  Service was quite quick and we were finishing about 7:15, just as I saw us starting to move.

 

I watched the bridge cam from my room and as we were getting closet to the Verrazano bridge I went up to deck 13 to watch us go under the bridge.  I got a good shot of the bow going under the bridge but not so much the rear funnel.  

https://morethangetaways.files.wordpress.com/2022/07/bridgefwd.jpg

 

Sunset was about a half hour away.  I went down to deck 7 and watched from a lounger under lifeboat 15 as the sun dropped into the clouds near the horizon.

The featured entertainment was violinist Venus Tsai.  I did not attend.

I was in bed about 10:30 and slept very soundly until about 4:30.  I did go out on deck early Saturday.  There were clouds but I did see a bit of color ahead of the ship.

 

My parting shot has to be about the check-in process.  Talking about a “perfect storm” on a cruise blog is probably not a good idea but I will anyway.  There were so many changes that could have made a difference.
1. A better Cunard Checkin process to get to the “boarding pass”
2. Encouraging people to print things out instead of having them search through phones and a holding pattern for people having difficulty retrieving them.
3. Equipping all checkin staff with mobile printers
4. When all documents are in order and all requirements obviously met, having agents pass people on to the next step with the boarding pass where the capability is already there.

There just must be a better way.

 

Roy

 

[DeeniEncinitas]

🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

Dear Roy!

Thank you for such a detailed journal!!! I am tired just reading it! Had to reprint your beautiful sunset photo. This is a keeper! Time for relaxation now and smooth sailings.

Mahalo

🌺Denise🙂

[JazzyV]

Roy, now that you're past that strenuous embarkation, I hope it's a wonderful cruise. Beautiful sunset!

[BklynBoy8]

See the Queen on Marine Traffic slowing down around the Cape Cod area.

 

We did this on the last 4th trip around this time due to whale activity around the Cape for most of the Day. Most likely experiencing the same activity.  Around 9-10 knots she's traveling. 

 

Hope they have good weather today...Nice videos we got watching the whales