Part I - A rather long and somewhat belated review of TA crossing September 05

[Patch Nelson]

Transatlantic Review - September 2005

 

 

This is a somewhat belated review of the transatlantic crossing from Southampton to New York that my wife and I took for our honeymoon in September of last year.

 

Some of the more regular visitors to this site may recall that we were having quite a few travel problems in the run up to the trip and quite a few people on this board had offered us some help and advice.

 

Thankfully, those problems were sorted out, without too much fuss and we got to Southampton in good time.

 

It is difficult to know where to begin, to give people an idea about QM2, as there are so many random that things pop into your mind every time you think back. I have tried to set out the journey day by day and it would probably be an idea to open this link (http://darren-goldthorpe.fotopic.net/) in another browser window as I will be referring to it quite a lot in the review, and there are quite a few decent photos there. Once you have opened the link, click on the section marked ‘honeymoon’ but don’t cheat by looking at the pictures first!

 

I suppose that things started well for this trip, seven or eight months before we even left. I had always fancied a cruise, although I think my wife would have just preferred a fortnight on a beach somewhere, I did manage to persuade her it would be a good idea.

 

With paying for the wedding, we weren’t sure that we would be able to afford the cruise as well, but we stumbled upon a travel agent at a Wedding Fair who operated a ‘Honeymoon Voucher’ scheme. This allowed guests to contribute towards the cost of the holiday, by purchasing gift vouchers from the travel agent. Although we had some concerns about whether people would be put out by doing this, rather than buying more traditional gifts, it turned out to be unfounded. Our guests paid over two thirds of the cost of the trip, which meant we could extend our stay in New York from three days to seven days at the end of the cruise.

 

It got even better when we received notice from the travel agent that, completely free of charge, Cunard had upgraded us from the B6 Balcony room we had booked, to a Junior Suite, moving us into the Princess Grill, and giving us a whole lot more room. How’s that for an upgrade!

 

Like most people that I see post on the website from time to time, the question of the dress code was at the back of both our minds. Neither of us have any problem with putting on a suit/tuxedo or evening dress, my wife loves the tuxedos and I love the dresses! I think any photos there are for a whole other website! The main thing we were concerned about was what to actually wear through the day. We got quite a bit of advice from this board, and I simply opted for a whole new wardrobe of beige, beige and more beige. As it was, we needn’t have worried, as will become clear later.

 

We arrived in Southampton by train, at around 9.30 am, even though we weren’t required to board until mid day. Rather than dragging suitcases behind us through Southampton and taking in the sights and sounds of the city, we decided to simply get straight down to the Cunard terminal and just do the classic tourist thing, of staring at the ship for hours. We began to wonder if something was wrong when the taxi driver asked us if we were members of the crew, when we told him where we wanted to go. At that point, I began to think that we must have been terribly under-dressed, if he thought we were crew members.

 

At the risk of offending those who read this website, I think the real reason became clear later. At the time we sailed, my wife and I were both 29 years of age and, as I said, I really don’t want to offend anybody, but we were, certainly as far as I can see, the youngest couple on board. I don’t want to give the impression that the ship was full of geriatrics, or anything like that, but we did seem to be the youngest by quite some distance as well, although it really wasn’t a problem, a) to us, or b) to anybody else, for that matter.

 

When we arrived at Southampton Docks we were greeted by the Queen Mary, towering over the Cunard building. Believe me, the building itself is no small thing, but to see the ship towering over it, like it did, was pretty impressive. The only slight problem at Southampton is that we couldn’t get a view of the full ship, because the building got in the way. It took quite a walk to go from one end of the building to the other, and then to see the QM2 sticking out either end, with a bit to spare as well made us both stand there and wonder exactly how this thing stays afloat. I think for anybody boarding at New York it must be even more spectacular, as you get a fantastic view all the way down the side of the ship at New York, which really does look impressive. If you go to the photos page, the first five photos are all of the ship in dock, at both Southampton and New York. Even though we were there so early, there was still plenty of activity and a Cunard representative told us to wait in a small but comfortable lounge towards the bottom end of the building. She explained that we would be called to go through shortly.

 

We probably waited for perhaps an hour, again, no real problem, seeing as how we were so early, before we were asked for our luggage and we watched it taken by conveyor on board. By this time it had probably reached 11.00 am to 11.30 am and people started forming a queue outside the main departure area. We joined the queue where we got talking to a couple from Pittsburgh, who had come over on a previous crossing, spent some time touring England and Scotland and were now travelling back. I couldn’t help but be a little jealous at that kind of itinerary.

 

My wife was quite fearful of motion sickness and this couple put her mind at rest, with lots of stories about their journey here and the rough seas!

 

As we entered the departure area, we began to see the full force of our upgrade. We were invited to join another line for Grills passengers, which had virtually nobody in it, and then within five minutes we were having our picture taken for the passenger cards. We were given a boarding card and sent through to the main gate area, to sit and wait for perhaps another 15/20 minutes at most.

 

The whole boarding procedure ran like clockwork, and before we had even set foot on the ship, we were impressed at how well organised things were. The only slight moan at this point was another Grills passenger who clearly took the view that as he had a gold boarding card, as opposed to a silver card, he really didn’t have to queue up and would just walk past the queue and go straight into the boarding area. Clearly, he felt very important about himself, so nobody said anything, but it did start me wondering whether there would be an inherent ‘on board snobbery’ with passengers from the Queen’s Grill. Again, thankfully, this was relatively an isolated incident and apologies to any Queen’s Grill travellers, it seems I branded you snobs unfairly.

 

As we boarded, we entered into the grand Lobby with the customary crew line up either side. Although you may have seen pictures of the grand Lobby on numerous websites, in the brochures and, if you are anything like me, on all the books you bought before sailing, you still can’t help but get a tinge of excitement as you first walk in. There will be plenty of pictures of the grand Lobby later, but if you want to cheat a little, if you look at picture 12.1.2 you will see the area that greets you as you immediately walk in.

 

After nodding and saying ‘hello’ to a few of the staff, we were then directed to the lift area where we caught the lift up to Deck 10.

 

We were staying in room 10.008 and retrieved our cases as we got out of the stairwell. As we were probably amongst the first 20 to get on board, I don’t think the poor chap at the lift had had a chance to take them outside the room yet, but that really didn’t matter, as he was very friendly and pointed us in exactly the right direction. As we turned away from the stairwell and into the corridor, we were again struck by how long the ship was. On Deck 10 there is virtually nothing other than rooms and if you look at photo 31 on page 3, you will see as good a picture as I could take of the long stretching corridor.

 

When we went into the room, we were both very impressed. We had seen enough of them in the brochures to know exactly what to expect, but everything looked clean and sparkling. Considering the housekeeping staff can’t have had too much time since the last guests had left, they had done an amazing job. As we were on honeymoon, a complimentary bottle of champagne was waiting for us, although we resisted the temptation to crack it open straight away, because we both wanted to set off and explore. Photos of the room can be seen at photograph 7 and 7.1.

 

We made a few quick phone calls whilst we were still in port, excitedly telling friends and family about our room and what we had seen so far, before setting off on our own tour of the ship.

 

The first visit for us ….. well, we are Brits, so it was the pub of course. We found the ‘Golden Lion’ and were quite impressed by the size of it. We had expected it to be a little more claustrophobic, but Cunard certainly hadn’t skimped on square footage, which really, we should have known before we even went in there. The Golden Lion can be seen at photos 3 and 3.1. We had a bit of wander around the ship with no real direction, simply looking at whatever was nearest to us from the map we had that we were interested in and then heading in that way. We found out early doors that although you may take plenty of wrong turns, it is never difficult to correct yourself, and there has clearly been a lot of thought gone into how passengers will navigate around the ship.

 

We went out on to the ‘Propeller Deck’ as we called it, and I am sure that those of you who have been on the ship before will know exactly what we are talking about. If you have a look at photo number 4 you will see my wife and I standing in front of one of the propeller sections. To give you some idea of exactly how big they are, take a look at photograph 4.1, which is a view of the Propeller Deck from the Observation Deck.

 

We popped quickly in to the Gym, which frankly, I certainly wasn’t going to use whilst I was at sea, although my wife had some misguided notion that she’d have the time to exercise whilst we were on board. Photo number 5 doesn’t really do justice to the Gym which is lot more expansive than shown. I don’t have a wide angle camera, and didn’t want to waste too many pictures of a room that I certainly wouldn’t be seeing much. From the occasions that we walked past the Gym, it certainly seemed well used, by a good few people.

 

We walked up into the Library, which can be seen on photo 6 and were both very impressed with the finish of the room. Not just the fixtures and the fittings, but the floors and ceilings themselves, all seemed in good condition and everything seemed to ‘fit’.

 

I ought to break off here and say that this was one of the things I have never understood when I read this site, prior to joining the ship. I had read that a lot of people complained that the carpets looked ‘worn’, I even read one rather ridiculous review when somebody complained about sea spray on their balcony! The carpets didn’t look particularly worn to me, although there are, naturally, areas where the pile has been trodden down, but bearing in mind that this ship has around 2,000 passengers per journey, I am not certain that there is whole lot that can be done about that.

 

My wife made immediate use of the library, checking out a book for the journey and we carried on with our exploration before returning to the room. We made a few more excited phone calls before sitting out on the balcony to watch all the loading going on. Photograph 8 is a shot from our balcony, looking down the ship, and photograph 8.1 is exactly the same shot albeit when we were at sea.

 

At this point, we were met by Roy, our Cabin Steward, who I imagine had seen us return and knocked on the door to introduce himself and tell us what we needed to do if ever we needed any help from him. He seemed a pleasant enough chap, although I think we were a source of constant frustration for him, throughout the journey, for reasons I will explain later.

 

We were both feeling a bit peckish at this point, and decided that we just wanted something simple for the time being and opted to go for the culinary delight that is ‘burger and chips’ from the Chef’s Galley.

 

As there weren’t many people on board at this stage, we had our food on a plate within probably 2/3 minutes and whilst you are never going to write a review about the gastronomic pleasures of a hamburger and chips, we certainly had no complaints.

 

We went back to the Golden Lion and we were offered a soft drinks package. For $30 each, it was explained that a sticker would be put on to our guest card that would enable us to have all the soft drinks we wanted at no extra cost. As a general rule, my wife and I only tend to drink alcohol in the evening, rather than through the day, so that seemed a perfectly good option to us, which we took up.

 

My first little moan about the trip probably starts here. Having said I don’t like to drink during the day, I have to confess my first order at the Golden Lion was a pint of Lager. Well, after all, I was celebrating! We had opted to pay for the prepaid tips/gratuities, and when the bill/receipt arrived for our drinks a tip had been added. We queried this and were told that tips were still added to drinks and such. At the end of the day, we are not talking a huge amount of money, but I was a little perturbed that I had already chosen to pay for tips and yet, here they were, being added again. Having said that, we soon got used to it and other than one small complaint that I will refer to later about the final account, we were pleasantly surprised with how affordable everything was on board.

 

We spent some time reading the daily programme, and decided that we would go to the Sail Away party later that evening, after the lifeboat drill. The daily programme listed quite a few events that evening, which included a ‘Welcome Aboard’ show, a string quartet in the Grand Lobby, Ballroom and Latin dancing in the Queen’s Room, a harpist in the Chart Room, a Pianist in the Commodore Club and Golden Lion, and various events in the G32 nightclub. We opted to simply go to the Welcome Aboard show after dinner and then have an early night.

 

The Sail Away party was held on the Main Deck areas to the rear of the ship. Music was provided by ‘Xtasea’, the on board band, who were very good and did their best to get people going. We were given a complimentary glass of champagne and we were accosted by some chap with a video camera as we were drinking. It turns out he’s a feature of most things on board.

 

There were a few small boats and such, coming past us as we sailed out of Southampton, who cast us a wave as we set off, but it wasn’t too long before Southampton was completely out of view and we were well on our way.

 

We had dinner that evening in the Princess Grill and met our Head Waiter, John, amongst a host of others who ran the whole dining area with almost military precision. I think throughout the whole journey, we never waited more than five minutes to be served, or to have plates cleared. If we were low on water, we were topped up without really having to ask, and amongst all this they found the time to have a bit of a laugh and a joke with us also.

 

The wine waiter, Mildrad, turned out to be a real character, having quite a few tales to share. On the first night, neither of us fancied any wine with our meal, it was probably the thought of the champagne waiting in our room that did it, and when we declined the wine, there was no pushiness or anything like that to try and get a sale.

 

The meal was very filling and I think my wife and I probably rolled rather than walked to the theatre for the Welcome Aboard show. We got a few of the, what I would call ‘bucket seats’ in the first few rows of the theatre and sat back for the show. That was the first and last time we sat in those seats, which we both found very uncomfortable. The Welcome Aboard show wasn’t really that much of a show, as the majority of it was spent introducing various staff members and such. On reflection, I don’t think I would bother with the Welcome Aboard show again, but after that big meal, we weren’t really in the mood for much other than sleeping.

 

When we returned to our room, we found the pillow mints, eagerly left by Roy and argued over who got the mint one and who got the orange one. It was actually a nice surprise after we walked up to the room, seeing a shaft of light coming under the door and wondering who was in there, we discovered that Roy had turned on the bedside lighting, giving quite a warm and cosy atmosphere to walk back into.

 

The daily programme for the following day was also waiting at the foot of the bed and we had a quick flick through to see if anything in particular took our fancy. Despite the fact that we had only got married 11 days earlier, my wife quite fancied the Wedding Vow renewals at Sir Samuel’s Wine Bar at 9.30 am, until I pointed out to her that there wasn’t a prayer of either of us being awake at that time. We were quite surprised at how early everything starts going on board, as we certainly had no plans to be up and around before 10.30. We decided we would leave any decisions to the morning and left it at that.

 

 

Wednesday

 

 

We woke up to find a small card behind the room number plate, and were both quite excited to open and see that we had been invited to the Queen’s Room for cocktails at 6.45 pm for the Captain’s Cocktail Party. There were instructions on which entrance to use if we wanted to meet Commodore Warwick and we felt quite giddy and excited about being invited. Of course, what we didn’t realise at the time was that everybody on board got one of these invitations!

 

We couldn’t face the prospect of a three course breakfast in the Princess Grill, both of us still being full from the night before, so we decided that we would have a much more informal breakfast and go for the buffet style option at the King’s Court.

 

It was the first and only time we opted for the King’s Court for breakfast. Without wanting to sound too critical, it was like a cattle market, with the queues and there were quite a lot of people pushing past and jostling to get to food before others, and the food we did have was a little cold. I don’t know if that is a regular feature of the King’s Court, but it certainly wasn’t what we were expecting and it was enough to put us off that area for the rest of the trip.

 

We decided to do the 10.30 tour of the ship and as we made our way down to the Golden Lion my wife revealed that she was starting to feel a little sick. My theory was that it was more likely to be the sausage from the King’s Court than motion sickness, as I couldn’t really feel the ship moving at all, although my wife insisted it was.

 

The tour was certainly very interesting and a good way to get acquainted with the ship. As it happens, we had seen a lot of what was on the tour the day before, when we carried out our own unofficial tour.

 

The tour guide, a Canadian chap, whose name I cannot remember, explained quite a bit about the finer detail of the ship and one amusing thing in particular appears at photograph 12.02. There are a number of mosaics and carvings around the Grand Lobby area. It was explained that there is a colourful metallic type, one for each season, (photograph 12.1 is of course Summer) and on the wooden faced carvings there is a carving for each continent. In the North American continent we were asked to look to see if we could see anything unusual. Apparently the carving contains a true American icon, and after no one could find this hidden icon, it was pointed out that the artist had etched Homer Simpson into the base of the space shuttle. This is ringed on photo 12.2, although you will probably need to click the full view to make him out. We all thought it was a bit of wind up at first, but it is official that Homer Simpson is part of the fixtures and fittings on board the Queen Mary II!

 

After the tour was complete I had agreed to go along to the dance lessons.

 

I should explain at this point that “two left feet” really doesn’t do justice to my abysmal dancing skills and the only concession my wife had managed to get out of me was that I would go and watch the lessons before deciding whether or not to take part.

 

I was quite relieved to find that most of the people attending the dance lessons had abilities that could rival even my own, and I agreed that the following day I would take part. The lessons were run by Jacek, a dancing champion from Poland and Nicola from Liverpool. Jacek took the most control of the lessons, but both were very friendly, not to mention patient, and made the whole lesson in to a very entertaining and enjoyable spectacle, as well as something in which to participate.

 

The waters were quite choppy by this point, and I must admit I had begun to feel a bit of a motion as the ship pitched, but nothing that I found uncomfortable. I took picture 18.1 later that day in the Golden Lion when one of the waves covered the window, and put the pub in darkness for a brief moment. We opted for a simple lunch in the Golden Lion before spending the rest of the day generally wandering around and getting a better look at parts of the ship we had so far not had the chance to see, and have a good amble round at our own pace.

 

We returned to the room later for my wife to have a bit of a lay down, as she really wasn’t feeling too good at this point, although what we found waiting for us at the room certainly perked her up a bit.

 

Following on from the invitation we’d had earlier in the day to the cocktail party, we now had an invitation waiting for us to join Commodore Warwick and his wife at their table. It was a good job that we had come back to the room, as the invitation was RSVP by 3.00 pm.

 

We were both extremely excited at the prospect of dining at the Captain’s table. My wife decided to have a lie down and see if she could shake off the feeling of sickness and I immediately got to work on the email telling people back home about our first day on board.

 

We got ready nice and early for the cocktail party in the Queen’s Room and opted to queue for the entrance that took us past Commodore Warwick.

 

As we were introduced to the Commodore, we were both pleasantly surprised that he knew who we were, knew we there on honeymoon and commented that he looked forward to seeing us later that evening.

 

As we walked off, we discussed between ourselves how he knew of us and determined that perhaps there weren’t actually many honeymooners on board, so it wasn’t too difficult a thing. We were nonetheless impressed that someone of his position had taken the time to find out that information.

 

The Queen’s Room is extremely impressive, to say the least. It is actually best appreciated when it is empty. Photos 16 through to 16.4 show the Queen’s Room at its best. The large dance floor, (16.4) is overlooked by two huge chandeliers, (16.3) with ample seating areas (16.1 and 16.2) running around the dance floor. Photograph 16.1 is the smoking area of the Queen’s Room and a place with which my wife became particularly acquainted.

 

There were quite a few drinks flowing and plenty of dancing, although my one hour spent watching others do it didn’t give me anywhere near the confidence needed to get up and take part. We had a few drinks and simply relaxed and soaked up the atmosphere of the event, before we were again met by our old friend with the video camera who wanted to film us clinking our glasses together. There were quite a few people who waved him away and again there was no pushiness, when told that people did not want to be filmed, away he went on to the next couple. We were quite happy to oblige and spent maybe an hour in total in the Queen’s Room before deciding to freshen up prior to going to the Captain’s table.

 

It was quite interesting to see the Britannia Restaurant at its busiest. We entered as the second sitting was commencing and whilst the Princess Grill is very quiet and laid back, the Britannia is a hive of activity. That isn’t to suggest that it has any kind of canteen feel, or anything along those lines. Everything still looks fantastic and certainly, the dome in the Britannia Restaurant is one of the most striking features on board, in my view. Photographs 23, 23.1 and 23.2 show the Britannia from that evening, photograph 23 is the Captain’s table, viewed from the second floor, 23.1 the large dome, and 23.2 is our picture at the Captain’s table.

 

I could probably write a whole review, purely on that night. We were extremely pleased to be invited to the Captain’s table, and my wife in particular almost in awe when she realised that not only were we simply sitting at his table, but she had the seat next to Kim, his wife.

 

We didn’t know what to expect, either from Commodore Warwick, or Kim, but as it happens, they were two of the most down to earth people you could ever wish to meet. I am sure that when occasion requires, they can conduct themselves in a very formal and very appropriate way, but throughout the meal they were laughing, joking and friendly, not only with us, but with the members of the crew who shared the table, and the waiters serving us.

 

Kim in particular was an absolute delight to talk to, with so many stories. I could barely get a word in edgeways, as she and my wife set about on almost any and every topic imaginable.

 

Before things got going in earnest, we were a little bemused by Commodore Warwick who asked if we had sorted out our travel problems. We couldn’t for the life of us understand how the Commodore even knew we had travel problems, and when we asked him he simply winked and said something along the lines of: “We like to do our research on board”.

 

After scratching our heads with that one, we were even more puzzled when later in the conversation the Commodore commented how nice he thought the church that we married in was.

 

We were at the table with two other honeymoon couples and Commodore and Mrs Warwick were both quite keen to hear tales of how each of us proposed and how the weddings went, and so on. After puzzling how the Commodore would know that we had experienced travel problems and how he would have any idea about the church where we were married, the penny finally dropped … This website. A few of the people who had given us advice on this site before our wedding had asked us to put some pictures of the wedding for them to look at, so they could keep an eye out for us on board. It turns out that both Commodore and his wife are quite regular readers of this message board and we had a bit of chat about it. Commodore Warwick explained that on more than a few occasions it took all his composure to avoid replying to some of the more critical articles written. He pointed out one in particular that had a go at both his wife and himself for ‘never being at the Captain’s table’. He pointed out of course that the Britannia Restaurant does have two sittings and they always dine at the second sitting. It is likely that whoever made that post was probably in for the first sitting and I think I do have agree with the Commodore that to expect them to eat twice a night is probably a little unreasonable!

 

The whole night was fantastic and a real highlight for both of us.

 

Kim explained to us that she is originally from Hawaii, somewhere my wife visited many years ago, with some fond memories of the place. One local delicacy in particular sticks out in her mind, when she told Kim about this one, she was extremely excited, as that is apparently her mother’s speciality dish. I think the two of them spent the next 20 minutes waxing lyrical about how wonderful it was, as everyone else sat and listened to these two grown women talking themselves into raptures about food. I was made to tell the story of how I proposed, twice, by Kim; once to her and then again to the whole table. Apparently Commodore Warwick met Kim some years back when she was working for an airline and their respective flights were delayed. She explained that until she had met the Commodore, she had never ever even set foot on a ship of any kind.

 

After the conversations about Hawaii had finished, Kim indicated that next year the Queen Mary was going to Hawaii for the first time. She asked us to send her a note if we managed to book, because she was having a number of private parties on board and would invite us along.

 

We were both absolutely gutted, as we knew we had no prospect of affording to go on board again, so soon and the honeymoon had exhausted our holiday entitlement. Still, it was nice to be asked.

 

At the end of the evening we were both elated and shattered, my wife still wasn’t feeling too great, so rather than going to see any shows or staying up late drinking, we again decided on an early night.

 

It was probably around this time that I spent the first long period trying to figure out the television in the room. I was pleasantly surprised to see that not only could we order films and music through the television, we could also place an order for Room Service and we both decided that we would have a bit of lazy morning and just have breakfast delivered.

 

Thursday

 

 

Thursday was a bit of an unusual day, compared with the previous two. My wife had woken up feeling even worse with sea sickness than she had the night before and she reliably informed me that the ship had been pitching quite a lot during the night, which of course I had slept through completely. We had a look on the television and apparently the previous day had been ‘seastate 8’. I am not quite sure how that managed to escape me, but clearly the meal the night before had done the trick for me.

 

The room service we had ordered for 9.00 am turned up at exactly 9.00 am. One thing that took us both by surprise was the sheer volume of what we ordered. When ordering Room Service through the television you have quite a list of a lot of different foods. I didn’t fancy anything too fussy, so I had ordered toast and planned on polishing it off with some sausages, bacon and hash browns. Not the greatest of combinations, granted, but once I saw them on the menu the night before, I decided I had to sample them.

 

I had seen on the menu that there was both English bacon and American bacon available, regular sausage and Cumberland sausage, and one or two different varieties as well. I decided that I would sample both American and English bacon and both varieties of sausage also. I thought that I would simply get one of each as opposed to the two that were detailed on the menu. In actual fact, Room Service turned up with two of everything, effectively giving me two breakfasts to get through. I am sure you will all be pleased to hear that I loosened my belt accordingly and managed to do a cracking job of finishing it off.

 

The weather was much calmer outside than it had been for the first two days, when the wind had been really strong out at sea and going out on to the balcony for anything more than a couple of minutes at a time really wasn’t possible. It is a shame, as the glass fronted, wide spaced balcony really was a great area. We talked about them and decided that we would probably be better off with one of the sheltered balconies on the lower rooms on the transatlantic crossings and having a big wide balcony like this on something like a Caribbean cruise. It was all pretty much fantasy as we knew we wouldn’t be able to afford a Princess Grill room again, but nonetheless, it was nice to plan this Caribbean jaunt.

 

We looked on the daily programme and saw that Jacek and Nicola were teaching the Tango today and decided to have a lazy day up until around mid day and then take a walk down to the Queen’s Room.

 

I could tell my wife wasn’t well at all when we got down to the Queen’s Room and she suggested that we just watch, rather than take part. After about 30 minutes of watching, she said she was going to go back to our room to have a lie down and I suggested that we just go straight to the MedicalBay and get her the injection, which she agreed to, all too readily.

 

I certainly didn’t imagine that I would spend some time commenting on the medical facilities of QM2, but the staff there were very, very friendly, despite being clearly busy. The day before, there had been an announcement over the public address system that had gone into all cabins as well as public areas. Commodore Warwick apparently had a passenger who was seriously ill, and they urgently needed B-Negative type blood. My wife and I are both blood donors, but neither of us have that group. We were told later on in the voyage however, that the blood had been located and the passenger was ‘doing well’.

 

When we arrived the medical area, one of the nurses did seem to be getting a little irate with one of the passengers and understandably so. He was a doctor from Sweden, and from what I could see, was pretty much demanding that he toured the facilities, because he was interested in seeing what was available. The nurse was very politely pointing out to him that this is still a working hospital area, not a public part of the ship, although that seemed to fall on deaf ears. Thankfully, he did leave her alone eventually, when he saw that there were quite a few people waiting.

 

We hadn’t phoned ahead for an appointment, which we found out afterwards is the suggested way of dealing with things, but nonetheless, the staff were very helpful and inside half an hour my wife had been given the sea sickness injection. She was warned by the nursing staff that it would make her very drowsy, but considering the lack of sleep she had suffered the night before, I think this was probably welcomed by her!

 

We went to get something else to eat, again we just didn’t fancy the full lunch at the Princess Grill and decided on some simple pub grub in the Golden Lion again. After lunch, my wife was absolutely shattered and we went back to our room for her to have a lie down.

 

I think it is safe to say that within seconds of her head hitting the pillow, she was fast on, and believe it or not, that was the last I heard from her until about 7.30 that evening. I filled in my time by writing a long email to everybody back home, recounting the story of the dinner at the Captain’s table, not to mention Andrea’s marathon sleep. The email system in the room really is very useful. We were given a small keyboard, about the size of a laptop, which can be tricky if you are a clumsy typist like me, but passengers are only charged for the cost of sending an email. It would therefore make much more sense to type an email in the cabin, email it to a web based address, and then copy and paste it to the web if anyone tries to post on this board from the ship. The internet access in the library was very good and very reliable, there weren’t any times when I was on board when it wasn’t working, although every time I used it to check the football scores back home, I was bitterly disappointed with the result, but can hardly blame that on the QM2 and the internet service.

 

I spent the rest of the day looking around some of the facilities on the top deck where the Boardwalk Café would be, according to the deck plan. It was never opened throughout the journey because of high winds, which was a real shame. However, walking round the upper decks and simply leaning on the rails and watching the ship’s wake disappear over the horizon was absolutely exhilarating, even if it was still a little blustery up there. Again, as I stood there looking backwards, I couldn’t help but think how absolutely wonderful it would be to gaze out over a blue Caribbean sea and having the constant breeze from the ship’s movement to cool me down. I spent the rest of the day watching a film in ‘Illuminations’ and touring the Maritime History section of the ship, something which interests me very much, but my wife has no great passion for it, so it seemed the ideal time to investigate.

 

Illuminations, the on board planetarium, really is an impressive looking area of the ship. It was explained to us at an OxfordUniversity lecture we attended later in the voyage that the whole design feature of the Planetarium was intended to look like a 1920s film house from New York. It certainly looked very grand and the seats were extremely comfortable. I do however, have a little confession and I will apologise now to anybody who shared the Planetarium with me on the day. As you sit in the red seats, which fully recline, when the dome is brought over you, I twice fell asleep in that position as I was looking up at the stars. If anybody was snoring, I have to assume that was me, and apologise now.

 

When I got back to the room, my wife was still fast asleep and she woke up as I took a shower to get ready for dinner. It was a formal night again, which meant the tuxedo was dusted off my wife had another chance to dress up in one of the numerous evening gowns she had persuaded me to buy before the trip.

 

The final amusing part of the day was that when we arrived in the Princess Grill, our waiters seemed almost surprised to see us. It hadn’t occurred to us, but we were already in the third day of the crossing and we had only actually eaten one meal in the Princess Grill. The staff seemed very concerned about this, and genuinely so, asking if there had been anything wrong with our meal the first day, or if we were upset with their service at all. They were quite understanding about the Captain’s table of course, but did seem to take a little bit of a dent to their pride when we told them we had taken breakfast in the King’s Court and lunch at the Golden Lion. We assured them that neither of us were big eaters and one large meal a day was more than enough for us. I have to say that did both feel a little guilty seeing the looks on their faces, so decided that we would choose a reasonably expensive bottle of wine that evening, much to the delight of Mildrad.

 

We were rather late in finishing our meal, which is I suppose is one of the advantages of single seating dining as opposed to the two seating system operating in the Britannia. We had planned on watching the show in the theatre and missed the opening by about 15 or 20 minutes. We took up a large seat at the far corner, which was left pretty much unpopulated, because of the distance from the stage; it was however fantastically more comfortable than the ‘bucket’ seats we had been in the first time, and we decided that for any future shows we would tolerate the distance in exchange for the bench seating and the extra leg room.

 

Despite only being awake for the best part of 3 or 4 hours, my wife was again feeling quite drowsy. Nicola and Jacek were due to do a couple of dances themselves as a demonstration in the Queen’s Room, and we went along to watch. I don’t know why we did, because frankly, the sight of seeing these two glide effortlessly around a dance floor, compared with my own clumpy and decidedly less co-ordinated movements, made me sick. It really was impressive to watch two professionals, but after that we decided that yet again we would have an early night. Unsurprisingly, my wife was again the first one to drop of to sleep.

 

After the quality of the breakfast we had had this morning, I decided to book breakfast through the television for room service, before dropping off for the night.

 

 

Friday

 

 

I mentioned earlier that I thought my wife and became a constant thorn in the side for Roy, our Cabin Steward. It seemed that we made a start to our days much later than the majority of other passengers. As 10.008 is quite close to the front of the ship, we seemed to disturb the rhythm of making up the rooms for the day, and Roy often shared a joke with us as he knocked on the door and we told him we weren’t ready to leave just yet. On one or two occasions as we came back during the day to check out the daily programme, we arrived as he was making his changes, but assured him he was alright to get on with things and just ignore us.

 

Room Service was fantastic again, and we decided there and then that for the rest of the crossing we were going to be lazy and have breakfast in bed every morning.

 

The injection that my wife had had the night before had worked an absolute treat and when she had finally slept off the after effects, she was startled at the effect that it had had. She didn’t feel in the slightest bit sickly and was raring and ready to go. Sadly for me, that meant attendance at the Swing Dance class with Nicola and Jacek at 12.15 that afternoon.

 

If the day before had taught me anything that you really don’t have to take part in the activities, to still fill your time on board. In the first couple of days we had tried to do as much of the daily programme as we possibly could, but I had such a good time simply wandering around the ship and looking at things I hadn’t had the chance to see, that we decided that there would only be two things from the daily programme that we would actually do. The first was of course the dancing and secondly a QM2 ‘Scavenger Hunt’ that was arranged for 2.00 pm that afternoon.

 

A curious thing happened in the dance class when it appeared that I discovered I did have a right foot as well as a left one, and even if I say so myself, I didn’t do too badly at all with Swing. I even found myself enjoying it and looking over at others who weren’t picking it up as quickly as me and feeling quite superior to them! If it is any consolation to anybody who struggled with the Swing Class, I was found woefully lacking the following day when it came to the Waltz.

 

We had a bite to eat between the dance class and the scavenger hunt and walked up to Sir Samuels, expecting to find the scavenger hunt was in fact populated by dozens of children, however, we again found that we were the closest thing to children there!

 

There were about 20 people or so waiting to take part, and we were divided into teams and the rules explained. I am sure you will all probably have guessed what is involved, but basically we were all given a series of clues that led to one area of the ship, where a further clue was waiting. The whole idea is that it helps you to get better acquainted with the ship and I was feeling quietly confident after my roaming the previous day that we were in with a real chance of winning.

 

Before I say anything else about the scavenger hunt, can I just here and now that we were cheated. Whilst I don’t mean this disrespectfully, we were by far and away the youngest people in the scavenger hunt and I was pretty confident that we could get around the ship better than a lot of our opponents. Sadly, I can only assume that all our opponents were QM2 veterans and must have known the place inside out, because somehow we managed to finish absolute last. There was a couple from America who finished second from last, albeit a good thirty minutes earlier than us, who also said that they had found some of the clues had been moved, or hidden further away than they ought to have been. I am not really sure if it is true or not, but I would really like to think that nobody taking part in a bit of fun like a scavenger hunt would possibly have done something like that. Although it sounds very childish, we had a brilliant laugh, particularly watching the faces of the crew members that we accosted in our vain attempt to win it all.

 

The scavenger hunt had taken up a lot of the day, and we finished off by watching a Planetarium film before getting ready for dinner.

 

We ate fairly late and then made our way to the Queen’s Room where there was due to be another dance performance with Nicola and Jacek. The weather had got a little choppier by this time and even I could feel the ship pitching, although not unpleasantly so. There were a few occasions when people walking the corridors had to reach out and steady themselves on the handrails, but nothing too bad. If I am honest, I was actually disappointed about that, as I wanted to see how the ship coped in bad weather.

 

Because of the movement of the ship, the dance was cancelled. It was explained that neither Nicola nor Jacek wished to risk any injuries, which is of course entirely understandable.

 

Because the night had ended a little quicker than we had expected, we decided to venture into G32 where Xtasea were playing again and just to have a look at the place.

 

This is the one note of caution that I would give about reading reviews and actually paying any attention to them. You really should go along and do things and make your own mind up. Before we had set off on the trip I read a review on this site, which pretty much branded G32 as a complete waste of time. As a result of that, we hadn’t bothered with it until circumstances dictated we might as well have a look. The atmosphere inside was very relaxed and party-like. Xtasea were playing very upbeat music but not so loud that conversation at the table was prevented, if that was what you wanted.

 

The music varied greatly, and both my wife and I thought back to the Friday night we had in Oistions in Barbados, two years earlier. Anybody who has been will know what it is like, but the locals basically turn up with sound systems on the back of their cars and trucks and turn what is usually the market place into one big dance floor. It is an amazing atmosphere and there were quite a few people getting up in the G32 and having a good dance. One chap, and I do apologise if you are reading this, in particular caught my eye. He was a grey haired fellow, almost certainly into his seventies, dancing away with a girl who looked to be early to mid-thirties. I just assumed that they were granddaughter and grandfather until she leant over and rather enthusiastically kissed him. All I can say to that is, those people who say that money doesn’t buy happiness clearly didn’t see the look on this chap’s face … I think it certainly does!

 

My wife was busy singing along with some of the songs when Xtasea invited her up on the stage to sing along with them, which she politely declined. They wouldn’t take no for an answer, and in the end she made a deal with them to get up and sing along the following night. I have a feeling that if she had many more of these ‘Atlantic Breeze’ cocktails that she was drinking, (a mixture of vodka, cranberry and pineapple juice) then she would have been up there that night.

 

Friday had been set as an informal night and a jacket and tie isn’t particularly great dancing attire, but I made as good an effort as I could before we decided to call it a night.

 

As I am sure you can guess, Room Service was ordered for the following morning, and for a change I think, I was asleep first.

 

As Cruise Critic won't allow posts of more than 60,000 characters I've have to split this into two parts ... the rest follows in Part II.

[pepperrn]

Yet another brilliant piece of writing, thank you so much. This I have to read and read again. WOW. You have a very keen eye for detail. Such a joy to read. Either you have a very good memory or you make copious notes!

 

Thanks once more, I'm now going to re-read it and enjoy it all over again.

[travel-to-go]

Well, Patch Nelson!

What a marvelous end of the evning you have given me. can't wait for part 2!

 

Your writing style is very personable, and your spelling and grammar is impeccable! You make me feel as though I were there. I especially like tying the story to the pictures.

 

Just two comments

Picture 3- Was that Huck Finna nd Tom Sawyer on the raft at the bow of the boat in port? stowing aboard? <LOL>

 

And OH MY! :eek:

 

I am embarassed and mortified. You say the Commodore reads these boards? Well, that explains why he mentioned to me as we met in the receiving line "You wouldn't be one of those Cruise Critics, would you?" I simply assumed he had heard about it from another CCer who had been through the line earlier! (I had offered best wishes on his upcoming retirement- And he asked how I knew, as that had not been generally announced. And I suppose it also explains why we, too were invited to the Captain's table! It was a first for us (Engineer was as high as we got on previous Cunard cruises! <LOL> I guess we got a promotion!) Of course, now that I think back over the idiotic things I have posted- I am horrified at the thought that I may have unwittingly (or maybe inconsiderately and unconciously) said something which might be offensive to his own eyes. If so, then I apologize. For that matter, if I have said anything over time which is offensice to anyone here! I truly was charmed by both the Commodore and his wife, as was Marc. We felt blessed to be asked to join the table, and , though nervous- (Simple geeks and churchmice that we are- Not that we go to chirch, just.. Oh bother! You know what I mean!<G>) well, we, or at least I, was quite nervous about making some dumb faux pas. Our dear friend and world traveler, Marty told me two subjects not to bring up to the Commodore. So what were the first two questions he asked? <G>. Well, he and Kim put us both at ease, as did the lovely young lady sitting next to me. A Swedish lady-o"of a certain age" (I hope I remember this right) whose uncle snuck her and her family out of France in the War years. Indeed, they rode a banana boat from Spain, I think it was. Her daughter (?) Elyse or Elise- who worked for Cunard some years ago was also delightful. I wish I had gotten their address0 The live right across the GW bridge from the old piers. I have also been meaning to write to the Commodore and Kim, before his official retirement. Like so many things (like the emails I owe to Ignacio and Joe and Carl MM) my intentions always seem to go further than my actions! (Yes, I know, Lady MacWilly. I owe you one also!)

Well, if he truly he read these boards, I guess he must have known what he was getting into, inviting us to the table. As someone here metioned, he likes interesting people at his table, not just fawning sycophants (though I susppose I could be classified as both! <G>) But then no one could say that I am boring! Interesting- Isn't that how you describe that odd blind date charitably? <LOL>

 

Anyway, Thanks Patch for a marvelous review. And maybe knowing the Commodore was aboard here, even as we were aboard his loveley ship should teach me to keep my big mouth shut! ... But it won't! <G>

 

Karie, who, after 51 yearrs of only opening her mouth to change feet is not likely to stop now!

[Patch Nelson]

You're very kind, thanks ... imagine how dumb I felt when it took me the best part of twenty minutes to figure out that there really was only way that Commodore Warwick could have seen the Church we got married in.

 

Talk about slow on the uptake ... if I was him I'd have slaughtered me mercilessly for the rest of the night!

[travel-to-go]

You're very kind, thanks ... imagine how dumb I felt when it took me the best part of twenty minutes to figure out that there really was only way that Commodore Warwick could have seen the Church we got married in.

 

Talk about slow on the uptake ... if I was him I'd have slaughtered me mercilessly for the rest of the night!

 

I figured maybe he knew someone in your wedding party, or belonged to the same church!

After all, he does have a home on land!

 

Karie,

who doesn't think you're slow at all! I woudln't have figured it out, either!

I'm just surprised he finally let the cat out of the bag to someone. Maybe because he knew he would be retiring this year!

[Patch Nelson]

If memory serves ... and it rarely does ... I think that Commodore Warwick mentioned that they live in Bath.

 

I don't feel quite so slow now!! Cheers for that.:)

[travel-to-go]

If memory serves ... and it rarely does ... I think that Commodore Warwick mentioned that they live in Bath.

 

I don't feel quite so slow now!! Cheers for that.:)

 

I absolutely live in my bath, too! But then, I have a Jacuzzi bath! <G>

 

Karie,

Who should not be so silly!