At Sea 6: On Board Queen Mary 2

On Board Queen Mary 2 - April 16, 2010

We went to breakfast in the Britannia Restaurant and were seated at a table for eight next to a window. Met nice people – an English couple returning home after visiting their son at State College, Pennsylvania, an elderly Englishman from South Africa going to England for his granddaughter’s wedding, an Australian man, a little woman from Cape Town, a woman from Julliard School of Music in Manhattan who was traveling with one of the entertainment groups for this crossing – the Julliard Jazz Group.


We went to the Passport Inspection, then to the Library to sign up for 8 hours each of computer use and to borrow books. After I ate lunch I walked around the deck three times (three laps equals 1.1 mile). It was a lovely sunny day with the temperature in the fifties.


We met a little woman in an elevator today and she mentioned ships she had been on in the past. Referring to the Andrea Doria and its sinking, she told us that her husband always said that Italians shouldn’t be allowed to build ships!

At Sea 5: On Board Queen Mary 2

On Board Queen Mary 2 - April 15, 2010

This was the last section of QM2’s World Cruise so only 400 new passengers were joining the ship at the Brooklyn Terminal. This made for a speedy check-in (registering, photo ID card picture being taken and the security check). Usually there are about 2500 persons embarking. A staff member told us that about 650 people had been on the voyage the entire time – the day we land in the maritime port of Southampton will be their 107th day on the ship. He described them as “mostly rich and old”.

Time passed quickly having the compulsory boat drill, unpacking one of the four pieces of luggage we brought, eating and drinking. My husband and I sat in the Commodore Club (always a favorite place). It is a piano bar on deck 9 and has a detailed scale model of QM2 behind the bar. The Commodore Club is at the very front of the ship so we had a fantastic panoramic view.


The ship began to move at 5:40 p.m. and we sat and watched the activity in New York Harbor. We remained there until we cleared the Verrazano Bridge and then sailed past the famous Parachute Jump, a defunct amusement ride in Coney Island. It remains a landmark and has been called the "Eiffel Tower of Brooklyn". We had memories of riding on it on a date in the fifties but sadly it ceased operations in 1968.