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Over The Water And Back Again—A Transatlantic Trip
By Snookums, edited by Filbert, photos by Filbert

Part 9-- below (or at the "read more").

May 16 (Friday, Day 20, Southampton, England) –

We ate the Holiday Inn Express continental breakfast which included three kinds of individually wrapped “good” cheese as well as normal American continental breakfast foods.  We arranged for a cab to pick us up at 11:45 AM and we zipped through the Queen Mary 2’s embarkation process and got to our stateroom by 12:20. 

Within 20 minutes of being on the ship, we knew that this cruise was going to be MUCH better than the Royal Caribbean one.  Our 248 square foot stateroom with balcony was quite a bit smaller than the one on our prior cruise but was extremely clean and well designed.  And, a half bottle of chilled sparkling wine was waiting for us along with a plate of canapés.  There was even a pen and free postcards. 

Our QM2 stateroom:

 

Departing Southampton

We went to lunch in the King’s Court buffet area and then returned to our room.  Our luggage was there so we were able to get it unpacked by the 4:00 lifeboat drill.  After the lifeboat drill we explored the ship before getting dressed (jacket for Filbert, pantsuit or dress for Snookums) for our 8:30 dinner.  Our tablemates are three couples from England, all older than us.  One served in the RAF during World War II and lost his sight several years ago due to picking up river blindness from Africa’s contaminated water during the war.  It was so nice to have excellent service at dinner compared with what we had received on Royal Caribbean.  No wine was spilled and all orders were delivered correctly.

Table 103, Britannia Room

Canyon Ranch Spa is connected to Cunard’s ships and there is always an appetizer, entrée and dessert on the menu that is from the Canyon Ranch Spa.  The fitness classes are also from Canyon Ranch Spa as well as the actual spa on the ship.

May 17 (Saturday, Day 21, At Sea) –

Snookums’s cold caused her to sleep a lot today and at some point after lunch she decided that she wanted room service.  The salads and hamburgers we ordered were delivered within 15 minutes!  We also went to the front desk to verify that our shipboard credit amount was the $400 we were expecting.  The $100 from the travel agent wasn’t on our account so the purser said she would follow-up on it.  And we believed her (unlike on Royal Caribbean) since she was so professional and took a copy of the email stating that we were going to get $100 from our travel agent.  Anyway, we are thrilled with the service on Cunard so far.

Snookums went to afternoon tea and really enjoyed the scones and clotted cream.  A string quartet played during it.

We went to the Captain’s welcome party prior to dinner and looked at everyone in their formal attire.  We didn’t see a single man in a suit.  On most other ships, “formal men's wear” includes dark business suits.  Not on Cunard, where formal wear means a tuxedo..  The Captain told us that 1,500 passengers are from England and 400 are from the U.S. and the rest are from other countries.  The ship holds 2,600 passengers and there are no empty staterooms.   900 of the passengers left from Southampton and will spend 5 nights in New York before getting back on the QM2 for the return 6-night trip to Southampton. 

The Captain also told us that we are not on a cruise but instead we are on a voyage or a crossing.  The Queen Mary 2 is an ocean liner and not a cruise ship.  The main difference is that this ship is long and narrow and gets to its widest part about 1/3 of the way from the bow whereas a cruise ship gets wide right away.  The QM2 can also go 30 knots and can sustain really big waves.  (We’re on the 4th deck and our balcony has a metal front (compared to Plexiglas or nothing on other ships) in order to deal with waves that crash that high.  Our stewardess told us that last week on the sailing from New York to Southampton, the waves were as high as our deck!)  So, it has the same types of facilities as a cruise ship, but to a nautical-type person, it definitely is an ocean liner and not a cruise ship.

We were one couple short at dinner, as one of the couples at our table asked to be moved to another table.  Later on we found out that they were offended by one of the other men at the table (NOT Filbert!).  This man is kind of loud and opinionated but he’s okay.  Supposedly he downplayed the RAF service of the old man and this offended the other man.  Neither the old man’s wife (nor the old man who is hard of hearing as well as being blind) nor Snookums heard him downplaying the RAF service so we think the other man that got upset must have misunderstood a comment made in jest.  Oh well, the three remaining couples (Snookums/Filbert, loud man and his wife, RAF blind man and his wife) get along. 

We went to the Black and White Ball after dinner but the Queen’s Room that held it (and which is the largest ballroom at sea) was packed, so after walking through and seeing everyone dancing to the orchestra in their fancy clothes we went to bed.  We also remembered to turn our clocks back one hour which is something that will happen every night on this cruise.  We prefer the 2 AM clock changes to what Royal Caribbean's noon time changes.

The obligatory picture of a guy taking a picture

Black and White Ball

May 18 (Sunday, Day 22, At Sea) –

Snookums’s cold was being stubborn and she was reading and sleeping a lot.  We ate lunch in the Lion’s Pub which is a non-smoking area during lunch , when it serves traditional pub fare.  Filbert had fish and chips and Snookums had steak and mushroom pie.  Filbert also ordered Stella Artois to wash down his fish and chips.  We had seen a news story on British TV that Stella was the beer of choice for rioting soccer hooligans, but Filbert felt no impulse to go out and knock any Manchester United fan's heads.

Snookums wanted Filbert to experience tea so we went to that at 3:30.  Today was a tea dance which meant that the ship’s orchestra was playing during it and many people were dancing.  We both enjoyed the finger sandwiches, pastries and scones.  Filbert drank several cups of tea with milk while Snookums asked for water with lemon.  We got on the dance floor, too, but after two songs realized that other couples were actually dancing counterclockwise around the floor while we were staying in one place.  We decided to get off the floor to save our lives and actually had a hard time dodging the dancers!  Then we went to the movie “Kite Runner” which we enjoyed (other than the fact that its subtitles meant that Snookums had to read). 

We decided to take a nap prior to our formal dinner (yes, two nights in a row for Filbert wearing a tux).  When our alarm clock went off at 7:45 PM to give us time to get ready for dinner, we both decided to continue sleeping.  We finally woke up around 9 PM and ate from the fruit basket in the room.  We were still full from tea so we didn’t even bother ordering room service.  We watched two fascinating episodes of BBC’s “Blue Planet” with David Attenborough narrating and fell asleep. 

May 19 (Monday, Day 23, At Sea) –

We woke up early enough to eat breakfast in the sit-down restaurant (that stops seating people at 9 AM) and enjoyed it.  They have traditional English items on the menu including English bacon (thin slices of uncured pork), two kinds of English link sausage, mushrooms, broiled tomatoes and baked beans.  Snookums had eggs benedict and Filbert had an omelet and sides of mushrooms and tomatoes.

Filbert attended the nature lecture by the scientist on the ship.  Cunard prides itself on its lecture series and for this voyage there is an entomologist, an art historian that knows all about Rockefeller Center, and another man that knows all about New York City and Cunard.  Filbert also went to the planetarium’s film.  (The QM2 is the only ship that has a planetarium on it.)

While Filbert was enjoying educational pursuits, Snookums enjoyed a 55-minute Thai massage at the spa.  She spent three hours at the spa not only relaxing during her Thai massage but also enjoying the herbal steam room, the Finnish sauna, the aqua-therapy pool, the ice fountain, the aromatic sauna and other spa-only facilities.  She figured that the steam room helped her chest (and now nose) cold.

In a fog

In the afternoon the fog had burned off and it was around 60 degrees outside.  This meant that it was prime sea watching time for Filbert so he was on the balcony in his coat and gloves with his shortwave radio.  He saw dolphins around 4 PM. 

The purser’s desk called to say that our $100 shipboard credit had been taken care of and was now on our account.  You can’t ask for better service than that (and it was our travel agent’s fault to begin with).  We wrapped up our busy day by going to the movie theater before dinner to see “Bucket List”.

Dinner for Snookums consisted of cock-a-leekie soup (leek soup with chicken broth), the Canyon Ranch entrée of 7-spice chicken, bok choy and rice and two desserts.  One was maple walnut ice cream and the other was nougat glacé.  She had to order the nougat glacé to see what it was.  It was a pyramid of vanilla “fluff” with little pieces of nougat in it.  She never figured out the glacé part.  Filbert had seafood chowder, sirloin steak with mushroom sauce and some kind of vegetable and the very nice cheese plate for dessert.

Big band night

Tonight was Big Band night and the RAF couple from our table ate quickly in order to leave dinner by 9:30 to get a seat in the Queen’s Room for the event.  The rest of us (the loud guy and his wife and us) enjoyed our normal leisurely dinner and left the table around 10:15.