2004 Europe

Cunard's Queen Mary 2



June 25 – Well this is the big day; we’re headed for the Queen Mary 2 (above). Our breakfast is included in the room and is a full English breakfast, eggs, ham, Cumberland sausages, tomato, sautéed mushrooms, beans, and toast as well as a big buffet with fruit, yogurt, cereal, breads, cheese, meats, way more food than anyone could even sample.



Culinary Note: Both England and Ireland are proud to list certain breakfasts on their menus as “English” or “Irish” breakfasts. Of course, neither will ever list the other and that’s for two reasons. One, while they get along very well, they have a little bit of a love-hate relationship and it would be a breach of that concept to have an English breakfast on an Irish menu and vice versa. The second reason is probably the main one however, THEY ARE EXACTLY THE SAME BREAKFAST. If you discount the pint of Guinness that the Irish usually have with each meal there is no difference between the two and I love them both.



After breakfast we went downstairs to check out and wait for the transfer to Southampton. We left the hotel at 1:15PM and arrived at the pier at 3:40. We checked in and waited until about 4:30 to actually board the ship. This process was a little disappointing. Every other time we’ve boarded a ship we were greeted by staff onboard and one of the stewards took us to our cabin. Here, on the biggest cruise ship afloat, you just walk on board and there you are, left totally on your own, no one to ask for directions to your room much less to take you there. Fortunately I had studied the floor plan of the ship so I knew where the room was and how to get there, but a lot of people were just wondering around clueless with their carry-on luggage. Holland America would never let that happen. They want your first impression of a ship to be a happy, pleasant feeling. Not one of confusion and frustration. When we sailed on the QE2 they escorted you to your room also. I’m not sure what the deal is but my first impression is not good. I expect better from Cunard.



On the plus side the food at dinner was good, the dancers and singers in the show were excellent and I had no trouble connecting to the wireless network. My account with Cox is totally functional on this network so I may not use AOL to send reports anymore. However there is a chance I might because AOL compresses the attachments and that will make them faster to send and receive. The wireless network has to go through a satellite connection so it’s not all that fast. I’ll have to test it. We gain an hour almost every day as we cruise back across the Atlantic, 5 25-hour days with only one 24-hour day on Tuesday. Yikes, I could get used to that. See you in the morning.



June 26 – I got up at about 6AM and got laundry ready to go. The Self-service laundries don’t open until 7:30 but I stood outside the door starting at 7AM. We have built up a lot of laundry during the Irish tour and I wanted to be sure I got it all in. After I got the wash started I went up to breakfast. One of the four buffets was serving English breakfast. I only took eggs, mushrooms, Cumberland sausage and toast. I’ll never quite catch on to the beans at breakfast bit and I have to watch my tomato consumption. I think the acid gets to me.



This ship is BIG. I guess it would have to be; it’s the largest passenger liner afloat. It has four separate breakfast and lunch buffets and of course you can also eat in the dining room. Today the four buffets were Italian, Oriental, general (regular buffet style food) and sandwich. I don’t know if they will be the same every day. I ate at the Oriental but if you want to stand in 4 different lines you can get food from any or all of them. They are located in the four corners of a very large space. The space is broken up by partitions and seating areas so it can’t all be seen from any one place but they are not that far apart.



Whatever shortcomings the ship may have in the organizational sense, the staff, the décor and the entertainment are first rate. In general, the décor has a ‘Machine Age’ or ‘Art Deco/Nouveau’ look, recalling the grand age of cruising. It has just enough of a contemporary look to keep it from seeming campy. There is sculpture everywhere. Bathing beauties run in the surf outside the Deck 12 indoor pool (below) and a tapestry by Barbara Broekman showing the QM2 with the New York skyline as a backdrop and turn of the century bridge rigging in the foreground hangs on the forward bulkhead of the dining room (below). It’s entirely hand woven from a blend of Trevira CS and wool and measures almost 14 feet wide by 21 feet high. Two teams of 4 weavers each labored two shifts a day for nine months to complete it.



The Main Hall is lined by four relief sculptures representing the continents that the QM2 will likely sail to, North America (below), Africa, Europe and South America. Each has a little bit of subtle humor. In the North American mural you can find Homer Simpson watching TV included in the design features between the base of the Statue of Liberty and the Space Shuttle blasting off. You have to look a little to find it, but it’s there.



This theme is carried through in the Atrium of the Grand Lobby. The Queen Mary 2’s Atrium rises from Deck 2 to the Kings Court (buffet style restaurant) on Deck 7 a distance of about 70 feet. At the top of the Atrium, on the forward bulkhead, is a bronze relief by John McKenna. The bronze itself measures 21.5 feet wide by 23 feet wide and is about 40 feet above the Grand Lobby (below). It depicts the QM2 surrounded by the same continents as those depicted in the Main Hall, Europe, Africa and North and South America. There’s a clock in the upper left hand corner, right in the middle of Greenland.



But the biggest surprise is the lecturers. They are truly outstanding. They are Dr. Robert Lanbourne, Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and Institute of Physics, he teaches at Oxford University, he’s lecturing on astronomy; Jean Firstenberg, Director and CEO of the American Film Institute, she’s lecturing on the best 100 films of the first 100 years of American film and other film related topics; Phil Schaap, Curator of Jazz at the Lincoln Center and Professor at Princeton, holder of 8 Grammys, he’s lecturing on the history and enjoyment of jazz and Dr. John Simpson, Chief Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, Fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford and editor of the Concise Oxford Dictionary Of Proverbs and The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang, he’s lecturing on the OED history, function and future. Contrary to what you might assume, he’s a very funny guy! I attended lectures by all four today and they were all interesting, informative and experts in their fields. I’ll probably attend the lectures of each one every day although I’m not sure about the astronomy. His presentation, while very well done, was pretty basic stuff. Tomorrow is discovering the sun and the planets and I’ve got those covered pretty well.



Formal evening tonight and my tux just got here from the cleaners so I’d better start getting ready. The dinner was very good. It looks like Diana and I have a table for 6 to ourselves. There are plenty of empty seats around so I don’t think the ship is near full. That’s fine with me. Diana and I can easily amuse ourselves so we really don’t need another couple at the table with us. Our waiter, Martin, from Poland, is always in formal wear (below) we get most nights off.



The show this evening was called “Rock @ the Opera”. They performed numbers from classic opera and modern opera; ‘La donna e mobile’ from Rigoletto to ‘Pinball Wizard’ from Tommy, and they were all well done both in song and dance. One of the men has a very strong voice, suited well to opera.



There are 12 dancers, 6 men and 6 women, plus four singers, again two of each. The dancers are very good, on average better than on Holland America, but they are not asked to sing at all. On HAL the two main dancers are as good as or better than these but the rest of the dancers on HAL have to sing also. As a group, the singers may be stronger here than HAL, but they are not asked to dance at all and even the main singers on HAL have to participate in the dance numbers. Again, the main singers on HAL compare well with the best of these. The main differences are that there are 50% more cast members on the QM2 and the stage is the most elaborate on any cruise ship. I don’t know which I prefer but I’m sure I’ll have an opinion by NY.



Another successful day at sea. The weather is not too bad, no sun but the sea is only moderate.



June 27 – Up early again. The lecturers I listed yesterday are all provided through an arrangement with Oxford University. Oxford recruits and organizes the speakers. They are doing a great job. Again today the presentations are first-rate. I like Firstenberg and Simpson the best but that may only be because their topics, American movies and the OED, are things I care about and find interesting. Tomorrow Carrie Fisher is going to speak before a showing of ‘Star Wars’ in the main showroom. She did the same thing for ‘Postcards from the Edge’ yesterday but I didn’t go. I refuse to see any movie with Shirley MacLane in it.



Today there was a special presentation by Terrance Hughes. He’s a director/producer of TV in Britain and the US and has won awards in both countries. He started out with the BBC and after being very successful there moved to the US and was also successful there. He produced and directed ‘The Golden Girls’ and ‘Third Rock from the Sun’ as well as several TV specials. His topic today was British TV Comedy. He had worked with almost everyone from Monty Python as writers and actors. He had some clips of shows and anecdotes to tell. It was very entertaining. One show from the BBC called ‘The Two Ronnies’ was hilarious. I wish it had made it to the States. Very language oriented humor in the clips he showed us. Might not do well in the colonies.



The entertainer this evening was violinist Doug Cameron. He played in various styles from Celtic to Country Western and was very good. Several of his songs features solos by members of the orchestra. They were excellent as well. The orchestra on the ship is large and excellent. It has a brass section, something Holland America has abandoned. It is greatly missed by the patrons and the performers, I suspect. The sound without brass is weak and empty. Trumpets and trombones fill the music out and support from below and give it power that can’t be duplicated by a keyboard. Dress was formal again tonight. Last time it will be required this trip.



June 28 – Today will only have 24 hours and I’m bummed. This is the only day on the crossing that we don’t set the clocks back an hour. I’ll just have to tough it out I guess.



Terry Hughes talked about directing and producing the Monty Python reunion concert at the Hollywood Bowl. Apparently when they agreed to get together for the 3-day event they wanted Hughes to be involved or they wouldn’t do it. He had a CD of the performance and he played clips in between telling stories about the Pythons and their history. It was a ripping good time.



The other lecturers were good as well. Firstenberg talked about recent graduates from the AFI Film Institute. She says it’s the Julliard of motion picture studies and I think she’s correct. It’s amazing the number of great films that the grads have produced. I discovered that I have seen 98 out of the 100 best films of the first 100 years. I’m only missing ‘Modern Times’ by Charlie Chaplin and ‘The Best Days of Our Lives’. The latter sounds familiar but I can’t think of who is in it or what the plot was. Next time I can do some research I’ll check it out. I may have seen it and don’t remember. I know I have not seen ‘Modern Times.’ I’ll have to finish the list ASAP.



Schaap talked about Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker and John ‘Dizzy’ Gillespie and the advent of Bebop. He says that these two guys together single-handedly changed the sound of jazz forever. He played clips of them from the early days when they played backup for pop singers and then their later stuff so we could see how the style of their small solos on the pop songs grew into a whole new sound for jazz.



Simpson talked about how a definition is crafted and the standards and process for getting a new on into the OED. They are very careful about new words and like to give them time to settle down for a few years before inclusion.



June 29 – Another day at sea and while it started out pretty foggy and dark, it cleared up nicely and we actually had sun and mild temps in the afternoon.



Once again the lecturers were very good. They held a little reception for those of us who had filled out evaluation forms for the presentations. They sent letters to our rooms inviting us to come and have a drink with the speakers. It was fun. Jean Firstenberg was there and I asked if AFI was going to try to bring the best 100 films series to Orange County. She said that she would be glad to if a venue could be found to show them. They are doing the series in Maryland and in Los Angeles and each showing is a sell out so the economic incentive is there for the theater operators but, according to her, Edwards has never been interested in showing them. I told her I would check into the situation and see if a venue couldn’t be found. I’m not sure what I’ve gotten into but I will try to scope things out when I get home. Maybe the Family Theater in Woodbridge would give up a screen now and then. This could turn out to be fun.



I’ve gotten myself ready for NYC. We’re renting a car to drive to PA and visit relatives. The ship will transfer us to Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan. That’s where we will catch the Amtrak home on July 6th. I’ve rented the car for the PA trip very close to there so that is a good place to return the car to and catch the train. I’m hoping to leave at least two of our suitcases at a baggage check in the station for the PA trip. It will be a pain to deal with them for the whole time.



This is another 25-hour day and I’m loving it. We get another one tomorrow, then it’s the Big Apple. This will probably be the last report. I’m pretty sure that our PA travels will be even more boring than these last few days on the ship.



See y’all later.



June 30 – Ugh, the worst part of cruising, the final day onboard. You still have a whole day but you’re dreading the disembarkation procedures so much you can’t enjoy it. I did attend the jazz lecture, but the OED and the AFI people didn’t have one so I was bummed about that. I did go around the ship taking video and pictures (below). Diana posed with a painting of the two Queens, QM2 (r) and QE2 (l) arriving in New York. You can see the Statue of Liberty between the two ships. She also posed with the North America relief in the Main Hall standing next to the Statue of Liberty. It’s difficult to see but Homer Simpson and his TV are in the relief. He’s in the fire from the space shuttle blast off, just below the right half of the satellite dish.



In the library I discovered an elevator that goes between deck 6 and deck 11 on the outside of the ship. It literally hangs over the side. That was a great ride but too short so I rode it up and down a few times. It starts out on deck 6 where they have a promenade all around the outside deck. It doesn’t go all the way to the bow or the stern and it takes 3 laps to equal a mile.



There’s a young man on board who is bicycling from Norway, a city named A, to somewhere in Nebraska where there’s a city named B. He rode across Europe and then across England and is not headed to NY where he will ride to Detroit and then cross into Canada, coming back into the US and heading to Nebraska. Anyway today, in honor of his final day on the QM2 he’s running a marathon around the deck, a little over 78 laps. I saw him running when I was out at 9AM shooting some ship video. When Diana and I sat down to lunch at about 12:30 in the King’s Court at a window that allows you to see the promenade, there he was still running. That’s when curiosity got the best of me and I asked about him and got the scoop on his trip. He’s apparently raising money for a charity for sick children in the UK. Way to go!



It just dawned on me that I ate almost every lunch in the oriental area of the King’s Court. The food was good but they hold back on the spices to keep the average person happy, not enough ginger or chilies. They have very few chocolate deserts on the QM2. Several dinners there was not a chocolate desert on the menu and often at lunch, although there are three desert areas in the King’s Court, there would not be a chocolate desert or maybe only one. Their chocolate cake is very dry and not flavorful. They try to save it by having a very good icing but the texture of the cake is all wrong. The best desert I had all week was light chocolate mousse in a dark chocolate cup. That was excellent.



I spent the rest of the day lounging around. Amazingly Diana and I had our large suitcases packed and in the hall for pick up before dinner at 6PM. That was great because it left us free to enjoy dinner and the show without worrying about getting that job done. Tomorrow will be another hectic travel day. Off the ship in NYC, pick up rental car, somehow get all our luggage into said car and then drive out of NYC to Allentown. Could be easy, could be hard, you never know.

(c) 2004 Rod Longenberger