rafinmd

I have uploaded the first 3 Daily Programmes to the blog: https://morethangetaways.wordpress.com/m219-programs/ Wordpress has changed how their file upload works and it is a lot harder so this is likely the last cruise where I post programs unless I can find another hosting site. I've also posted the letter we got on embarkation about Covid Protocols: https://morethangetaways.files.wordpress.com/2022/07/covidletter.pdf And the Bar Harbor Congregational Church bulletin: https://morethangetaways.files.wordpress.com/2022/07/bhchurch.pdf Roy

I do hope the pharmacists in Gander can work the magic they did 9/12/01. You and Pat have nothing on me. I just came back from Bar Harbor and did not remember to take a camera with me. Roy

Today's sunrise was just a bit late as the sun came up before 5 in Bar Harbor: Roy

Today's sunrise was just a bit late as the sun came up before 5 in Bar Harbor: Roy

Today's sunrise was just a bit late as the sun came up before 5 in Bar Harbor: Roy

Thank you for the Sunday Daily, Rich. I'll pass on the scarecrow, don't like the mirror but disobedience sounds appropriate for the July 4 season. I love the Sparks quote but have not been to Miyako. Fried Rice sounds nice but probably not good for my blood sugar. My alternative is Caesar Salad, Roasted Goose, and Strawberry Ice Cream as served on Queen Mary 2, July 2, 2022. Today’s care list: Melinda with stage 4 cancer Sam recovering at home from Covid complications StPeteCruiser recovering from Appendicitis Covid in Durango shelter staff Heartgrove brother about to be discharged with extremely poor prognosis From the rotation: Cruzin Terri with continuing health problems Tana with persistant cough HAL Sailer DH Nephew Curt with serious mowing accident and new dimentia Cruising-along niece awaiting a kidney Celebrations and Shoutouts: Seasick Sailer friend Ron recovering from successful gall bladder surgery Welcome home Tioga Cruiser Curt discharged to rehab facility Ann and Pat in Newfoundland Volendam caring for refugees 6 days for Cat in My Lap (Zaandam 7/9 to 8/13) Bon Voyage Mister Boston (Celebrity Summit July 3 to 10) rafinmd (QM2 to July 8), Nickelpenny (Westerdam to 7/3) , jimgev (Noordam to 7/3 plus land trip), Norseh2o (Insignia to 7/4), Crazy for Cats (Zaandam to 7/9), GTVCRUISER (Carnival Panorama to July 9) and ski ww (Oosterdam to July 16) at sea Vacationing Staff Captain Sabine - Our first female Staff Captain and HAL’s likely first female Captain(I know this is a repeat but she’s worth it) Roy

Day 2, Saturday, July 2, 2022, At Sea, Queen Mary 2 My morning walk was about 5 laps around the promenade deck, a bit windy but not bad. I noticed that a couple of the “Commodore’s cufflinks (spare propellor blades) were missing from their mounts, don’t know if it’s routine maintenance or recent damage. At 5AM we were headed East, almost due South of Boston. I spent a lot of the day in my room. I don’t remember it in the past but the Cunard Insights lectures are now broadcast live on Channel 47 and with covid around it seems safer to watch in private. There were 2 in the morning. Seth Gopin led things off with a talk on skyscrapers He was followed at 11 by Photographer Neil Leifer on Mohammed Ali as seen from a photojournalist point of view. In his new update Captain Hall indicated we were 60 miles SE of Nantucket and would be slowing down to 10kt from 1:30 to 9:30 as we pass through a Right Whale habitat. We will pick up our Bar Harbor pilot at 5:30 and anchor at 700. One of the things I don’t like about QM2 is there are very limited options for outdoor dining. In most of my past cruises for lunch and breakfast I have picked up food in the buffet and taken it to either the Aft of Pool decks outside to eat it. With Kings Court midship on the Promenade deck there is no place designed for that. I miss that particular in times of Covid. I decided to get an easy to carry lunch and looked at the promenade deck (possibly perched on one of the boxes used to store the recliner cushions. I ended up walking aft and to deck 8 where there were a few tables. Not a good option but interesting. The afternoon talk was at 12:15 and I caught only part of it. Historian William Fowler spoke on the Declaration of Independence. It was well underway when I got back from lunch but I was eventually able to hear the first half in replay. The one thing I did attend in person was a classical piano concert with Caroline Oltmanns. She presented a variety of works Scarlati, Chopin, and contemporary James Wilding. This was the first of 2 Gala nights. There were 2 new people at Table 302, a couple from Australia. They have been on since Southampton, and it sounds like the missing couple is in quarantine. I’m beginning to wonder about the table. The lady declares herself a “food critic” and complains about everything. Dinner ran long, and things were not perfect but I am fed very acceptable food and all I need to do is be here, while the negativity is a real drag. My choices for the evening were the Caesar Salad, Roasted Goose, and Strawberry Ice Cream. The featured entertainment was the Royal Cunard Singers and Dancers with “Be our Guest”. I did not go. We also had the Black and White Ball in the Queens Room. I dropped by just briefly and it looked liked people were having a great time. I did not sleep as well as Friday night but still quite well. Sunrise came very early, before 5AM and I was just a bit late. My parting shot is based on dinner. It’s a quote that sounds like Casey Stengel but it’s actually Colonel Potter from MASH. “If you aren’t where you are, you’re nowhere” Roy

In case you don't hear much from me, the internet has been particularly awful today. Roy

Today's sunrise is a subdued one take from Queen Mary2's bow on the way to Bar Harbor. Roy

Captain Hall spoke at a fair length about that in his noon update. The area stretches about 80 miles and we were to enter at 1:30 and emerge tonight about 9:30. He indicated specifically Right Whales. Roy

Today's sunrise is a subdued one take from Queen Mary2's bow on the way to Bar Harbor. Roy

Today's sunrise is a subdued one take from Queen Mary2's bow on the way to Bar Harbor. Roy

Today’s care list: Melinda with stage 4 cancer Sam recovering at home from Covid complications StPeteCruiser recovering from Appendicitis Covid in Durango shelter staff Heartgrove brother about to be discharged with extremely poor prognosis From the rotation: Cruising-along niece awaiting a kidney Bennybear DH with melanoma Strength and healing for Kazu StLouisSal with weakening legs and covid Celebrations and Shoutouts: Lindaler successfully resettled Seasick Sailer friend Ron recovering from successful gall bladder surgery Tioga Cruiser enjoying Grand Canyon Good dental checkup for kochleffel Ann and Pat headed to Newfoundland 1Angelcat’s kindly vet Sharon DH now retired Volendam caring for refugees Bon Voyage ski ww (Oosterdam July 2 to 16) 7 days for Cat in My Lap (Zaandam 7/9 to 8/13) 1 day for Mister Boston (Celebrity Summit July 3 to 10) rafinmd (QM2 to July 8), Nickelpenny (Westerdam to 7/3) , jimgev (Noordam to 7/3 plus land trip), Norseh2o (Insignia to 7/4) and Crazy for Cats (Zaandam to 7/9) at sea Vacationing Staff Captain Sabine - Our first female Staff Captain and HAL’s likely first female Captain(I know this is a repeat but she’s worth it) I'll pass on the meal suggestion. My alternative is beef consume, roast turkey breast, and apple strudel as served on Queen Mary 2, July 1, 2022. Roy

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

Thank you for the report, Rich. Love all 3 of the days and the Rowling quote. Been to Honolulu several times, always on Crystal or land trips. It will be some time yet before I'm ready to comment on the meal. Oops, just realized my lists are on the other laptop that isn't yet connected to the wifi. Roy

Roy

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

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

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

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

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. Roy

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

99% packed for the ship, leaving in about an hour. Down to just my IPAD until settled in my room. Roy

I did not see an actual sun on my morning walk today because of the buildings but think I saw a bit of color in the sky. Roy

Thank you for the Friday Daily. I love all the days, especially Canada day and envy @Crazy For Cats being in Canada on this special day. I really wish my cruise started a couple of days ago so I could have been in Halifax today and then Boston on July 4. Not sure what to make of the quote. Have not been to Albania and will pass on the meal. My alternative is “rainbow” potatoes, chicken sausage, bacon, and raisin toast as served today in the Renaissance Times Square. Today’s care list: Melinda with stage 4 cancer Sam recovering at home from Covid complications StPeteCruiser recovering from Appendicitis Covid in Durango shelter staff Joy’s friend Ron facing Gall Bladder surgery Heartgrove brother about to be discharged with extremely poor prognosis From the rotation: StLouisSal with weakening legs and covid Cruzin Terri with continuing health problems Tana with persistant cough HAL Sailer DH Nephew Curt with serious mowing accident and new dimentia Celebrations and Shoutouts: A world cruise flight offer for Rich Seasick Sailer friend Ron recovering from successful gall bladder surgery Tioga Cruiser enjoying Grand Canyon Volendam caring for refugees 1 days for ski ww (Oosterdam July 2 to 16) 2 days for Mister Boston (Celebrity Summit July 3 to 10) My embarkation day (QM2 July 1 to 😎 Nickelpenny (Westerdam to 7/3) , jimgev (Noordam to 7/3 plus land trip), Norseh2o (Insignia to 7/4) and Crazy for Cats (Zaandam to 7/9) at sea Vacationing Staff Captain Sabine - Our first female Staff Captain and HAL’s likely first female Captain(I know this is a repeat but she’s worth it) Roy