Taste of France and on to New York

[FIRELT5]

Roy, 0545 Docking of the QM2, thats pretty good !!!

[foxeysandy]

Hi Roy, John and I are really enjoying your updates, as well as the "tips". We hope you will be on our crossing. It begins in Hamburg on August 13 and has a port call at Southampton on August 15.

 

I have a question about dining. You said something about flexible dining conflicting with early/late seating. Are you on "flexible dining", but seated at a table with people assigned to early or late seating? Please explain how the dining works out. Also, the QM2 has a Todd English restaurant, correct? Have you eaten there, and so, what is your opinion of it?

 

Thanks for all the info about entertainment and lectures.

 

Sandy

[capnpugwash]

I have a question about dining. You said something about flexible dining conflicting with early/late seating. Are you on "flexible dining", but seated at a table with people assigned to early or late seating? Please explain how the dining works out. Also, the QM2 has a Todd English restaurant, correct? Have you eaten there, and so, what is your opinion of it?

 

 

Sandy

Roy is in Britannia Club which has one sitting, anytime from 6pm until 9pm and he is sharing a table with others on the same deal. In Britannia main restaurant there are 2 sittings as normal. This is why the numbers at his table vary.

[alabama ghost]

Hi Roy!

 

I've enjoyed reading the review of your QM2 voyage. I'm Sandy's sister and my husband and I will be traveling with them next August, also our first time on the QM2 (or any Cunard vessel).

 

It seems as though you've had a lot of rough weather during this voyage. Is that common or does it depend on the time of the year?

 

Is there anything that we need to know as first timers that will be helpful on our first QM2 cruise? We've also cruised with Crystal, but on the Symphony twice. Hope to meet you next August.

 

Pam

[rafinmd]

John, Sandy, and Pam, QM2 carries about 2600 passengers. In rough terms, there are approximately 150 each in Queens and Princess Grills, 100 in Britannia Club, and the remaining 2200 or so in the main Britannia Restaurant. The 2200 are divided into traditional early and late seatings, about 6PM and 8:30PM. There is a performance of the main evening show for each seating., with the show designed for late seating guests sometimes before and sometimes after dinner. The remaining guests are in a single seating with a fixed table assignment but can arrive anywhere between 6:30 and 9:00PM. Shared large tables ideally develop a pattern where everyone adheres to more or less a common schedule, but that is not necessarily true. For the crossing the we mostly dined a bit later than my ideal, but still within a pattern that worked with my early bird habits. There was one night where we had the late seating show after dinner (10:30) and a World Club [think Crystal Society] party at 7:30. I was just not prepared to wait up for a 10:30 show and my only option was dining right at 6:30 to make the 7:30 party and 8:30 show, leaving me finished with dinner before the others arrived. This was really an effect of my unusually early schedule and not typical of the cruise where we did not necessarily arrive at the same time but still managed to share at least most of the meal.

 

I had actually purchased a Britannia Club cabin for the 2-day side trip to France, but expected to be in the main restaurant for the crossing. I still haven’t figured out how I came to still dine in Britannia Club since I was clearly not in a cabin where it applied.

 

I have not dined in Todd English on QM2 but did have lunch there on Queen Victoria and greatly enjoyed the experience.

 

I think there will be lots of good advice when you get to the roll call phase of the planning.

 

Pam, based on your cruise experience I think you will enjoy QM2. It is not Crystal but it is quite elegant and a very nice cruise experience.

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

It was a dreary, drizzly morning when we passed under the Verizzano Narrows bridge about 5AM. I looked forward at the funnel from the door to Boardwalk Café and it seemed to be the perfect vantage point for the small gap between the top of the funnel and the bridge. The early weather was quite awful and I didn’t linger on the outer decks after passing the bridge. Fireflt reported docking at 5:45 but the first line I saw went off at 6:05, with the self help disembarkation about 7. After a breakfast today in Kings Court, disembarkation for my transfer was called at 8:40, and I passed through border formalities and arrived at Penn Station about 10. I spent the morning at pier 86 and the carrier Intrepid. The museum places a lot of emphasis on air and space craft, with an opportunity to walk through a Concorde, and a lot of exhibits on our early space program, very appropriate since the ship was a (if not the) primary recovery ship for returning Mercury, Gemini, and Appolo capsules. From my perch on the deck of the Intrepid the Manhattan Cruise Terminal looked quite deserted today.

 

In the afternoon I took the subway south to Battery Park and took a ride on the Staten Island Ferry, getting one last look at QM2. After returning to Manhattan I walked through Ground Zero before catching the subway back to Penn Station. The site is finally beginning to show some signs of new life.

 

My train just passed Philadelphia and I will soon be back home.

 

For today’s final parting shot, the Intrepid museum gave two great examples of what can be accomplished when we follow our dreams, in the cases of the Concorde and the space program. What great examples to follow.

 

Roy

[buckirj1]

Coming in late (just got in and finished up phone calls to family), but I wanted to add my condolences to Paul, and also to thank Roy for his wonderful day-by-day accounting of his voyages. It was interesting to read someone else's perspective of the same voyage, and will make a start of writing my own thoughts in a separate thread. Nice meeting you, Roy.

[AAAAmerican]

Dear rafinmd,

 

WELCOME HOME!

 

Thanks for everything you did then posted too.

 

It was swell, kin, also great to follow.

 

You are helping and helped many on your voyage(s).

 

 

:cool:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll try (not very successfully) to reply here and keep the other thread related to the rescue. I did not visit Chef's Galley as I was trying to make the most of my upgrade to Britannia Club. I did see a Canyon Ranch day, a Japanese night, and a steak house day on their menu. I do not eat seafood but had a varied menu, including Duck Al'Orange, Steak, Veal, and Lamb dishes.

 

One other food related item. I have never seen Boardwalk Cafe open, but on this voyage it was not even mentioned in the Daily Programme.

 

Roy

[alabama ghost]

Thank you Roy for all the information. Hope you had a good trip home. (Do you spend much time there?)

 

Pam

[foxeysandy]

Yes, Roy, thanks for all the helpful information! One other question--have you done other Transatlantic crossings? If so, did you find the weather to be typical? Do you know if they usually have less rain in August?

[imacruizer]

Roy, thanks again for an excellent "live from" thread on your recent voyage. You take such an interesting combination of cruises and you do such a good job of comparing them. I look forward to following you on future voyages.

[rafinmd]

Yes, Roy, thanks for all the helpful information! One other question--have you done other Transatlantic crossings? If so, did you find the weather to be typical? Do you know if they usually have less rain in August?

 

Sandy, I'll post here what I had from an earlier crossing in August 2008. Weather is weather and can vary from day to day, but I don't think it was particularly rainy. On that trip I was returning from a train voyage in Africa (Dar es Salam to Capetown) and had injured my knee in Africa so I wasn't doing much walking to really remember the weather but I think it was nice.

 

"Sunday I visited 2 museums before boarding the Queen Mary II. The first was an aviation museum. A lot of the aircraft on display are military but it also deals extensively with Southampton's history as an early base for flying boats. A very large example was available for us to board and explore. There were other oddities on display such as gliders, trainers, and manually powered craft. Not surprisingly, Southampton also had a Maritime museum. It was actually not very good, except it did have an excellent collection of recollections of people (survivors, loved ones, and colleagues) who were associated with the Titanic. I also stopped briefly at the Titanic memorial on the way between the museums. The current dock for the QM2 is very close to the site from which Titanic departed.

 

The crossing was pretty uneventful. This one started in Hamburg so we had about 900 Germans on board, actually the largest single nationality. I shared a table with 2 Americans (who had lived several years in Maryland) and 5 Germans, all but one of whom spoke at least passable English. We had 3 lecture series from an astronomer, a movie critic, and a New Yorker cartoonist.

 

I had booked a 6PM train home with hopes of an active day in New York. My knee did not prevent that, so I took the circle cruise around Manhattan. I had previously sailed both the East and Hudson Rivers, but the Harlem River was new to me, and a short but interesting ride. Turning North from the Statue of Liberty, the Queen Mary II was quite majestic on the Brooklyn waterfront. My trip home was smooth and pleasant."

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

Roy, thanks again for an excellent "live from" thread on your recent voyage. You take such an interesting combination of cruises and you do such a good job of comparing them. I look forward to following you on future voyages.

 

Thank you, Beth. I'm sure my TA cringes every time I call but she handles all my crazy ideas with wonderful grace. I do have a couple of additional strange plans in the works:

 

In July I'll be sailing HAL'S Prinsendam to the North Cape and plan on returning to North America on QM2.

 

In October I will do a North American Circle using my 2 favorite cruise lines. I will go from New York to Montreal on Blount Small Ship Adventures Grande Caribe via the Erie Canal and St. Lawrence Seaway and return to New York on the Crystal Symphony.

 

I am also looking at a Spring 2012 Transatlantic on the 148-passenger Wind Star with a return on the 2600-passenger QM2. That is a true mix of opposites. I'm not sure how much there will be to report on with Wind Star which has virtually no activities and will be pretty much total relaxation.

 

Roy