QM2 7 Oct Crossing log

[southwestie]

Lucky you Rob, wish I could have been there. Haven't got much holiday left for this year. Will have to wait until April 2012.

 

Catherine

 

And dont forget June 2012

[southwestie]

I did see Robert Meadmore last night - very nice voice although we Americans can only think of Danny Boy when we hear a tenor like that.

 

Sunday, October 9

 

I woke up early this morning while it was still dark. It was a clear night and I managed to see a meteor and a satellite pass over. Encouraged, I went down to the forward area of Deck 7 (forward of the bridge where there are few lights and a good sky view) but didn’t manage to see anything more. We’re still having excellent weather with low breezes and temperatures in the mid 60s even at 6 AM. Now that the sun has risen I can see that there are more clouds than yesterday but maybe it will burn off.

 

We’re continuing our eastern course, current position at 8:15 ship’s time is 40 degrees, 40 minutes N (more or less the same latitude as New York), 55 degrees 17 minutes W (on a line south of Newfoundland) sailing at 23 knots. We’ll turn to the east-northeast sometime this afternoon and remain on that heading until just off the southwest coast of England.

 

We had breakfast in Britannia seated with 6 British people. One of them was Jeff Tall who is onboard as a lecturer on submarines. It turned out that all of the men seated at the table were former submariners.

 

we were very lucky and saw a satellite pass over in the Caribean 2009, wonderful, it was point out to us by the sky at night team on the top deck one evening.

[Underwatr]

I have an app on my iPod that helps identify the stars and also shows satellites and the locations and timings of metor showers.

 

Sunday, October 9

 

I attended Jeff Tall’s lecture on WWI and WWII submarines, managing to stay awake through some of it anyway (the time change plus early rising for stargazing has taken a toll on me today). As a result I had a lazy do-nothing afternoon, reading whenever I was awake. At dinner tonight the wine waitress was suitably impressed with the bottle of Napa Petit Syrah I had brought to the table. I didn’t let on that I had bought it for $20 on clearance at the state liquor store (the really good wine for my taste & pocketbook is still in the closet for later in the week). This evening’s entertainment was “Viva Italia” which I think I may have seen on my last QM2 trip so it’s early to bed to get ahead of tonight’s clock change.

[BlueRiband]

..CC did meet on the Sept. 5th crossing--in the board room off the Commodore Club... I'd say there were 10+there...

 

If I'm the only one who didn't know that the CC meeting had been moved perhaps I need to examine the content and tone of my posts. They may sound as if they are coming from a person the one would not like to meet.:(

[Salacia]

Hi Underwatr. Regards to you and your wife. Thanks for your posts. -S

P.S. Question: you wrote "we’ve opted for an expanded Room Service breakfast "...is this an expanded room service menu for breakfast now available in Britannia Category on QM2?

[Cape Cod Sally]

If I'm the only one who didn't know that the CC meeting had been moved perhaps I need to examine the content and tone of my posts. They may sound as if they are coming from a person the one would not like to meet.:(

 

Marie- Hope you are kidding! Think it was just by chance-- boardroom is just beside the Commodore Club-- otherwise I, too, was excluded!!! Really just think the early birds decided to go in there and I was lucky to find them.

 

Sally

[Underwatr]

you wrote "we’ve opted for an expanded Room Service breakfast "...is this an expanded room service menu for breakfast now available in Britannia Category on QM2?

in our experience continental-type items (cereal, juice, Danish) were available on the room service card, although we've had success reqesting other items such as smoked salmon on both QM2 and Qv. On this trip the card also has selections for eggs, breakfast meats and the like. Perhaps they were avaialble before, but normally we just have fruit, juice and coffee. So at the minimum it was an expanded choice for us, but it might be an extension from what used to be available.

[Underwatr]

Monday, October 10

 

This morning dawned cloudier with force 5-7 winds and moderate waves of 5-7 feet. Up on Deck 11 we could easily feel the ship’s motion. My wife decided a Bonine pill was in order for the day for me I decided that being able to occasionally fixate on the horizon was a sufficient. The motion was much less noticeable at breakfast down in Britannia, although the wave heights were more impressive.

 

I attended to 10:15 presentation by naval historian Jeff Tall on the British submarine force from 1901 through WWII. This was an interesting history and I look forward to seeing his final lecture on Wednesday. Immediately following this presentation was the first of Roger McGuinn’s two lectures. Having attended the 10:15 lecture I already had a prime seat for this standing room-only session, in which McGuinn told of his early years in music, from learning to play the guitar to playing guitar behind the limelighters to forming the Byrds as a sort of cross between folk songs and a Beatles beat.

 

At noon the Captain informed us that we had continued heading east to avoid a weather system off to the north, but as of noon we would be transitioning to a great circle route toward England. We’ll pass the halfway point of our crossing tonight.

 

This afternoon the winds are about 25 knots from the northwest. The upper decks are closed due to the winds but I can still see people walking the promenade on 7. We have sun on our balcony and since it’s on the leeward side we were able to sit out and read – for awhile anyway.

 

Today’s our 25th anniversary so I had the floral shop deliver a nice arrangement and card for my wife. We’ve broken out the bottle of Veuve that I brought onboard for a pre-pre-dinner toast.

[Oahucruiser]

Happy 25th to both of you. What a great way to celebrate. We are really enjoying your posts and watching the webcam to see what the sea is like during an October crossing.

[eratog2]

Happy Silver Wedding anniversary to you both - and loving your posts, keep them coming please.

[VirginCruiser II]

Congratulations to you both. I hope you have a grand dinner this evening.

I've really enjoyed reading your posts and can't wait to join QM2 on Sunday for our own crossing.

[Salacia]

in our experience continental-type items (cereal, juice, Danish) were available on the room service card, although we've had success reqesting other items such as smoked salmon on both QM2 and Qv. On this trip the card also has selections for eggs, breakfast meats and the like. Perhaps they were avaialble before, but normally we just have fruit, juice and coffee. So at the minimum it was an expanded choice for us, but it might be an extension from what used to be available.

 

Ok, thanks Undewatr, I think I understand.

 

Congratulations and best wishes to you and your wife...may you have many more happy and healthy years together. Best wishes, Salcia

[Underwatr]

Thanks for all the good wishes, everyone.

 

10 October

 

The evening’s entertainment was a concert by the National Symphony Orchestra, of American light classical music -- Gershwin, Sousa, Rogers & Hammerstein etc. -- the sort of music you might hear the Boston Pops play. I was very impressed by the quality of the performance and very glad to be able to experience it.

 

11 October

 

Although the ship makes five consecutive time changes between New York and Southampton, the progress of the ship across the time zones lags the time changes until the final day when there’s no change and the ship can catch up with the sun. This means that sunrise and sunset are a little later each day. A couple of days ago the sun came up at 7:10 but today it’s not until 7:45. We’re habitually early risers – and early to bed, which is why I don’t have any stories of the late night activities onboard – but it becomes a bit of a struggle to rise ahead of the 7:00 room service breakfast order. We’re able to rise when there’s coffee involved.

 

We’re more than halfway across now, and as of this morning the map on the where-are-we channel zooms out to show us relative to the west coasts of Europe and Africa rather than North America. We’re about 45 degrees N latitude and 34 degrees W longitude. The winds have died down and the dawn skies are clearer, with wispy clouds near the horizon.

A note about internet access onboard – it’s really to burn 20 or 30 minutes in one sitting if you’re not prepared to get on, do your business and get off. For email it’s best to have a program such as Mozilla Thunderbird on your laptop that allows you to read and compose offline and only connect long enough to upload and download. I compose most of the posts in this thread in word and then copy and paste into the thread once I’ve connected. When I’m disciplined I can get my email and update the thread in 5 minutes or so. If I get distracted the clock ticks on. I’ve used about 90 of my package 130 (120 plus 10 bonus) minutes so far but we haven’t tapped DW’s CWC Gold package of minutes yet.

 

There’s a website that lets you check the upload and download speed of your connection – here’s the result from this morning:

 

So it’s about the same as a 3G cellular connection (I think it’s been f aster on other days).

[BigMac1953]

Congratulations on your 25th Wedding Anniversary.

 

We had ours last month.

 

Always a good excuse to quaff a bottle of the "Widow" (as if you really need one).

 

Tried the Veuve tasting yet? It's never advertised, but if you can find when they are having them, you'll have an enjoyable couple of hours.

 

Stewart

[ancientmariner]

Monday, October 10

 

 

 

Today’s our 25th anniversary so I had the floral shop deliver a nice arrangement and card for my wife. We’ve broken out the bottle of Veuve that I brought onboard for a pre-pre-dinner toast.

 

Congratulations to you both. I'm on board but our paths won't cross - I'm late to bed and late to rise. Every evening seems to be a birthday or anniversary celebration. On Wednesday we'll be celebrating my sister's on board. Last night we ate at Todd English and it has thoroughly spoilt us. So nice to be in a small, intimate restaurant with unrushed service and a lovely ambiance.

[Underwatr]

11 October

Following the morning’s well-attended lectures, one about the investigation into the cause of the failure of the 1845 Franklin expedition seeking the Northwest passage and the other one the second part of Roger McGuinn’s Byrds story, we stepped out on deck to a glorious, warm & sunny day. The outdoor pools at the stern had been refilled and swimmers and sunbathers crowded the decks. DW and I spent the afternoon on our balcony, she reading and me snoozing.

 

Dinner was in Lotus, consisting of a 6-course Asian tasting menu. I will comment that despite the relaxed dress code everyone I saw wore a jacket, with level of formality ranging from just a jacket to full-on tux.

[Whitemarsh]

Dinner was in Lotus, consisting of a 6-course Asian tasting menu. I will comment that despite the relaxed dress code everyone I saw wore a jacket, with level of formality ranging from just a jacket to full-on tux.

 

I'm very pleased to hear this. I do believe Cunard's core clientele appreciate dressing for dinner and like the formality of the dress code.

[Underwatr]

12 October

 

Last night’s entertainment was a borscht belt comedian. He warned the British audience members that his humor probably wouldn’t translate well – but that it probably wouldn’t translate well to the American audience either. I think he had that about right…

 

A change in the weather – cloudy/foggy/rainy mist. I don’t hear foghorns this morning but I couldn’t see as much as a half mile in any direction. After a quick laundry run I attended the fourth lecture on submarines before locating my wife and going back for the cooking demonstration. Briefly at lunch time the fog lifted but it descended again during lunch.

 

We wandered down for the galley tour about 10 minutes before opening time and the line stretched from the Britannia entrance to the Grand Lobby. By the time the tour started I think the line reached past the B lifts.

 

Walking back from the galley tour we saw that they have begun to distribute the luggage tags. Can the end be near?

[DKNYC]

Hi again Underwatr

 

Still loving your log. Thanks for using some of your internet minutes to entertain us. Also wanted to wish you and your wife a Happy Anniversary again , wishing you many more. :)

 

Denise

[southwestie]

Yes you daily insights have been wonderful, The galley lines are a new thing for the tours, we saw this on QE this year, seems they want to do everyone at the same time, we have been a few times and wont do them again, this may give someone who has not been there a chance as well.

 

Sadly the time is coming to an end, never a good thing, but you have great memories im sure:)

[Lanky Lad]

I am in Southampton now ready and waiting :)

[north east girl]

I am in Southampton now ready and waiting :)

Have a great trip Steven.

 

Catherine

[rgaudet]

Underwater: thanks for sharing your trip with us, hope you had a great time. My sympathies are with you on your last day...I hate that feeling.

 

Lankylad: I'm excited for you! The day before is fantastic! Are you going to write some notes for us on your westbound crossing? enjoy!

[Underwatr]

13 October

 

Minor flaw in the standard of service this morning as our normal 7 AM room service coffee and fruit plates never arrived. We survived until 8:30 and the regular breakfast time.

 

The Insights lectures this morning was a presentation by British TV photojournalist Phil Bye on having been in Baghdad during the two gulf wars, and a question-and –answer session with Roger McGuinn led by Ray Rouse.

 

Mostly foggy today with intermittent breaks to overcast skies. The foghorn is blowing as I type. Out of our breakfast window we saw a few porpoises porpoising in the ship’s wake.

 

We really enjoyed the personalities of all the people we met on the crossing. Some were charming eccentrics; some were romantic such as the elderly Australian couple on their honeymoon, celebrating their two-week anniversary on the crossing. Sharing a table with different and varied for meals is one of the daily events that make a journey on a ship a different sort of vacation.

 

Our bags are packed and in the hallway and in a few minutes I’ll go down to the theatre for the final show by the National Symphony and about 85 singing guests for the “Last Night of the Cunard Proms.” We’re up early tomorrow but we’re promised disembarkation around 9 AM, which will give us plenty of time to get to Hertz to pick up our car by 10.

[Salacia]

Hi Underwatr. From your most recent posts on other threads, I take it you and your bride are safe and sound? Nothing like arriving home after a voyage of 25 years :)

Thanks for your posts.

Best,

-S