"Live from" Queen Elizabeth to the Mediterannean! My First Cunard Experience

[lovely_serenity]

Sarah, I thought your pictures of Jerusalem were very good. Thanks.

 

Thanks, I'm glad you liked them (:

[tourwick]

WHEW! It took me three days but I've gone through every post in this thread. LOVE your Live from review. The pictures are great! You are really good at it! The rude comments totally baffle me. Really? Let me see you take a picture of a water glass and have it come out that well! Water is tricky to photograph! =) Although the drama definitely added to the suspense. lol! Keep up the great work and I can't wait to see what happens next!

[lovely_serenity]

WHEW! It took me three days but I've gone through every post in this thread. LOVE your Live from review. The pictures are great! You are really good at it! The rude comments totally baffle me. Really? Let me see you take a picture of a water glass and have it come out that well! Water is tricky to photograph! =) Although the drama definitely added to the suspense. lol! Keep up the great work and I can't wait to see what happens next!

 

Haha thanks for taking so much time to read my report! (: I'm very happy to hear that you like it! LOL Indeed, water's a tricky one ;) Thanks a lot! The next update will be on its way soon!

[lovely_serenity]

Look! Israel’s getting ready for Christmas!

 

 

We first take some pictures outside of the Church or Nativity before actually going in.

 

 

The Church of Nativity is a major Christian holy site because it is contains the traditional spot of Jesus Christ’s birth.

 

 

 

Look! It’s the Jerusalem cross again!

 

 

After that we all start heading toward the entrance. This is known as the Entry of Humility. (It was a really tiny hole in the wall which required crouching to get through. Apparently it was either to prevent horses from getting in in the past or to make people bow or something LOL).

 

[lovely_serenity]

 

Because when we actually got in there, the place was huge …

 

 

Here the Palestian guide explained that this was the original floor mosaic that they were preserving:

 

 

The interior architecture and church display was very nice.

 

 

 

The guide talked about the architecture some more (about the ancient nave etc.)

 

[lovely_serenity]

Before we all filed in through a door to the left of the church display (I say display because no one was actually allowed on it).

 

 

 

 

We ventured deeper into the church

 

 

 

Until we arrived at the square in front of the Church of St. Catherine.

 

[MKMC]

Enjoying your blog very much. Will you do one on your coming Disney cruise?

What is happening about your exams as a result of the teacher's strike? Will applications to UBC be affected?

All the best. Keep up the good blogs!

[lovely_serenity]

//hallways surrounding the square outside the church

 

 

 

Right in the middle of the square, there is this tall statue:

 

 

As well as this one on top of the building:

 

 

And this is the Church of St. Catherine:

 

 

Beneath this church is the grotto where Jesus is believed to have been born.

 

We first all filed into through the church doors and started taking pictures of everything.

 

[lovely_serenity]

 

 

 

 

While we were taking pictures, we were all suddenly told to leave. Somewhat confused, we all mingled in the square outside of the church for a bit. It turns out, they were holding a funeral in there and the people working at the church got mad at our Palestinian guide guy. Oops. D: Sorry. We didn’t know. While we waited outside, I took a picture of this as well:

 

 

So while we were mingling outside of the church, worried that we wouldn’t even get to see the grotto where Jesus was born when we came ALL the way here, Micki was scolding the Palestinian guide. From what we saw, the Palestinian guy was being all afraid and chicken of going back in there (he was afraid of getting in trouble again), and he wanted us to all just leave. Micki on the other hand, he was seriously pushing for our tour group to be able to get in there to see the grotto (which was really nice since it wasn’t technically supposed to be included in our “Jerusalem & Bethlehem” tour.) He was scolding the Palestinian guy and ordering him to go in there, apologize to the workers in the church and ask if we could possibly be able to quietly slip into the grotto without causing a disturbance. Well, by pressuring him and pointing and scolding him in a language we didn’t understand (it sounded a lot like “Get back in there!!” when he was pointing at the entrance as we were all filing out). Thankfully, it worked because the church officials allowed us to all quietly sneak into the grotto. Here is the blurriness that comes from our rushed scurrying. (The grotto entrance is down some small stairway to the right)

 

[lovely_serenity]

 

And here, finally, is the grotto in which Jesus Christ is believed to have been born in.

 

 

 

 

 

[lovely_serenity]

 

 

 

 

 

[lovely_serenity]

It was really dark, but it was cool. At the moment, they were holding some service for children who died in some tragic event in the past (sorry, I don’t remember what it was D:)

 

 

Here they had some wall carvings that they were covering to prevent from getting damaged:

 

 

After exploring for a while and taking many, many pictures, we were on our way back out. While we were climbing the staircase, I saw this little display hidden behind a cage like casing. I stopped to take a picture of it, noticed it was mis-focused, was about to try again, before I realized I was holding up the line. o_o ! oops, sorry. I scurried up the stairs.

 

 

When we got up there, I took a picture of this before heading out.

 

 

When we got out to the square, I took this picture that captures all 3 of these before leaving.

 

 

Following that, we only took a look at a few more things before leaving.

 

[lovely_serenity]

 

After so much darkness, we finally emerged to the light.

 

 

We then proceeded to take a stroll through the plaza to make our way to the bus.

 

 

 

It felt really different seeing this Christmas tree in the plaza, as opposed to say a Christmas tree back home. I guess it was because Christmas = celebrate Jesus’s birth and well … I just saw where Jesus was born. o_o It felt like Christmas held more meaning here than back in America. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me.

 

 

[lovely_serenity]

It was then that I noticed the guy perched up on top of the Christmas tree’s base.

 

 

I guess he was in charge of filling it up with leaves?

 

 

We walked through small side streets and slowly made our way to the main road.

 

 

 

 

[lovely_serenity]

We made our way down the street to find our bus. As we walked, many took pictures to record what the streets of Bethlehem looked like.

 

 

 

 

//poses for you guys :D

 

 

 

[lovely_serenity]

Finally, we approached the station in which the bus was parked. Everybody was exhausted.

 

 

 

We all loaded onto the bus, tired from our action-packed day.

 

 

 

The current light setting of the bus made me want to sleep ^^’

 

 

As we prepared to leave, something caught everybody’s attention. As we passed by gaps in between buildings, the clearing revealed an absolutely picturesque scenery. Everybody in the bus whipped out their cameras (including me) in an attempt to capture this magnificent sight. Almost all attempts were failures due to the dirty bus windows and the movement. Micki saw this and asked that the bus driver pull over for a minute. When he did, everybody leaned over toward the windows and a massive photoshoot began. I don’t remember if I opened a window or something, but here were my 2 best shots.

 

[lovely_serenity]

 

After about a minute or so, Micki announced that we had to go and we were off!

 

They drove us to a souvenir shop in Bethlehem and asked everyone to leave their blue box and ear bud on their seats to be collected (the blue box) or thrown away (the ear bud). I quickly took a picture of the blue box before we got off the bus.

 

 

We then entered the souvenir shop.

 

 

 

 

[lovely_serenity]

Many bought trinkets, few bought expensive jewelry, and others bought random souvenirs to give to loved ones back home. We bought a handful of small trinkets.

 

 

After we got back onboard, Micki passed around some DVD set and I think a book to see if anyone wanted to buy it.

 

 

While we were driving, I noticed something on my shirt.

 

 

… LOL MY SHIRT’S A THIEF. IT STOLE SOMEBODY'S STICKER!

 

Anyhow, we arrived at this huge defense wall separating Bethlehem (Palestinian) from the rest of Israel:

 

 

 

[lovely_serenity]

After that, we drove for quite a while before arriving at our docked ship. Looking at the time, we were obviously too late for dinner in the dining room. After scanning our key cards, we stopped by the Britannia a few floors up for menu pictures before heading back to our rooms to drop our things off.

 

 

 

After that, we made our way up to the Lido to feed ourselves. We were all starving to death LOL. I was very happy about tonight’s special, you can probably guess why (:

 

 

 

 

[lovely_serenity]

 

We were surprisingly pleased with the Lido buffet dinner. Nothing to complain about, everything was delicious. It felt like Cunard had invested some time into the Lido dinner layout, as it was better than some of the other Lido dinner fare we had experienced.

 

 

 

 

All in all, a very good meal. We left extremely satisfied and happy :D

 

It seemed that tonight, there would be no show. The only one was just the EOS string quartet playing in the theater, which was over already.

 

Completely exhausted, we all collapsed in our rooms. Prior to sleeping, I took pictures of the if-you’re-lost card.

 

 

 

Following that, I drifted off into a very well-deserved sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a relaxing day … hopefully.

 

 

End of Day 6

[lovely_serenity]

Enjoying your blog very much. Will you do one on your coming Disney cruise?

What is happening about your exams as a result of the teacher's strike? Will applications to UBC be affected?

All the best. Keep up the good blogs!

 

I'm glad that you are enjoying it! ^^ I will definitely do another one for my upcoming Disney cruise!

 

It's actually been pretty good for us graduating students. They made it a point to ensure that all gr.10-12 students get their provincial exams as well as report cards. They dubbed it an "essential service" so they have no choice. University applications are not being affected at all (: Thanks for asking ;)

 

Thank you!!

Edited June 23, 2014 by lovely_serenity

[lovely_serenity]

Day 7: Haifa, Israel

 

Thursday, November 15, 2013 : Informal

 

At about 8:00am, we woke up and started getting ready for our relaxed day in Haifa. After receiving Mom’s morning phone call, we congregated in the hallway and made our way down to the dining room together for breakfast. We were seated very quickly.

 

Our meal started off with a refreshing drink, that smoothie of the day: Banana & Apricot

 

 

As well as a nice fruit salad:

 

 

And those who did not order items from the griddle, got their food first:

 

 

 

After some waiting, the rest of our food arrived.

 

 

Edited June 30, 2014 by lovely_serenity

[lovely_serenity]

Today, I had decided to try the Banana Pancake instead!

 

 

After our meal, my parents had something to do at the front desk. While they talked to the staff, I took this picture of a flower.

 

 

Following that, we made our way down to Deck A (gangway), scanned our cards and got off the ship. We were instructed to turn right and walk all the way to the building ahead. Before doing that, I took this opportunity to take some photos of our beautiful ship!

 

 

 

 

[ellie1145]

Well, Sarah, its been some time since I caught up with your wonderful thread. I am really enjoying it! Can't wait for the next instalment.

 

However I have a bone to pick with you (is that a phrase used in the USA?)

 

As a result of your fascinating thread we have just booked two cruises on the Queen Elizabeth, and its all your fault!!! ha ha!

 

I don't think we would have considered it had I not found your thread, but I hope we meet some lovely people like you and your family on board.

 

My husband and I are sailing in the middle of August and a week after we return I fly out with my daughter, and we can't wait!

 

Thanks a million for all your information and beautiful, stunning photographs.

[lovely_serenity]

Well, Sarah, its been some time since I caught up with your wonderful thread. I am really enjoying it! Can't wait for the next installment.

 

However I have a bone to pick with you (is that a phrase used in the USA?)

 

As a result of your fascinating thread we have just booked two cruises on the Queen Elizabeth, and its all your fault!!! ha ha!

 

I don't think we would have considered it had I not found your thread, but I hope we meet some lovely people like you and your family on board.

 

My husband and I are sailing in the middle of August and a week after we return I fly out with my daughter, and we can't wait!

 

Thanks a million for all your information and beautiful, stunning photographs.

 

First of all, thank you very much for reading my thread! I'm glad you like it (: The next installment is coming as soon as I reply to you ;)

 

LOL That's great ^^ I hope you have a wonderful time on board!! I'm happy to have been indirectly involved in your vacation planning :D

 

Thank you very much for your kind words, and I hope you have as good of a time on board the ship as I did!