QM2 to the Caribbean

[rakkor]

Day One.

 

We are currently on the Queen Mary 2 travelling on the Caribbean cruise M398A. The first leg of this is a transatlantic crossing to New York followed by a cruise around the Caribbean islands of Barbados, St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, Dominica and the BVIs.

 

We arrived at the Ocean terminal at 12:25 on Tuesday, and although a little busier than previous embarkation we were aboard within 30 minutes and in the Golden Lion having fish and chips. After unpacking we attended muster, sans life jackets at the later time of 17:00. This messed up our 5pm Commodore O’Clock ritual but we persevered and Jane had a Cosmo in her hand by 17:30. No canapés but very nice olives and peanuts were offered.

 

We were on second sitting, a table for 10 in Britannia deck 2. Surprisingly all 10 were there, and very nice they all seem. At least six of us are on the same 19 night itinerary, and one couple are on the back to back, the final couple were too far across the table to talk to, so more info next time. 

The quality of foot was, as always, excellent. I had wild mushroom risotto to start, followed by mushroom stuffed guinea fowl and mango sticky rice for dessert. It was so delicious I could easily have eaten it all again.

 

After dinner we went to the show, it was the Cunard Singers and Dancers first performance, they were all new to the ship. The show was  “Be Our Guest” that has a resounding Greatest Showman compilation.

 

[Host Hattie]

Thanks for posting, it might help my withdrawal symptoms after being chucked off after only 2 nights !

[navybankerteacher]

We are looking forward to our Christmas/New Year escape from New York.  Early seating, large table requested. I’m curious - from our last two QM2 sailings I do not recall any tables for 10 - and fairly few for 8;  did there seem to be many large tables?

[Underwatr]

At Christmas they sometimes seat 11 at a table that shows as seating 10 on the seating charts. Whether this is acceptable to you may depend on a few factors, including the social dynamic of the table. I've enjoyed the larger, "crowded" tables more and have made lasting friendships.

 

Edit, there's another ongoing thread about seating layouts in Britannia; I've copied images from there below:

 

Lower level, forward is up. The 10-top (as shown) that we had which was set for 11 was 44, close to the raised entry on the port side (section 14). We've also enjoyed 2 and 143 (almost diagonally opposite from 2).

 

Upper level, forward is to the right. On the June eastbound we were at 212 on the starboard side, a round 8-top about halfway back by the windows:

Edited November 20, 2019 by Underwatr

[MCC retired]

On our Sept 2019 TA , the Upper Level configuration looked nothing like this sketch.

Many more Tables for 2 than so many tables for 4 .

I suppose that they change the configuration for every sailing depending on requested seating?

[nybumpkin]

10 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

We are looking forward to our Christmas/New Year escape from New York.  Early seating, large table requested. I’m curious - from our last two QM2 sailings I do not recall any tables for 10 - and fairly few for 8;  did there seem to be many large tables?

We had the center table for 10, Britannia lower, for early seating.

table.html

[navybankerteacher]

30 minutes ago, nybumpkin said:

We had the center table for 10, Britannia lower, for early seating.

table.html 432.79 kB · 3 downloads

Good to know - large tables offer more opportunity for interaction .

[BklynBoy8]

1 hour ago, nybumpkin said:

We had the center table for 10, Britannia lower, for early seating.

table.html 432.79 kB · 3 downloads

nybumpkin,

We had the opportunity to once be invited to dine at that table with the CEO of Cunard and it was an experience.

 

To sit in from of that large tapestry was a once in a lifetime experience.

[nybumpkin]

49 minutes ago, BklynBoy8 said:

 

To sit in from of that large tapestry was a once in a lifetime experience.

We loved it - along with the tapestry, we had the faux skylight. No VIPs on our sailing, but we had great table companions. We changed seats often so we all had a chance for conversation.

[rakkor]

Day Two

 

The clocks went back an hour last night so we got an extra hour in bed. Much appreciated since the Cunard beds are so comfortable. I went to the gym for a run at 7am, which was surprisingly busy, followed by kippers for breakfast in the Britannia dining room.

 

Today’s first lecture was Penny Legg’s history of Southampton where Jane had a nice nap. Next came Chris Frame and his lectures on Cunard. I really enjoyed his lecture, and will return for more if the are at a sensible time.

 

Lunch in the Britannia was nice, mackerel pate and feta and ravioli for me, pate and roughey for Jane which she particularly liked. We skipped pudding, with the promise of afternoon tea later.

 

After that we went for a stroll, ending up in the pavilion pool on deck 12 to sit and read with the sound of the pool rocking back and forth. I leftJane to snooze by the pool while I went down to Susan E. Humphris insights lecture on submarine volcanoes. Once that was done, then it was back up to the Pavilion pool to collect Jane and on for Commodore o’clock

 

Jane’s drink of choice today was a strawberry daiquiri and mine was a pint of London Pride.

 

It was the first formal night of the crossing, so after a little rest, it was time to don the penguin suit and head off to the Britannia restaurant. My dinner was good again, not quite as good as the first night, but pretty damn good anyway. Jane’s on the other hand was better for her. I started with Cullen Skink, followed by a very nice piece of pork porchetta and a delicious white chocolate mousse. Jane had chicken liver pate, lamb loin en croute, cheese and biscuits. After dinner the show was Broadway artist Jerry Sagar, you could see that she was head and shoulders above the usual offerings, even though she was consigned to a stool after twisting her knee in the previous show.
 

I was pleased to hear the we do get 4 hours internet on both of our segments 

[Bigmike911]

2 hours ago, rakkor said:

Day Two

 

The clocks went back an hour last night so we got an extra hour in bed. Much appreciated since the Cunard beds are so comfortable. I went to the gym for a run at 7am, which was surprisingly busy, followed by kippers for breakfast in the Britannia dining room.

 

Today’s first lecture was Penny Legg’s history of Southampton where Jane had a nice nap. Next came Chris Frame and his lectures on Cunard. I really enjoyed his lecture, and will return for more if the are at a sensible time.

 

Lunch in the Britannia was nice, mackerel pate and feta and ravioli for me, pate and roughey for Jane which she particularly liked. We skipped pudding, with the promise of afternoon tea later.

 

After that we went for a stroll, ending up in the pavilion pool on deck 12 to sit and read with the sound of the pool rocking back and forth. I leftJane to snooze by the pool while I went down to Susan E. Humphris insights lecture on submarine volcanoes. Once that was done, then it was back up to the Pavilion pool to collect Jane and on for Commodore o’clock

 

Jane’s drink of choice today was a strawberry daiquiri and mine was a pint of London Pride.

 

It was the first formal night of the crossing, so after a little rest, it was time to don the penguin suit and head off to the Britannia restaurant. My dinner was good again, not quite as good as the first night, but pretty damn good anyway. Jane’s on the other hand was better for her. I started with Cullen Skink, followed by a very nice piece of pork porchetta and a delicious white chocolate mousse. Jane had chicken liver pate, lamb loin en croute, cheese and biscuits. After dinner the show was Broadway artist Jerry Sagar, you could see that she was head and shoulders above the usual offerings, even though she was consigned to a stool after twisting her knee in the previous show.
 

I was pleased to hear the we do get 4 hours internet on both of our segments 

I am pleased to see that Jerri Sagar is back on QM2. She is an excellent singer with a great repertory of "singers' songs.  I hope to see her again on a future crossing. I agree that she is heads and shoulders above some of their offerings. 

Edited November 21, 2019 by Bigmike911

[rakkor]

She was very good, it’s a pity that Jane missed my misspelling over her name when she proofread my ramblings 

[rakkor]

I am pleased to report canapés are available in the Commodore club 

 

[rakkor]

Day Three
 

The clocks went back an hour overnight, which made getting ready for breakfast very leisurely. We breakfasted with a French couple on their first cruise, they were loving it so far, but she was very worried about the Masquerade ball tomorrow and wether she had enough of a “fancy dress” but we explained that it wasn’t obligatory and she could get as involved as she wanted with the theme.

 

The first of the insights lectures in Illuminations today is Chris Frame’s Cunard chat. It’s very well attended, I suspect quite a few are here to claim a seat for David Gower’s 11:00 lecture- little do they seem to know that he is in the Royal Court Theatre. David Gower was very entertaining, an eloquent talk, which was both funny and libellously informative about certain England team mates. 

Jane wasn’t too enamoured with the MDR lunch menu, although I quite fancied a couple of things including Alfredo Linguini, so we went upstairs to the Chefs Grill to see if the menu in there was improved from previous cruises. The Chefs Grill only had hot sandwiches, burgers, dogs, grilled cheese sandwiches etc, and although they didn’t look very appetising, I had a blue cheese burger which was delicious. There was a selection of pizzas and pasta in the next section and they looked nice, it’s just a shame they don’t make them to order like the other Queens.

 

After lunch we retired to the Carinthia lounge for a coffee and to relax listening to the string trio Brevis Strings. We were enjoying ourselves too much, I ended up missing Penny Legg’s Southampton lecture, and very nearly missed Michael Kushner’s Bletchley Park lecture. Thankfully I didn’t as it was as good as I’d hoped.  The final lecture of the day is Susan Humphris on the undersea phenomenon Black Smokers and excellent it was too.

 

After that it was Commodore o’clock, actually fifteen minutes past the Commodore and for me it was a pint of Doombar, while Jane’s cocktail of choice today was a vesper martini, she’s obviously channeling her Jane Bond.

 

Dress code for dinner was casual, so no penguinification but I did end up wearing a tie, plain white shirts are a bit boring.

We popped into the Chart Room for a pre dinner cocktail and met up with the final couple from our table. We sat diagonally opposite them on the previous two evenings, so they joined us and we found out that they too are on the same itinerary as us leaving the ship post Caribbean. I am pleased to confirm that contrary to opinion, canapés are still served in both the Commodore Club and the Chart Room

 

Dinner was good yet again, with octopus to start, roast fillet of pork as a main and crepes suzette for dessert. I also indulged in the cheese and biscuits after all that, which was a little too much. It might have been OK with a lighter dessert.

There was no show post dinner, the comedian was on at 19:00 before the meal and we missed him. So for us it was time for bed.

[57eric]

"There was a selection of pizzas and pasta in the next section and they looked nice, it’s just a shame they don’t make them to order like the other Queens."  They do, at dinner time, on the side where the burgers are at lunch.

[rakkor]

I’ll check it out - thanks for that

[rakkor]

Day Four
 

Yet another day for the clocks to go back, so another lie in, which made my 7am gym session almost seem civilised. The gym is very busy at this time, not full, as there were free treadmills, but not far off. The swell was minimal this morning, which made my run more pleasant, I only had to hold on with one hand to maintain my balance. After a shower it was off to the MDR for breakfast, muesli followed by kippers and poached eggs. There are fewer insights lectures today, the first was at 11am, so we went to the Pavilion Pool to chill out for a while. 

I got to Illuminations about 10 minutes early to find the place rammed, it was about QE2 so I assume it was a nostalgia trip for most of the attendees. I didn’t fancy messing around trying to squeeze into a seat so headed back up to Jane on deck 12.

We were back in the MDR for lunch, mackerel starter, calf’s liver main with trifle to follow. Very nice.

After lunch we took a stroll to find the Voyage Sales office, it’s tucked out of the way on deck 3 forward near the entrance to the theatre on the port side. We walked past the queue for the planetarium, huge. You have to get tickets at 9am for the show at ConneXions and they get snapped up really quickly.

After that we went to find somewhere to sit and read, but it’s busy as hell, the weather has closed in, with rain and fog, and everyone is inside, we settled for the Commodore Club and sat looking out at the waves listening to the fog horn going off every minute or so. From there we popped back to the Voyage Sales office at 15:00 to see about booking our next cruise, but it never opened again today, instead we were fascinated by the waves rising past the windows on the games corridor. Watching the sea swirling past is very calming, it’s akin to staring at a fire. My first lecture of the day was Michael Kushner and the War in the Atlantic, good, but not as good as his Enigma lecture. After that it was Commodore o’clock with another Doombar for me and a QEII for Jane followed by a Ginger Cosmo.

 

Dinner was good as usual, Jan had lamb chops, which was surprising since they were the Canyon Spa mains on the menu, which usually means small portions and Jane doesn’t do small portions when it involves lamb chops, but a word with Antonio, our waiter, meant she got three cops and disaster was averted. My dinner was less complicated, crispy pork cheeks to start, followed by turkey ballotine and a Jaffa cake with merengues. All very nice. We’d seen the show scheduled several times before so we decided to call it an early night, especially since the clocks weren’t going back and tomorrow only has 24 hours, I’m feeling somewhat shortchanged.

Edited November 23, 2019 by rakkor

[rakkor]

Day Five

 

It’s a shock when the alarm goes off and you’re missing an hour because the clocks didn’t go back, even so I dragged myself out of bed and off to the gym for the next session in the futile battle over my ever expanding waistline. 45 minutes later I was back at the stateroom with a morning cup of hot chocolate for Jane and a beetroot and ginger smoothie for me. 

There’s a special on at the moment - 20 items laundered for $40, which seems very good value to me, especially if I don’t have to battle my way to the launderette. So that was all bagged up and sent off, hopefully they’ll have one again later in the cruise. Once that was done then it was off to the Voyage Sales office and next year’s cruise to see the Fjords and Northern Lights is booked. 

The insights lectures are limited today again with the Planetarium in operation. The first was Chris Frame talking about the White Star Line, he is very good followed by David Gower and his recollections about the Windies, again excellent and very funny. We hit the Chef’s Galley for lunch, Mexican burger and fries. It’s chocolate day in the King’s Court with chocolate and ice sculptures everywhere, I need to stay away from there so we went up to the Pavilion Pool to listen to “International Show Band” Purple Haze, an excellent way to spend 45 minutes post lunch.

Jane was off to a mixology course in the Commodore Club at 14:00 - this was based on the Cunard “Captains” cocktails - so she learnt all about the seven different cocktails on the menu - apparently it was good fun, the downside is there’s no Commodore o’clock today, because someone who shall remain nameless probably won’t make dinner if they drink anymore. I went to Sir Samuel’s for a coffee instead. I watched football in my stateroom, so was more than happy.

We did make dinner, we were one of the last to arrive, so once sat it was nearly time to order, I had a very nice salmon terrine to start and pigeon for main, now there’s not a lot of meat on a pigeon so I had a word with the waiter to get some extra, and I thought I had got the message across but when it came, it was tiny, so obviously not. Jane has a theory that they aren’t spoiling us as much as usual, and is going to start sweet talking Antonio our head waiter tonight. There’s no extra hour tonight again so it’s off to bed early for us.

[Topper123]

Thank you for the excellent travelogue, rakkor! We are booked on the QE2 for the Christmas cruise leaving NYC on the 22nd. Reading your posts has definitely amped up my level of excitement! We board Amtrak in Sacramento, California in just three short weeks for a rail journey to NYC, where we will take in a couple of Broadway shows before embarking on the ship. We’ve ridden the California Zephyr many times, but this will be just our second cruise.
Oh boy - cruising through Glenwood Canyon in the Rocky Mountains and under the Verizano Bridge in New York Harbor - all in the same week! I am so ready! Your recent posts are making the wait bearable and I’ll be following them with interest.

 

[rakkor]

Day Six

 

I had a lie in today, I’ve done  the gym five days straight, and it was very bumpy at 6:30 so I thought I’d give it a miss. We went to the buffet for breakfast and the selection there is very good so requested an omelette from the egg fairy. We thought we’d sit in the Carinthia Lounge for a while via a trip to the Pursers desk to get a statement. We’ve about halfway through our OBC, which isn’t too bad as that also includes the service charge. 

The sun is out, we haven’t seen it for a couple of days. So we retired to the Pavilion pool to read in the sunshine. I took Jane on in the North Atlantic ping pong championship where she comprehensively beat me 11-1, 11-8. We listened to Purple Haze for half an hour before heading to the MDR for lunch. I should read the menu better as the seafood cocktail had grapefruit in it and I really don’t like grapefruit. Scallopini Milanaise was very nice though. 

There was a matinee in the Royal Court theatre where Cassie and Maggie Macdonald, a Newfoundland folk duo, were playing. I’m glad we made the effort to go as they were very good. 

We sat in the Carinthia Lounge for a while before the final insights lecture of the day Michael Kushner’s talk on Agent Zig Zag.

Then it was Commodore o’clock where I met Jane up on deck nine, I had a Doombar or two and she had a breakfast martini, followed by a Mary Pickford. This was a Bacardi and Maraschino cocktail.

Tonight was the final formal night of the crossing, and had a Masquerade theme to it. I had onion soup to start, pork fillet and marzipan panacotta for dessert. Then bed.

[sfred]

Hi rakkor.  My thanks also for the excellent recaps of your QM2 crossing.  i'm looking forward to the Caribbean portion of your trip.  The wife and I are booked on the NY-NY Christmas voyage next year 2020, and I'm already counting the days.

 

The Canadian folk duo was on our QE Alaska voyage this past May.  They played almost every day in the Garden Lounge on deck 9, and we greatly enjoyed their music.  Glad to read that they have been "promoted" to the QM2 and the Royal Court.

[rakkor]

Day Seven

 

Today it’s the final sea day of the crossing, we arrive in New York at 06:30 tomorrow. Last night was extra bumpy, so much so, I was almost bumped out of bed at 03:30. It was slightly better for breakfast, but the weather screen on the cabin tv was still reporting Hurricane Force 12 (70kts)with rough seas. On the way to breakfast, Jane wanted to check a Spa offer, various massages for $129, and was hoping that she could use CC the $40 voucher we’d been given for this. Alas no, she couldn’t use it, so she wasn’t going pay that much, which was a shame. After a quick breakfast in the Carinthia Lounge we went up to sit in the Pavilion Pool until David Gower’s Q&A at 11:00, unfortunately 11:00 came and went without us noticing and we missed him, so it was back down to the Carinthia for a cup of tea. We saw our first ship since leaving Southampton, we passed a cargo ship travelling south.

We headed back up to the Pavilion Pool for the 12:30 Purple Haze show, and while we waited for the band to start, we had the second leg of our ping pong tournament, this time I prevailed with a majestic 11-8 win. 

We had lunch in the buffet before retiring to the Carinthia Lounge to chill before the last of the insights lectures, first was Michael Kushner’s talk on WWII spies and Susan Humphis lecture on the creatures of the open oceans. Both were very good although the timings weren’t ideal for the speakers with Susan Humphris finishing her talk at 17:15. This made me late for Commodore o’clock and when I got there Jane was already at the bar and ordered her margarita I tacked a Doombar onto the order and settled down for a relaxing drink. Jane had been busy at the laundrette washing all the bits that we hadn’t sent for laundering on the offer earlier in the week. We had one more drink before heading back to the stateroom to get ready for dinner. I had another beer and Jane had a Mohito as she fancied a longer drink. 

We were saying goodbye to two of our dinner companions tonight as they had completed their back to back crossing. It will be a shame to lose them as they’ve been a pleasure to dine with, and I wish Anne and Jerry a safe journey home - I’m not only be saying this because Jerry figured out who I am in real life. It was a fishy dinner for me, seared tuna as a starter and an assiette of seafood as a main, this was finished of with a chocolate melting pudding. Now I’m not one to complain, but Jane had the same as me for dessert and hers was twice as big. Obviously sweet talking our waiter Antonio  is paying off for her. 

After dinner it was off to bed for the early call to watch the approach into NYC.

[rakkor]

Day Eight

 

Who’s idea was it to get up and experience the approach into New York, it all happened very early and it was a bit fresh stood out on the viewing platform on deck 13. It was all pretty spectacular though and probably worth the effort and we has excellent weather for it, a crisp and clear November morning. After the excitement was over it was back to the room for a lie down before heading off the ship and into Brooklyn.

Immigration was painless, but a bit tedious with all the booths manned initially, but then for some inexplicable reason they closed half of them just as the majority of the ship’s passengers started to come through. Luckily we’d latched onto the tour parties, so we’re at the front when they started to disappear and weren’t overly delayed.

Once off the ship we headed into Brooklyn proper on the hunt for a diner for Breakfast, we found one on Court Street In Cobble Hill and after a stack of pancakes, eggs and sausage we headed off in search of Macy’s on Fulton St. via Stinky Brooklyn, the starting point for today’s walking tour. It was a bit of a hike up Smith Street to Fulton which was good, both for walking off the breakfast and the fact they didn’t open until 10am. On the walk we passed a vertical car park that had Jane fascinated, cars were parked vertically being raised out of the way when the next car arrived, I’ve got no idea how you’d retrieve your car if you arrived back early. With Macy’s out of the way, we headed back down Smith Street to get a coffee and wait for our tour to start. This was our second Urban Adventures tour, the first last year in Lisbon, and I can highly recommend them. We had booked this through Cunard, but they can be booked directly from their website, which is probably better value. Sacha, our guide arrived just after us shortly followed by a couple from Wisconsin who made up the rest of our party. Stinky Brooklyn is an artisanal deli showcasing local producers and the walk started here with first of many little and not so little tasty tidbits, cheese in this case. I’d like to describe in detail each and every stop, but it would take forever, so I will just list them here and urge you to visit them if you’re in Brooklyn 

 

Stinky Brooklyn

61 Local

One Girl Cookies

Shelsky's Appetizing

Damascus Bread and Pastry

Table 87

Court Pastry Shop

D'Amico's Coffee

Brooklyn Farmacy

 

The tour lasted three hours and although there was a lot of walking, it was at a nice easy pace. The only regret I had was not having a lighter breakfast. There was a lot of eating on the walk, and although the portions were small, it all adds up. So much so that Jane only had soup for dinner, and this was a night with roast lamb on the menu.

After the tour we waddled back to the ship and joined the queues for the X-ray scanners and were back aboard in short time. Back in the stateroom Jane realised she had misplaced her Macy’s bag, so I rushed back off the ship, down to security where I relieved a disappointed TSA official of the package, as she’d had her eye on it.

While the Muster Drill went on we went up to the Commodore Club for a livener. While there I got a voicemail from my next door neighbour saying my burglar alarm was going off, cue massive panics on Jane’s part. It wasn’t helped by the fact we couldn’t get back in touch with them and lots of frantic phone calls ended up with Sarah doing a sterling job check in the house and finding it all secure. I don’t know exactly why it triggered, we’ll find out when we get home.

I just about managed to squeeze down my dinner, but it took some effort to do so. My dinner was duck terrine followed by duck breast, with white chocolate pana cotta for dessert

[nybumpkin]

5 hours ago, rakkor said:

 

Immigration was painless, but a bit tedious with all the booths manned initially, but then for some inexplicable reason they closed half of them just as the majority of the ship’s passengers started to come through. Luckily we’d latched onto the tour parties, so we’re at the front when they started to disappear and weren’t overly delayed.

 

Immigration in Brooklyn was the worst we've ever experienced. The only thing that saved us from missing our transportation was a call for folks with US passports and a separate line.

 

I have friends who boarded yesterday; if you meet Claire and Art from Yonkers, tell them Kathy from Albany said "Bon Voyage"!

[Summergee]

Rakkor, did you walk into Brooklyn from the ship or get a taxi? We are thinking of exploring Brooklyn on our b2b next year.