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QE around New Zealand and QM2 to Southampton


Colin_Cameron
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After many years talking about it, and over a year of actual planning, it’s finally here

 

A three month trip to Australia and NZ, incorporating the above voyages, is now underway. Monday we travelled Inverness to Glasgow to visit the in-laws and out-laws. Today we flew Glasgow to Heathrow: plane, 60 mins. Shuttle bus to hotel 70 mins. 🤔

 

Tomorrow, on to Singapore for two nights before continuing on to Melbourne where we pick up a car and head off for a week on the Great Ocean Road (storms permitting) before returning to Melbourne to catch QE on 2nd Feb.

 

After that we have another month touring the east coast of Australia (bushfires permitting) before flying over to Perth to catch QM2 back to the UK.

 

I don’t intend to post from the land portion of the trip, unless anything relevant, or really exciting, happens, so next update on the 1st or 2nd Feb.

 

Until then, Colin.

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2 hours ago, Colin_Cameron said:

After many years talking about it, and over a year of actual planning, it’s finally here

 

A three month trip to Australia and NZ, incorporating the above voyages, is now underway. Monday we travelled Inverness to Glasgow to visit the in-laws and out-laws. Today we flew Glasgow to Heathrow: plane, 60 mins. Shuttle bus to hotel 70 mins. 🤔

 

Tomorrow, on to Singapore for two nights before continuing on to Melbourne where we pick up a car and head off for a week on the Great Ocean Road (storms permitting) before returning to Melbourne to catch QE on 2nd Feb.

 

After that we have another month touring the east coast of Australia (bushfires permitting) before flying over to Perth to catch QM2 back to the UK.

 

I don’t intend to post from the land portion of the trip, unless anything relevant, or really exciting, happens, so next update on the 1st or 2nd Feb.

 

Until then, Colin.

That's very exciting that your trip has finally arrived. I remember your talking about it when you first booked it. I shall be on board the QE2 for the second half of your voyage along the east coast etc. Melbourne is my home and I do hope the weather can behave itself while you're here.

 

If I hear a Scottish accent (or two!) on board the ship I'll say hello!

 

Safe travels!

 

 

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I'll wave to you when you're in my home town of Wellington. We're on the QE on the 17th to PNG from Sydney. I'm very curious to see what percentage of the cruisers are locals and how many have flown from further afield 

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For those visiting Perth prior to boarding or if just on a port stop and have visited before and want to do something different we have our Annual "Sculptures by the Sea" on. It is only held at Cottesloe Beach on the West Coast and Bondi Beach on the East Coast.

 

https://sculpturebythesea.com/cottesloe/

 

The beach is a lovely long sandy white beach but no sun loungers for hire. There is grassy areas with tall pine trees to sit under just in front of the beach area. 

 

Best to use Uber to get there and back to the city or Fremantle.

 

Julie

 

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OK so I know I said I was going to keep quiet for the next week but...

 

... THIS is the way to get to your cruise. Singapore Airlines. No sooner at my seat than the flight attendant says, ‘Good morning. Welcome on board Mr Cameron. May I hang your jacket up for you.’ Now I know it’s not rocket science. If I’m in that seat I should be Mr Cameron. But she either knew who was supposed to be in that seat or checked within a couple of seconds. Add to that the outstanding food and would you believe it, a real cheese trolley! It’s just like being aboard the ship already.

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10 hours ago, Colin_Cameron said:

OK so I know I said I was going to keep quiet for the next week but...

 

... THIS is the way to get to your cruise. Singapore Airlines. No sooner at my seat than the flight attendant says, ‘Good morning. Welcome on board Mr Cameron. May I hang your jacket up for you.’ Now I know it’s not rocket science. If I’m in that seat I should be Mr Cameron. But she either knew who was supposed to be in that seat or checked within a couple of seconds. Add to that the outstanding food and would you believe it, a real cheese trolley! It’s just like being aboard the ship already.

You're not flying economy then LOL  Though to be fair they are OK in economy - but no one is helping with your jacket - or offering a cheese course! 

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  • 2 weeks later...

After bringing in the Chinese New Year in Singapore, we got to Australia on Monday. Picked up the.car and headed south. 

 

When we we stopped for lunch we discovered that because yesterday was Australia Day everywhere was either closed or extremely busy. As we were so close to our first stop we just bought some stuff in a supermarket and carried on to Points South by the Sea, just north of Apollo Bay. The holiday was made there and then when we were met by a couple of koalas in the garden. They disappeared soon after, never to be seen again, but that was item one ticked of the ‘Must See’ list within the first few hours.

 

Tuesday. And we ticked off item two when we rounded a corner to find a kangaroo in the middle of the road. He (or she) just stood there looking at us for a few moments then politely hopped onto the verge to allow us to pass.

 

Wednesday. After a stop at the Twelve Apostles we picked up an unwanted hitchhiker. When I opened the car door a rather large spider appeared from nowhere and shot into the car. I swear he knew these metal boxes are air conditioned. After describing it to a park ranger he reckoned it was a Huntsman, and although it is venomous it’s not usually deadly so doesn’t count. Given its size it’ll only eat small people, then he looks at Sandra (4’10”) and says, ‘I’m not really helping, am I’. Then he tells me that it’s not likely to bite me, unless it feels threatened. Maybe by somebody else trying to batter it to death with anything she can lay her hands on?

 

So, with trousers tucked inside socks, we carried on.

 

Thursday. Temperatures rising. 40C+ Wild animal #3 ticked off, and very nearly flattened. A couple of emu (should that be emus?) wandered out in front of us. Harry (the Huntsman) put in an appearance after lunch but quickly retreated somewhere inside the dashboard.

 

Friday. Weird day. Dull, cloudy, windy and 44C! God help us if the sun comes out. The roads are starting to melt. Drive too fast and it’s like driving on ice, too slow and it’s like driving through treacle. Harry has gone the way of the Norwegian Blue. He is an ex-spider. Sandra 1: Arachnids 0.

 

Saturday (today). We’re in St Kilda ready to board QE tomorrow. Not sure if it was the sun on Thursday, or the hot wind yesterday, but my lips have blistered. ( yes, the wind really was that hot.) We walked out the St Kilda pier and saw the penguins on the breakwater. They weren’t really on the ‘must see’ list, more of an added bonus. That was when the heavens opened and we were soaked to the skin through four layer of clothing, two of them supposedly waterproof.

 

Tomorrow should be a simple matter of a taxi to the dock but it looks like there’s a gay pride parade which will make traffic unpredictable. After thirteen days on the road we’ll get to unpack, and rediscover all those things that we know are in one of those suitcases somewhere. We do have a list of what is in which case, if only we could remember which case it’s in.

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We picked last night’s hotel, The Tolarno (part hotel, part art gallery) in St. Kilda because it was convenient for the port. Unfortunately we didn’t count on today’s Pride Parade which closed all the roads around Fitzroy Street making a taxi pick-up impossible. After dragging four suitcases and two carry-ons three blocks to the arranged meeting point the taxi turned up at the appointed time. He knew he was meeting two people, from the Tolarno, with four suitcases, at this spot, at this time, going to the cruise terminal, but because I couldn’t give him the name of the receptionist that made the booking he wouldn’t pick us up! Over the last couple of days we had noticed a scarcity of taxis, possible due to the excellent tram system, but fortunately we had no problem flagging one down today.

 

Because of the parade we left the hotel, and arrived at the dock, too early. They weren’t even letting taxis drop off at the terminal until 11:30 but he dropped us outside and they accepted the luggage. Had we known, we could have checked in only ten minutes or so later but we were happy sitting on a bench in the shade watching the world go by for about fortyfive minutes.

 

Once inside the terminal it all went smoothly. When our tickets were checked (Diamond members) we were ushered into the priority queue. Because the lines snaked, it wasn’t too obvious that we were ‘jumping the queue’. There appeared to be six priority desks and all were busy, with one other couple waiting in front of us. Two came free at once and we all moved forwards. Then onto security and passport control. Total waiting time, about ten seconds.

 

Unpacking seemed a bigger chore than usual. With 13 nights on here and 35 on QM2 some of the evening clothes could have stayed in the cases but are better hung up. We filled the sixteen hanger in each wardrobe and the mountain of extra wire hangers. As I hung up twenty two ties, plus four bowties, Sandra says, ‘ Do you think you’ve overpacked?’

 

This posting has been delayed because I’m an idiot. I signed up for the internet package yesterday and promptly forgot my user ID.

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The change to the dress code, jackets are no longer required for ‘Smart Attire ‘ evenings, is not the only change for QE’s Australian season. Dinner in the Britannia is now 5:45 or 8:00 PM. We were assigned table 310, deck 2 port side, not far inside the restaurant, at 8:00PM.

 

First night dinner was the usual confusion of people who didn’t know their table number, hadn’t brought their seating card and couldn’t remember their cabin number, leaving the maitre d’ to sift through the passenger list for a ‘John Smith’, only to discover that they should have been at the first sitting. Mind you, after my fiasco with my internet ID, maybe I should keep quiet.

 

310 turned out to be a table for ten although there were only eight of us. The two of us from Scotland, another couple and two solo women and one solo man, all from Australia and another solo man that sounded American but as he ordered, ate and left before the rest of us got our starter we never got a chance to ask. It seems he is one of the dance hosts, so not sure if he will be a regular or not.

 

There has been some speculation on here about what the new dress code will mean in practice. ‘Smart trousers and a collared shirt’ is obviously open to interpretation. It would seen that, for a sizeable minority, ‘smart’ means long and I suppose, technically, polo shirts have a collar. I even saw one flannel shirt worn completely open, thankfully over a vest or T-shirt. But it had a collar, so what’s the problem? I would guess that maybe 25 - 30 % have a different understanding of ‘smart’ or ‘collared’ than I do. It’s also worth noting that three of the four men at our table were wearing jackets although not required, so you could make any argument you like. We’ll see what tonight’s first formal, sorry, Gala Night brings.

 

We didn’t know what to do after dinner but as we were walking through the Queen’s Room we discovered a new singer with the orchestra, Lana MacFarlane, (new to us anyway) and although we didn’t feel like dancing we decided to sit and listen for a while. It wasn’t long before we were up on the floor though. One change I noticed. Instead of playing CDs while the orchestra took a break, which always seemed to kill the atmosphere in the room, Lana sang to backing tracks. This made for a much smoother transition between the segments of the evening. 

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14 hours ago, Colin_Cameron said:

As I hung up twenty two ties, plus four bowties, Sandra says, ‘ Do you think you’ve overpacked?’

 

🤣😂🤣

 

And I though I was getting naughty at 4 ties for 14 nights! 

 

You, Sir, are a cracker! 🙂

 

 

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I’ve always said that the trick to winning trivia on a cruise isn’t superior knowledge, but picking the right teammates. A group with a good spread of ages, experiences and nationalities. (A few doctorates in various subjects never goes amiss either.) And so it proved today. Second place in the morning and a tie-break win in the afternoon on a question about the Greek national anthem, against a team that turned out to contain a couple of Greeks! OK. So sheer damn luck always plays a part as well.

 

Tonight was the Captain’s Welcome Party and first Gala (Black & White) Night. I’d estimate that around 60% of the men were in ‘Black Tie’, with another 20% in the also acceptable ‘dark suit’. About 10% were at least wearing a jacket and the less said about the rest the better. There seems to be a lot of checked flannel shirts around. At times it feels like we’ve wandered into a line-dancing convention.

 

Somebody asked recently about the passenger mix on these Australian departures so here’s the numbers (at least for this voyage) straight from Captain Stephen Howarth.

1,946 passengers from 20 countries. 

Top 5 are:

Canada 16

USA 33

UK 155

New Zealand 182

Australia 1,495

 

Dinner, as usual, was excellent but a big change in the table. We had me the other couple earlier in the day and they said they had other plans for that night, so we weren’t expecting them, and similarly with the dance host. But we were also missing the solo man and one of the solo women. Which left only ourselves and the other solo woman from last night. (It turns out that she is American, not Australian, but has an Australian accent.) We were joined by another Australian couple who had requested a large table but had ended up at a table for two on the first night.

 

After dinner we went to the show which was a male trio called La Forza singing mostly ‘musical’ numbers. It seemed to take them one song to get warmed up, odd given that it was the second sitting show, but after that they were excellent.

 

We managed to fit in the last half hour of the dancing before heading to bed.

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15 hours ago, Colin_Cameron said:

Somebody asked recently about the passenger mix on these Australian departures so here’s the numbers (at least for this voyage) straight from Captain Stephen Howarth.

1,946 passengers from 20 countries. 

Top 5 are:

Canada 16

USA 33

UK 155

New Zealand 182

Australia 1,495

 

Yup I was the one that asked. If I'd known that a few weeks ago I wouldn't have made my partner buy a pair of smart pants and a sports jacket! 

 

The long pants and collared shirts requirement is  exactly what most licensed clubs require you to enter. Many Aussies are very familiar with this as clubs are the cheapest places to drink and eat in Queensland and NSW. It was standard in my backpacking days for the guys to have one pair of longs and polo shirt to get into the clubs- before coming home and changing back to shorts and singlets. 

 

He's going to kill me as he's going to be totally overdresed! 

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2 hours ago, lissie said:

Yup I was the one that asked. If I'd known that a few weeks ago I wouldn't have made my partner buy a pair of smart pants and a sports jacket! 

 

The long pants and collared shirts requirement is  exactly what most licensed clubs require you to enter. Many Aussies are very familiar with this as clubs are the cheapest places to drink and eat in Queensland and NSW. It was standard in my backpacking days for the guys to have one pair of longs and polo shirt to get into the clubs- before coming home and changing back to shorts and singlets. 

 

He's going to kill me as he's going to be totally overdresed! 

 

 

Lissie , but I think the fact that the majority of passengers dressed in at least a pair of smart pants and sports jacket means he won't be over dressed. And now if he needs to go somewhere and dressed up with more than jeans and a polo he has suitable clothes already. Maybe if you go to a dance evening somewhere or a semi-formal wedding?

 

We don't have those licensed clubs here in Western Australia.

 

Julie

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Room Service breakfast this morning and the 08:00-08:30 order arrived promptly at 08:02

 

Outside our door this morning we discovered the vouchers for our complimentary Veranda lunch and wine tasting. Which reminds me to say that the individual Quercus toiletries are still in the cabin bathrooms. It could of course be that they are just using up stock before going ‘green’.

 

The trivia team is really getting into our stride now with another win this morning. 

 

I followed this with a couple of lectures. First, the second of the ‘Concord’ talks, follow you an excellent summary of ‘The Dingo Baby Case’ given by the trial defence lawyer. It’s not often you hear a lawyer talking about a case that he lost. More in depth details to follow in follow up talks.

 

Lunch in the Britannia was followed up with some relaxation around the Lido pool with music from the new onboard band, The Upbeats. A very pleasant change from the usual Vibes/Purple Haze.

 

The Golden Lion was packed for afternoon trivia with folk standing in the bar area and even outside the doors. The team got split up with neither half doing particularly well. Ironically, between us we had every answer.

 

I can believe this is the third evening onboard and this is our first visit to The Commodore Club. Our usual perch at the bar was free so we were happy bunnies. And I’m very happy to report that both hot and cold canapés are alive and well on Queen Elizabeth (as well as crisps and peanuts).

 

At dinner it was just the same five as last night. Was it something we said?

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1 hour ago, frantic36 said:

 

 

Lissie , but I think the fact that the majority of passengers dressed in at least a pair of smart pants and sports jacket means he won't be over dressed. And now if he needs to go somewhere and dressed up with more than jeans and a polo he has suitable clothes already. Maybe if you go to a dance evening somewhere or a semi-formal wedding?

 

We don't have those licensed clubs here in Western Australia.

 

Julie

 

Well that's true! He doesn't own a pair of jeans - but he's a big fan of the zip of trousers that can be shorts look. And polo shirts!   He did have tails, black dance trousers, waistcoat, black tie, white tie and tails, fancy dress-up shirts - all because of our dancing habit! It was the smart attire we both struggled with! Think we have it sorted though. 

 

Yes we lived in Perth for a few years - missed the clubs. We always sign up as temporary members or use our NZ membership in Queensland. 

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n order to bring you full coverage of all the breakfast options (first morning, Lido. Yesterday, room service) today we forced ourselves to go to the dining room for eggs benedict. The life of a roving Cruise Critic reporter is full of sacrifice. The food and service were very good but because this morning was the second of our time changes. (Forgot to mention it yesterday) we felt a little rushed as all the 10:00 events start, effectively, at 09:00. I’ve known the clocks to be advanced during the night, after lunch and late afternoon, but never at 09:00 before. 

 

We were sitting by the Lido pool before lunch when the music quiz started so we thought we’d give it a go. Unfortunately, when they wanted to know the title, we knew the artist. When they wanted to know the artist, we knew the title.

 

We had lunch in the Lido then went in search of an answer of a different kind. Before we left home, the Voyage Personaliser listed tonight’s gala theme as ‘Roaring Twenties’ but there was no mention of it in today’s daily programme. All we found were others asking the same question. Nobody on the ship knows anything about this. We’ve never bothered with the themes before, apart from Black & White, but Sandra has a fringed dress anyway so was planning to wear it tonight. It was just a question of should she keep it for later if the 20’s theme has been rescheduled (it hasn’t). There is another one (supposedly) on our QM2 trip later so the feathered headband (Sandra’s, not mine) may yet make an appearance.

 

Correction: Yesterday’s post should have read, “I can’tbelieve this is the third evening onboard and this is our first visit to The Commodore Club.” Autocorrect is a mixed blessing.

 

Back on our perch at the bar in the Commodore Club for pre-dinner drinks and as the room fills up it’s clear that the passengers all know about the theme, even if the staff don’t. Perhaps 40-50% of the women (and more men than usual) have gone to some effort with their outfits for tonight. The lady next to us at the bar commented that she was surprised that there was no mention of the theme in the programme. When I told her what I had found out she asked the barman for the house phone and called someone. It seems I was right. The first the ship knew of tonight’s theme was when I, and others, started asking questions this afternoon. Then when they saw how many were dressed up, a far higher participation level than I’ve seen before, they started frantically trying to organise things, changing the orchestra set list etc..

 

Tomorrow, New Zealand.

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Happy Waitangi Day

 

Today didn’t start well. In the mail slot outside our door Sandra discovers a birthday card from the captain. “Well at least somebody remembered.” Oops. I had remembered last night when I ordered champagne for tonight but this morning the pile of cards I’ve carried halfway around the world are still in a drawer.

 

There’s currently a lot of construction works around the waterfront in Auckland as they build (or maybe extend) the underground system. Leaving the ship feels  a bit like being a rat in a labyrinth of safety barriers. Due to the public holiday a lot of shops are closed (silent cheers). As we head for the base of the Skytower to pick up the hop-on, hop-off bus I notice that there are people jumping off the top attached to a wire. I suggest Sandra tries something new and exciting for her birthday but this evidently doesn’t merit a response. When we buy our tickets we find that there are road closures due to the holiday and the route has been considerably shortened but they have cut the prices so we go ahead anyway.

 

After the tour, as we’re walking back to the ship Sandra turns a corner and I tell her she’s going the wrong way, but she had spotted a shop that was open from the bus (not so silent groan). I knew I was going to pay for this morning’s lapse, but I wasn’t expecting Tiffany!

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Tauranga

 

A beautiful sail in past Mauao (Mount Maunganui) this morning. We took the complimentary shuttle into Tauranga and had a walk around the picturesque small town. Bought a bottle of wine and returned to QE to have a room-service lunch on the balcony.

 

In the afternoon we just walked out the dock gates and strolled around Maunganui. It was even prettier than Tauranga. If anyone’s just looking for a walk around ashore I wouldn’t bother with the shuttle bus. There’s about the same number of shops and more bars and cafes just outside the dock gates.

 

We had a beautiful view of the sail out from the Commodore Club. After dinner there was a new show in the Royal Court Theatre. ‘The Outsider’ A short 45-minute musical. Quite enjoyable and a nice change from the usual fare.

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