0138 Looking North up the East River from Red Hook in Brooklyn. In the distance on the right is Manhattan Island. The tallest building you see is World Trade Center 1, still under construction. They just put the antenna structure atop it on the anniversary of Osama Ben Laden’s death. In front of Manhattan is Governor’s Island. The bridge crossing the East River partly covered in metal sheeting, they’re rehabbing it, is the Brooklyn Bridge.
0140 In the Great Hall on Deck 3 they have four murals representing the four seasons. This is Spring, the most colorful of them. They all show the tree in various stages and the sun in various positions. The plants are missing in Winter and growing or dying in the other seasons. They’re very interesting.
0163 Mercury is rushing a message to Zeus in front of Illuminations, the ships lecture hall and movie theater.
0166 This statue of a girl studying a ball of light is typical of the Art-deco, machine-age style used throughout the ship.
0156 On Deck 2 in the Great Hall they have murals depicting four continents, North & South America, Africa and Europe. This is the North American mural. You can see the Statue of Liberty, various sports figures, a movie cameraman, a space shuttle, satellite and our capital building on the left. On the right are mainly scenes from the west, a steam train, Conestoga wagon, and Indian and some animals. What you can’t see is the artist’s swipe at us by including Homer Simpson watching TV just under the space shuttle. Most people never see him.
May 3 – Boarding the Queen Mary 2. Embarkation day is always a little inconvenient. Today could not have been easier. Breakfast at the HiExp, car to the port and Presto! we’re seated in the terminal at Pier 12 Red Hook, Brooklyn, NYC. In a short time they started calling the boarding numbers and in a few minutes we’re aboard having lunch. While we were boarding our friends, on a circle cruise around Manhattan passed the ship. Too bad I didn’t check my messages sooner, I could have waived off the deck.
We book an inside room for crossings. The weather in the North Atlantic in Spring is rather cool, 50 degrees, and usually very windy. Nothing really to see and not exactly sunbathing weather making an Oceanview room worthless, much less a veranda. Our room 6158 is located between B and C stairways, almost midship and one deck down from the King’s Court, the buffet restaurant. If you are crossing the North Atlantic this time of year the QM2 is the ship for you if you want a smooth ride. The weather outside today would have the Prinsendam and even the Amsterdam moving quite energetically. The QM2 is moving a little but almost imperceptibly Cunard claims she’s the only true Ocean Liner sailing today and based on her performance the 5 times we’ve crossed on her, I would heartily agree. Smooth as silk under adverse conditions. I’m sure there are conditions that would have her bouncing but I’ve never seen them and we’ve been aboard in Force 8 winds with 15 foot seas. Not much of anything going on as far as movement.
They have a new Entertainment Manager (the new name for the Cruise Director). He’s a Brit but he has a French name, Leon de ste. Croix (Leon de say qua). His family is descended from the Normans who occupied the islands. He’s much less stuffy than the previous CD and that’s a good thing. He can poke fun at himself and have a good time with it. He’s got great patter and is very funny.
The singers and dancers performed a short welcome show this evening. As usual, the 12 dancers are mostly Eastern European and excellent. When I’m shipboard I usually try to pick the best male and female dancer in the troupe. Most times that is not too difficult, but aboard the QM2 it’s much harder. I’m going to have to see them a few more times to make a pick. Last time the best I could do was narrow it down to the two best of each, they’re that good.
The four singers only participated briefly but were excellent as well. I’m sure we’ll see a lot more of them as we cross.
May 4-9 – Aboard the Queen Mary 2. These six days at sea will not be different enough to warrant their own entry so I’m combining them. We will lose 5 hours before arriving in Southampton and they’re setting the clocks ahead one hour at noon to get that done. An absolutely brilliant idea. I can get in one hour and one minute on the treadmill if I start at one minute before Noon and get done at 1pm.
The first night’s entertainer was Phillip Browne. He’s a West End singer and appeared in the Lion King at the Lyceum Theater in London when it opened. He has an outstanding theatrical voice. He seems to integrate the acting part of singing into the vocal part effortlessly and naturally. His ability to express the emotions behind the words is stunning. He sang a wide variety of music and was able to find a voice to fit each. The music of Sammy Davis Jr., Nat King Cole, Michael Jackson and others was done, not so much as an impression of each but in a voice and style that fit the music beautifully. Needless to say, he got a standing ovation. Alas, no encore.
They have several speakers on board. Squadron Leader Ross Priday is presenting a series of 4 talks on the Red Arrows, the aerobatic flying squadron for the Royal Air Force. Mick Testoni is doing 4 presentations on the Lifeboat service, a coastal rescue unit made up almost entirely of volunteers that serves much like our Coast Guard in the UK and Republic of Ireland. There are others but so far none of their topics has tweaked my interest.
(I’m currently sitting poolside at the Deck 12 indoor pool. There’s a very nice steel drum accompanied island band playing various styles of island music. Very relaxing and yet invigorating at the same time. Marvelous!!)
Electra entertained us on the 5th, two ladies both playing violins accompanied by the ships orchestra. What a pleasure it is to have a ship’s band with a brass section. Makes all the difference in the world to the music. Are you listening HAL? They were both attired in red, strapless cocktail dresses and barefoot. Again, I’ll bet this is getting boring, they were excellent. They performed classical, folk, Irish and show tunes energetically and with a certain amount of choreography. A fun evening. So far this cruise is setting a new standard for entertainment and the bar is getting very high indeed.
On the 6th we went to the Indian cuisine based Cardamom Restaurant with our tablemates Allison and George. They’re from Northern Ireland and live near the Bushmills distillery. In a little twist of fate, George doesn’t drink whiskey. Tonight the QM2 singers and dancers started the show off with a Motown based set followed by the return of Phillipe Brown. Both were excellent again. I’m closer to picking my favorite vocalist and dancers but not quite there yet.
While there’s a lull in the travel action I’m going to take some time and comment on the differences in the QM2 since 2010, the last time we were aboard.
First, during the day the King’s Court was, and still is, the buffet restaurant. Previously it had 4 distinctly different buffet lines, Oriental, Italian, Grill and Deli. Since Diana is not a huge fan of some Oriental cuisines and we typically go our separate ways in the morning, I always had lunch at the Oriental buffet. Now the buffets are pretty much the same on three of the sights. The deli sandwich area still retains its original character. I truly miss the Asian food area. It has me so discombobulated that I’ve had a sandwich for lunch every day so far. It’s the one area that remains the same.
Second, in the evening the King’s Court is divided into four separate dining areas. The character of each remained the same it was during the day. Every night three of them required a reservation and had table service; one remained a casual eating buffet for those who didn’t want to conform to the dress code of the day. All were no charge venues. Now the system of dividing the area remains the same, separate sections. However two of the sections are Italian and Indian cuisine, require reservations as always but now require a $10 per person cover charge. Not a big deal really, but it is a change. The remainder of the area is a casual buffet. Our Indian dinner last night was very good as you would expect. For years, the best food widely available in England was Indian. Dinner in the Britannia Restaurant, where 80% of the passengers eat dinner, is good to excellent as always.
Third, a word about the sushi. Here there’s good and bad news. The only have maki, no nigiri. The sushi rice is actually much improved but the selection is very limited. Dikon radish rolls, cucumber rolls, smoked salmon rolls and avocado rolls predominate. Unlike HAL there’s no raw fish at all. I guess that’s why there’s no nigiri. The real problem is that there’s no wasabi, that innocent looking and hot as blazes green radish you mix with soy sauce to make the absolutely essential dipping sauce. I asked for some and was directed to a bowl of what appeared to be mayonnaise. I asked what it was and was told, “Wasabi sauce.” I’m somewhat embarrassed to say I gave a snort of derision despite my usually good traveler’s demeanor. Well, I tried it. Someone may have stored this mayonnaise next to a grain or two of wasabi but none actually made it into the mix. To say that it is totally unsuited for application to sushi is to completely understate the situation. It’s an outright abomination. I rarely gripe in my post-cruise evaluations but this will be an exception. My recommendation will be to eliminate sushi or get some wasabi.
We just had an announcement from the Entertainment Director that is interesting for what it didn’t say. He just told us that tomorrow night’s program, a presentation by the singers and dancers has been moved to tonight and tonight’s comedian is rescheduled for tomorrow. This means one of two things. Either the comedian is ill and can’t go on or rough weather is expected tomorrow night that would make the dancer’s performance dangerous. It will be interesting to see what happens to the weather tomorrow.
I’ve already mentioned the new Cruise Director/Entertainment Director. Most everything else remains the same, which is to say it’s very good. None of these changes is really bad; the only thing I miss is the Oriental buffet at lunch.
Wasabi update: I decided I shouldn’t wait until we disembark to comment on the wasabi situation. As usual I tried to take the low key approach to registering a shortcoming; I find it the most effective way to open a dialogue. I introduced myself to a King’s Court manager and asked, “Is there a secret stash of wasabi?” As he began to answer, another manager approached us and asked me if I had enquired about wasabi. When I answered in the affirmative he produced a tube of wasabi paste from his coat jacked and offered me some. He said it was the last tube on the ship and if people don’t miss it, it’s not wasted on them. They keep it for those who do. Interesting.
All this reminds me of another little quirk I discovered. I noticed that there are never any cookies, biscuits to the Brits, on the desert bar. I really like to have an oatmeal cookie every now and then so I kept looking every day, no luck. By chance I happened to notice a waiter carrying a small dish with several cookies on it. I asked where he found them and he referred me to a young lady standing nearby. I asked her about them and she in turn asked me what kind and how many I wanted. I said, “One oatmeal cookie would be great.” She disappeared through a door to return in about 30 seconds with my cookie. I asked where they were and she told me they are kept in the bakery just inside that door. Odd. So now every other day I ask for one oatmeal cookie from one of the staff and like magic it appears. To keep it simple, I always ask just outside the bakery door.
On the 7th we were again entertained by the ship’s singers and dancers in a show called Viva Italia. The costumes were very nice for this production. One song about Galileo had the dancers clad in Italian Renaissance costumes. Atop each hat was a large symbol of one of the Zodiac signs. It was mildly humorous to see a large crab, bull’s head, lion, water jug, scales, ladies bust, scorpion, fish, ram’s head, twin cupids and one I don’t remember twirling around the stage. Sure enough, after the show the ED fessed up to the reason for the switch in the programs. The stage might be moving around too much tomorrow for the dancers to be safe.
On the 8th the entertainer was Jeff Stevenson, a comedian from the UK. For some reason I have always been tuned in to the sarcastically understated humor of the British. Sure they have broad slapstick (Benny Hill, Monty Python, etc.) and that’s funny in small doses, but I never grow tired of the dry wit of the former style. Jeff has it and uses it very well. He incorporates a fair level of physicality that is often lacking in the style and uses it to great advantage. Usually the most you’ll get in the style is a facial expression but because he world to very large audiences he has added some body language to go with it. Nicely done!
A couple of words about the QM2 in general. The ambiance of this ship is more 1940-50 than other ships. The style and décor harken back to the glory days of the ocean liner rather than the modern cruise ship. Much of the art work and furnishings are very art-deco or machine age. The sculptures and panels around the ship evoke images of the Chrysler and Empire State buildings in NYC or the Bradbury Building in Los Angeles. In the evenings you would not be at all surprised to see a woman with short hair, a close fitting hat, long string of beads around her neck and flapper dress or a gentleman in a zoot-suit and fedora come around the corner. Images of Al Capone, the Charleston and the Golden Age of Hollywood are constantly brought to mind. They announced plan was that the QM2 be a flashback to the glory days of the transatlantic crossing, and they succeeded very well indeed.
The claim that she’s an ocean liner, not a cruise ship is also well founded. Currently we are in winds of Force 9-10 (Keep in mind that Force 8 is officially a gale.) and waves 20+ feet, usually a pretty bumpy ride on most of the ships I’ve been on. The QM2 is hardly moving at all. Pretty amazing, especially when you consider we are going almost 22 knots. Most of the other ships I’ve been on have to slow to 12-15 knots to have an even marginally comfortable ride in this sort of weather. We’re at 22 and just coasting along. Remarkable.
Tomorrow, while many people are disembarking in Southampton we will be taking a tour to Windsor Castle. It’s one of the few Royal Residences in the UK we haven’t seen. Currently it’s the largest inhabited castle in the world. If the flag is up signifying that the Queen is in residence, maybe we’ll knock and see if it’s convenient to have tea. I’d imagine her majesty puts on a very posh spread.
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