Around the World on the Queen Mary 2

By Gillian Page

A travelogue describing our around the world trip on the Queen Mary 2. This is a day by day diary account of our epic journey around the world in 2009, spanning 87 days, complete with countless photographs.. Follow our journey as we travel around the world, visiting some exotic places. Marvel in the majesty of Cape Horn and The Magellan Straits, and hear about the threat of pirates and the discovery of a dead body in the sea.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 11, 2012
• ISBN: 9781471690099

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Around the World on the Queen Mary 2

AROUND THE WORLD ON THE QUEEN MARY 2

AROUND THE WORLD ON THE QUEEN MARY 2; 2012 Gillian Page

All rights reserved

First published 2012

ISBN 978-1-4716-8357-2

This is the story of our epic journey around the world on the Queen Mary 2. This is a day by day diary account of our journey in 2009, spanning 87 days, complete with countless photographs. Follow our journey as we travel around the world, visiting many exotic places. Marvel in the majesty of Cape Horn and The Magellan Straits, and  hear about the threat of pirates and the discovery of a dead body in the sea.

Chapter 1

This is the first leg of our journey. We travel to Miami in Florida, from Heathrow Airport, where we spend one night in a hotel in Miami, before travelling to Fort Lauderdale to board our ship. Our first port of call will be Grenada

Monday 12th January 2009

Day 1

It’s hard to believe, but after nearly a year of planning we are finally off! Graham picked us up at 5.am and drove us to Heathrow. As expected the journey along the M25 was bloody awful, but Graham, bless him and his satnav, got us to the airport in plenty of time. He is obsessed with his satnav, using it for a journey he knew so well, and actually arguing with it when he didn’t want to take the route it was telling him to. It got it’s own back by continually saying - in what sounded like a South African accent - ‘Slow down you Tosser!’ - every time he exceeded the speed limit - which was frequently!

We had upgraded our flight to first class, and were totally bowled over with the experience. We checked in in a few minutes , and went into the Virgin First Class Lounge. What a far cry this is from the hustle and bustle of the Heathrow terminal. We checked our hand luggage into the concierge and sat down in a dining area for a complimentary breakfast - waitress service, silver and white tablecloths included. Fred had a full English breakfast, and had a very delicious brioche filled with scrambled egg and smoked salmon.

There was a party of Americans sitting across from us and- Fred was convinced that one of them was Mickey Rooney. The whole waiting experience was exemplary, but this was small fry to what was to come!

We boarded the plane into the first class section. There were only 3 seats in a row across the Airbus ; each one a self-contained pod of its own. The seat was totally private from the ones in front and behind, and the seat reclined or converted into a full-size flat bed. There was a footstool for extra comfort when using the seat in the position or as an extra seat if you wished to dine together. We were served a glass of champagne when we boarded, just before take off,and believe me things only got better from then on! A meal was served - after a couple of pre-dinner drinks - on a large pull out table. A white cloth was placed on the table and the food was served on china, with real knives and forks. The food was very good, and the steward continually topped up our wine glasses! At one point I leant over to Fred and whispered to him that this was totally spoiling us for any future travel - there was no way I could travel in economy with the hoi-polloi after this! I have to admit that I found the whole experience almost overwhelming. The last year had been particularly tough, and I found the start of our holiday / adventure brought a lump to my throat. I realised we were a far cry from the tough days of last summer!

The arrival at Miami Airport was the usual blend of inefficiency and chaos that seems to be a feature of arriving in the USA. Our baggage was checked through quite quickly, and I think we cleared immigration and customs quite quickly .We were sitting on the coach, waiting to be taken to the hotel within approximately 45 minutes. Unfortunately we were the first two people to arrive on the coach and it took over an hour for everyone else to filter through the airport!  The main problem was due to the fact we had up-graded our flight to first class, but we were not first class passengers on the QM2. First class passengers with Cunard were taken from the airport to the hotel by private car.

We arrived at the hotel - the Conrad Hilton which was 40 stories high, and checked into our room. This is an inadequate description of the apartment we checked into. There was a kitchen, lounge with French doors leading onto a balcony two bedrooms, both leading onto separate balconies and two bathrooms, with a further single wc. The apartment was a maze of corridors and doors, and I kept expecting to find other people wandering around the corridors - it was much too large for two people with an overnight bag! We made good use of the facilities though. We both had a bath in separate bathrooms, at the same time. Fred‘s bathroom was an amazing room. One whole wall was glass, and he sat in the bath looking out over a brightly lit Miami! You could easily imagine you were floating up in the sky with the stars! 31 floors up surrounded by other brightly lit skyscrapers -truly cosmic!

Tuesday 13th January

Day 2

The next morning we decided to go down to breakfast. The hotel had left us a letter saying they had prepared a breakfast especially for the Cunard guests, so although Cunard had advised us we were room only, we decided to take the hotel up on their invitation. Big mistake! This generous invitation from the hotel cost us $62! Quite an expensive breakfast!

We were due to leave the hotel at 12.20pm, but bumped into the Cunard Rep at 10.15am who asked us if we would  like to leave on the first coach at 11.00am. This seemed to be a good idea, as we felt we might beat the rush at the Port, so we left at 11am without our luggage - as this had been colour-coded to depart on the 12.30 coach. We spent a few anxious hours hoping it would join us on the ship! We booked onto the QM2 quite effortlessly, after a small crush to enter the port facilities. When we stepped back on board the QM2 I was surprised how familiar it still seemed as we had only spent 8 days on it before. We found our stateroom, and dumped our hand luggage and personal possessions. We were unable to start to unpack as our suit-cases hadn’t made it onto the ship before us, so we did the only thing we could in the circumstances - we went up to the pool deck and had a couple of beers, sitting in the warm breeze of Miami in January! We then attended a small cocktail party arranged for those of us who were travelling on the full world trip There was a surprisingly small number of us ,probably no more than 40 or 50 people! We had another couple of drinks - wine this time, and chatted to some of the officers and crew, and an American woman called Susan , an interior designer from Florida. The ship is so big, there is little chance to meet the same people twice, so it will be interesting to see if we do meet her again! By the time we left the cocktail party, Fred said it seemed highly likely that at this rate, we were going to be drunk before the ship left the harbour!

The QM2 was docked alongside her sister ship - the Queen Victoria, and we were both scheduled to leave Fort Lauderdale together both ships were embarking on their annual world cruise. There was also a Dutch liner - the Noorman, who was preparing to leave the harbour around the same time. The Queen Victoria was the first ready to leave, and her decks and balconies were filled with people waving at us, and shouting. Some were waving flags or white handkerchiefs. Everyone on our ship responded in like. When the Queen Victoria reached the entrance to the harbour all hell broke out. The three ships all sounded their ships horns in a cacophony of sounds which seemed to go on for ever. The next ship to leave was the Noorman - she was sounding her horn as she left. The best was left for last though. When the Queen Mary pulled out of port she sailed by a group of skyscrapers at the harbour entrance. It was dark by the time we left, and the blocks were brightly lit, with people lining every balcony and all along the shoreline. As we pulled alongside them the reception was amazing! Lights were flashing , people were using search lights to probe the ship, and the sound of people cheering and calling out - Good Luck - Bon Voyage brought a lump to my throat. QM2 was blasting her ships horn, and people were answering in kind - klaxons and bells sounding. Someone also had a ships horn on their balcony! As we pulled past the promontory someone on the shore started playing a trumpet. What an amazing experience!

We went down to dinner in the evening. The restaurant is on 2 floors, with the upper balcony level looking down over the lower level. The last time we travelled on the QM2 we had a table for 2 on the lower level. This time we had been allocated a table on the upper level. The service was almost over the top! The waiters were over-attentive. At one time we had 3 waiters trying to serve us at the same time! The table was stuck between two other tables, and the waiters seemed to be forever bumping into our table.