Travels with the Arctic Blonds 2016 - An Iberian Idyll : The Last Post

Finally, we have started our last leg of the journey home. We boarded the Queen Mary 2 Saturday Nov 19 in Southampton and headed out into gale force winds for our first night of 7 in this floating hotel. Apparently that first night’s storm was the first named Atlantic storm of the winter season. He was called Angus and had gale force 5 winds reaching 100 knots (hurricane force) at times. The ship handled the storm well, but then she is built for this being the only ocean liner in service, unlike cruise ships which are built primarily for entertainment and fair weather sailing.

As usual, we arrived at the terminal ahead of our assigned time. We arrived shortly after 12, were supposed to be there at 2:30, but everything was okay. We got assigned colored cards that determined when we would be called up to check in. Then the wait began, but it wasn't overly long. They were really efficient (I think they have done this a few times!) and we had our pictures taken, keycards created, went thru security and were on the ship and in our room unpacking by 2:30.

the embarkation hall

our ship alongside the dock - our room will be on the other side of the ship in the white section just under the lifeboats

On arrival at the Cunard terminal, we found we had been upgraded a bit, meaning that we got a room with a bigger balcony, a couple of floors up and were now in the middle of the ship as opposed to nearer the front. This means that we feel less of the motion of the ship. Our balcony is nicely sheltered, so even with the strong winds and heavy seas, we west-coasters could go on the balcony and do a little storm watching in comfort. Our room did not fare so well with our storm watching. Every time the balcony door was opened, the outside pressure blew into the room and had a couple of the roof panels flapping like bird’s wings. We had to call our room steward in to get the panels put back into place. He had never seen that happen. Trust us to break the ship!!

Our room in unpacking disarray - the ship had just undergone a refurbishment in June so everything was nicely updated

a bottle of bubbly awaited us on arrival

the balcony - nicely sheltered for storm watching

port views from our balcony

It is an adventure finding our way around this behemoth. She is over 1200 feet long (about a ¼ mile) and 130 feet wide and there are staircases and elevator banks everywhere. We are frequently lost, but then, so are many others, so we are in good company.

Grand staircase and atrium

By Sunday the weather has cleared somewhat and the swells are only a fraction of what they had been over night. The temperature was consistently about 10 degrees so we often had the balcony door open. We left the coast of England behind about 08:30 Sunday morning and were on the cross Atlantic route.

Night time travel companion - that is just one ship, probably a large oil tanker

night waves

There are many venues to eat in and lots of entertainment to partake in, the pub was packed at lunch today because there was bingo going on right after lunch. Most of the venues that you can eat in are free, with only a couple needing a surcharge. Tea, coffee, and a limited number of juices are free, but all other beverages you must pay for. No cash changes hands, everything is billed to your room, so it can be a bit disconcerting to a money manager like me, because you don’t know how much is being spent, but I promised myself I would not let it stress me out. I can get a balance each day so I can feel like I have somewhat of a handle on it.

Gold Lion Pub

Our travelling companions are mostly fellow “Arctic Blondes” with a small percentage under 55 and apparently, there are about 40 children on board as well as 26 pets.

In the dining room, we are seated at a table for 10. Our table has 3 other couples and two women. At least two of the couples are avid cruisers having been on at least 6 cruises each. The other couple and the two ladies, we have not learned much about, as we were across the table from them and it was difficult to talk and hear across the distance, but over the coming days I am sure we will learn more about them. We have 4 informal and 3 formal nights scheduled on this crossing. We will not be attending the formal nights because we do not have the proper clothing for them. Ladies need cocktail dresses, men need a dark suit and tie, none of which we brought with us. Even on informal nights, men need a jacket. The steward reluctantly let Bill in the dining room the first night with his leather jacket, but indicated that he was making an exception this time. We looked into renting a jacket on board as the brochure indicated could be done. When we went to do that we were told they do not rent jackets, but we could rent a tuxedo and use the jacket for informal nights. The tuxedo was going to be $170 US (jacket, pants and shirt) for the duration of the cruise. But, we still were not out of the woods, because if we wanted to attend the formal nights, we had to purchase a tie! – too much in our books.

Internet is available but at 75 cents US per minute, we won’t be using it much – just a brief note every day to say “We are okay”.

We or I should say, “I”, have had one mishap before we even left port. On returning from the safety drill, I realized I did not have my little clutch purse on my wrist anymore. YIKES!!! Panic started to set in because, along with my room key, I still had some credit cards in it that I had used at check-in. After retracing our steps and not finding it, I immediately went to the purser’s office to let them know. Lo and behold, it had already been turned in with everything intact. It had probably slipped off my wrist when we practicing putting on and taking off our lifejackets. Needless to say, the first thing I did was head to the room and put the credit cards in the safe. The only thing to lose now is the room key and drinks receipts.

the view was similar every day, but different

windy day with mist blowing off the tops of the waves

looking forward

signs we are nearing human habitation - fishing floats

view down the side of the ship

something beautiful about these structures

liking the colors and shapes - something art deco ish about them

- like a vintage travel poster

our room was below the 4th boat down

this is the kennel area on the ship - so as not to confuse the dogs as

to where to pee, they have a light standard for the British

dogs and a fire hydrant for the US dogs

there was art work of all manner around the ship

The entertainment on the ship was very good. There was everything from a harpist, a 4 piece ensemble, pianist, a dance band, pub singers as well as the artists that put on the theater shows. We saw a Shakespeare presentation, an interpretation of Pride and Prejudice, a clarinetist, a girl trio, a comedian, a Singer's Concert and Broadway tribute show.

a few pics from the Broadway tribute show

We arrived in New York harbour about 4:45, passing under the Verrazano Narrows bridge, taking a turn at the Statue of Liberty and backing into our berth.

the Staten Island ferry

Downtown Manhattan, One World Trade Center

An early start for our disembarkation day - we were to be at our disembarkation place at 06:45, we were there at 05:30. We had decided to do the self disembarkation, because we had been hearing horror stories about customs and immigration taking over an hour, and being the Thanksgiving weekend in the States we anticipated traffic to be heavy. Then there were the passport control and security to go thru at the airport.

Well all our concern was for not - it took us a grand total of 25 minutes to get off the boat and go thru passport control and customs/immigration. Then we had to wait an hour and a half for our transport to arrive. One of the security people was very kind when I asked it there was anywhere to get a coffee. She actually went off and got our coffees for us.

at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal

Our drive to the airport in Newark was a breeze, no traffic to speak of. We arrived by 9:30 - flight was not till 2:00PM. So time for a nice leisurely breakfast. We made our way thru security. That was a breeze as well. In Newark, their gates are in groups of 8. Each group of gates has its own security screening area, so there was not a big line of people waiting to be processed. At Vancouver everyone going to Canadian destinations goes thru the same security portal, so there are always long lines of people waiting to be processed. Maybe if we had gone thru Laguardia or JFK it would have been different, but thumbs up to Newark Liberty.

so long Newark