QM2: A Beautiful Ship The weather for our crossing could have been better, but if we had to be confined to quarters, I can't think of a more beautiful or comfortable place to spend five days. Cunard pulled out all the stops when they built this ship.
QM2: Tragedy on the High Seas We awoke this Wednesday morning to the sound of the Captain making an announcement that we have lost a man overboard during the night.
QE2: Post-parting Depression I admit that I went into a bit of a funk the first night we were on the Queen Mary 2. As lovely a ship that she is, I was really missing al the places and faces that had become so familiar to us over the past few months.
QE2 Characters: Part Two I heard from a number of people that they really enjoyed the entry describing some of the "characters" I have seen on the QE2. She seems to attract them like wallpaper attracts flies. So here are a few more descriptions for your reading enjoyment.
Toot the Flute! One of my winnings from the World Charity Fair was the chance to go up to the Bridge to sound the noon whistle. Once, when travelling across Canada by train with my Dad who worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway, my sister Jackie and I got to go to the locomotive car to meet the engineer and pull the train whistle. I never forgot what a thrill this was for me and I was equally excited about having the chance to sound QE2's deep, deep, horn. It was all a matter of pressing a rubber button at the right time. Or, as my invitation from the Captain referred to it, "tooting the flute"!
Italy: A View from the Bridge As part of a World Cruise Charity Fair that was held on board the ship, Mike and I made a bid for a chance to have champagne under the starts and a tour of the bridge. We didn't bid enough to win the tour outright, but when the Captain saw what people were willing to bid, he wisely accepted the top 6 bids, which included ours.
Life at Sea: Hi-jinks on the High Seas We get a number of announcements over the PA system every day about this and that, but when the Captain speaks over the speakers in the cabins, you know it is something either very serious or very interesting. Today, the Captain made an announcement around 9 am that fell into the "interesting" category.
Gulf of Aden: Drama on the High Seas, Part 2 It was right around dusk on April 30 when the Captain came on the PA system from the bridge to announce that he was going to slow the ship right down to about 1 knot because there was a tanker off to our port side that needed our assistance. He said the person he was speaking to on the tanker sounded very distressed and panicky because a crew member had had a terrible accident and was in a very bad way. Because of a language barrier he couldn't tell how badly hurt the crew member was, but we were going to send one of our doctors over to the tanker on a tender boat to see if we could give some assistance.
Cocktails with the Captain During the course of a cruise like this, the Master of the QE2, Captain Ian Mc Naught, hosts many evening cocktail parties for passengers. These events are usually organized according to the dining room that one eats in (there are four) and they are large events normally held in the in the Queen's Room. We have attended a couple of these events, but just this week we received a special invitation from the Captain to a more select cocktail party.
Life at Sea, Part Five: A Day in the Life It is quite a task to have to entertain about 1800 people with varying interests for 108 days straight. But from 7:30 in the morning until about 1 am, the Cruise Director and his staff do an incredible job of organizing about 50 different activities and entertainments every day and evening. As Mike likes to say, we have nothing to do and not enough time to do it in!