FULL DAY 5 OF THE TRANSATLANTIC CROSSING ON THE QUEEN MARY 2 (SUNDAY 19 APRIL 2009)

FULL DAY 5 OF THE TRANSATLANTIC CROSSING ON THE QUEEN MARY 2 (SUNDAY 19 APRIL 2009)

 

Annoyingly my throat was very sore overnight. But hopefully the antibiotics will kick in during the day today.

 

We woke to a much quieter wind and much calmer seas today. It is still quite overcast but dramatically less blowy.

 

The problem with being on board is about 2 days before the end of any trip is you start to get all sorts of things that suggest that the trip is nearing the end, which is a bit annoying really as 6 days seems like a long time but is not – and so being reminded that it will end soon is not welcome! We have chosen to do a self-assistance when we get to Southampton, which means we will take off all our baggage and also get off pretty sharp. This is something increasingly cruise lines are encouraging, which makes sense as means they can get people off the ship faster as people can start to leave as soon as the ship is cleared – and also means much less work for the crew to get baggage off and means more time to get ready for the next set of lucky passengers. The QM2 is heading back to New York when we get back and bouncing back and fro 4 times at least.

 

We have been given the form to rate the cruise, the materials to get off the ship and the dining room staff have given us a folder with our menus. We have a set already as they leave them in the morning at our cabin.

 

We have also taken back the library books we borrowed from the massive and very impressive library (and never read as we never seem to have had the time!). There are something like 6000 books in the library. We also took back the DVDs and Games. Though they show really good movies on the internal TV system. They also run Fox News and as we got to about half way we also got BBC World and ITV. Then they also show the talks from the day. I watched a really interesting one which is a virtual bridge tour by 2 of the Bridge Officers. Really interesting, and full of fun facts like the QM2 generates enough power to power the whole of Southampton!

 

After our now regular trip for afternoon with delicious sandwiches, cakes and hot scones, we headed to the Queens Room to watch to passenger Talent Show. These are usually truly terrible events when it comes to exposing talent, but usually good fun. Today was great fun with a few old ladies singing and being very entertaining, a nervous teenage lad playing the piano, an old chap reading poetry for ever that he had written and a lady playing the piano with some pieces she had written for her grandchildren.

 

By the afternoon as we got closer and closer to the UK, it got sunny and the sea is very calm and almost glass like now. Talk about extremes!

 

The day was fairly quiet all in  all as there is that feeling of the end of the amazing experience.