Melsea's Adventures on Boats,Trains & Planes. Part 1.

[melsea]

Melsea's Adventures on Boats,Trains & Planes Part 1

Day 1. Embark the QM2. Saturday
19th Nov 2016. Informal

Clocks to go back 1 Hour in the night
.
After the final week of preparing ourselves for this day. It seemed there was still a few things to get done.
Wash up, empty our bins and others. Put the last things needed to be put into our cases.
A complete contrast to last weekend when we had quite a flood coming from either the main bathroom or the guest shower room. It turned out it was from the guest room shower unit behind the controls.
Alun our taxi friend picked us up. Journey took 3 hours, part of M23 was closed so we were redirected onto an 'A' road the A321. The weather was good at least.
Arrived at Southampton where th traffic was equally bad, Southampton were playing at home. It then started to rain quite hard. We arrived at the Ocean Terminal at midday. We dropped off our cases at the terminal & Alun dropped us off at the shopping centre where Bill picked up a jumper he ordered from John Lewis. We bought two bottles of 2L cocoa cola for our cabin. Soon the time was whizzing by and so we made our way back to the terminal at 2.30. It was fairly busy. We eventually got on board at 3.45pm. Once the got to the check in desk the process was fairly quick. One of the new things they did was to check we had our ESTAs which the lady at the desk then imputed this into the system, this was to make things a little easier for our arrival in New York. Once on board and finding our cabin, an inside on deck 4. We headed for a bite to eat in the newly refurbished Kings Court Buffet. At around 4.20 we went to our muster station.
Once that was done we went back to our cabin 4157 and we both unpacked our cases. This has to be the leased amount of stuff I have ever come away with. This is mainly because we will be flying home next week from Toronto.
We introduced ourselves to our steward and Bill got on with the various things we wanted and sort out, not least the very dusty champagne glasses which came with our bottle of Champs for being returning guest.
Our cabin is nice and one thing that was a surprise was that there was now a kettle for you to make your own tea. This is new.
In the evening we went to the main dining room for our dinner. We had ask for a table of two when we booked. I had gone by the restaurant earlier and it was a table of two but right next to another table for two. So we gave it a go and it really was really not acceptable. The meal was lovely, I had Prawn salad to start followed by Lamb which was equally lovely. Both Bill & I had the Apple strudel which was nice but not my favourite. Afterwards we spoke with the restaurant manager to ask if possible he could find a table that was not right next to another one. He was polite and said he is not optimistic as all tables were allocated, we said we don't mind a table that would usually be a table for 4 to use as a table for 2. He'll let us know.
There wasn't a show in the evening but just a welcome show which was on earlier at 7.45 and I could not really make that and anyway I was tired, as was Bill so we hit the sheets early. There was to be very strong winds in the night. So we were to expect a bumpy ride. But hey this is the QM2 shes made for bumpy rides. Clocks went back one hour before we went to bed as well.
As an added feature I thought I would add what I wore for each evenings dress, not sure if this is a good idea but suffice to say, virtually everything I buy is either heavily discounted or bought somewhere around the world at cheaper prices either through currency or that place visited is cheaper or value for money all the time.

Informal
Dusty Pink trousers, Zara
White feathered top, H&M
Pink studded sandals, Kurt Geiger online
Long gold earrings
Gold/crystal necklace, Banana Republic.
Red gold bangle red/white ball, Mango shop
Blue/white strap watch, Lulu Guinness

Day 2. At sea en route to NY. Sunday
20th Nov 2016, Formal B/W clocks went back last night.


We both slept well which is probably not surprising as we were quite tired. I got up early as I wanted to get into the queue early for tickets that were being given out for the Planetarium show later in the day, I got 2.
Bill had gone to the Christian Fellowship meeting in the boardroom on deck 9.
Once I had gotten my tickets I went for a wander to familiarise myself with the ship which is now looking a bit different in places from the last time we were on her at the beginning of the year.
Later at midday I made my way back to the planetarium which is also known as the illuminations where guest speakers give their talks. I went there to hear a Mr Christopher Ward talking about 'Titanic the aftermath', his grandfather was a violinist in the Titantic Band. When I got there the whole place was packed and I thought I would be alright. I stood up the top but I could not hear very well so I only stay briefly, I was rather upset. The problem, was that the speaker kept turning away and so I lost what he was saying. In the end I went for a walk about. Later I went back to the Illuminations for the first showing of the planetarium shows. At 1.15pm Bill turned up just as they were calling us to form a queue on one side, it wasn't long before were let in. On the way in there were headphones of which we both picked one up. It was actually to be used for people to have the show translating into various languages and it fact one channel was in English. As it happens this worked out well for me as it meant I heard everything. It was all about Cosmic Collisions in our far of spaces of near & far outer space. It was very good but it did make ones head go into a bit of a spin. Felt not quite right for a while.
Afterwards we had lunch which meant we did not go to Afternoon Tea, instead we had a nap.
During the day we had the various request we made to our steward and were acted upon and we also had a note through our door about a change of table in the restaurant we now had a table number 163 in the downstairs part of the restaurant.
Having rested we got ourselves ready for the evening. It was our first Formal night, Black & White.
The table we were given was infinitely better than the one we were escorted to last night, it was a table for 2 and not sharing the space next to anybody,
We had a really lovely meal. Beef consume for me and we both had the breast of duck that was served in a Chinese style, it was an extremely delicious meal.
At the end of the evening meal I went to the theatre to see a trio of ladies that call themselves 'Virtuosity' they were really good, their voice ranges were amazing.

Formal
Black dress, Mango
Black low heel sandals, Kurt geiger online
Black bag
Long white beaded necklace, M/S
White earrings, M/S
Black & White leather bangle, Bijoux
Blue/white strap watch, lulu Guinness.

[GillD46]

Ahhh, QM2, my favourite ship. Sounds as though you're off to a good start. The Carinthia Lounge is lovely now and far better than the Winter Garden was don't you think? Looking forward to more, when you have time.