GOOD FRIDAY
We were awake at seven o’clock this morning. The sun had risen five minutes or so beforehand, but it was on the other side of the ship so we missed the usual gorgeous orange sky. The weather was warm, but cloudy, and we were somewhat disappointed that s strong, 20 knot wind was blowing.
We got washed and dressed and decided that, despite the wind, we would do our “mile with a smile” around the promenade deck. We set off, passing other walkers, joggers and runners along the way. When we came to the stern, we paused awhile and watched as the ship’s propellors whipped the water to a foaming, surging white wake below us. Leaning over, we were able to read the upside-down words “QUEEN ELIZABETH” below us. The first “e” of Queen looked as if it was a little rust-stained.
We continued on our walk, my hair blown and buffeted into impossible tangles. Once we’d completed a mile (just over three times around the deck) we were ready for breakfast, so we headed for the Lido self-service and I enjoyed the full English works; bacon, sausage, egg, mushrooms and corned beef hash.
Afterwards, we returned to 8025 to have a look at the Daily Programme and see what was on. There was a port talk about San Juan and Antigua on, which Trevor decided to attend, but I thought I would do some of this blog instead. As we had been walking around the ship earlier on, we’d come to a lovely, glass roofed room called the Garden Lounge, and I thought it would be nice to sit in there; it was like being in a large conservatory.
When Trevor returned, we had a cup of coffee each. As Trevor checked our on-board account to see how much of the $540.00 on-board credit we had left, he was surprised to see that the answer was not much at all. So much for the cruise being advertised as including $270.00 OBC each; what they gave us with one hand they’d taken with another, by charging us each $204.00 “service charge”. What a complete, absolute rip-off!
Now, we have cruised long enough and often enough to know that tips for the waiters, busboys and cabin stewards are traditional, but many cruise lines now include them in the cost of the cruise at the time of booking. Cunard, on the other hand, makes the initial cost of the voyage look attractive, and then adds on hidden charges. For some reason this really annoyed me. 🙁
Anyway, we decided to go to the Royal Court Theatre as there was a presentation on by American sports writer and broadcaster Rick Reilly. We had never heard of him, but he was/is supposedly really big in America, and specialises in the game of golf. As such, he has caddied or played golf with Tiger Woods and other famous golfers such as Jack Nicklaus, as well as US presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. He therefore had lots of hilarious tales and anecdotes, and Trevor and I enjoyed the talk, even though some of the golf slang and jargon went over our heads.
It brought us nicely up to lunchtime. We decided to go to the Golden Lion, which serves traditional pub grub. As it was Good Friday, Trevor had fish, chips and mushy peas, while I had a Ploughman’s lunch consisting of ham, cheese, home-made bread, Branston Pickle and silverskin onions. It was all washed down with a Belgian beer which tasted slightly of orange, and indeed it had a slice of orange attached to the rim of the glass, cocktail style. 🙂
While we were in the pub, Captain Stephen Howarth made his noon-time navigational announcement, informing us that the Queen Elizabeth had sailed a total of 360 nautical miles since departing Miami, as well as giving the latitude and longitude (we hadn’t crossed the Tropic of Cancer yet), the speed of 16 knots and the course. We would probably cross into tropical latitudes overnight.
After a post-luncheon power nap, we headed once again to the Royal Court Theatre to listen to a fascinating presentation by maritime author Robert Neal Marshal, called the Royal Rendezvous, Farewells and New Beginnings. It described, with the help of lots of photos and video clips, the various “meetings” of the (then) three Cunard ships, the iconic Queen Elizabeth 2, Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria. It was quite moving to see the wonderful old QE2, blasting away on her horn, her sleek ocean liner profile knocking spots off today’s ghastly floating blocks of flats.
Trevor and I have both had the utmost privilege of two Southampton-New York crossings on the QE2; she was probably the last of the great ocean liners (QM2 is also an ocean liner, but not built along the same lines as QE2) and sailing into New York, under the Verazzano Narrows bridge and past the Statue of Liberty, was something very special indeed.
Mr Marshal also had some video footage of the iconic tandem crossing from New York to Southampton of the QE2 and the QM2. He was on the latter, so had all the best views of the more famous sister. The video footage was fantastic, and when the QE2 blasted on her horn, Trevor reminded me that the last time we had heard that sound was when we went to see the QE2 when she was on the Tyne, on her final cruise around Britain in October 2008. It was all very poignant. It might seem strange to some people how you can become all soppy over a hunk of steel and wood and glass, but all I can say is: if you know, you know. 🙂
It was after 4.15pm when we left the theatre, which meant that it would be dinner first-sitting in one and a quarter hour’s time. After our large breakfast and large lunch, we really couldn’t face going to dinner so early, so we decided to give it a miss tonight and grab something light to eat later on, in the buffet.
We therefore spent some time pottering around in the cabin, reading, relaxing and sometimes just gazing out of our balcony doors at the endless miles of Atlantic ocean.
It was about half-six when we wandered up to the buffet. Trevor just had a slice of pizza while I had a mixed salad with ranch dressing, washed down with a chilled rosé wine. It was nice to leave the restaurant not feeling like a stuffed pig. 🙂
The entertainment tonight came in the shape of comedy magician and mentalist Antwan Towner. His sleight of hand, endless patter and awful puns were fun, and he was very good indeed. We enjoyed the show a lot.
It was then time to go along to the Golden Lion once again for the quiz. This time it was called Gridlock, and consisted of five categories: Movies (again!!), History, Geography, Riddles and Flags. The answer sheet was a grid of five columns and five rows; each row was numbered 1 to 5 which were the points awarded for a correct answer (i.e. each answer was progressively harder). When each question was called, you had 25 seconds to hold up your hand so that the entertainment hosts could come round and check your answer, giving you a Bank of Cunard “bank note” of the appropriate value, one to five.
And so the quiz progressed in this way; it was probably unsurprising that Trevor and I, with our experience of travelling to 100 countries and all seven continents, scored full marks in the Geography and Flags categories.
In the end, the winning team scored 59/75 with six members in their team, whereas Trevor and I scored 50/75 with just the two of us playing. 🙂
After the lively quiz, which we had really enjoyed playing, the ship’s orchestra arrived in the Golden Lion to give us a performance of New Orleans jazz. We really enjoyed their music a lot; you really cannot beat a good old-fashioned jazz band.
By 11.00pm we were really flagging again, so we just decided to return to 8025 and settle down, after an excellent first day at sea. We had another sea day to look forward to tomorrow, and we slept really well.