We are waiting to disembark from the Queen Mary 2 after 6 days at sea. Yesterday, the last day, was the only day we saw the sun. The rest of the trip was shrouded in fog and 95% humidity. Nevertheless, it was great fun. This was our schedule, give or take a few particulars.
9:00 AM: Wake up, go down for breakfast and be served in the grandest style possible. Order anything you want. I went for the fresh fruit and yogurt, Ken ate everything!
10:30 AM: Go to gym and workout for 1 hour on the exercise bike, do yoga, stretching and weight lifting for ½ an hour, walk around the promenade deck for one hour.
Back to the room to shower, then down to the buffet for lunch. Platters and platters of all kinds of fresh fruit, salads, cheeses, 3 or 4 hot buffets, lots and lots of desserts. Each day was a different specialty, set up in the middle. One day was sushi, one day was a chocolate buffet, etc.
After lunch there could be a movie in the planetarium, or a concert by the string quartet, or deck sitting and knitting. Deck sitting can easily turn into a nap.
3:30 PM: Tea in the Queen’s room. You sit down at a little table covered with white linen and beautifully set with fine china. Waiters come around with little sandwiches, scones and pastries, and tea or coffee. They even had gluten free cakes and scones for me.
4:30 PM: Back to the deck to sit, knit/read.
6:00 PM: Go for a swim and then sit in the hot tub.
7:30 PM Dress for dinner
8:30 PM: Dinner in the dining room. There were 4 formal nights, so Ken was in his tuxedo, and I was in my long dress. Three days into the voyage the long dress got too tight to wear. It was abandoned for a looser style. We had a table by a window in the dining room, so we were able to watch the ocean as we ate, and the last night we saw a glorious sunset over the water.
10:30 PM: Dancing in the Queen’s Room or in the disco. While I hated the music in the disco, it felt fabulous to be able to move around fast to displace all the food from dinner!!
12:00 or later, as we had to turn the clocks ahead 1 hour each day, sleep.
The ship is beautiful, the food is wonderful and abundant, and the relaxation that comes with all of this is well worth the price. For a few days one can forget about world strife and all the problems of everyday life. There is a library on board, and last summer I checked out Wally Lamb’s novel, The Hour I First Believed. I got to chapter 16. This time I checked it out, read considerably further, and hope to check it out on the return trip and finally finish it. Did I knit? YOU BET…in between the naps on the deck. I had started a cotton lace top before we left, and just finished it this morning before breakfast. I am now working on a second linen skirt; also have some socks going.
There even was a meeting every day at 2 PM for people who do needlework. I went once, and saw what everyone was working on. One woman was doing bobbin lace, which was totally incredible; another was doing counted cross stitch, another doing needlepoint. There was a few sock knitters, a sweet teenage girl doing knitting, and assorted other knitters. Who woulda thunk….
Once we disembark we are getting the rental car and heading up into the Cotswalds. Do I miss home? A little bit. More later when I can finally connect to the internet. The prices onboard the ship to connect are ridiculous.
One last thing…I was in a shop onboard and saw the most beautiful crocheted bolero. I bought it. But of course intend to make one exactly like it when I get home.
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