July 20 - 2024
Saturday we spent all day at sea on the way home to Southampton - England. We had our best weather of the trip - sunny and up to 71. I would like to talk about how much this ship is different from today's "Cruise Ships."
The Queen Mary 2 - is the last great ocean liner. It was designed to go from New York to England. Our friends Ben and Mel really loved their early anniversary trip in 2007 on this ship. The ship was new then - designed to look like a tradition ocean liner. The furnishings are all top quality and follow the Art Deco motif. These is lots of wood - even the outside decks are wood. Rooms are larger - bathrooms are more complete. In 2016 - the ship was completely refurbished.
I round stuff off - but the Queen Mary 2 is longer than the Titanic - 1100 feet. It has 157,000 horsepower from 4 electric motors. The electricity is produced by giant diesel and gas turbine generators. The motors can be spun 360 degrees - no longer do you need tugboats to move you around.
I never asked how many people were aboard. I am slipping. We bought the trip thru Costco - $1800 a person for a week. We got an upgraded cabin with a balcony. We then got a $300 gift card from Costco. We did buy trip insurance. We could have sailed for much less.
The food and service were excellent. The whole ship - stem to stern - was spotless. There were even painters touching up. Weather and salt water are tough on paint.
The guests were old. Very few kids. There were some minor things for kids to do - play games - pickle ball - watch movies - see the shows. All shows were G rated. People were dressed nicely - this was not a booze cruise. I would have been happy running the wheel chair and cane concessions. there were plenty of musical acts and dancing.
The ship started in NYC. It took a week to get to England. Then we joined on our cruise to Norway which was a week. Now as I type it is on the way back to the USA. Many of the guests were on the trip all 3 weeks. I do not think I would like spending 7 days straight on the ship. If I had to it would be fine - but when you are 76 - you are trying to fit as much into life as you can. I can think of many other things to do.
I ran around the ship and just took snapshots. Here they are -
