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At Sea on QM 2
June 28th, Monday - Third day at sea, by TD
 Deb
& DW were up before 6 starting their “kids free day”. Mostly
it was a “Claire free” day since AD is gone almost all day
with the Kidszone. Claire is her mother’s shadow most of the
time and the mommies wanted some time alone. They ate
breakfast in the dining room while I had the boys in Kings
Court. The AD & Phil left for their program. I went up to the
Library. One of the most amazing areas on the ship is the
Library. It has 1000’s of hardbound books in all types of
categories. It’s located in the bow and has a bank of windows
with comfortable lounge chairs to sit and read while you
occasionally glance up at the ocean. I picked up “Portrait in
Sepia” by Isabel Allende which is book 2 in her series.
 The
lecture series and balance of entertainment has turned out to
be a big disappointment. We struggle to make selections for
daily activities and then find them so unmemorable that we
can’t remember which ones we selected. That’s left lots of
time to sit around and read, which is actually one of the main
pastimes I had looked forward to on this cruise. With the sea
a little calmer today, my stomach and head feel better. I’ve
been a little queasy since the ship left Southampton. Philip
actually vomited while participating in a basketball activity
yesterday.
While the girls saw Carrie Fisher’s lecture, I walked the 7th
floor jogging track. The wind was blowing so hard that it felt
that I could be blown off my feet. The 3km walk was great.
I’ve missed a regimen of vigorous exercise. This ship averages
25 knots per hour with a maximum speed of 32 knots. We are
west of the Azores in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Another ship was visible for a short while and was a surprise
to see. You don’t expect to see anything but water and sky out
here.
 DW,
DJ, & Deb went to eat in the main dining room at 6 PM. Phil
had room service which the boys just love, while I took Claire
and AD to Kings Court. We hadn’t made reservations and were
told “we’d have to wait”. By the time a table opened and the
food arrived, the kids wanted to leave for their night
program. DW & I went to see “Tuscan Sun” which was fair at
best. Deb & DJ went to a Judy Garland musical review, which
they said was lousy. AD surprised us by coming back to the
room without prompting. Yesterday he was mad at me for seeing
if he wanted to come to bed.
Even with the negative attitudes expressed, we are having a
wonderful time on the ship. The Queen Mary 2 is a beautiful
ship. There are many amazing public areas which don’t seem
crowded even though there are 2600 passengers. Our stateroom
is spacious enough and the housekeeper does a great job. Most
of the wait staff has been more than friendly and helpful. How
they have failed to meet our needs with entertainment, is
bewildering to us all? I suppose that we don’t meet their
demographics. We have talked to many people who express
similar disappointment. There’s no excuse, “this is a new
ship”. Cunard sails too many other ships for that one.
June 29th, Tuesday - Fourth Day at sea, by TD
The end of our sea journey is already
anticipated. Talk frequently centers around disembarking and
programs ending. Many of the series are only for 4 days. After
breakfast DW & I went to the last AFI lecture. Jean gave a
talk on the “Lifetime Achievement Awards”. The film clips from
the 1970’s showed a younger Ronald Reagan and many familiar
faces whom we have enjoyed and who are now gone from our
world. DW & I both talked about memories of early film and TV
stars. Most of us probably do relate periods of our lives
directly with those images.
 After
that 9:30 lecture, we split up. I checked on the ship account
at the Purser’s. They charge $11 per head per day for tipping.
The bill didn’t read easily and I wanted to confirm the total.
Each cabin starts the cruise with a $300 ship credit, so we
are using the credit to pay for the tipping. The balance has
to be spent in gift shops and drinks, or is lost. I found the
Pub Trivia Quiz while looking at shops and walked in to watch.
A group of women asked me to join them when I gave them the
answer to the first question. I ended up answering most of the
questions for our group but got a number wrong because of a
missing “s” or another not exact term.
 DW,
DJ, & Deb have chosen to eat all the rest of their meals in
the Britannia Dining Room so I am eating alone at breakfast
and lunch. AD & Phil get room service. The skies have cleared
up and the seas calm. It’s not too cold on deck so more people
are sitting in the lounge chairs sunning. I walked a brisk 5
km on the 7th deck before sitting to read more of “Portrait in
Sepia”. I enjoy historical fiction and Allende gives you a
great feeling of what upper class life was like in 19th
century Chile. I’ve been blaming corrupt leaders and policies
for South American failure to flourish. The Church and class
structures seem as much to blame. While Europe had revolutions
abolishing classes, South America had revolutions to maintain
the pattern.
 DW
& Deb went to a golf program at 4 PM. They have enjoyed that
activity. We all met back in our cabin. Our cabin seems to be
the gathering place since we don‘t have the second upper bunk
lowered. That makes a big difference in the visual space. We
frequently leave the door open to expand the feeling of
spaciousness. We agreed to eat in the dining room tonight
since they’re serving lobster and escargot. Not that AD & I
want either but we can order it and share it. I didn’t think
the food was any better than upstairs and the service takes
much longer than I want to wait to eat.
AD was off to the Kidszone. He had a great time today. They
were on a signature hunt in the afternoon. The groups were
given a list of different people to find to sign their sheet,
like the captain, a clerk, singer, people from different
countries. During the hunt, I ran into many of the groups and
offered suggestions. Even signing the “singer” category saying
I sing at church! AD’s group won the contest. He was quite
focused when I saw him in the dining room, going from table to
table searching for someone who’s name began with “F”. This
trip has enhanced his ability to interact with a variety of
people.
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Daniel Journal |
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6-28-04 At Sea
After the first day, I’ve found that
the scheduling is poor and the selection of activities
is poor as well. They are disorganized. Maybe they are
still working the kinks out and they’ve only got the
first day figured out so far. Today there was nothing to
do until Carrie Fisher’s lecture at 12:45. We ate
breakfast at the dining room. They start serving
breakfast at 8:00, dinner at 6:00, but lunch at 12:30!
So we had to eat lunch at the buffet. Tomorrow we will
eat all our meals at the Britannia (the name of the main
sit-down restaurant)
Carrie Fisher was well prepared for her lecture, unlike
her remarks at her movie earlier in the trip. She is
very funny with a self-deprecating sense of humor. She
basically talked about her dysfunctional life and
career. People still come up to her and call her
Princess Leia. Also, she says that Mark Hamill, the
actor who played Luke, doesn’t have anything to do with
any of the Star Wars actor get-togethers, they digitally
insert him into cast photographs. That sounds pretty
bitter for someone who is famous and must get great
income from the residuals.
I went directly from the lecture to the planetarium
show. It was called “Stars over the Atlantic” . I had to
sit way up since I was late. The seats tilt back and I
found myself dozing listening to the soft voice of the
guy on the show.
We went to the Britannia for dinner, sans Tom and the
kids. Therefore it was very enjoyable. Debbie had talked
to one of the food service bosses and so our service was
good (Dianne called it “slightly improved”) tonight.
Tonight’s theater show was a tribute to Judy Garland. I
finally was able to drag Debbie to a show.
Unfortunately, she hated the show, the singing wasn’t
very good, especially one particular singer. I’m wanting
a comedian or some other kind of evening entertainment
instead of the singing or dancing.
Debbie and I walked out of the show and went to the
casino. I decided to play craps instead of blackjack
since I’ve been losing so bad. The craps table wasn’t
open when I got there so I sat briefly at the blackjack
table. I started losing, of course. Finally, the craps
table opened. The table got hot right away and I was
able to parlay my last $50 into $250. I ended up
violating one of the prime rules of gambling, which is
to not leave while winning. But I was pretty tired by
that time.
More Queen Mary 2 Fun Facts:
6) The boat is 1152 feet long.
7) There is a planetarium on board, the only one at sea.
8) Laundry is free, with free detergent. Wow!
9) Each cabin has an interactive TV that has the
schedule of events, room service menu, and endless
repeats of “Friends”. I saw my first-ever episode of
“Friends” on this trip. I haven’t missed anything.
10) Room service is unlimited and free. Food, that is.
6-29-04 At Sea
With the scheduling problems we’ve
been having, there wasn’t too much going on today. I had
a huge breakfast, then took a long nap, then had a huge
lunch.
In the afternoon, I went to a lecture by one of the
Oxford English Dictionary professors on the English
language. The basic question was: Is the English
language in decline? The consensus answer of the
audience was yes. They didn’t like the disuse of the
conjunctive tense, the non-use of the word “whom”, and
the over-use of “like”. Personally, I don’t think so.
Right after that, I scurried over to the movie theater
and saw Carrie Fisher give some remarks on the movie
“The Empire Strikes Back”. She was a lot more coherent
on this than she was on the other one. Basically, she
was partying and drunk during the shooting of this
movie. They showed the “Special Edition”.
Dinner was right after the movie. It was formal night
tonight. Phil was in a foul mood, especially since he
had to shower right after dinner. Eating dinner is one
of the highlights of this trip. It’s always great food.
They had baked Alaska tonight and the chef’s parade.
We played cards with the Diblings after dinner. Debbie
asked me to skip the show.
Finally, I spent a couple of hours playing craps in the
casino. I won some money, not too much, but I believe I
am now over even for the trip. Not bad since I was
almost $200 in the hole playing blackjack.
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Arrival in NYC...»
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