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At Sea on QM 2
June 26th, Saturday - Day 1 at sea, by DW
 Phrase
for the day is “rough seas”. Deb and I have developed a signal
system, for in the morning, to alert the other one of our
being up and having coffee in the dining room. TD woke me at
6:00 to let me know that Deb and Phil were on the 7th floor
eating breakfast. So I ran upstairs to meet her for coffee. TD
was up early trying to get the laundry done. He met other
early risers who had the same idea, only to find that the
laundry doesn’t open until 7:30. It is raining quite hard and
the seas rough. Walking down the hallway in a straight line
was impossible.
The activities for the day are not as extensive has we had
hoped. They have lecture series on the solar system, one on
the history of film and another on the Oxford dictionary. The
exercise program isn’t nearly as extensive as Norwegian
offered. There is a fully equipped gym and an all weather
swimming pool. Line and tap dancing are offered. The QM2 has
the largest ballroom on the seas. Cunard customers must like
dancing and they promote it in the late night entertainment.
 AD
and Philip were gone all morning with the 10-12 program. I
went to the Planetarium show with Deb and Daniel, while TD saw
the American Film Institute’s (AFI) program on 100 top movies
of the century. Lunch served on the 7th floor in the Kings
Court, has four different cuisines available in buffet style.
The rain had stopped by lunchtime but winds kept the seas
whipped up. We have taken a southerly route toward the Azores
and across to miss some North Atlantic storms.
 TD
laid out in the afternoon sun on the rear deck while I tried
to get an afternoon rest. Deb and Daniel went to a Bridge
tournament. We played cards before dinner. Tonight is a formal
night. Deb and I are wearing the matching dresses from our
Houston birthday celebration. TD & AD didn’t have the clothes
needed to eat with us in the Britannia, so they ate in the
Kings Court. AD went back to the Kidzone while we went to see
a showing of “Postcards from the Edge”. Carrie Fisher wrote
the screenplay and is onboard this week as a celebrity guest.
We can’t figure why the boat is showing a 15 year old “so-so”
movie.
June 27th, Sunday - Day 2 at sea, by DW & TD
The word for the day is “to google”. Deb
and I met for morning coffee at 7:30. I had missed her earlier
in the dining room and she had gone back to bed by the time I
got up. We enjoyed eggs benedict in the Britannia dining room
with Daniel, Claire and another couple. It’s fun to be seated
with other couples to help add new conversations. TD went to
the 8:30 Mass. Mass is said daily in the main theatre.
We parted company so Deb and Claire could have some nap time.
The first discussion TD and I attended was about the effect
that British comedy has had on American TV, given by Terence
Hughes, a British comedy writer who now works in Hollywood.
For example, Three’s Company, All in the Family and Sanford
and Son all came from established British series. The second
lecture that we went to see, was a presentation on the film
making industry and it’s ability to save and restore films
from the early 1900’s thru today. We saw excerpts from the
silent film era which included a formerly unknown, first
episode of the “Little Rascals”. Jean Firstenberg, the
director of the AFI is a very good speaker and giving me ideas
to present to the Maumee Art Council for use in the newly
restored Maumee Indoor Theatre.
The kids ordered room service again for lunch. We went to the
Kings Court. The sun is shining brightly and our window side
table gave a view of the many joggers/walkers on the deck.
Lots of chairs were occupied by passengers watching the
rolling, royal blue waters of the Atlantic. The water is an
amazing color.
The afternoon was spent in separate parts of the ship. AD is
participating in a scavenger hunt conducted by the Kidszone. I
met them while walking through Kings Court and aided them in
collecting a number of food items. DW had helped them earlier
to find a number of items to look for from the alphabetical
list like “J’, find some jam. My time was spent on the deck
reading Isabel Allende’s “Daughter of Fortune”. I had tried to
find one of her novels in English while in Chile but failed.
DW came by for a walk on the deck. We made the three trips
around for a mile before she rushed off to another lecture.
This one on the Oxford Dictionary. Dr John Simpson, Chief
Editor at Oxford talked on how new words are entered into the
dictionary. One of the words that they are currently working
on is “to google”, meaning to search the web. He explained
that it takes about 10 months to research and define new
words, before they are admitted into new versions of
dictionaries. He also was very interesting.
Deb, Daniel, TD and myself went to a stinker of a movie called
“Out of Time“. TD walked out after the first 15 minutes while
I held on with Deb and Daniel to the bitter end. Daniel
refuses to walk out of movies so we got to watch Denzel
Washington get conned by a voluptuous babe out of not only his
virtue but stolen cash as well. Oh brother.
For dinner, Deb and I decided we would go to the King’s Court
and have the lamb chops that TD raved about eating the night
before. Our service at dinner in the Britannia dining room is
not kid friendly and leads to much annoyance. We soon found
that changing the eating location met with equal
disgruntlement. Claire began the evenings bitching and
continued to complain about every single thing. The menu had
no choices, the appetizers and salads were served buffet style
and she wanted menu selections that she chose and then had
delivered to the table. I fortunately was able to ignore her
and only had a peripheral acknowledgement of her frequent
sighs. Daniel agreed with her and voiced his desire not to eat
here for dinner again. Fortunately, Philip and Andrew were for
the most part silent and did not exhibit any disgusting
behaviors. Well except for the occasional burp! Alas, the best
meals are those eaten without the kids.
Daniel went to a stage show after dinner. We sat in an upper
lounge and talked. A boring guy who we greeted (we greet
almost everyone), felt that we were inviting him to sit and
chat. An hour later we knew his travel and life story and
wished for his departure ASAP. I got AD from Kidszone so he
wasn’t up until midnight.
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Daniel Journal |
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6-26-04 - First full day on the QM2
Phil woke us up early this morning,
he was hungry. We went to the breakfast buffet. It was
disappointing, we will be going to the breakfast
restaurant tomorrow.
We then went to an astronomy lecture by a professor at
Oxford. The lecture was comparing “wonders of the
universe” at astronomical distances, starting at the
furthest distance people have been from the earth, one
light-second and change. Although the subject material
was interesting, I found myself dozing.
After the lecture we split up and I went to a short
mini-seminar given by the actors’ group on what they do
to get ready for performances. They don’t just show up
and go on stage. There’s a whole series of exercises,
both physical and mental, that they do to warm up the
body, mind, and voice.
After that was lunch, another disappointing buffet,
although the dessert I had, cherries with a sweet sauce,
was outstanding.
We then relaxed for a few minutes before going to the
bridge game at 2:00. We played only 15 boards due to
time restrictions. Debbie and I scored an outstanding
75% game, the other pairs were what I call “baby seals”.
We had a nice chat with the bridge director regarding
what he had to do to get to be a bridge director on a
cruise ship. He has been a director for twelve years, so
I figure if I start studying for the director’s
certification now, then by the time I retire I will have
built up enough experience to get this kind of job.
I thought I would go to the casino after the game, but I
stopped by the movie theater to see Carrie Fisher give a
short talk on her movie “Postcards from the Edge”. She
was unprepared. Here’s how it went (paraphrased): “Hi,
I, uh, wrote this screenplay, uh, I’m a drug addict, uh,
my mother never got a DUI.” They’ve got Jane Seymour on
board pimping Electrolux kitchen products. I didn’t know
Jane was that hard up for money. So instead of going to
the casino I joined Debbie, Tom, and Dianne for a game
of cards.
Getting ready for dinner was a bit stressful since it
was formal night. Claire had to straighten her hair and
Phil complains bitterly about dressing up. Phil’s
behavior at dinner was abominable. I took away his
privilege of ordering room service.
After dinner I set up Phil to take a much-needed shower
and headed off to the theater show. It was a combination
of classical arias and modern rock. It was pretty good.
Claire enjoyed it too. Debbie was stressed out from
dinner and didn’t go.
After I returned from the show I found Phil eating a
brownie ordered from room service. I started yelling
that I had made it perfectly clear that he was not to
order room service. Debbie told me to relax, that she
had ordered the brownie from room service for him. I was
furious at her for undermining my attempts at
discipline. So I left and went to the casino. By the
time I returned they had gone to bed but weren’t
sleeping.
Debbie is regretting going on this trip. She is stressed
out all the time and can’t sleep. The kids bickering
with each other and with the Diblings is also driving
her berzerk. Personally, things are about how I expected
them to be. You don’t cram four people into the
equivalent of a small hotel room without some negative
consequences. However, I’m having a great time on this
trip. I find the steady low rocking of the boat
soothing, and I would rather be here than at work,
anytime. I can tune out the kids. Heck, I can even tune
out Debbie and the Diblings, too.
Tomorrow is the blackjack tournament!
6-27-04 At Sea
After spending half an hour typing
today’s journal entry, the garbage word processor they
use on this computer crashed and I lost all my work.
Microsoft Works is such an oxymoron. I hate it with a
passion. But it was free, so Tom uses it.
After yesterday’s hectic activities I took it easy
today. We had breakfast at the sit-down restaurant. I
had eggs Benedict and French toast. It was delicious.
After such a large breakfast I felt like taking it easy,
so I did a load of laundry. I played Phil’s game boy and
read a book while it was going.
For lunch I wasn’t very hungry so I ordered room
service. They had a pastrami and sauerkraut sandwich,
which I ordered since I love Reuben sandwiches.
Unfortunately, the sandwich had one lonely thin strip of
pastrami on it. Disappointing.
After lunch was the blackjack tournament, which was
another disappointment. On the last cruise we took, they
had an elimination format, where three players out of
the seven at each table would advance. Here, each person
started with $1000 in play money and everyone played
seven hands. At the end of the seven hands whoever had
the most money went on to the finals. Also, you could
buy back in if you didn’t qualify. What a crock.
After the blackjack tournament we went to the movie
theater to see the Denzel Washington movie “Out of
Time”. It was bad. Tom left in the middle. We thought
that this movie was the one where he is the bodyguard
for a little girl, but that is actually “Man on Fire”.
Since the movie ran over our normal dinner time, Tom
made a reservation at one of the other restaurants for
dinner. The food was not as good IMO as the main
restaurant. Not as many food choices. The others seemed
happy, though. No one really likes our waiter at the
main dining room, so Debbie is going to complain to
management tomorrow.
After dinner Claire and I went to the show. It was a
jazz violinist named Doug Cameron. It was great, Claire
and I loved it. He played a mixture of pieces, mostly
his own arrangements. There was stuff from Fiddler on
the Roof, Riverdance, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”
and others. I think Debbie is missing the best part of
this cruise other than the food when she doesn’t go to
these shows.
Debbie and I went to the casino in the late evening. We
had fun, it’s a lot more fun with her than by myself.
She won a little bit and I lost my loss limit yet again.
I think I’m going to play craps for the rest of this
trip.
Some Queen Mary 2 Fun Facts:
1) I paced off the long corridor which our cabin is on.
It was 309 yards. What a walk!
2) Washcloths are provided. Yay!
3) Both American and British power outlets are provided.
4) Food is free and no tipping. You give a big tip at
the end.
5) Juice and tap water are free, soda, bottled water,
and booze are not. You can buy an “all the soda you can
drink” pass for $4 a day.
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Day 3 At Sea on QM 2...»
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