Maybe a little insight into QMII might interest you. We departed New York at 6pm Tuesday evening. The crossing is 3200 nms,and ETA Southampton is 6am next Monday morning. Each day, we turn our clocks forward 1 hour, so the time differential next Monday won’t be that great.
This is Wednesday afternoon and we’re steaming along at around 25 knots on about a 60 degree heading. We’re 200 nms south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and will soon be approaching the position where Titanic sunk – ee gads! I show 2800 nms on my handheld GPS to Portsmouth, England Although Tropical Storm Christobal is spinning around in the Atlantic, we’re not being affected by it. We’re in 2-4 foot seas and you scarcely feel any rock or roll – but that could change. We’ve had a lot worse than that in the Bahamas aboard Interlude. So far, the ride is quiet and peaceful, no loud roaring of any engines.
I must say we are living in luxury. There is a fairly strict dress code for the entire trip. Last night was “informal elegant”, but tonight starts 4 nights of “formal” evenings. Everyone is supposed to be appropriately dressed for the occasion no matter where you might venture to onboard. We’ll attend the Captain’s cocktail reception tonight, followed by dining in the Britannia Restaurant and then a formal ball in the Queen’s Ballroom. I’m going to have to keep my tux pressed!
We spent this morning just getting ourselves more familiar with the layout of the ship and all of its “activities”, which are too numerous to mention. That in and of itself is a big job. I finally got the activity handbook out of Sandy’s hand this afternoon, and we luxuriated out by the pool atop Deck 8.
QMII continues on to Hamburg, Germany after the stop in Southampton, and of the 2600 passengers onboard, about 1000 are Germans. Thank God we’re dining and toasting each other now. The original QM zig-zagged the Atlantic trying to outrun German U-boats during WWII while delivering hundreds of thousands of American troops to England. I have to be a little careful before mentioning that one of my principal objectives for visiting England was my father’s experience with Eighth Air Force in WWII. From high-flying B-24s, he pulled the pins on a lot of bombs that dropped on their homeland. Not sure what they’d think about that.
That’s it for now. I’ll keep you posted.
This is Wednesday afternoon and we’re steaming along at around 25 knots on about a 60 degree heading. We’re 200 nms south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and will soon be approaching the position where Titanic sunk – ee gads! I show 2800 nms on my handheld GPS to Portsmouth, England Although Tropical Storm Christobal is spinning around in the Atlantic, we’re not being affected by it. We’re in 2-4 foot seas and you scarcely feel any rock or roll – but that could change. We’ve had a lot worse than that in the Bahamas aboard Interlude. So far, the ride is quiet and peaceful, no loud roaring of any engines.
I must say we are living in luxury. There is a fairly strict dress code for the entire trip. Last night was “informal elegant”, but tonight starts 4 nights of “formal” evenings. Everyone is supposed to be appropriately dressed for the occasion no matter where you might venture to onboard. We’ll attend the Captain’s cocktail reception tonight, followed by dining in the Britannia Restaurant and then a formal ball in the Queen’s Ballroom. I’m going to have to keep my tux pressed!
We spent this morning just getting ourselves more familiar with the layout of the ship and all of its “activities”, which are too numerous to mention. That in and of itself is a big job. I finally got the activity handbook out of Sandy’s hand this afternoon, and we luxuriated out by the pool atop Deck 8.
QMII continues on to Hamburg, Germany after the stop in Southampton, and of the 2600 passengers onboard, about 1000 are Germans. Thank God we’re dining and toasting each other now. The original QM zig-zagged the Atlantic trying to outrun German U-boats during WWII while delivering hundreds of thousands of American troops to England. I have to be a little careful before mentioning that one of my principal objectives for visiting England was my father’s experience with Eighth Air Force in WWII. From high-flying B-24s, he pulled the pins on a lot of bombs that dropped on their homeland. Not sure what they’d think about that.
That’s it for now. I’ll keep you posted.
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