Thank you, everybody, for your warm welcome backs!
I'll do one, hopefully quick recollection of my adventures, so as not to clog up our beloved message board with my inane blabberings on a non-DS related part of my life.
The Queen Mary 2 is a marvel - it is constantly emphasized that she is not a cruise ship, but an authentic ocean liner, the first in 35 years (preceded by her sister, the Queen Elizabeth 2), and the largest (150,000 tons) and longest (1,132 feet) ever built. Although she will mostly do cruises, most in the Caribbean, throughout each year, she is primarily designed to make transatlantic line crossings from NYC to Southampton; 26 are scheduled for 2005. She is constructed to withstand the worst the north Atlantic can throw at her, including 100 foot waves, something no current cruise ships (other than the QE2, which will now do cruises in Europe plus her annual round-the-world cruise) can handle. Her interior decorations are very traditional, most done in Art Deco. As the largest ship, she has many other "largests", including the largest spa/gym, library, and ballroom at sea. Her most lavish cabins are also the largest ever on a ship - they are in reality floating homes, two stories, with several master bed- and bathrooms on the second floor, and a reception hall, living room, dining room, den, guest bathroom and spacious patios (and private whirlpools!); they are larger in size than the average American home. Cost for a one-way crossing in them is around $26,000 per person, double occupancy, but you do get your own private butler and maid. She has many "firsts", such as the first outdoor glass elevators and the first planetarium. To give you some idea of her immense length, the distance from our stateroom to the self-serve laundramatte on our deck was one-fifth of a mile. By the time I finished doing laundry, trecking back and forth, I actually walked more than one mile. Now you can see why I did laundry only once during that one-month on board and waited until I got home.
While on board, I actually did not make a pig of myself with the virtually 24-hour availability of food, and I worked out for two hours everyday in the gym, plus I cardiowalked six miles everyday. I was a good boy, and at the end, rather than gaining the average ten pounds, I actually lost ten pounds.
Security leaving NYC was very tight because of Al Qaeda threats against the ship, with armed coast guard men and women on board (they left the ship with the pilot after passing under - with less than thirteen feet of space - the Verazzano-Narrows Bridge) and an escort by coast guard and NYC police boats and helicopters. No one was allowed to remain on the pier to wave bon voyage, a disappointment, as friends had come to do that just that.
The Oxford Lecture Series, something organized uniquely for the ship by the British University, had such renowned speakers on board as English mystery author PD James, British actor Richard Johnson, who starred in The Haunting with Julie Harris (the film was shown as a prelude to his lecture), and noted maritime historian William Miller, among others.
After crossing the Atlantic to Southampton, we began our cruise which included Edinburgh, Scotland; three ports in Norway; Hamburg, Germany, and Rotterdam, Holland, sailing back to Southampton for the crossing back to NYC. Because the QM2 is an ocean liner, and the most currently famous one in the world, being as this was her inaugural (maiden) season, our entry into those ports was for the first time, so at each one she was greeted by enormous numbers of people and various types of receptions. While cruising to a port in Norway through one of the fiords, National Geographic was there with a helicopter taking pictures for an upcoming feature in its magazine. In Hamburg, where we stayed for 24 hours, the reception was overwhelming and unexpected by both the ship and the city in its immensity. We were escorted along the Elbe River by 800,000 people who lined the banks (some had camped our for two days previous to maintain a choice spot) and over 1,000 boats and vessels, from small power-boats to tour boats, and the fireboats sporting the huge fountains of water. Overhead, the German airforce had fighter jets fly in formation and patterns. Hamburg was in a holiday mood; beyond the security perimeter on the dock was a carnival with band stages, and tons of concession stands. Our tour busses were mobbed in the city proper and people asked for our autographs and to have their pictures taken with us. By the time of the evening fireworks and lasershow display given by the city, 2,000,000 people were present - the streets were so packed by the massive throngs that cars, busses and other vehicles were simply abandoned. Some tour busses could not make it back to the ship until the wee hours of the morning. This was the largest and most elaborate reception ever given to an ocean liner in history. It was awesome.
The whole trip was a once-in-a-lifetime wondrous opportunity. But now I'm glad to be back with all of you. Our next thing is to see if we can somehow get the 2006 DS Festival to take place on board the Queen Mary 2!
Gerard
