Queen Mary 2 and the USA

By Gillian Page

This is an account of our trip to America on the Queen Mary 2. This was our first trip to the United States, and we decided to spend some time in America when we arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Miami. We hired a car, and drove down to The Keys, and then made our way back up the eastern coast of America, towards New York.We encountered some interesting people along the way and this diary will serve to preserve some very fond memories we have of our first trip to The United States.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781471683510

Book preview

Queen Mary 2 and the USA

QUEEN MARY 2 and the USA

Version 1

Queen Mary 2 and the USA; 2012 Gillian Page

Copyright 2012 lulu Press

All rights reserved

First published 2012

ISBN  978-1-4716-8351-0

This work is licensed under the standard copyright licence.

This is an account of our trip to America on the Queen Mary 2. This was our first trip to the United States, and we decided to spend some time in America when we arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Miami. We hired a car, and drove down to The Keys, and then made our way back up the eastern coast of America, towards New York.

Queen Mary 2

Chapter 1

Stage one of our journey. We travelled on the Queen Mary 2 from Southampton, UK to Fort Lauderdale in Florida, United States of America. We spent eight days on board ship, crossing the Atlantic, direct to Florida

Monday 26th March

We finally boarded the Queen Mary 2 at 2.30pm. We had been looking forward to this trip with a little bit of trepidation! After our trip aboard the RMS St Helena last year, we are worried that the ship might prove to be: -

Too big, too brash, too American!

We had originally been considering a round the world trip on a freighter, with eight to twelve passengers. Instead we fell for the idea of the greatest ocean liner in the world, for an eight day trip to Florida. (The round the world trip on the freighter would have taken 120 days!) We weren’t really sure about the vaccinations we would have had to take, and felt that perhaps 120 days was too long in the company of such few passengers. We had been slightly scarred by the experience on the RMS, where among the 60 or so passengers, there had actually been a few dreadful people, and we were aware that the other 8 - 10 passengers could all be quite dislikeable!

The other problem that I was worried about, on this trip, was Fred’s reluctance to take all the dressing-up / formal wear, needed for the QM2. He did not want to drag all our finery around America, once we reached Fort Lauderdale. I had been adamant that he is taking, not only a suit, but his tuxedo as well! I had been planning to put his tuxedo and dress shirts in the suitcase at the last minute, so that he wouldn’t notice. I had finally persuaded him to take a suit, but he was resisting the tuxedo. I had already told our children and friends that I was planning to secrete the clothes in the suitcase, as they were all amazed that he was determined not to take formal clothes with him. Rachel asked me yesterday when we took George around to their home - they are looking after him while we are away - if I had packed it yet. I told her I had packed the dress shirts, but was planning to pack the tuxedo, at the last minute, when Fred had finished his own packing! She thought it quite funny, and is keen to find out what Fred thinks when he discovers it on the ship! However, on the way home, Fred told me he was worried that it may be compulsory to wear it for some of the functions. He seemed to be wavering, so I came clean and told him I was planning to take it, whatever! He then told me he would only take it if it fitted. When he tried it on, both the tuxedo and suit trousers were too tight, so at 5pm on the night before we were due to leave, I had to get my sewing machine out and let both pairs out, so that he could bring them! Well, it was just as well I confessed and Fred agreed to take them, as they wouldn’t have fitted if I had smuggled them on board!

We had hired a car on Saturday for the journey to Southampton. The journey itself was boring and uneventful, but we did manage to arrive in Southampton with plenty of time to spare. We left the car at one of the Hotels by the docks, where the hire company had a reception desk, and took a taxi down to the ship. When we arrived at the ship a porter took our luggage from the boot of the taxi, and told us it would be placed in our stateroom by the time we boarded. We did think this was an impressive start. However, when we entered the departure lounge, the number of people was alarming, and we weren’t prepared for the sheer scale of the Queen Mary 2. On the RMS there were only 60 people in total when we left Weymouth, but there must have been several hundred people in the departure lounge, at the very least. As this was around 2pm, and the embarkation was from 12 noon until 4pm, we had a keen sense already of the number of people that were going to be aboard the ship!

We were processed through very quickly, and walked straight out through a door at the end of the departure lounge and up a gangway onto the ship. Except for a glimpse of the ship from the road as we approached the dock- it looked really huge then, we haven’t really been able to get a true feel of the size of the ship yet.

We went straight away to find our stateroom. It is really lovely, with a queen size bed and a large balcony with table and chairs. There was also a small bottle of sparkling wine waiting on ice!

We had a quick look around the ship. There was a buffet lunch being served in the self- service restaurants, so we went to have a bite to eat. It was pandemonium! There were people everywhere. There was nowhere free to sit, and the tables were all dirty, with used crockery left everywhere. We were un-impressed and hoped this wasn’t a taste of things to come!

After we had lunch we took a walk around the ship. It is like a huge floating 5* hotel. The public areas are