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The Queen Mary 2 takes us home!

June 8th, 2008 · No Comments · Itinerary, Sabbatical trip, Site Seeing, travel, Uncategorized

Sorry to be out of touch for so long! We boarded the Queen Mary 2 on June 2 and we haven’t been able to connect (they did have internet but at 50 cents a minute).

This morning we watched the sun rise over the Statute of Liberty as we arrived in NY .

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We are now at home, and thought I’d catch you all up on our “transatlantic voyage.” This is quickly what we were told to call it, that it wasn’t a cruise!

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Here’s she is as we approached on June 2. This is the Mayflower Terminal in Southampton, England.

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Our dear friend, from Winchester England, came to the Pier to see us off! We really felt like we were setting off on a world excursion!

We arrived by bus from London, and it took about 45 minutes to get through the sign-in line and getting issued a room key, etc. There’s no cash exchange on board so they tie your room key to your credit card (a bit dangerous if you don’t keep track!)

We had a lovely stateroom. We had an enclosed balcony that was lovely for letting in the sea air and listening to the quietness of the ocean at night. It had a large bed, desk, sofa and coffee table (and nice bathroom and storage). This is the view from the room out of our balcony.

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Here’s the main lobby area of the ship. There’s a casino, a few bars and a mall around this central core.

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So how did we pass the time? There was a library, several restaurants, bars of different sorts, entertainment, lectures and classes galore. I went to a line dance class, a watercolor class, walked about the deck (lots of high winds on our journey) and together we went to several lectures on maritime issues. There’s even a planetarium!

And, of course, we ate!

More pics:

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One of the many food sculptures that were always in the restaurants and eating areas. This is actually made of dough!

And, of course, we couldn’t resist this at the top of the ship! It was really really hard to stay there in the high winds while hubby took the picture! And this was the center of the ship (romantic nonsense that you can stand on the front! – not to mention that they don’t allow you up there!)

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This is the main area of the restaurant we ate in each night. You were assigned one of the main restaurants although you were free to eat at most of the others (there were two set aside for the super first class rich folk). We went to eat at one of the places called Todd English.

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This is one example of the beautiful works of art that were everywhere on the ship.

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We had a really lovely time. They add an hour a day so we arrived in the US hopefully without too much jetlag after 4 months on a different schedule! A day or two at home will tell.

We managed pretty well with the clothes we had. It is formal wear three nights of the six on board, and one is informal (meaning jacket, but no tie required). I’m sure some of the folks in tuxedos had something to say about hubby’s suit; but it worked for us! We had bought him a suit coat in Nice France and a bowtie (in a Tie shop in a railroad station in England actually), and he looked very dapper. I had several nice blouses (and a lovely black dress loaned by a friend), so with scarves and a few bits of jewelry it was easy for me to look decent.

Unfortunately, I don’t think we got any pictures of ourselves dressed up — they took a few on the ship, but we just weren’t into paying $27.50 (yup!) for a 5 x 7.

We arrived home to our house by about 1 pm and we’re just beginning to make it through the mail (and we’re not ready to unzip that luggage as yet!).

Do check in for more on the trip – there’s lots more photos I plan on posting (especially now that I have steady connection!).

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