Wednesday 20^th May – Dun Laoghaire, for Dublin.

We arrived as planned at anchor. It was windy and the sea was a bit rough. A few of the tenders were lowered but it was obviously too choppy for the mile and a half trip, so the decision was taken not to tender passengers ashore until the wind dropped.

Jo – the Entertainments Director – and the tours team were therefore left frantically trying to arrange on-board entertainment and to rearrange the morning’s tours.

Eventually at around midday, the Captain said the tenders could start. We looked at the first few bouncing around and decided to give it a miss! We had, after all, seen Dublin before…

Instead, we went to a pub quiz (we were rubbish again) and to an intermediate bridge lesson.

In the evening we had cheese and biscuits in our room before heading off to Illuminations to watch “The Second Best Marigold Hotel” This was very funny and better than most sequels we’ve seen.

We gave Roy Walker a miss – as we didn’t think he was very funny on the last leg of the world voyage and we assumed he would do a similar act.

Anfisa came up trumps - as when we got back to the cabin we had received an invite to dine with the Senior Engineer on Saturday. This will mean that we’ve got drinks in the Art Gallery viewing at 2-30pm, a wine-tasting at 3pm, the Captain’s cocktail party at 7-45pm and the senior officers meal (with free wine) at 8-30pm. AA for us when we get back?

Greenock tomorrow – wonder how well it will work out trying to meet up with Gary & the girls, Uncle Alan and Rob & Jenny?

 

Thursday 21^st May 2015 – Greenock.

Nesta was up at 5-30am to see our entry into the Clyde – passing Millport and Largs – and it brought a tear to her eye.

We docked safely to be met by a pipe band and “Hamish” (a bouncy Mr Blobby type character in a kilt!) We went ashore to suss out the pub situation for our guests today. Greenock has seen better days – the main street is full of betting shops, pound-land shops and pawn shops but we eventually found the “James Watt” – a Wetherspoons next to the station. (Ideal for Alan!)

We got a text from Jenny to say they were at the port and had met Gary’s uncle Barney and his wife Christine. They joined us at the pub (along with Becky, James and Fiona from the ship’s crew) where we all enjoyed a pint and the obligatory Scottish breakfast (tattie scones, lorne sausage etc.) Alan joined us at about 1pm – so we had to have another drink!

Just before 2pm, Gary et all headed off back to the ship for their champagne afternoon tea and we walked slowly back with Alan so that he could see how big the ship is.

Nesta popped on board to let Ryan and Mohammed (bar manager) know that Gary & the girls could use our on-board credit (because otherwise they couldn’t buy a drink). Aren’t we nice? Other visitors had to leave by 5-15pm but the three amigos managed to extend their stay until 8-30pm (Guess that’s all our on-board credit wiped out then!!)

Alan and the two of us found a licensed café where we had a cup of tea followed by a bottle of wine! Rob phoned at about 5-30pm to say he and Jenny were on their way. When they arrived, we had a meal and then walked down to the ship where the security guard let us in the gates and took a photo of us all in front of the QM2.

We said our goodbyes and walked back to the terminal where we met the inebriated three amigos who had to wait there as Cunard had “misplaced” their passports!

We went to the back of the ship for the sail away. A massed pipe band and dancers (plus two “Hamishs” this time) were on the quay, Vibz played on the back of deck 8, a fantastic fireworks display and hundreds of people lining the banks to wave us off. Even the Waverley was there (sailing down the Clyde with us).

When we got back to our cabin, we saw that the kids (Gary, Jenny and Dianne) had left some lovely chocolate cup-cakes for us…aaah!

We also found an invite for yet another cocktail party hosted by the Captain, Deputy Captain and Hotel Manager to take place on Monday. We seem to be very popular!

 

Friday 22^nd May 2015 – Oban.

Nesta woke up at 4-30am as the ship was “jiggling” a bit. Even though it was beginning to get light, she couldn’t see anything as it was so foggy. The foghorn was sounding but when we looked at the TV we saw that we were travelling at 23.8 knots. We thought this was a bit fast in poor visibility (although we suppose it’s all done by radar etc. now!)

We were 30 minutes late anchoring off Oban and the Captain had the cheek to say that it was because we had to slow down due to the fog!!

We tendered ashore and went to Wetherspoons for another Scottish Breakfast (and a pint) then wandered around the town until Gary and the girls arrived from Greenock. We went back into the pub but the girls were only drinking soft drinks as they were still suffering from the excesses of the previous afternoon!

They gave us one of the presents they had received at their reception (a nice “coffee table” book about Cunard) which we’ll get the Captain to sign tomorrow!

They also paid us back for the use of our on-board credit and told us one of the bar staff (Wilber) was really worried every time they said it was alright to put the drinks on our account…so, of course, when we had said our goodbyes and returned to the ship we went down to the pub and asked to speak to Wilber. We asked him how $89 could have been charged to our account when we were actually ashore in Greenock. He looked petrified until we started laughing and told him it was ok (we can be quite cruel!) He is now going to wind up Gary on Facebook saying he is facing disciplinary action!

After our drink in the pub, we went into the Winter Gardens to see Ryan. As we were going to have so much free alcohol on Saturday we decided to have a light day – only four pints each – which is still probably more than the daily recommended amount!

From there we went down to The Queens Room for the party night with Vibz. Lewanne would have liked it as they still were playing all her favourite songs (not!)

We were thinking about having a bop when Imogen (the Social Hostess) decided to improve (?) the party atmosphere by stopping the band and begin teaching the passengers the line dancing steps to “Achy Breaky Heart”!

Our time to leave…

British Isles and Liverpool Salute

Sunday 17^th May – Southampton.

This is on the blog just for you, Jenny!!

We had set the alarm for 8am but Nesta was excited and up, making tea and getting some “fresh air” long before that.

By 10am we were out of the door, with one large suitcase and one small rucksack, and walked to the bus stop where a number 9 bus came unexpectedly early. This meant we were on the platform at Temple Meads with 40 minutes to spare!

The train we caught was going to Brighton and it stopped at every conceivable station along the way (11 in total) including a “request” stop! Still, the countryside was attractive and it was far more relaxing than charging along the M4 etc.

We got a taxi to the Ocean Terminal where hundreds of people were waiting to embark…We found the “preferential embarkation” desk, said “platinum” and were whisked to the front of the queue and on-board in no time!

The security man scanning our cards recognised us and welcomed us back on board and two of the porters in the Grand Lobby also gave us cheery waves.

We made our way to our cabin which was the same as our previous cabin except that everything is the other way round! I wonder how long it will take for us to stop opening the wardrobes when we want to go into the shower room!

We had some lunch and then phoned the friend who had stowed our “formal” suitcase under his bed during the last fortnight - and by the time we picked this up and unpacked it, our other luggage had been delivered so we were all shipshape!

We went to Deck 8 aft for the “sail away” party. The entertainments team handed out plastic union flags and “Land of Hope and Glory”, “Rule Britannia” and other patriotic tunes were played as we sailed down Southampton Water and past Portsmouth before entering the English Channel!

We decided to eat in the Britannia restaurant tonight and managed to change our table to one near where we ate previously. Unfortunately, Robert (our waiter) has been moved to another section downstairs which consisted of three tables for eight – so no Robert this cruise…

We thought we’d give the new guys a chance but were not immediately impressed, although the restaurant was very busy.

The evening show was Philip Hitchcock “one of Britain’s finest entertainers” who is a magician, apparently. We decided that seeing him would be one excitement too many, so we gave him a miss and had a quiet drink and an early night!

 

Monday 18^th May – Day at Sea.

There are some RADA students on board and Nesta went to their first workshop. (Not sure she needs help or tuition to be more dramatic) She enjoyed it and plans to go to the others.

The lectures this morning had subject matters ranging from astronomy to Downton Abbey (we gave them all a miss) so visited the tours desk to book a couple of tours in Cork and Dublin.

In the afternoon we went to a talk by Dr Stephen Payne OBE. He is the naval architect who actually built the QM2 and is also an excellent speaker. It was a very interesting presentation and we learned a lot.

Tonight was the first of three formal nights on the cruise and we chose to join the queue to greet Captain Wells at the cocktail party, to see if he remembered us from the first half of the world voyage…he did!

We were also recognised by Cat, who is now the Asst. Entertainments Director (both Skippy and Dumbo having got off for a holiday) and Jo – the Entertainments Director – who remembered Nesta from the impromptu muster and tea party on the first leg which occurred because hot water pipes in several cabins sprung a leak.

We also spoke to Stephen Howarth – the Deputy Captain – and had our photos taken with both him and the Captain.

During the party we spoke to Anfisa (who was our world voyage concierge). She is now an officer in the technical department and she asked us if we’d like to dine at the senior officers’ table this week…we said yes!!

The sea was moderately rough (force 7) which normally is not a problem for this ship - but it was rolling around a bit. The Captain explained, during his entertaining welcome speech, that as Cork wasn’t far away we were going slowly (12 knots). The ship is designed to go twice that speed and doesn’t like “pootling” around!

We went into the restaurant again – and the service was really slow. Nesta was so unhappy that she got up and left when, an hour later, we still hadn’t been served our main course. Bring back Robert and Leo!!

Later in the evening, we went to a RADA performance of the “History of Cunard” which was both entertaining and funny.

 

Tuesday 19^th May – Ringaskiddy, for Cork.

Originally we were due to dock at Cobh (the Titanic’s last stop) but because we were too big, we docked across the bay at Ringaskiddy. (Cork Harbour is apparently the second biggest harbour in the world after Sydney)

We had booked on the afternoon walking tour of Cork and then we discovered that the ship was actually providing a complimentary shuttle service to both Cobh and Cork! (Oh well – it’s only money!)

We got off the ship early and took the shuttle around to Cobh (pronounced Cove). It took a good 40 minutes to go by road a distance that, by water, was about a mile and a half! Cobh is a quaint little town and we went to the Titanic Museum and the Lusitania memorial. (The Lusitania was torpedoed just off the coast and survivors were brought ashore here). We were going to buy a coffee, but Nesta discovered that she had brought the purse with the still unidentified foreign currency in it from the last trip - rather than the euros purse! Thank goodness for cash machines!!

We shuttled back to the ship in time for our walking tour. We had two guides (Mary and Eleanor) and we’re sure that Mary is knowledgeable and professional but we never found out - because Eleanor never stopped talking, singing and entertaining (?) us the whole trip. We were even in her group for the walk. Cork is much smaller than expected for what is the main city in South West Ireland but is quite interesting.

We decided against the evening entertainment – swing and jazz vocalist, Kai McKenzie! – So went to eat in the Chef’s galley.

After this we went into the Winter Gardens where we discovered that Ryan (one of our favourite bar staff) was working. We had a couple of pints and a good talk to Ryan – interrupted only when other passengers were rude enough to want drinks serving!

 

 

 

Friday 1^st May 2015 – Day at Sea.

We took our passports down to the Britannia restaurant to clear British passport control and were pleased that the weather was very British as well – wet and windy!

We sailed through the Bay of Biscay and it was as flat as a millpond.

We went to listen to lecture by the Safety Officer which was very good (although Nesta thinks he’s nowhere near as good looking as Aureliano!)

In the afternoon we finally played bridge! (Ian thinks he did very well in delaying it for this long!) We were a bit confused, as only one other pair played the same way as us! (For Graeme’s benefit this means that every other pair played Standard American, strong no trump with five card majors with a possible phony club bid - as opposed to our Basic Acol!)

Ian got even more confused by the bidding - but even allowing for this, we finished fourth.

Fortunately we finished in time for Nesta to attend the “hat decorating” session! (Oh yes!!) The idea was to encourage passengers to have a hat good enough for the “Ascot Ball” but as we had already packed our formal gear we sat this out!

 

Saturday 2^nd May – Day at Sea.

The last day of our voyage – and it’s raining!

As we are getting back on in a fortnight for the 175 year Liverpool celebration, we packed our formal kit (and the wine) in a suitcase and phoned one of our friends on board who has offered to put it under his bed!

We spent the day packing but decided to give the evening entertainment one last chance to impress us. Unfortunately Roy Walker was not funny and “The Flyrights” were absolutely appalling - so we left early and went into the restaurant for a last meal. It was a nice meal and we said goodbye to Robert and Leo, giving them both a “little something” in thanks. Leo is going home tomorrow but Robert will still be on when we return – so we’ll ask to be moved to his section when we get back on.

After our meal all we had to do was finish our packing and put the cases out for collection. We contacted Graeme to let him know we should be off by 11am.

 

Sunday 3^rd May – Southampton.

Well – here we are!

113 days later and we’re back in Southampton. We have been told to sit in the Britannia Restaurant and await our slot to leave the ship will be at 10-15am.

At 9-45am a message came over the loudspeaker that the gangway was closed, due to a security issue, and disembarkation had therefore been delayed….We gave it until 10-35am before deciding to join the queue and get off under our own steam. Nobody checked whether we should have been in the queue or not and we got off in time to meet Graeme!

Overall we have had a fantastic trip. We have seen some amazing places and the QM2 is a tremendous ship. We do feel that Cunard are not as good as they think they are (living on their name) but we are glad we came!

Thank you all for reading (and commenting) on our blog and, if you can bear it, we’ll start it again in a fortnight when we get back onto this wonderful ship!

Bye!!

Monday 27^th April 2015 – Day at Sea.

It’s a busy day for Nesta!

After an early breakfast (9am!) we went to listen to Michael Howard giving his impression of the world in 2015. He is a very good public speaker (Captain: you could do worse than take some lessons!)

At 1pm Nesta went off to the “scarf folding seminar”! (She did, really…) She never realised there were so many things you could do with a square scarf – good job she was able to borrow one of Jenny’s as she hasn’t got one herself! (Yet)

There was an extra choir rehearsal at 2pm and we then managed a quick sandwich before Nesta was off again – this time to learn how to do some magic tricks! You should see what she can do now with an elastic band and a couple of paper clips!

After a performance of her newly found skills for “the gang” we nibbled in Kings Court again – as the evening entertainment wasn’t up to much.

Tomorrow we’ll be back on dry land!

 

Tuesday 28^th April 2015 – Las Palmas, Gran Canaria.

The predictive weather report was far too pessimistic. We had temperatures reaching 27 degrees and there was unbroken sunshine in the south of the island.

We went on a “two stops on your own” tour where a coach takes us to a town and we have a couple of hours to explore on our own. We thought this was a good way to see more of the island – and also it took us away from the cloudier northern part of the island.

Although we were expecting just a coach driver, we actually got a guide who told us all about the island and the places of interest we were passing. (We even managed to wave to Rob & Jenny’s second home on the way to Maspalomas and Puerto Mogan)

The sand dunes at Maspalomas were a bit underwhelming after Namibia – so we walked around the town and then had a drink in Paddy’s beach bar.

Puerto Mogan was very pretty in a quaint fishing village sort of way (even though it’s all been built in the last 20 years) but the scale of new development seems to be getting out of hand. Hope they don’t spoil it.

We then bought some very cheap booze for Adam and Lee to thank them for doing choir and some dirt cheap cigarettes for Nesta!

The sail away was good in the warm sunshine and we ended up eating Asian style food in Kings Court with Jenny, Dianne and Lewanne. We had Indonesian coconut chicken – which was a nice change after what’s been available for the last few weeks.

 

Wednesday 29^th April – Funchal, Madeira.

This is our second visit – as Voyager came here before it crossed the Atlantic. We parked at the same terminal as Voyager because the posher terminal has been demolished! Hopefully they are rebuilding it.

We did the sightseeing bus tour (it wasn’t really a hop on, hop off bus as it didn’t stop anywhere that looked interesting enough to get off!) The trip wasn’t helped by the fact that the driver hit a parked car – which caused a 20 minute delay and lots of loud talking in Portuguese! Unfortunately, the commentary wasn’t switched off, so when we re-started - we had no idea what we were seeing, where!

After getting off the bus, we walked through the old town and back through the main shopping street to catch the shuttle bus back to the ship. There were a lot more shops and restaurants open than when we last visited – although I suppose that was in December, so it would have been off-season.

We did “full-on” dancing during our last “sail away” party and were a bit sad, if we’re honest, because it has been an amazing trip.

We went to the art gallery for a glass of bubbly and to look at some new pictures before we went and ate in the Coriander Indian Restaurant. It was ok – but not as nice as the first time we went with Helen and Mike. Our desserts were so frozen that they flew off the plates when we tried to eat them. It was the funniest thing of the day!

 

Thursday 30^th April 2015 – Day at Sea.

Well, today was the day for our big/final choir performance in the actual theatre! We had a last rehearsal at 12 – which meant we couldn’t see Michael Howard’s final lecture – followed by a technical rehearsal. (How to walk on and off the stage, without falling into the audience!)

We gave Lee and Adam the presents we’d bought during the half hour free time we had before the performance. They seemed pleased.

The performance was ok but only lasted 20 minutes. The theatre was quite full and we did get a standing ovation! (No encores, though – which was just as well as we hadn’t learned one!)

Ed (Dumbo) the Assistant Entertainment Manager introduced us and thanked us after the show. As usual he demonstrated his lack of attention to detail by thanking Ben (the other male Cunard singer who has had nothing whatsoever to do with the choir) for all his hard work! Lee laughed it off and said he was used to it - but we thought it was terrible!

It was Adam’s birthday (he’s 24 today) so we got the whole audience to sing Happy Birthday to him. Nesta was standing next to his Mum (who is on board for this leg) and she had a tear in her eye!

Tonight was the night for our “all the way round” farewell dinner. 16 of us dined in an alcove downstairs in the Britannia Restaurant. Glen (the food and beverage manager) provided the wine and Anafisa (the World Voyage Concierge) Hazel (the lovely Events Manager) and Maria (the head of housekeeping) joined us, Gary, Jenny, Dianne, Lewanne, Andrew, Linda, Colin, Vanessa, Norah and Alan. Some of us dressed up to represent some of the places we visited. Gary dressed as an Arab, Nesta had her Namibia tee shirt on, Lewanne had her Madeira hat and jumper on and Ian went as “Southampton”!

Lots of photos were taken and we had a noisy, enjoyable evening. Even the food was hot and freshly cooked!

We didn’t finish eating until 10-15pm so there was just time for the smokers to get some “fresh air” before we went into the theatre to watch Roy Walker (of The Comedians and Catchphrase fame.) He was funny in a “gentle” sort of way and provided a nice end to a lovely evening.

Although we have two more nights on board after tonight, we all agreed that this was the “actual” last night of the cruise… There is one more formal evening (the 41^st!) but we’ve decided to pack away our formal gear and slum it from now on. After all, we’re not expecting the Bay of Biscay or the English Channel to be sunbathing or promenading weather!