Embarkation

Sunday 30th November 2014

This was to be my second trip to the Canary Islands this year. I had received a phone call from a Cunard representative to tell me of a special deal for solo travellers. It seemed too good to miss out on. I emailed all my single friends and after five of them had decided to go, I thought I'd better join them. This cruise was on Queen Mary 2, a ship I had only been on once. I'd heard so much about her since that first trip, that I wanted to see more of what she was like.

One friend, Judith, was travelling virtually past my village so offered to drive me. That was certainly more fun than going by train! She phoned me at 8:15 to say she was just about to leave home. I should have over 2 hours before she arrived to collect me for the drive down to Southampton. I had a leisurely morning doing last-minute things and was almost ready when she arrived at 10am after an extremely clear drive from Telford. We had to wait until my load of towels finished washing, but set off about 10.20. The drive down to Southampton was again clear, but we hit sporting traffic through the town and were in a boring traffic jam for the last half hour.

We both had check-in times of midday. By the time we had dropped the car off to the parking agents, it was only a little past then. We must have been on the ship by 12:30. This is about the earliest I’ve ever made it!

My room was an in-hull balcony on deck 4. This means that the balcony is metal with just a hole at the top. It’s nice and sheltered for bad weather but you can’t see much of a view unless you are standing up. Jenny and Judith were in inside cabins just down the corridor. The other three were in balcony cabins like mine, on the opposite side of the ship. (Look at the photo below and mine was one of the rectangular holes at the top of the black part of the ship. I was about five from the end.)

About all we managed on the first afternoon was lunch, unpacking, safety drill, and getting ready for dinner. Jenny and Judith swapped their dinner time to the late seating. Vi and I were on the same table, in a group of about 8. Five of us liked dancing so the conversation revolved around that but only involved everyone when we started talking about Strictly Come Dancing (Dancing with the Stars). 

Judith, Jenny, Vi and I met up in the ballroom for the 7:45 dance session. The situation on Queen Mary 2 is rather different from that on Queen Victoria. The ballroom itself is bigger, but the dancing area is smaller. There are six Gentlemen Dance Hosts instead of QV’s four (because it’s a larger ship). The times of the dancing sessions are different and the Hosts don’t have to attend the first one. In fact, only one of them went along. That means that the Hosts do not arrive until 9:45. That seems to me very late to begin one's night of dancing.

As always, the Dance Hosts have mixed ability. I managed a few dances with them and a few with a couple of men from our dinner table who joined us. I was quite exhausted from the early start to the day and from the busy-ness of settling in. I had to stop halfway through a long waltz with someone. I just could not continue. I went back to my room about 11pm.

Black and White Ball

Monday 1st December

Being the first night in a strange room, I kept waking up. Because I’d taken a sleeping tablet, I was able to go back to sleep again. I finally surfaced at 11am and decided it was time to get up. I wanted to get to the dining room before breakfast closed at 11:30. I made it by 11:28, only to find that QM2 does not have the banana bread that I savour as part of my shipboard breakfast routine. The two people at the serving station looked at me blankly when I asked about it. Later I was chatting with one of the supervisors and he told me I should ask one of the men in suits in future and they’d get it for me. I wonder if it’s only available for Grills guests on this ship. I asked for it on most days and enjoyed the special service of having it fetched specially for me. 

I watched the 12:15 dance lesson – a waltz. The teaching couple did more talking than dancing. The dance floor was absolutely packed with cruisers, and hardly room to move. The waltz steps were all in a box shape, going nowhere around the floor, but I guess it was all there was space for. He did a lot of what I would call ‘lead and follow’ instructions. One very handy tip from the female teacher to the ladies was not to worry too much about the beat of the music. If your partner is a beginner and can’t keep to the beat, follow him rather than the music. Good! That’s my handy excuse for never listening for the beat.

Next was lunch with Jenny and Judith. The buffet area on QM2 is confusing and you have to walk around a lot of nooks and crannies to find seats. It can be difficult at peak times.

Jenny managed to change rooms during the day. Her original Inside cabin was right over G23, the disco, so on the first night she had loud music playing beneath her! After several phone calls to complain, a staff member went to turn off the recorded music. No one was in there. That room was known to the staff, as one of them had slept there herself for a few nights. She said that sometimes music can go on until 5am! Jenny was happy with her room on the next floor. Judith would have liked to move too, as she could feel quite a lot of vibration in her room. As you walked along the corridor you could feel it in your feet, starting just past my room and continuing for about 5 cabins. It seemed worse inside Judith's room. Unfortunately there were no more spare rooms.

Judith and I met up for afternoon tea in the Queen’s Room. I turned up at 3:10 (for a 3:30 start) and found there was quite a queue already. We managed to find a seat and were later joined by two strangers. As they came from Wales, as did Judith, there was a lot of talk about Welsh places. That was a situation where I stressed being Australian (in a broad accent) rather than being one of the English oppressors. As part of the cutbacks (with all the cheap fares that are on offer, there have to be cutbacks somewhere), ships serve squirty cream instead of clotted cream with the scones. It’s not the same! On other cruises I stopped having scones with afternoon tea as it doesn’t taste worthwhile. For this trip I packed my own tubs of clotted cream. I even picked up a little jar of blackcurrant jam from the breakfast buffet so I could have my scones exactly as I wanted them. It felt like luxury.

It was the evening of the Black and White Ball, so at dinner all the ladies were dressed in variations of black and white. Dinner was a bit of an ordeal. I have never sat at a dinner table that was so quiet. Hardly anyone said a thing. I was weary (too much dancing the night before) but managed to get a couple of short-lived conversations started around the table. It was a relief to leave!

The dancing started at 8:30 but the Hosts were not due to arrive until 9:45. I sat there with Vi and a couple of men from our dinner table and again it was silent. Normally Vi and I laugh and chat together but we could not do that with the men there. I managed three dances before the ball officially started but did not really feel like dancing. I was tired from doing too much the day before. When the band started up I felt as though the trumpet was going right through my head. I chose to give up and go back to my room at about 9:30.   

At sea

Tuesday 2nd December

I surfaced a few times during the night but decided not to look at the clock and managed to go back to sleep. When I heard the Captain’s midday announcement, I thought it was time to get up. The announcement had been broadcast especially to our rooms as he needed to tell us that there were more cases than usual on board of Norovirus. Special precautions were in force. It seemed likely that passengers had brought the virus on board, as the first cases emerged on the first night.

I collected Judith and Jenny from the dancing class and we went off to lunch. We found that as part of the precautions, the staff were serving all food dishes at the buffet, and even drinks at the drinks station. I had never seen such extreme precautions before. Jenny gave me a warning when she saw me touching my face, as the Captain had warned us to always wash hands before touching faces. We will have to be a little more careful than usual. No problem.

My room is in a fantastic location for my everyday activities. I walk to the closest stairway (D) and go down one flight and turn right for the restaurant or left for the Queen’s Room (afternoon tea and evening dancing). When I want to go to King’s Court (buffet), I go up to level 7 and turn left and it’s in front of me. I don’t think I’ll be doing as much walking up and down the ship as I usually do! I visited the front of the ship for the internet centre yesterday. Today I decided to venture further afield and go just past the centre of the ship to visit the shops. I need a new necklace to go with one of my dresses. I’ve found a couple of lovely Swarovski necklaces and will try them out tomorrow when I wear that dress. I think the necklace would make a lovely Christmas present from my family.

At afternoon tea a few of us had to talk tactics. Two of the men from my dinner table had taken to sitting with us during the evening dancing. This was a problem. It stopped us laughing and joking together the way we normally do, but more importantly it stopped us dancing with the Dance Hosts. We had paid a lot of money to come away and dance, but we were not getting asked because the Dance Hosts saw us with men and assumed we were couples. Jenny and Judith had not even been asked once by the Hosts the night before. We decided we would have to somehow move away from them before the cruise was too advanced and they were too dependent on us. In the end, Vi and I managed it at dinner by talking about the other two people we knew and the fact that we hardly spoke to them, so should sit with them that night in the ballroom. 

We ended up sitting on the opposite side of the room from the men, though both of them came over at different times to talk to us. It was quite difficult. We did not want to be rude, but at the same time we could see they were rather dependent and we thought it would be better for them (and us) if they socialised more. One of them rather annoyed me because he would only ask Jenny or me to dance, not Judith or Vi. I thought that was bad manners when he had 'crashed' our group. We still danced with them when they asked us, but we were pleased when they found other friends, though later we had to rescue another single lady from them and get her joining our group. 

Even though they hardly sat with us that night, one of the Dance Hosts checked up and asked if one of the men was my boyfriend!

Shopping at sea

Wednesday 3rd December

I was up so late that I decided it was not worth going for breakfast. Mistake! I had a long wait before eating. I went to the last of the dancing lesson in order to meet Jenny and Judith for lunch. They had decided to go to the dining room for lunch. Unfortunately there was a long queue at the dining room. This was a problem as Judith and I had tickets for the Planetarium show at 2pm. There was no way we would make it. After ordering, Judith went down and got tickets for the 2.30 show instead, and we made this with no problems. It was an interesting show, narrated by Harrison Ford, about life on our planet and the question of life on other planets, including interesting astronomical information. The seats recline and the pictures are projected onto a dome, zooming around and in and out. It’s quite spectacular.

I wanted to wear my blue dress that night, but needed a sparkly necklace to wear with it. I had been hunting around my local shops for something that was both tasteful and sparkly. Of course I found one on board ship! In fact I found two possibles in the Swarovski section. After dressing for dinner I took Jenny and Judith to the shop to help me choose. In the end it was simple. The clear crystal with silver strapping did not show up on my skin; it needed to be over a dark fabric. The teardrop with tiny clear and blue crystals showed up well and the blues blended in with the dress.

The first dance session that night was sequence dancing. I did the Sally Anne cha cha with one passenger and the Saunter Together with a Dance Host, and made a mess of both. Neither gentlemen seemed to know the dances well either. That was a pity as I’d gone over both of those dances with my dance teacher in dance lessons before going away. My memory was not good enough to retain them. I needed a strong lead to remind myself.

The dancing that night was quite good. I have tried the Viennese Waltz with three different Dance Hosts and can’t do it with any of them. I think I get confused because I’m trying to turn 360 degrees (which is correct) but they are only able to manage 270 degrees! Their lead is not strong enough to control my over-eagerness. (Who's leading here?) After dancing a cha cha with me one host said with surprise ‘You’re a better dancer than you make out to be!’ Really? What made him think I can’t dance? Another Host also thinks I can’t dance and is very encouraging when I get things right! I have found that a good dancer recognises my ability instantly, but a poor dancer will spend the whole cruise trying to 'help' me, not realising how much I actually know. My limitations are caused by his poor leading. It was funny later in the cruise when one of the Dance Hosts asked me to waltz and said 'Let's really stride this one out.' I took longish steps and left him behind! I had to go back to small steps.

Madeira

Thursday 4th December

I set my alarm for 8:15 as I had arranged to meet Jenny and Judith for breakfast at 9am. I would have had trouble sleeping much later than that as there were so many announcements! It was lovely to have a leisurely private breakfast in the dining room, all alone up in the top section. We had great service.

We met up at 10.15 to leave the ship. We caught the shuttle bus into Madeira as we’d been told it would take an hour to walk to the cable car. As we got on the bus our cruise cards were scanned and we will be charged for the bus. This is a new thing. People who have paid full fares get the shuttle buses for free while those on saver fares are charged. (The charge was $US4.50 each way.)

It was lovely walking through Madeira. The sun was shining and it was so warm that I had to take off my jacket. The trip up in the cable car was very smooth. The cars come so frequently that there was hardly any wait. We bought a combination ticket giving us the return ride on the cable car plus entrance to Monte Gardens.

The gardens are lovely but involve a lot of walking with ups and downs. There are many paths to choose from, and the map is not very clear or to scale. It was all a lot of guesswork. We knew we had to head for the pond at the bottom. I suggested that we meander down gradually, taking the interior paths, as we could then come up the boring route on a little buggy. That worked. We loved the display of minerals in one of the outbuildings. Nature is wonderful. I regretted having no water with me, but at least we had banana bread and could sit and eat that while waiting for the buggy to take us back to the top. Last time I was in the gardens it was late Spring and the bushes seemed to be between Spring and Summer flowerings. This time it was early Winter and again there were few flowers. Still, the layout is lovely.

We came down on the cable car with a few crew members and heard about life on the ship from their perspective. We sat in a café at the base of the cable car and drank coffee, then sheltered from the rain inside the shop. We were told by another passenger that it would only take 20 minutes to walk back to the ship, so we set off along the promenade. It was probably closer to 40 minutes. We could see the ship right opposite us when we started, but could not get there without walking on water. We had to go in a large U, past the Braemar (Fred Olsen), which was berthed closer in.

Although we had enjoyed the sun, the storm clouds over the island as we departed, were spectacular.

Lunch in the King’s Court was followed by time in our rooms. I decided to catch up on my diary and to have room service dinner rather than go to the dining room. I enjoyed penne bolognaise.

I went to the Queen's Room as usual to dance. Jenny arrived about 10:30 to say that Judith was not feeling well and had skipped dinner. When Jenny got back to her room she found a message from Judith to say that she had Norovirus and was therefore quarantined for 48 hours. She had a very unpleasant time when it first hit her system. The ship was well set up to deal with it. A cleaning crew took care of any mess in her room. The cleaning crew came a couple of times in order to make sure that no bugs were left in the room. (Still, I am never completely sure that they will get every spot. Whenever I go on a ship I take disinfectant wipes with me to wipe down things like the telephone, the remote control, and the door and drawer handles, things they might have missed.)