May 1-2 – Southampton, England. We spent these two days returning the rental car and repacking our bags to change them over from motel mode to ship mode. Honestly, we are both tired and ready to head for home. It's been almost 130 days since we left home for NYC and the start of the trip. That's a long time to be gone and a new record for us on trip length. These two days were spent resting, reading and eating.
May 3-9 – Southampton, England and on the QM2. Boarding was not smooth today. They were delayed in getting the World Cruisers off the ship by 1.5 hours due to mechanical problems with the gangway. When we arrived at 11:45 they were still disembarking people and the line of people waiting for taxis at the terminal was very long. We sat in the terminal for about an hour before embarkation started. Once it started it went pretty well.
I had a hiccup at the security check. I don't know what it is about the women that operate the x-ray machine but it seems that every time I get one there's a problem. This time it was my ancient Leatherman tool. They asked if it had a knife, I said it did. They wanted to see it. I showed it to them. The security guy says "Oh a locking blade. I will have to turn it in to security and they'll give it to you when you leave the ship." There's only one problem with his analysis, the blade does not lock. He goes over to a security supervisor and gives him the knife saying it has a locking blade. The supervisor doesn't check and starts the paperwork to confiscate my tool. At which point I walk up and say, "The blade on the tool does not lock." He looks at me, then he looks at the knife and says that it does. So I asked him for the tool and holding the handle in two fingers, flip the blade closed, open, closed, open, closed and then I handed it back to him. He shrugs and hands it back to me and says I should continue boarding. You think security people would be trained to know if a knife locks or doesn't. Or at least know what a locking blade looks like.
The rest of the boarding process went smoothly.
This is the 175th Anniversary of Cunard Line and this is the first westbound crossing of the year. For the occasion all three of the Queens are in Southampton, the Queen Mary 2, the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Victoria. The plan is to sail out together as far as the Isle of White and the go our separate ways. But the delay in boarding on the QM2 has made us late leaving. The other ships are ready to go but they waited for us to leave with them. We are docked further up the sound that the Elizabeth but not as far as the Victoria. The plan is that we will all cast off at the same time. The QM2 will sail past the Elizabeth who will fall in behind us and in front of Victoria and that's exactly what they did, accompanied by lots of horn salutes by all three ships. Fun to hear all the ships horns.
We proceed out of the harbor in order flanked on both sides by smaller ships of all sorts. There were packed tour boats, sail boats, power boats even fishing boats and of course the required security boats. The ship gave us small British flags to wave as did the other Cunard ships. Lots of waving by everyone. It was fun. One of the party boats was three decks packed with people. When it was beside us you couldn't hear it but when it pulled ahead the party boat was playing British march music that the Royal Family uses for parades. Pretty cool. Lots of flashes going off on the flotilla of watchers sailing out with us. It's probably the grandest sendoff we've ever had while sailing.
Then it was time to settle down into our normal QM2 crossing routine but we couldn't. I think we've been away so long that we are just travelled out. It didn't seem like the lecturers were as good as they usually are. They did have current movies, well fairly current. I saw the Second Best Exotic Magnolia Hotel, the sequel to the Best Exotic Magnolia Hotel. It wasn't as good as the first one but very close. I would definitely recommend you see it. If you didn't see the first one, rent it and watch it before you go to the second. The new movie can stand on its own but it's a better experience if you've seen the first one.
The Royal Academy of Performing Arts from London staged two plays, Romeo and Juliet and Pride and Prejudice. Of course both had to be altered to fit the 45 minute time slot. I enjoyed them both.
Neither of us really felt like doing much on the ship. I didn't go to pub lunch, a first, just ate in the King's Court every day. I did read a lot and I do enjoy that. I only went to listen to the steel band at the indoor pool once. I usually go every day. What a slug I'm getting to be.
One day the seas were very rough and the winds at hurricane levels. The QM2 is hardly bothered by these conditions but you could feel the ship move a little. If we'd been in those seas on the Amsterdam or the Prinsendam it would have been a much wilder experience. I guess people who sail on the QM2 are not used to any movement at all because the next day I was hearing comments all day about how bad it was. A testament to the seaworthiness of this ship.
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