March 15th

Queen Elizabeth Beckons

We said goodbye to the beautiful Kyoto station, and piled all of the luggage into the car that was taking us to Osaka.

When we arrived at the port, and our driver saw Queen Elizabeth for the first time, he was speechless initially, and then kept of saying wow! So big! Beautiful! Over and over. He clearly was in awe of our beautiful ship.

We pulled in to the luggage drop off area, which had a major design fault. There was a railing between the road and the pavement, so you had to haul the bags out of the car, heave them over the railing, and drag them to an area where other bags were waiting to join the ship. Luckily our driver and Brian were able to use teamwork to achieve this task without putting their backs out. With the bags taken care of, we were able to enter the cruise terminal building.

Once in the building we joined hundreds of Japanese passengers, all waiting to embark. It was really quite chaotic, but there was nothing to do other than stand around and hope that organization would happen soon. They finally opened the doors to the check in area, and a surge of excited people entered the queues to start the check in process. Eventually we came to the front of the queue, but the computer system was not working well. Initially it rejected my passport, but the issue seemed to be with the wiring rather than my passport. Once that was sorted out, things went better, although there was an issue with our credit card, and I was given platinum cruise card rather than a diamond one. Luckily a quick visit to the pursers’ office sorted everything out once we were on board.

With our cruise cards in hand we took the lift up to the gangway level, and boarded the ship on deck 3. Boarding Queen Elizabeth does not give you the same wow feeling as you get on entering the lobby on QM2, but the smiling faces of the crew, and the sounds of the string quartet are very welcoming, and you do feel as though you are home again.

By the time we got up to our cabin 2 of our suitcases were already waiting in the corridor for us. We dragged them in to the room, and I headed for the Pol Acker, so we could drink it during the unpacking process. Horrors, there was no Pol Acker to unpack by. Instead there was a bottle of sake, and 2 sort of cookies, which identified themselves as green tea and sakura mochi. It was a very nice gesture I know, but change isn’t always a good thing, and I am used to my Pol Acker.

We exchanged the Cunard coat hangers for our thinner velvet ones, installed the shower caddy in the bathroom, hung up Brian’s shoe rack, and had unpacked the 2 suitcases by the time the other 2 bags arrived.

The lay out of the closets in this cabin is not identical to those on Queen Victoria, so adjustments needed to be made. There is in fact more space on QV, but that doesn’t help us now.

Also, the TV is now on the wall and there is a kettle with coffee and tea making supplies where the TV used to be. I know the kettle is much loved by many, but for us it is simply taking up valuable space. So it joined the ice bucket in our little storage area between the nightstand and the bathroom wall.

Brian was most put out by the TV being on the wall as he likes to use the TV as a computer monitor, but now it’s really not that convenient. Also the TV on the wall takes up valuable wall space where we usually hang our magnetic hooks. None of this actually matters – we are on QE and life is good.

We hung up our world map that we had used to track our voyage last year, and are looking forward to adding a new series of destinations to it this year.

In no time at all our cabin was good to go. We stopped by the Lido for a quick lunch, and set off to explore the area around where we are docked. There is a lot of excitement about Queen Elizabeth being in Osaka, and there were several posters of the ship.

There are 4 areas of interest there. A shopping mall, Lego Land, an aquarium, and a huge Ferris wheel. We explored the shopping mall first. There is a pharmacy and convenience store, so we stocked up on more necessities. The other shops, although interesting, didn’t have anything that we were really looking for. We stopped by the aquarium and Ferris wheel, and both looked very interesting. However, we will be back in Osaka next week, and I really wanted to be back on the ship. I had the sudden feeling that I didn’t want to miss a single minute of being on board, so clutching our shopping bags we headed to our cabin. The Ferris wheel can wait.

It was a good thing we did go back, as Evana stopped by with the purchase we had asked her to make, so I finally got to meet the person I had been communicating with on line since we made our booking. I am so excited that I am finally going to meet the people that until now have only been names to me.

It was soon time for sundowners and to get ready for dinner. I had my usual Veuve Clicquot, but Brian decided to be brave and try the sake. It turned out to be sparkling sake! Who would have thought such a thing existed? Apparently it doesn’t taste great, but he drank it anyway. I declined to try it.

Our table for dinner is on deck 3, by the window. I had initially been concerned that while dining we would be constantly stared at by people on the promenade deck, but clearly we aren’t that interesting as no one gave us a second look. Probably because in reality no one passed by the window the whole evening.

We are at a table for 6. The other couples are from Australia and South Africa. The South Africans were not there for dinner, but we enjoyed meeting the Australians, although they seem to be a good deal quieter than our Australian tablemates last year.

After dinner we went to deck 9 for the sail away party. It was fun, but too cold to stay there for long, so we headed back to the cabin. I was ready to climb into my comfy bed. I have missed the ship’s mattress and pillows while we have been on our travels. The ship sailed just before I went to sleep. It felt so good to experience that gentle rocking motion again – I am so looking forward to my 39 days on board Queen Elizabeth.