Cape Town

The flight to a very rainy Cape Town went smoothly. We had had to check our carry-on bags, but all of our luggage made it there. We took a taxi to the Mount Nelson Hotel for check in for Queen Mary2.

It was about 4:00 PM by the time we reached the hotel. There were only a couple of  people waiting to check in, so we were all checked in in no time at all. So much better than past experience in Vancouver and Brooklyn.

I think the requirement is about to change, but for this sailing you are required to take a COVID test before boarding. It does not need to be proctored. The pre voyage information says that you may be asked to show proof of your negative test by showing a photo of the test result with your ID and the date and time of the test. We were indeed asked to show this proof.

The check in agent told us that a woman checking in before us had not done a COVID test. But luckily there was a testing facility at the hotel, so she was able to get the test done. However, the test came back positive, so she was denied boarding. So no cruise for her, plus she was now stuck in a foreign country. I felt awful for her, and hoped her travel insurance would help her deal with this situation.

There was a shuttle bus to the port, and we were able to get a glimpse of our ship on the way there.

In no time at all we were going through security, and walking up the gangway to deck one.

I must say it is a little bit of an anticlimax boarding on deck 1 into the bowels of the ship.

Deck 2 is much better. You enter the magnificent Grand Lobby with the string quartet playing in the background. When this happens I am so happy and overwhelmed that I usually burst in to tears. Not so much waiting for the lift on deck 1 – you just get into the lift and head to your stateroom. Not very grand at all. BUT we are back on Mary again. Yay!!!!!!!!

We had left 3 of our suitcases at the Mount Nelson when we arrived in Cape Town as we didn’t want to cart them all around South Africa. They all arrived in our stateroom just after we got there, as did our other one we took on safari. No lost luggage this time.

We had planned to buy my Veuve Clicquot and Brian’s Laphroig in Cape Town, so Brian checked out the nearest liquor store to the port.

Horrors – his Google search just brought up articles stating that due to the ongoing risk of COVID, there would be no sale of alcohol from Good Friday until Monday. Of course today is Good Friday. No VC in the stateroom? I mean that is totally unthinkable.

However, I am an optimist, so we decided that during a break in the rain, we would check out the accuracy of these articles. Maybe it was a bad April fool’s joke, although it was April 7^th.

We took the shuttle bus from the port to the Victoria and Alfred waterfront. It is only an 8-minute walk according to Google Maps, but we thought we should take the shuttle so we could see where it would drop us in case we wanted to take it back to the ship later rather than walk with our purchases in the rain.

Resigned to the fact that we were not going to go back to the ship clutching our beloved VC and single malt, we went in search of snacks and chocolate. We bought a 3 week supple of biltong and nuts from Woolworths. As we were heading to the checkout we noticed that the wine section was open, and people were buying wine. Not only that, the VC was about $35 a bottle. Feeling very happy we stocked up on that too.

Next we went to Clicks so I could buy my 3-week supply of chocolates, and to Pick n Pay where Brian was able to buy his Laphroig. Maybe those Google articles were from 2021 or 2022? Not to worry, we had our supplies for the voyage, so all was well. All we were lacking was our supply of Cokes for our fridge, but we were already carrying a lot of provisions, so we decided to come back for the Cokes tomorrow.

We took the shuttle back to the ship, and had no issues about getting all of our purchases through the security screening. I love Cunard.

By the time we got back to our stateroom,  it was time to get ready for dinner.

Our table is close to the one we sat at for the Christmas Caribbean cruise. We were pleased when we were greeted by name by our waiters. I don’t know how on earth they remember all of the guests. I was feeling very good about that, then I thought that maybe it was because we were such trouble makers, unforgettable, annoying people. I hope that isn’t so, but I resolved to act right during this voyage.

We used to request a table for 8, but now with COVID still around us, we have been sitting at tables for 2. Not that you really are isolated, the table are so close together, you might as well be sitting at the same table as your neighbors.

Luckily there is an extremely nice South African couple sitting at the table one down from us, and we quickly struck up a conversation, so we might as well have been at the same table.

After dinner we went to unpack. I had quite a lot of work to do online, so I left Brian to do the unpacking and sorting out of the stateroom, while I went ashore to the cruise terminal to use the free WIFI. It worked out well, by the time I got on board again, our stateroom had been organized for me. Nothing more to do!

Normally we would head up to the Commodore Club for a night cap, but not tonight. We are meeting for our tour at 8:00 in the morning – so for our last night in Africa, we just opted for a good night’s sleep instead.