April 25^th, 2023

Southampton

Nothing has changed, except there is a new car carrier docked across from us.

We are still in Southampton on Queen Mary 2, waiting for the information on when we will fly home. We have been officially told that everyone will be off the ship by Thursday, April 27^th. We should be receiving the information on our flights soon. We will not be able to change the flights. I hope we don’t have too crazy an itinerary.

No one is officially telling us what is wrong with the ship, and how long it will take to fix it. Rumors abound. But no official word. This is very frustrating for people booked on voyages after she is meant to go back in service on May 7^th. Will she or won’t she sail?

What does seem to be accurate is that one of the engines has problems that they thought would take a couple of days to fix. But then they realized that there were exhaust problems, thus the issues with the funnel, and that is going to take longer to fix. Hopefully all will be revealed soon.

There were 2 insights lectures today, and the daily programme was jam packed as always. I noted that instead of the choir having a practice, it was billed as a Queen Mary 2 guest singalong.

Captain Hashmi gave his noon announcement. He gave us a weather update, and repeated that they were working on getting us all home. He didn’t need to give us our position or the depth under the hull. We are docked in Southampton at Ocean Terminal. His quote of the day was from Mark Twain – “All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure”. Hmmmmmmm.

Still uncertain about our fate, we joined our friends Dierdre and Kim and took a taxi into town, well the West Quay shopping center. We had lunch at Bills near the mall, not a bad place at all if you are looking for lunch off the ship.

We then did quite a bit of power shopping, with Brian and Kim moaning because our suitcases are way too full already. We had a good time, and also, thanks to a recommendation, went to Asda and bought more coronation paraphernalia despite Brian’s objections. We are going to have quite the party on the 6^th.

It was back again to the Commodore Club for predinner drinks, and dinner in the Britannia dining room. I got the feeling for the first time ever that the waiters were rushing us, which was disappointing. They seemed intent on getting us out early, and we left the dining room at 9:45 – which is quite early if you do late seating.

We said goodbye to Deirdre and Kim who have decided to disembark tomorrow and go and stay with a friend until they fly home. The night was yet young, so we thought we should go to the show. I read the daily program – and there was only one show tonight, at 9:15, so there we are, it’s 9:45 and it seems like everyone has gone to sleep.

Although Brian and I are really enjoying our time on Queen Mary 2 we can sense an increasing frustration amongst the other passengers who are trying to make sure that their excess luggage will be sent home by the Luggage Forward people, and who don’t know from day to day when they will be flying home, and what their itinerary will look like. I’m fine with the delay in information – I just hope that we don’t wake up tomorrow morning to find out that our flight is leaving in 2 hours time.

With no show to go to, it seemed to make sense to return to the Commodore Club and enjoy Campbell Simpson on the piano. There is another silent disco tonight, but alas Brian was not filled with enthusiasm with the thought of going, and with Deirdre needing to pack, I didn’t want to go on my own.

That’s OK. A chocolate affair in the Commodore Club, listening to music works for me.

It is kind of nice that the shades are open, and we can see the great outdoors, well Southampton docks at night because we don’t need to worry about the lights affecting the bridge.

Who knows what tomorrow may bring.