July 3^rd, 2025

At Sea

We were awakened by the foghorn in the early hours of the morning. Being near the front of the ship is a bit of a mixed blessing. Yes, we do hear the foghorn, but I actually quite like its mournful sound.

When we got up, we were still in dense fog.

I love Zumba so I was up and dressed early to make sure I got there in time. On QM2 you have to factor in the time it will take you to walk from one end of the ship (our stateroom) to the other (the Queens Room). Talking of walking around the ship, I was very happy to see that the carpeting in the corridors has been changed. It looked like it was fading away from the day it was installed, so I am glad it has gone. The new carpet is lovely. A real improvement.

Anyway, I finally reached the Queens Room, which was looking as lovely as ever.

Armed with my water bottle I was ready to start the Zumba moves.

On Queen Anne, Neil Kelly was in charge of Zumba, and he did something called Zumba Gold which is ideally suited to those of us who are not quite as supple as before, and need to take care of our failing joints and balance.

There is no Neil on this sailing, Amanda Reid is the entertainment director, and one of her team members, Georgia, is in charge of Zumba. Well she shows no mercy. Young or old she had us all doing very energetic moves.

The other good thing about Queen Anne is that there is a big screen behind Neil where those of us at the back who can’t see Neil can watch the moves on the big screen. There is no such thing here, and so from the back (which is where I like to hide out as I get into less trouble hitting and bumping into other people) it is hard to see what is going on.

Anyway, I persevered, and lasted to the end of the 45 minutes of dancing around. Yay!

The only problem with Zumba is that it ends at 10:00, which is when the first talk starts. It would be very antisocial to go to the talk straight after Zumba as you are in a very sweaty and potentially smelly state.

Luckily the talks are on the TV, so you don’t have to miss out. Later in the day I turned on the TV to see if the talk had been uploaded yet. It hadn’t but there was a wonderful interview with Stephen Payne, my hero, from the previous voyage. I learned several things about Queen Mary 2 that I had not known previously, so I was very happy.

It continued to be foggy all day; the foghorn hasn’t had a rest at all.

Still, there was a lot on the program – a piano recital, 2 more talks, afternoon tea, trivia, Cunard certainly give you the opportunity to keep busy.

Brian decided to do his walking around the Promenade deck. It is great to be on a ship with a proper Promenade deck again. We need to make good use of it, but Zumba had done me in, and the thought of more exercise was just not what I needed. A quiet time in the stateroom seemed like a better idea.

Besides it’s our first formal night, and it takes me ages to get ready.

But get ready we did, and all dressed up in our formal get up we avoided the photographers and went for a pre dinner drink in the Commodore Club.

Fiona was playing the harp, the light outside was slowly fading, the fog was gradually lifting, and everything felt right with the world. I sat back and enjoyed the beautiful music. Life is good on Queen Mary 2.

We were not alone at our talbe for dinner. Enid from our first night was there. We were joined by Dick and Sandra from Zurich, and Mary and Ian from Scotland, The great coincidence is that they live just a few miles from the small villages where my parents and grandmother used to live, and I used to visit their town regularly. It is so great to have connections.

I had been surprised that there was no Captain’s welcome on board party. Tonight was the perfect night. Yet again, instead of the party we were treated to a glass of warm sparkling wine. It is a nice gesture, but I do miss the parties in the Queens Room. They were always a great place to socialize and meet new people. But things do change I suppose.

Our meal was good – nothing really fancy though. No pate or escargot, no surf and turf, lobster tails, or tenderloin steak (unless you want to pay extra for them). No souffles. Maybe someone forgot to tell the chef it was a formal night. All in all it was very low key, but that really didn’t detract from the fact that here I was sitting in the most beautiful dining room on the high seas. Sitting there with my hubby looking so snazzy in his tuxedo, surrounded by folks in the finest get ups, meeting new friends. One really couldn’t ask for more.

After dinner we headed to see the production show “Rhythm of the Night”. We have seen it several times before, but they seem to have made some changes. All in all it was a great show, with the singers and dancers doing a really splendid job. I couldn’t help thinking that this was so much better than the Seabourn Six, but not nearly as good as the production shows we had seen on Princess last year. Each cruise line certainly has something different to offer.

I could have danced all night, but we decided to return to our stateroom and get ready for our big day in Boston tomorrow. The fog was now totally gone, and in the distance we could see the Norwegian Jewel shining brightly and lighting up the night. I bet they are also heading to celebrate the 4^th of July in Boston. I can’t wait for our fun day tomorrow!