Monday March 25^th

From QE2 to QM 2

We realized that our cabin was directly underneath the Queens Room, and we were awoken during the night by the noise above us as the staff were rearranging the furniture. No doubt there will be another party there tonight.

Unlike a normal disembarkation day, we didn’t have to be out of our cabin until noon, so we had a leisurely morning doing our packing, and just enjoying our last minutes on the QE2.

We decided to spend our left over Dubai money on drink and snacks from the onboard convenience store so I headed out to do our shopping. The corridor was filled with suitcases waiting to be unloaded. It really is like being on a real ship!

Finally we were packed, and I called for our suitcases to be taken down to our taxi. Well that didn’t work well. The staff were way too busy trying to organize the baggage for the guests who were taking a coach to Queen Mary 2, and after waiting for an hour, Brian decided to take the luggage himself, and 4 trips back and forth later we were ready to take our taxi to our next Queen.

It is a very short taxi ride to the cruise terminal, and in no time at all, our bags were unloaded from the taxi, and we were heading into the terminal. Yay! Queen Mary 2 is only a few steps away!

We were a bit put out that the priority check in queue was only for Grills passengers, and not for Diamond World Club members, but the general queue was moving fast and check in was very efficient. In no time at all we were through security and heading for our ship.

That’s where the delay started.

Now there is a beautiful new air-conditioned cruise terminal in Dubai, but it doesn’t have any overhead walkways to the ships, so you have to board from the quayside.

That means that instead of walking into the Grand Lobby with gentle piano music soothing your tired traveling soul, and a choice of elevator banks at your disposal, you enter into the bowls of the ship on deck 1. This is not a very pretty sight at all, and instead of getting that wow feeling as you board, you are struggling through the hoards of people around you trying to elbow yourself and your hand luggage into the one and only functioning elevator. Not a pretty sight.

Due to the fact that you have to go through security again (hey, haven’t I just done that in the terminal building not 3 minutes ago?) and the back up of people struggling to get on to the elevators, there is a huge queue on the quayside. It took way longer to actually get onto the ship than it did to check in. Then, just as I was feeling quite put our about the delay, when I got to the X-ray machine my bag containing my Veuve Clicquot went through unscathed, but they grabbed my BOAC cabin bag and sent it through the X-ray machine again. What could I possible have in it that could be so offending? I mean it has happily passed though many X-ray machines unscathed in the past few days.

Ninja sticks. Yes, I was accused of trying to smuggle Ninja sticks on board. Now if I didn’t color my hair, I would be described as a short, grey haired granny, and a very unlikely martial arts threat. Never the less, I had to take everything out of the bag so they could examine it, and determine that I was not a threat to the safety of those on board. Eventually the security guard decided that I was probably strange, but mostly harmless, and he allowed me to join the throngs of humanity attempting to ride the elevator to their cabins.

By the time we reached our cabin our luggage was awaiting us, and I wasted no time popping the cork on the Pol Acker and embarked on the arduous task of finding a place for everything contained in the mountain of luggage. Before the bottle was even finished I had attained my goal, and Brian had installed the caddies in the bathroom and his over the door shoe rack. With our magnetic hooks on the wall, the scratch off map Emma gave us prior to our world cruise 2 years ago in place, and our calendar clipped to a magnet, we were ready to head to the life boat drill.

Grabbing our life vests, and ensuring that the straps did not drag along the floor and present a fall hazard we headed down to the Kings Court, and by some miracle found ourselves a seat. They now check your key card to ensure that you really do attend, so I was glad I brought mine along for the ride. The safety drill was otherwise identical to those we have attended in the past, and as usual they asked that people not put on their life vests until instructed to do so. Yet again the captain’s attempt to go over the safety features of this vessel was drowned out by the snapping sound of Velcro as those forgetful souls among us attempted to put on their life vests and became entangled in the straps presenting a fall hazard to themselves and those around them. Despite the strong temptation, I did not try to blow my whistle to ensure that it worked, and that some passing vessel could find me in the unlikely event that I end up in the water wearing it. We both listened attentively to the presentation and at the appointed time, headed back to the cabin to prepare for our sail away.

There was the usual delay in our departure as some folks were late getting to the ship. I later met one of the latecomers who had a long explanation about either BA or the Hyatt having issues with her husband’s lithium battery and thus delayed their ability to get to the port. I was grateful that my Ninja stick episode had not caused a delay of our sailing, but had it done so I am not sure I would have owned up to a perfect stranger that it was I causing the trouble.

The band Solutions played the usual mix of sail away music and as there are no animals in residence we could watch the sail away from the safe distance of the aft deck on deck 12. It had been posted on Facebook that both the QE2 and QM2 would sound their whistles on our departure, something that had filled me with eager anticipation and I had my trusty video camera at the ready to record the event for posterity. Alas there wasn’t a peep out of either ship, and we sailed quietly into the night, and I returned to our cabin with a heavy heart. The QE2 whistle is one of my all time favorite sounds and I was briefly overtaken with sorrow.

However, there was nothing to be done about it, and I was already late for dinner, so off we headed to find our table and our dinner companions for the next 20 days.

We are on deck 2 in the corner by the window, a very acceptable location. It is a table for 8, but only 2 other couples showed up for dinner. They are both English and seem to be very pleasant so I am hopeful that meal times will provide us with good companionship.

I’m not too sure about the new menu. Gone is the spa menu and separate salad course. The menu items all sounded rather complex, and in need of translation to understand what exactly was going on there, but I managed to choose 3 items that were to my liking and after dinner we retired to our cabin with full stomachs, and I with a better outlook on life. Yes I was sad about not hearing the 2 ship’s whistles, but what is there not to like about being on the QM2. All is really well with my world.