DAY 4

Thursday, January 30^th, 2020

A Queen of Another Era

Ruth had arrived in Dubai several days ago, and had been very busy sight seeing in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

I had not had much time to catch up with her news last night as by the time I had finished dealing with changing travel arrangements due to the switch in our itinerary from Hong Kong to Singapore it was way past midnight, and I was more than ready to sleep.

So in the morning we hit the breakfast buffet and she updated me on all of her adventures. She is totally enchanted with Dubai and its history, and I am so glad she did get to spend a few extra days here.

The one place she had not been was the Mall of the Emirates, so we decided to pay it a visit before we checked out of the hotel and boarded Queen Mary 2.

Our hotel, the Millennium Place, was very well situated for public transport, so we walked over to the station and caught the train to the Mall.

Walking in to the station I suddenly got the feeling that we were in some dystopian science fiction movie. It was a dusty day, and the sun was trying hard to shine through the haze, but all it did was provide a strange glow around us. It felt like a sepia photograph. We were surrounded by tall buildings, each one was more bizarre than the next, and we were heading into the very futuristic looking train station.

I noticed that we were the only people not wearing masks. We didn’t say anything about this to each other, but I was thinking, are we being crazy to be venturing out on public transport? I had not heard of any cases of Coronavirus in Dubai, so why was everyone being so cautious? Then it struck me that everything was very quiet, there was no noise from the traffic, trains, or people.

It was all very unsettling, but nobody else seemed perturbed, so we bought our train tickets, and headed toward the Mall.

Our main reason to go to the Mall was to see the indoor ski slope, and we were not disappointed. Sure enough, there in the middle of the mall is not only the ski slope, but also a ski lift, what looks like a luge track, penguins, a large strange looking ball that people were pushing around, and the place was packed!

I had been hoping to pick up some biltong in Dubai, and as luck would have it, right next door to the ski slope was a South African butcher! I bought several kilos of great looking slabs, we are going to be on the ship for 86 days, and the butcher was kind enough to slice and vacuum pack my purchase. I was not going to risk a repeat of our 2017 world voyage which included great difficulty in slicing the biltong after Brian’s handy dandy multi tool was confiscated by security as we boarded Queen Victoria in Southampton.

Ruth said she would like to buy some leggings, and having seen a Debenhams as we entered the Mall, I knew exactly where to go, and sure enough they had a good supply of leggings. They also had a great sale going on, but I was rather weighed down by the biltong so decided against making any further purchases.

We took the train back to the hotel, and then checked out as we were on our way to board Queen Mary 2. I was soooooo excited. My ship was calling me!

On the previous 2 occasions when I have boarded QM2 in Dubai, embarkation has been somewhat chaotic, and the computers have crashed.

Not so this time. We went through security, and were then questioned by a young lady about whether we had recently been to China, if we had been in contact with Chinese nationals, and were we Chinese. We answered in the negative to all of the questions. I was wondering what would happen if you said yes to any of them. Nobody seems to be interested in noro virus any more.

Although there was a sign saying that there was a priority line, they didn’t seem to be using it as the regular line was going very quickly. We showed our passports to the immigration man, went straight to the check in counter, had our photos and passports taken, registered our credit cards, received our cruise cards and headed on board. The only hold up was for the lift once we got on the ship.

We embarked on deck 1 which is always a disappointment.

I love it when you enter on deck 2 and are immediately in the Grand Lobby. You look around the lobby and see how magnificent it is, and you see that beautiful, huge flower arrangement. The string quartet is playing to welcome you on board. It is magical and always makes me cry.

This time we entered though the bowels of the ship and were greeted by the scrum of people fighting to get into the lifts. I do prefer deck 2.

When we got to our cabin I saw that my friend Deirdre had been trying to call me. I called her back, and she said she was in a hospital in Dubai. Kim, her partner had slipped on deck 14 while having his morning walk, and had injured his knee. He was seen by the ships medical staff, and was immediately transported by ambulance to a private hospital.

It was looking like he would need surgery and a long period of rehab. His ability to continue on the ship for the rest of the world voyage was not looking good. At least he was close to reasonable medical care when he sustained his injury, but to end the world voyage this way was very disappointing.

With us having an overnight in Dubai it was hard to resist spending a night on QE2. Ruth was very happy to settle in to our cabin on Queen Mary 2, and declined to join me on QE2. So as soon as I had organized my stuff somewhat in our cabin I took a cab to QE2.

I know there are people out there who are very unhappy that QE2 has ended up in Dubai, and that the alterations that have been made to convert her in to an hotel have totally destroyed what she was, but I for one am happy about the fact that she is still available to us.

I was very excited as I checked in and couldn’t wait to be shown to my stateroom. I was in a similar cabin to the one that we occupied last year. I settled in to the cabin and although I had planned to explore the ship and take photos, somehow I ended up taking a nap, and next thing I knew, it was time to get ready for drinks in the Yacht Club. This all felt way too familiar.

Deidre had been updating me all day on Kim’s condition. Deirdre and Kim had also planned to spend the night on QE2. Obviously this was not going to happen, but Deirdre ended up deciding that she would come to the hotel herself, and give Kim the opportunity for a quiet night’s sleep.

Drinks in the Yacht Club was very reminiscent of old times, except we were there at happy hour and they had 50% off all drinks, not something I have seen on Cunard lately. I was delighted to finally meet Deirdre’s friend Bob, I had heard so much about him over the years and we all had a lovely evening, although Kim in the hospital was much on our minds.

When I returned to my cabin I saw I had an email inviting me to be part of a movie they would be filming on the ship tomorrow. Sounds like fun, but duty calls. No stardom for me, it’s more important to be with my friends when they need me.