On Board The Queen Mary 2

This is our fourth voyage on the magnificent QM2. We boarded on Saturday, December 22 after driving from Philadelphia to the Red Hook cruise ship terminal in Brooklyn, NY. Our friends Franklin and Chad, who live in Baltimore, invited us to join them on this cruise. We met them when we arrived in Brooklyn and we all went out to lunch at the surprisingly good Red Hook Lobster Pound restaurant before boarding the ship. The ship sailed Saturday evening and will take three days to arrive on Wednesday in St. Kitts, the first of five ports that we will visit on this cruise. Life on board the QM2 is different than on most cruise ships, as the Cunard company strives to maintain the atmosphere of a luxury liner from days past. During the day the ship offers a series of guest speakers on various topics. We enjoyed a presentation on Christopher Columbus on Sunday. In the evening there is a dress code in the restaurants and bars, and there will be three or four festive formal attire evenings during the 12 day duration of the cruise. Deck 7, the promenade deck, is a favorite of ours for walking. Three laps equal 1.1 miles. Our group from Pied Piper Travel dines together in the evenings so we have a set table arrangement. Our comfortable cabin, a sheltered balcony, affords lots of space for all of the extra clothing we brought along. The food quality is noticeably better on this voyage, which our friend Franklin attributes to a change in the head chef. Today, Christmas Eve, there will be some holiday festivities on board including the singing of Christmas carols in the grand foyer. -Jim