Live From Queen Elizabeth

[pnhmrk]

I generally have a bath in May

 

What? Every May :eek: I'm surprised that you don't erode! :D

[bepsf]

We like to have both - alternate showers and baths. Hardly dirty water.

 

Indeed - I do enjoy a soothing bubblebath, particularly on a seaday aboard ship when the suds can overflow and I needn't concern myself with the mess on the floor...

...and can hose off the remining suds before stepping out of the tub.

:)

[BMT]

But..... elderly people have problems getting in and out of bathtubs!

 

We were recently upgraded (different cruiseline) and the suite only had a bath. Was VERY inconvenient. They had given our cabin away and we couldn't change back.

[philayl]

Yes, here in the North we always used to keep our coal in the bath. When the area went smokeless the bath was redundant so we had the idea of washing ourselves in it instead.

Now I am really worried, we are in an A1 balcony cabin on the Queen Vic, I have to know if they have bathtubs, I was going to pack a coupe of kilos of coal just in case the ship ran out of power, but if there is no bathtub I will have nowhere to keep it! Please can someone put my mind at rest????:eek:

[Cruachan]

Now I am really worried, we are in an A1 balcony cabin on the Queen Vic, I have to know if they have bathtubs, I was going to pack a coupe of kilos of coal just in case the ship ran out of power, but if there is no bathtub I will have nowhere to keep it! Please can someone put my mind at rest????:eek:

 

Worry not. In the event of serious propulsion failures, the steerage passengers are required to work double shifts on the oars. Seemples.

 

:D:D

 

J

[vannerhawk]

No, A1 cabins on QV do not have bathtubs. Leave your coal at home, or maybe you can keep it in underbed drawers(if you can open them)

[philayl]

No, A1 cabins on QV do not have bathtubs. Leave your coal at home, or maybe you can keep it in underbed drawers(if you can open them)

No room in the draws, my wife is taking her wardrobe, her friends wardrobe, and what appears to be the entire contents of House Of Fraser, Debenhams, and John Lewis, but then again it is a whole seven days we are going for!:rolleyes::D:D:D

[garigoun]

Considering the unpopularity of bath tubs, I'm suprised there are so many passengers who use the hot tubs on board. :eek:

 

I have never understood the appeal of Hot Tubs. Why anyone would wish to sit in a warm bath with strangers, whose hygiene standards and state of health they wot not of is beyond me. People who may not have showered prior to entering the tub or even on that day; people who may not have washed their bathing costumes recently, or indeed washed themselves since last visiting the lavatory. But in they go. And there they sit soaking and splashing in a seething soup of other people’s dead skin cells and bodily secretions of every kind. And at the same time inhaling with every breath the microscopic droplets and vapours of this disgusting brew. Not to mention the industrial strength chemicals required to prevent this organic broth looking and smelling like a septic tank.

It comes as no surprise to me that when an infection like Nobovirus appears on a ship its spread is so swift. It must be aided in part, I am sure, by these bubbling cauldrons of human detritus.

It’s like bathing in a giant petri dish.

Gari

[Cruachan]

... these bubbling cauldrons of human detritus.

Gari

 

Well Gazza, I know the Cunard demographic tends to the elderly end of the spectrum, but I still think "human detritus" is going a little too far! :D:D

 

J

[garigoun]

And that's another thing J. Why, when the demographic is so wrinkled in the first instance, would they willingly subject themselves to a procedure guaranteed to produce an even further prune-like appearance.

A Silky-smooth Gari

[The Real PM]

No room in the draws, my wife is taking her wardrobe, her friends wardrobe, and what appears to be the entire contents of House Of Fraser, Debenhams, and John Lewis, but then again it is a whole seven days we are going for!:rolleyes::D:D:D

 

Good for her. Don't worry, she will find room for her complete wardrobe. It is yours you need to worry about finding space for.:D

[philayl]

No room in the draws, my wife is taking her wardrobe, her friends wardrobe, and what appears to be the entire contents of House Of Fraser, Debenhams, and John Lewis, but then again it is a whole seven days we are going for!:rolleyes::D:D:D

 

Good for her. Don't worry, she will find room for her complete wardrobe. It is yours you need to worry about finding space for.:D

 

Further to the above I was relieved to hear from my wife last week, that the shopping for the cruise was over, or so I thought! Apparently it went quite well, only seven shop assistants had to be admitted to a home for the terminally bewildered, she has been invited to two of the stores staff christmas parties, (she spent more time in the shops than the staff!) and the fire brigade were called to put out her shoes, these had gone on fire from the speed of her moving between shops.

 

When booking the flight to Southampton my wife decided that one suitcase each would not be sufficient, I therefore booked an extra case. To check everthing was okay we decided to have a trial run on packing the cases, when we finished we dicovered that only a few items were in the third case, so in my naiviety I put forward a couple of, in my opinion, sensible solutions:- (a) We leave some items out, this appears to be fine as long as it is my items we leave out. (b) We split the few items between the two cases, this was rejected as it might crush some of her clothes.

 

Silly me didn't realise that there is a third option, this she announced, was that she would have to go and buy some more clothes to try and fill the rest of the third case. Is this sane female logic, or when entering lifes lottery did I get the booby prize?:rolleyes:

[Cruachan]

Silly me didn't realise that there is a third option, this she announced, was that she would have to go and buy some more clothes to try and fill the rest of the third case. Is this sane female logic, or when entering lifes lottery did I get the booby prize?:rolleyes:

 

Ah yes, uxorial logic - don't you just love it! One of the "habits" that we have got into down the years is buying a fridge magnet in each place we visit (yes, I know it's tacky but we do it anyway). So, after the last cruise it was noted that there was no room on the fridge door for any more fridge magnets.

 

My solution? Dispose of some of the older, tackier ones to make room for more.

 

She Who Must be Obeyed's solution? Buy a second fridge.

 

You really can't beat it, so just go with the flow.

 

:D:D:D

 

J

[BigMac1953]

Ah yes, uxorial logic - don't you just love it! One of the "habits" that we have got into down the years is buying a fridge magnet in each place we visit (yes, I know it's tacky but we do it anyway). So, after the last cruise it was noted that there was no room on the fridge door for any more fridge magnets.

 

J

 

and I thought it was just my wife!

 

We've had to have the fridge door reinforced with steel girders and it's getting to the point that you need a crow bar to open it.

 

Do these women all receive some kind of a message from afar?

 

I bet you missus watches X-Factor in the Jungle too!

[Cruachan]

I bet you missus watches X-Factor in the Jungle too!

 

Actually, she watches I'm Strictly A Dancing X Factor Jungle Celebrity Whose Got Talent.

 

J

[The Real PM]

Further to the above I was relieved to hear from my wife last week, that the shopping for the cruise was over, or so I thought! Apparently it went quite well, only seven shop assistants had to be admitted to a home for the terminally bewildered, she has been invited to two of the stores staff christmas parties, (she spent more time in the shops than the staff!) and the fire brigade were called to put out her shoes, these had gone on fire from the speed of her moving between shops.

 

When booking the flight to Southampton my wife decided that one suitcase each would not be sufficient, I therefore booked an extra case. To check everthing was okay we decided to have a trial run on packing the cases, when we finished we dicovered that only a few items were in the third case, so in my naiviety I put forward a couple of, in my opinion, sensible solutions:- (a) We leave some items out, this appears to be fine as long as it is my items we leave out. (b) We split the few items between the two cases, this was rejected as it might crush some of her clothes.

 

Silly me didn't realise that there is a third option, this she announced, was that she would have to go and buy some more clothes to try and fill the rest of the third case. Is this sane female logic, or when entering lifes lottery did I get the booby prize?:rolleyes:

That is very good logic. If you take a partially filled suitcase, everything will get thrown around and become very wrinkled by the time it gets to its destination. So of course, there is but one sensible conclusion. The problem will arise, however, if she buys a little bit too much, then you might need to leave a few more things at home. Now I only filled one suitcase--the largest one--and then I borrowed some space in my husband's bag. And the gowns fit very nicely in his garment bag. Then there was a third case for all the extra stuff that I didn't have room for in mine and the borrowed space in his.

 

Gail:)

[Cruachan]

That is very good logic. If you take a partially filled suitcase, everything will get thrown around and become very wrinkled by the time it gets to its destination. So of course, there is but one sensible conclusion. The problem will arise, however, if she buys a little bit too much, then you might need to leave a few more things at home. Now I only filled one suitcase--the largest one--and then I borrowed some space in my husband's bag. And the gowns fit very nicely in his garment bag. Then there was a third case for all the extra stuff that I didn't have room for in mine and the borrowed space in his.

 

Gail:)

 

But a half empty suitcase would ensure that there was plenty of room for the fridge magnets :cool:

 

J

[The Real PM]

But a half empty suitcase would ensure that there was plenty of room for the fridge magnets :cool:

 

J

I don't have any of those.

[MsDeva]

Actually, she watches I'm Strictly A Dancing X Factor Jungle Celebrity Whose Got Talent.

 

J

 

Sounds like a gal after my own heart Mr Cruachan ;)

 

Best

Judy

[William Dean]

Ah yes, uxorial logic - don't you just love it! One of the "habits" that we have got into down the years is buying a fridge magnet in each place we visit (yes, I know it's tacky but we do it anyway). So, after the last cruise it was noted that there was no room on the fridge door for any more fridge magnets.

 

My solution? Dispose of some of the older, tackier ones to make room for more.

 

She Who Must be Obeyed's solution? Buy a second fridge.

 

You really can't beat it, so just go with the flow.

 

:D:D:D

 

J

 

If she is anything like Mrs. Dean, the second refrigerator would be useful for hiding the bodies of those who have upset her.

 

WD

[GAV BOY]

But a half empty suitcase would ensure that there was plenty of room for the fridge magnets :cool:

 

J

 

This is Myles specialised subject.......... :eek: :eek: :p

 

Gav. :cool:

[PeaSea8ch]

On Transatlantic crossings on QM2 it is fairly common for the decks to be closed due to high winds, People often ignore the flexible barriers and notices, which of course is at their own risk. You can tell when the matter is really serious ( which has happned twice to me) when the signs are backed up by the doors being secured by being roped shut which no-one can get past.

This is exactly what happened during my recently completed RT Trans-Atlantic crossing on QM2. Although we encountered gale-force winds the sea heights maxed out at 15 – 17 feet. Since the second or third sea day of the EB crossing, access to the exposed forward area of the Promenade on Deck 7 was blocked off due to high winds and remained that way until the last sea day of the WB crossing. Also for about 2 to 2 ½ days the doors to outside deck areas were locked to prevent passengers from being injured from the force of the wind during the WB crossing.

 

The worst weather I ever sailed through was during a summer 1989 Trans-Pacific WB crossing on the Royal Viking Sea where we sailed from Vancouver, Canada to Dutch Harbor, Alaska and continuing on to Tokyo, Japan. After departing Vancouver, we sailed up the beautiful scenery along the Inside Passage. The minute we got out in open water it got rough, really rough. The winds were at 55 to 65 knots with the sea height around 40 feet. With the ship pitching up and down and the winds howling, the Captain had all doors to outside decks locked and shut down all of the ships elevators (lifts) because of the motion of the ocean. Most everybody was sick (including me) but was given sea sickness tablets that took awhile to work since I was already sick but when they kicked in, I was just fine and could eat and do whatever the ship’s motion would allow. This lasted for 3 full days.

 

After leaving Dutch Harbor and the protection of the Aleutian Island chain, King Neptune arose to the occasion with similar wind and swells; however, since our course had changed as we were headed to Tokyo, instead of pitching up and down we were rolling from side to side and it was quite pronounced. I debated taking the mattress of the bed and placing it on the floor so if I rolled off the mattress it would be a drop of about 4 inches versus 2 feet from the top of the bed. I decided against this as my cabin stewardess already had a full plate of duties in addition to the weather to contend with. This weather also lasted for 3 days straight. . So I slept those 3 nights “spread eagle” with my arms and legs spread apart as wide as possible to prevent rolling off the bed. Then the storm blew itself out and the last 2 sea days were sunny, warm with calm seas!

 

I was amazed no one was injured during those 6 days and nights of rough weather. The only casualties were dropped trays of dishes in the restaurant or glasses in the bars (about midway through they did start serving drinks in plastic glasses).

 

We were not “confined to quarters” but the Captain did advise extreme caution and holding onto anything bolted to the ship. So we all got along holding on to anything secure, walking with our legs wider than shoulder width and crouching down a bit to lower our center of gravity to prevent taking a fall. There were several mobility challenged passengers who had crew members assigned to make certain they got around the ship safely.

 

The following sequence was taken from the forward observation lounge, one deck above the bridge, with the motor drive on my film camera set to 3.5 frames per second as we plowed into a big wave. The poor quality of these images is due to being scanned from old 35 mm color slides; but you do get a sense of what we went through.

 

 

 

 

 

[capnpugwash]

Last November I was on QM2 heading TA to New York and we caught the tail end of Hurricane Ida, the wind was Force 11, gusting to Force 12 which was interesting and the waves were around 30 feet or so. The ship coped well with the waves but as it drove down into one of the troughs during one afternoon, the wave broke over the windows of the Commodore Club which is on Deck 9 which must be over 65 feet above the sea. It was great. :eek:

[Oahucruiser]

Whew!! Very exciting stories! We love it when the sea acts up but those trips might be a bit much.

[Cruachan]

This is Myles specialised subject.......... :eek: :eek: :p

 

Gav. :cool:

 

Well! What can I say? I would never have taken Myles for a fridge magnet fan. I know he has a magnetic personality - but even so... :D

 

J