Live from the 2013 world cruise - on QM2

[Whitemarsh]

On the road to Saigon.

 

A rice field.

 

A rubber tree plantation.

 

Further up the road to Saigon.

 

Just next door to the museum was a popular zoo.

[Whitemarsh]

'Uncle Ho"

 

The water puppets.

 

More victims arrive for the Museum of Boredom.

 

Hawkers do their thing.

 

The Presidential Palace.

[Whitemarsh]

Street scenes from Saigon.

 

The entertainment at lunch.

 

That temple in Chinatown that I liked.

 

The intricate carvings.

 

Inside the temple.

 

[Whitemarsh]

Thanks so much for takeing the time to write your great report- I am about to book a Atlantic Islands cruise out of Southampton later this year! I find it so refreshing when you tell you go for a cig- most people nowadays hide their smoking- for beeing afraid of getting the flames. LOL. Great that one can smoke in the Disco- inside that is.

Have fun!

Greetings

Michael

 

I agree, but I believe that will be stopped soon. :(

 

Great pictures- I love the QM 2 sailed her once. Just those prices for a solo traveler kept me away for 5 years. LOL. No I am considering Cunard to be my new favorite cruise line. I forgot to ask- is there background music played in the public rooms of QM 2 for example in the Chart room bar or Sir Samules, Lido Restaurant??? Thanks !

Michael

 

Yeah, they have background music on in the public rooms, not sure about Kings Court though.

[Germancruiser]

Thanks for those awesome pictures- oh I so wish I where there! As long as they don´t adopt the ridicolous smoking rules from Celebrity I am fine. I hope they allow someking on ones own balcony still when I board her. LOL! So background music is there, oh well as long as it is not to loud and overbearing.

Curious to see you and the countes on one of the pictures. LOL!

Greetings

Michael

[Michelle25490]

Thanks for sharing once more. I absolutely enjoy reading every bit of it, and the pictures are lovely! Can't wait for more!

[kath00]

Thanks for sharing once more. I absolutely enjoy reading every bit of it, and the pictures are lovely! Can't wait for more!

 

Same here. One of the best trip reports I have read!

 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

[katzoe]

Thanks for your entertaining and informative trip report and the great photos.

We look forward each day to your engaging updates.

[The Welsh Man]

Whitemarsh,

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to post sharing both your daily activities and photo's.

 

Really enjoying it!

 

Thanks Again

 

Carl

[Artemis]

Thanks so much, Whitemarsh, for sharing your trip with us. You are a brilliant storyteller and writer.

[Whitemarsh]

Thank you everyone for your very kind comments.

 

Day seven - 15th Feb 2013: sea day - en route to Hong Kong.

 

With the amount of alcohol that we are drinking each night, it's becoming increasingly hard to get up in the morning. Certainly the feeling of a mild hangover seems to linger until midday at least. Breakfast was another quick job in Kings Court followed by a coffee down in Sir Samuel's where it's nice to have a window seat and watch the sea whilst sipping the coffee. This morning I met an Australian couple who are doing their first cruise on QM2. It's their fourth cruise and most of their previous cruises have been on Royal Caribbean, which they prefer. Sometimes I think that people prefer the cruise line that they first cruised with (obviously if your first cruise was on P&O Australia than that wouldn't be the case). One of their cruises was a New Years Eve cruise to Rio De Janeiro where the ship was apparently docked in the harbour for the fireworks etc, it sounded spectacular. They had one complaint about this current cruise: they think the meeting place for the tours should be printed on the shore tour ticket. This would save confusion and assist those passengers who wander the ship on shore days asking other passengers where they are supposed to be. I think their idea has merit but I suppose that the meeting locations are printed in the daily guide (delivered the night before) so that if there are any last minute changes these can be notified. If the location was on the shore tour ticket (which are delivered on the first day) then they would have to do special notifications if there were any changes.

 

For the some reason the time between coffee and afternoon tea is lost to me and I cannot even remember what I did. As I got up very late I don't suppose that it was a great period of time. I had plans to have afternoon tea with the countess today and so joined the queue that was forming outside of the Queens Room. Lining up isn't the most enjoyable thing to do but I suppose there is no way around it as the Queens Room probably takes quite a bit of preparation to get ready for afternoon tea. Once inside I see the countess and we take one of the tables up on the raised platform that overlooks the dance floor. The little fruit tarts are back on the menu, so that's a welcome return to afternoon tea normality. I note with interest that there are still differences in the number of items offered and the cream used (between the QGL & the Queens Room), so the experience of a couple of days ago wasn't out of the ordinary. I do like the music that they play during afternoon tea, it's a shame they don't do anything similar up in the QGL.

 

Afternoon tea over we decide to check in with Petra at the Voyage Sales Office. Our mission is to find the red hot deals that are on offer but unfortunately is doesn't work like that (for us anyway) and the search is done via voyage number & itinerary. We discuss the merits of booking via the U.S as opposed to Australia and Petra agrees that booking in the U.S provides "different benefits". Lol, you can say that again. One of the "different benefits" is that a cruise booked in the U.S will cost thousands of dollars less for the same itinerary. I think about asking Petra to do a quote for the annual 'Noro Virus' cruise to the Caribbean but think better of it as Dragana is within earshot and I don't want to get in trouble. :)

 

Leaving the countess to contemplate future cruise itineraries I set off for the Commodore Club for the FOD meeting (which I haven't attended recently). The gentleman who insisted that the afternoon tea served in the QGL & Queens Room is the same is there but I don't want a further argument on the subject so make no mention of my findings. As it turns out, I should have just picked a fight. The same man proposes a toast about something and to be polite I raise my glass of diet coke in response. "You don't make a toast with soft drink!" exclaims the man. I simply ignore him and smiled at nothing in particular. One of the waiters brings around the hors d'oeuvres. "I love these ones" I say as I pick up my favourite,"Whatever it is". The man lets out a big sigh and says "it's liver pate"….followed by more sighing. What a douche bag. :rolleyes: I wait a couple of minutes (so as not to be obvious) and then say my goodbyes "nice to see you all again" I lie.

 

After that I could do with a run, so I head down the gym (after changing etc) only to find that someone is using my treadmill - how rude! This would never have happened on the QE2. ;) That reminds me, I have not heard a single mention of the QE2 during this voyage. Thirty minutes later I am all done and back in my room changing for the last formal night of this particular sector. Seeing as how I spent all that money on the photos I line up for each of the different photo backdrops in the main corridor on deck 3. There's a couple of lovely new backdrops that I didn't see last voyage: a picture of the QM2 and the interior of some palace in Europe. A couple in front of me are doing the same thing and the man pays me a nice compliment by saying that my outfit makes me look like James Bond. "I'll take that" I reply. They are an Australian couple who are doing Singapore to Brisbane and the man is quite funny with a good sense of humour. At one of the backdrops the photographer has a box for the men to put one of their feet up on to strike what can only be described as a 'cowboy' pose - that's new for QM2. When it's my turn I tell her I don't need the box as I will not be putting my knees up for this photo.

 

The Chart Room is full when I arrive to join the Countess and her husband. They are sitting at the bar as there are no seats available. David Read is playing the piano and he's doing an excellent job. Two rounds of drinks later and we're having a very good time chatting and listening to the music. The scene in the Chart Room is exactly what a QM2 voyage should be like, everyone looks great in their formal gear. Do you remember the lady that joined me on the upper level of G32 and was wearing that spectacular black and white ball gown? Well tonight she topped that with a stunning red ball gown with a diamante waist band. She looked amazing, probably one of the best outfits I've ever seen on any cruise.

 

As it's a formal night our table will be hosted by someone from the engineering department. We're curious to find out who it is so we make out way out of the Chart Room through to the Britannia Dining room. "You take the left hand side" I say to the countess and her husband as I make the grand descent down the opposite stairs. When we reach the bottom we feign surprise at seeing each other - lol - you had to be there. Everyone is in attendance for tonight (the three north QLD ladies having taken our advice) and we chatted whilst we waited for our host. Who, when he eventually arrived, turned out to be lots of fun. His name was Andrew, he went on to tell us what he did within the engineering department but for the life of me I can't remember what it was.

 

BTW, I've figured out why I'm having difficulty remember various aspects of the dinner conversation and it's because we are already tipsy by the time we sit down in the Britannia Restaurant, having had at least two rounds of drinks back in the Chart Room. Andrew tells us about his adventures in Patayya and we swap stories from Vietnam. Andrew did his own tour in Vietnam and (from what I remember of his account) he had a much better time of it than we did at the Museum of Boredom and the Box Factory. The wine is soon flowing and the I update the table on some information that I have learnt about the 'Cunard Royalty' couple. They are German and are doing the full world cruise. Apparently they are very nice and that's why all the crew are drawn to them like moths to a flame. They are like ecstasy for the crew it would seem and the word on the street is that Dragana is hooked big time - she can't get enough of them - which means she's going to go through a painful withdrawal at the end of the world voyage. One of the theories espoused as to why they're getting such lavish attention from the crew is that they are travelling in Queens Grill but have elected to dine in the Britannia Restaurant. Supposedly this happens quite a bit and that would also explain why they have the best table. The other theory is that they're dealing crystal meth from their table each night and that's why there is always a crowd of eager looking people surrounding them. That last theory can probably be discounted immediately as ridiculous and obviously not true. :D

 

The countess has her own update, she's being stalked by another woman down in the Canyon Ranch Spa. "Do you come here often?" was the opening line used by the woman a couple of days ago. The countess definitely got a vibe and was unsurprised to learn that the woman had since gone to the library and purchased the same book that the countess was reading. "I saw you reading it so I went and bought it - it's good isn't it?" was the line today. Rampant lesbianism in the spa aside, the countess would like me to inform you that the coat hangers in Britannia are those annoying anti-theft ones that make it difficult to hang things up. I'm with the countess on this, surely Cunard passengers don't steal so many coat hangers that Cunard needs to have the anti-theft ones. With the amount of whinging we regularly hear about packing formal clothes, I'd be surprised if anyone had room for pilfered coat hangers.

 

There was much laughter at our table tonight and the wine was excellent. It's very, very good to be at a hosted table and I congratulate the three north QLD ladies on their good fortune for scoring a hosted table all the way to Brisbane. Tonight is lobster night and I order three just in case one is not enough. The rest of the table orders the lobster as well (as you do) and when the mains arrive they follow my lead and order additional lobsters - because we can. We have brûlée for dessert tonight thanks to the countess' husband pre-ordering it the night before. Overall, I am very impressed with the dining experience in the Britannia Restaurant- wonderful food and wonderful service.

 

After dinner we make our way to G32 to see what's happening. The ship is really rolling tonight and it's hard to keep a straight line. Then we realise that the ship is not moving at all and our mobility issues are the result of alcohol impairment. As usual, Vibez are holding court in G32 - there's not much point in hanging around so after I've had a few cigarettes we retreat to the comfort of the Commodore Club where David Read is playing the piano. Unfortunately he's not playing the piano when we get there and is, instead, selfishly taking a break whilst enjoying a beverage. "Oi Read - get cracking!" we shout whilst gesturing to the piano. Don't be alarmed dear readers, of course we didn't do that - we're not on some cheap and nasty Princess boat (but I had a quick chuckle to myself writing and imagining the scene). Once again David's music is just wonderful and the attentive audience in the Commodore Club claps appreciatively after every set. David is hosting a dancing class tomorrow night and I think we'll put in an appearance as it's sure to be very good.

 

Up in the Commodore Club we overhear a story about some drunken passengers that ran down the corridor on deck nine and pressed all the buzzers…. shocking. Once again, that would never have happened on the QE2. :)

 

When David retires for the evening the countess & her husband follow suit and so, left to my own devices, I return to G32 in the hope that Vibez have retired also. They have, although the DJ is still the same Vibez band member who was at pains to let us know that he is not the actual DJ. He does an okay job and there is a good crowd dancing to the music. At 01:00 the faux DJ leaves the booth without so much of a "good night". I suppose he didn't want any "one last song requests". The recorded music is hits from the sixties and on that note I decide it's time to call it a night.

[OceanPatter]

Ah, Whitemarsh, this was your best entry yet. Not to say that your earlier ones weren't riveting, but this one had me howling (discretely, of course).

 

As to someone's request that you share a photo of yourself and the countess (which we're all dying to see), perhaps you could appear anonymously in a cameo ... ala Hitchcock. Pretty please?

[Pushka]

Whitemarsh, I am loving your clever little asides which is how true authors write. Especially liked the line where you "smiled at nothing" when being admonished you can't toast with soft drink.

[capnpugwash]

W, very good and many thanks for the updates.

[Whitemarsh]

Ah, Whitemarsh, this was your best entry yet. Not to say that your earlier ones weren't riveting, but this one had me howling (discretely, of course).

 

As to someone's request that you share a photo of yourself and the countess (which we're all dying to see), perhaps you could appear anonymously in a cameo ... ala Hitchcock. Pretty please?

 

Thank you.

 

I won't post a picture of the countess, but I may do one of me. For the record, I do not look like any of the James Bond actors (I wish), that man was just complimenting my tux and patent shoes, which are super shiny (hey, we haven't heard from shiny-shoes in a long while have we).

 

Whitemarsh, I am loving your clever little asides which is how true authors write. Especially liked the line where you "smiled at nothing" when being admonished you can't toast with soft drink.

 

Thanks Pushka. Thankfully they are getting off in Hong Kong, so hopefully the FOD meetings will improve.

 

Also, I didn't realise it was illegal to toast someone with diet-coke. :rolleyes:

 

W, very good and many thanks for the updates.

 

Thank you :)

[Michelle25490]

Once more a very enjoyable read!

[yesteryear]

What does FOD stand for?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[figgy1978]

What does FOD stand for?

 

Friend's Of Dorothy

[Cornus]

Also, I didn't realise it was illegal to toast someone with diet-coke.

 

It's not...the chap was wrong yet again! :eek:

 

"While it is ideal to have saved some wine or champagne for the toast, it is perfectly acceptable to toast with a non-alcoholic beverage." I'm sure this is TMI, but an interesting article nonetheless: http://www.etiquetteinternational.com/Articles/Toasting.aspx

 

Really enjoying your travel adventures and pics.

[Pies4u]

As someone who is joining the ship in April (Cape Town) - this is a great read. Good stuff Whitemarsh.

 

Looking forward to first trip on QM2 - (finally got Cunard to enable BA to let us reserve seats on the flight, best seats gone!. The e.ticket nonsene drives you bonkers. We have printed the e.ticket of the system yet Cunard don't notify BA and insist there is a separte e.ticket, depsit this one stating "flight & voyage").

 

Interested in the number of youngsters W - do you think it is mainly Chinese due to the HK leg or just because it is a very short sector anyway?

[pxn748]

Really enjoying your posts. It took me 3 days to figure out what "tanoy" was though. I kept thinking maybe you meant "tan boy", until the Captain came over it. Then I had to re-interpret that word. thanks, Philip

[Pushka]

You've inspired me W. I've just put a deposit down on the next Circumnavigation of Australia. Solo. So I have braved an inside cabin. I really like the promenade deck so that will be my new home. The second to last one, departing Sydney. It departs exactly 12 months today.

 

I see you are in Hong Kong today. One of my favourite cities.

[Rotterdam]

that no one has mentioned the infamous Pol Acker.......I recall fantastic stories about the beverage onboard and its various uses / purposes.

 

Can we get an update please????( either from the bar or laundry room)!!!!

[charliedalrymple]

These entries are just priceless, and I find myself opening the forum every day in great anticipation of Whitemarsh's latest adventures. I'm glad the mystery of the VIP drive-by FODs has been at least partially resolved; I was afraid we'd have to wait until much later in the cruise for that information, and I didn't think I could bear the suspense much longer.

 

Whitemarsh, your writing convinces me that you have truly mastered the art of cruising (and indeed living): do whatever you damn well please whenever you want to do it, enjoy the company of those with something worthwhile to contribute to your life, and to hell with everyone else (but still take the time to make sarcastic asides about the them). Just perfect!

[Whitemarsh]

Hi everyone,

 

I lost internet access once we got to Hong Kong so am behind in the updates, I'll catch up soon.

 

You've inspired me W. I've just put a deposit down on the next Circumnavigation of Australia. Solo. So I have braved an inside cabin. I really like the promenade deck so that will be my new home. The second to last one, departing Sydney. It departs exactly 12 months today.

 

I see you are in Hong Kong today. One of my favourite cities.

 

Congrats Pushka, you're going the love the inside cabin. I also recommend a late sitting and a hosted table.

 

that no one has mentioned the infamous Pol Acker.......I recall fantastic stories about the beverage onboard and its various uses / purposes.

 

Can we get an update please????( either from the bar or laundry room)!!!!

 

I didn't drink mine so can't offer advice regarding it. I was expecting a new bottle of champagne in the Queens Grill suite but apparently if you are 'in transit' moving from one room to another you do not get another bottle of bubbly.