"Live from" Queen Elizabeth to the Mediterannean! My First Cunard Experience

[lovely_serenity]

Red: Left side: Port

 

 

At this time, the plan was that Dad was going to do laundry, and Mom who had had trouble sleeping last night, would take a nap now.

 

Just past 4:00 pm, Dad comes in telling us that there's a stubborn, selfish old lady in the laundry room (I believe American?) that is starting to seriously aggravate him. Here’s the situation: there's 2 of them doing laundry and 2 sets of laundry machines. After she washes her stuff, she takes her stuff and spread it out in both dryers. o_o … Uhm.. Ma’am? The considerate thing to do, would be to .. you know .. share. -_- At the moment, my Dad's items are in the washer right now and the lady says that basically, she has 2 more loads of laundry, so both of the dryers belong to her until she has finished doing ALL of her laundry. … -_- Seriously? Are you kidding me? Can you seriously be that selfish? I mean, nobody does that! It’s like there are 2 cookies and 2 people, you can’t eat both cookies by yourself, lady! Learn to share!

 

So after that situation, Dad comes to our room to tell one of us to go argue with her, otherwise he's going to get angry and wind up losing his temper at her and he doesn't want to do that. Naturally, I accompany him, as I have a stronger character than my sister. When I enter the laundry room, I try to naturally bring the topic up by asking her when her laundry is going to be done. She basically says to me, that it doesn't even matter, because she has more loads of laundry and the machines are hers. I get a little irritated and say to her that if there are 2 machines and 2 people, it's customary that each person get one. She starts rambling on about some random stuff about how the ladies before her did many loads and that she's been here for hours and that the dryers don't work. She's essentially stubbornly refusing to move. I am somewhat taken aback and baffled, as to how one person can be so ridiculously selfish. From what I could see, she was the type of person one would normally just give up trying to talk to, as it would only be a waste of your breath. Well you see, that's the kind of person I am… not my Dad. He chose an alternate route of action. He decided to give up talking to her, lose his temper and by doing that, make her realize that she was doing something wrong. He initially (being very frustrated) stated to her that this was a communal area in which people were expected to be fair and share the facilities, not be selfish and hog all of the machines. She then constantly rambled on about how she had to use all of the dryers because they did not dry fast enough for her. My Dad then retaliated with the fact that that was not an acceptable reason to deprive others of their use. He quite angrily stated that these machines belonged to everyone and not just her, and that this was not her own home so she could not do whatever she pleased. This went back and forth for a few minutes and as it did, my Dad grew more and more furious. At this point, even the lady ironing shirts in the back was shaking her head at the old lady, baffled by how ridiculous she was being. The old lady eventually caves when she sees that my Dad is getting quite angry (he's typically a really cheerful, easy-going guy, but he gets riled up easily). She then huffily states, "Fine, I’ll just not wear this shirt tonight and leave it wet!" And she opens up one of the machines (to which I see like, a small handful of socks and one shirt in it .. Like .. seriously? Come on. People don't do that. That's her way of hogging the dryer. Put a few things inside to claim it as her own) and pulls out a shirt. My Dad snidely remarks that he doesn't want the machine anymore since he is already putting our things into a bag and getting ready to take it one floor down to their machines. She acts like she's the victim and insists like she's being forced to give up one of her machines. -__- For dramatic purposes, my dad slams the washer shut and we are out the door. And that ends the most dramatic laundry experience of my life. LOL

 

We go down one floor and use the laundry machines there. There are other people there as well, but they are all (thankfully) very polite and courteous. After finishing the laundry, I return to my room to shower and get ready for formal night!

 

 

Tonight’s dinner menu:

 

 

 

As I looked through the menu, I couldn’t find any appetizer that appealed to me (everyone else agreed), so I picked a random one. It turned out Dad and Sis ordered the same thing I did! The Thai Fish Cakes with Sweet Chili Sauce:

 

 

It was quite tasty! I liked it.

 

Mom got the Double Beef Consommé with Chive Celestine:

 

 

Which was just okay.

[lovely_serenity]

while Sis ordered the Chilled Melon and Midori Soup:

 

 

Which was so-so.

 

When we were ordering our meals, Sebastiao greeted us with a notepad and asked, “Beef medium rare?” :D LOL YES PLEASE (since evidently, that was all we ate ^^). And with that, my Dad, my sister and I got the same (wonderful) entrée. The Grilled Fillet Steak Rossini Style with Sauce Madère and Château Potato:

 

 

This was so good. *stares* … *wipes saliva dripping from mouth*

 

Mom on the other hand, ordered the Breaded Lemon Sole Fillet with Ragoût of Artichoke Hearts and Tomatoes:

 

 

She quite liked her entrée as well.

 

Time for dessert! Sis’s came first, it was the Angel Food Cake with Macerated Strawberries:

 

 

I got the Coconut and Passion Fruit Cheesecake:

 

 

And Mom got the Chocolate Mousse Cappuccino:

 

[lovely_serenity]

We also ate some petit-fours:

 

 

It was a little Rice Krispie treat and a layered cake-thing.

 

After dinner, we headed back to room for bathroom break, before going back up to Lido for drinks to bring to theatre. Tonight's featured show was "Sing!" consisting of 19 live musicians & 4 singers.

 

 

 

The theater was absolutely packed with well-dressed people! (It was formal night after all!)

 

 

From our booth, I took this crummy shot :D (I had to hide all light coming from my camera, so I had the screen flipped closed and only took random shots from through the point-and-shoot hole):

 

 

Sis and I eventually fell asleep, since they were singing songs I didn't know, while I was full and happy. They sound nice ^^" We were very comfortable and it's really soothing LOL. I did at least hear bits and pieces of the performance while I drifted in and out! After I woke up and got up, I noticed that my shoes were killing my feet. I really wanted to go back to the room, but Mom insisted that we take at least a few photos with the ship’s photographers while we were still dressed in our formal wear. I don’t know why she thought that was a good idea, considering the fact that Sis & I had just woken up, but I looked like a complete mess in the photos LOL. I looked clearly groggy and my eyes were kind of sleepy looking. I also had a tuft of mess hair sticking up! Anyhow, we returned back to our rooms and passed out. We were in for an early day tomorrow, as we had a morning excursion in Israel.

 

 

End of Day 5

Edited June 11, 2014 by lovely_serenity

[P&O SUE]

Well, people took the time to comment on my thread, I should at least do the same in return, right? :)

 

You are obviously a well brought up young lady:) And, as other have said, very mature too.

Look forward to the Israel photos!

[busmech]

Just another laundry horror story. It is amazing how on the whole I have meet nice people on Cunard but there is always someone who is not.

[maitai999]

Sarah - thank you for your latest posting - the photos are making me drool and its only 1030 hrs! Not long to go now and I'll be back onboard :)

 

Last time on QE I met an "american" lady who insisted on washing all her dirty trainers (sneakers) then putting one in each dryer, she would not be moved!! But she's been the only pain, usually hassle free and met some lovely people.

[lovely_serenity]

You are obviously a well brought up young lady:) And, as other have said, very mature too.

Look forward to the Israel photos!

 

Haha, thank you! ^^ && Great! There are a lot LOL, we went everywhere!

[lovely_serenity]

Just another laundry horror story. It is amazing how on the whole I have meet nice people on Cunard but there is always someone who is not.

 

It's actually quite funny! The one time I was doing the laundry, I made 2 friends (the Swiss couple), and chatted with an older gentleman as well. When my Mom was doing the laundry, she made a group of lady friends as they gossiped about the one nasty old lady who took their wet laundry out of the dryer, in order to stick her own laundry in the machine (LOL), but the one time my Dad does the laundry, he makes an enemy LOL. I guess it's just luck of the draw :D :D :D

[lovely_serenity]

Sarah - thank you for your latest posting - the photos are making me drool and its only 1030 hrs! Not long to go now and I'll be back onboard :)

 

Last time on QE I met an "american" lady who insisted on washing all her dirty trainers (sneakers) then putting one in each dryer, she would not be moved!! But she's been the only pain, usually hassle free and met some lovely people.

 

It's my pleasure! :) Haha ^^ I hope you have a wonderful trip!!

 

Oh my o_o that's kind of gross. && Wow, that's rude! It's quite interesting, because I was the only one who never encounter difficult people on my laundry runs! Both of my parents encountered problematic people (although when my Mom did, it was a mean lady bring rude to a nice older lady :/)

[lovely_serenity]

Day 6: Haifa, Israel

 

Thursday, November 14, 2013 : Informal

 

 

Just past 6:00am we woke up and got ready to eat an early breakfast as we had to finish eating before the 7:15am meeting time for our “Jerusalem and Bethlehem” excursion. The dining room was not yet open for breakfast, so we ate in the Lido.

 

This morning, I opted for a bowl of Rice Krispies:

 

 

Sis ate some Frosted Flakes, as well as her usual:

 

 

 

Mom ate relatively healthily as she usually did:

 

 

And Dad ate his random mixture of breakfast goodies:

 

 

We finished eating and made our way to the Royal Court Theatre (which was our meeting place. They had let everyone know where they were supposed to meet for their respective excursions the night before.)

 

We were told to bring our passports, our Israeli Immigration landing card, excursion ticket as well as our room keys. Here’s my stamped Israeli immigration landing card I got yesterday:

 

[Aussiepair]

Your review is going great Sarah. Anyone that posts a negative comment about your review obviously leads a very sad life, it would be so simple for them to just not read it if they don't like it. As for the happy laundry lady, we have struck selfish people on every cruise we have been on and most seem to come from the same country which is unfortunate as most Americans are very nice people.

[lovely_serenity]

We entered the theatre from the lower level right side entrance, lined up to get our tickets checked and received our stickers that had our group’s/bus’s number on it. (We were number 10):

 

 

While we waited for our number to be called, we ran into bridgeguru and his wife again! (They were number 14) We chatted for a little while until they started calling numbers. We you were called, you were supposed to walk to the bottom of the theatre, exit right, and then make your way down to the gangway (deck A). Once we got there, we scanned our cards at barcode scanners and walked off of the gangway. At the end of the gangway, we were met with an Israeli customs officer. We handed him our passport and Israeli immigration landing card, which he checked and did either one of two things. You either got directed to the tour buses, or you got directed to other line in which you had to be searched. It seemed that he looked at your nationality and then decided if you were to get searched or not. As we observed, there seemed to be a reoccurring pattern. All of the non-Caucasian people got directed to the search line, and all of the Caucasian people were just let through. Our whole family got directed to the search line (as well as every other Asian family) and endured to time-consuming process. It seemed that only the Caucasian British cruisers weren’t ever searched, but perhaps it was just a coincidence. >_>

 

The searching process was excruciatingly slow. This was the process: You first put all of your belongings onto the fold-out table they had, you followed an officer behind the table, had a metal detector swipe across every inch of your body (>_>), you returned to the table, opened up all of the pockets of your bags to show them what was inside, got the okay, and then you were good to go.

 

This one officer was funny. After I had put the camera bag down, I said to the guy, "This is a camera", and went behind the table to get metal detector-ed. I noticed that everyone else was already being scanned and there wasn't another available lady to scan me (they always have an officer with the same sex you, scan you since places like your butt would get swiped by the metal detector). The guy checking our bags was trying to get a lady who was checking bags to do it. She wound up just getting me to open dad's backpack pockets for her. A different lady came out and scanned me instead. My dad finished getting searched and went back to the table. When he was checking my camera bag, he apparently said to my dad: *imagine this in an Israeli accent, it sounds slightly similar to Russian accent*

- "Look I am carefully opening bag" //eyeing dad//

- "Look I am carefully taking out camera" //make sure Dad is seeing his utter carefulness//

- "Loo-" ...

*I come back from being swiped*

Guy: //spots me// "Here put back, I don't want to break" //quickly hands it off to me//

(LOL)

 

After we were all cleared, we booked it to the tour bus. We kind of freaked out when we saw most of the buses were already gone. As we approached the end of the parking area, we saw that bus 10 still waiting for us! We quickly ran there and handed our excursion tickets to the guy waiting at the door (he turned out to be the main tour guide. His name was Micki. (Excellent guide, very informed, very assertive, gets the job done, super efficient and funny too.)

 

He took the tickets out of our hands and we loaded onto the bus. We were the last ones on board before the shuttle bus took off.

 

I really liked the seats we had. They were at the back, behind the railing to the back door. Because it was behind the bus’s read door, nobody was sitting in front of me so it wasn’t so claustrophobic. I found the seats quite roomy and comfortable. (The tour was operated by the company Patra).

 

When onboard, Micki's assistant Michael handed out a map of Israel, a blue box, a one ear headset, and an if-I'm-lost card (keep that in your pocket). (Initially we were wondering how clean the ear buds were, but became reassured when afterwards we that the used ear buds were collected back were thrown away. This meant that new ones are always provided and not reused.) Besides the Cunard #10 sticker, we were given a second one that we were supposed to stick above it. With that, our excursion was on its way.

 

 

The bus started moving and Micki was on the movie. He started off by telling us that there were 42 passengers on board today. He then proceeded to educate us on the land and the geography of it. He shows us where Haifa is relative to Jerusalem and showed us the layout of the entire Israel. It took a few hours to drive to the city from Haifa, but it was still quite a nice drive. There was a bathroom break where all of the other “Jerusalem & Bethlehem” excursion buses stopped. It was pretty gross because the plumbing was so terrible. There was water leaking across the pavement :/ Anyhow, we were back on our way. We drove through quite a bit of nothingness before we started to see actual city.

 

 

 

 

 

We also crossed some impressive looking plains too!

 

 

[lovely_serenity]

Before we approached our first stop:

 

 

Which was the top of the Mount of Olives. From here we could see the Garden of Gethsemane to our left:

 

 

 

And the Old City of Jerusalem to our right:

 

 

 

Can you see that gold dome in the distance? That’s the Dome of the Rock, a shrine located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem:

 

 

After taking several pictures, everyone was loaded back on the bus. If was then that a few aggressive peddlers of postcards started pushing postcards in everyone’s faces. Micki had actually warned us about these kinds of people prior to us disembarking the shuttle. I actually got quite angry at one of them, at one of them abruptly pushed a stack of postcards so close to my chest/face area, I almost lost my temper. I immediately pushed his hand away, glared at him and said “No. Thank you.” I then whipped around and boarded the bus. Alright, I completely understand that they’re just trying to make a living, but there’s something called personal space, okay? Gosh. Anyhow, they were selling stacks of 30 postcards at $1 each, but when you agree, they changed it to 1€ each. (-_-)

[lovely_serenity]

Anyhow, prior to filing back onto the bus, we tested the audio thing that had been handed out on the bus. We all had the single ear bud in our ears and had the blue audio box hanging from our necks. This was connected to Micki and his microphone, so everyone in our group could hear what he was saying. It was effective for a pretty good distance, but if you were too far away from him, it would start to sound static-y and then die off. This was a very good idea, as he could whisper into his mic, anything he wanted and the whole group would be able to hear him. He delivered tour explanations, as well as directional instructions for everyone. It was a very good idea.

 

We all got back on the bus (we were told to leave everything on the bus except for our cameras and audio boxes) and drove to our next destination (which was actually quite close by since it was at the foot of the Mount of Olives). While we were headed to the Church of All Nations, as well as the Garden of Gethsemane, Micki stopped us and explained something else. According to Jewish belief, the Messiah was supposed to cross through this wall when he returned, but Muslim graves would prevent it from happening. Apparently the Muslim people plopped a massive amount of tombs and graves in front of the wall, just to anger the Jews. LOL Micki said they surrounded the entire wall in Muslim graves purposely to prevent their Messiah from returning. (That’s mean :P)

 

 

 

 

We continued on and quickly arrived in the Garden of Gethsemane and saw their famous Olive Trees that are said to be a few thousand years old!

 

 

 

(Mom and Dad were so excited LOL. They are incredibly religious, so they were extremely psyched every time we arrived at a Biblical destination. I mean, my siblings and I are Christian as well, but ... less intense ^^)

 

We then proceeded to enter the Church of All Nations (otherwise known as the Church/Basilica of the Agony):

 

[lovely_serenity]

We all quietly filed in (here you can see Dad wearing is one-eared, blue head set):

 

 

On the ceiling of the Church of All Nations, you can see the capes dedicated that helped in its construction:

 

 

According to the Bible, this was where Jesus got betrayed by Judas and handed over the authorities. It was said that with a kiss, Judas used this as a sign to identify who was the one that was to be arrested.

 

 

There was a rock enshrined which was believed to be where Jesus prayed on the night before His arrest and crucifixion. (LOL how silly am I, taking a picture of the mosaic and not the rock beneath it >_>)

 

 

 

After exploring it for a little while, Micki told us all to congregate by the south side of the church:

 

 

We waited there for a while before everyone arrived, we were then on our way. As we walked past the Garden of Gethsemane, and stopped to take pictures, was when we noticed Micki’s incredibly quick pace. He literally disappeared as soon as we stopped to take pictures. As we took them, I would slowly start to panic as his voice became a dissipating static mess in my ear.

 

We eventually caught up by weaving through the crowds and … well … running. LOL

[Lovely other]

I too noticed the racial aspect of searches in Israel. We travelled with my husbands family a few years ago and I was the only one let straight through while the rest of the family were searched. My husband's family are Chinese while I'm Caucasian .....

[lovely_serenity]

Micki’s voice slowly started to become clearer and clearer as we moved quicker toward his red “10” sign that was bobbing up and down in the wave of people. He was calling out directions for everyone to turn left on the road, and follow him up the street. We eventually escaped the mass of people and our tour group regrouped. We found our bus and got back on board.

 

 

We then proceeded to our next destination, the Wailing Wall (or Western Wall)! We entered the Jewish Quarter (one of the traditional quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem) through this entrance:

 

 

Do you see Micki’s hand touching the entrance frame? He’s telling us about how Jewish households and whatnot, have this little scroll thing that’s nailed to the right side of their door frames that’s called a Mezuzah. It’s a piece of parchment paper with Hebrew words inscribed onto it. We actually saw quite a few and various entryways.

 

As we drew nearer to the Wailing Wall area, there was a security check in which all baggage had to be x-rayed and expensive items such as cameras and electronics had to be placed on an examining table to be put through without being damaged. See … I didn’t hear those instructions so I just put my camera on the conveyor belt, ran through the metal detector and grabbed it before it slid off onto the metal rack. Yeah … I got in trouble for that >_>’ LOL Oops.

 

After getting through security, Micki had us congregate to the side just on the other side before we kept moving. Once we passed the security hallway, we were met with the Old City of Jerusalem:

 

 

 

 

[lovely_serenity]

Your review is going great Sarah. Anyone that posts a negative comment about your review obviously leads a very sad life, it would be so simple for them to just not read it if they don't like it. As for the happy laundry lady, we have struck selfish people on every cruise we have been on and most seem to come from the same country which is unfortunate as most Americans are very nice people.

 

Thank you! (: Yeah, I guess it's just luck of the draw ^^ I just try not to let them bother me too much (but one can only have so much patience, right? ;)).

[lovely_serenity]

I too noticed the racial aspect of searches in Israel. We traveled with my husbands family a few years ago and I was the only one let straight through while the rest of the family were searched. My husband's family are Chinese while I'm Caucasian .....

 

Indeed, it appeared that most European cruisers were simply let through without the need for searching. While there were Caucasian people being search (mostly from non-European countries), they were significantly in the minority. :/ From our observations, there was definitely racial profiling going on.

[lovely_serenity]

To our immediate right, was the Wailing Wall (or Western Wall):

 

 

This is the last remaining wall of the temple that was built by Herod after Solomon’s temple was destroyed. This was apparently the temple’s west wall, as was therefore named the “Western Wall”. The reason that the Jews nicknamed this the “Wailing Wall” was because they had witnessed their temple’s destruction, as well as the fact that they were separated from it for 19 years when Jerusalem was divided. This was devastating for them since it was considered one of the holiest places for the Jews. It wasn’t until the July 7, 1967 partway through the Six Day Way that Jerusalem was reunited.

 

 

On the other side of the wall, there is also the Temple Mount, which according to the Bible, was where Abraham offered to sacrifice his son Isaac on the Mount of Moriah.

 

 

Yeah, so men on the left, women on the right. No men are allowed on the women’s side, and vice versa. Men also have to wear a Kippah (they have a table full of white ones that you can take). My dad said it was kind of hard to wear since it kept flying away due to its thin and light material.

 

At the wall, there were many people praying. There were even people with fold out chairs, just parked right in front of it.

 

After doing whatever we wanted for about half an hour, we met back at the centre of the square.

 

 

We then proceeded to tour the Jewish Quarter as a group. We were to follow Micki and visit some of stations of the 14 Stations of the Cross along Via Dolorosa (“Way of Grief” in Latin) and see the path that Jesus took when He was being prepared to be crucified.

 

 

[lovely_serenity]

 

We first visited station 5, which was where Jesus was in the process of carrying the cross that was to be nailed to His back. This was said to be where Simon of Cyrene helped Jesus carry said cross.

 

 

 

 

We then continued to follow Micki to the next station:

 

 

Edited June 18, 2014 by lovely_serenity

[lovely_serenity]

 

 

Until we arrive at the next station, station 6: where St. Veronica wiped the face of Jesus, leaving an imprint of His face on the handkerchief.

 

 

 

After some pictures and explanations, we continue on to the next station. (By the way, at this time, we know better than to lag behind the fast-moving Micki. We are the first people tailing him as he walks through the crowded path. This is so that, when we stop to take photos, we can immediately run and catch up to him.)

 

 

[lovely_serenity]

 

At one point, we stop because there’s a truck trying to do a 3-point (more like 8 point >_>) turn to get out of the tight space. Micki tries to go around the truck (through a 2 feet wide gap) and the truck suddenly starts backing up towards him. Everyone gasps and he goes “don’t worry, don’t worry! //scurries past the truck I am okay, I am just on the other side of the truck! Just wait for it to pass, I will be right here waiting for you all!” After all that, we continue on to the next station.

 

Station 7 is where Jesus fell for the second time. This is also the place that traditionally marks where Jesus passes through the Gate of Judgement.

 

 

After that, we just make our way, straight to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where stations 10-14 are located.

 

 

 

 

[lovely_serenity]

Look at the bottom right! You can see the tiny entryway that leads to the front yard of the Holy Sepulchre!

 

 

 

 

Yay! Here we are!

 

 

To your left, you can see Micki with his #10 sign, leading us toward the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. To you right, you can see station 10 (The red window thing): the Chapel of Franks where Jesus was stripped of His garments.

 

 

[lovely_serenity]

After taking some pictures, we all file into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. (Micki warns us that there’s a little edge at the doorway so that we won’t trip on it. It was kind of funny because everyone who received the message through the ear bud, immediately looked down LOL)

 

 

 

We entered the Holy Sepulchre and slowly made our way to the staircase to see the next stations.

 

 

 

(Sidenote: Micki also mentioned that cross with 4 other little crosses around it. He said it was the Jerusalem cross that cannot be found anywhere else)

 

We arrive at the upper level and everyone starts taking random photos because they’re all excited (LOL). There are flashes going off in all directions so of course, I join them. ;)