By Rob

We are on the final leg of our four month journey. Today we embark on the Queen Mary 2 for an eight day sailing from Southampton, England to New York City.

We were fortunate to have a 2:00 pm checkout at our hotel, so we ran some final errands in the morning and left the hotel at 1:00 pm for the cruise terminal. The QM2 docks at the Mayflower Terminal. 😃Unfortunately, the check in and boarding process was a big disappointment. We arrived at 1:15 for our 1:30 boarding, but had to wait 45 minutes in line outside the terminal (in the 40 degree cold), then another 75 minutes inside before getting on the ship. We agreed that this was the second worst boarding process we’ve experienced on our 31 cruises to date. Not sure if this is the fault of the cruise line, the terminal, or both, but we expected better from Cunard and the QM2.

We are happy to report that once on the ship, things have improved nicely. The QM2 is a smaller and older ship than many of the cruises we’ve been on, but it is nicely designed and decorated. There are three pools, numerous lounges, and multiple dining options. The staff are very helpful and our cabin (inside stateroom on deck 12) is a decent size.

This cruise is starting a 108 day world journey. We are only on the first leg for 8 days to NYC. Many people are on for longer and several people have brought dogs and we’ve even seen a few cats. The passengers are older and we are certainly bringing down the average age. To celebrate the world voyage embarkation, they had a fireworks show as we launched.

We are looking forward to eight days of relaxing with no sightseeing, shopping, or getting up early! We will likely have infrequent posts this week but will catch up when we get to NYC. Thanks for adventuring with us.