Sea-Fever

2 days ago

2 min read

About sixty years ago, Steve's family crossed the Atlantic aboard a ship to visit his mother's sister (Hi Fifi & Ian! 👋😉) who'd moved to England. I remembered this fun fact while we were contemplating the launch of the next phase of our lives and decided to see if such a voyage was still a thing. Indeed it is! And tickets are sold at a discount if purchased within 90 days of sailing. Ho! How tantalizing! A seven-day voyage vs an upteen-hour flight - at nearly the same cost?

Hmm. 🤔

Digging deeper into the nitty gritty, we learned we'd have to pack "Smart Attire" and perhaps some Dramamine. Aw well. So we dove in, eager with Sea-Fever.

The Queen Mary 2 is the only ocean liner on the seas today. And what a ship she is! I won't bore you with her stats; if you want them, they're out there. But if the idea of being stuck on a ship in the middle of nowhere sounds boring to you, think again. Every minute of every day promised something new to explore, experience, or eat. So if any of that intrigues you, I'd suggest you book a stateroom on a low deck and as close to mid-ship as possible, and sail before winter storms roil the ocean. Our sailing was smooth with only the gentlest of occasional rolling side to side, as comfortable as a cradle. Although we each caught a cold - so that sucked. Made me glad I'd downloaded all of Widow's Bay to enjoy while I sniffled in bed the few days I felt germy.

Highlights included: watching the pilot disembark right below our stateroom soon after we passed under the Verrazano bridge, the teak promenade (I do love my strolls), music lectures by a guitar-playing humorist in the Golden Lion pub serving hot toddy after hot toddy, the giant silent library, the swanky dining room a-swirl with servers exuding exquisite etiquette, and the view from our sheltered balcony. The only bummer, aside from the crummy colds, was that the planetarium was inoperable - phooey! For whatever reason, we opted out of many of the enrichment programs - dishy presentations by the Queen's butler and an expert on The Titanic, the Zumba and ballroom dance lessons, the casino, the pay-extra for dinners in even swankier restaurants (there were 10 places to dine - 10!!), the swimming pools and hot tubs. We even skipped the fitness room, feeling too low-energy to want to prance on the elliptical, I suppose. Still - it was all there for the taking if we wanted it.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/18158a_bda6fe8913604e04867bc6002bf5c36b/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

This clip is from a 4-minute video - much of which captured the Pilot boat racing to catch up to our leviathan. So glad I didn't drop my phone into the drink.

I also enjoyed the noon-time announcements by the ship's captain telling us it was time to change our clocks, where we were relative to whatever was up ahead, and what weather we might expect. All in all - a great experience, and I'd be happy to do it again in a few years. Sure beats the socks outta flying the unfriendly skies, that's fer sure.