QE2 TRANSATLANTIC DECEMBER 2005

MY JOURNAL: Page 4 (1, 2, 3

08-10-04 SOME MORE THOUGHTS FROM A "CLUB MEMBER": Another of the great thoughts I got from someone that took the time out to send this to me. This one is from a guy called Peter, who sent me 2 emails as a result of a posting on a Yahoo group called QE2. He was also the first person to point out that I had posted QEII and not QE2 (the former being the current Queen of the UK and the latter the ship!).

Here's what he wrote (August 2004):

"Congratulations on choosing a QE2 transatlantic - an excellent choice as it is what QE2 does best. (Well, that - and round the world!!!). Also, - going west bound means that you get 25 hour days for 5 of the six nights!!!! (The middle night is the only night the clocks do not go back one hour).

Q3 is a very nice size cabin. In fact - you'll find that there is almost too much space and you end up wondering what to do with all the space!!!! You will be dining in the Queens Grill restaurant - reputably one of the best at sea. You can order off menu if you like - but try to give them advance notice rather than surprise them at dinner by asking for grilled kangaroo steak.

The age range is older than you might find on P&O - but on Transatlantic it's the best place to find people your age.

You'll find that you don't need to be seated at a table of 8 to meet people. Everybody aboard QE2 is 'automatically' friendly!!!

Tips:

1. Be on the aft deck near the Yacht Club (bar/lounge) for sail away from Southampton. That's where it's all happening.

2. Yacht Club is a great place to be if you like: (a) To sit at the bar and gaze out to port as the ship gently rolls across the Atlantic, (b) Good lively music in the evenings after dinner

3. Queens Grill lounge (for grill passengers only) is open all day for your use. Nice place to go for pre-lunch and dinner drinks. Canapés are served before dinner (complimentary). Also, afternoon tea in the QGL is a real treat. (See the pic I put of the QGL in Pete's pics).

4. Sun Deck is really nice if the weather is good. If you drift off to sleep on a lounger you can listen to the wonderful hum/roar from QE2's funnel. It changes note now and then just to make it more interesting.

5. Go forward to the observation deck under the bridge. Hold on to your hat though!!!!

6. The best bit - explore at leisure. She is a WONDERFUL ship and oozes charm and character. You can spend 6 days at sea having a great time. Sea days are the best days on QE2.

7. Get creepy and ask if you can do a stores tour at some stage. If you're lucky - they'll take you around and you'll be amazed.

8. If you fancy some after dinner quiet time and a lazy wind down to the day - check out the Chart Room bar.

9. Treat your partner to Steiner beauty salon treatments. BUT - book early as often it all gets fully booked.

10. Most important of all. Go and enjoy yourselves to the max. Have a wonderful time and don't even think about how many days you have left onboard - but - to round off the crossing - get up in time for the arrival into New York. This is a must see - especially on a clear day. (See the pics I put in the photo section too).

You lucky people!!!!
Pete <----- Who has to wait until April to get back aboard QE2. Ps. One thing Gary - the Ship is QE2. QEII is the present Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland :o

10-10-04 TIPS ON TIPPING!: Peter from the QE2 Yahoo Group, sent another great email with tips and advice following the earlier one.

This is what he sent later in August based on a posting I left asking what does a butler do, and about tipping. I posted this to the group after we got the change up to a Q2 that has a butler service:

"Essentially, the butler will attend to anything you need doing. (e.g. If you want to arrange for canapés - just ask him. If you want drinks just ask him. If you want laundry done, shore excursion tickets. Basically - it saves you ringing up different people and asking for things. You have one point of contact for all your needs.

Tipping. Here we go.........

This is such a minefield. Cunard and a couple of other lines suggest a daily amount to tip. This can be paid in advance (with your booking) or you can pay it onboard as part of your final onboard bill. (We always select to pay at the end. Why give your cash to Cunard to hold on to?). This daily amount is shared out between your room steward and serving staff. Rumour has it that some goes to the ship itself. You can choose NOT to have the onboard gratuity added to your bill, and instead 'deal with it yourself'.

When you purchase anything onboard - from drinks to health spa treatments to wine at dinner - you're given a slip to sign which has a 15% gratuity added to it. i.e.. If your drink is $8.00, an extra $1.20 is added making a total of $9.20. Underneath that you can enter an added gratuity. (Tempting you to round it up to $10.00).

The original gratuity gets shared out between the bar staff working in that bar AT THAT TIME. Anything you add on is a tip for the name of the person who served you (as printed on the slip of paper). Be careful here. If Jane the waitress serves you at your table in the Yacht Club lounge and Eric behind the bar makes the drink for Jane and HE prints the slip - he would get the added gratuity rather than Jane who served you!!!!

Self Service.

If you are out on the pool deck and you go inside to the pool deck bar and order a drink which you then carry outside to your deck chair on the pool deck - you still pay the gratuity even though you have not been 'served'. This annoys me a great deal and therefore I do not drink there.

If you order a brandy that costs $50.00 a glass then you pay a compulsory gratuity of $7.50. But if you order a pot of tea in your stateroom - you might get it free - or they might charge you $3.00 - plus gratuity of $0.45. Therefore the barman who spent 10 seconds pouring a measure of Brandy scoops $7.50 whereas the room service steward who had to get a pot, tea bags, sugar, milk, tray, spoons doilies, hot water etc - load it all up and go up 5 decks - along through the Queens Grill Lounge and up two flights of stairs, gets...... 45 cents!!!

You *may* find that waiters get a bit upset if you order small things that take a long time to make/serve!!!!!

If that wasn't enough. As it comes to the end of the voyage - you'll notice that the crew put on an extra spurt of 'niceness'. During the day they'll really lord you. That's because the last evening is the time they hope that you leave an envelope on your table at dinner. (NEVER skip dinner on the last night. It suggests to people that
you're trying to avoid the tipping night!!!).

I'm not going to say anything about whether you should or shouldn't tip extra on top. You've already paid the suggested gratuity. You've paid the gratuity on the drinks and spa treatments. And now it's your choice to decide whether to tip:-

Your main waiter. Your second waiter. The Maitre D'. The Wine waiter. Your room steward. Your favourite bar steward. Or just lump the whole lot together. Or not tip extra at all. The choice is yours.

Even if you decide to tip $20.00 each (not a lot really - £11.76) - when you multiply it up by the above people - that's over £70.00 - or $120). And $20 is a pretty small amount in the scale of things. It depends also on how many days you've been onboard. It's all a nightmare. If you are going to tip cash at the end of the voyage - start out (from home) with plenty of useful $ notes. i.e.. Have a selection of $5,$10,$20,$50 and not a stack of $100 bills. This saves you having to go to the Pursers desk and getting change - or worst of all - changing money at the Purser's desk - which has one of the worst rates in the world. Having said that - you can tip in any
currency you like. Preferably not Turkish Lire though!!!.

Tip: (I mean a piece of advice!!!) - Crew really do not like being given phone cards as some people do. Some people instead of tipping cash give them phone cards. The crew - a lot of them Filipino - need to send their money back home.

I'll rule a line under this tipping business now. It's your choice. But, forget about tipping until you feel like thinking about it. i.e.. If you find a crew member really good - then think about it in a positive way. Try not to think about it in a 'oh god - I'll have to tip at the end of this all..........'

10-10-04 MORE TIPS FROM PETER: "What tends to happen is that (each time) you get onboard you are so hyped up that you find yourself rushing around trying to see everything and soak it all up. Then, after a few days you find yourself drifting into an 'Ocean life' (as I call it).

Instead of making haste (as you do at home) you find yourself just slowly unwinding and taking life really easy. Sure, you plan your day and end up making extensive use of everything onboard - so there's no chance to get bored, but, if you choose - you just lie on deck and people watch etc or read in one of the lounges. You choose the speed of things.

Onboard, you'll find that everybody (with the exception of maybe one or two people out of 1700) has the sort of manners that we dream of at home. Doors are held open for you, thank you's and pleasant exchanges are everywhere. Decency abounds and makes your stay onboard most relaxing and revitalises your soul and spirit. (Hang on - I sound like a Cunard Rep - I'm not!!! I promise!!!).

Dress code. Everybody's question..... First night is informal - which means jacket and tie to dinner. Transatlantics are 4 formal (Dinner jacket etc) nights. Those being the middle nights. Last night is informal again. Theory being that everybody has packed their cabin trunks with all their glad rags!!! Day time wear is casual. World cruise tends to be 'no jeans' but Transatlantics are less stuffy and people do wear jeans. It's best to dress smart jeans as opposed to distressed!!!! T-shirts are ok as long as they don't have rude things on them!!

You have every right to be excited about your first voyage on QE2 - but be warned - it may not be your last - and you'll be planning your next trip ASAP. QE2 is not the cheapest ship to travel on. Not the most expensive either by any stretch. Reckon on $4.00 for a beer. $5.50 for a glass of wine. Cocktails are about $8.00. Steiner beauty salon is great. And they do loads of treatments for men. Go for the seaweed body wrap and massage followed by a frangipan head massage. Then spend the next few hours floating on air................!!!!!

Evenings onboard usually have shows and other bits and pieces (All explained in the daily programme which is delivered under your door during the night).

When you check in at Southampton - have the credit card you want to use for onboard handy. You give that to them at check-in. They take a pic of you and produce your sign and sail card - an identity card with your pic on. You need to produce that card when you board and disembark the ship. On a transatlantic - that should be only once..!!!! You don't need the card at other times really. When you sign for chits - just tell them your cabin number. They give you the chit with each drink you order. If you're staying a while and having a number of rounds - just let them keep adding to the slip so that you only have to sign once. It saves the pursers office a lot of paper work and doesn't make you look like you've been trying to drink the ship dry.

When my wife and I did a transatlantic - I kept a diary which I named 'Diary of a Queen Elizabeth 2 Transatlantic Crossing'. It was great fun to do and details all the various encounters we made together with an unravelling of (some very amusing) characters we met onboard - rather like an Agatha Christie - in fact you could write a book 'Murder at Sea' where the laundry room washing powder is spiked with some agent.......!!!! Anyway - took loads of 'photos and inserted that into the Word doc (I took my lap top with to do it!!!) and eventually printed it up. Forty pages on a six day voyage........!!!!! I read it from time to time. And then regret it as I then pick up the Cunard brochure and start perusing that!!!

Sea sickness. If you find yourself becoming ill. Don't hesitate. Go to the Doctor's (deck 6 - low) and either get the wrist band - or better still the injection. The injection can make some people very sleepy for 12 hours - but after that - you'll be banging your fists on the dining room door wanting masses to eat - followed by a sprint around the promenade deck and a bit of pole dancing on the fore-mast.

Dock Rock. When you get off the ship in New York and you're standing somewhere, you'll feel as if the ground is moving. This is because your body has adjusted to the motion of the ship and compensates for it. Therefore when you stand on terra firma - your body moves (in your mind). Some people hate it - we adore this sensation. One time we had it so bad that for days afterwards (especially lying down) we thought we were still on QE2. One time in Heathrow having flown back from NYC we were so dock rocked we could hardly stand up and did some pretty impressive spins in arrivals at Terminal 4. (People may think you've had a few!!!)

Best advice is - take a camera - a camcorder and let QE2 do the rest............. Let me know if you have any other questions about QE2".