Results tagged “Queen Mary 2” from East Asia 2017

6:00 wakeup. After not getting to bed til after midnight. This is why I keep telling people that staying up late to see shows or whatever is not a good idea - because I just lose sleep and get super tired.

The sea was super calm in the morning.

Calm seas in the Taiwan Strait

Got ready early and finally got some photos of the Queens Room empty.

Bust of Queen Mary in the Queens Room on Queen Mary 2

Queens Room

QM2 logo in the Queens Room

Chandelier in the Queens Room

Got some breakfast and ate it in the room.

Spent some time reading the Maritime Quest info boards around the ship.

At 10:15 I lined up with half the rest of the ship to see the Britannia galley. That was super awesome. It's *huge* !!

Bulk plate trolleys

Meals ready for service

Barista station

Moulds for desserts. I had several things from the Kings Court buffet made in these!

Dessert plating

It was a long conga line of people walking in single file through the galley

Escalators going to deck 3

Hand sanitiser station on deck 3

Before lunch we went up to the library and returned the two library books, then we went to Verandah for lunch.

Had a super nice lunch there. Stu had a pate dish, an onion tart tatin which he really liked, and a prune tart. I had quail which was very nice, a deconstructed beef bourguignon with a beautiful but *huge* steak, and strawberry delice which had a whole bunch of different strawberry elements. Lovely. A really good meal but quite large.

Stu at The Verandah restaurant

Went down and got a copy of our account to make sure we had some spare money for souvenirs, then got a tshirt, a whiskey glass and a die cast model of the ship.

Checked on the jigsaw and found that Gwen from Wales had finished it - yay! So I had time to read more info boards.

Back to the room and did some blogging and then started packing. The super annoying thing is they want bags put out the night before disembarkation. Which is a pain because then you have to cart around your pyjamas and toiletries until you see your bag next - which is some time after disembarkation. I should have taken up the self-checkout where you take your own bag off.

Went down to the pub for drinks and trivia. Another hard night - only 12/20. I think the winner got 15.

Amethyst Pub Duo in the Golden Lion Pub

Entrance to the Golden Lion Pub

Postbox outside the Golden Lion Pub on deck 2

Everyone was at dinner for a change, which was nice.

Stu had chicken liver, vegetable wellington and ice cream. I had cream of chicken soup, lamb shanks, and ice cream. Yum. But I'm so fat right now.

Our dinner table on the final night. Back: Licia, Karen, Stu, Norman, David; Front: Bruce and Maria, Kay

Finished packing, put our bags outside, and went to sleep.

Woke up at 6:35 with a coughing fit. But given that we'd put our clocks back an hour overnight, it was actually 5:35. Hurrah. I put my watch back, but again they haven't changed the mobile tower, so the phone and all the cameras are still on Korean time.

Sunrise over the Yellow Sea

I got up and got ready, figuring the ship would be pretty quiet. Wandered around all over the place, but at 7:40 there was already a group in the Queens Room! Still have to find a free time to photograph it.

Flowers in the Grand Lobby, deck 2

Starboard side games corridor and Maritime Quest boards

Commemorative Queen Mary 2 bell on deck 3

Model of the Queen Mary 2 outside the Queens Room

Model of the Queen Mary 2 outside the Queens Room

Model of the Queen Mary 2 outside the Queens Room

Went and got some breakfast, but then ate it back in the room.

Then went down to do a jigsaw for a while.

Doing a jigsaw of York Minster on the Queen Mary 2

At 9:00 I went round the corner to pick up a planetarium show ticket. And found a queue all the way around to the other games corridor. But didn't stress too much as there weren't 450 people there. The queue moved pretty slowly though, and when there was about ten people in front of me the dude's like "that's it, all gone". And I'm going WTF ??? Damned greedy people taking huge batches of tickets. I heard someone saying they used to have a two ticket per person limit. They totally need to do that again. So now I have to queue yet again outside the planetarium later to try and get a seat from someone who's too lazy to turn up to the show. Hate people. HATE.

Got the sweetie some breakfast, then headed back to the room to catch up on blogging etc.

At 12:15 we went to Dr Ingrid Vissor's second talk - Slippery When Wet - mostly about her rescue work trying to save stranded whales.

When it finished we considered seeing if we could wait around and get into the 13:30 planetarium show, but we were bit over people so went and got some lunch (more people though.. urghh). I didn't eat a whole lot, so when we were done it was nearly 13:30, so went back after everyone had gone in. We were lucky enough to be able to get in. Pretty crappy seats down the front, but hey, we didn't have to queue.

Plaque commemorating Queen Mary 2's first visit to Sydney (I was there!)

The Yellow Sea

Came back to the room to continue sorting photos.

At 16:00 we tried to watch The Last Samurai on the ship tv, because it was advertised as starting at 16:00. But it actually started at 15:00 so that was a bust.

So I went down to work on a jigsaw. And ended up finishing it. Whoops.

At 18:40 we went up to the Carinthia Lounge for a pre dinner drink, and at 19:00 went into Kings Court "Smokehouse" for dinner. Kings Court (aft end) does different themed nights as an "alternative" dining with a $17.95USD cover charge. We chose to go on the smokehouse night - American bbq. Stu had Maryland crab cake for starter, blackened salmon (nice) and a beef dish (a bit dry) (you got to choose two dishes for mains), and vanilla cheesecake. I had buffalo chicken wings (quite nice), coconut crusted shrimp (pretty good), bbq ribs (fall off the bone goodness - the way ribs should be done!) and salted caramel and popcorn pudding (ok, but I was quite full and wasn't even really wanting dessert so gave a lot of it to Stu). Quite a decent meal, and we could say we did it.

We finished a bit late for pub trivia, and had been thinking about seeing the early show, but Stu didn't feel very well (possibly something he ate at lunch), so we just had an early night.

Slept in til 06:48 hurrah.

Sunrise over the Korea Strait

I'd gotten a bread roll from King's Court last night, so had that as an early breakfast to keep me going.

After a couple of tries to find a washing machine free I got our washing started. But when I came back near the end to put it in a drier, a little old guy came in from another laundry with a bag of wet washing and put it in the drier I was just about to use. And I'm like DUDE, I was literally about to use that. Buttplug. He didn't care. So I'm standing there feeling completely screwed over with nowhere to do my drying. But someone took their drying out a bit early, and the washing machine beneath it still had a way to go, so I put my drying in there. And then I came back with a book to sit in the corridor outside the laundry so *my* drying wouldn't get stolen. So much drama, so much rage. HATE.

I've been drinking the water out of the taps with no issues (they desalinate most of their water, but also get supplies of fresh water when in port). But this morning the water *stank* of chlorine. urgh.

Did some catching up with the blogging, and then it was about 11:15. I hadn't eaten anything else, and Stu hadn't eaten at all. So we were about to go to the buffet when I said we should go have lunch in Britannia, because we hadn't done that on accounting of always having breakfast so late. So we did that. We got put on a table with a couple from the UK (who owned a summer home in Spain or Portugal) and a couple from Darwin (the dude had grown up in Rhodesia and gotten out before it got really bad there). I was feeling sick and anti social though, so it was a bit of an odd lunch. And Stu's random camera, which I thought I'd charged the battery for, was completely flat. So I must have gotten mixed up and only charged the other battery. Stu had mackeral, a fisherman's pie and rice pudding. I had cream of parsnip soup which was quite nice, some lasagna which was also nice but didn't have any salad so I was feeling like I should have some fibre, so had some tinned fruit.

After lunch I went up to have a look at the bridge viewing area, just behind the bridge on deck 12. While I was looking, the Chief Officer came out and had a sign in Cunard font that said no photos, and if it was placed between the two windows would I have read it. And I'm like, no, you really need the graphic of a camera with a red line through it. They do have one, but it's on the furthest window, so it'd be pretty easy to not even realise you can't take photos there. Then he very sweetly let me take a photo there!! I was so excited :)

Bridge of the Queen Mary 2

Read for a little while in the afternoon and did some more catching up on blogging. The GPS was being a bit bumheadful today and kept losing signal.

I also had a look at some of the "Maritime Quest" info boards.

At 17:00 we put on the talk that we missed in the morning on account of buttplugs being buttplugs in the laundry - What eats sharks for breakfast - by marine biologist Ingrid Vissor. That was very interesting.

Went to the pub around 19:30 for drinks, music and trivia. Only got 15/20 this time.

For dinner Stu had pate de Campagne, vegetable tartlet and bread and butter pudding. I had strawberry and champagne soup, pork loin and cheesecake.

My cold changed from being mostly a cough to being a stuffed up nose. Hurrah.

Slept in til 06:38!

Got ready and watched our arrival into Nagasaki from the top deck. We passed under the Megami Ohashi bridge on the way in, which apparently was built around the same time as the Queen Mary 2, and was built high enough to allow tall ships such as the Queen Mary 2 to pass underneath. Apparently there's only a six metre clearance! Lots of people were on the bridge, and we honked at them a few times :)

Crowds gathered on Magamio Bridge to welcome Queen Mary 2

Megami Ohashi Bridge and Queen Mary 2

Dry docks in Nagasaki bay

Kite flying over Nagasaki bay

Nagasaki

Looking up to Glover Garden

As we were pulling up to the dock on our port side, a little troupe of dancers and a full brass band came out to welcome us. They went for quite a while, it was pretty awesome.

Welcoming committee at Nagasaki

Welcoming committee at Nagasaki

Breakfast was a little more relaxed as we didn't have to rush for any tours. As it was a cruise terminal, they have it setup inside to deal with the cruise ships. There was quite a lot of people, but it all flowed fairly quickly. In the terminal they were also setup with an information stand giving out maps, a place selling the all day tram tickets (500 yen), and an ATM. So we were all set for the day really quickly. We didn't go on a tour in Nagasaki. We'd originally tried to get on one, but it was booked out and we were put on a wait list. So I did a bunch of my own research and decided we could have a better day doing things ourselves. So when a spot came up on the tour I didn't bother to accept it.

So after getting off the ship we headed for the nearest station on the blue line and took a tram up to Hamaguchi-Machi station to look at the peace memorial hall.

Queen Mary 2 at Nagasaki

Nagasaki manhole cover

Pool above the Memorial Hall and Nagasaki History and Folklore Museum

Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims

Paper crane I made and added to the collection

Then next door to the Atomic Bomb museum. Not a very big museum but problematic with flow because there's tv screens with lots of information but take quite a while to cycle through so people bunch up watching them and don't keep moving. And of course there were several Cunard tour groups passing through, so the place was quite cramped. But very interesting and focussing on the effects of the bomb in Nagasaki followed by a hall on the current state of nuclear weapons in the world.

Spiral entrance to the Atomic Bomb Museum

Paper cranes in the Atomic Bomb Museum

Wall clock found in a house near Sanno Shinto Shrine, about 800 metres from the hypocentre

Molten beads of stained glass from Urakami Cathedral

Our legs were hurting quite a bit at this point so we stopped in the cafe for a bit.

Instructions on how to use the toilet

Then we headed down the hill to the hypocentre. I've now been to both hypocentres for both nuclear blasts.

Sadako Sasaki statue

Canal where people tried to find water to relieve their burns

Hypocenter Cenotaph

Sun directly overhead the hypocenter

Wall remnant of Urakami Cathedral

And then up the hill to the peace park, which is in the location of a former prison that was reduced to its foundations in the blast.

Nagasaki Peace Statue through the Fountain of Peace

Fountain of Peace

Fountain of Peace

Remnants of the prison blocks

Paper cranes in Nagasaki Peace Park

Nagasaki Peace Statue

Took a red line tram back into town (Kokaido-Mae) to have a look at the Megane-bashi "spectacles" bridge. And we continued to wander down the channel looking at all the stone bridges across it.

Tram we took at Kokaido-mea tram station

Megane Bridge (Spectacles Bridge)

People crossing the Nakashima River

Then at random we wandered into this covered-street shopping area. We were just looking at the map when some locals asked if we needed help. We didn't really as we were just looking at it, but then we asked if there was any local Nagasaki dishes that they could recommend. She said we should try the "turkish rice" at a famous nearby cafe - the Olympic Cafe. So she took us there to show us where it was. Turns out it's just a pork katsudon on flavoured rice, with spaghetti and a bit of cabbage on the side. We also ordered a "cheeseburger" which was just a hamburger patty topped with cheese, also on the same rice and spaghetti. Quite an odd meal, but quite nice. It seems the cafe is quite famous for its 120cm high dessert towers. Amazing to see. But we were too full from lunch to attempt to eat one (and it was 15:00 by this point). We never would have even gone in there if it hadn't been for the local telling us where to go. As is the case in Japan, many restaurants are hidden away at the top of tiny little staircases, so if you didn't know they were there, you'd never think to go.

After lunch we continued walking south and went and had a good long wander around Dejima, which for a couple of hundred years was the only place which could do any western trade with Japan. Interesting stuff, and lots and lots of buildings with different things in them.

Dejima island next to the Nakashima River from the Dejima bridge

Old Dejima Seminary

Local Japanese guy who posed for me

Scale model of Dejima Dutch trading post

Scale model of Dejima Dutch trading post

Next we took a blue line tram to Takara-machi and hiked the kilometre to the base of the Inasa ropeway. I'd have done this earlier in the day if the weather had been better, but since it was grey all day I decided we could do this is as the last thing while it was still daylight, then hang around and wait til it got dark. Because apparently this was once voted the third best night view after Hong Kong and Monaco.

Stu under at tori at Mt Inasa

Our cable car at the Nagasaki Ropeway

Lookout building on Mt Inasa

View of Nagasaki from Mt Inasa

Queen Mary 2 from Mt Inasa

Nagasaki Harbour Bridge

So after getting our daytime photos, we sat in the foyer for a bit and had a drink and waited an hour or so for it to get dark. The problem with this place is it's tiny. And lots of people want to come and see the third best night view in the world. And most people that go there aren't satisfied with having a look and taking a few photos and then moving on. No, most of them are setup with with tripods and are there for the long haul and will. not. budge. I was getting so pissed off that I couldn't get anywhere near the fence to take a few photos. I actually leaned on a few of them at one point. Eventually after ages I was able to get some photos but it was a very frustrating experience. I think a bunch of them were waiting for the Queen Mary 2 to depart, but that was two and a half hours away.

Transmission towers on Mt Inasa

Crowds at Mt Inasa (that wouldn't MOVE)

View of Nagasaki from Mt Inasa by night

Queen Mary 2 from Mt Inasa by night

Nagasaki Harbour Bridge from Mt Inasa by night

So about 19:15 we headed back. We were able to get on a cable car fairly quickly which was good. Walked back to the tram, then two trams back to the ship (blue line to Tsuki-Machi, and a green line to Ouratenshudoshita, although it took so long to arrive we could have walked the two stops quicker heh).

Tunnel of Light

So it was a pretty full-on day (over 20000 steps!), but we got to do the things that we wanted to do, and at our own pace.

Stu went aboard first so I could get a definitive location on our room. Then I went on board. Getting through the terminal was super easy - just handed in my photocopied passport with the entry card stuck on it, and through I went. Slight queue at ship-board security.

Queen Mary 2 docked at Nagasaki International Cruise Ship Terminal by night

Looking into the Purser's Office on deck 2

Stu on our balcony showing the location of our room

Oura Church by night

Even though we'd (just) made it back to the ship by 20:30, we really didn't feel like dressing up for dinner, so we just grabbed a light dinner in the Kings Court. I wasn't going to have any dessert but they had a white chocolate fountain! So dipped a chocolate cake ball in that. Also took a bread roll and some butter for breakfast.

White chocolate fountain in Kings Court

I went up to deck 13 to watch the departure. Nagasaki's big suspension bridge is not lit up like Busan's, so it was a little boring heh.

Back in the room I heard something loud outside so went to see what it was. It was the pilot's boat, so watched it come alongside, and watched two guys jump off the Queen Mary 2 onto it. That was pretty cool.

Pilot boat which came to pick up the harbour pilot

Then it was wash hair and go to bed, after setting *everything* up to charge.

Woke up at 06:00 by Stu's alarm set last week when we had to get up to go to the airport. Grunt. Didn't get back to sleep after that.

View of the East China Sea and sky from our balcony

GPS and battery attached to our balcony. This is where the GPS sat for much of the trip.

Watched part of a talk by Pamela Chen Moore, a Taiwanese lady who'd lived in England for half her life, as a replay on tv.

Then went to breakfast relatively early.

After breakfast I did a wander around the back decks on deck 6 and 8, and then had a good long wander through deck 3.

View off the stern of the Queen Mary 2

Deck 6 spa and stern of ship

Deck 8 aft end

View of deck 6 and 7 from deck 8

Terrace Pool on deck 8

Clarendon Fine Art Gallery

Chart Room

Veuve Clicquot Champagne Bar

Commemorative Queen Mary 2 bell above the Grand Lobby

The Grand Lobby

At 10:00 I went to the port info talk on Incheon/Seoul.

Planetarium Dome in Illuminations Theatre

Then I wandered around some more and ended up back at the jigsaw I started yesterday. Not much had been done since I left it, so I stayed to work on it. And ended up finishing it. Whoops.

Lower Royal Court Theatre

Seating in the Royal Court Theatre

It was about 14:00 by this point, so collected the sweetie and we went to have lunch.

After lunch we headed up to the library and I borrowed a couple of books.

Came back to the room and read for a while.

Around 16:00 I went out for another wander - this time up to the Commodore club. It was practically deserted due to an event which had just finished and cleared out. Would be a lovely spot for an afternoon drink, although they don't allow jeans :/

Commodore Club seating

View of the bow from the Commodore Club

Model of the Queen Mary 2 in the Commodore Club

Then walked around deck 9, which is where all the big expensive staterooms are. They even have fancier doors heh.

Went to the purser's office and bought 300 RMB, to save us having to look for an ATM tomorrow.

At 17:00 I went and saw Sully, which I quite enjoyed, even though I'm sure much of it has been dramatised and may not have actually happened the way they showed it..

Came back to the room and started charging devices and batteries.

I'm actually a little apprehensive about going to Shanghai tomorrow. We've been to three different Chinese territories, but this is the first time to China proper. They like Australians right?

Dinner was great as always. Stu had Thai seafood salad, aubergine gratin and cappacino cheesecake. I had lamb koftas, roast beef which was wonderful and tender, and creme brulee.

Group photo taken on Bob and Virginia's last night. Back: Bob and Virginia from Tweed Heads, Norman from the UK, Stuart and Karen. Front: Kay from the UK, David and Licia from Perth

Woke up at 06:00. Blerf.

Got ready and downloaded photos, blogged etc. Had breakfast around 09:45.

After breakfast Stu started up some washing, and I did a wander all around deck 7, including the Princess and Queens Grill which are normally off limits to plebs like me, but they didn't mind me going in to take some photos while noone was in there.

Deck 7 promenade, starbooard side looking aft

Bow end of the deck 7 promenade

Spare propellers at bow of deck 7

The very front of the state rooms and public areas and bridge of the Queen Mary 2

Deck 7 promenade

Three laps around the ship on deck 7 is just over a mile long, two laps is just over a kilometre

Deck 7 aft

Deck 6 pool

Deck 7 promenade, starboard side

Inflatable life boats on deck 7

Deck chairs on deck 7, unfolded and with cushions

Looking aft at around deck 9 from the starboard side scenic lift

Princess Grill restaurant

Princess Grill restaurant

Princess Grill restaurant

Queens Grill restaurant

Queens Grill restaurant

Queens Grill restaurant

Queens Grill restaurant

Queens Grill restaurant

Came back to the room and we watched the port info on Shanghai while our washing dried.

Current position of the Queen Mary 2 on our stateroom tv

View forward from our balcony

We had lunch in the smaller aft Kings Court which doesn't have as much choice as the big one, but it did have pizza.

Took another walk around deck 7, this time with the sweetie.

Me with the spare propellors

The Grand Lobby

Flowers in the Grand Lobby

Me in the Grand Lobby

We also had a look at the games area. It's mostly people playing Mahjong, but also scrabble and rummy tiles. There's a corridor for games on both port and starboard sides. On one side there was a jigsaw nearing completion, while the table on the other side was empty.

Left there, and I tried to get an audio headset thingie for all the "Maritime Quest" info boards around the ship, but apparently they don't have them at the moment. ?? Something to do with them being out of date?? Some lame excuse anyway.

So I went back to the jigsaw and helped them finish it. Then around the other side someone had started a new jigsaw. So I helped with that until 16:45, so I could then join the sweetie to watch Passengers. It wasn't too bad, just a bit of Hollywood fluff really.

Illuminations Theatre

Illuminations Theatre showing the planetarium dome retracted

Back in the room afterwards I brought the GPS inside and download all its tracks since departing Hong Kong.

Then it was time to get ready. We headed to the pub again, this time in time for the pre-dinner trivia. We didn't officially play, but if we had we'd have gotten 18/20. There was one table that got 20 though, oh well. Collected some questions for our next trivia night. Not that I want to run another damned trivia night, but some people can't help themselves but win it!!

Then into dinner. Stu had the parsnip soup, guinea fowl and toffee pudding. I had prawn cocktail (very small serving), sole (not bad, my alternative choice after I found out the steak dianne was using minute steaks), and the toffee pudding.

And finally into bed.

I slept pretty well from 01:00 to 06:00. Then I woke up and saw that the GPS had stopped recording. So got up and hung it over the edge for like ten minutes trying to get a satellite but couldn't. In the end I left it tied up outside in the hopes that it would start again and tried to get more sleep. And failed (to get more sleep). Being hungry certainly didn't help. Eventually the GPS did start up again (it's now hooked up outside in a snaplock baggie), and I checked that the breakfast buffet was open til 11:00, so dozed for a bit.

At about 09:30, after I'd gotten ready, I went down to ConneXions to pick up a ticket for the day's planetarium show. There was three different desks on either side and in the middle labelled as ConneXions, but noone around. In the end I asked a passing crew member. Turns out the middle desk has a plastic stand filled with tickets, and you just go and take them for the time slot you'd prefer. Simple, once you know how.

Once Stu was ready, we headed up to Kings Court for breakfast. Again, another huge buffet with all sorts of tempting things, but I was pretty restrained.

Breakfast at Kings Court

After breakfast (it was 11:00 by now) we went to see the Port Lecturer, Graham Howell, talk about Nagasaki and the tours the ship does there. They'd already done talks on Shanghai and Busan before we boarded, but they're recorded and you can watch them later on the room tv.

Queen Mary 2 life ring on deck 7

Deck 7 promenade

Deck 7 promenade

After we were back at our room they had the 12:00 update. But they don't play it in the rooms, just some of the public spaces. We tried to find the channel they were showing it on, but the tv is a bit dumb and doesn't let you just scroll through the channels. And the guide for what each channel is only appears after you go to the channel, and then it's lost again if you scroll round the end. Don't know if there's a printed guide anywhere, might have to make one myself. We never did find the announcement channel, but found a few that *might* have had it, if we'd found it in time.

Stu on our balcony

At around 13:30 we headed up to Kings Court for lunch. It was going to be a fairly small lunch until I tasted some of Stu's Spanish pork dish and went and got a little dish for myself heh.

At 14:30 we went to the day's planetarium show - Search for Life, narrated by Harrison Ford. A planetarium at sea is certainly a novelty!

Stu outside the Illuminations Theatre

Illuminations Theatre showing the planetarium dome in place

After the show we headed up the library on deck 8 forward to have a look. We got the impression that the half dozen seats facing forward out the windows get filled very quickly and stay filled all day. I was quite amused by all the books on the Titanic :)

Stu in the Queen Mary 2 library on deck 8

Books on the Titanic in the Queen Mary 2 library

Came back to the room and watched Graham Howell's talk on Busan.

Then we had a snooze. Because we were tired.

View of the South China Sea from our balcony

When I woke up I made up a little tv guide. And we watched a documentary on the construction of the ship.

Then we got ready for dinner - the first of the "formal" nights, where I wore my $8 Vinnies dress, yayy Vinnies! We went and had a drink first in the Golden Lion pub ($15USD for two pints of beer - pretty good value actually!).

Dinner was lovely again. Stu had an empanada, sea bass, and souffle, and I had mushroom consomme, beef bourguignon, and strawberry and frangelico parfait. Licia tried to talk us into going to the Beatles show, but we just wanted to go to bed. Note to self: don't take uncomfortable shoes off during dinner - it just makes them a lot more uncomfortable trying to stuff them back in again at the end of dinner...

Deck 5 corridor

Woke up at 05:30 and couldn't get back to sleep - doh! Eventually got up and did GPS/blog/photos.

Headed down to the street and went to a few different places to pick up coffee in a can, fruit and bakery bits. Ate those in the hotel.

After breakfast I left Stu to wake up and headed down to the waterfront. Our hotel was near the midlevels escalator and once on the overpasses (these ones are all outdoors) it was easy enough to get all the way to the Central piers without crossing roads. Walked all the way to the water and could *just* see the Queen Mary 2 berthed at Kai Tak through all the gloom. I chose not to go on the ferris wheel because, well, what would be the point.

Hong Kong Observation Wheel at Central

Queen Mary 2 at Kai Tak through the gloom

Victoria Harbour

On the way back I went past a couple of old Hong Kong buildings I'd never actually stopped to take photos of before, then took the street route back to the hotel.

The Cenotaph

Former Legislative Assembly Building

Packed up and checked out, then took the three trains from Central -> North Point -> ?? -> Kowloon Bay. In hindsight maybe taking the trains was not a great idea. So many damned sick people :(

At Kowloon Bay we had to negotiate another poorly signposted shopping centre to find the taxis to Kai Tak (we weren't going to take a mini bus like we did last time!). Even though Kowloon Bay is the closest MTR station to Kai Tak, the taxi driver didn't understand "Kai Tak ..... cruise terminal" .. What's with that? In the end Stu showed him a map and then it was ok. Although the meter said 49.2HKD at the end he charged us 60 ?

Anyways. At the terminal there were heaps of people arriving. Cunard had their bag drop right there in the lower hall, so once your Cunard luggage label is attached you just give your bag to them and they send it through the xray machines to be delivered to the ship. So that was pretty handy.

Then we headed inside and upstairs. To a hall of chaos. There were people queuing so we lined up with them, but there were also people just wandering through. It was all very confusing. Turn out our queue was the right one, and they gave us a Hong Kong arrivals card (for when we get back to Hong Kong in two weeks) and a "wellness" form asking us if we were sick. They also gave us a number (07, seemingly at random) and told us to take a seat and go up when our number was called. So we did that but we couldn't hear the announcements very well so we weren't really sure what was going on. We'd arrived at 12:45 (our boarding time was 13:00), but they didn't call number seven until 14:00 :(

Crowds waiting at Kai Tak Cruise Terminal

Queen Mary 2 from Kai Tak Cruise Terminal

Queen Mary 2 from Kai Tak Cruise Terminal

So we joined another queue, which was to check in, have our photo taken and get our onboard cards. Then it was off to security, and then immigration, both of which were quick.

Then it was onto the ship!!

Stu on the gangway boarding Queen Mary 2

Oddly, there were half a dozen staff standing around, but you walk past them to the "Grand Lobby" and then you're left to your own devices. There were no offers to show us where to go which I thought was a little odd. Fortunately I had a reasonable idea of where we had to go based on looking at lots of deck plans and photos. So we headed to our room.

Entrance threshold of the Queen Mary 2 on deck 3

The Grand Lobby

The Grand Lobby

The room is actually relatively spacious. There's the two single beds pushed together to make a king, a couch, desk, pretty decent sized wardrobe and drawers, and the bathroom, which is on the small side. There's two UK and two US power outlets on the desk with another two US outlets on top of the fridge part. At first I didn't think there was a shaver outlet in the bathroom for my nightlight. It turns out there is (under the bathroom light), but it only works when the light is on, which kinda defeats the purpose of the nightlight. We have a balcony, but it's an in-hull balcony on deck 5, so you can't really see the view if you're seated on the deck chairs. But it is quite sheltered.

Room 5.127 sign

Our stateroom aboard the Queen Mary 2

Our stateroom aboard the Queen Mary 2

Our bed on the Queen Mary 2

Desk area of our stateroom

Couch in our stateroom

Huge wardrobe in our stateroom

Bathroom in our stateroom

Bathroom in our stateroom

View of Hong Kong from our balcony

Deck chair on our balcony

Deck chairs and table on our balcony

In our room was a welcome small bottle of bubbly - basically enough for a glass each. So we sat and enjoyed that.

Welcome glasses of champagne in our stateroom

Welcome bottle of champagne in our stateroom

Me and Stu enjoying champagne in our stateroom

Then went up to Kings Court for a very late spot of lunch. Basically the Kings Court has buffet food going pretty much all day, so you can eat whenever you want which is pretty handy.

After lunch I went to the Pursor's office to ask about the Behind the Scenes Tour. Sadly they're not offering it this trip which is a bit sad-making, but at least I won't be disappointed if I can't get a ticket for it (there's only 16 tickets and usually only one tour per entire cruise).

Britannia Restaurant from the top level

Britannia Restaurant

The Grand Lobby

While I was doing that, Stu got unpacked and went and found the laundry. When I got back we took our clothes to the laundry, and got that going just after 16:00. Then I unpacked. It's going to be nice not having to rummage around my suitcase for two weeks. Just before 17:00 our washing finished so we moved it to a dryer.

At 17:00 was the emergency drill, where we all had to take our life jackets to our mustering area on level 7 and have the talk about what to do in an emergency. And that's where we had our first introduction to argumentative and complaining people. And I thought I was bad... hrmmm....

Me at the emergency drill

After the drill I dragged the sweetie all the way up to level 13 to have a look around the top deck, then down to the lookout on deck 11, before heading back to the room.

The Lookout on deck 13

Stu next to the Queen Mary 2 sign, deck 12

Hydrant from New York and lamp post from the UK, deck 12

Kai Tak cruise terminal from the Queen Mary 2

View aft on starboard side of observation deck, deck 11

Bow from observation deck, deck 11

Deck 11 Observation Deck

We chilled out for a while before getting ready for dinner. We were going to have a drink somewhere first before dinner, but our house alarm had been going off so Stu was trying to sort it out with Kit and Ben and Chris. Most likely a huntsman set it off, but they couldn't find one. So that, as well as having to dress up, was stressing me out no end.

View of Hong Kong from our balcony

So a bit before 20:30 we headed down for dinner. We are on table 1, right in the very back corner of the lower floor. We are on a table with six others - two couples from Australia (Bob and Virginia from Tweed Heads who'd come all the way from Sydney and are getting off in Shanghai, and Licia and David from Perth), and a couple from England (Kay and Norman). David said the chaos in the terminal was the worst he'd ever seen on a cruise.

Our dinner table for two weeks - table 1 in the Britannia Restaurant

Lower level of the Britannia Restaurant

For dinner Stu had a parfait of duck, salmon, and a pear tart tatin. I had a fried goats cheese dish which was very tasty, roast lamb which was amazingly tender and a white chocolate panna cotta which I liked. Overall a lovely meal to start the trip. We chatted for a bit after dinner, then headed back to the room.

Me on our balcony with view of Hong Kong

I was pretty tired and just wanted to collapse, but I also wanted to watch the departure at 23:30. I ran into Bob on the level 11 lookout and we hung around and eventually went up to 13. They were running a bit late and we didn't actually depart til 00:05. The lights of Hong Kong had gone out, but we sailed to the east not past the city anyway. Collapsed into bed at nearly 01:00.

Preparing to depart Kai Tak Cruise Terminal

Departing Kai Tak Cruise Terminal

Tsat Tsz Mui from the Queen Mary 2

Sai Wan Shan from Queen Mary 2