Saturday, April 26, 2008

Jeanne Wraps Up

Wow!!!! It was everything I had hoped for times 10. We had an excellent, excellent trip. We got along well, visited friends far and wide and made many wonderful new friends.

The trip was possible because of the great team we had at home watching our backs. It took a village (according the Sharon!) to get us around the world. Thanks so much to all of you, Cheryl and Errol, Sharon, Mary B, Karen, Donna, Steve and Alice, Vince and Debbie, Andy G, and, of course, Liz and Ellen and many more.

It was great visiting the ports and we were delighted we did so many of our own tours instead of taking the ship tours. It made all the difference. It is hard to believe but almost everyone just got on, opened the tour book and signed up for a ship tour. Once we left New York, it was too hard for people to plan out private tours. Many were wishing they had done the same thing, but had been too afraid they would miss the ship and then it was too late.

We did a lot of hopping on and off the ship and flying to places on our own. We had a few anxious moments, but we always made the ship in time. The closest we came to missing it was in Honolulu with Carl and Carla and we were only a mile away at the Waikiki Yacht Club Bar. Go figure…

Places I would like to return to are Australia and New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, England, Italy (Rome in particular) and Greece. I would love to go to any of those places, get an apartment for an extended time and “live the life” as Ellen and I call it. I think this is something we will likely do.

We had a great time in Thailand with Liz and Tim. I don't think I will ever forget those wild monkeys and climbing up into the fish house on the bamboo ladder. Wow! What a great day, thanks for planning it Liz.

Would I do the full World Cruise again? Maybe in 6 or 8 years. It was a big time and financial commitment. Not only the time actually on the ship, but all of the time planning all the excursions in advance, making all of the other arrangements to be out of touch for so long, organizing our clothes including shopping and packing, taxes, financial and insurance arrangements etc. It was months of heavy duty planning in advance. We have a very full and busy life at home and wouldn't want to be away for so long again soon.

The blog… well, Liz really worked on me to do it. I am sure she wondered why later when she ended up with the huge amount of work it took to post everything, especially all of the pictures. I admit, I groaned a lot because I had to go work on the blog, but I sure am happy to have it now. It made me organize my pictures and really think about what we saw and the good and not so good parts. It seems like we had a lot of readers, so I guess our friends and family were interested. It was a good way to keep in touch with home, rather than by individual email.

We return to NYC on Monday, will be picked up at the ship by Steve to deal with the luggage, picked up at the airport by Errol and Cheryl, dinner with Sharon and Gordy on Monday, the day with Stirling and Clare from the Queen Victoria on Tuesday, Ellen and Greg arrive on Wednesday and leave on Friday, dinner with Errol and Cheryl on Friday, Derby Party on Saturday (I hope), Elaine from the Queen Victoria on Sunday and so it goes… life is good. What would it be without our great friends?

Hope to see or talk to you soon!
Jeanne

Friday, April 25, 2008

The Queen Mary 2

The Queen Mary 2 is the last 6 day leg of our 105 day cruise. The rough seas are great to watch. We are taking the Great Circle Route and passed within 5 miles of where the Titanic went down.

We boarded on Tuesday and have really just kind of hunkered down for the last leg. We are spending time with various friends, skipping the ship parties in favor of meeting friends in cabins for drinks before dinner. We are not going to the dining room, but eating in the various alternative dining venues onboard so that we can eat with different friends from the QV. That part has been great.

Things haven't been going the best on here. They lost my main piece of luggage. I had packed the things I really need at home and on the Queen Mary 2 in one suitcase and they lost it. After 48 hours they announced that they found it in Southampton, which was much better than finding it on the Queen Victoria heading in the opposite direction. They say it will arrive in Florida, but I can't seem to get any proof from them that there even is a suitcase much less a tracking number.

They have charged us our tips for this leg even though it is included in the world cruise price and I have two pieces of documentation on that. They are very slow and don't seem to get anything done. I have been working on that problem for four days now. There is really no excuse for it. This is not just for us, but the other 350 World Cruisers aboard as well.

I also have a case of conjunctivitis in both eyes and had a bad sore throat. At least now I can leave the cabin without sunglasses, I am almost better. The throat is on the mend, too. It was one way I could really spook them at the purser's desk was to go down there and take off my sunglasses to talk to them! Ha!

We had heard so many great things about the QM2 (The Mary) and we just don't agree. To each his own I guess. The cabin size and storage are much better on this ship, but we don't care for the size of the ship or the public rooms. We really loved the Queen Victoria. Part of it may be the short time we are on here in comparison. It just doesn't seem worth it to really invest ourselves in a new ship. It's just transportation home, and it is great for that. I think the lost luggage, the poor service in getting anything done and the illness has really impacted on our view of the ship and probably isn't fair.

We are just getting rested up and getting organized to hit the ground running when we arrive back at the beach. It also helps that we have so many friends on board. That is one thing that has been so great about this trip.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Jeff's Final Blog Installment

I logged onto the blog for the first time while in Rome. No clue as to where the 6,000+ hits are coming from. It looks like “way too much information” to me. But it has been a big trip. Anyway, my contribution is ending now, during the run from Southampton to New York. Comments on final European ports are below, followed by some final observations on this voyage and cruising.

Athens, Rome, Barcelona and Lisbon are four great European cities. The Dollar keeps hitting new lows against the Euro, presently bouncing along at around $1.60. That makes for a severe barrier between the US tourists and Europe. Europe depends on tourism, more than the US. So, the Europeans will feel that pain until it turns around.

Tourism is Greece's biggest source of revenue. The ancient structures in Athens are interesting and easily accessible. The technologies being used in the ongoing restorations is interesting. Iron bracing is being replaced by titanium bracing. Titanium will last longer than the granite, and generates no rust marks. A Trimble GPS system was seen being used to plot everything in 3D. Beyond that, things Greek are too voluminous to get into on this blog. Suffice to say that if you want to see the remains of buildings and understand the settings where essential parts of modern civilization began, it is a fine place to do it. The country is modern, clean and, again, way more prosperous than anticipated. Cabs are mostly big Mercedes. Urban trains run through the city. There is waterfront absolutely everywhere around Athens. There are big and small marinas, boat construction facilities, fishing fleets, bareboat charter fleets, etc. We didn't see the 2004 Olympic sailing venue, but we did many other competitive sailing facilities. The usual stuff: 10 - 20 Optis, some Lasers and 420s. While we were at one of the local yacht clubs, there was a fleet of 420s, with spinnakers, coming back to shore after racing.

Rome: We took the advantage of getting off of the Queen Vicotria in Naples, taking a train to Rome, overnighting there, and then re-boarding her in Civitavecchia. So, one rushed day was turned into two easy days.

Cars and driving in Italy: Game over. Italy has the best cars, and Italians are the best drivers. The Italians may be the last 1st world country to still have something on China when it comes to manufacturing. Presently, they are competitive when manufacturing things -- from Harken winches to the cruise ship that we are on.

In the US there are places where large ceramic items are molded, fired, and placed for sale on outdoor lots along a busy roadways. These products can be items like lions, dolphins, Madonnas, bird baths, etc. In Rome, there is a difference that is easy to forget. The difference is that they are one-of-a-kind, one-at-a-time, sculptures, sculpted from mostly pure white marble. They've been using the same marble quarry, north of Florence where Michelangelo got his marble for the Pieta, David, and all the rest, for a couple of millenniums. You see these sculptures in the 'old city', at every corner you turn It is easy to forget the difference between the cheesy cast versions along the roadside in the US, and these perfect pieces that took many people years to sculpt. The worst cherub, hanging in some dark corner, in one of the 700 Catholic churches in Rome, probably has a replacement cost of $10,000.

The Pantheon in Rome is a favorite. It refuses to degrade, much less die. It is almost 2,000 years old, which is old, even in this neighborhood. Except for being a bit soiled, it looks like it's not more than 50 - 75 years old. It began life as pagan temple, and has been used for every religion that has passed through town. The reason that it doesn't die is that it was built too well to be destroyed. When new religions come to Rome, the first thing they do is destroy existing worshipping sites & structures and build new ones. Michelangelo said that the angels made the Pantheon because he couldn't figure out what technology was used to construct it. The only plausible method was to pile dirt inside, making a male mold. Concrete was pouted over it, and then the dirt was dug out from under the cast concrete dome. There are no stress cracks in it. Unlike the Coliseum, and every other famous structure, all of which have deteriorated over time, this one stands as it was from the day it opened. The wall of the Pantheon is 25' thick at the bottom, with a tapering thickness up to the top of the dome. The filler in the cement changes as you go from bottom to top. For example, the filler at the top is volcanic pumice, the lightest of all the fillers. The oculus, aka hole-in-the-top is ingenious for providing the light inside, and for the very slight daily expansion and contraction of the concrete.

Last but not least, are the columns of the Pantheon. When you walk around any ruins, you begin to pick-up on the columns. The impressive ones are 1 piece. The ho-hum ones are sections that are stacked-up. The columns of the porch of the Pantheon are about 70' tall, solid granite, and still perfect. They came from Egypt. The story is too long. Suffice it to say that these are kick-ass columns in a city with a lot of great columns.

I got up at 1:00am to view the passage we made between Corsica and Sardinia, which are the two large islands off the west coast of Italy. The Melges 24 Worlds are being held at Porto Cervo, Sardinia in a few weeks, so jumping-ship crossed my mind.

West of that passage, we began to have seas in the Med. We had Force 10 wind, head on, while going about 20 knots. The breeze on the ship was exceed 65 knots. There were no swells, but there was 12' - 15', relentless, chop. It continued all the way through the day that we left Barcelona.

You never think that Barcelona is going to be such a great city until you show-up and immerse yourself in it. A phrase that is overused in my narratives applies again - it is a clean, prosperous, safe and enjoyable place to hang-out. Just getting off of the ship -- it is far-and-away the nicest cruise ship dock in the world. It's beautiful, clean, functional, and close to Las Ramblas.

The Med, from Barcelona, was calm while rounding the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, passing through the Strait of Gibraltar, and entering the Atlantic Ocean. Some of us got up for the passage through the Strait of Gibraltar, at 4am. It was a bust, as it was cloudy, windy, no moon, no early sunrise -- couldn't even see a silhouette of the rock. I kept waiting for the swells to begin after entering the Atlantic, but that didn't happen until after Lisbon, Portugal.

Cascias, Portugal is a suburb of Lisbon, located about 15 miles north on the Atlantic coast. It was the 2nd runner-up to Valencia, Spain for locating the America's Cup competition. It would have been a great venue as well.

The Latin-based Portuguese language has 1,500 words mixed in it from the Arabic that the Moors brought along. The Portuguese ruled the seas, and therefore the world for some time. There are great reminders of that time in their history. For instance, there is a building that is about ½ mile long, very old style, but in perfect condition. It is where they made the sails and rope used on their ships.

All cruises end with a big party. Cunard went over-the-top for ours. They rented Lisbon's bull-ring for a sit-down dinner for 800+. The turf/gravel was covered with a carpeted floor. There was a 25 piece orchestra that played everything. They actually had people tending the massive candle holders on the tables. When the candles burned down, this guy would come around and replace them with new candles. I guess that must have been a common thing to have to do during a party before there was electricity.

Southampton, England. Cunard's three queens were in port, and in combination, they had quite a presence there. We took a 20 minute cab ride through the English countryside, complete with narrow, curving, hedge-lined roads to see Beaulieu. Lord Montague's Beaulieu is too big to call it an estate, and a too small to call it a castle. It has a 250 car museum, beautiful manor house, a monastery, and more. It was the place where the English army trained their spy service people during WWII. Suffice to say, it was the quintessential tourist destination for anyone with one day to spend near Southampton. The cars were all first-rate collector cars, including Karl Benz's first car from 1889. Modern cars included a Ferrari Enzo, 245 Dino, and other great cars.

We arranged with our cab driver for the return trip back to the ship. We stopped at a marina, where everyone was bustling to get their boats in the water. Cab drivers are great for getting the local pulse. From that conversation it became unanimous among all first world western countries visited during the past few years - that we have all lost the ability to manufacture to the third world, non-western countries, mostly the Chinese; that governments, to the not-subtle objection of citizens, are indifferent to illegal immigration; that immigrants from third-world countries soak up the dole, mostly subsidized health-care, send cash home, eventually returning home; that health care is slowly, but definitely, becoming unattainable; that even though there is a significant amount of new, unoccupied residential units, property values everywhere are such that young people will live a less prosperous life than their parents; that the countries can have the above unrelated items in common, including the complicated task of crashing simultaneously.

Closure on the cruise. After we return to FtMB things are going to get busy, so it's time for some general comments on the cruise:

One reason to cruise around the world is to do in lieu of sailing or driving our own boat around the world. After seeing the extreme challenges of the seas, the difficulty in finding reasonable places to put-in, and the hassles of dealing with regulatory issues, shipboard cruising has been a great substitute.

Intellectual stimulation was anticipated by me to be a potential problem. It was found in lectures, correspondence, the library, port destinations, non-stop movies, books that I brought onboard, newspapers purchased on-shore, and the passengers.

108 days onboard: This is obviously different than a week of umbrella drinks while floating around the Caribbean. I didn't feel settled-in until about 3 weeks into it. These mega-liners are beautiful. It is a spectacular way to live. What's not to like about 2 - 4 star service, day-in and day-out, for months on end. On the surface, that sounds great, and it really is great. Everything from church service to exercising with a view is steps away from where you sleep.

Downtime can mean fast, free, wonderful room service and never leaving your cabin. Up-time can include any and all-time activity outside the cabin in the spectacular public rooms. Communication with the rest of the world is good enough to make it seem like it is never far away. For instance, our taxes were filed on-time. We have an inside cabin, meaning no windows. And we're on the lowest deck. It was the right choice for our cabin. Light in the cabin is ours to control. During rough seas, we've had the better ride.

Cunard is excellent, but in a general sense, not hugely special --- meaning that other cruise lines likely provide a similar experience. One thing that I believe that Cunard does better than other lines is their selection of lecturers. The good news/bad news thing there is that you never know what's coming. However, most of the surprises have been positive. For instance, recently we had the current ambassador from Afghanistan to the US. Young guy, going places. After his last lecture, during the Q&A I asked him about the movie, “Charlie Wilson's War”. Among other things, he said that Wilson was a friend of his, and that the movie under-exaggerated Wilson's party animal image ;-) Lastly, one thing that I like very much about Cunard is the British influence.

Security -- the Gurkha thing: Spell-checker didn't recognize “gurkha”, which is the way they would probably want it. There are about a dozen of these people, men and women, that are the security people on-board. Their ethnicity is not recognizable, and they are not big, nor intimidating in any way. Like all of the staff, they are extremely polite. But their politeness is never a contrived. They are always extremely focused and pleasantly happy. Until yesterday, I always wondered what the deal was with these people. In the 1860s, when the colonial empire was being constructed, the British came across some legendary, renowned fighters in the small Nepalese village of Gurkha. If they wanted to kick the sh*t out of anybody, anytime, these were the men and women that they would hire to do it. To this day, these villagers contribute to British armed forces, high-level security. They train beyond any extreme that any conventional armed service trains, go to work for mostly the British, and go back home whenever they can. So, it came up that one of the Gurkhas was going home upon arrival at Southampton. “Going home” means returning to their ancient village. According to ship's staff, this person will fly to Katmandu, take a 2 hour train ride up into the mountains, then walk(!) the last three miles to reach the village and spend time with family.

Health while onboard. I've been sick more days on the ship than I would normally have been on-shore. A week-long flu, twice; an upper respiratory thing, twice; and a few times when I didn't want to get too far from the head. Obviously it's due to always being in close proximity to other people - even though we all are extremely careful. We have not needed any of the ship's medical help, but have heard good things about it.

People: Many people come and go, being part of the turnover at the end of each of the 5 or 6 different “segments” of the world cruise. But we made many friends with people on the segments. Luckily, most went on more than one segment, so they were on-board for a while. Bob Macomber, Stirling & Clare, John and Petie, Jo & Greg, Bob & Cathy, Diana & Margaret, Val & Denise, Max & Ann, Bill & Jee, Elaine R., and Roscoe. There is no one who enjoys cruising more than Stirling. Some of his enthusiasm has rubbed-off on me.

There are about 800 of us doing the whole world. A special bond has developed with many of them. Dave & Paula, Darryl & Marty, Rick & Bonnie, Tom & Sandy, Chris & John, Kazzie, Lesley, and many others. There are Cheeseheads, similar in age, with similar experiences. There are former shrimpers from FtMB. There are real-live swells from the US, Europe and Australia. There are working class Brits who saved throughout their lives, for which this trip is a culmination of their life experiences. In short, an amazing and delightful array of people.

Some unique cruising situations: There is a couple from Michigan that, rather than own a winter place in Florida, cruise around the world every winter. This is their 12th trip. Like many snowbirds, they leave Michigan after the Holidays and return in late April. There is a couple that has arranged for different family members to visit them during the different partial segments. There is the woman who has been actually living on the QE2 for 13 years. She keeps the same, modest cabin. She negotiates the price every year with Cunard. We were told on the q/t that this year she paid about $70,000. Do the math on that one --- it's not a terrible deal. Cruising junkies have spent as much as 8 years worth of total time cruising - and there are many people on-board this ship who would like to be those people. I asked the onboard future cruise sales person whether she thought that some of these people should be recommended for therapy. She smiled.

Cruising mania could be described as living inside the cruising bubble. There are people who identify with cruising as being a really big part of their lives. They have acquired great history over the years, and can speak in amazing detail about the minutia regarding cruise lines, cruise history, cruise ships, cruise destinations, cruise staff, cruise menus, and on and on. When they get together, stand-back -- or at least I do. I'm glad for these people that they enjoy cruising to the extent that they do. For me, I have a good time, but I'm not in the bubble.

Recommend: I would recommend this voyage, or one like it to almost everyone I know. I'm not a tourist, and I hate to travel. A cruise ship gets around almost all of the things that I hate about traveling. One goal I had while going into this was to hire a personal trainer and learn how to do stretching exercises --- true. I haven't done that, but through continuous use of 9 flights of stairs, I have strengthened a bad knee into shape that it hasn't seen in 30 years. Anyway, in my opinion, this is an experience worth suffering a bit more than moderate financial pain. It has been special.

The above withstanding, we'd likely not do it again, at least not for a long time. First off, we, or at least I, like to think that there are other things that I need to be doing. Next, in terms of traveling, going around the world is a sort of singular accomplishment. We're going around the world, but we're skipping lots of it, including entire continents such as South America, Africa, and Antarctica. We likely would not have aimed for Southern Asia, but it was interesting. Our preference in the future will be to focus more on specific areas.

Roll the Credits:

Many, Many Thanks:

First off, thanks Liz for spending time to help plan parts of the trip, and for constructing and maintaining this blog. It has made a big difference in documenting the voyage for friends to follow, and for our future reference.

Next, thank you Cheryl H. for forwarding our mail, helping us stay current with Waterside, and all of the rest of the stuff that you have done.

Thanks to Errol H. for the help on forward placement of our luggage in Fort Lauderdale and helping at Waterside as well.

Thanks to Vince & Debbie for coming to Ft. Lauderdale to help us get our luggage aboard, and also for putting us in contact with Vince's Welsh cousin, Bob and his wife, Cathy.

Thanks to Mary B. for holding things together at Sandarac and Waterside.

Thanks to Cindy H. for keeping things in order and on time.

Thanks to Sharon B. for keeping me literate and for her stunning performance of: “Concierge Improv”

Thanks to Andy G. for the individual attention regarding Waterside.

Thanks again to Dan and Lois for the sport coat.

Thanks to Steve & Alice, Betsy, Carl & Carla, Jo & Greg, Tanya and Joel, Sandra, and Roscoe for the great times while in port.

We're looking forward to seeing Steve and Alice again in NYC.

Last but not least is a saying that has been shamelessly stolen from Stirling, “The best cruise in your life is the one that you are on.”

Cheers!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Southampton, England

Thanks to Kazzie for planning out our day for us. It was really helpful and worked out great!

We arrived on the Queen Victoria and left in the afternoon on the Queen Mary 2. We got a cab from the port and left to spend the day at Beaulieu Abby, Beaulieu Palace and Motor Museum. We had a great cab driver who also came back to pick us up and took us touring in the area.

The Motor Museum has about 250 cars with examples from the 1890s to legendary record breakers.We wandered around the grounds and enjoyed a beautiful spring day in England.

There was also an area devoted to The Secret Army Exhibition which tells the story of the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War. This was the main or maybe only training camp for them. I wish I would have had another hour to spend there. I am looking forward to ordering the book about it when I return home.

Much of the 13th century Beaulieu Abbey was destroyed during the reign of Henry the VIII, but was still quite interesting.

The Palace House has been the family home of the Montagu Family since 1538.The bells in the picture below were on the wall in the kitchen to show who was ringing for service.As we were leaving, this group of school kids arrived to tour and was dressed in period costume.

Our ride back to the port was through the New Forest, a 145 square mile nature reserve that was originally designated as a hunting reserve by William the Conqueror in 1079. There were many ponies, donkeys and cattle roaming free, often standing on the road.

Derrick also took us the Boat Yard and marina at Buckler's Hard and Jeff walked around checking it out while I did some text messaging to Roscoe, who had sent us a fond farewell from the train station. It sure is hard to say goodbye to all of our new friends. Liz and Ellen, check out the prop guard on the first picture. You could have used one of those. (FUNNY!)

We arrived at the port and boarded the Queen Mary 2 for our return trip to New York. The lines were long and slow. We would have had a much easier time if we had stayed and boarded with the other “in transit” passengers form the Queen Victoria, but we really enjoyed our day.

We went out on deck with our champagne for sail away. This was another special day because all 3 Queen were in Port. QE2 was in wet dock getting some kind of refurbishment, and she hadn't been supposed to be there. The last meeting of the Queens was supposed to be in New York on our sail away.

We took off first and went up the river passing the Queen Victoria and then the Queen Elizabeth 2. Passengers and crew were lining the decks, music was playing and the ships horns were blaring. People were once again lining the shores and boats were surrounding us.

We saw many friends from the Queen Victoria onboard, about 350 of the full world cruisers were taking her back to the US as well as some of the segment cruisers. Marty and Darrel.Jeff and Elaine wave goodbye to the Queen Victoria.

We passed the QE 2 and the crew was going wild. No passengers were aboard. Notice the crew peeking out the doors was at the bottom of the ship.


It was a great send off for our last 6 days of our World Cruise. We set off across the Atlantic.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

World Cruise Party

There is traditionally a large party held for the people that are doing a full World Cruise. Ours was held on our last port day in Lisbon. We were also staying in port until 12 AM which was unusual, so it was a good combination. There were about 750 people on our ship that were doing the full world, some started in Southampton and some in NYC.

We were picked up by coach bus and transported to Camp Pequeno, formerly a bullfighting ring.The greeting was wonderful. There were prancing horses as well as about 50 women and men in the traditional dress of the various regions of Portugal. They later did the traditional dances.

The interior was magical. The centerpieces were outstanding, old style candelabras filled with roses, absolutely beautiful and really matched the location.

The waiters circulated with the Hot and Cold Canapes as the wine and champagne was served:

The red wine was Terra do Vale and the white wine was Terra Franca Sogrape. They kept it flowing all night.

Mousse of poultry liver with raspberry sauce

Mini Seafood Fritters

Brie Au gratin with Quince jam

Vegetarian Quiches

Godets of Smoked Salmon (pictured)

The rest of the menu was served Somewhat traditionally.

Soup Course (pictured in small glasses):

Goblet of cold Lisbon Beetroot soup with yoghurt

Melon, Port Wine and Leaf of mint Vichyssoise

Portuguese Bread basket

Entrée Course

Young Filet Mignon with Portugese Serra Cheese and Dauphinois potatoes and fresh carrot, brussel sprouts and chestnuts ( the last part was wrapped in this bundle with what I think was a cabbage leaf on the outside).

The main course was much better than it looked.

Dessert sampler:

Martini glass of Sintra Chocolate ice cream and goblet of Rose Mousse

“Pastel de Nata Fresh Berries in a cream pastry with rose petals

Chalice of Amendoa Amarga with lemon (Portugese Liqueur) This was really bad, Rick and Bonnie have a funny picture of me drinking this… maybe they will send it to be posted. When I took this picture they hadn't delivered the liqueur yet. The Portuguese tart isn't mentioned, but there it is again.

We had Rick and Bonnie and Sandy and Tom at our table. Chris was sick so she and John couldn't make it, but their dining tablemates sat with us. It was great to have friends at our table for this exciting night. Others were not so lucky with their tablemates. It was Rick's birthday so Bonnie was really celebrating (don't know why, but that is how it worked J). Kazzie was seated at the table next to us and Lesley was nearby. It was sure great to have such a nice send off.

There was a huge orchestra and we even danced, if you can believe it.

As the night drew to a close I noticed two things. One was the number of glasses on each table and the other was the melted candles. Earlier in the night there were candle tenders.

The night was a great celebration and Carol Marlow, CEO of Cunard was on hand to speak. She is very dynamic. It was a great ending to a great cruise, truly the trip of a lifetime.

We headed back to the ship with 2 sea days left on the Queen Victoria in Route to Southampton.

The last formal night Elaine had a champagne goodbye party. Here are John and Chris with Jeff and me.

Elaine, Jeff and Raul, our favorite waiter in the Commodore Club

Roscoe and Elaine

I had spent the day packing and Jeff spent the day sitting on the couch watching me. He still felt the sentiments expressed on his tux shirt. He got a laugh from all the others that felt the same way.

The party was a great way to say goodbye to Elaine's friends and some of ours.